I knew next to nothing about Myanmar before going there, and since we only had one day between India and Myanmar, we really did not have time to be properly prepared as a shipboard community. All I knew was that we were only allowed to go to the 4 cities that Semester at Sea led trips, we weren't allowed to venture into rural Myanmar, and we needed to be very careful of what we do in this country because of the Communist Military regime and that Desmond Tutu is part of a group discouraging people from traveling to Myanmar until they improve human rights, but I didn't know the why.

Tuesday morning when the ship docked in Myanmar (45 minutes outside Yangon) at the Thilawa Port which is about 40KM up the river from the open sea, we had a diplomatic briefing around 11:00. Normally we arrive in port at 0800, but our trip into and out of Myanmar had to be carefully timed with the tides, so we arrived later than normal. At the diplomatic briefing we had about 6 people from the America Embassy meet with us. I thought this was hands down the most interesting diplomatic briefing we've had because they actually told us quite a bit about the country and why the US does not have good relations with them right now. Our group is the largest group of Americans to ever visit Burma since 1962, so it was important we knew what we were getting into. Last year American's were only about 2% of their tourists.

Myanmar was formerly called Burma, but a few years ago changed its name to try to get rid of the image they had when called Burma. The U.S. does not recognize the military regime government that calls it Myanmar and still calls it Burma. The US does not have an ambassador in Burma, but they do have an embassy. The U.S. actually has the longest diplomatic relations of any country with Burma. They began diplomatic relations in 1949, and military rule began in 1962 with the current regime coming into power in 1988. This regime has no respect for human rights. It is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world. Burmese people lack the rights of free speech, association, and movement that we take for granted. There is absolutely no tolerance for descent. The most famous political prisoner is An San Suu Kyi who like Desmond Tutu is also a Nobel Peace laureate. She was in detention for 10 years under this regime. They said that things are getting marginally better. They actually held elections recently and the democratic party got over 80% of the votes, but of course the military regime won't recognize these results, so it doesn't mean much.

The students were all warned to stay away from drugs. Burma is the 2nd largest producer of poppy->opium->heroine. If an American (or anyone) were to be arrested, there is nothing Semester at Sea or the American Embassy could do to get them released. This regime doesn't reason with anyone. We just need to make sure we don't ruffle any feathers.

The U.S. has put a lot of sanctions on Burma and although we still maintain relations, the Burmese government has said that things can't get any worse and still have relations between the two countries. We all know how divided our congress often is. Well, sanctions against Burma is the most united bi-partisan issue in Congress. They are very united on their stand for the sanctions. Only 3 representatives oppose them. The intention of the sanctions is to make U.S. policy clear, to keep U.S. money out of the hands of the hands of this government, to set an example for other nations, and to try to push the country to an inclusive democracy. One interesting thing that I was grateful to learn BEFORE getting off the ship is that there is a ban on the export of U.S. funds or financial services which means that our ATM cards won't work here, we can't exchange traveller's checks, and we can't use credit cards, so this will be an all cash trip. Since I'm planning on buying a few plane tickets, I'll be carrying $600-$800 just to be safe. I want to try to avoid another Venezuela lack of cash experience. Of course we won't be buying a lot of souvenirs because there is also a ban on import of Burmese products to the U.S. other than promotional material like magazines and original art.

Some other interesting points about money:

• US Dollars are widely accepted, in fact sometimes the only accepted form of currency. Hotels all required you to pay in dollars.
• FEC's or foreign exchange certificates are another form of currency equivalent to US Dollars.
• The local currency is the kyat (pronounced chot - rhymes with hot)
• The legal exchange rate for the kyat is approximately 450 kyat/USD, and the gray market value is approximately 1200 kyat/USD. The rate used by any business establishment is the gray market rate. The government pretty much condones the use of the gray market. You will only get in trouble for using the gray market if they catch you when arresting you for something else.
• The largest bill is the 1000 kyat bill - less than $1.
• I was only going to exchange $20 because I wasn't sure how much kyat we'd need and I didn't want to get stuck with a lot, but somehow we got talked into changing $100 each. We had to each changed a crisp $100 bill to get the rate they promised us. They like their clean new money in big bills in Myanmar. They tried to cheat me and count 9 or 10 1000 kyat bills per $1 instead of 11, but I was counting and called them on it. Of course I got totally overwhelmed because the biggest bill they have is a 1000-kyat bill (less than $1). We got about 40 500 kyat bills and 180 1000 kyat bills for a total of 220,000 kyat which is a huge stack.
• Hotels, plane tickets, and the more expensive items are usually paid for in dollars. Meals, taxis, some entrance fees, and other inexpensive items are usually paid for in kyat.
• All people are equally poor, and there are much fewer beggars than other countries we have visited. Their trick for making money is to just offer to help you even if you didn't need or want the help, and then make you feel like you should give them a "donation."

