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BURMA
SE Asia 2004 (part IV)
Alex Mumzhiu2006-03-22 19:12:23
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People in Myanmar (formerly Burma) still wear traditional "longui" even as its neighbors abandon their sari and sarong for Levis and miniskirts. You can't buy a McWhopper or use a cell phone or even check your email here. In stretches of the countryside, rice paddies are farmed by water buffalo, people move by ox cart and there's no trace of manufactured goods. All of this BECAUSE, the Myanmar was virtually sealed off from the outside world in 1962 when a military regime took control of the government.
I know that some of my readers will not be happy to read the above statement, which sound like praising the military regime. But this is not mine, this is a quotation from the Lonely Planet "Southeast Asia on a shoestring" 12 edition, page 506. Mine is only "BECAUSE".
I would like to add to the Lonely Planet, that there are no McDonalds, Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, Holiday Inns, Ramada Inns, Citibanks and Ben and Jerries which covered the rest of the globe like mushrooms after the rain. Again, I do not want to praise the military junta, and the above mentioned phenomenons are rather the side effects, than direct intentions of the junta.
I arrived in Yangon (Rangun) Dec 5 from Bangkok. Price of round trip ticket + visa was $160+$30. At first, the county surprised me by very low charge for the taxi from the airport to the town (about 45 minutes ride) cost only $3. But later I learned that everything else is also cheap. On every corner they have outdoor cafes, so to say (see attachment), where you can drink green tea and milk tea. I was thirsty and I drank couple teapots of green tea and several cups of very tasty milk tea and couple of cookies. And because I did not know the price, I offered the banknote of large denomination, about $0.50. They gave me $0.30 in change.
These outdoor cafes are so much fun. You are sitting surrounded by people of different religions and ethnic groups, all wearing
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See photographs from:
Burma (Myanmar) Gallery
