“Burma is famous for its rubies,” said the man in the seat next to me on the flight to Japan. Really? Apparently rubies are more precious than diamonds right now because there are no more new ruby mines being discovered. Maybe I could buy some rubies? Can one bring rubies back into the U.S.? I’ll ask. That would be so cool to buy a handful of rubies for a few dollars and then sell them back home for millions. Yeah right, Jane. Dream on.
December 9, 2008: Seven inflight movies later, I finally got to Bangkok – and to my hotel at 2:00 am. But, really, it wasn’t so bad. Eleven and a half hours from San Francisco to Japan and then seven and a half hours more to Bangkok. Not all that bad – not after some of those horrendously long flights I’ve taken to Afghanistan and Iraq. At my hotel, I got five hours of sleep, ate a huge buffet breakfast (breakfast appears to come with one’s hotel room in Southeast Asia), paid ten dollars for an hour’s internet access and here I am now – back at the Bangkok airport, about to fly off to Burma.
“Are you Burmese?” I asked the man sitting next to me on the plane.
“Yes. I lived in the United States for a year in 2005 but now I work for Siemans.” Definitely not your typical hill-country tribesman.
A Thai woman at my hotel in Bangkok had told me that the occupancy rate at the big hotels there is now only 10%. “And this is the height of the season too.” She thought it was because of the protests that just recently shut down the Bangkok airport. It might be that. But also it might be because the world economy currently sucks eggs.
Also, while I was in Bangkok I got to talk with Tony, an American who lives in Thailand that I’ve been corresponding with for years. Like me, he “talks just like he writes”.
On the plane from Japan to Thailand, I lost my glasses. I fell asleep with them on and woke up with them gone. Can one do that? Apparently one can. “There’s a glasses thief on this plane!” I cried. The steward came with his flashlight and everyone searched around. No glasses. Then I had an epiphany that my glasses were the most meaningful thing in my life and that I was lost without them. Completely dysfunctional. Then I had another epiphany that even without my glasses, I was still me – in fact even more so. Then I wandered up and down the aisles of the plane, unchained by my new existential freedom! Then, eight rows away, I stumbled over something bumpy on the carpet and there were my glasses. Go figure. I haven’t taken them off since.
Now I’ve arrived at the Rangoon International airport and it's all spiffy and modern and has escalators and baggage carousels just like those in any other major airport. What was I thinking? That Rangoon was gonna have a primitive airport powered by candlelight? Yeah.
And the people in Rangoon turned out to be just people – like everywhere else, with the possible exception of the north and south poles.
“Yangon is the original Burmese pronunciation of this city’s name,” one Burmese told me. “The British mispronounced it as ‘Rangoon’. And the same thing goes for ‘Burma’. The British mispronounced ‘Brahma’, which is what the Burmese people are called. The country itself has been called Myanmar for centuries.” Oh.
So Myanmar is much different than I thought it would be – just like every other country I’ve ever been to has turned out to be different from what I had imagined. That’s why I like to travel – to see what really actually is what.
Then I went off to my neo-British hotel where they brought me iced tea in the lobby while I listened to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” song being played on a slide guitar by a Burmese wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
December 10, 2008: Did I mention that I found a ball-point pen on the floor of the Bangkok airport? Hey, I’m a writer. It may not be a big thing to the average person but to me it’s almost like finding a hard-drive and keyboard on the airport floor.
My hotel in Yangon was all made of teakwood, was set into a tropical garden and was right on the river. And the hotel was cheap too. Can’t get much better than that. I had breakfast on the verandah next to a gigantic teak statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“Now we are going to the Shwedagon pagoda,” said my guide. The pagoda and its many surrounding shrines covered a whole mountaintop. “It’s the holiest religious site in Burma – and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is covered with 60 metric tons of gold and 3,800 diamonds. 38,000 rubies, diamonds and other precious gems altogether.” Holy cow! I can hardly wait to start taking pictures! And then suddenly I found myself right in the middle of Buddha paradise! I’ve landed in photo-taking paradise too. Two cameras are clearly not enough.
