Burmese Dream

For a brief bit of background, Burma was colonized by Britain until the 1960s, at which point the country's military took over rulership of the country after a bit of independence prior to a military coup. There were elections in the 1980s and 1990s but the election results were ignored by the rulership. Many recent changes are in place, including a new flag, the new name of Myanmar, currency adjustments, shifting the capital from Yangon to another new town exactly midpoint between north and south, and some openness to tourism as alloted by the military. You might also remember that Myanmar was hit hard by a hurricane in the late 2000s and essentially refused offers of humanitarian aid due to the bureaucratic isolationism of the rulership.

My English class assignment prior to landing was multiple diary entries of Aung San Suu Kyi, elected in the late 1990s but held under house arrest until the mid 2000s. She wrote vividly and concisely about the poverty, pride, hospitality, and juxtaposition of beauty and military hostility, which was a fantastic prelude to our visit. Kyi won the Noble Peace Prize in 2010, and I found out that she met with Archbishop Tutu during our stay.

This is a picture from the Semester at Sea press release of the meeting of Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Aung San Suu Kyi.

We receive information from ship administration prior to visiting countries, and these mandatory pre-port meetings include the deans, doctor, and a couple students from that respective country discussing customs, safety, etiquette, money, getting around, how not to get arrested, and so forth. In countries such as Myanmar with relatively few international students and, in this case, none already aboard, we arrange to have one or two interport students join the ship for a few days so we can hear first-hand about daily life, favorite foods, how to get around, etc. Our interport student also told us the pronunciations of greetings and thank yous.

An oddity about this stop on our voyage is that the port is about an hour away from the nearest town of Yagon (formerly Rangoon), so folks either took bus shuttles or local taxis to get to the activities and sights. Our ship travelled to the MITT Myanmar International Terminal Thilawa which is about as far up the river as the MV Explorer could travel before the depth got too shallow. Also, we had to dock later in the day rather than early morning because of tides. Because of the logistics of handling transportation and planning independent travel, we opted to go with two SAS trips: a full-day introduction to Yangon followed by a three-day visit to Ngwe Saung Beach along with an elephant camp. Nice trips, and we went with the flow and disruptions of a country eager to welcome tourists but not yet fully equipped for the logistics nor completely open to foreigners other than in places the military deems you can travel.

English architecture near the center of Yangon.

Our full-day visitation was cut short by our late arrival, so we only got to see a few sights in the city before nightfall, but this was offset by a late evening Burmese dinner. Things we saw that first day include: Schwedagon Pagoda with numerous guilded shrines and more statues of Buddha than you could shake a stick at; the city center with an obelisk guarded by the military, stately English buildings, and crumbling mid-rise offices covered with trees and vines; Chinatown with an affordable supermarket that took American Dollars, a clothing shop that had men's longyis but did not take Dollars, and a live speech by a Buddhist monk that attracted thousands. Buddhism is prevalent in the country and is practiced by about 85% of the populace. There are golden shrines all over, in cities and in the barest of the countryside, and the ever-visible shrines lend the country its nickname of Golden Land. After the sightseeing at nightfall followed by the dinner at a nice although touristy restaurant, we rode the bus back and settled in for some sleep before the Beach & Elephant trip the next morning.

Sofa Master store on the way to our first visit to Yangon. Not a chain.

Schwedagon Pagoda at night.

Reclining Buddha at Schwedagon.

Jasper in front of an enlightened Buddha statue. The lights are LEDs that move in patterns. The temple complex is about 2500 years old but has some modern touches. It was huge and we got lost trying to return to our tour group.

I mentioned before our pre-port meetings that gather us together in the biggest lecture hall on the ship to hear details about the upcoming visit.  SAS had visited Myanmar (still then called Burma) in 2006 so the information on what to expect was partly based on information gathered during that first voyage, advice from recent travelers and interport students, and US State Department guidelines. We heard that most places accept crisp Dollars and that Burma is safe and friendly. Right on most counts, but as we found out on our trip, it was sporadic using Dollars further away from Yangon. It was a challenge to get the three of us–Ellen, Jasper, and myself–through the next three days on a limited budget that included a small amount of both Dollars and Kyat.

