Hello everyone!
I apologize for the delay in the blog post about Burma. We've had four days on the ship between there an India where I had three papers due and a pretty intense midterm. I have been a little busy with all of that, but we arrive in India tomorrow morning.
I would quickly like to give a shout-out to Professor Kellis Bayless at Washburn University! If you've been following my blog, I thought of you while we were in Burma and have some great pictures and videos to give you when I get back!
As I mentioned before, I got sick the day before arriving in Burma. I stayed on the ship the first day and I had to miss the field program I signed up for that went to the city of Yangon for a tour. I wanted to be sure to be better for the Ngwe Sang Beach and Elephant Camp trip I was on for the remaining four days. We weren't able to get off of the ship the first day until around 5 p.m., so at least I didn't miss an entire day of time!
This was the first time that our ship did not pull right into the center of a city. The closest city, Yangon, was about an hour drive from our port. A lot of people signed up for trips in Burma because it can be difficult to independently travel. My trip the second morning started off with what was supposed to be a five hour bus with couple of short stops for lunch, a visit to an umbrella making factory and a local market. However, it ended up taking us 11 hours to get there. None of us are quite sure how that happened.
I didn't really know what to expect when arriving in Burma and was looking forward to getting to see a lot of the country during our long bus ride. Burma is also frequently referred to as Myanmar. In 1989, their military government changed the name from Burma to Myanmar. The renaming of the country remains a debated issue today. Many people do not think the government should have the right to change the name of the country. The day before arriving there, we were told that either name is acceptable. I'll use "Burma" for the rest of this post.
The relationship between Burma, the United States and other Western nations has a history of being strained. For a period of time, it was difficult for tourists to even be able to enter the country. The relationships have recently begun to grow in strength, and in November of 2012, Barack Obama became the first United States President to visit Burma. Much of the country still remains off-limits to tourists.
Approximately 90% of their population is of the Buddhist religion. It is often referred to as "The Golden Country" because of the high numbers of gilded Buddhist pagodas located throughout the country. I missed my chance to get to visit some of them, such as the Shwedegon Pagoda in Yagon, because I was sick for the field program, but I saw many on our bus ride up to Ngwe Sang Beach. According to our tour guide, Burma has over 400,000 pagodas!
A majority of Burma is very underdeveloped and it is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Much of their troubled economy is a result of isolation, poor management, lack of strong education systems and very limited access to technology. The average household income in Burma is only 300 U.S. dollars a year. Our tour guide was previously a teacher but she only made $5 each month. She quit that job to become a tour guide and now speaks six different languages so that she can give a lot of tours and make enough money to get by. Despite all of this, Burma is an absolutely amazing and beautiful country filled with incredibly kind, hardworking and genuine people.
Here are a couple of pictures I took on our bus ride! Total, 128 people were on this trip and we were split into four different buses. I was on bus "B" along with quite a few of my good friends! Being with awesome people made the long bus ride go a whole lot quicker! I was not able to get any Burmese currency before leaving for Semester at Sea. Luckily, Burma actually widely accepts U.S. dollars. However, they have to be new and crisp. I was able to exchange my U.S. dollars for Burmese money at the hotel we stopped at for lunch.
Here is a picture from the "Traditional Umbrella Workshop" we stopped at. Umbrella making is an important part of Burmese culture. I ended up purchasing one! It was a small one though. Not nearly as big as the one in this picture!
After the umbrella factory, we stopped at a local market. I don't think they were very used to tourists coming through because we caused quite a commotion. It wasn't in a bad way though. No one was pressuring us to buy anything or come to their "stalls". They all just seemed so happy and excited to see us! They got even more excited when we were able to say hi to them in their language. The Burmese word for hello is "Mingalarbar." We didn't have long at this market, but I was able to purchase some fabric for one of their traditional skirts. Here is a picture of them testing it on me!
We finally arrived at Ngwe San Beach around 7 p.m that evening. The beach is right next to several hotels/resorts, which are right by a small market that neighbors a local village and a school. It was very interesting to see the more "developed" parts of Burma and the underdeveloped parts right in the same area. We stayed in Ocean Paradise Resort, but it is definitely not what you would picture when you think of a typical resort back in America! There was only warm water and air conditioning during certain parts of the day. We are lucky that we got to stay in such a nice place. A majority of the homes in Burma are small wooden huts and are not connected to any form of electricity. After eating dinner at a small restaurant beside our hotel, we headed to bed so that we could wake up early the next morning and make the most of the day.
