Burmese Days

Better late than never.

Readers, I'm going to confess to you a weird hang-up I developed. At first I was too overwhelmed to write about my post-grant travels because I was so excited to be home and it was Christmas and I was running around seeing family and friends. Then, when things calmed down a bit, I started to feel like there was too much to write and that it would be an overwhelming task. Then I started thinking that maybe I should wait to write this until I had a full-time job lined up. I don't know why, but it became a weird talismanic way of thinking. I'm happy to report that I start a full-time job next week, so I decided to finally stop putting off writing this. It's going to have to be a whirlwind overview, though I'm sure I'll still find places to be longwinded.

Let's make this part 1: Burma.

I went to Burma by myself for 5 days. I was only able to visit one area called Inle Lake, which is quite heavily-touristed. To get there from Rangoon/Yangon, though, I took a breathtakingly scenic train ride that took over 24 hours. For most of the trip, I was the only tourist aboard the train. For one leg of the trip, I sat next to a kindhearted engineer who spoke limited English but was still eager to talk to me and to help me order from the shockingly good onboard dining service. He smiled at me with disconcertingly beet-red teeth from chewing betel nuts and asked me if I knew who the woman pictured in his open newspaper was. I knew it was Aung San Suu Kyi, but I feigned ignorance out of paranoia about being lured into a political discussion in an infamously repressive country. All he said to me was, "It's Aung San Suu Kyi. This woman is our heart. The Burmese people, she is our heart." Later, I met a restaurant owner who had posters of Aung San Suu Kyi hanging on his walls. He told me that he felt he could express himself more freely in his country now, and that he'd been imprisoned in the past for being involved in pro-democracy groups. He said I was lucky that I could travel and say whatever I wanted.  He said he thought America was a good country (a very rare opinion to encounter on my travels).  He confided in me that he follows the international news avidly as much as he can. I felt pretty ashamed for not following the news closely at all myself, and for not educating myself more about Burma before I came. (And, hell, after.)

It was one of those moments where I had the totally cliche thought about taking for granted all the freedoms we have in America. Not to worry, I followed it closely in my mind with, "BUT those freedoms are always at risk, aren't they? BUT I have to guard carefully against attempts to make my speech and opinions less free,  even if it's in the name of security! And isn't the 'free' press all owned by big, evil corporations anyway? And the NSA is probably reading my blog at this very moment! BUT America actually sucks in many ways and just provides a sham image of freedom--and don't get me started on justice!" So, you know, that way you could tell I have a college education.

Back to my train ride. I've never felt trains that bumped in so many directions as this one--vertically, horizontally, diagonally, bone-chatteringly--but the scenes of fields and villages, mountain passes, and finally Inle Lake glimmering in the distance made it all worthwhile. I even glimpsed a little boy riding a water buffalo, which was quite a comical sight given how tiny the boy was compared to the huge animal. It looked like he was having a ride at least as wild as my train ride.

Once I arrived at Inle Lake, I did what all tourists do and took a boat ride. I had two favorite stops along the ride:
1. Indein
It's a town on the shore that is crawling with two things: tourists and pagodas. The pagodas are amazing--it's an unruly forest of them, some that look like ancient ruins and some that are currently under construction, all with lake and mountain views. I even found one being built by someone who now lives in California as a tribute to his parents. I spent hours walking around the town, along a river, and through the pagodas, and I found that even though there are a ton of tourists it was still possible to find some solitude just by taking less popular paths. For lunch, I went to the back section of the town market and found a small lunch shack/stall where I had delicious Shan noodles and got to play with the owner's toddler and watch kids and dogs run around.

2. Another village whose name I forget
I went on a rambling walk, where I was briefly befriended by a novice monk, invited to taste some sugar candy when I ran into a family stirring huge vats of boiling sugar cane outside their home, and nearly run over by two stringy-looking cows with bells on them--closely followed by their owner.

Look out for cows!

Hey, sugar.

"Warmly welcome and assist tourists." = propaganda campaign to make tourists forget what really goes on in Burma?

I also walked around the town where I was staying, near the lake, and encountered lots of adorable school children on their way home from school. Most just smiled shyly, some little girls walked across from me for a while and imitated me when I did funny walks, and one little boy asked for money. It was very interesting to see that just one boy had that reaction to the influx of tourists, compared to other places where a lot of children who aren't necessarily beggars will just ask you for money, knowing that tourists will give it. He just said, "Money?" and I said, "No!" and he said, "Present?!" I said no again but thought better of it and gave him a pen. Maybe he'll write a book about how tourists ruined his town--he'd have every right to. (On the other hand, it can only be a positive when a country is no longer forcibly closed to outsiders at the hand of a repressive government--right?)

It was interesting to be in a place that's just getting into the swing of a tourist boom. I noticed that when I went on boat tours of Inle Lake, the boat driver would pull close to the fishermen who are famous for paddling with their feet. It always happened right when we entered the lake. There would be several fishermen there, and the boat driver would turn off the motor--so as not to scare the fish? to give me time to take a picture?--and stay still for a few minutes while I took pictures.

Obligatory.

But on my second trip, I didn't need to take pictures, because I already had on the first trip. The driver seemed uncomfortable and confused by this so I took some just to put him at ease. (Silly, I know.) It's also hard and makes your boat captain very unhappy when you say that you do not want to do shopping on your boat trip. After being taken to an (admittedly kinda cool) floating silver workshop, I insisted that I wanted to do NO SHOPPING and really just wanted to see the sights, much to my boat captain's chagrin and bewilderment. It seems to be a built in part of the tour, probably with some sort of kickback system or at least system of boat captains taking you to their friends' shops, so it really is disruptive not to play along. But I didn't want to.

Another thing I saw that made me think:
I went to an island that was basically occupied only by a Buddhist temple and some hawkers outside. It was very ornate and there were large, golden statues in rooms at each entranceway. Dozens of women were prostrating themselves just outside these rooms, looking in, behind signs that said, "No women past this point." Men walked past the signs to pray. It really put into sharp relief the utter sadness and ridiculousness of women bowing down to and being the driving force behind religions--like, most of 'em--that actively exclude and degrade them. Or what about on a larger level? How many women serve organizations or companies that don't really value their contributions?



On a lighter note, I also went to a hot spring for the first time ever. That was on my bucket list. And this one had a view of the mountains, I was the only customer for the first hour, it was super cheap, and I got to have an avocado salad. This sounds very spoiled. Not denying it.


Miscellaneous photos:

Note the small chicken on the walkway. 

Floating village.

I found my long lost (literally, he escaped) cat,  Montrose,  sleeping peacefully on a wooden structure in the lake. Phew.  Glad he's happy.


Reading:
Burmese Days by George Orwell. Eek, I identified with hateful characters.
The Time of My Life. Terrible selection from the hostel book exchange. By the author of P.S. I Love You.
Before this while on the beach in Thailand I read:
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Gravity by Tess Gerritsen
The Star of the Sea--SO GOOD. It's a mystery novel aboard a ship full of immigrants, rich and poor, from famine-ridden Ireland complete with primary source selections to start each chapter.