Myanmar's Other Side

Myanmar was a country with many contradictions and just plain weirdness. There was a person who had law degree from London selling street food, a cab driver with an MBA trying to earn more than the $10US rent for the cab, and people watching the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) on the street. Everyday you would see hundreds of people eating on little plastic kids tables and chairs on the sidewalks watching TV blasting the sound till midnight and then the streets would be dead silent and empty.

Due to the strict laws and severe punishment in Myanmar walking the streets in the middle of the night was very safe. I also heard a bunch of stories about foreigners losing their purse, iphone, and what not in cabs or other places to have everything returned to them. Of course this was mostly due to the fact that the people were mostly scared in getting caught as many foreigners do get watched by the military government.

Nonetheless, one of the most bizarre and funny thing was a place called Power Light. Imagine a dinner show with a huge stage. Now add in a Miss America pageant, without the judges, and you have Power Light. Alright, let me add some foundation info. (my personal theory). Due to the religious culture there were no public displays of affection between opposite sexes. So from this heavy suppression of kissing or even simple handholding men would normally find other outlets such as strip clubs. However, the military government does not allow strip clubs so the culture developed in a way where Power Light became their version of a naughty club. One of my Guesthouse mates told me about Power Light and decided to take me and another traveler to check it out on evening.

Let me take you through our night out at Power Light. Once we arrived we ordered some food and drinks before the show began. On stage there were three girls dressed in workout gear dancing to a routine you’d see in any US high school dance team. Then all the girls came out one at a time in provocative dress, normal for the rest of the world, and each took turns singing. Meanwhile all the men were gawking at the women drinking, eating, and buying the girls presents.



To show the women affection the men could buy “gifts” which included big fluffy colorful boas, hats, bouquets of flowers, etc. The girls and the club would get a percentage of the money spent, and this is how the girls would make money. On a good night a girl could make upwards of $300US a night. For a country where the average monthly salary is about $50/month is was big money.

The rest of the show consisted of each girl coming out alone to sing, more dancing, and other combinations of the same thing. Of course throughout the entire show the girl’s faces were solid stone, like the emotionless models you see walking down a catwalk. However at one point the DJ, a man, came on stage with his guitar to sing and people bought HIM gifts too! It was hilarious, but he was a good singer I have to admit. And if I had some extra money, I would have bought him a hat.

To us, the rest of the world, this Power Light would be viewed as almost wholesome. For the people of Myanmar it was a seedy underbelly of their culture that the majority of the population didn’t know about.

Yangon Slideshow!

Yangon

Coming to Yangon you quickly recognize a country that has both Indian and Chinese cultures merged into one. It was really weird and cool at the same time.

One of the first things I discovered was that the entire country of Myanmar had no ATM’s! This was a big problem because I only had some cash and my bankcards. Fortunately, I found one hotel, the Sedona, which would give cash advances on credit cards. My bankcard was also a credit card so I was able to get money through my account on top of the Sedona’s 7.6% fee, ouch.

I also learned that there were three exchange rates. If you changed money at the airport you would receive about 450 kyat per $1US. The official exchange rate was roughly 5 kyat per $1US. Or you could exchange your money on the street for about 1100 kyat per $1US, you do the math. Every other person on the street would ask if you want to exchange money or you could go the safer route and ask your guesthouse.
Another downer that I expected was the internet to be horribly slow and censored. True enough, exactly how I predicted. Obviously, I was able to bypass the security with my geniusness (is that even a word?), but I just couldn’t make the internet go any faster. Surprisingly, I was able to catch some random wifi at my guesthouse, whenever the city’s electricity was operating.

Similar to India, Myanmar had scheduled power outages, and unscheduled blackouts. In Yangon the scheduled electricity time was usually from 5pm – 6am, but these times changed throughout the year.

Soon I started to meet more local expats and even caught up with Curt and Cathy. One of my first social gatherings was at the British Club during a fundraiser for Cyclone Nargis. It was a British Quiz with a dozen sections that lasted four hours. They really took their quizzes seriously. I met another nice couple, Anne and Michael, who were from Finland and Michael worked for an NGO. At the end of the night they invited me to a BBQ the next day and mentioned they had a pool. Now it had been insanely humid/hot since I landed and I was missing BBQ’s big time, so I were so ecstatic when they invited me. Anne and Michael had a beautiful place and it was so nice to be at a family function goofing off with kids.

