People all over Myanmar chew betel nut. I didn't get the full scoop on this strange legal drug but from what I heard it is a stimulant similar to nicotine in small quantities, and similar to alcohol in large quantities. It is highly habit-forming and rather costly, and apparently much more popular than toothbrushes and toothpaste because sometimes I would flash my pearly whites to friendly-looking locals only to have the smile of a vampire from the show "True Blood" flashed back at me. It was sometimes terrifying but mostly just gross. It's like chewing tobacco, in that your mouth forms a lot of nasty-tasting spit which you have the promptly eject. Hence the little blops of red splatter all over the ground, all over the country.
Now I'll talk a little bit about safety. The most dangerous thing about Myanmar, in my humble opinion, are the sidewalks, which are pretty much nonexistent. Either they are blocked by motorbikes or goods or garbage, or they are just falling apart and to attempt to use them would be slightly more dangerous than walking in the street and competing with road traffic. Which is what pedestrians are forced to do, especially in Mandalay. A lot of people told me to "be careful" and stay safe... besides having one of the most corrupt governments in the world, who arrest citizens for the slightest utterance of dissent, where did Myanmar get the reputation of being so dangerous? Tourists are "warmly welcomed" and protected to the max. Here I am, so naîve to think that they don't steal because it's one of the five precepts of the Buddhist religion. They don't steal because stealing from a tourist can get you five years in prison! Very much unlike South America, where the police turn a blind eye to thieves in exchange for their cut of the profit. Ha!
Which brings me to my next point... the government. Why do they "warmly welcome" and protect tourists so well? I think you already know the answer...... ($$$$$$) If anything happened to us, the tourism industry would suffer and in turn, the government would lose money. They make good earnings letting us in, especially if we're following the tourist trail: the $5 entrance fee at Shwedagon Pagoda (the #1 tourist attraction in Yangon), the $5 entrance fee to the Inle Lake area, the $10 entrance fee to the Bagan Archaeological Zone, the $10 combo ticket for most of the attractions in and around the city of Mandalay (which I avoided by just choosing to miss out), the $10 departure tax at the airport, not the mention the $40 fee for a rush visa, and slightly less for a regular visa. Twelve percent of guest house earnings go to the government as well, which is fine when it's only 12% of $150 I spent on rooms for the entire trip, but what about the older travelers who stay in the flash hotels? And who knows who else in the tourist industry they are taking their cut from... Considering my entire two weeks traveling in Myanmar cost less than $500 (not including the plane ticket pass) a lot of my expenditures went directly to the government. This is certainly a reason to consider avoiding traveling in Myanmar until democracy is restored.
But would democracy be a good or a bad thing? I'm not well versed enough in politics to even be opening up this discussion, but I will share my thoughts nonetheless, which are basically on the fence. How do you suddenly give a very oppressed people full right to protest? Wouldn't the country just EXPLODE in protest and wouldn't violence ensue? And wouldn't the government be justified in cracking down on any violent or potentially violent protests? How do you successfully dismantle a military regime that has been in power this long? And what if the country opens up to the world, the sanctions are lifted, and multi-national corporations just swoop in and take over, exploiting the people and resources for the sake of profit and stomping all over a pretty well-preserved and traditional culture? One thing is for sure, tourism and the increase of Westerners interacting with the Burmese will have an influence on the cultural fabric of this country, but how much is too much? The ads on TV portray youth dressed like Los Angeles gangster rappers. To me, that's certainly more of an indication of the impending collapse of a civilization than the (potential) threat of McDonald's coming to Myanmar.
I got to talking about all of this with my Canadian friend Scott, who magically appeared at my guest house in Mandalay. This is how it happened. A Vancouver native living and working in Sydney posted a message on the Lonely Planet forums a while ago saying he was traveling alone through Myanmar for two weeks in December. If there were any other solo travelers wanting to connect they should message him. So I wrote to him and we found each other on Facebook and sent each other our tentative itineraries. I had already bought the plane pass (which he would later buy as well) so my dates were pretty much locked down. When he finally locked down his dates I noticed that he would be trailing a few days behind in every location. What a shame!! But somehow we got it wrong. I think I changed a date to stay in Mandalay a night longer and forgot to mention it. My last night in Mandalay I was venturing back to the chapatti stand, looking forward to a lonely sidewalk table-for-one, when he came down to reception (yes, we were staying at the same guesthouse too!) and asked one of the staff where was a good place to eat. Before I even introducing myself, I announced that he was to join me at the chapatti stand. I told him my name and he though, no, it couldn't be, and when I asked what part of Vancouver he lived in, he said, "actually I'm living in Sydney now." I said, Scott! You're my Facebook friend! This is our reunion! Well, actually our union!!" We both agreed that sounded a little weird but lucky for me, it WAS like meeting an old friend and we got on famously, as you would expect from two young North Americans finding each other in an exotic land.
Scott told me that locals had been talking about the government and the political situation with him. Why hadn't this happened to me yet? I lamented. Everyone I know who has been to Myanmar has had the experience of the little old Burmese lady (or monk) quietly discussing their first-hand experiences with the insanely-oppressive government. I had appeared approachable enough for the touts, but not for the locals to open up to me too? It would have been nice to have this experience first-hand, but I was happy not to have to worry about implicating anyone, as it's never the foreigner who gets punished for participating in these kinds of conversations. Scott and I had a lot in common... budding spiritual curiosity, the openness and perspective unique to North Americans who have seen a bit of the world... and every time I brought up these wide-ranging topics such as "would more Western exposure be good or bad for the Burmese", we always wrapped up the discussion with Scott very diplomatically stating, "well, it's much more complex than that," and me whole-heartedly agreeing with the sentiment.
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