Ace’s version of our stay in Mandalay:
Mandalay is not our favorite place. I dont know how many slums we passed on the way into the city via the train, but it was a lot. And to be honest, Im not really sure the slums ever really stopped. Its good that we’re both feeling under-the-weather because its giving us a good excuse to catch up on movies in the hotel room. We go out on sorties every now and then to try to find food, but to no avail. The food here is not the greatest either. Its all deep fried. The place is basically a pit. We’d be outta here already except that our plane leaves from here tomorrow.
We were feeling a bit better yesterday afternoon, so we took a cab out to what we thought might be the nicer part of town, but it wasn’t much different. We went to a rooftop bar at the Ayarwaddy River View Hotel and managed to have a nice conversation with an Australian couple who made us want to visit their country at some point.
We then walked the slum area on the banks of the Ayarwaddy and visited “City Park” which is a permanent amusement park with a giant ferris wheel, log ride, small rollercoasters, etc etc. The water in the log ride was brackish, so we didn’t do that ride. Instead we rode the ferris wheel which was the largest one I’ve ever seen and it was also the oldest and ricketiest one Id seen too. The baskets that you sat in had rust holes in them and the whole thing creaked and groaned when it moved and it brushed past a bunch of tree branches on the way up. It went SUPER SLOW too (probably the only safe speed), so one revolution took about 20 minutes. The views were great though. After that we found the haunted house ride and went on that. We sat down in our car and the attendant pushed it by hand into the tunnel. I thought he was going to push us the whole way, but we eventually started rolling on our own. It was interesting to see what the Burmese think of as scary. There were the typical things like a mummy getting sawed in half but also just a lot of paintings on the walls of interesting looking monsters.
After the amusement park, we found the Mandalay flower market which was about a block long. I bought an indian omelet-type thing from someone on the street in the middle of a bunch of trash (all food here is basically made in the middle of a bunch of trash) and ended up feeding most of it to a dog (who buried it instead of eating it).
After that we started feeling crappy again so it was back to the hotel to watch more movies. Cant wait to go to Bangkok tomorrow!
Penny’s version of our trip to Myanmar:
This entire trip has fallen into 2 categories for me “Living like kings” or “An experience I will not soon forget”. We seem to be onto a 3rd category which is “Ready to move through”. Mandalay has a number of amazing things to see and do but unfortunately I don’t feel quite well enough to do them. When we first got here (before we were able to check into the hotel) we wandered past a number of street eats, and “restaurants” and sat at a tea shop and drank some “special tea” - kinda like thai iced tea but hot, super sweet and strong. I later ate some “vegetable” dishes (think of a watery dal and various other tomato and green bean dishes with lots of oil) from an Indian restaurant and ever since then have felt queasy. Today is a bit better but I think my body is just protesting all the oil, spices, and lack of familiar diet. We’ve been lucky with food up until now… Ace isn’t feeling 100% either with a mild cold, and well, It seems like our bodies are just done with traveling here.
It’s given me a lot of time to think about the things I miss (and have missed - certainly while we were on the trek and on the train, flushing toilets and toilet paper were top of the list), but not in the same homesick way like I felt in the beginning of our travels. More of an appreciation for the conveniences and opportunities we have in the United States, especially in California’s Bay Area, and just how privileged and special we are to be able to travel to places that aren’t familiar. Our sense of freedom to be able to do what we want to do is somewhat challenged and limited by our ability to communicate, and the limited amount of choices/opportunities here. I see the kindness and welcoming of some local folks in their patience with us and the generosity of those people who also speak English to humor us in communication.
I once had a co-worker from Holland who described her experience of freedom in the United States during her first visit to a grocery store in San Francisco. She went looking for cereal and milk and described how many many many choices there were for cereal and milk that they just didn’t have in Holland. (She said in Holland they have whole milk and half milk; In the US we have 1%, 2%, low fat, non-fat, whole, soy, almond, coconut, and all the various brands of each of those). She described how having so many choices was overwhelming at first. For the US, it’s a “freedom” to consume what we want and to have choice. So in some ways it’s good for us to get out of our comfort zone in Myanmar and realize just how spoiled we are at home.
But there’s a different sense of freedom that I can appreciate here in Myanmar that seems new and fresh for the folks we have met and talked to here. Guidebooks warn to not talk about politics, not to accuse others of stealing or appear upset with anyone who lives locally because their punishments from the government may be excessive. Our guide in Kalaw explained that there was a woman from Japan who was raped by a local and the man was given life in prison. She said if it were her or another non-foreigner, the punishment would be much less. Emma Larkin also writes about local folks avoiding association with foreigners in “Finding George Orwell in Burma” because it can make one suspect to conspiracy, especially if the foreigner is a journalist (writer or photographer).
Unfortunately, I am a bit ignorant in my awareness of foreign affairs and geography. For example, I didn’t know that England was an island until I traveled there at age 19. Here, I didn’t know about the 1988 uprising. A peaceful protest by the people wanting democracy, resulted in over "3,000 protesters being shot or bludgeoned to death by government soldiers", including monks. The “doctors and nurses, overwhelmed by the wounded, hung a sign outside the general hospital begging the soldiers to stop killing people”. When the nurses joined the protest later, they too were shot. Apparently Myanmar spends more money on its military forces than any other country (% of total spending), and spends less money on education, and social services combined.
From what we have observed things have changed quite a bit since then. There is an excitement and energy when people (including our first taxi driver) talk about Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent democratic win and her upcoming transition to prime minister in March of 2016. Our 18 year old trekking guide, Aki, was careful to say that change will be slow. We also discussed the concept of change and its speed for any government (for example: when President Obama took office with the mess he inherited from the Bush administration.)
I think my conversations with people here have given me a new appreciation for the “freedom” we have in the US. I am truly grateful for the opportunities I have in the US and my ability to do simple things like walk down a (comparatively) clean, quiet, sewage-free, pollution-free, paved street away from traffic. It just doesn’t seem to exist in Mandalay. Learning the history of Myanmar has given me a new appreciation for the folks that have risked and lost their lives to assure that Myanmar can connect with the outside world. I also have an appreciation for the folks that have gone before me to assure our democracy and freedom in the US that continues today.
On that note, I look forward to being home again soon. We’ll be “moving through” Myanmar tomorrow, heading back to Thailand where we’ll celebrate the New Year and then travel solo. I am off to Vietnam January 2nd and return home on January 8th. Ace will continue her travels for another month or so.
Onwards
