Finding Burma…
Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenburg, rock stars, soccer players and Russian oligarchs—they have all been to Burma, even in the bad years when Aung San Suu Kyi was calling for a boycott by visitors to this afflicted country. I struggled with the ethics, but when I eventually went the year before Suu Kyi’s release, I was converted not by any heated political discussion on the whys and why nots—which still haven’t been resolved either in the tourist or pro-democracy community—but an intimate meeting with a Burmese woman in the country’s north. It happened by chance, when I wandered off from the monastery we were visiting. A dilapidated wooden building just outside the compound’s perimeter had caught my eye.
When I heard movement inside, I put my head up the stairs. A barefoot woman moving about the deserted room with its broken floor boards saw me and motioned as if I should come in. I entered carefully, for sun cut through the woodwork where the structure was unsafe. Entirely unconcerned by my trespassing, she then gestured towards a corner where incense curled up towards a gap in the roof. She led me to some kind of shrine, the only furniture in the room, dominated by a black and white photograph of a man wearing silk. We sat together for a while.
When my guide eventually found me, he and the woman talked. The man in her photograph was her husband, an aristocrat in pre-junta Burma, and a victim of the regime change. She didn’t say much more, only that of all the things she wished she still had, it was a photograph of her and her husband together. With that incident, I no longer saw Burma as just a political hot potato but a place everyone must visit. The key is to travel responsibly, to pay above and beyond the package tourist deals where money goes straight to the junta. Travellers to Burma should insist on being taken off the beaten track by specialist guides who can show, not tell, the country’s human story. Because you will hear more than you will ever read, and feel more than you will ever imagine from people who have lost and suffered but clearly want to connect with visitors rather than remain ignored with just their memory for comfort.
+ If you would like more information on visiting Burma, please call the destination experts on +44 (0) 20 7384 2332
- share online
- < Back
post a comment
sponsored by
posted May 16, 2011 at 10:46 am | permalink
More and more Opposition voices seem to be swinging behind tourism as something to be encouraged in Myanmar. The people on the ground really relish contact with the outside world even if it means that some of the revenue does end up in the wrong hands.
Zimbabwe used to have a flourishing tourist trade and in the last decade tour operators such as c+l have steered clients away from the country and for very good reason. however the loss of jobs/revenue and the onset of poaching has been dramatic. Depending on what happens in the upcoming elections, I wonder if a return of tourism or the prospect of its widespread return would not be a force for change or an incentive for new political leaders to lobby for the sort of changes which will lead to economic recovery and much-needed jobs? The National Parks are still as beautiful as ever and re-commissioning all of the existing infrastructure would be one of the quickest foreign exchange generating businesses to benefit the country.
posted May 26, 2011 at 1:20 pm | permalink
I went to Burma in the mid 80′s which were the bad years. I recall we had to dash from the airport to a Government office in town where one was given a pass to visit the main tourist regions for seven days and seven days only. It was also a case of only so many people per day got the weekly pass otherwise you had to wait in Rangoon until the office reopened. If you did not connect with your flight out, you were in all sorts of trouble. However, we had the most amazing and memorable time. The Burmese people were charming and welcoming. I remember going off the beaten track to a village up near Mandalay and an old lady eagerly inviting us into her house for a cup of tea. She was obsessed by our Royal family and her entire sitting room was a shrine to them, particulary Princess Diana. The walls and ceiling were plastered in photographs torn out of any magazine she could get off the tourists and was her pride and joy. She could not even begin to imagine what our lives were like back home and spent hours quizzing us, We had to be very discreed about our visit to her as these sort of encounters were not allowed. I agree with Sophie, it is a place everyone should visit but responsibly and get well of the beaten track.
Pingback: Luxury Holiday in Burma - New Boat Launch in Burma - 2013 Holiday Ideas | cazenove+loyd