My guide then started telling me stuff about Buddhism. “You need to be free of desire, to live in the present.” But I’m not listening. There’s just too much to look at. There’s a procession of young women dressed in ceremonial robes. There’s some Karin villagers. There’s an old monk. I’ve totally forgotten about the pain in my knees! And everywhere I look, everything is covered with gold. This moment alone is worth the whole trip. I wish my family was here. “May all beings attain the Pure Land in this lifetime,” says the old Buddhist prayer. This looks like the Pure Land to me!
December 9, 2008: Seven inflight movies later, I finally got to Bangkok – and to my hotel at 2:00 am. But, really, it wasn’t so bad. Eleven and a half hours from San Francisco to Japan and then seven and a half hours more to Bangkok. Not all that bad – not after some of those horrendously long flights I’ve taken to Afghanistan and Iraq. At my hotel, I got five hours of sleep, ate a huge buffet breakfast (breakfast appears to come with one’s hotel room in Southeast Asia), paid ten dollars for an hour’s internet access and here I am now – back at the Bangkok airport, about to fly off to Burma.
“Are you Burmese?” I asked the man sitting next to me on the plane.
“Yes. I lived in the United States for a year in 2005 but now I work for Siemans.” Definitely not your typical hill-country tribesman.
Also, while I was in Bangkok I got to talk with Tony, an American who lives in Thailand that I’ve been corresponding with for years. Like me, he “talks just like he writes”.
On the plane from Japan to Thailand, I lost my glasses. I fell asleep with them on and woke up with them gone. Can one do that? Apparently one can. “There’s a glasses thief on this plane!” I cried. The steward came with his flashlight and everyone searched around. No glasses. Then I had an epiphany that my glasses were the most meaningful thing in my life and that I was lost without them. Completely dysfunctional. Then I had another epiphany that even without my glasses, I was still me – in fact even more so. Then I wandered up and down the aisles of the plane, unchained by my new existential freedom! Then, eight rows away, I stumbled over something bumpy on the carpet and there were my glasses. Go figure. I haven’t taken them off since.
Now I’ve arrived at the Rangoon International airport and it's all spiffy and modern and has escalators and baggage carousels just like those in any other major airport. What was I thinking? That Rangoon was gonna have a primitive airport powered by candlelight? Yeah.
And the people in Rangoon turned out to be just people – like everywhere else, with the possible exception of the north and south poles.
“Yangon is the original Burmese pronunciation of this city’s name,” one Burmese told me. “The British mispronounced it as ‘Rangoon’. And the same thing goes for ‘Burma’. The British mispronounced ‘Brahma’, which is what the Burmese people are called. The country itself has been called Myanmar for centuries.” Oh.
So Myanmar is much different than I thought it would be – just like every other country I’ve ever been to has turned out to be different from what I had imagined. That’s why I like to travel – to see what really actually is what.
Then I went off to my neo-British hotel where they brought me iced tea in the lobby while I listened to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” song being played on a slide guitar by a Burmese wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
December 10, 2008: Did I mention that I found a ball-point pen on the floor of the Bangkok airport? Hey, I’m a writer. It may not be a big thing to the average person but to me it’s almost like finding a hard-drive and keyboard on the airport floor.
My hotel in Yangon was all made of teakwood, was set into a tropical garden and was right on the river. And the hotel was cheap too. Can’t get much better than that. I had breakfast on the verandah next to a gigantic teak statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“Now we are going to the Shwedagon pagoda,” said my guide. The pagoda and its many surrounding shrines covered a whole mountaintop. “It’s the holiest religious site in Burma – and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is covered with 60 metric tons of gold and 3,800 diamonds. 38,000 rubies, diamonds and other precious gems altogether.” Holy cow! I can hardly wait to start taking pictures! And then suddenly I found myself right in the middle of Buddha paradise! I’ve landed in photo-taking paradise too. Two cameras are clearly not enough.
My guide then started telling me stuff about Buddhism. “You need to be free of desire, to live in the present.” But I’m not listening. There’s just too much to look at. There’s a procession of young women dressed in ceremonial robes. There’s some Karin villagers. There’s an old monk. I’ve totally forgotten about the pain in my knees! And everywhere I look, everything is covered with gold. This moment alone is worth the whole trip. I wish my family was here. “May all beings attain the Pure Land in this lifetime,” says the old Buddhist prayer. This looks like the Pure Land to me!
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