Our bus ride to Ngwe Saung beach was on paved roads that were paved in the sense that they had some asphalt in places and were usually as wide as two vehicles abreast. However, our full-size buses navigated along with the flow of motor scooters, pedestrians, local trucks and small buses overpacked with standing passengers, and farm trailers stacked with rice bags. The trip involved lots of jostling for position, honking when passing, honking when pass completed, and honking because, well, there were critters alongside the road. Ours was bus B of A through D, and MoeMoe was our guide who detailed extensive tidbits about the country, history, politics, and sights. The first seven hours of the ride were flat, and then we reached a climb to rolling mountain tops at about 650 meters which seemed to go on forever, just as it feels when you're on a long bike ride and you think the peak is just around the bend but, nope, it still keeps going on and on. It didn't look like we were anywhere near the ocean, and it was getting to be nightfall, so we were a few hours behind schedule.

Parasol making at a stop on the way to Ngwe Saung Beach.

After two hours on the winding, climbing and dipping mountaintop road, we descended into the small village of Ngwe Saung a couple minutes after the sun sank. We could hear the ocean in the distance but didn't yet get to see it. Ellen and Jasper settled into our room where Jasper does what he always does in our hotel rooms: grabbed the biggest bed and flipped on the television. They grabbed a quick bite at the hotel snackbar, and I went out to hit up a dinner joint and find some beers.

I saw a few places still open. The local kids, teens, men, and older women were out, and many of them greeted me with the all-purpose greeting of "mingalarba" which means roughly "auspicious to you". I discovered that it can be used with varying degrees of emphasis to convey polite formality, cheerfulness, or rowdyness. The EFR Restaurant  had Burmese and some Chinese food; I ordered hot and sour clams, which came out right before the power went out. Not unusual in Myanmar, I hear. About 20 minutes and a couple lagers later, power back on, and other dishes came out one by one. I think the cooks make a dish at a time, so people just ate stuff as it arrived, and I found out later in family meals at home and out that food usually comes out to the table all at once and everyone shares. No worries.

Schoolchildren in the town of Ngwe Saung. The locals were very hospitable and eager to be photographed. They also took pictures of us, which is the first time that's happened to me on the voyage.

The next morning we played in the ocean until noon. The beach was quite nice with gentle waves and powdery sand that got everywhere. I was able to bodysurf so I got my typical nasal voice for the remainder of the trip because the sandy water shot up my nose while bodysurfing. We had also been advised by the ship doctor to always wear sandals in the sand because, well, worms might be in the sand. After a few minutes of dealing with constantly emptying sand out of my Keens, I ditched them. When in Burma, go shoeless like the locals.

Ellen with the mermaid statue near Lover's Island. Or perhaps it was Lava Island. Either one seemed fitting for the small island reachable by strolling across the sand at low tide.

Boats next to the island.

A Skat truck near the island. Evidently "Scud" is the model. Someone, please make sure Scott Scudamore sees this!

Next up was a trip to the local schools. Ngwe Saung had some small preschools in homes, and I was grateful to be able to peer into the schools and meet the children up close since folks are really welcoming. We next stopped at the main school which included grades 1 through 12 in several smaller buildings, 600 students in all. Ellen was put on the spot to deliver a donation to the school that was part of the SAS trip expense, so for our tour group it amounted to 600,000 Kyat or about $700. Wow. Ellen is a pro at these types of situations and greeted the teachers and presented them with the stack of Kyat and explained, in a nutshell, our group includes teachers and about 600 students, too, seeing the world and were extremely happy to visit their school. We then shook hands and said hi to students and then played soccer with them. One of the students works with an organization that gives soccer balls to children, so we left several balls with the students. We found out later that only the boy students got to use the sports equipment, so that was a bit of a downer, especially after I recalled in my Aung San Suu Kyi that women are valued equally, but perhaps it's in the home rather than in sports.

