Ananda Pahto, Bagan
OK, here’s more on Myanmar, if you’re still not sick of it yet hehehe.
People
Myanmar is multi-ethnic. Apart from Burmese, it has Chinese, Indians, Mons, Shans, Kachins, and a horde of other races. Apart from Buddhists, there’re Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. Basically, it is just like Malaysia. Maybe if Malaysia were to follow ‘The Burmese Road to Socialism’, Malaysia’d end up just like Myanmar. Yeah it’s backward, but it’s not all that bad. Where else (in the non-western world) would you find people of all race and religion using the same language? And sporting the same attire (meaning sarongs)?
Myanmar is foreigner friendly. Foreigners get waved through at the airports (meaning they won’t stop you from carrying your mobile phones in, although officially they have to retain it and give it back to you when you leave the country. Too much hassle for the officers, I suppose). Locals have to go through all sorts of checks, in various types of counters. Nope, I didn’t stand around to watch (less they decided to retain my phone).
Entrance Fees
Foreigners have to pay entrance fees for some of the tourist sites. Locals don’t need to pay a single kyat. Occasionally, they’ll let foreigners in for free, especially when the foreigner looks something like me, hehe. But then you can’t pull out your maps, or your Lonely Planets, or start clicking away with your cameras at every other thing, so I figured it’d be easier to pay (and get all the privileges of being a tourist) instead of pretending you’re Myanmese. The entrance fees are reasonable, USD10 for as long as you well like in all the sites in Mandalay. Same price for all the sites in Bagan, again for as long as you wanna stay. Try visiting some of the sites in India, and you’ll know that this is very reasonable indeed.
Transportation
Burmese drive on the right side of the road, although their cars have the steering wheel on the right side, which is not right for us, but alright for them. This sentence makes little sense. Visit the country and you’ll know what I mean.
Unlike Indians, Myanmese no longer honk at everything (moving or not) in the vicinity of their path.
Foreigners cannot drive in Myanmar. This includes motorbikes. Foreigners can cycle, or walk. Or take one of the many modes of public transportation. Many of us hire trishaws, cars or horse-carts. Hiring one with a non-English-speaking driver has its advantages. First, they cannot communicate with you. This may sound like a big disadvantage, but then, you’d save the trouble of trying to explain why you can’t pay more, or why you’re not interested in this souvenir shop or that restaurant, etc. As long as they know the words – go, stop, there (with your finger pointed at that direction), yes, no, eat (with your hands gesturing towards your mouth), hotel, and the names of the places you want to visit (Lonely Planet has all the place names printed in Burmese, luckily), I reckoned you’d be ok. Anyway, these drivers I figured, are less exposed to tourists, so should be less experienced at haggling you out of the meager amount of kyat that you still have in your hands (told you I’m a cheapskate hehehe). Besides, you’ll learn to pick up some Myanmese words, right?
My Myanmese vocabulary consists of 5 words – ‘mingalaba’ (hello), ‘be lauk leh’ (how much), ‘zeji-thiyeh’ (expensive – you have to stress it), ‘shaw bau’ (discount) and ‘cezu babeh’ (thank you). Oh, and it helps to know the numbers too.
Communication
Communications within the country is reasonably good. There’re quite a lot of phone service shops around that’ll allow you to make local calls, national calls and international calls. International calls are expensive. If you don’t feel like making an international call, you can try emailing. Come to think of it, I’ve not seen any cyber-cafes while roaming around. Besides (and according to LP), yahoo, hotmail and a host of other common mail providers don’t work in Myanmar, so it’ll keep you free from worrying about whether your boss is shouting obscenities at you for being out of reach, or whether the stock market in KL has bloody crashed, and such. If you really feel like contacting someone outside the country and want to keep your expenses down, try sending a postcard. These are at only 30 kyat per postcard (about 15 sen) – I am still waiting for mine to arrive, I only sent it on 20 Feb, so it’s now only about 3 weeks. Let’s wait for another month or two.
Mobile phones? Yeah, mobile phones are useful too. They can wake you up in the morning, or remind you to call the airlines to re-confirm your tickets, and to check up on some forgotten phone numbers. Besides that, you should remember, you aren’t even supposed to bring it in, in the first place, ok?
Things To Buy
Sarongs, velvet-lined sandals, ethnic ware, tapestries, painted replicas of religious murals found in temples, lacquer ware, religious paraphernalia, gemstones, jade, rubies, ecstasy pills, opium and heroin (just kidding, the last few are illegal, and I guess can’t be found easily, …unless you know someone from the Golden Triangle).
OK, I’ve about had it on writing about Myanmar, guess I’ll just post pictures for you guys to see next.
