Myanmar Diaries

When you land in Yangon, the first thing you'll notice is the refreshing calmness of the place (even in the airport). No crowds, No litter, Spaced out roads (4 lanes in the heart of City). But outside the city the roads were equally bad. The airways take a round trip. From Yangon - Mandalay - Bagan - Yangon. We traveled in the same flight to move from one place to another.

The Mandalay airport hardly had any passengers. The airport was constructed with a lot hope that there would be tourism, lot of revenue generation and such other hopes, when the Junta had plans of liberalization in the late 90s. But, still one feels that the airport is ahead of its time.

Bagan is a World heritage Site. So it had a lot of tourists and the airport was buzzing with people. Bagan is the real land of Pagodas. There are more than 4000 Pagodas in an area of 35 square miles. It had more pagodas than people. All Kinds of Pagodas Sunset Pagoda, Hilltop Pagoda, X Pagoda, Z Pagoda; When they ran out of name they used Pagoda No : 2371 :) Infact every building in Myanmar, including the cottages, resorts (even airports) has the Pagoda style Architecture. This is the famous quote about bagan "There only two kinds of people in Bagan. Tourists & Shopkeepers". You could see the same guy selling Laquer wood in some Pagoda, and by the time you reach the next he'll be there to sell souvenirs :)

Two things have influenced Myanmar in a wide way. The first one is China, which has flooded Myanmar with its cheap goods from electronics to Automobiles to Textiles. Everything has a Chinese imprint in it. It is where as an Indian representative one feels, a lot can be done. People who ridiculed me for my Honda Street in college shud visit Myanmar. That seems to be the national vehicle there. Add to it namma M80 type moped. WE collected a lot of DVDs for sastha prices (16-in-1 for 1$). All smuggled from China :)

The other great uniting factor is Buddhism. One would be ashamed to call India as Land of the Buddha, if he visits Myanmar. Buddha in all forms and poses can be seen there. Namma oor pidichu vecha pillayar mathiri anga Buddha (Somebody do a ETNP) People even say Buddhism has pacified the people to such an extent that they don't even contemplate the idea of revolution (for democracy) anymore.

But the best part about Myanmar is the people themselves. I've never seen such polite and humble people. They would come out of their way to make sure that you are comfortable. Even the shopkeepers wouldn't have any grudge (at least they don't show it in their face) against you, if you don't buy anything after hard-bargaining (which is exactly what we did most of the time: D). you also see a lot of Indians from Tamil - Malyalis - Biharis, but Majority from the North East. I met with a Tamil in every office of our Embassy in Myanmar (even outside Yangon). Surprisingly, they were also polite :)) Most of the Indian community has also taken up Buddhism as their religion.

One disturbing factor about Myanmar is the poor development of Telecommunication. Information exchange in all forms is blocked, restricted and regulated there by the military govt. They feel this would jeopardize their rule in the country. A SIM card will cost you (Rs. 12000) there. In Myanmar currency, it is close to 3.5 Lakh Kyats. Internet is also strictly regulated. ISD calls were very costly. It was 3$ per minute in the outside booths :( So was literally cut off from home for a week.

During the send-off party, the Ambassador asked us if anyone would like to come back for a posting in Myanmar in futute. The responses were mixed. Me ?? well, I would keep my cooments reserved for another day ;)