Myanmar

Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) was not a place I had a specific interest in visiting while spending a year traveling around Thailand and Southeast Asia.  Nashville is a designated settlement city for Burmese refugees, so I knew there was unrest in the country--brutal military suppression that the Burmese people have been fighting against for almost 25 years in favor of a democracy.  Most famously, Aung San Suu Kyi has been the face of democracy for Myanmar.  As leader of the National League for Democracy, the government has seen her as a political threat.  She was placed under house arrest for nearly 15 years even receiving the Noble Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts.  For 50 years the state has been under military rule.  Even with overwhelming majority support for the democratic movement, the military refused to recognize the state as a democracy.  Only in the last year has the military begun to release its grip.  Yet military loyalists will remain in government and support the corrupt military's agenda, an agena that has economically ruined Myanmar.  Although this transition to a democracy is good news, there have been far too many people who have suffered at the hands of the military.

Despite how the military has marred its country, Myanmar is beautiful.  Authentic and unspoiled by western, international, or commerical influences. I was fortunate enough to be invited to Myanmar by a colleague.  I enjoyed the unique experience of being a guest taken in by her family who shared their home.  We had interesting conversations about conflicting family support for the developing democracy in Myanmar while we drove around visiting the sights.  The most impressive was the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's landmark. The gold pagoda sits atop a hill and at over 300' high can be seen from all over the city.  It's over 2,600 years old and thought to have been built to enshrine a few of the Lord Buddha's hairs, or so the story goes...

 I was able to check off another of my life's 'to dos' on this trip--hot air ballooning.  We were up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise over the pagoda ruins of Bagan while the early morning mist gave the temples an air of mystery.  From high above we watched the farmers set about their day in the fields.  What a beautiful way to experience what's left of over 2,000 temples sprinled across the landscape.