Other random interesting facts:

• Tipping is not part of the culture, although it is very much appreciated and could substantially increase a worker's daily income. A typical Burmese worker makes 500 kyat/day - approx. 45 cents.
• This week there was a 600%-900% increase in fuel cost, so transportation will be more expensive for us.
• Females should not make eye contact with or touch monks.
• Card playing with face cards is illegal, but UNO is OK.
• The customary way of greeting someone is to ask if they have eaten. I did not hear this, but that's what we were told.
• It is illegal to have an unregistered cell phone, fax machine, or for 4 or more people to meet together.
• The Burmese are a very polite, soft-spoken people, so we were warned not to raise our voice in public.
• Taking pictures of military personnel or military buildings is forbidden.
• We were warned to be very careful about what we talked about with Burmese people. They generally get very uncomfortable talking about politics because they could get in trouble if the wrong person hears them saying the wrong thing, so we were encouraged not to talk about or criticize military or government when speaking to any Myanmar citizens.
• About a week after we left Myanmar the military junta up and moved the capital city away from Yangon (on the coast) to Pyinmana which is farther north in the central part of the country. This move was very sudden. Speculations for the reason they moved was that the military government was trying to make it harder for a U.S. invasion by sea or for a democratic government to form. The military junta said it was because Yangon was out-dated as a capital city and Pyianmana was better suited, but I heard they moved up there without having any of the infrastructure built, and there obviously was no announced plan.
• An article from The Christian Science Monitor about the human rights violations in Myanmar. This was published a few days after I left. The Monitor did not have a story that I could find about the move of the capital.
• Myanmar is best known for its lacquerware. Since we really weren't supposed to purchase anything, the only lacquerware I purchased was a small tray from a girl who showed me around and wouldn't take my money, but only requested that I look at her shop.

Interesting things I observed:

• The Burmese all have really bad teeth and they spit a lot. This is because they chew betelnut, a palm nut from the areca tree.  The hard nuts are chewed by just about everyone. This turns their teeth brownish red, and then they spit red spit that looks like blood. This is really gross since you also have to walk barefoot around holy places which there are a lot of.
• Women and children wear a yellow powdery face paint called thanakha for sun protection and as a symbol of beauty, just as we wear make-up. This is often just a yellow square on each cheek, but it is sometimes more intricate.
• The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, but they also drive on the right like us. I don't understand this. Their steering wheels are on the right because they get all of their vehicles from Japan, but British played a role in the early colonization of Burma, so you'd think they'd drive on the left.
• The standard dress for men is a skirt called a longyi. This is actually a lot like what they wear in India, except in India some of the men wear them short and they're always worn ankle length in Myanmar. These skirts are actually all one size (really big) and are wrapped and folded in a certain way. A lot of the SAS guys got them and have been wearing them on the ship. They claim they are very comfy and freeing. Our guys are far from experts at wrapping them though. I've heard of at least one guy who lost his skirt while running to catch up with a group in Myanmar. It provided quite a laugh to the locals.
• Women seem to run things, at least the business deals. Our first exposure to this was the first taxi we got in. There was a guy driving, but a woman was sitting in the passenger's seat directing him and taking our money. Then when we got to our hotel they talked money, passports, and room reservations with me instead of Byron my travel companion. Most of the hotels had women running the place as well.
• There is no chocolate (that I ever saw) in Myanmar. I'm not sure if this is because it would melt or if it's just not a taste they have. The only dessert is fruit.
• There is a huge cultural divide: what they think is being helpful and a good host or ambassador to their country comes off as incredibly demanding and irritating to us. On one occasion the owner of the roadside restaurant we went to brought us lots of (really bad) food and stood over us saying "eat" and watching us. We were quite uncomfortable and couldn't stomach the food. Another guy at the Summer Palace in Mandalay took us and walked us around posing us for pictures that we didn't really want to take. It took several iterations of him placing each of us in what he thought was a good pose before we were able to break away.
• This is not the country to go to if you're looking for good food. The food is really quite terrible. You have to go to one of the nicer restaurants to get something edible.
• The roads are terrible - on our 7 hour taxi ride from Mandalay to Bagan there were locals stationed to direct cars through the river. They just request a modest tip for there assistance.
• The men's facial hair style must be a few long hairs coming out of the chin on an otherwise clan shaven face. It almost looks like an accident except that the hairs are really long and many people have the same thing.
• They've learned the word "present" and use it a lot. It tends to be the way they get you to take something and guilt you into paying for it. Sometimes it really is a present like a banana or fruit platter at the end of a meal. A woman in a market outside one of the pagodas gave me a watermelon seed bracelet even though I said I didn't want it. As I was walking by she just put the bracelet on me, I couldn't stop her, so I walked away with it since she said it was a present. As our taxi was driving off, she was waiting at the window for money.
• The other word they overuse is "donation." Just about any time money is involved they ask for a "donation" usually of a specific amount. You're asked to make a "donation" to leave your shoes outside the pagoda (which you're required to do), anyone who shows you around whether you asked for their help or not (since it is impossible to shake them) asks for a "donation."
• We were very put off by the commercialism of Buddha's teachings. Byron has read a lot about Buddhism and Buddha's teachings and he felt like what we saw here in Myanmar was not consistent with the teachings of Buddha at all. There was gold, money, and neon lights everywhere. The Buddha's were covered in kyat bills - most visitors offer a donation. The people are very poor, but they give most of what they have to the monks and religious structures.

Things of interest about my trip:

• The Friday before we arrived, a small bomb went off at the Trader's Hotel in Yangon which is where our shuttle bus is based. No one was injured and there was very little damage. The only effects we noticed was increased security and bag checks entering the hotel.
• Socks and shoes must be removed before entering any Burmese holy place. We spent a lot of time walking inside and outside and on some very slippery wet marble with bare feet. It's totally impractical to wear sneakers because you're constantly taking them off and on. This is definitely a flip-flop culture.
• The people are very nice and go out of their way to help you. Unfortunately, the first Burmese people we met were atypical and took advantage of us. We went to a stand near the bus station and the men told us they could get us plane tickets the next morning. We ended up coming back to them, they told us flights were full until the afternoon and then convinced us to let them be our tour guides for the day before taking us to the airport. They took us to a restaurant and sat with us so we had lost a lot of our power of negotiation and to make matters worse they got us separated and worked the negotiations on us separately so they had the upper hand. We probably ended up giving them about $100 - $150 more than we should have between our money changing, plane ticket, taxi, and guide fares. Had this not been the first day we would have known what to expect to pay.
• After our first day everyone was very nice and accommodating. It only cost us $12 to get from Mandalay airport to the center of town about 40 min. away & he even drove us to several hotels which were either too expensive or full before finally finding us a hotel in a good quiet location.
• Byron and I were low on money because he didn't have a lot of dollars when we arrived to Myanmar and we couldn't use ATMs or credit cards, so instead of keeping track of what we were each spending as we went, we pooled our money and split it 50/50 at the end. I was the keeper of the dollars and paid for everything that required dollars, and Byron was keeper of the kyat and paid for things that required kyat.
• I experienced the feeling of segregation and to be considered a lesser individual for the first time when I wasn't allowed to go up to the golden Buddha where people pressed on gold sheets as an offering. Not that I wanted to to make an offering, but it felt weird to have to stand back and watch as Byron went up to see the structure because he was a man and I was a woman.