Each bus had a different "trip itinerary" so that 128 different people were not all trying to do the same thing at the same time. My group had the first morning and part of the afternoon free before getting together and visiting the local village and school. A few of us up for breakfast, took some pictures along the gorgeous beach and then explored the market and town for the rest of the morning. On our way back, me and Corrie took the "bike taxis" to our hotel.
We met a group of people for lunch the "sister" hotel to ours, Sunny Paradise Resort. The restaurant there is considered to be a part of the Ocean Paradise Resort as well. All of us were extremely surprised at the food selection. They had burgers, chicken sandwiches, pizza and a lot of other things that you would be able or order back in America. I should of done some research on how and where they get all of that food from. I don't think they were used to such a big group people ordering at one time. It probably took about two hours for us all to get our meals. It seemed to be a little stressful and overwhelming for them sometimes, and I felt badly about that. But they were still so incredibly kind.
Some of my lovely friends. :) Don't judge my pants. They are really light weight and so comfortable!
After lunch, we met up with the rest of our bus and visited the local village next to the market. It was amazing to get a glimpse into what their daily life is life. Some of us had the chance to speak to a woman that was hand-making bracelets and necklaces out of shells that she picks up from the beach. She gives them to one of the shops in the market, but doesn't always get the money that people pay for them. A lot of us decided to buy some directly from her to ensure that she got paid for all of her hard work. I bought two necklaces and two bracelets. We also got to see a village daycare!
Following the village visit, we went to a school located just a few minutes from the village. In Burma, most schools have all different ages and grades in one place. They aren't broken up into elementary school, middle school and high school. We got the chance to hear from some of the teachers and then talk to a few of the students that had just finished up taking some of their final exams. Here are a few pictures from the village and the school visit!
The next day we went to the ELEPHANT CAMP!!! I got to ride an elephant through the jungle. No big deal. :) I was a little worried about how they would treat the elephants, but it sounds like they are actually well taken care of there. There are about 200 wild elephants roaming free up in the mountains/jungle there. They have about 10 that are trained at the elephant camp, but only five were available for us to ride. When the elephants aren't "working" they are allowed to go back into the jungle and roam free with the other wild elephants. Their masters find them each morning by listening for the sounds of their bells. Sometimes the elephants are smart enough to use their trunks and put mud in their bells if they don't want their masters to find them!
There were two people on each elephant and each of us got to take about a 30 minute ride. I was in the first group on an elephant with my friend Corrie. Part of the time it looked like we weren't even following an actual path, but the masters seemed to know exactly what they were doing, so I had trust in them! It was so much fun!
I had about an hour to kill after the elephant ride, so I went up to the daycare that they had at the camp. The kids looked like they ranged in age from 2-10 years old. Those that were old enough got up and started dancing and singing for us that went there! It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Burmese children are absolutely adorable.
After the elephant camp, a few of us went to the market to make some purchases. I found some gifts for my family that I am really excited about! Then I treated myself to a massage at one of the resorts and then went to our "farewell" dinner back at our hotel's restaurant. We had to be on the bus the next morning at 5 a.m. so I called it an early night. For part of our ride back the next day, we had government escorts. Government officials on motorcycles drove in front of our buses to clear traffic so we could make it back to the ship in time. We aren't completely sure why that happened. All of a sudden they just showed up. It is a really good thing they did though because we would have been late to the ship if they didn't!
My time in Burma was absolutely amazing. I know I said this about Vietnam too, but so far this really is the port that I would choose to come back to. There are so many places I didn't get the chance to see; Golden Rock, Yagon, Bagon, Inle Lake and so much more! I'll probably say that about India and Africa too. Every place we are going is just incredible! I wish I had more time to just stop everything and truly appreciate this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I have been given. Everything is just so go, go, go all of the time. I'm actually looking forward to when we'll have about a week on the ship between ports! After India, we have six days until Mauritius and then another six days until South Africa. That will give me a lot more time to just take some time to myself and reflect on everything I've seen and done.
