Back From Burma

Dear Friends,
The last several months in SE Asia have seen my acquire new skills; learning to scuba diving on a Thai island filled with half naked Swedes, motor biking on dirt roads in the dirty Delta of Vietnam and massaging (professionally trained at Wat Po) in the stickiness that is Bangkok. When I had enough of such activities, I decided to go to Burma; not for some idealistic reason of uncovering some great evil, or the fantasy of communing with a more simplistic life, just because I heard it was a fun place to visit where the people are very nice.

My plans were met with an equal amount of intrigue and horror. Intrigue from those interested in hearing first hand what life was like in this secretive country, horror from those who saw Rambo 4 (the bad guys in the movie are Burmese, and they're really really bad).

There were many arguments not to go, issues of safety, the fact that some of my funds would go towards supporting the regime, the boycott pronounced by Aung San Suu Kyi. But none of these reasons troubled me. I figured I wouldn't be allowed to travel any place unsafe. The leader appears to have renounced the boycott, and I calculated that the regime got no more than a couple hundred bucks from my trip. A tiny amount in comparison to the trade with China and India. The real dollars supporting the government come from natural resources like gems, gas or timber If you ever bought a ruby or something made of teak, the likely source was Burma. In any case, I came little scared and left well rewarded.

Facts of Life
Before I get to what I liked about Burma, a couple facts of local life. The poverty of the country (per capita GDP is less than $1,200) combined with a ruling junta, who attempt to rule in iconic junta fashion (corruption, oppression, and idiocy) make day to day life here a bit different. Not shockingly so, but enough to notice. What do I mean? In every town I visited, electricity is spotty. Blackouts are such a normal occurrence, I saw more generators than refrigerators. Mobile phones are rare and very expensive, with a number costing somewhere between $1,000 -$2,000. Home phones are also rare outside of main cities and telephone booths (girls on the street with a couple phones and convoluted wire connections) are the primary, although expensive form of communications. Internet connectivity, while more present then I expected, is very slow. This is due in part to the government taking screen shots every five minutes. Cars are old and uncommon, gas is expensive and transportation costs are higher than reasonable. To have a car here is a real luxury and the prices are ridiculous. A twenty year old corolla is priced somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. New cars, meaning anything manufactured in the past twenty years are nonexistent. Several years ago gas prices quadrupled, which in part led to riots.

The real kicker for me s the banking system, maybe this is because of my dorky economics background and avaricious, capitalistic nature. In fact there are two separate sectors here. The local Burmese banks, which offer such revolutionary services as atms and backed deposits (although the depositor's interest rate is negative- you have to pay the bank to take your money) and the international banking system, which doesn't exist.Transactions between the two systems are costly. This forces any medium or large scale operation or middle income family to have banking accounts outside of Burma. I guess one advantage of a nascent banking sector means no financial crises; you can't have financial crisis without a financial system (actually that's probably not completely true). All of this culminates in a cash based society. One where the official and unofficial exchange rate aren't so close. Officially it's $1 to 6 kyat, unofficially it's about $1 to 1,000 kyat. I can proudly say that I have illegally changed money on the black market with the assistance of of sketchy, Indian man with red teeth, wearing a dress (more about that momentarily). I was happy to check that one off the list.

The Face of Oppression
I laughed at Rambo, but I was still hesitant regarding the government. Aside from one night in Rangoon, when we encountered checkpoints every couple of blocks, the presence of soldiers was much less than expected. For the most part they were completely unintimidating. Mostly older men, in uniform, flip flops, and more likely to be drinking whiskey (which is cheaper than beer) than carrying a weapon. The other defining feature was their lack of smile. in a country filled with people grinning ear to ear, a smile from a solder was not a common sight. It seemed the biggest component of the people's dislike for their government was the total and complete corruption of all it's members. Police checkpoints are setup to extract bribes. Businesses cannot operate without paying local tips. Government lifestyle is clearly a step above because of this taxation. The capital was recently moved to a newly constructed city, complete with a replica of the country's most famous pagoda. At some point on this trip, I was likely followed, but I didnt' sense it. Many locals reflected a similar mantra, 'Burmese people good, Burmese government very bad,' the second half always in a whisper. On several occasions when I disclosed my nationality I was asked the prospects of an American invasion. None I said. If we were in the business of toppling corrupt governments there would be no end to our work, and would have to turn our eyes on some of our own. Incidentally, am I glad I missed the whole health care debate!

As I traveled around the country, and saw the local economic conditions, it's hard not to make comparisons. Is the poverty here worse than it's neighbors? Are Burmese worse off than those in rural China, the Delta region of Vietnam or the NE Thai region of Isan from where I'm currently writing? I doubt it, if so, then not by much. Burma like the rest of the region has a serious urban/rural divide. Is their government worse than it's neighbors? For sure, but it's not like the region is bustling with success stories. Just look at the most 'stable' country in SE Asian, Thailand, which is in the midst of some major demonstrations to bring back the former PM who happened to be deposed several years ago in a coup and was recently convicted of defrauding and embezzling several billion dollars from his country.

It's hard not to feel sorry for the people here, maybe a tad more than elsewhere I've been. The main way to improve your stock here is to sell out your people and work for the government. At least in other countries there's some hope of pulling yourself out of poverty. If that doesn't work, you can go with the every popular failsafe of marrying a white guy.

It's the People
I thought there were only several sites here of much interest. The Schwedegon Pagoda in Rangoon is spectacular and the ancient temples of Bagan are interesting, although nothing compared to the magnificence of the Angkor ones, but the real fun comes from the kind and inviting nature of the Burmese. For a people that have so little, they are extremely generous. Everywhere I went I was met with big smiles, shouts of hello and hospitable invitations.

The food and the people felt like a combination between India and China. I alternated between Indian curries and Chinese dishes, both of which were yummy. The people had a very unique, traditional style. Both men and women wore traditional sarongs called longyi. Women and children would also wear a face cream called thanaka made from the bark of local trees. This cream is a natural sun block, thought to be a skin moisturizer and is also applied in attractive designs (see my pictures for examples). The men, while wearing the longyi(think dress), would constantly be chewing betel nut. The result was a red staining of teeth and gums and the everpresense of little pools of red spittle, not so pleasant.

It's hard to exactly translate what was so enjoyable about traveling here. I think I can reduce it to the fact that people were extremely friendly and welcoming, excited to meet and greet foreigners and wanting to share their country and experiences with us. In some cases this was shared with families over food, watching soccer games or WWF wrestling at local tea shops, making faces at children or playing a game of Burmese hacky-sack. Everyone was constantly smiling, and quick to laugh. Who wouldnt' want to go to places where you feel honored and adored? In summary, see Rambo 4, it's laughable and go to Burma, the people will make you laugh, either way it's smiles all around.

I'm trying to continue my positive rural experience here in Thailand. After a couple of days, I've moved quickly to the drier, poorer, more celebratory Isan region. The traditional Songkran Water Festival begins on the thirteenth. Hopefully my training in shaving cream warfare will have properly prepared me for water battle. Over the next couple of days, I'll try to be filling in some stories from the past three months, in between having water fights and flirting with local women. Should the updates not come, I'll leave it up to you to decide which of the two is preventing. I've posted some pictures of my trip to give you a glimpse of my experience http://picasaweb.google.com/avinagel/Burma#