Looking past the lack of air-conditioning, and all the signs in Burmese excepting one hand written sign that said "VISA" on one of the windows, I was hopeful this would go well. I had done my research, I had everything on the extensive list that was needed, made double copies of both sides of everything, and even printed out the list of the requirements I found online and brought it with me.
My first mistake was to let the older Chinese lady in front of me, as it turned out she had no fewer than fourteen visas to process. Tour group leader or something. Two very long, hot hours later (God bless iPods and audiobooks), it was my turn. I presented all my paperwork, the gentleman took everything and made a few marks, and then shoved it back at me, saying something intelligible.
"Sorry?" I asked.
"Benay cah." he said, shaking my papers at me.
"Sorry?"
"Benay cah." he said impatiently, stabbing his pen at my visa application.
I stared at my required list of documents, trying to match what he was saying with anything on the list.
"Benay cah!" he tried again, louder, this time shoving the previous' strangers visa application at me, which had a Pest Control business card attached to it.
"Oh, business card?" I guessed.
"Yes!" he said, "You need."
"My business card? But... it's not on the list." I protested feebly, pointing to my own papers. "Where on the list?"
"Benay cah." he stated firmly, handing back my entire stack of papers and passports.
I did not just stand in line for two hours to be rejected. "Um... cannot, I don't have one." I tried. "I don't work."
He took my papers back, pointing to where I had entered Engineer as my profession. Crap. I looked for help from the lady behind me, but she moved smugly up to the window handing her visa paperwork with attached business card to the gatekeeper. How did she know? It wasn't on the list. How am I supposed to know if it's not on the list?
Myanmar Lesson Number One: You don't ask why, you just do. Even if it's not on the list.
Flash forward a few weeks, where we've successfully arrived in Myanmar with business card-attached legit visas. After a bit of stress because our tour guide didn't meet us at the airport as planned, and for some reason the government blocks Yahoo so I couldn't check my email to get his phone number, and I had to wait until morning for the IT guy to run a program called Your Freedom to access said Yahoo account, we were officially Seeing Myanmar.
First stop? The biggest Buddha I'd ever seen. Siddhartha his name was.
The reason that the Buddha is reclining is so that you can see his feet, which have symbols on them which indicated his divine future. Yes, all those symbols mean something.
We wandered into an alley behind the Reclining Buddha where there was a small monastery. Our guide Min Min knew one of the monks, and we were invited inside.
This is the most senior monk in the monastery. I asked to take his picture, he agreed then insisted that we turn the lights on so I could have the proper lighting. Then struck a pose.
It was lunch time, and they were starting to gather with the food they had collected that day.
The dogs knew it was lunch time, and waited patiently outside for scraps.
Also outside, a pile of puppies! I'm pretty sure there is nothing cuter.
After leaving the monastery, we drove by many shops selling the new Myanmar flag. "Why did they need a new one?" I asked. "Don't know, they don't tell us why. They just tell us this is our new flag." Min Min said. "We can only guess."
We picked up the government-run newspaper along the way, which on the back page warned against "VOA [Voice of America], BBC-sowing hatred among the people", and "Do not allow ourselves to be swayed by killer broadcasts designed to cause troubles". Min Min assured me that no one actually reads that paper. They wait for the International Herald, smuggled in by people who fly here from different countries.
For lunch, a Thanksgiving Burmese feast! Curries, rice, and tea leaf salad.
This was the lady who made the tea leaf salad, which really wasn't a salad. More like mixed nuts, and they would only have it for dessert.
These ladies were outside doing the dishes.
You'll see a lot of pictures with women and children with a white power on their faces. I can't remember what it's called, but it's ground from a tree bark, mixed with water, and then applied to the face as a sunscreen and to help with your complexion. Men wear it to on occasion, but as Min Min told us: "They're the ones who don't care what anybody says." The Myanmar men who are in touch with their feminine side, I guess.
We browsed through the local market to see what kind of wares are peddled...
When we ran into celebrity! It was Kim Aris, the son of Aung San Suu Ky (otherwise known as The Lady, the one who had been recently freed after spending most of the last 17 years under house arrest).
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All that in a half a day. The second half? Dirt roads to solid gold stupas. Ah, Myanmar.
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