Take-Aways

Our first contact with Burma/Myanmar is the Embassy in Bangkok. Burma/Myanmar, how confusing are these places that have more than one name. In fact, it seems that even though Myanmar is the current preferred appellation of the ruling dictatorship, they have good reason to prefer the name. The country is a patchwork of peoples of which the Burmese are only one ethnicity. They were also the ones most favoured by the British. Which means that “Burma” is not only a misnomer that excludes most of the population but also a colonial relic. And yet to us foreigners it sounds that much more exotic and exciting. The embassy in Bangkok is sparse, almost like a jail’s waiting room. Gray and drab but the staff is friendly enough. We have to wait 3 days for the visas, so, we decide to make the most of the time by visiting the ancient Thai city of Ayuthaya. At 70km from Bangkok, it takes an hour and a half train ride to get there on a train that looks more like something out of a Passage to India. Shaky and old but with wonderful high ceilings it goes at 0 km/hour inside the city and stops every few miles outside of it. Still, it’s a fun ride. And despite the delay in setting off it does arrive to our destination a punctual 1 and half hour later. Ayuthaya is actually an island at the confluence of three rivers and is reached by a little ferry that just pops from one side to the other throughout the day. It’s light years away form Bangkok. It’s small, quaint, with an archaeological park reminiscent of Angkor on a smaller scale. The temples have early Thai and Khmer influences and are dotted around a green and leafy park, interspersed with bridges and ponds. Bicycles abound and the occasional elephant ridden by tourists appears among the ruins. At the National museum we find refuge from the rain in the past residence of the city’s governor. A beautiful wooden house with impossibly high ceilings, it gives the impression of living in a pink and white house on a cloud, completely open to the outside and yet sheltered from the elements. It’s very quiet and we are the only visitors. The rain stops just in time for a boat ride around the island. We get to see three very different temples. Ruins that are majestic and tranquil with sitting or reclining Buddhas, clad in fine orange and imperial yellow silk draperies. It makes you wonder what they’ve got underneath and who keeps them clean and dry in the rains. And just as the sun sets and the day ends, we are left in the town’s night market to admire another magnificent aspect of Thai heritage. Its magnificent cuisine in all it’s street vendor glory. Needless to say it is fully and gratefully honoured