Playing soccer with the schoolchildren. Our student Tom has collected soccer balls and has been leaving them for children at each of our ports.

Jasper and I after playing soccer. I am wearing my longyi. It would be great in Virginia on hot summer days. Just sayin'.

MoeMoe had ties to the school because she had once been a teacher. I'm not exactly sure if it was at this particular school or in another part of Myanmar; her English is good but I sometimes didn't quite catch everything she said. MoeMoe is a few years older than me and taught up until a few years ago when tourism began taking off, and because the pay for teachers is so low, she found she made much more for her family as a tour guide. I can tell she works hard and puts in effort to welcome us and share hospitality, because she passed out snacks to us and trinkets for the kids.

Our money was running short, so we tried to limit expenses until the next day so we could make sure we had enough for the Elephant Camp. Most trips include meals and entry to the highlights, but for some reason the elephant portion wasn't included, so us along with many others didn't quite bring enough. We sat aside enough US$  for the elephant visit which was $10 per ride. Ellen and I were okay with not riding if we didn't have enough, and fortunately we were able to ride and also float some cash to a few students so everyone got to ride. As we made our bus ride back into the mountains about 15 miles outside the beach, we parked the bus on the main road and walked up a dirt hill followed by a half dozen preschoolers. They seemed excited and, when I turned around to look at them and put my hand up to shield my eyes from the sun, the boys mimicked me in a military salute and even lifted one knee, something I'm pretty sure I didn't do when turning around. Pretty funny.

Elephant camp with three of the five elephants. We took turns riding for about 20 minutes each. It's a slow, steady ride in a cramped basket cocked on each side of the elephants' backs. They can climb and descend some steep pitches.

At the elephant camp is a preschool/mobile school, and the children sang for us and with us while we took rounds on the elephants.

Jasper with the preschool. The children are wearing face protection which is made from bark of thorny trees in Myanmar and keeps the skin cool. It's worn by children and ladies but not men. The kids liked to stare and come up to Jasper. I love the SUPER BOLW shirt on the little girl to the right. 

The rest of the day after the elephants, we did a bit more swimming in the ocean and even popped over to the pool at the adjoining hotel. Hey, SAS students were there, the hotel security guards were okay with us coming over, so why not? In fact, our farewell dinner was at that hotel, so we joined up with all the participants on the trip for a nice Burmese meal. Our tour guide on bus B MoeMoe arranged out of her pocket for some musicians to play and then they moved the party to a beach bonfire. I had never been to a bonfire on the beach; sure, I've been to many field parties, campfires, and wood fires to keep warm in the hollers of Madison and Augusta Counties, but not any bonfires on the beach. There were the musicians in their 20s, family in their middle ages, a few older folks, and a dozen or so youngster Burmese kids who played on our shoulders and loved to be hoisted into the air.

The next morning we got up early (I groggily think around 4:30 for a 5am departure) and wound our way back and hit heavy traffic near Yangon. I was napping off and on and then woke up shortly before lunchtime to realize we were being led through town by a police escort. The police explained they were thrilled to have our ship visit the country and wanted to escort us to make sure we made it back to the ship in time before it departed, and perhaps that was true or perhaps there were other authoritarian-type reasons for the escort. I had mixed feelings of being breezed through the country while seeing the traffic backed up at the intersections. I'll mull that over and see what I think later, but for now I'll sign off and just summarize the country in a few words: Hospitable. Friendly. Oppressed. Rich. Poor. Expansive. Holy. Noncommercial. And likely to be drastically different and far more heavily touristed the next time I visit.

Here is our fabulous tour guide MoeMoe and me right before I had to hop aboard and leave Myanmar. We waited a bit for the tide to come in so the ship could depart. Notice, if you will, the abrasion on my face from a bodysurfing glitch. Dave Tevendale, here's another pic for your collection of my facial injuries.