Burma, Billions of $, and the Bay of Bengal

Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma)
March 28, 2007

Arieh here. BURMA: The beginning of our trip to Myanmar has not been auspicious. The government website said we could receive a "visa upon arrival" at the Yangon International Airport. NOT!! We arrived at the Bangkok international airport on March 20th all ready to check in at 5:15 AM. Air Asia were very polite and even suggested we could use our ticket to "fly somewhere else" where we did not need a visa. We lost that argument but not the price of the ticket. In fact, no penalty; just a "date change" fee of $15. Back to Bangkok city we go to get a visa from the Myanmar embassy. We had been told it is possible to get it on the same day. NOT!! We arrive at the embassy at 9 AM, have all the necessary documents, pictures and money. Despite a notice (with costing posted) of same-day visa service, they can only issue it the next day. That's 2 extra nights in a dreadful city.

We do arrive here finally on Thursday, March 22nd at 8 AM. Go to the hotel and immediately to the Indian embassy for their visa. It takes 4 working days and costs US$65. (In our case, 5, because of "Armed Forces Day" on Tuesday, March 27th--now you know.) We then find out that Indian Air has cancelled its Friday flights. It now flies only once per week to Calcutta and is booked way past our visa time limit. Finally, we are stymied about a flight to North Burma as it is full on March 29th, the day after our Indian visa will be ready. Val is ready to return to Bangkok immediately. Not a good first day, to say the least.

Our second day improves. We get a flight to North Burma. We are waitlisted to Delhi (and can pay with Visa, which allows us to use our U.S. $ cash here in Burma for other things) and we book a lovely beachside resort for 3 days on the Bay of Bengal, while we wait for our visa to India.

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS: I am sitting in the lobby of the renovated Strand hotel. Val is "window shopping" and I am enjoying lives local instrumental music played on a Burmese harp. Quite soothing after a hot day of "working" as a tourist. The title of this sub-section reflects my thoughts on the sad state of this city (and, I expect, the rest of the country). The existing architecture of Yangon is stunning, if only Billions of $ could be poured in and everything cleaned up and repaired. Old British colonial buildings rivalling anything one sees in Britain, New Zealand, or Australia--places where many buildings have been restored. The Port Authority, the Telegraph building, Internal Revenue building--all of them with beautiful tall Greek-style columns and stone carving at the top (no flying buttresses, Sue and Yaron). This lobby, for example, has paintings of the Strand (and the street upon which it is situated) through the years. Each painting shows quite a nice building (as it is today in its most recent renovation of less than 8 years). However, there is no painting of the current building, as the street would be nothing wonderful to look at. Broken sidewalks, pot-holed streets, the former green space across the street is non-existent, and the "pedestrian" area is chock-full of people selling food, postcards or plastic junk imported from China.

This description of the Strand street holds for much of downtown. Some sidewalks are not so broken up; some are worse. One piece of sidewalk used to house differently coloured hexagonal paving stones. Some are still there, but most are not--not sure where they went, why and when. In place of the stone is just a hole or indentation. Night lighting in some areas is only provided by the flourescent lights of the street vendors. Some smaller streets (actually named or numbered) do not have sidewalks at all and are completely broken up pieces of former pavement. That doesn't stop cars from driving on these roads. The cars, btw, are mostly old (way older than our Previa van) and rickety, often without window handles. (Today, I saw a "Familia" model of Mazda--probably at least 40 years old). These cars are always an adventure to ride.

If you have read anything about Myanmar lately you know there is a fairly repressive right-wing military dictatorship in power. This is different than our last trip here in 1983 when it was a fairly benign left-wing dictatorship. The major differences seem to be in the level of repressiveness and the degree of economic freedom. Today it is "capitalist". This means, as one ex-pat teacher here put it "the generals and the drug lords have the dollars to buy and sell lots of things". There are many shops in Yangon selling all sorts of electronics from all over the world (just like in Vietnam). Most of those products are brought in through China (another bastion of respect for human rights and individual freedoms). No health care, public education is abysmal, and, as I wrote, Yangon is falling apart. Notwithstanding the above, most of the people we meet here are very friendly, welcoming and pleasant to interact with (I will write about the exceptions later). Most are just trying to feed themselves and make a better life. The staff at our Yangon hotel speak English pretty well and are very helpful (unlike the bastards in Bangkok in both the $25/night hotel and the $70/night hotel). They seem pleased to have us here, even without the extra bonus of our changing money with them. Eyes of people we have met light up when we say we are from Canada.

BAY OF BENGAL: There is only one little problem with our resort at Ngwe Saung on the Bay of Bengal. It is a 6 or 7 hour bus ride to get there, the bus leaves once per day at 6:30 AM and no a/c. Val is not happy with another of one of my bright ideas. However, we don't cancel and have reserved seats near the front. It is a "private" bus and "seats" 34 passengers. Each row has 4 seats (2 x 2) and a folding seat in the aisle. Of course there is also standing room and sitting room that one cannot imagine. This bus contrasts to a "public" bus that is similar to our Bromo, Indonesia experience where hanging from the sides is the norm.

We arrive safely and after only 6 hours with a 45 minute eating break. Not so bad. The resort is lovely. We upgrade to a bungalow (almost at seaside) and jump into the pool. The good thing abut the Bay of Bengal is that we are facing west and that means I don't have to wake up early to see the sunrise over the sea (as in New Zealand in November). The Bay of Bengal is quite beautiful from here. Nice blue sky, clean white-sand beach with swaying palm trees for a great distance, gentle surf, and plenty of places for us to lay about reading and writing in the shade. Hot during the day and a cooling breeze around 6 PM, just in time for drinks and dinner at poolside.


This resort is not the "real" Burma for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is a resort for mostly Westerners. The second is that it is also a resort for Burmese. There are different prices here in Burma for locals and foreigners. I am not talking about prices on the street or in a market. I am talking about internal flights, hotels, and tourist sites. Our bungalow at this hotel, for example, costs a foreigner $110 per night. A Burmese pays the equivalent of $50. We went through a travel agency and paid only $70. I think the travel agency "does a deal" and we pay the local rate plus a bit. I mention these prices as a lead in to the Burmese I don't like (for purely irrational reasons, as I have not spoken to any of the ones I don't like). Even at $50 per night this resort is a fortune for most Burmese--a teacher earns around $30 per month. Therefore, the Burmese guests here are not the poor or middle-class. Here I speculate--they must be the "generals or drug lords" our ex-pat referred to. That wouldn't be sooooo bad if it wasn't for their custom of horking and spitting that goes on even here and where I might be walking. I am indignant but fearful for my life--they could deport me, throw me in jail or cut off my little pinkie finger (or other parts I am fond of). Some of the other guests (French) reacted even funnier than me--they actually make indignant noises (not too much, though). That is as ineffective as my grumbling to Val.

Val can add more if she wants to.