We were met at the airport by Myint, our guide for the next 20 days, and Louise Desy, the mother of friends in Santa Barbara.

Louise is a nurse who came to Myanmar on vacation eleven years ago, fell in love with the place and has returned every year since. Louise started an orphanage in Yangon in partnership with a Buddhist monastery. She spends half the year back home in Quebec working, and the rest of the year in Yangon. Our burmese guide, Myint, has been her driver for all these years and they have become close friends. Louise helps Myint by connecting visiting friends and relatives to his guide services and he is her steadfast protector.
Myint's Toyota Camry is twenty years old, like most other cars in the country. Since Burma was a British colony (1880s to 1946) when cars were introduced to the country the vehicles all have steering wheels on the right. When the British were expelled and Myanmar once again became an independent nation the government declared that all cars will drive on the right side of the road. They also effectively stopped importation of new cars by imposing huge taxes. Now you have a country full of old beat up cars, with the steering wheel on the wrong side. It makes it pretty difficult to pass yet they do it all the time on one lane roads.

These "highways" are the major thoroughfares through the country, they are in a constant state of repair and are full of everything from extremely loaded trucks, bicycles, tuktuks, motor scooters carrying one to four people, wooden ox carts pulled by water buffalo or brahma cows, and pedestrians. I don't think they have tow trucks as I have seen several large semi-trucks blocking one third the roadway, with the engine half disassembled and four to six "mechanics" working on them. Myint, and most drivers are very careful, in part I'm sure for survival reasons, part to protect their precious vehicles, but also because the Burmese are very friendly patient people, even when driving.
Our first stop was a wedding party for one of the teachers at the orphanage, a surprise to us, and something we were not exactly dressed for!

Nevertheless, the bride and groom seemed very happy to have us there and we met many of the children from the orphanage as well as some of the monks. The kids were beautiful and very sweet, as are all of the children we meet here. There are about 35 kids at the orphanage since it doubled in size after the cyclone of two years ago. The building is cement, very basic and unfinished. It had just been finished when the cyclone came and the top floor was torn off. Louise continues to fund raise from small private donors to finish the building. The devastation was massive with everyone suffering to some degree. Myint and his family waited it out for two days on a mattress that he put on top of all their furniture because water was three feet high in the house, they could not stay upstairs because the roof blew off. Recovery was tough as no one has insurance, no one has savings (no one uses the banks at all) and the government was not only of no help but a deterrent to foreign aide. Myint had no business for two years because no tourists came, so he used his car as a taxi to get by.
The country is very poor (among the 6 poorest nations), but friendly, quite Buddhist and interesting.

There are lavish and gaudy Buddhist temples everywhere, amidst the poverty.

People are very devout and supportive of the monasteries and monks. All men spend time as monks twice in their life, for a week at the minimum (some remain as monks for life). They lead a very strict and austere life, only two meals a day completed before noon which they solicit from the general populace (they are fully supported by the people in their neighborhood).

In rural areas the monks make all of the local laws.
The people here are lovely and very friendly. Crime is rare, especially against tourists due to stiff penalties. Virtually all men wear a longyi which is basically a full length wrap around skirt, and a nice button up shirt. The women wear a similar skirt and fitted modest shirt (no shoulders or cleavage showing). The women apply a decorative paste, made from the wood of a particular tree, daily to their face as make-up/sun screen.

Everyone wears flip-flops (no footwear in temples or houses).

Yangon is a big sprawling, active city. Although there is a new airport, some nice parks and lakes the city has a rundown appearance. Once beautiful colonial buildings in the downtown area are deteriorating, remnants of the British occupation. Small businesses occupy the lowest floor behind a crush of sidewalk vendors. Not far from the city center you are reminded that you are in a third world country by the poverty, old bamboo homes and deteriorating half paved roads. Inside our fancy hotel ($46), with pool, internet, lavish buffet breakfast, clean and comfortable rooms and musicians serenading in the lobby, we were in a different world.
The main attraction in town is the Shwedegon Pagoda, a massive temple covered in gold leaf and containing five hairs of the Buddha Gautoma, topped by precious stones.

It is surrounded by a huge plaza splattered with religious structures full of gilded
buddhas, temples, smaller pagodas.
Although certainly a popular tourist destination, it is mostly used by the Burmese as a place of reverence and worship.

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Location:Taungaloo, Myanmar