I absolutely cannot wait for the six days we'll have in India starting tomorrow morning! I'm sure I'll have some pretty incredible things to say. :)
Thank you, everyone! And thank you for keeping up with my blog even though I don't post as often as I would like to. I realized that I didn't include my email address in the last post that I said to email me. It is emily.juhnke.sp13@semesteratsea.org. Feel free to email me! I can't promise that I will be able to respond right away, but I will do my best.
I apologize for the delay in the blog post about Burma. We've had four days on the ship between there an India where I had three papers due and a pretty intense midterm. I have been a little busy with all of that, but we arrive in India tomorrow morning.
I would quickly like to give a shout-out to Professor Kellis Bayless at Washburn University! If you've been following my blog, I thought of you while we were in Burma and have some great pictures and videos to give you when I get back!
As I mentioned before, I got sick the day before arriving in Burma. I stayed on the ship the first day and I had to miss the field program I signed up for that went to the city of Yangon for a tour. I wanted to be sure to be better for the Ngwe Sang Beach and Elephant Camp trip I was on for the remaining four days. We weren't able to get off of the ship the first day until around 5 p.m., so at least I didn't miss an entire day of time!
This was the first time that our ship did not pull right into the center of a city. The closest city, Yangon, was about an hour drive from our port. A lot of people signed up for trips in Burma because it can be difficult to independently travel. My trip the second morning started off with what was supposed to be a five hour bus with couple of short stops for lunch, a visit to an umbrella making factory and a local market. However, it ended up taking us 11 hours to get there. None of us are quite sure how that happened.
I didn't really know what to expect when arriving in Burma and was looking forward to getting to see a lot of the country during our long bus ride. Burma is also frequently referred to as Myanmar. In 1989, their military government changed the name from Burma to Myanmar. The renaming of the country remains a debated issue today. Many people do not think the government should have the right to change the name of the country. The day before arriving there, we were told that either name is acceptable. I'll use "Burma" for the rest of this post.
The relationship between Burma, the United States and other Western nations has a history of being strained. For a period of time, it was difficult for tourists to even be able to enter the country. The relationships have recently begun to grow in strength, and in November of 2012, Barack Obama became the first United States President to visit Burma. Much of the country still remains off-limits to tourists.
Approximately 90% of their population is of the Buddhist religion. It is often referred to as "The Golden Country" because of the high numbers of gilded Buddhist pagodas located throughout the country. I missed my chance to get to visit some of them, such as the Shwedegon Pagoda in Yagon, because I was sick for the field program, but I saw many on our bus ride up to Ngwe Sang Beach. According to our tour guide, Burma has over 400,000 pagodas!
A majority of Burma is very underdeveloped and it is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Much of their troubled economy is a result of isolation, poor management, lack of strong education systems and very limited access to technology. The average household income in Burma is only 300 U.S. dollars a year. Our tour guide was previously a teacher but she only made $5 each month. She quit that job to become a tour guide and now speaks six different languages so that she can give a lot of tours and make enough money to get by. Despite all of this, Burma is an absolutely amazing and beautiful country filled with incredibly kind, hardworking and genuine people.
Here are a couple of pictures I took on our bus ride! Total, 128 people were on this trip and we were split into four different buses. I was on bus "B" along with quite a few of my good friends! Being with awesome people made the long bus ride go a whole lot quicker! I was not able to get any Burmese currency before leaving for Semester at Sea. Luckily, Burma actually widely accepts U.S. dollars. However, they have to be new and crisp. I was able to exchange my U.S. dollars for Burmese money at the hotel we stopped at for lunch.
Here is a picture from the "Traditional Umbrella Workshop" we stopped at. Umbrella making is an important part of Burmese culture. I ended up purchasing one! It was a small one though. Not nearly as big as the one in this picture!
After the umbrella factory, we stopped at a local market. I don't think they were very used to tourists coming through because we caused quite a commotion. It wasn't in a bad way though. No one was pressuring us to buy anything or come to their "stalls". They all just seemed so happy and excited to see us! They got even more excited when we were able to say hi to them in their language. The Burmese word for hello is "Mingalarbar." We didn't have long at this market, but I was able to purchase some fabric for one of their traditional skirts. Here is a picture of them testing it on me!
