March 27th,2014

Burma (Myanmar) is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Southeast Asia.  This is largely due to the isolation and stagnation created by their government, the military, World War 2, and civil wars.  It is still mostly uninfluenced by the western culture.  They wear traditional clothing (men wear longyi's) and dress very conservatively.  Many of the kids and women smear Thanakha on their faces.  It is a traditional cream, moisturizer and sunscreen.  It makes them look like they are wearing masks. We found the people to be very friendly, humorous, engaging and inquisitive.  Most of them haven’t seen very many tourists that are my age so lots of them wanted to take photos with me even though none of them had cameras.  Even still, most of the country is off limits to foreigners who can only arrive by plane and must apply for a visa before entering  Burma. 

Less than 1% of the population has internet access and it is mostly in internet cafes, so the internet has been sucky even though our hotel has Wi-Fi. The media and internet are heavily controlled by the government.  Barely any international companies are in Burma due to restraints put on foreign investors.  The Burmese woman wanted to trade us for lipstick and perfume, two products that are very hard and too expensive to get.  One nasty habit they have is chewing betal nuts, a product that turns their teeth a disgusting reddish black (rots them) and is very addictive like chewing tobacco.

The products they make are still largely made by hand in back room sweatshops in small towns like Bagan.  We visited a lacquer ware workshop and the owner told us it takes about  6 months to make a dresser.  They are amazing artists.

 

In Bagan, temples and pagodas are everywhere.  They overwhelm the country (see video).  Most were built between the  11^th and 13^th centuries, much like Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  Originally, there were 13,000 temples in an area 4 miles by 4 miles.  Most of those were wood and are long gone, but 2000 stone temples and pagodas still remain.  Some temples are being preserved and are restricted, but many have been abandoned and are in disrepair.  Those temples were easily accessible and we could climb up skinny stone staircases to the upper levels (super fun).   We also visited the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon which is the largest pagoda in Burma.  It is for Buddhists, like St. Peters is for Catholics.  About 90% of the population in Burma are Buddhists.   At the pagoda, I spoke with a monk and he wanted to know if I liked Justin Bieber… I also saw a monk using an iPad Air to take a picture, so I don’t know what is going on there.  I guess they are more modern than they look. 

We really liked Bagan because it was a small town and we rode around on bikes to see all of the temples, even though it was 42C outside.