Mandalay, Myanmar and the infamous Moustache Brothers
After a couple days at Inle we caught a flight to Mandalay where another really beat up car, this time with a Mercedez emblem attached to the front, drove us to our guest house.
The electricity was out in the afternoon and it was painfully hot so we walked around a bit and had some ice cream at a shop nearby. Probably the best sundae we’ve ever had for $0.35. We met a nice Dutch couple our age back at our guest house and took a taxi with them to a big hill in town to see the sunset. On our way up some young guys approached us and asked if they could practice English while we walked up the hill and reassured us they weren’t looking for money so we obliged and enjoyed chatting with them as they told us a lot about the city, what it’s like to be a university graduate who can’t find work, and how much they try everything they can to practice English including hanging out where tourists go in hopes of striking up conversations.
After sunset and them some dinner we went with the Dutch couple to see the Moustache Brothers, 3 well known Burmese comedians two of whom were jailed in very harsh conditions in 1996 for making jokes about the military government and finally released a couple years ago after much pressure from Amnesty International and famous comedians and artists from around the world. Now they put on a nightly show but only in English (and only 1 speaks English) and only in their sparse living room as they are banned from traveling around and performing. It wasn’t comedy like one would expect back home but they did crack some good one-liners about the government’s “KGB” spies and wanting to date Jennifer Lopez, and got a lot of mileage out of their picture with The Lady when she visited them a few years back as well as the reference to one of them in the Hugh Grant movie “About a Boy.” If you’re expecting high-quality talent then you might be dissapointed but if you go with an open mind and remember that they were brutally jailed and every night they perform is a kind of demonstration against the government then we think they are well worth seeing and supporting. Also because they sell the most ridiculous t-shirts you can imagine!
We went touring some famous and beautiful temples and sights around Mandalay the next afternoon with the Dutch couple and enjoyed one last day of extremely hot temperatures and riding around in beat up cars and horses and buggies before taking a 14 hour bus ride back to Yangon that turned out to be more like 16 hours with a few bus break downs. Then it was straight to the airport to fly back to Bangkok one last time for a few hours in the airport before flying to Cairo.
Though travel in Myanmar was pretty tough as the oppresive heat, the lack of consistent electricity, and the delapidated state of cars, roads, and pretty much everything else wore us down, we both agreed that it was our favorite country in Asia along with Laos. People were extremely friendly, almost too much so sometimes, and all the people who worked at guesthouses, restaurants, and shops were incredibly polite even if they weren’t always able to be as helful as you might wish. We had the chance to interact with local people far more than other countries because we weren’t just another tourist attached to just another tour group, but instead we were often the only tourists within sight. And because the country has become isolated due to its government the local people seem to have a strong and genuine interest and curiosity to learn about you and the rest of the world. We really wish we could have spent more time traveling in Myanmar and look forward to coming back someday, hopefully when the government has changed and things have gotten better for the people there who deserve better.
For pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72057594095649113/
-Anthony
Tags: Mandalay, Myanmar, SE Asia, Southeast Asia, Travel
Shan