"Burma / Myanmar - A land where time... " a Burma Travel Page by ChiTownMike

The country is currently called Myanmar by the ruling military junta. The name was changed from Burma in 1989 by the rulers, but was not approved by any sort of legislature. As a result, many people and other governments still call it Burma. In addition to the country name changing, most city names changed as well including the capital, formerly Rangoon, now Yangon. I stuck with calling it Myanmar since that is what is goes by and what we were accustomed to while visiting. Incidently, Burma was a the name given by the British and itself is a misnomer of "Bamar" - the dominant ethnic group.

We arrived in Yangon after an uneventful flight from Kuala Lumpur. Yangon International Airport really gave us a good impression of what to expect in the country. We exited the plane and the bus took us to a rather run down building that is the international arrival hall. What did this hall look like? Picture a run down Greyhound Bus Station and you have a pretty good idea.

It was during these initial minutes that we probably felt the most apprehensive. After all, don't let the government's name of State Peace and Development Council fool you. This is an oppressive military dictatorship, so peace probably is not priority number one! Anyway, with that in mind, I envisioned something out of a movie taking place in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany - menacing police walking around at every corner constantly saying things like "Your papers please." "Hmmm, your papers are not in order. You must come with me...." And so the unfortunate foreigners disappear. Fortunately, that was not the case here. We got through customs without much of a problem and went to get our bags. Just as we got our bags, the power went out in the airport and stayed out at least until we had exited the building. We found power outages to be a daily occurrence throughout Myanmar.

We found a cab driver (or he found us rather) who took us into the city for $5. During the cab ride multiple aspects of Myanmar became apparent.

Cars: Probably 95% of the cars are 12 years old or older. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, but they also drive on the right side of the road. The old cars is most likely a function of embargoes against the country and their poor economy. In the event you do see a nice car, it is probably owned by a government/military person.

Dress: Men where sarongs/skirts. Well, they are actually called longyis. But it is basically a long skirt that they tie about their waists. And this is not some quaint thing that a few people do for tourists. The majority of males we saw throughout the country wear them.

Poor and dilapidated: The poverty, even driving into the capital, was very apparent. (This was not a surprise). Also, the buildings, cars, and roads were all very run-down.

Dirty: Unfortunately, there is no shortage of garbage on the streets in many areas. The fact that we can't recall seeing a single public trash can probably helps to explain it.

Money: Usually, exchanging money is a simple exercise. Depart plane. Leave terminal. Find ATM. Get money. Ahhhhh, but that does not work quite so well when there are no ATMs in Myanmar. One has to exchange money on the black market! As we discovered, there are several other issues. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on where you are from) a lot of things are done in US dollars only. This is the case for all hotels, entrance fees at tourist sights and long distance transportation within the country. We are not sure why this is the case. I wouldn't point to the kyat as the most stable currency in the world, so that may contribute. At the time we were there, the unofficial exchange rate we were getting on the street was 1240 kyat to the dollar. As the largest bill is 1000 kyat, you feel really rich!

Outside influence: One finds very few western brands and advertising in Myanmar. Even in a place like Laos, you see many more varieties of foreign foods and consumer products. In Myanmar, there is Coke, Sprite and a few others. You also see very little advertising from foreign companies.

My other pages will be more devoted to the various places we visited. Myanmar is definitely an interesting country and a land of dichotomy. During our stay, we saw amazing pagodas and beautiful scenery. We also experienced Yangon as a large, crowded and dirty city and visited a roadside stop that looked like a toxic waste dump. We saw many people smiling and relaxed but during a bus trip we saw what we believed to be forced labor working on the side of the road. We met many friendly and helpful people but were also continually harassed for money by people at every turn.

In MBA school I had a professor who segmented developed countries (such as the U.S., Japan, UK, etc.), developing or emerging countries (such as China, India, Vietnam, etc.) and "lost" countries. Myanmar is one of those lost countries (please keep in mind this is not a knock on the people). Much of this can be attributed to the oppressive military junta that rules the country. Any growth or development is quite slow. While strolling through Yangon, we saw many stalls where people were selling cassette tapes (contrast this to a place even like Vietnam where all you would see is CDs and DVDs). Toward the end of our stay in Myanmar, we were supposed to take a train from Bagan to Mandalay. We arrived at the station well in advance. And then we waited...and waited...and waited. The other people waiting for the train were very content to wait. And there were no announcements regarding the train's status. Finally, once the train was more than 2 hours late, we left and made arrangements to fly. While this was frustrating, it also gave us an opportunity to experience the kindness and helpfulness of the people. A person working behind the ticket counter instructed us where we could go to get our tickets refunded (we didn't think there was any way we would get our money back). He wrote a note for us in Burmese that we took to another building in town where we got our money back.

Myanmar was a truly unique experience. If you go, you will find it exhilarating and frustrating at different stages of your stay.