The Burma Diaries - Part One
Yangon (Rangoon), Burma - 3/22/05
It's hot here. It's REALLY hot here!! My head's been spinning since I got here! WOW!! And I thought Bangkok was hot......
These are very poor people here - some of the poorest in the world. Everything here is in a very sad state of disrepair - crumbling sidewalks (there are holes in spots where you can easily fall into and break a leg), the roads outside of town are among the worst I've ever seen. I've seen government buildings with broken windows. And yet you look up at the tops of the buildings and all you see are satellite dishes!
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When I saw the Grand Palace in Bangkok, I was absolutely amazed at the beauty of the place - Then I saw the Schwedagon Pagoda here in Yangon, This is a complex of temples and pagodas that puts the Grand Palace to shame. I've seen pictures but nothing could've prepared me for what I saw - absolutely breathtaking!!
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Everything here is extremely cheap, although foreigners do pay a lot more than the locals for stuff. Yesterday I took a busride across the city in this rickety old crowded, sweaty bus for 10 cents! I exchanged $300 US for Burmese Kyats at 800 to 1 and I ended up with a stack of bills that could choke a horse! 267,000 Kyats! I'll need 10 moneybelts to hold all this cash!
267,000 kyats - kinda feel like a gangster sportin' this wad of bills!
One thing you immediately notice when you get here is the military presence - no police - just the Army. There are guys with machine guns everywhere - alot of them can't be any older than 14 - 15 years old. Something very disturbing about kids with machineguns holding them like guitars......No pictures please!
Despite the poverty and obvious opression the people here are very cheerful and friendly. They all smile and say hello. Yesterday as I was walking about, I met a college girl who asked me where I was going. I said I was just walking, she said she was too and if I would like to walk with her. I said OK - I wasn't doing much of anything else. She came from a province close to the Thai border but was going to the university here in Yangon to study psychology. She is staying here in a little village right outside of Yangon with her grandmother. She showed me around the city - took me on one of those rickety, crowded, sweaty old buses that I never would've gotten on in a million years. We rode across the city - took about an hour - cost about 10 cents! Afterwards she took me on a ferry across the Yangon River to meet her mother and grandmother. We crammed into a taxi with 3 other people and rode out to a little tiny village about 40 minutes outside of Yangon. This place was amazing! Life doesn't get any simpler than it is there. It was very interesting to see - right out of National Geographic. Dirt paths leading to straw huts, horse drawn carts, and not a foreigner for miles. All the little kids in the village came out to see me, running down the street saying hello and goodbye. This was a place that no foreigners come to, very remote, and I felt very fortunate to be able to experience it. I didn't feel right taking pictures here so I left the camera in my bag out of respect for the people, who were extremely nice and very friendly. After showing me around her little village my little friend took me to a taxi where I headed back to Yangon. One unforgettable, very precious moment in time........