Our itinerary:

I traveled the entire 6 days with my friend Byron. It was nice having a guy along because I felt very comfortable traveling, and having only 2 people means only 2 decision makers.

Day One:
• The shuttle busses from the ship into Yangon didn't start leaving until noon and then there was the mob of students trying to get into town, so we waited it out until our passports were cleared (since we had to have those for an overnight trip) and left for Yangon at 18:00.
• We talked with Erin and Doug on the 40 min. shuttle and they were planning the same itinerary as us, so we followed them to the train station to try to get a train ticket to Mandalay but they were all sold out, we also found there were no overnight busses. We exchanged $200 into kyat, parted ways with Erin and Doug and found a hotel for the night in Yangon. The men at the bus ticket stand told us to come back the next morning at 0800 and they would have plane tickets to Mandalay for us.
• We attempted to get some dinner, but the only place we found was inexpensive, but our meal had huge mosquitos in it, not too appetizing. We decided to just walk around for a few minutes before going back to the hotel to get some sleep.
• When we got to our hotel we realized we'd made our first mistake. We should have only changed max $100 between the two of us because all hotels only took dollars. We convinced them to let us pay in kyat, but they gave us an exchange rate of 1270 which meant that our room was about $19 instead of $15. When we got settled in the room I took our two huge piles of kyat and threw them up in the air and rolled around the bed in 200 kyat bills. It was pretty fun.

Day Two:
• Breakfast at the hotel - toast, jam, an egg, some horrible instant coffee, and tang.
• Go back to meet the guys who were supposed to have our plane ticket - they took us to a travel agent who told us that all flights until 3:00 that day were booked.
• As we were waiting to buy our plane tickets our "guide" planned out a few possible itineraries for our time in Myanmar. We chose to fly from Yangon to Mandalay today (Wednesday), spend all day Thurs. in Mandalay, take a ferry from Mandalay to Bagan on Friday, spend Saturday in Bagan, and fly back to Yangon on Sunday morning, spending Sunday in Yangon before heading back to the ship.
• Same men drove us to a cafe while they changed taxis and railroaded us - getting us to pay $70 to drive us around for the day, be tour guides, and take us to the airport. We later found out this should have cost about $20, but we didn't know the market price and let ourselves get in a situation where we were reacting instead of leading. The reason we ended up agreeing on their price is because we knew gas prices had increased 600%-900% over the past week and they told us gas was at least $30, but that was not true.
• We at least got a great tour of Yangon out of the deal seeing all of the major sites other than the Shwedagon Pagoda which we'd see our last day in Myanmar.
The stops along our tour of Yangon:
• Botataung Pagoda: Our first of many pagodas that we visited in this country. You have to take off your shoes before entering any pagoda. A sacred hair of Buddha and two of his body relics are supposedly buried under the pagoda. There was a pond with turtles and lots of gold, money, neon lights and Buddha statues.
• Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda: Home of the huge reclining Buddha. She was too big to take a photo of except from a viewing platform at her feet.
• Kon Htat Gyi Pagoda: Home of a huge sitting Buddha - sitting Indian style.
• Kandawgyi Lake: A royal lake which is a major recreation spot in Yangon. There is a large floating restaurant on the lake which is a replica of a royal barge.
• Inya Lake: it started pouring and got really windy as soon as we got out of the taxi, the big umbrellas covering the picnic tables were turning inside out and took 6 guys to hold them down, so we immediately got back in the car and missed over the main sites at the lake.
• White Elephants: We weren't allowed to take pictures of these elephants that were actually white. It was kind of sad, I guess their supposed to be holy or for good luck or something, but their leg was chained (they're let loose at night) and they could only move forwards and backwards by 3 feet.
• Arrive at the airport where the guide guilted us (Byron) out of more money and then pushed us out of the taxi.
• Flight up to Mandalay via a short stop over at the Heho airport which is the airport for the Inle Lake area.
• Once in Mandalay we got a taxi at the airport which only cost us $12 for about an hour of his time driving us into the city and finding us a hotel which met our specifications. A much better deal than our afternoon taxi ride.
• The woman at the hotel we found was very nice and offered to book us a driver for the next day & plan our itinerary. We were starving, so she also recommended a place to eat and compliments of the hotel got us 2 motorbike drivers to take us to dinner and pick us up an hour later. This was my first time on the back of a motorcycle and something I vowed to never do - not something I want to do again any time soon.

