by Scott Coates

Last week I wrote about my coming trip to Yangon, Myanmar. The trip turned out to be insightful, fun and exciting.

A 1:10 flight took me from one world to another – Bangkok to Yangon. Hard

Typical street in downtown Yangon

to believe in such a short time you can be transported from one world to a totally different one. Arrival at a modern airport was followed by a line to get my visa on arrival, but all in all it was a fairly painless process. You need a travel agent to help you get the visa on arrival, but it’s much less hassle than visiting a Myanmar Embassy and acquiring one before arrival. I was also told by a fellow traveler that the airport is the most modern building in the nation. In the country I waited a bit over an hour for my girlfriend Erika to arrive from Singapore. Erika in-hand we joined our host and jumped in a van to Trader’s Hotel which was graciously arranged for me by a local agent.

Ice melting for cool drinking water

I was struck immediately with how much more modern things were than I expected. Roads were well paved, there were a good number of cars and businesses abound. This wasn’t the dirt road, third world place I thought it would be. Checked-in it was time for food and we elected to walk to a nearby place, Monsoon, recommended in the Lonely Planet. The walk there, as almost all walks in new cities are, started to shed light on the reality. We came upon a massive stupa that serves as a traffic circle. Sule Paya is about 2,000 years old and definitely gets the prize as most interesting traffic circle I have ever seen. The immediate area features colonial buildings, a church and mosque, truly showing that religions mesh well here. We opted for small side-streets, saw that locals use microwave phones on the side of the road for making calls, palm reading is huge with fortune tellers on most city streets, and a chew mixture of Betel Nut with other spices is very popular and sold at little stands.

Full stomachs we took a different route back to the hotel and I tried some Betel Nut chew. It was really tasty with all kinds of magical flavors colliding. You have to continually spit out your saliva while chewing and I got a big thumbs-up from a man on my technique. The downside, if you chew it for a while your teeth turn permanently red. Due to this I only tried once while in the country. I like my pearly whites! We passed on having our fortunes told while walking by Independence Monument where those with the skill to see into your future were everywhere. Another interesting site were little stands selling cool water for drinking. They have a large block of ice that melts and drips into a bucket giving you cool water. I’m adventurous but not that adventurous and gave it a miss.

While all seemed well and peaceful on the surface dinner with a few different

Having a good look at the pagoda

contacts shed light on the real situation. Names are not mentioned to protect my gracious hosts, but it turns out everything we have read about the oppressive Myanmar regime is true. A SIM card for a mobile phone costs $1,500US to keep people from having them, bicycles and motorbikes are banned in the downtown core to limit people’s ability to move around quickly and to offset the ruling generals’ fears of assassination. You cannot send sms messages out of the country to limit communications and most staggering, if a local resident is going to spend the night sleeping anywhere other than their registered dwelling they must inform their community supervisor who works for the government and the supervisor in the area they will be sleeping. So, my contact has to report before staying at his uncle’s house, each and every time. He also told me that government forces do random late night checks about three times/month at most houses to ensure all registered occupants are there. Wild! But on the surface you would never know these things.

Despite being one of the most oppressed people on earth for roughly 40 years, Yangon residents were some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Smiles were everywhere, English was generally quite good and the city is extremely safe. Taking taxis around town was affordable, the drivers honest and there were no offers to go shopping or to other places as often happens in Bangkok. Just a nice, quick drive where we wanted to go – truly refreshing and impressive!

Having tea at the market

Other activities and sites visited include a train ride around the city on their ancient railway, a great way to see real daily city life. A nice run around Kandawgyi Lake, the Bogyoke Aung San Market, a great place to shop, people watch and drink tea. The highlight, aside from chatting with locals was our visit to Shwedagon Pagoda. I was rather nervous about the visit after reading so many glowing reviews of it and being wary that it wouldn’t live up to the hype – I was wrong. From the outside it looks like a massive golden pagoda, but inside it’s so much, much more. Stupa after stupa, statue after statue, gleaming gold and more and more gold made this one of the most impressive/overwhelming sites I’ve ever visited – truly awesome. Much like the Grand Palace in Bangkok in that one visit is not enough, I can’t wait to return one day (hopefully soon) and sit for a while, watch people pass by and take it in again. This is without a doubt a site to be seen once in your lifetime.

Four days later, some great meals had, interesting drinks enjoyed and a half-full memory card, it was time to leave. I’ve obviously only scratched the surface of Myanmar and many people noted that everything outside of Yangon is another world. There’s so much to explore in this vast nation with more than 130 ethnic groups and languages, Himalayan peaks, sandy beaches and UNESCO World Heritage sites. I can’t wait to return and really get into the country.