Myanmar

We feel like we could write forever about our time in Myanmar. We felt both sadness and amazement during our visit. The political situation leaves the country somewhat paralyzed -- it's like time stopped in the 1980s. It is evident in the cars, the economy, and the daily lives of the people that the politics of the country and the foreign sanctions have taken a tremendous toll on the lives of the country's poorest. While we can go on more about the despair and poverty we saw we would rather focus on what made us fall in love with Myanmar and its people.

The amazing part of Mynmar was unequivocally its people. Even in face of the oppression and dire circumstances the people were warm, friendly, and full of hope. The majority of the people of Myanmar are very devout Buddhists and extraordinarily trusting. In all of our travels we have yet to encounter a more gracious and welcoming culture. Everyone seemed to be excited to have us visiting and were very warm and inviting.

We started our trip in Bagan, which is one of the several ancient capitals of Myanmar and provided for a spectacular welcome to the country. Old Bagan contains more than 2000 Buddhist temples dating from the 5th to 12th centuries and provides for a rich history lesson as well as some amazing views. We spent two days exploring the temples with a guide. We were struck by how well maintained they were -- in fact, many of them are still important sites of worship for the locals. After Bagan we headed to Mandalay City to see the religious center of the country. We were able to visit a monastery to see the monks prepare for lunch (a ceremonial process where local Buddhists offer the monks rice in order to pay respect). We also headed to nearby temples to see worshipers applying gold leaf to Buddha statues. The application of the gold leaf over hundreds of years has left the Buddha statues in a state where they are barely recognizable beyond mere lumps of gold.

Inle Lake was our next stop. Even though we had read about Inle Lake and its floating villages we did not realize how extensive the villages are. Inle Lake is about 22 miles by 4 miles in size with a depth of 10 feet. It contains entire villages of thousands of people living in the middle of the Lake. Beyond the villages there are floating pagodas, temples and massive floating gardens. The floating gardens are a misnomer, though, as the size and diversity of the gardens are more akin to farms. They produce enough crops to be sold all over the country and even exported to nearby Singapore and Malaysia.

Our trip ended with 2 days in Yangon. Yangon is the economic and population center of the country and, until recently, its capital. The city itself is not that different from many Asian cities we have visited thus far, except for the absence of multinational chains and many modern amenities. The highlight was the Shwedagon Pagoda. The pagoda is at the top of a hill overlooking the city and is gold-plated. The scale of the pagoda is impressive as are the many Burmese temples surrounding the site. The gold and the precious gems were donated by the last King of Burma, but pale in comparison to the beauty of the 78 karat diamond at the top of the Pagoda (also donated by the Royal family).

Overall, we fell in love with Myanmar and would strongly encourage people to visit. We had mixed feelings about visiting Myanmar given its government, but in the end we are grateful to have seen another side of Myanmar. We did make our best effort to ensure that the money we did spend went to the people and avoided government hotels, shops, etc. We do hope that the upcoming elections in November will improve things for the people of Myanmar and are hopefully for the country's future.