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Bagan, Myanmar
21° 22' N 95° 28' E
Aug 08, 2005 08:09
Distance 516km

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Other entries in Bagan

Vanity of a derelict civilisation

Text written in: English

Once in Mandalay and after a few hours sleep I set out exploring, my first stop was a quick trishaw ride over to Mandalay Hill, a hill in the middle of town festooned with various temples and pagodas. The place itself is a bit disappointing as the government has engaged on a program of restoration and renovation for the country's various monuments, unfortunately the policy seems to be dominated by the directive of "as gaudy as possible" so everything has an incredibly tacky look to it. What was interesting were the people living on the hill and eking out a very marginal existence selling drinks and trinkets to tourists and other visitors. The other was a series of photos on the top level of the military leadership visiting the place. They make a great show of looking pious in from of Buddha when the reality of the regime is most un pious and un Buddhist - had the irony been intentional it would have been even funnier. My next stop was really impressive, an old teak monastery that was actually amazing. It felt old and authentic and seemed to have thus far escaped the heavy hand of renovation. The outside was covered in carvings, there seemed not to be a square inch that wasn;t covered in a carving or a relief - all gloriously weathered. The inside was cool too, dark and gold, not gaudy but that nice antigue gold look that seems to fit rather than overwhelm.

 

 

 

 Sightseeing done I headed back and met up with Dave and Rhian for a few cooling beers and some dinner and then it was off to the famous Mandalay marionette show. Now I have a theory that most visitors when presented with a foreign cultural display feel some kind of duty to be impressed and duly say "Well that was interetsing wasn't it" and get this look like they have gained some kind of deeper understanding of wherever it that they are. I don't actually understand this attitude as there are things in our own culture we all dislike. Well here and now it stops, I bloody hated the puppets - the music was the most abrasive and irritating sound I'd ever heard, compared to it the honking of the horns in the chaotic traffic was positively melodious. I think puppets are stupid - not doubt the puppeteers are talented but it all seemed like a colassal waste of time. Apparently these puppets represent a particularly highj form of cultural expression and if you;re impressed by that sort of thing then fair enough but I refuse to pretend that I enjoyed myself - end of story.

 

 

 

The following day Dave and I got an ancient ferry across the mighty and brown Ayeryawaddy river to the ancient city of Mingun. Mingun is noted for its massive incomplete paya, a building that was supposed to strand 150 metres high. As it is they got to 50metres and then the Capital moved to Bagan and the temple was left incomplete - a massive earthquake in the mid 19th century then left the building partially ruined. The building is a massive and imposing construction but has a laughably small alcove hosuing a Buddha behind a very ornate and intricately carved doorway - the effect is actually quite disconcerting. As well as Mingun Paya the other attractions in the area besides the incessant vendors are a massive bell that would have been installed in the Paya had it been completed. As it is it is the largest uncracked hung bell in the world - the plaque there proudly states that there is a larger bell in Moscow but it is cracked. One of the cooler things Dave and I found wandering up a side street was an English school funded by a German not for profit. Disrupting the class, we were invited in and we spent some time talking to the kids there before receiving a rousing rendition of "If you're happy and you know it." That evening we went to see the famed Moustache Brothers who do Pwe theatre - as I understand it a kind of guerilla variety act. Unfortunately they are now restricted to performing in their house by the junta as two of them were put in jail for making critical statements of the regime and for their association with Aung Sun Su Kyi. It was funny and different and at least it was better than the marionettes.

 

 

 

I left Mandalay by boat for Bagan taking the government run "fast boat" with a crowd of very rude Europeans. It was only $16 for the 10 hour trip but it seems incongruously expensive considering the cost of everything else. Its another example of how the government gets hold of badly needed US dollars that allow them to keep the country going. Finally late in the afternoon we pulled into fabled Bagan, land of thousands of temples all situated on a semi arid plain. A short trishaw ride later I was in a hotel and then headed back out to the ruins for sunset taking my first horsecart ride in the process. The main sunset place was mobbed with more rude Euros but at least the sunset was good. The following day I paid a grand total of 6 dollars and got a horse cart for the whole day. My driver who's name was Zozo took me to all the main temples. The whole place is very impressive but as the title of this entry suggests I found the whole experience vaguely unsettling  - it seems weird to me that so much time and effort and resources should be poured into something so patently impractical. Granted the shrines are all holy and are still used by the people to venerate Buddhe but to my mind it was as if Donald Trump were to build buildings and then leave them empty. Apparently the kings that built them wanted to show their devotion to Buddha by building these structures but one is left with the profound feeling that they are simply monuments to their vanity and a terrible waste.

