Myanmar - Yangon

Yesterday I picked up my Visa from the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok and this morning I flew into Yangon.Here we found out and are still registering the fact that Yangon is no longer the capital city of Burma and hasn't been for the last two years. The new capital, where we as foreigners are not allowed to go is a small place (not even a city), still under construction in central Myanmar and the population there consits only of the military working there. This was our introduction to Myanmar. The Inn we are staying at had an airport pick up for us and on the way to the hotel, already we felt the warm and friendly nature of the locals. Unlike other hotel pick ups, these guys talked aand laughed with us, pointed out all the famous sights along the way and were just so friendly. The MotherLand Inn 2 that we are staying at is a clean and welcoming place and here too the staff have smiles on their faces and always ready to answer the millions of questions we have. Breakfast is included, so after eggs and bread, cake and coffee (we once again have good coffee here, not as delicious as lao coffee but a much bigger improvement on the Thai coffee) orange juice and bananas we decided to go explore. We had been up since half past three this morning to catch the bus to the airport and then check in but just being here in Myanmar gave us the incentive to keep going. So we took a taxi to the downtown market and from there we just walked around the downtown are and saw some of the big buildings and pagodas around. But all day we have seen no other tourists. We have been the only two girls walking around and we still have to pinch ourselves to remind us that this is real. I don't even know how I can describe this place in the little time I have. Yangon is completely and absolutely untouched by tourism. There is no tourist infrastructure at all and after coming from Khosan road in Thailand this is just the best feeling being here. There are no restaurants or bars, no tourist areas dedicated to the needs of backpackers and package tourists. There is nothing here except for normal everday life as it has been for probably as long as the people here can remember. Men walking around in their longhys, everyone chewing beetle nut (pan), every pavement available covered on both sides with street vendors selling a huge variety of food andevery other thing imaginable from an old nintendo to Jane Austen books. But the best thing so far has to be the people. Everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone has smiles from us and warm hellos. We stand in a street corner looking at the map in the lonely planet and within seconds someone will stop and politely ask us if they can be of any help at all. We take photos of the food vendors and the children and no one wants any money in return for it. Someone stops to give us directions and we immediately assume it's a taxi driver looking for some double fare customers but it doesn't happen. We get our directions are wished a warm welcome and a good stay and then he continues walking. The rest of south east asia has made us so suspicious that people just being nice here and wanting nothing in return is a constant surprise to us but a very pleasant one. There are people who are vary of our cameras and then we just put them away but for the most part we have just been walking around taking a hundred photos. But this is not a rich country at all. It feels like an ancient city and at the same time a very poor city. The buildings are extremely old and not looked after at all. The big side streets are just dirt roads. There are shanty houses and people living in extremely poor conditions and yet out in the middle of all this, once in a while will appear a beautiful and big five star hotel. The contradictions of everyday life intertwined with richly decorated gold pagodas and big hotel is just amazing to see. After walking around downtown for a couple of hours we went back to the hotel for a much needed nap and now in the evening we decided to walk along the Yangon river thinking that we could sit in a cafe and watch the sunset and maybe have a proper dinner in one of the restaurants. We had imagined it to be like Cambodia and Laos with lots of little outdoor bars and cafes along the river but we were pleasantly surprised when we got to the river front and there were no bars and no cafes and no one but locals. There were men who had tied their longhys up into shorts and were playing football along the tarmaced river bank area as the monks sat and watched the game and families who had just come for an evening walk, fathers and mothers playing with their little babies, children flying kites, vendors selling steamed peanuts and other snacks. It was just great. There is no sing of tourism here at all. As we walk along the river bank, the locals smile and greet us. In a place like this I would normally feel threatened and wouldn't even dare to pull my camera out but here we feel completely safe. We get stared at a lot but we also get the smiles and the hellos and everyone is ready and willing to explain to us everythinhg that is new to us. They are warm and friendly and generous and for once we are not seen as walking money machines. It's a great feeling being here among the most friendliest people I have met so far in my travels. And then we went looking for a good dinner. But this place is so untouristic that there are not even any restaurants for us to go and eat it. The ones that are recommended in the lonely planet are just a few rare little places spread out in the side streets but they are all empty. There are no tourists here:) except us! We went to two of them and they didn't even look like restaurants but someones garage with a few tables and a cooker. So we ended up sitting on really low stools at one of the street corners on the pavement eating nan freshly baked in a clay oven and beans with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. And now we have found probably the only place in Yangon which has hotmail aavailable. Hotmail has been blocked by the government. This is just one of the most amazing places I have been too and I have to keep reminding myself that I am actually here.