I reached my first destination! Yangon in Myanmar.
My knowledge of the country is quite limited and primarily based on the bits and pieces I would hear through the international press. While preparing my journey I had decided to not read up on the country and just leave it that way. Instead, I decided to let the country reveal itself to me and try to get to see it through the eyes of its people. Surely it will be less factual, but all the more interesting when you let emotions colour the lines of its (hi)story.
The first person I met was of course the driver (it is always the driver!) who picked me up at the airport to drop me off at my hotel. The driver’s name is Soe. I asked him whether that was his first name or family name and he replied with a big smile that although he has three names “we don’t do first names and family names – just call me Soe”.
Soe has been doing this job, driving tourists around through the entire country, for about 10 years now. He started telling about the impressive and fast (positive) change his country has gone through ever since “it opened up”. The dozens of cranes I can see from the car window confirms the many construction activities. We quickly get caught in a traffic jam, but contrary to what I thought, it is not a sign of the progress Soe was talking about. Apparently, the roads, and with it the traffic jams, used to be way worse.
My first impression is that the country seems to embrace order and efficiency. It started at the airport. It took me merely 20 minutes from stepping down the plane to stepping out the airport terminal. Without doubt the people’s discipline of immediately forming neat waiting lines contributed to that speed. Traffic lights not only show the colors green and red but along with it the number of seconds it will stay that colour.
Once arrived at the hotel it did again not take me long to step into my room. I was immediately swept off my feet by the view from the window: a huge golden pagoda shining at the horizon. In the brochure on the desk I read it is the Shwedagon Pagoda and by the looks of it worth a visit. Something I might try tomorrow then!
Not that this country seems short of things to visit or discover. A happy coincidence is that I arrived in Myanmar just as the country prepares itself for Thingyan, a New Year’s celebration. It is known by Westerners as the Water Festival because people will splash or pour water at one another as part of a cleansing ritual to welcome the New Year. It starts Wednesday 13 April and lasts 5 days.
Luckily I brought an umbrella.