An Ohioan In Asia

Me and Myanmar

June 23rd, 2006

We left the Mekong River Lodge Tuesday, June, 20, 2006, for a day trip to Myanmar, formerly known as “Burma.” We traveled through the beautiful Thai countryside driving on the “wrong side” of a well-maintained, modern highway. We passed several small villages. Many homes displayed the Thai flag. Others displayed yellow flags in honor of the king, who is celebrating his 60th year on the throne.

(Thailand is a democracy and also a constitutional monarchy. King Rama the 9th is quite popular and wields considerable influence. It is against Thai law to criticize the royal family.)

I had read about the king’s jubilee, but I was not prepared for this overt show of national pride. By comparison, aside from a single flag at the Jinghong riverport, I didn’t see the Chinese flag displayed anywhere during my short stay in China. And I didn’t see a single photo of China’s national leader. (I did see two posters of Chairman Mao.) This year in Thailand, you find posters of the King everywhere you go.

Thailand is the only country in SE Asia, which has never been colonized. It is also the most democratic, most prosperous, and — arguably — the most religious nation in SE Asia. All of this has given the Thais a strong sense of their own identity.

We stopped in Mae Sai, on the border, to convert our American currency into Thai “bhat,” which can be used in Thailand, and parts of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Mae Sai was once known for drug trafficking, prostitution and illegal border crossings. It is much quieter now. Charming, modern and prosperous. For the first time on this trip, I’ve seen other tourists from the West.

We walked across the border and into another, noticeably poorer world.

Myanmar is ruled by a military dictatorship and the people are quite needy. We boarded a fleet of motorized pedicabs — tuk tuks — and a group of young men drove us through the city’s open-air food market.

(Motorists in Myanmar drive on the right side of the road. They used to drive on the left side of the road. However, the nation’s military leaders decided recently that everyone should drive on the right side of the road, so everyone switched. This is challenging for motorists since most of the cars were built as “right side” cars — with steering wheels on the left side of the car.)

Our ebullient Thai guide, Kantapong Thepsurin, showed us a world of exotic foods. (Thepsurin is constantly telling jokes, which we enjoy and he enjoys even more.) Everything is sold fresh here. There’s no refrigeration. No one in my group purchased anything, but the vendors were still quite friendly.

We walked out of the market and into a nearby temple. I spotted several young boys, novice monks, at the back of the temple and took their pictures. Like children everywhere, they loved this. (Many people in Thailand send their boys to schools run by monks. The boys become “novice” monks, shave their heads, and wear bright orange robes. Novices must decide, typically around age 20, whether to continue as “pra” monks. Most of the boys do not continue. Pra monks pray, meditate, run schools and some social service organizations and perform religious ceremonies. Monks may leave religious life whenever they choose.)

We walked out of the temple and found our tuk tuks waiting. We boarded the pedicabs and roared through the city to a gold pagoda, high on a hill overlooking the city. The pagoda is a replica of the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. The Shwedagon pagoda is 322 feet high and plated with 60 tons of golds; its tip set with thousands of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and other gems, including a 76-carat diamong at the top. The government built the replica, painted in gold leaf, so that people could experience the shrine without needing to travel to the capital.

We boarded our pedicabs for the last time and drove to the city’s shopping district, where you can find pretty much anything you might need. I was approached repeatedly by men selling Viagra. (I wasn’t entirely surprised. In Jinghong, China, the hotel maid left my roommate and I a condom after our first night at the hotel.)

Street vendors in SE Asia are less aggressive than the ones I encountered in Senegal. And they are less flexible on price. In Africa, the vendors always quoted me a price four or five times greater than what they would actually accept. In Myanmar and Thailand they quote a price and you can expect to pay 50 – 80 percent of what they quoted.

The prices are quite reasonable. Thai currency runs 38 bhat to the dollar. For years, it was pegged at 25 bhat to the dollar, but it lost much of its value during the currency crisis of the late 1990s. It fell to about 58 bhat to the dollar and has since climbed back to its present value In any event, Myanmar and Thailand are inexpensive places to shop.

We crossed the border and back into Thailand during a heavy rain. The wet season is upon us.

Entry Filed under: Freeman Fellowship