After such a lovely time in Thailand, I was sad to leave, but I knew that Myanmar would be extremely interesting. After waking up early and catching an Uber to the airport, we quickly found our flight and headed south for a layover in Bangkok. Bryden and I found some food in Bangkok’s airport, and headed into the terminal. The International terminal at Bangkok’s previous main airport, which now only caters to regional budget airlines, was very strange. The airport was empty and smoky and quite depressing. After a second quick flight we arrived in Mandalay.
It was very strange landing in Mandalay. I expected to not see a lot of tourism in Myanmar, but upon arrival I realized how small the tourism industry is. Our flight only had a handful of tourists on it, and as we landed in the small, one runway airport we started to receive looks from some of the locals. After getting cash and sim cards, we exited and took a shared taxi towards our hotel.
Driving towards our hotel gave us the first view of life in Myanmar. The road from the airport to the city was strangely empty, only occupied by the rare car or motorbike or horse-drawn carriage. I was sitting in the front of the van, with my window open, and people we passed would wave in and smile, seemingly surprised to see a westerner.
After checking in to our hotel, we set out to find some food. Myanmar is not known for its alluring cuisine, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of food. We found a place to eat near out hotel and walked through the city to find it.
Walking towards the restaurant showed us again how rare tourists are. People constantly were looking at us while smiling and waving. We had a surprisingly excellent meal, with lots of coffee and lime juice and tea, and then headed out to see what else the city offered.
The center of Mandalay is surrounded by a large wall and a moat. We headed towards this large central square and we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the water and wall as the sun set. Still not seeing any other tourists, we spent the evening walking and admiring the view and the city.
The next morning we woke up early to climb Mandalay hill, a prominent hill dominating the northern skyline. We had hired a driver for the day, so we took off at 6am and climbed for 30 minutes up the hill.
The sunrise was excellent and we were surrounded by only a handful of locals.
The rest of the day was spent looking at other popular sites and temples and pagodas. Everywhere we went we were waved at and admired. We were seemingly the only tourists in the city.
After a great tour we returned to our hotel, I went out to get some excellent Indian food (and Bryden stayed back as he was full and wanted to rest), and we went to bed early, after looking at the city from the top of our hotel.
So far Myanmar has been excellent. As I stated earlier, we expected there to be little tourism, however we were still shocked by how little there was. We only saw a handful of people who weren’t locals throughout the day, and everyone from Mandalay was amazed to see westerners in their city. There were a few instances where people asked to take photos with us. It almost felt like we were celebrities. This was great because the people here are incredibly friendly. Everyone wants to chat and shake our hands and show us their projects. I was able to speak with a number of people who explained a lot about the country. One thing I learned was that there is extreme unemployment for younger workers here. I met one 24 year old who had to save money and take a bus to Thailand in order to find reliable work. Our driver told us that he still had to support his 20 and 24 year old sons, who were decently well educated. People struggle a lot with money in general. Our driver sometimes goes a week without finding work. Many of the roads are toll roads, so trying to drive around and find work is expensive for him. These people are incredible but at the same time struggle constantly. Traveling here and making sure as much of our spending as possible goes into normal people’s pockets is something we will prioritize during our stay.
Tomorrow we will wake up early and take a bus to Bagan, an area full of thousands of temples and pagodas. I look forward to learning more about Myanmar and its people and culture during our stay here. As always, feel free to comment and ask questions.