Day Three:
• I don't really know what we did today. We had breakfast at our hotel after a very unrestful night since there was a group of 12 SAS students on an independent trip staying in our hotel who were very loud all night long. The driver the hotel arranged picked us up at 8:00, he didn't speak English and we didn't have maps or guide books, so we just saw a lot of stuff.
• First stop was a Pagoda/mall. We didn't really get to the Pagoda area, or maybe we did, but there were 2 long corridors and lots of vendors. We did a little shopping even though we weren't supposed to be buying anything that would make it back to the U.S. There was a large golden Buddha at one end that over the past 100 years has changed dramatically because visitors come up and make offerings by pressing thin gold sheets onto the statue and it gradually grows in size. Of course only men are allowed to do this, women aren't allowed in the room where the Buddha is.
• Our second stop of the day was the highlight of the day and we almost turned around and left before realizing where we were because there were several other Semester at Sea groups there and we wanted to avoid SASsers as much as possible. It was the Mahagandhayon Monastic Institution where boys are training to be monks. They are only allowed to eat once a day and at 10:00 hundreds of boys line up with their rice bowls to get a large bowl of rice and a banana as their rations for the day.
The 10 rules of conduct, as stated on a sign at the monastery :
1. To have a kindly disposition comes first
2. To observe the monastic code of discipline comes second
3. To keep good health comes third
4. To keep clean comes fourth
5. To know how to dress comes fifth
6. To know how to behave comes sixth
7. To know how to talk comes seventh
8. To know how to move about comes eighth
9. To obey the rules comes ninth
10. To be learned comes tenth
"Try to observe these rules in this order" - by Ven Janakabhivamsa
• Next was a lake with a bridge you can walk across to the other side. We walked partially across to take several pictures. We could have also taken a gondola type boat out on the lake but chose not to. This was our driver's lunch stop.
• Next stop a small factory where girls were weaving silk fabric.
• It's not even noon by this point. Next stop another pagoda, I don't know anything about this one, but we got lost finding the exit because we just walked around in a big circle to all the different rooms and many looked alike.
• An unplanned stop for the driver. We saw a very cool very old set of pagodas, not a tourist stop, but very cool looking, so we asked our driver to stop. Turns out these look a lot like the pagodas we'd be seeing in Bagan. We met some children who asked for money, but were overjoyed with the Dum Dums I gave them instead of money.
• We were hungry so asked for a lunch stop, I'm sorry we did. We ate at a pretty sketchy basement restaurant where the owner stared at us as we tried to choke down the unappetizing food. The bathroom out back was just a raised platform about 3 feet off the ground with 4 walls around the hole. After I walked out of the "bathroom" my business was just laying there on the ground.
• Long drive out to...?
• Apparently among the places we were supposed to visit was 3 Asian cities. I think we actually only got to 1 or 2 of them because we were so tired of seeing pagodas after several hours we asked the driver to take us back to Mandalay so we could walk around the Summer Palace which is in the middle of the city. I wanted to see the sunset from the Summer Palace.
• The Summer Palace wasn't as exciting as it looked on the map, but it was fun to walk around and the roof lines were really cool. At the end of our time there a man came and forced us to take several posed pictures that we didn't really want to take - he thought he was being helpful.
• We didn't quite make it to sunset, we were exhausted so went back to the hotel for a short nap before dinner.
• The hotel once again arranged transportation and a dinner spot. This time we rode in a cyclo which was a bicycle with a seat next to it with one little seat facing forward and another facing backward. Byron and I linked elbows (which the locals all laughed at) and rode for about 20 minutes to our restaurant which was only slightly better than our lunch spot.
• I don't eat much chocolate, but I was craving it at this point, so we tried to ask our driver to take us somewhere to get chocolate, but I think he both didn't understand and they don't actually have chocolate here. From the hotel we walked to another restaurant for dessert which we were disappointed to find just meant a shake and a fruit plate.

