Oh man. Myanmar is it’s own animal. They’ve only recently opened their borders to tourism – we weren’t sure what to expect. There’s a huge tourism machine all through Southeast Asia, and the appeal of the road less traveled easily got the better of us. We came back through Bangkok to get our visas and it literally took the entire day – partly because I forgot my passport at the hostel but mostly because “the road less traveled” is apparently well worn – we stood in line literally until we got sunburned before we actually got inside the embassy (in order to continue to stand in line). We tried to do our research and received more than a few warnings about its accessibility, development, security, economic and political stability, etc. For the most part, everybody was dead wrong. This place is friendly as hell. And not in a Bangkok way, where you’re clearly a walking dollar sign to them, but in the sense that they are legitimately welcoming of strangers. It’s something hard to accept, especially as a westerner who tends to live in major cities. At home (or again, in Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam) when a stranger says “hello,” they mean “give me a dollar.” Here when people say “hello,” they mean “hello.” You can’t always tell what they’re thinking by looking at them (or how they look at you) but a friendly gesture on your part will usually prompt a similar response in kind. We started in Yangon, the former capital and largest city, but we had to keep it brief because nothing is close to anything here. Myanmar might be an adventure, but it’s not a vacation – going anywhere else generally involves either a 6 AM ride that drops you off in the early evening, or a mid-afternoon ride that drops you off just before the sun comes up (more on that later). So all of our experiences here (including the epic, epic pictures which you will love) were punctuated by and necessitated long, winding, incredibly bumpy, at times terrifying, hunger defeating, nausea inducing, seemingly infinite periods of land travel. There’s more to tell and there’s more to show, but for now I’ll skip to the end – if you have the means experience Myanmar now, while it’s still a little raw but not necessarily untouched, while it’s still curious and friendly. It won’t be long before it’s people are jaded by the endless parade of transients and wayfarers, before its culture is adulterated in the name of progress or assimilation. Experience Myanmar while you still can.
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/97388931@N08/sets/72157640832694513/