A month in Burma (Myanmar), July 2013. Along with Iran this has to be one of my favourite places in the world! Its a land of beautiful contagious smiles......and some of the warmest people on earth. I have honestly never seen so many beautiful innocent smiles in all my life. Everyone here wants to talk to you, to make you feel welcomed, and I've never had my picture taken with so many people. I almost felt like a celebrity at times. When you see all this its hard to believe that this country has had so many problems, so much violence in recent years. The people seem to live and eat well. So it is a very difficult place to figure out as much of the country is restricted to tourists. I'd like to see if the rest of the country looks so happy, but maybe not otherwise why would it be restricted? You hear the stories of how ethnic minority groups such as the Rohingya Muslims are killed and persecuted. Its basically been a genocide. You hear about the terrible crimes of the Military dictatorship. Even though there are a lot of ongoing problems I would still visit a million times for the people. When I see their faces light up, their smiles, the pleasure they get from meeting foreigners visiting their beautiful country I think that tourism is good here. The trick is to try and avoid letting your money get into the governments hands. Use local family run guesthouses, homestays, restaurants, shops, and maybe do a bit of hitchhiking. Also I'd recommend coming in the low season. Although there can be quite a bit of rain in the monsoon season its a great time to come. You don't have to book any accommodation in advance......and its much cheaper this time of year.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Doing a bit of teaching in Mandalay.
Teaching in Pyin Oo Lwin.
At Inle Lake.
Beautiful Bagan!
Picking tea somewhere between Kalaw and Inle.
For me the best way to travel around Myanmar is on the old trains (and hitchhiking!), which seem like the haven't been changed for the last 100 years. Make sure you get an economy ticket and sit with all the locals......that's if you can take sitting on a wooden bench for hours while moving along at less than 30 miles an hour! Its a beautiful way to travel here, and a great way to meet the locals as everyone shares what ever food they have. Also great fun to jump out at each station to buy some food off random little old ladies. Its really like going back in time.
Working the fields.
Fishing at Inle Lake.
Doing a bit of hitchhiking.
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