Backpacker Fiction

To Go or Not to Go

"The Lady" - as she is mysteriously known - has asked tourists not to come to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi believes that because of the money the government makes through tourism, they are under less and less incentive to change. This travel boycott - started in 1996 - earned me a bunch of dirty looks from other backpackers who I'd told I'd been there; 'Burma' is still a dirty word.

The debate on whether or not to travel to Burma is front and center of Lonely Planet's Myanmar (Burma) guide. To the writers' credit, they make no judgements either way, leaving it completely up to the conscience of the traveler. Obviously they went and the act of publishing a guidebook detailing how to get to remote jungle villages or beautifully deserted beaches means that on some level, they want you to go too.




People Who Don't Go

The scoff I got from this girl was audible: "How could you? All your money just went to that horrible government. They use slave labour there, you know. I could never..."

My personal belief is that not going is the easier choice. Burma is a country that travelers eager to colour-in Asia on their Facebook map feel they can rightfully ignore, along with North Korea and Bangladesh. Without an established tourist infrastructure, Burma can seem more formidable than India.

Going to Burma also asks something in return from the traveler. One Yangon resident is cited as saying, "Don't come in with your camera and take only pictures. We don't need that kind of tourist. Talk to those who want to talk. Let them know of the conditions of your life."

Burma demands you think while you travel. It calls for a dialogue and it calls for some form of action. Your presence in the country is a political statement in and of itself and that can get in the way of a breezy vacation.

People Who Go

Everybody I've met who's been to Burma has fallen in love with the country. Not only are large parts of the cities and countryside unspoiled by advertisements, commerce, pop-culture, mechanization, but the Burmese have such a light of hope in their eyes despite their oppression. They shared what little they had - including orange slices handed to me by dirt-lined fingers during a bus ride on Christmas morning, and a blanket tossed over my freezing legs by the woman beside me on our way north to Mandalay. Pagan is unreal and without the tourist hordes of Angkor. The monks are friendly and eager to practice their english, making loneliness an impossibility.

Burma stays with you forever and asks you to re-evaluate the way you live back home. It calls for an activism on behalf of Burmese freedom, but also reveals the selfish side of the traveler who balks at the foreseeable effects of development. Nobody who's been to Burma wants to see Chaungtha Beach turn into Pattaya or Kuta but at the same time, how can we not hope for such personal freedom?

To go or not to go...

Posted by Matthew R. Loney at 7:34 AM