Visit Myanmar

For over six months, my husband, George, and I had been working on a trip to Bhutan, Laos and Myanmar set for May 16-June 16, 2008. When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on May 2, we weren’t sure if we should go. However, we were meeting our son and daughter-in-law, who were on a year-long trip around the world, so we couldn’t change the dates.

We did consider other destinations for the Myanmar segment, if rioting or disease broke out in the wake of the military junta’s handling of the tragedy, but we weren’t arriving in Myanmar until June 1, a month after the storm, so we decided to wait and see how things looked then.

The tour company there assured us by e-mail that it was safe and, indeed, they very much wanted us to come. And so we went. We are so glad that we did!

Myanmar is a magical country, the people are gentle, friendly and kind, the scenery is lush and lovely, the temples are magnificent, the food is delicious and the art and handicrafts are very tempting. It was my 97th country and it immediately catapulted into the top four.

Our first and last days were spent in Yangon, which had suffered winds up to 100 miles per hour but was spared the horrendous waves that devastated the delta. There were few deaths there, but most of the city’s large, stately trees were down; there were stacks of sawed-up wood everywhere. The marvelous Shwedagon Pagoda was damaged, but repairs were well under way.

The city’s electricity and water had been restored in one to three weeks. The only real destruction that we witnessed was at a glass-blowing facility where trees were down (one onto their well), metal roofs had collapsed and there were piles and piles of broken glass. Although it will be many months before the facility is up and running again, the workers were thankful that none of them had been hurt and that their ovens were off, so there was no fire. We bought some of the few intact pieces.

The government actually did a fair job of getting the city back on its feet, which was a far cry from their totally unacceptable response in the delta, where their obstruction of foreign aid was reprehensible and caused many additional deaths.

The only good that might come from the tragedy is that it shone a light on the regime and might, in the end, lead to a moderation of the generals’ repressive government.

Knowing a little about that repression, we expected to see armed troops everywhere. The only military we observed was in the city of Maymyo, where the military academy is located. There we did see many young men in uniform, but they all were carrying briefcases, not guns. We have seen far more armed guards in most of the Central American countries we have visited.

The government keeps a tight rein on the people, however, or at least it tries to. Googling from hotels within Myanmar doesn’t yield much, and one can’t log on to Yahoo directly, but most hotel and business people use the Internet and seem to know ways around the censorship. Some hotels get CNN, etc.; some don’t.

Citizens dare not openly oppose or criticize the generals, but most of the people seemed to be reasonably content. Capitalism is booming! I am not saying that everyone is happy; I wouldn’t say that everyone in the U.S. is happy! There are parts of the country closed to tourists and to its own citizens.

We saw none of the chaos in the delta because we, as most tourists do, spent the majority of our time in the north. We often were the only guests in lovely, large hotels. While, even in low season, there normally are numbers of European visitors, no doubt most had stayed away following the cyclone. The tourist industry is really hurting; the dearth of travelers is crushing an already fragile economy.

We spoke with many people who, although they love and respect Aung San Suu Kyi (the Nobel Peace Prize winner who is under house arrest in Yangon), disagreed with her backing of a tourist boycott. No one we spoke to out and out agreed with Aung San, but they did think the big tour groups aren’t as good for the country as independent travel. They said that large tour groups have to use government hotels and so put a lot of money into the junta’s hands, nevertheless everyone we met was in favor of small groups and individuals visiting.

Although most of our contacts were in the tourist business, we also talked to a number of monks and average citizens, including the wife of a man who is serving a 13-year prison term for “giving tourists false information.” She can see him once a month.

We were able to give sizable amounts of money to two different groups who were helping in the delta (we happened to get a sizable refund for some flights that had been canceled). They both wished to remain anonymous because all relief is supposed to go through the government, who, of course, keeps most and takes credit for what little they pass out.

Most of the books and toys we had taken to distribute in the hill towns went instead to the children in the delta who had lost everything.

We were very impressed with the number of people who had gone to the delta to help or were raising money for aid.

Our 3-country tour was arranged by Scott Wild of Wild Card Adventures (Bellingham, WA; phone 800/590-3776, e-mail swild7@juno.com or visit www.awildcard.com). There were four of us, and the 14-day Myanmar portion cost about $2,000 per person, including internal airfares; hotels with breakfast; car with driver; guide, and entry fees. We continued with four days in Laos and 10 in Bhutan.

In 2000, Scott arranged a Viet-Nam/Cambodia trip for us. Both of these trips were excellent.

The guide we had in Myanmar was the best in all the world — good English and a super sense of humor, and he could get almost anything done. We paid extra to keep him with us for the whole trip and he was worth every cent.

BRENDA MILUM

Reno, NV