Colonial Glory or Wiped Out History?

April 10, 2011
Yangon, Myanmar

Aung San Market

We were greeted by a nice buffet breakfast (orange drink, toast and eggs) and made our way to the Aung San Market. Aung San is a national hero in Myanmar and is the father of the famed Aung San Suu Kyi (‘she who must not be named’ as we dubbed her to avoid any stares if we brought her up in conversation), who was kept in her home for many years due to her outspoken beliefs of the Burmese government. We did think about trying to make our way to the house, but considering the last foreigner who tried to swim across the lake was imprisoned, we decided against it (at least that's what I remember Brendan and Andy talking about.)  The market was pretty nice, set in an old colonial building with the standard wares for sale; however, we did come across a cool section with old relics, money and medals from colonial and pre-colonial times. We opted for a self-guided walking tour of Yangon which helped us uncover some of the history surrounding this city.

Independence Obelisk

Remnants of the past

In a country not necessarily known for its openness to other cultures, it was really interesting to see the city, especially by the river, littered with colonial British architecture. The capital was recently moved to a different city and what was surely once a bustling riverfront had sort of been left to ruin. Some of the immense and stately buildings were cracked or unpainted or had vines growing in and out of window lattices. Still it drummed up some pretty vivid images of how Yangon would have looked and operated in those times—you can only imagine how the colonial settlers lived in their lavish estates, so I guess it’s not a huge wonder why the government didn’t want to try their hardest to preserve that part of their history. We continued our walk past the Independence Obelisk, a large stone pillar in the middle of a park around which tons of palm readers were speaking of the future, and on to Mr. Brown’s Café. This restaurant had almost s 50s style diner feel to it and we were glad to find that our traditional Shan noodles and not-so-traditional smoothies were quite tasty. We continued our quest after lunch only to realize the heat and amount of walking had lead us to one conclusion: we needed a cold beverage and a cool spot to sit.

Colonial Architecture

Back at the hotel we quickly showered and packed up; sandwich in hand our taxi driver picked us up to take us back to the bus stop. You’re told to be careful about what you say in Myanmar and I guess, out of respect and not wanting to stir up any hard feelings, you tend to stick to neutral topics. However, it seemed that if you spent a little longer with anyone (i.e. the taxi driver) they really wanted to discuss the topics you were told to avoid; he spent most of the ride discussing his opinion on the government and supporting ‘she who must not be named.’ It’s strange, because after being in Yangon you don’t really feel like you’re in a place that has the government that Burma has, but when you get down to the nitty gritty it seems that they are just really really good at keeping things quiet. So, our taxi driver helped break a bit of the silence for us.

Burmese Juxtaposition: Pagoda, Mosque, Skyscraper

We arrived and Till, our new German friend, was waiting for us to hop on the bus. As I probably could have predicted the bus was not VIP as advertised and was seemingly made for the population of the Land of Oz. The seats were about as wide as my thigh, but I felt so lucky to have a seat as there were people sitting in the aisles too. I think my knees were almost in my mouth as I was having a fairly successful battle with the woman in front of me who kept trying to lean back (you know the battle when your knees are against the seat and someone tries to lean back so you push back a bit with your knees to prevent the recline.) Well, much to my dismay this tiny Matron of Munchkinland took it upon herself to literally WWE bodyslam herself into the chair causing what I thought was the end of my ability to walk. Were I in any other place beside one in which I was clearly being kept an eye on I probably would have said something, so I decided to just cut my losses. I managed to somehow wedge myself between the window, Andy and Frodo’s mom and slept for a bit. I soon found myself awake, dripping with sweat and largemouth bassing Andy’s shoulder; good thing a bathroom break was soon in order.

Our 'roomy' bus ride

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful until 4am rolled around and we found ourselves at another pseudo-bus stop in Mandalay. Here we met Stephanie and a Thai guy with whom we all shared a tuk tuk taxi to our hotel; picture six people crammed into a Hotwheels 2-door and that was us-with our luggage strapped on top of course  The Sabai Phyu Hotel didn’t have our reservation, but they were able to get us boys a 4 person room for the night. It was pretty funny when we walked in and there were 2 twin beds and one double all pushed together along the wall forming one super bed, but we decided rather than think about it to just play rock, paper, scissors for which 2 would share and crashed hard for about 3 hours.