Burmese Days

Time to write down a few words about my trip to Burma - my amazingly great trip to Burma, or Myanmar as the country is nowadays called.

Ah, these pink shoes are made for traveling - just looking at them makes me wanna go go go!

I wanted to travel to Burma before it's spoilt by other tourists (because I'm a better tourist, of course...). Indeed, the Myanmar government wants to increase the number of tourists to 20 million per year in the near future. I didn't want to see another Thailand (the likely future if 20 million of us go there annually), I wanted to see a country that people had told me to be like Vietnam two decades ago - lush forests and uncrowded sights with authentic atmosphere.

It was also interesting to visit the country just now when it's going through massive changes. The country is opening up in such a fast pace that my Lonely Planet from 2011 was in urgent need for an update. The New Yorker article The Burmese Spring from August 2012 also felt a bit old in some facts, although it gave a good overview of the political situation in the country.

Another obligatory travel reading was obviously George Orwell's critique of colonialism, the novel Burmese Days. The introduction to my edition of the novel was written by Emma Larkin and it had some interesting insights to the book that is partly based on Orwell's own experiences in this British colony in the 1920s. Larkin writes that Orwell's later books also mirrored Burma's recent history and some Burmese intellectuals actually call him "the prophet". Retrospectively, one can argue that Burmese Days, Animal Farm and 1984 form a trilogy portraying Burmese historical events from colonialism to socialist revolution and finally to dictatorship and dystopia. Luckily, it now seems that another epilog can be written to the story. Luckily, because the country has so many things to offer - let's see if I manage to post some more stories and photos here in the near future.

Great anti-colonialist travel reading. Several people also sell it in Burma, but don't be taken aback by these sellers, it's a great read!

Logistics...

I first wanted to travel to Burma from Bangkok by land, but I came to notice that it was hard to find any reliable information on the border crossings on internet, as the recent changes in the Burmese policies (to my understanding some borders were opened in July 2013) haven't yet found their way to the travelers' fora. With a visa from Berlin embassy (quick and handy, though it's quite easy to get it from Bangkok as well), it was safer to fly into the country. 

Most of the practical information on traveling in Burma was obsolete (and the Lonely Planet accommodation prices one fourth of what they are today!). I had packed a pile of new bills of 100 dollars with me and I was ready to exchange currency in the black market as was described in the guide books, but as soon as I arrived to the small Mandalay airport, I was in a queue to an official money exchange. Gone were the days when one could pay for two weeks trip in Burma with a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey. Less exciting for sure, but definitely easier. And all those stories about no ATM's accepting international credit cards in the whole country, no longer valid. 

It is actually quite easy to travel in Burma. But remember, what looks like 150 km on the map will take around 10 hours in a bus... On a boat trip from Mandalay to Bagan (11 hours), I thought I could actually bike faster to my destination. 

If someone worries about the foreign money going to the government, it is a good point to raise but you don't need an official government-approved guide to take you around, you don't need to bribe or pay for the government, and actually, to my understanding, a lot of the money spent there goes to the local people. Some guides are aware of where the money goes to the government and won't even take you there (some sights close to Mandalay). In Bagan, you must pay an entrance fee around 15 US dollars to the site and this also goes to the government. But then, is it pure hypocrisy to think of your tourist money going to dictator when you don't consider human rights in your every day life back home?