We finally arrived at Ngwe San Beach around 7 p.m that evening. The beach is right next to several hotels/resorts, which are right by a small market that neighbors a local village and a school. It was very interesting to see the more "developed" parts of Burma and the underdeveloped parts right in the same area. We stayed in Ocean Paradise Resort, but it is definitely not what you would picture when you think of a typical resort back in America! There was only warm water and air conditioning during certain parts of the day. We are lucky that we got to stay in such a nice place. A majority of the homes in Burma are small wooden huts and are not connected to any form of electricity. After eating dinner at a small restaurant beside our hotel, we headed to bed so that we could wake up early the next morning and make the most of the day.
Each bus had a different "trip itinerary" so that 128 different people were not all trying to do the same thing at the same time. My group had the first morning and part of the afternoon free before getting together and visiting the local village and school. A few of us up for breakfast, took some pictures along the gorgeous beach and then explored the market and town for the rest of the morning. On our way back, me and Corrie took the "bike taxis" to our hotel.
Some of my lovely friends. :) Don't judge my pants. They are really light weight and so comfortable!
After lunch, we met up with the rest of our bus and visited the local village next to the market. It was amazing to get a glimpse into what their daily life is life. Some of us had the chance to speak to a woman that was hand-making bracelets and necklaces out of shells that she picks up from the beach. She gives them to one of the shops in the market, but doesn't always get the money that people pay for them. A lot of us decided to buy some directly from her to ensure that she got paid for all of her hard work. I bought two necklaces and two bracelets. We also got to see a village daycare!
Following the village visit, we went to a school located just a few minutes from the village. In Burma, most schools have all different ages and grades in one place. They aren't broken up into elementary school, middle school and high school. We got the chance to hear from some of the teachers and then talk to a few of the students that had just finished up taking some of their final exams. Here are a few pictures from the village and the school visit!
The next day we went to the ELEPHANT CAMP!!! I got to ride an elephant through the jungle. No big deal. :) I was a little worried about how they would treat the elephants, but it sounds like they are actually well taken care of there. There are about 200 wild elephants roaming free up in the mountains/jungle there. They have about 10 that are trained at the elephant camp, but only five were available for us to ride. When the elephants aren't "working" they are allowed to go back into the jungle and roam free with the other wild elephants. Their masters find them each morning by listening for the sounds of their bells. Sometimes the elephants are smart enough to use their trunks and put mud in their bells if they don't want their masters to find them!
There were two people on each elephant and each of us got to take about a 30 minute ride. I was in the first group on an elephant with my friend Corrie. Part of the time it looked like we weren't even following an actual path, but the masters seemed to know exactly what they were doing, so I had trust in them! It was so much fun!
I had about an hour to kill after the elephant ride, so I went up to the daycare that they had at the camp. The kids looked like they ranged in age from 2-10 years old. Those that were old enough got up and started dancing and singing for us that went there! It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Burmese children are absolutely adorable.
After the elephant camp, a few of us went to the market to make some purchases. I found some gifts for my family that I am really excited about! Then I treated myself to a massage at one of the resorts and then went to our "farewell" dinner back at our hotel's restaurant. We had to be on the bus the next morning at 5 a.m. so I called it an early night. For part of our ride back the next day, we had government escorts. Government officials on motorcycles drove in front of our buses to clear traffic so we could make it back to the ship in time. We aren't completely sure why that happened. All of a sudden they just showed up. It is a really good thing they did though because we would have been late to the ship if they didn't!
My time in Burma was absolutely amazing. I know I said this about Vietnam too, but so far this really is the port that I would choose to come back to. There are so many places I didn't get the chance to see; Golden Rock, Yagon, Bagon, Inle Lake and so much more! I'll probably say that about India and Africa too. Every place we are going is just incredible! I wish I had more time to just stop everything and truly appreciate this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I have been given. Everything is just so go, go, go all of the time. I'm actually looking forward to when we'll have about a week on the ship between ports! After India, we have six days until Mauritius and then another six days until South Africa. That will give me a lot more time to just take some time to myself and reflect on everything I've seen and done.
I absolutely cannot wait for the six days we'll have in India starting tomorrow morning! I'm sure I'll have some pretty incredible things to say. :)
Thank you, everyone! And thank you for keeping up with my blog even though I don't post as often as I would like to. I realized that I didn't include my email address in the last post that I said to email me. It is emily.juhnke.sp13@semesteratsea.org. Feel free to email me! I can't promise that I will be able to respond right away, but I will do my best.
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