Myanmar

Myanmar. Wow. It's my first morning back on the ship after five days in Myanmar, and I'm honestly still processing it all. I really don't know how to explain what I saw, or even what to say. Going into this country, I knew so little about the history and culture. We were warned that the government that was heavily focused on military was very oppressive on the population. We weren't to talk about politics, student rights, religion, or anything that could land us, or the person we were talking to in jail. Honestly, I was a little afraid of what I was going to see. It was really hard to see the country and not judge or evaluate it in a way that might not be accurate. I didn't want to be wrong and create negative stereotypes of Myanmar.

For the last four days, I was on a SAS trip to Ngwe Saung, which is essentially a resort town. It was advertised as a 5 hour ride from the ship, but those 5 hours turned into 8 on the way there and 10 on the way back. So I really only had two days to explore. But throughout those bus rides, I was able to see a lot of the country. And our rest stops included a parasol making factory and a bamboo furniture factory. The first full day at the resort, I woke up early to go ride elephants. It was something that I vaguely remember doing when I was little, but definitely really cool now. The next day was spent almost entirely at a local school. We took a pickup to get there, because all of the roads were so curvy and bumpy that our bus wouldn't have been able to handle it. Sitting in the bed of the truck with twelve other college kids is now officially checked off my bucket list. Anyway, the kids there were so cool. They put on a show for us, and we ate lunch with them. The majority of the group left the school around noon, but I stayed until almost 2. At that point, we were able to hang out with them and the experience was a little more personal. We taught them the cupid shuffle and a few games. And despite the language barrier, they taught us some games, too. That night was the eventful night - there was a frog in my room. It was scary. I dealt with it like an adult, and made one of the resort employees get rid of it for me. No way am I touching that thing. Yesterday was spent almost entirely on a bus. It took ten hours to get back to the ship, which was entirely too long, but I got a lot of time to process all that I saw.


Here's a picture of a group of SASers at the school we visited! 

Honestly, I'm still processing it all, and probably will continue to until I get back to the US. That's kind of due to the design of SAS. In four days, I'll be exploring the streets of India, so I have to move on pretty fast to be ready for an entirely new culture. So the rest of this post is a weird combination of all of my thoughts and insights from the country.

In a sense, I was wonderfully surprised with what I saw. It was mentioned to me that this was the land of smiles. And that's definitely true. The Burmese were extremely happy, which surprised me, especially after fifty years of intense military control. Although people were initially apprehensive to the hoard of students walking up and down the dirt roads of the village we were visiting, we soon learned that once we smiled, we were immediately welcome. It was almost as if the smile broke the barrier that's often apparent between locals and travelers. There was a very positive attitude towards Americans and the US. One of the students on my trip said that we was talking to a local man who could only dream of visiting the US, but could never afford it. However, some of the school kids were afraid of talking to us because of the negative stereotype they had of white people from the British colonization. I don't think they had a bad experience, I think it was a warning handed down from older generations. But I could be wrong. Those are just my thoughts.

Myanmar is also a very safe country, which surprised me. Coming from Vietnam, where petty crime was pretty common, I was excited to hear that it rarely happened. Apparently, crime is not common because it's heavily punishable. Pickpockets could spent years in prison. In all of the areas that I visited, I felt extremely safe. Fun fact: It is illegal for women to drink in public.

Along with the instances that I didn't expect, there was a lot that didn't surprise me. It was a place where a lot of the basic comforts of safety (of the US) were neglected. On a SAS sponsored trip, we stuffed twelve students in the back of a pickup to take us to the school we were visiting. That would never happen in the US, but unreliable transportation is pretty common in poorer countries in Asia. Also, there were a lot of food that I couldn't eat, for a couple of reasons. First of all, any drinking water had to be bottled, and we had to be really careful of what we ate. Any salads, ice cream, drinks with ice cubes, and fruit that we didn't peel ourselves were a no go. Second, many of the dishes were way too spicy for me to consume. I'm sure my parents would have loved them, but my mouth was on fire.

I learned that a lot of the resources of the country were only in the hands of the military, which led the government. Very few of the people had any wealth. None of the farmers owned the land, only the government. And the resort that my group stayed in was owned by the son of the head of the military.

Overall, it was an incredible experience. The country is changing a lot, and in some small way, I got to experience it. It was such a paradox of ancient customs in a modern setting. As we were nearing our arrival to Myanmar, the shipboard community discussed the ethics of the country. On a voyage in 2006, a lot of the students boycotted SAS's decision to visit Myanmar, and refused to leave the ship. I think a lot has changed in the last decade, but there were some times that I considered the ethics of my actions – for example, riding the elephants. It turns out, the elephants were very much well cared for and healthy, which made me feel better about my experience. But as I go into the rest of the ports on my voyage, and travel later in life, I'll definitely consider the ethical perspective of traveling in a country.