Myanmar – Mandalay and Ayeyarwady River. 28-29 January 2015
Mahamuni Pagoda and its very fat Buddha
It’s Burma or bust! Since 1962, when a coup d’état brought one of the world’s most repressive regimes into power, Myanmar has been isolated from outside influences. It became one of the 10 poorest countries in the world and embroiled in dissension, accusations of genocide and child slavery, bloody suppression, dictators, drug warlords, and rebel ethnic friction. A British colony until 1948, in 1989 Burma returned to its traditional name of Myanmar (“fast and tough”) because the ruling council thought Burma was “too Burmese.” To keep iron-fisted control of the country, the ruling junta closed its borders to all but the opium trade and illegal logging. Myanmar became one of the least westernized countries in the world. (more…)
It’s Monday so I must be in Lao. Flying into Vientiane, I see the beauty of the land with its rice fields, buffaloes, the Mekong River, trees and green expanses. On the ground, I immediately notice the clean streets, lack of motor scooters (car to scooter ratio is 4:1), traffic lights are obeyed, and several ethnic restaurants from Italian to Korean. I pass many of the 150+ Buddhist temples in the city and what seems like as many automobile dealers. On foot, I no longer need to play dodge-a-scooter. There are sidewalks! Indeed, Vientiane seems a cosmopolitan city and I am enamored of it.