Last December, I had a chance to visit Myanmar for the first time in my life, and it was an unforgettable experience. I planned to stayed in Myanmar for five days, and I visited four cities: Mandalay, Bagan, Inle, and Yangon.
When I arrived at Mandalay International Airport, I was greeted with a Myanmar tour guide; he was wearing a traditional longyi like everyone in the airport. Throughout the first three days, I visited multiple temples and national parks. I did not get a chance to really see the local life in the country. On my third day, our group traveled from Mandalay to Bagan, and I got a chance to see the local villages for the first time. While we were driving through the rocky highway, our tour guide stopped the van and bring two women on to the van. He told us that they are school teachers and that their school are around one hour away from their houses. Normally, these school teachers would need to walk to their school, but on a fortunate day some drivers would pick them up. After hearing the story, I offered the seat next to me to the school teacher, the I saw the flipflop she was wearing. It's an old flip flop, which was covered with dust and sand. I realized that what I saw during our first three days was just the appearance that the government wants tourists to see, but these school teachers are the reality. After sending the teachers off at their school, we continued on our journey to Bagan. When we got closer to the city, there is a group of people standing in front of the street, and they are holding the red flag, then our tour guide stop the engine and paid some red bills to the local people. At first I didn't know what was going on, so I asked my tour guide. He told he that in Myanmar you need to pay money to pass a local road. he also said that if we don't pay, then there would be a fight. At Bagan, there are many local checkpoints that we need to pay money to go through; our tour guide said that even the Myanmar people need to pay to get into some temples. On the next day, I traveled to Inle by the country local airline called Air KBZ, which has the same owner with one of Myanmar biggest bank. When I arrived at Inle, I met with my dad colleague from college. He worked as an accountant for one of the muslim tribe that lived there. He took us to the mountain where he lived. The village is very peaceful and beautiful. I asked him if there had been conflict going on or not, and he told me that "normally there's not a lot of conflict, and people just live their normal life if the government doesn't send people here." On my last day, I flew into Yangon, which used to be Myanmar capital city. I was greeted with a totally different custom and dynamics. The city is full of vibrant light and skyscraper. Even though there are many tall buildings, but if you look closer you can see that the buildings are really old. The buildings had not be renovated, and this might be bacause the city is not the capital anymore. (the government and military only stay in the capital)
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AuthorI AM PRIM AND I AM CURRENTLY A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL WHO'S INTERESTED IN HUMANITARIAN ISSUE Archives
April 2018
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