Day Four:
• We were supposed to take an early ferry down the Aeyarwaddy River to Bagan, but word was it was sold out, so for $60 the hotel arranged a driver to drive us 7 hours down to Bagan with a stop at Mt. Popa.
• We drove through several small villages and almost impassable roads and rivers. I think we were the first foreigners most of these people had ever seen or at least it wasn't a common occurrence because we always had people peering into our car windows.
• Mt. Popa was our lunch stop. It's an extinct volcano 50 km from Bagan which is what the guide books call an oasis rising up from an arid surrounding, but the area around Mt. Popa didn't look very arid to us. It was also pouring rain most of the day.
• After lunch at the base of the mountain we began our trek up the hundreds of stairs to the top. There were hundreds of monkeys, some which tried to bite us, and cute young girls who practically carried us up the hundreds of steep, wet, marble stairs, one girl on each arm.
• Once we safely made it down our driver continued on to Bagan and delivered us to our pre-arranged hotel just before dinner.
• We found a good restaurant just down the road and had some dinner and then a swim in the hotel's pool.

Day Five:
• After breakfast at the hotel we could have rented bicycles for $1/day, but it was pouring rain, so we opted for a driver. Our driver actually spoke some English and unlike our driver in Mandalay, could tell us where we were going and what we were seeing.
Our stops for the day:
1. Khay-min-gha - We climbed up on top of this temple for a great view of the surrounding area - even in the rain.
2. Ananda Temple - built in 1050, this temple is very large scale and houses 4 large standing images of the Buddha on each end of a Greek cross layout. There are also 80 relieves depicting the life of the Buddha from his birth to his enlightenment inside.
3. Dhamma-yan-gyi Pahto - This is Bagan's most massive temple, built by King Narathu in 1167.
4. Su-la-ma-ni Pahto - Had a large sitting Buddha statue inside
5. A temple that was not on the map with paintings depicting Buddha's life story on the inside walls. Temple #820.
6. Na-ga-yon Temple - beautiful natural stone (not gaudy gold) statues that had been recently restored.
7. Lunch at the Green Elephant a very nice and (for Myanmar standards) expensive restaurant.
8. Nan-paya
9. Ma-nu-ha Temple
10. Gu-byauk-gyi
11. A laquerware shop which served as a restroom break
12. An amazing view overlooking all the temples and pagodas from the roof of a temple not on the map. This is where having a guide to point out the hidden treasures is very nice.
13. That-byin-nyu Temple - Built by King Alaungsithu in the middle of the 12th century. Bagan's highest pagoda - over 66 meters high.
14. Shwe-gu-gyi
15. Shwe-san-daw Paya - a beautiful stepped structure where we stayed for over an hour waiting for the sunset and watching as the evening sun danced upon the pagoda dotted landscape
16. Before heading back to the hotel, we asked our guide to take us by the Lawkananda Pagoda which was all lit up at night. It was just big and gold, and we'd seen enough of that, so we headed back to the hotel.
17. Dinner at the same spot as last night and then another dip in the pool under the stars.

Day Six:
• The hotel was supposed to get us a taxi to the airport. Our taxis have always been on time or early, but this one was not. Finally, a little pickup truck showed up with a topper on the bed, they loaded us and our luggage inside and we headed off to the airport.
• We arrived in Yangon and took a taxi to the Trader's Hotel to leave our luggage while we walked around.
• Walked to Shwedagon Pagoda - it was a long walk and very hot. Shwedagon houses 8 of the Buddha's hairs and is a huge complex. Most Myanmar people consider this a place they must visit at least once in their lives. Sort of a religious pilgrimage. No one told us that you want to avoid Shwedagon during the day because it is way too hot. We didn't stay too long because we couldn't shake our self-appointed guide, the bottoms of our feet were burning even in the shade, and although it was magnificent, it was all the glitz and glamour we'd seen in other pagodas all smashed together into one bigger, better, pagoda.
• Our last stop in Yangon was the Scott Market where we picked up a few souvenirs, had lunch, and headed back to the Trader's Hotel to pick up our bags and our shuttle back to the ship.