I purchased our airline
tickets a week before we heard about the genocide in the Rakhine State. The
violent repression of one of Myanmar’s minorities did not come as a complete
surprise. I had read about and followed
the attempts to replace the Military regime with a democratically elected
government and of the past violent repression of those opposing the regime.
Myanmar held the promise of a
land lost in time. For the past 50 years travel to Myanmar had been limited. I had heard of the contrast between the
corrupt regime and a friendly, open people living much like they did at the
close of WWII. With the election of Aung San Su Kyi party and a move toward a more
democratic state, I was excited about visiting. Getting a 28 day visa online
was easy. This, and the fact that friends Bob and MaryLynn Barnwell from Seward
had recently been hired as teachers in Yangon, put Myanmar at the top of my
travel list. Then came the news. I had friends and relatives worried about my
travel choice. I read the news reports
and wondered about the ethics of traveling to a country where the military
engaged in ethnic cleansing.
I believe we all play a role in
making the world we live in a better place. One of Sunny Cove’s goals is to
preserve and share our amazing natural environment in a sustainable way for
future generations. Tourism can play a positive role, providing a sustainable
income for people while encouraging preservation of cultural and environmental
resources. I hoped my travel and spending money in Myanmar would be helpful to
those advocating an open and democratic government. Emails to my teacher
friends in Yangon persuaded me safety was not a concern for travel within most
of the country. On Halloween eve Kat and I boarded flights bound for Yangon.
Myanmar guidebooks suggest
booking popular destinations well in advance. The tourism infrastructure is
limited and expensive, especially lodging. We usually travel independently by
researching locations in advance but making travel plans spontaneously. The
uncertainty of the political situation didn’t inspire committing to any travel
packages and my friends said it might be possible to make arrangements
locally. We arrived close to midnight
and caught a taxi to the Ibis Stadium Hotel that our friends had recommended
and was our one advance booking. At noon the next day Marylynn slipped away
from school to welcome us to her “big, hot, dirty city”.
Yangon is a sprawling city of
7 million. Bob and MaryLynn work at the Yangon International School and live in
a 2 bedroom air conditioned apartment provided by the school. The 800 student
school provides the children of Myanmar elites with a quality western style
education beginning in first grade and going through high school. The teachers
are mostly USA or Canadian expats, many of whom have taught all over the world.
They believe they are educating the future leaders of Myanmar. School is in
English and the classes are global in scope and demanding.
The school is located in a
rich neighborhood but Yangon itself is a third world mix of poverty and wealth.
There are some nice parks, a thriving business district and spectacular
Pagoda’s, but there are also urban slums. While Yangon looked like any third
world city it felt different. People were friendly. Walking around felt safe.
There were few homeless people and begging was rare. I didn’t see much in the
way of military or police presence. It was usually possible to find someone who
spoke a bit of English.
Taxis were easy to find but
few drivers had access to computerized maps and street signs were almost
nonexistent. Negotiating a cab ride meant first ensuring the driver was
familiar with where you were going which was made easier if the location was
near one of the citys’ landmarks.
For our first day’s activity
we decided to visit the National Races Village where we could tour the park on
bicycle (especially attractive after our long flight) stopping by houses from
the different ethnic groups staffed by folks in traditional dress. One of the
teachers recommended a cab driver that spoke English and could be our tour
guide for the day. As we approached the Park the number of police and people
present surprised our driver. We didn’t know that this was a photo op day
for VIPs touring the park. We were able to wave and exchange hellos with the
Prime Minister of the Yangon Province and the head honcho of the National
Ethnics Division. There were a number of photographers and TV crews covering
the event. As the only foreigners present we also were noticed and
photographed. We’re not sure whether we
made Myanmar news that evening.
One of the best things about guided travel is the ability to ask
questions of your guide. Visiting the National Races Park provided a good forum
for discussing race/religion in Myanmar. Our guide turned out to be Muslim. He
did not feel discriminated against. He had friends of other faiths. He was
excited about the movement toward democracy, sad about the situation in the
Rakhine State, and hopeful that the anti-Muslim message put forth by some of
the fundamentalist Buddhist groups would not gain support. He did not want to
see a return to the military regime and worried about the new governments’
ability to keep power. The real challenges
in his world however were more focused on supporting his family, which included
disabled parents. Things were better economically since the election and he
didn’t want to see that end.
The following morning we were up early and off to New Sensations
coffee shop. James, the owner, told us it was Buddha Day. On this day the monks
solicit donations to support the basic necessities of their life. While this is
a daily activity this was a special day because of the fact that it was a full
moon. Supporters gave bigger than normal donations especially clothing and
sometimes cash. James, a devout Buddhist,
had an appreciative following of monks and nuns from the local monastery. As we
sipped our coffee the nuns in pink and the monks in red approached with their Alms
bowls to receive donations. I later learned some of the donations went to
support an orphanage the nearby monastery maintained. I was beginning to get a
sense of the social role the monasteries played in caring for the less
fortunate in Myanmar society.
With Bob and MaryLynn leading we set off to explore the
neighborhood. First stop was a market street two blocks over from the
apartment. Here you could get almost any food you wanted … beautiful
vegetables, odd fish, an assortment of insects, cool looking fruit and a number
of unidentifiable things that were probably edible. We picked up a nice mix of
fruit and vegetables and skipped on the insects this time.
Both Bob and MaryLynn are active, adventurous people. This is
their second international placement. They taught in Venezuela for a couple of
years while their three daughters were young. They’ve also taught in Dutch
Harbor and Seward, commercial fished in Bristol Bay, owned a private charter
boat and coached many of Seward’s young athletes to run, swim and ski. Along
the way they’ve developed a healthy exercise and adventure addiction. This
extends to their daughters, all of which placed in the top 20 for women in the
Mt Marathon Race in Seward.
Yangon was providing a fascinating cultural experience for Bob
and MaryLynn but they were still working out the exercise component. The school
had a nice pool for lap swimming and they had taken up street biking. It was
scary for me to even contemplate biking in Yangon traffic. Kat found the
traffic scary even in a taxi. Drivers moved fast, abet skillfully, with little
regard for lanes. If there was a space it was filled. I admired the precision
of the drivers and their gentle use of horns, letting bicycles and other drivers
know their next move. Mixing it up with traffic was beyond my comfort zone. For my bike rides with Bob we avoided the busy
streets.
When the weekend arrived it was time to get out of the city and
a mountain bike trip seemed like a great way to see the countryside. Bike
World, owned by Jeff, an Australian expat but long time Myanmar resident,
organized the ride. Part of the proceeds went to support a school located
midway through the ride on a reservoir. The reservoir was very welcome after
biking in 90° heat and Kat was specially was excited about the opportunity to
cool down. It was a challenging ride for
her due to the heat and the fact her bike seat had a screw that was literally a
pain in the butt. There were 16 folks on the ride, mostly expats and all strong
bikers. One of the members was an Ironman racer who did our 18-mile ride then
rode the 60 miles home. Kat was awarded a nice prize at the end of ride for her
perseverance in the face of heat exhaustion and a challenging bike seat. For
all of us the Myanmar beer never tasted better.
Stay tuned Part 2 - Figuring out our travel plan and exiting Yangon coming up eventually...
John
John
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