 

 

 

As impressive as the place was there are so many temples and serene Buddha images that one can take added to this are the ubiquitous and persistent vendors who insist on showing you around or follow you trying to sell imitation relics or the same paintings or cheap laquerware dishes. It actually takes away from the enjoyment of the granduer of the place when you cannot be on you own and just enjoy the place. Each piych - as if from a tourissales brochure - would begin the same way: "Where you come from?" Canada "Ohhh very nice place - you buy painting!!!" No. Eventually I got tired of telling people where I was from so I would make it up - Kazachstan, Paraguay, or my "my name's Wayne Gretzky, whats yours." Never got a rise unfortunately. The worst incident was the following evening when I found a deserted paya with Dave and Rhian and climbed to the top for the sunset, just before the sun set the vendors, I guess having seen us from somewhere else, came up and tried to sell interrupting the serenity of the whole thing. The same thing for sunrise the next morning at 5.45 am paintings suddenly appeared at another deserted temple.

 

 

 

Actaully I think I am probably being overly harsh, and the stuff I saw gave me a good indication of just how desperate the people of Myanmar are. There are too many vendors and too few tourists. I don't think people are hungry but they are terribly poor and behind their smiles you can see it, and to be fair they're just trying to make a buck so that families can be fed. Its terribly depressing to see a child that starts out with minimal chances.

 

 

 

Having had my fill of Bagan I headed back to Yangon for my last night in Burma , it was actually refreshing not to be constantly surrounded by people trying to sell me stuff. I spent the last of my Kyat on ice cream and beer in the swank bar and visited the Shwedagon Paya which I actually found very impressive and less gaudy than I had been expecting. Its a little anooying though, in Myanmar they don't accept crinkled US bills and I nearly had a fight with the lady selling the passes to the pagoda (you have to buy a ticket to allow you to use your camera in many places if you can beleive it, and its more for video cameras thatn for film ones.). I raved that Alan Greenspan himself would accept the bill and that it was endorsed by the Federal Reserve Bank, while gesticulationg at the words along the top of a slightly used 10. Realising that she wasn't cathcing my drift and that I couldn't win I just gave her another bill. At the paya I met another English teacher and he expalined some of the more esoteric aspects of Buddhism to me before inviting me to some and meet his adult class hoping to get hotel jobs in the UAE. I went with him and beyong the granduer of the monument the place quickly became a total slum. In his small house there were monks waiting for their computer class, but unfortunately that particualr district was experiencing one of the scheduled blackouts that the outlying districts of Yangon endure and which many tourists do not see.

 

 

 

I took my leave and the following day waded through ankle deep black water on the street and caught a cab to the airport and Bangkok. The whole thing was quite an experience it was interesting but also very creepy. The soldiers and police look mean but wear flipflops with their uniforms it looks pretty half assed. It would be cool to see more of the country but unless you're on a tour and have days to devote to getting there its just not possible and certain areas of the country are off limits to foreigners altogether. Ms. Kyi urges that tourists boycott the country in an effort to put pressure on the junta to reform but my own view is that this would make the poverty worse. Tourism seems to be the only meagre source of income that alot of people have and its odd being from Canada and wishing you could go somewhere that has no tourists but if that happened the place would be even more desperate. I guess the end of uniqueness that isiolation brings is the cost of the spread of freedom and democracy. As some argue, visiting a place like Myanmar and taking ones stories out to tell to people is a good way to spread the word and raise awareness - like Zimbabwe its a shame there isn't any oil there. Still the people are nice and you feel genuinely that they are and not just acting. Some people try and sell you but many others just want to talk and find out about you and maybe share a smoke of a cheroot or a cup of tea. The country is beautiful and very endearing with the kind of chaos that makes one take notice of ones surroundings. Shock horror though, its very hard to get a good cup of tea, I ordered one at a roadside stop and was presented with a sachet of instant tea - imagine!