Where to Go Next?

During one of my braver nights out I met an American couple, Curt and Cathy, who were living in Myanmar. Apparently, Myanmar had a ten day water festival that was even more out of control than Thailand. They had flown to Bangkok’s Songkran because it was more subdued and needed a break. I was astonished to this bit of news. They also told me that the people in Myanmar were incredibly nice and English teachers were paid the most among Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

I was at the end of my funds and needed to find a job or go back home, so I then decided to take a chance on Myanmar.

Naturally, there was the dilemma of going to a country run by an oppressive military government. Nonetheless, I was resolute to stay away from anything government owned and support only individual businesses. Being a poor backpacker this was my normal traveling method anyway. I could hardly afford or wanted to buy one of the expensive tour packages, which the government would get a fat commission. Thus I bought my ticket and took off to Yangon.

Big Night Out

Luckily, Sina and Matthias arrived to Bangkok right after and soon I had a mini gang soaking all the dry people we could find. At the end of one night we found a local club with a live band playing Ska music. Sina soon because tired and went home leaving Matthias and I to dance with the other people on the bench seats near the front. I was having a great time meeting people and listening to the music when I turned and saw Matthias being held by a couple of people. I quickly saw blood on the bottom of his foot and took a closer look. Then I saw what I was afraid of, a huge gash that would require stitches. Matthias foot was completely covered in blood and everyone started to give me paper napkins to help stop the bleeding. With the help of three other guys, I carried Matthias out of the club to the street and caught a tuk tuk to the hospital.

When I got to the operating room I had flashbacks of my time volunteering at Harborview Medical Center. When the doctor started to clean Matthias’s foot I noticed that there was another huge gash that I didn’t even noticed because of all the blood. Luckily Matthias was a bit drunk and in shock when they began the slow painful process of 15 stitches. For some reason they did every stitch separately, tying them up one by one. When it was all finished one of the nurses handed us Matthias’s flip flop and asked if I wanted to keep it. I had previously thought that Matthias stepped on broken glass barefoot somehow. We both looked at the flip flop and saw two huge pieces of glass from a broken beer bottle imbedded straight through it. We politely said no thank you and left.

I later found out that Matthias had to stay in Bangkok for the following ten days to make sure there was no infection and have his bandages changed daily. Sina was not a happy camper. Then when the stitches finally came off the wounds re-tore and Matthias had to stay in Bangkok another 10 days. This was really bad luck since they were planning on heading down to the southern Thai Islands, which was Sina’s dream. I was just glad I wasn’t there when Sina found out the news.

Songkran in Bangkok Slideshow!

Songkran

Returning to Bangkok was a lot more simple than getting to Siem Reap. The only downfall in a land crossing to Thailand was that you only get a 15 day visa as opposed to 30 days if you fly in. I also later found out that Thailand was giving free visas for 90 days or more till June, 2009 because of the lack of tourism. From the border I took the train the rest of the way. It was only ~$1US for a six hour trip. Or you could pay $8US for a minivan and get to Bangkok in four hours. I had lots of time and it was nicer to take the windowless train to see the countryside. When I arrived in Bangkok I learned that Songkran was starting the next day.

Songkran was Thailand’s three day New Year where the entire country had a huge water fight. It gets so crazy that people on mopeds, and sometimes cars, get into accidents as buckets of water are splashed on them from all directions. Khao San Rd. was packed with people holding a Supersoakers in one hand and a beer in the other. It was every kids dream except 99% of the crowd were adults.

Unfortunately there was no escape from the madness. My hotel was in the dead center of all the action in the tourist area and as soon as I stepped outside I was drenched without mercy. I then proceeded to stay in my air-conditioned room with wifi for the majority of the time. During the middle of the celebration there were violent protests in the downtown town area (~3km away). I was completely oblivious to the entire situation along with the rest of the tourists until an announcement was made on the streets loud speakers for everyone to disperse.

Sure it died down on Khao San Rd., for about four hours, and then everything picked up again like nothing happened. Meanwhile things were much different outside my tourist bubble, the protests continued till the next day and at one point there was car with hundreds of bullet holes at the end of my road. It was later reported that it was an assassination attempt on some Media Mogul with government ties. After all the commotion stopped the government extended Songkran to compensate for the disruption. It then became even more intense…