	Burmese Days Inle Lake

Burmese Days

Despite the road from the Yangon International Airport to the capital revealing many of the trappings of any struggling developing country, newly paved roads lined by impressive houses with tennis courts, winding driveways, satellite dishes and shiny Japanese cars, Myanmar is a country that still does, and will doubtlessly long retain its beauty and old world charm.

Sealed off for most of the last forty years, the country until recently was best known as one of the largest suppliers of heroin and also as the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner who has been under house arrest since 1989. Now it is opening up again to tourists and individual travellers. It's once more possible to wander among the ancient pagodas at Pagan, to stay in the old British colonial hill towns where the local transportation means miniature stagecoaches pulled by blinkered ponies, and to meet some of the world’s most generous people who welcome foreigners into their homes and share their pickled tea leaves.

However, Burma's unique status as one of the few cities whose landmarks do not include the Golden Arches can't last much longer. The ruling military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), declared 1996 Visit Myanmar Year. The Slorc is betting on tourism to fill its coffers and bring the country into the twentieth century. Thus, the government expects 500,000 people to come to Burma next year and in preparation hotels are being put up, guides trained and new restaurants and shops open every day along the standard travel route that stretches from Yangon (formerly Rangoon) to Pagan (also Bagan) to Mandalay.

The golden spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda, a holy place built to protect eight of Buddha’s hairs, highlights Yangon’s skyline. A visit to the pagoda takes you through what is surely just the beginning of many inevitable traffic jams caused by the growing number of construction sites and intersections with four-minute stoplights. Indeed, in some parts of Burma the stoplights are merely signs painted with red, yellow and green circles to remind you to stop.

Two hours north of Rangoon by air lays one of the most spectacular sights in Asia: Pagan. More than 5,000 temples, many dating back to 1057 AD, the golden era of the Bagan kingdoms, are scattered across twenty-five square miles. It's easy to spend days bicycling around the temples and pagodas and climbing up their steep, narrow steps. Somerset Maugham supposedly enjoyed climbing Thatbinyu, the tallest Pagoda, at sunrise. The temples are dark inside, though often small children will lend you a torch and even give you a personal tour. The road to Mandalay is long. Especially considering the transport in this part of the world is unreliable and very uncomfortable. Air Mandalay, a Singaporean joint venture, is the only way to go.

Although hardly the romantic place one conjures up after reading Kipling, Mandalay is definitely worth a visit and a good jumping off point for the country's ancient cities: Amarapura, Ava and Sagaing. Also just a couple of hours away lies the old British hill station of Maymyo with its several dilapidated Tudor mansions, cottages and steeped churches straight out of the English countryside. The central market has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables as well as strawberries and other "colonial vegetables" as well as stores were women sell thanaka, a powdered bark that acts as a natural sun block. In March, brightly painted pails were popular as people prepared for the water festival when the custom is to douse anyone and everyone you see. The act is symbolic of washing away one's misdeeds in preparation for the Buddhist New Year.