Friendly residents, colourful customs make Myanmar a unique destination

Grocery vendors wait for customers at a local bazaar as a train arrives at a railway station in outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, Feb.6, 2014. AP Photo/Khin Maung Win

TAMSYN BURGMANN
THE CANADIAN PRESS

MANDALAY, Myanmar — Jumping bumps and swerving around potholes, two dusty Canadians motorbiking toward an ancient spirit festival just up the road from Mandalay are practically greeted by a welcoming committee.

Burmese women with cherubic cheeks smeared golden with ground-bark makeup rattle shiny silver pots. A boy of about 10 nearly tumbles into the road, teetering on one foot to score high-fives from the scooting passersby.

Plastic-horn blasts herald their arrival among the throngs. Coconut-coated sweets are gifted by cross-legged hawkers with Libra scales. A whirlwind of neon scarves sweeps the duo into a crush of hugs and flying roses and frenzied ceremonial dancing.

A photo-snapping duel ensues. Locals, who've congregated this steamy afternoon to party hard in the tiny village smack dab in the centre of Myanmar, are curious and elated by their alien visitors.

"What country you come from?" is the common ice-breaker.

It's the reception foreign travellers often get.

Shuttered for 50 years until recently by a repressive military regime, the Southeast Asian country also known as Burma is a quirky tapestry of huge-hearted people yearning to connect with the rest of the planet.

Though the rapidly reforming nation likely still seems a dauntingly elusive destination from the vantage point of Joe Canadian, that perception appears to be changing owing to spreading word-of-mouth about truly unique sojourns.

"Everything is really as if it's locked in a time capsule," said Karen Butler, a long-time Toronto resident who journeyed through Myanmar for three weeks in January.

"People approach very openly. They want to speak with you. They want to practise their English. They are really interested in asking questions about you and the outside world. They're very friendly, very smiley."

It's now been more than three years since the country that shares many climate and cultural similarities with neighbouring Thailand opened its polls and released from house arrest Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The government's reforms won it improved ties with Western countries, jump-starting tourism.

More than one million foreigners visited Myanmar in a single year for the first time in 2012, according to the country's hotels and tourism ministry. Among them, 6,485 were Canadian.

Finally on the map, the number of visits to Myanmar is expected to keep climbing. Friction between the moving parts of an entire society being rejigged, however, is already changing the nation, both for better and for worse.

Hence why sooner rather than later is best to high-tail it to the luscious land of rice paddies and the mighty Irrawaddy River, equally replete with pagodas gleaming like gold thimbles when seen from the sky and omnipresent Buddhist monks wrapped in maroon robes.

Indiana Jones'-sized courage is not required. Despite the lack of infrastructure and a well-needed deep clean, with just a few preparatory steps, such as a visa, the right money and necessary immunizations, Myanmar's must-sees can be journeyed to safely and in relative comfort.

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