Fitz's Asian Adventures: A Trip To Burma (Myanmar)

Burma has undergone civil war since 1948. There are a number of ethnic groups fighting the military government (primarily Burman). My daughter has been working with refugees from the Karen (pronounced like it was Karin, emphasis on last syllable). So I was a little hesitant to take a day trip over the Thai border to Myawaddy. I should not have been.

We had an excellent guide recommended to us and he smoothed the way in and out thru immigration. The Burmese border police looked grim but the immigration officer was ebullient and we got along well enough. We paid a small fee to get in that likely was half fee, half bribe.

We were ferried most places by a bicyclist with a bench on front. A sort of reverse trike. It was blazing hot and the humidity was oppressive. But we really saw the sites from an insiders point of view. Dirt streets, raw sewage in ditches, nasty pools of green water where people were actually swimming.

We toured a market - a maze of windy dark passages with shops and shop keepers everywhere. All heads and eyes were on us as they almost never see westerners where we were. We kept hearing the word Englit, which was how they referred to us (they like the British from when they were garrisoned there during WWII so all whites are Englit to them.

We met several monks including the Abbot of one monastery who knew several English slang phrases.

Our guide was a really nice man from Bangladesh, and spoke several languages. He boasted that his daughter off at school spoke six! He was clearly a devout Buddhist and spoke at length of his theology. I developed a genuine affection for him.

With all the poverty and oppression, we rarely saw a face that did not have a smile on it. Happiness I keep learning is not based on what you have.

Some pictures below.