Myanmar-Day 1: Yangon

Drew had mentioned for years that he wanted to go to Myanmar. It opened its borders more to tourism in the past few years, as government control is slowly shifting from the military to elected leaders. The country was a British colony, lumped in with India from the mid 1800s. In 1948, Myanmar gained independence, only to jump straight into military rule from 1962-2010. So, while the British developed lots of industry within the country while it ruled it as a colony, including the teak and oil industries, nothing was developed at all during the military rule. So, they are pretty far behind other third world countries as far as industry is concerned and are mostly agrarian in nature. So, we decided to take a trip ourselves while the country is still young in the tourism industry. Right now about 1 million people a year visit Myanmar, compared with 27 million that visit Thailand each year. Our hope was that this would lead to a more authentic experience. We had a fair share of warnings from family and friends, discouraging us to go due to safety and the political instability. But, we had a handful of wonderful stories from other friends who had actually visited Myanmar, so we decided to focus on the positive instead. In the end it was a wonderful trip, surpassing expectations or completely altering them in numerous ways.

We began the trip in Yangon, the old capital of Myanmar, previously called Rangoon during British rule. After a late night flight, we slept in then spent our first morning touring the National Museum. While the building was dark and dank, they had a surprising number of cool treasures from before British rule, included royal thrones, jewelry, swords etc. No cameras were allowed inside, so unfortunately no pictures. Funny though, anything that was of value was literally put in a glass box within a cage of prison bars. I guess they got used to making prison bars, so they found other places to use them. 0.o More encouragingly, however, about an hour into our meanderings, a group of probably 1,000 school teachers in training joined our visit. It was fun to watch these 20-30 somethings walk around the museum. It was almost as interesting as the museum itself. The teachers never mixed genders, and the females would walk arm in arm like young school girls. Whenever Drew or I smiled at any of them, they'd giggle and shy away. But if you said hello, they'd always say hi back, and this was true throughout our entire trip.

After the museum, we took a free walking tour around downtown Yangon that Drew found on Wiki travel. It was awesome, and I'd recommend it to everyone! Along the tour we stopped and looked at all of the colonial architecture, noticing important historical buildings that are now falling down or being barely used. This was really cool, as it is quite possible these buildings will be demolished as Yangon reinvents itself. The first building is Town Hall, the source of tons and tons of protests and uprisings throughout their history.

Check out what they use as a barricade. Straight up barred wire on a metal frame. Serious stuff. 

This is the old Rowe and Co. Department Store that was the biggest, most premier department store in Southeast Asia during colonial times. Now it's used as a bank, but well restored. 

On the tour, we stopped at a cafe showing an exhibit of artwork made from old Myanmar money. Seeing art like this within the city is very encouraging, as art and expression is always outlawed in militaristic societies. The lady in the pictures is Aung San Suu Kyi, the face and voice of the democratic party in Myanmar. She was recently released from house arrest, which she has been under on and off for the past 20 years! Her story is an amazing one. Obama came and visited her in 2012, and the Myanmar people seemed quite proud of that. We probably had this same conversation about 50 times. "Where you from?" "USA." "Ahhh!! Obama!!" "Yes, Obama." 

Telegraph office! This was where you could buy a $3000 Sim Card when they were first available in Yangon about 5 years ago. Now you can get them for a few dollars. Amazing how much supply and demand can change things in a few years.

The courthouse.

This was the old customs tax building where you paid taxes on the goods you brought in or out of the city. Now it is used as a building to give jail sentences to civilians. Why this doesn't happen at the courthouse I don't know. Every weekday morning a Police van pulls up full of people to sentence. I don't think it's much of a trial. There is a great documentary called Burma VJ that discusses how people, often times civilian reporters, were automatically jailed if they were caught recording any demonstrations or protests. Not only did the military not want the material getting outside of Myanmar, but they didn't want evidence of their actions being recorded for other Myanmar citizens to see and then question.

Within that same building was a gorgeous French colonial staircase. 

As well as a rat, scurrying into its hidey hole. Drew just snapped a pic of him! It was huge! Far right side of the photo. 

Customs house. 

A litter of new born pups outside the customs house. There were Trig look alikes everywhere in Myanmar! 

Bank. 

Great avenue in downtown Yangon lined on either side by great colonial buildings. Doubtful that this street will look the same in 5 years. 

This is the inside of the Strand Hotel, a luxury hotel built by the three Sarkies brothers from Armenia. These brothers also built the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang, which we walked through when we visited, as well as the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where we had $25 Singapore slings. Pretty cool we got to see all 3 of these famous hotels by the Sarkies brothers!

Now, I don't want to give you the wrong impression that Yangon is a gorgeous colonial city. About 4 square blocks in the heart of downtown have those buildings. The rest of the streets are filled with 4 to 5 story apartment complexes like the one below. 

                    

Kids playing soccer in the street.