Three of my initial, eternal impressions can be found below:
1). The Longyi. Burma was often referred to as ‘where east meets west’ and if you had to symbolise such a statement, you could do so by looking at a Myanmar man’s formal attire. When dressing up, men wear a traditional Chinese button-up shirt with an Indian-style wrap-around skirt and sandals. Informally, the men tend to match their longyi with a vest or t-shirt. After less than 24 hours in the country, I decided to go native and bought a checkered longyi, which is, I reckon, the closest thing I've seen to a kilt outside of Scotland. Tying it is an art in itself, but with the long, light material draping down to the ankles, it proved a neat way to keep the massive mosquitoes away from my evidently delicious ankles. |
2). Traffic. Worse than Delhi, Dubai and Downtown Manhattan. Yangon (formerly Rangoon) has a population of more than five million and yet from what I could see on the way to the bus station, the majority of the streets are two-lane highways at best. It took close to two hours to travel 16km courtesy of cars, buses, people and animals all sharing the same roads. And this was neither unusual nor a holiday weekend. To me, the problem Myanmar has is that motorbikes -- the common denominator and easer of traffic all across Southeast Asia -- were banned in 2003. Nobody seems to definitively know why, but depending on which rumour you believe, a person on a motorbike either tried to kill the president or distribute pro-democracy flyers. |
3). Consumerism. While Myanmar was largely closed to foreign investment until recently, the first sign that greeted me on arrival at Yangon International Airport was a sign for Coca-Cola. Behind it, a sign for Mastercard. Life is changing rapidly for the Myanmar people. (Note: Citizens of Myanmar are called simply ‘Myanmar’. And, likewise, they speak ‘Myanmar’. There is no such word as ‘Myanmarese’.) I would later meet a 30-something local who explained that, until 2010, he did not own a telephone. And even then, his sim card cost in excess of $50. To put that in context, my sim card at the airport was provided by Qatar’s Ooredoo, came with 20 minutes free talk-time, 1GB data and cost $6 (or 8000 Myanmar Kyat). Welcome to Myanmar. Welcome Myanmar to Globalisation. ISWAS. |
...Post-Script
Yes, the roads are busy and the city could benefit from a few extra lanes, but ironically sorting out the pavements would likely have a more positive effect on traffic flow. As it stands, it is arguably safer — not to mention easier — to walk on the road than it is to walk along the pavement. Sure, such actions add to the traffic, but it also saves the local hospital from what would otherwise undoubtedly be a conveyor belt of broken ankles, legs, wrists and arms.
Do you remember the 1980s video game Paperboy? The sidewalk is like a real-life version, complete with open sewers, mangy dogs and wet cement just waiting to catch you out. Yesterday, I had to duck and jump simultaneously in order to avoid a low-hanging electrical cable and a deep, dark pothole.
My friend Lynette has lived in Yangon for six weeks and works for an internet-based start-up called work.com.mm, which is aiming to make it easier for Myanmar's youths to find jobs. When I first arrived she spoke about how much of the Myanmar population don’t understand the internet; they think Facebook is the internet. “Ask them to search for something and they search on Facebook,” she said.
I was dismissive of such a claim until, having bought a painting from a local gallery, the curator asked for my email address. I provided a Yahoo account to which she then asked whether it would work with gmail. I said it would and so, to clarify, she repeated my email address but switched the @yahoo.co.uk for @gmail.com, inventing for me an entirely new address.
There are several examples of such misunderstandings; of a population that is running before properly grasping how to walk; a society that has fast-forwarded two decades in the space of two years. As recently as 2010, foreigners had to physically leave the country in order to withdraw money because there were no ATMs and not too many years earlier it was prohibited to even publish the word 'internet'.
Nowadays, the internet and money are here, construction work is omnipresent and local establishments are trying to meet western expectations -- sometimes too much so. The other day I went to a dirty old tea house that had brand new urinal cakes in the gents. Not only that, but the cleaner had put a urinal cake in the sink too. ISWAS.