It’s already a time ago since I left Myanmar when I write this article but i still don’t really know what I should think about this country with this two faces. When people find out that I was in Myanmar, they usually are very interested and ask a lot of questions but I still don’t really know what I should answer. Myanmar is different from all the other countries in SE Asia and maybe different from all other countries in the world (even if there are worse examples), and it’s hard to grasp and to describe if you didn’t see it by yourself. Should you see it by yourself ? I’m not sure. Before I made the decision to go to Myanmar I thought a lot about that and it was not an easy decision. Now I’m thinking again. Would I go again to Myanmar ? Probably yes, but now I know about some more aspects I didn’t think about before. The country is beautiful, the people wonderful, the athmosphere is different, the culture is impressive but there is much more beside that. Myanmar depressed me in a way. For me it’s a country with no hope, poverty is ubiquitous, fear is a normal part of everyone’s life and visible progress you can only see where the generals live. Let’s face it: The country is fucked up and it won’t get any better in the next decades. It doesn’t matter if the military junta announced free elections for 
this year, nothing will change. The dictactors who are in charge now are just too powerful and they have a huge army behind them, plus countries like China and Russia which backup the whole cruel system. And with this big allies nobody dares to make an effort to change something in this country and I really doubt that Russia and China will kindly ask Myanmar to stop human rights violations as long as this countries provitate from the military junta, too. Russia and China (and India, Germany, Great Britain… the list is long) need the corrupt and unscrupulous generals to exploit the rich resources as much as the military government needs Russia and China to keep up the current system where a few people become rich and the big majority suffers. And that won’t change in the next 20 years, I’m sure. It’s hard to travel through a country like this, especially when you meet and get to talk to the people who have to live in this circumstances. It’s not their default that the situation is like this and they are as helpless as you are, what and that makes me feel bad, sad and pity for this suffering country. But I guess for me it was the right decision to go, even if I can’t talk in superlatives about this Myanmar. It’s an experience and it will broaden your mind. It scares you and it makes you feel powerless, it reminds you that you are just a visitor and that you can do almost nothing, that you are not even a drop in the bucket. Off course a visit to Myanmar will make you aware of the situation, and you will tell people what’s going on there, how it looks like and how it feels and maybe other people will be more aware about the situation in the country, too, but under the line… will it change something about this solid and established cruel government ? I have not a lot of hope…
Anyway, my last week was a little bit disappointing and boring. From Shwebo I went back to Mandalay but left the city again in the same evening with a night bus to Kalaw, another major trekking hub in Myanmar. The bus ride 
was funny, the bus was a cargo bus that was half full with lumber and some useful stuff which was all crammed in the back of the bus. And how they packed it… unbelievable, without rhyme or reason they just stuffed the things in the back, one hard break and I’m sure the half of the things would decapitate a few passengers. Good luck that my seat was in the last row just before this thrustworthy stowed goods… but, like always, we made it without any bigger problems, the bicycle above me just fell on me once, and we arrived in Kalaw in the wee hours. I found a guesthouse very quickly and the first guy I saw there was Alon from Israel with whom I was hanging around in Yangon already. Usually you should go hiking in Kalaw but as I am not the guy who likes guided tours and every other traveller in town didn’t have the guts to hike to Lake Inle (around 50km) on their own, I cancelled 
my plans. To go on a several days trek through difficult terrain just by myself was a little bit too risky, for me, too. But the town is quite nice and the climate refreshing so I just relaxed a bit, watched movies on my laptop and enjoyed a few beers with Alon and fellow travellers in the evening. After three nights I went on to Lake Inle, THE tourist attraction in Myanmar. The best thing about my trip to this place was the drive to there on the roof of a van. That’s style! The lake and the nearer sorrounding villages disappointed me a bit but I was there just for one day before my night bus to Yangon brought me in 14 hours back into the capital. I was kind of happy to be back there and to leave the country two days later after 28 days in general because, as I mentioned, this country was kind of depressing. The last two days I spent the most of my time on the veranda of the guesthouse and only went out to get food and for a visit to the cinema (Avatar, omg what a shitty movie! But it cost less than 1US$, so it was alright) before Air Asia brought me back to Bangkok in the morning on the 5th of February.
Archiv für Februar 2010
My last week in a country without hope
Sonntag, 07. Februar 2010Myanmar’s hospitality at it’s best, plus spies.
Montag, 01. Februar 2010I left Hsipaw early in the morning to reach Shwebo, a small but historical interesting city 120km north of Mandalay, in the same day. I really didn’t want to spent another night in Mandalay. It worked out fine and I got into one of the numerous shaky buses that connects the two former burmese capitals with each other in a bumpy 3 hour ride. Usually Shwebo is not on the tourist map at all and I probably wouldn’t go there, too, but at the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon I got to know a nice english student named Jerry who invited me to his hometown. He expected me already at the bus station and was really excited that I really came to visit him and his hometown so he took a two-day timeout from work, borrowed a car and developed a big sightseeing plan for me, what I really 
appreciated due to my limited time that I was able to spent there. Unfortunately the government forbids local people to host foreigners so I checked in the only hotel that is open to tourists in town. It was really overpriced but Jerry insisted on paying the half of my accomodation (and every fucking expense that I had in the next two days – no discussion about that possible), so it was for me. What can I say about these two days? It was awesome, but with unpleasent sideeffects, too! The really positive thing was the time that I spent with Jerry. I met almost all of his friends and family members and spent the days with him cruising around from one sight to the next. In the evenings we either watched a movie (when there was no power cut), hung out in one of the few small beer stations or had great food.
For the negative thing I was just waiting to experience it in Myanmar and on the second day in Shwebo it finally happened: We recognised that government spies followed us. How we recognised that? It was not really difficult, always when we left one place someone who followed us before he approached Jerry very unsuspicious and asked him where we’re heading next and, oh surprise, at our next destination there were already people waiting for us. It became really obvious when we (or better Jerry) was warned that it could be dangerous for him to show around foreigners without an official tour guide license by a very harsh and unfriendly casual dressed man who finally showed his police ID after Jerry got into a discussion with him. It ended that Jerry had to drive home to get a 5$ note to prevent himself from further trouble. In the meanwhile when I was waiting for him I couldn’t hold back and began an angry discussion with this asshole (who spoke very good english), too. Probably not very smart in this country but in this situation it was just not possible for me to act different. Good luck that this didn’t result in 
any consequences for me. After this nice little meeting we went to Jerry’s old university and, another surprise, a handful of men showed up out of nowhere when we were just about to enter the campus and hindered us from doing so. Later when we bought my bus ticket back to Mandalay another guy came with a pen and paper to Jerry and asked which bus I take and where I go to – insane! As much as I would have loved to hang out with Jerry for a longer time I was very happy when I finally left Shwebo, to have spies following you all the time just made me feel very very uncomfortable. Otherwise Shwebo is a nice city with a some nice pagodas, a monk who died 30 years ago and transformed into stone together with two trees, a nearby nice lake and cobras. Unfortunately I didn’t see snakes but the cities reputation for monster cobras is well-known all over Myanmar. “You go to Shwebo? Watch out for cobras, bro!”
Thanks Jerry for your great hospitality!