Burma or Myanmar
The Battle to Call it Myanmar Seems to have Been Lost
Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy says that tourists should stay away from Burma/|Myanmar. What is there to attract visitors.
The Generals who run Burma/Myanmar have made mighty efforts to get people to call it by their preferential name, Myanmarr, but to no avail. Few people realize where Myanmar is, or even what it is, so Burma it remains. Besides, the publcity garnered by the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi lseems to lead to a resistence to going along with the military junta's efforts.
It is a country that presents the traveller with a dilemma. To go to a place with such a questionable human rights record isa decision each person must make for themselves. There are those who insist that visiting Burma legitimizes the military junta of that country and others who are equally insistent that we should travel there in order that the ordinary Burmese people do not feel abandoned.
Having decided to travel to Burma, the visitor will see a country and culture largely untouched by mass tourism, unlike say neighbouring Thailand and Laos. Most of the visitors to the cities and towns are independent travellers plus a few package tourists on day trrips from the expensive cruise ships that ply the Irrawaddy River.
The result is that every village, every town, feels unique. Burma is still untained with commercialism and nothing has been sanitised. Of course, this means that discomforts are many, but that is the price you pay for being one of the first to visit a country. The difference is apparent in the lack of advertising, and the lack of ‘brands’ - everything is local.
The military keep a low presence nowadays, unlike a few years ago when their on street behaviour was intrusive and guaranteed to scare tourists away. The result has been that the locals can now go about their business without looking over their shoulders and without being afraid to talk to tourists. While they are not exactly over the moon and celebrating with abandon, you will see people leading everyday lives. Outside the cities, of course, the picture may differ, but tourists are not, so far, encouraged to travel beyond strictly enforced limits.
Once in the country, what is there to see. Well, temples mainly. It is a country with a surfeit of temples. Getting around is not easy but can be done by plane, train, bus or river boat. Trains and bus services run overnight, but if you have time, the most interesting trip is to be made via the river from Bagan to Mandalay (or vice-versa) on either a slow or a fast boat.
Rangoon
After Rangoon should come Bagan, home to the most famous temples, 2000 in all, and looking fabulous at sunset. Most of the monuments are placed alongside the roads running between Old Bagan and Nyaung Ou, including what is possibly the greatest temple of all, the Shwesandaw Pagoda, built by King Anawrahta.
Mandalay
Mandalay, (most will remember the song "On the Road to M|andalay" is only 150 years old and was Burma’s last royal capital. The Royal Palace and other buildings were destroyed during World War II except for the intricicately carved gilded teak wood building called the Shwe Nandaw Kyaung which had not been inside the palace walls Rangoon (Yangon), was the commercial capital and primary port of occupied Burma under the British. It gained fame after the construction of the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most important religious shrine in Burma on the highest ground in the area. Near the waterfront is the famous old Strand Hotel built in 1901, part of a string of hotels founded by the Sarkes brothers to serve the colonial arrivals. The other hotels in the chain are the E. & O. in Penang, Malaysia and Raffles in Singapore.
