Burma or Myanmar has had a rough history where the military was in control and
kept the country isolated from the rest of the world when I arrived to Singapore
over six years ago the country had just opened up and so I decided to visit at
the time there were no Western bars and almost no tourists one thing about the
military being in control and having the country be closed off is that it didn't
have a massive Western influence and you were still able to see very authentic
and unique culture which to me as a tourist was amazing
just to explain how isolated the country was to take a domestic flight
there were only four planes in like the entire country
there was no schedule on mind basically no way to book in advance you would just
show up to the airport where the four planes would have listed on whiteboards
their route for the day and they would literally just go from city to city the
city and eventually arrive back where they started later that evening
unknowingly visit Burma for the first time during
the water festival this is a festival where locals dump and throw water on
others to celebrate try to be the only foreigner in the country where locals
are throwing water at everybody every single little kid in the entire country
tried to get me soaking wet with water they would run as hard as they possibly
could to come chase after me the only good thing is by the time they would
usually get to me they would have lost all the water in their bucket because
they ran so hard trying to get to me
it is important to know that at the water festival there are certain people
that can't get water thrown on them pregnant women
monks nuns elderly sick people or anyone going to the monasteries to observe the
Sabbath but I definitely didn't qualify for any of those categories I of course
had to get my face painted yellow it's very common in Miramar it is called
demikhov and many locals do it it has a cooling effect on the face and prevent
sunburns at the Baha Mooney PRG monks at 4:00 a.m.
wash and brush the teeth in the face of the Buddha image and I really wanted to
see it well 4 a.m. is really early and I was running a little late on my scooter
but I saw a monk that needed a ride on the side of the road so I figured if I
give him a ride I would at least get to see one monk who would wash and brush
the teeth of the Buddha image even if I was late I visited Burma 6 years later
and a lot of things had changed they had completely redone the airport there were
no major airlines and a normal check-in counter the country had Western bars and
I attended with my friends the Santha party and many locals had learned the
selfie trick
they had large outdoor concerts their new capital needy dough had many nice
beautiful roads including a 20 lane highway with like no cars there are
still many aspects that Myanmar or Burma can improve iced up for young children
that had to work to support their family instead of being allowed to study in
school which broke my heart to see the children can't study and eventually make
their lives better through education Myanmar is starting to
change and develop as the country opens up while this is great for the country
and good as a tourist it kind of makes me sad because the unique and amazing
culture may slowly be going away so make sure to visit me and mark before this
happens