Into the heart of Myanmar

After 28 days in Myanmar where I endured marathon bus rides, hot, humid, and rainy weather, walked up about a million steps and saw a gazillion buddhas, I survived and I had an awesome experience. The beautiful landscape and the friendly people left a lasting impression on me and my memories of Myanmar.

Before I go on, let me give a brief overview of Myanmar. Myanmar is located in Southeast Asia and is sandwiched in-between Thailand, Laos, China, India and Bangladesh. Myanmar is widely recognized by it's former name Burma which was changed about twenty years ago.
Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Myanmar is a very impoverished country with the average person making about $10 or below a month. The main culprit is the oppressing government that is in power. The government uses most of its money on the military and little of it trickles down to the rest of the population. Also, the government faces human rights violations by the UN so the EU and the US have imposed economic sanctions which has further hindered the country's growth. The price of petro and rice fluctuates daily due to the instable economy. So the question is, why travel to Myanmar? I decided to visit because I wanted to see state of the country and I had heard many good things about Myanmar. After my visit, I felt that visiting was the right thing to do because tourism is one of the few ways the Myanmese people can subsidize their living and through my experiences I can share my stories about the government and people.

Of course, growing up in the US and traveling around, there are things that I consider be part of everyday life. Like using the internet, the roads and infrastructure, electricity and freedom of speech. But while traveling throughout Myanmar, I realized how lucky I am.

The internet is extremely slow and many sites are banned by the goverment like yahoo mail and hotmail. The roads were extremely bad. The "main" highway was barely wide enough for one car let alone two buses and most highways were mostly dirt. Electricity is usually only available for a couple of hours at night and sometimes not at all. Even the capital city of Yangon only had power at night. Most people had generators to bridge the gap but then gasoline was not always readily available, a catch-22. But the most overwhelming limit of rights is that there is no freedom of speech and due process. If a local gets caught talking or acting out against the government, they are sent to jail. There is no trial. I met a man who had marched against the government in 1998 and he was arrested, imprisoned for seven months and since then has been unable to find a job. A performance group had made a joke about a military general and they had been sent to hard-labor camp for five years. Pretty harsh consquences.

With that being said, through all the adversity that the people of Myanmar endure their spirit and friendliness are what I will remember most about of the Myanmar.