Burmese Days

Well, it was a long trip but Lindsey and I are finally back in China...actually, we've been back for about two weeks now. Anyway, if you even knew that we were gone for the past five weeks, you probably would have known that we took a little winter trip to Myanmar (Burma). Overall, it was a good time, but it definitely had its ups and downs. For one, Lindsey was sick a great deal of the time with 'tropical sprue', a fun, antibiotic resistant, intestinal friend. Also, Lindsey and I came away from Burma with some realizations about what we want to get out of travel in the future. So, now I'll spin a yarn about some inane things concerning Burma...enjoy.

One of the first things I noticed upon our return to China, was the taxi cab. It was new, shiny, modern, and when it started down the road it was so fast and smooth I turned to look at Lindsey in wide-eyed wonder. No shaking, no hole in the floor, no driver apologizing because the cab broke down 100 meters from the airport terminal. This was nice. I was enjoying quality. The roads we were driving on were littered with street signs, and they had been paved recently! It was possible to drive on them at speeds of 30 mph and upwards without dodging a sea of potholes that stretched on for miles. Then there were the buildings, all of them new, and they emitted this strong aura...which led me to believe that logic was involved in their planning and construction. On the streets, every man was wearing a coat and trousers and the women were strutting around in their fashionable knee high boots. Nothing had changed in China, but it all looked very different.

Burmese cities are dirty, they are crowded, noisy, hot, at times scary, yet they are filled with exotic colors, scents, and people. On a 100 meter stretch of road you can easily stroll past a Methodist church, a 19th century British apartment building, a Buddhist monestery, a liquor store, a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, and then trip over a huge gap in the pavement. The old British colonial architecture sits on every corner, repainted over the years in bright greens, reds, blues, pinks, and yellows, to mask the decaying facades, yet at the same time, making them distinctly Burmese. The Burmese people, all modestly dressed, wear longyis, the traditional skirt-like garment tied at the waste. The women and children adorn their faces with a chalky mixture of sunblock and moisturizer called thanaka. On the corners, billboards loom with advertisements featuring 'bizarro world' products because of the U.S.' continuing trade embargo. The country looks as if it were built from the combined purchases of 50 years of international garage sales. I loved it.

I wanted to put up something small that talked about the country and what we saw. Don't worry, I'll add more later. It's just hard to sort through such a long trip and summarize it into a nice, tidy, 500 word essay. If you have any questions you want answered...about the pictures or anything else, just post them in the comments here.

If you didn't know, I uploaded a lot of pictures here: Burma Pictures