Friday, December 14, 2007

Burmese Daze

I dream about Burma every night, of golden pagodas appearing from nowhere in the midst of stark, dry landscapes, of monks collecting alms at dusk, of the sluggish brown Ayeyarwady river, the unrelenting heat, the hum of haggling in the gem markets, ladies with beautiful thanaka smeared faces, of men in elegant longyis and of the gentlest, kindest people I have ever met.
It’s a different world in a different time. Streets are sparsely populated with vintage cars and packed buses held together by rust and willpower. Imagine if you will, a life without ATMs (or travelers checks!), traffic jams and innumerable cell phones. There is change happening, but not at the breakneck speed which one sees elsewhere in the developing world. I wonder how long Burma can keep the world at bay. The process has already begun in tourist rich areas where touts have a twang to their English and cynicism in their hard sell. We found it hard to tell rich from poor Burmese as mostly everybody dressed the same to our untutored eyes.
Nobody ever talks about politics and every now and then, you see a signboard denouncing foreign devils to remind you of just where you are. People tell stories of acquaintances vanishing silently and of course no one has seen Aung San Suu Kyi in years. It’s hard to picture the “junta” as the enemy as even people in uniforms break out in smiles as we greet them in Burmese, saying mingala ba (perhaps it was the atrocious pronunciation?!). One curious thing we found was that golf shops abound-apparently it’s a favorite pastime of the hard hitting generals.
Department stores are filled with everything one could ever want but the prices are often ridiculously high. Currency used is the kyat (chaat) or the dollar and kyat prices are higher than $ prices in most places.
Yangon was memorable for the Shwedagon Paya, whose gleaming, golden stupa dominates the city skyline. It has been said that there is more gold in this pagoda than in the vaults of the bank of England. Watching daybreak in this powerfully spiritual place is not to be missed. We also got to see a novitiate ceremony where little boys all decked up, get to become monks for a short period, a rite of passage for the Burmese male. Our hostess overheard a Burmese tour guide solemnly explain to Taiwanese tourists that the males were called monks and the females, nunks! How perfectly logical, and nunks, is how they shall be known for the rest of my life!
Thanks to the generosity of my resident friend Janet, we also got a glimpse of the expat life in Yangon-trendy bars and restaurants, service apartments, maids and drivers, embassy parties and softball games. The same as expatriate life anywhere, in fact.
On the road to Mandalay, we stayed in a hotel, which we realized later was government run. Mandalay was memorable for a marionette show and a wizened old master puppeteer who gave me a hug when he realized I was from India. Much to my disappointment, we missed the famous Moustache Brothers and their satirical show. We did however eat the best food of our trip in Mandalay, Shan cuisine in the Lashio Lay restaurant, a massive meal for under $3 a head. We took a ride up the Mandalay Hill partly by trishaw driven by a retired primary teacher and partly in a tiny blue locally built car proudly bearing the license plate Gold finger! We preferred the serene white stupas at Sandamuni Pagoda at the base of the hill to the view on top. Trish, another friend returned from a day’s trip to the earthquake damaged, cave temples at Mingun with glowing accounts of what she had seen. Dinner at the City Cafe was a disappointment-we ended up being forced to eat Spaghetti Bolognese while vegetarian Rina picked listlessly at deep fried veggies. Next morning at 5:45 am as we sat sipping tea in the lobby, the lobby manager came up to us and said, “Excuse me, if you don’t mind, I request you to please get in the car as your boat leaves at 6 am.” Talk of being polite!!! A mad car ride later we arrived just in time at the docks.

The boat ride down the Ayerrawady was definitely something to remember, moving our $2 chairs across the burning deck in search of elusive shade and breeze. Even a surreptitious massage, surprisingly decent food and Mandalay beer barely sustained us through eleven hours of being slowly baked to a crisp. The Bagan Hotel, when we arrived finally was like an oasis in the dessert, none of us wanted to leave, ever again!

Bagan was mind blowing with its 2000 plus temples and stupas from the 11th-13th centuries. The next two days went past in a whirl of visiting the sites, buying lacquerware and scouting out the best local food. (Green Elephant gets my vote!). Rina and I were up earlier and earlier to beat the heat, and my system is only now recovering from shock. Our favorite mode of transport was Mr. Tin’s horse cart, where Rina made a close study of the bowel movements of equines with some truly shocking findings! Bicycles also made for a leisurely ride around this ancient site.

Our return flight to Mandalay took 30 minutes as opposed to 11 hours by boat, but of course nothing memorable happened. Mandalay airport was impressively modern compared to Yangon which was like a throwback to early airports in India.

Yangon on our return was reserved for shopping. We bought jade, gems, wooden carvings, spoons and umbrellas in the Scott Market and enjoyed every bit of the good humored bargaining with the storekeepers. We even found time for a longyi tying lesson much to the amusement of the shop girls.

I had waited so long for this reunion of friends but before we could gratefully say “jezu tin ba day”, the trip was over.

And every night I still dream of Burma….

Shabari, March 2006

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lucky Club Casino Sites - LuckyClub.live
Lucky club offers new players a wide range of fun-filled casino games, from the slots, video poker to live table games to slot machines. luckyclub.live Register today to