photo blog – Walk Your Own Walk

Men in longyi, women in thanaka, and monks in their robes. Land of betel nut chewing and spitting. Myanmar was my third stop and the first country I officially traveled alone to during the course of my seven-week trip. The country just started opening up as part of its reforms that in fact, it was only by the end of 2014 when they granted visa exemption to ASEAN travelers for visits of up to 14 days.

I didn’t love my stay there, but I didn’t hate it either. There I said it.

I must’ve read too many blogs raving about it that my expectations just skyrocketed. I imagined an utterly unspoiled country, which was true to a certain extent, but not like how the blogs described it. Perhaps developments had been rapid that in just a year or so, it became what it is now. Either way, the country was definitely different from its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Random bits, impression:

I survived without having to shell out USD, I used Kyats to pay for everything. ATMs were everywhere.
As opposed to what I read, I found Myanmar to be very cheap. Sure I paid $10 for accommodation (actually reasonable), but that was it – the transportation, food, and entrance fees were cheap. I managed to spend around $20 per day without starving myself (READ: 2015 SEAsia Travel Costs).
Buses and painfully-slow-trains were almost always on time (BETTER THAN Thailand and the Philippines, my goodness), and at least from my experience, cabbies didn’t rip me off.
Communicating in English could be tough, but of course that wasn’t something you’d expect Asians to speak, so I appreciated the fact that most of the locals still tried their best to help me out. Although the people were generally warm, it would be best to keep your wits about you (READ: Yangon Misadventure).
Out of all the Buddhist countries I’ve been to, Myanmar had the most number of monks. They were just everywhere.
Couchsurfing with Burmese is only allowed in areas without guesthouses and hotels, not in big cities – a local friend told me that it’s the government’s way of supporting the industry. But I think it makes more sense that it is actually because of supposedly “clashing cultures,” so surfing with a fellow foreigner is still possible.
Good news: no wasted travelers in their gap year roaming around. Majority of the tourists were, for lack of a better term, on the mature side.

Although I didn’t like the country as much as I hoped I would, I thought that it was beautiful. With tourists starting to pour in, I just wish that it wouldn’t be another Thailand. Below are some of the photos I took from my short trip. I was able to visit Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, and Hsipaw.

The streets of Yangon.

Praying local.

Beautiful Shwedagon Pagoda.

Spotted these cute lil monks in a train ride.

Joined Free Yangon Walks. If my mind serves me right, that bank’s building was said to be abandoned in Lonely Planet’s 2013 edition. The developments in Myanmar’s just crazy.