Whoever said Ignorance is Bliss – You are so Painfully Wrong

Be warned – another long blog post

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Natalie: Friend I made on the ship

I dare you to point to Myanmar on a map. If I put a world map down on a table, I guarantee most of you could not point to it in 10 seconds. I know I couldn’t prior to going on this voyage. I saw previous SASers posting photos from Myanmar with beautiful clay structures and temples and a curiosity started to brew inside me. I had this immense excitement about visiting a place most people will never enter in their lifetimes, but I was nervous all my expectations would be disconfirmed. Looking back, I wish I would’ve done more research on the political history of this isolated country, but I didn’t even do a Google search. Between writing scholarship essays, registering for classes, packing, and rounding up prescriptions, I guess I ran out of time.

Semester at Sea gives us short briefings on each country before entering their boarders to educate us on social norms, history, and culture. All the previous countries, I felt like I had a decent grip on all of the above; but for Myanmar, I had my ears and eyes open to learn. This port created more political discussion and stir within the student body on the ship than any country previously.

If American media is not covering the current political and cultural climate in Myanmar or if you’re blind to it like I was, let me give you the SparkNotes version. There is an ethnic group of people residing in Myanmar named Rohingya, experiencing extreme abuses and exile. These people are primarily Muslim and because of complex historical unrest, the Buddhist people and government of Myanmar refuse to acknowledge them as citizens. Or people of equal value. The reasons for this are extremely complex and hard to explain so I advise you to read further on it; I know historians can describe the situation much better than I can. Because of the blatant racism, these people have been forced to flee as refugees to surrounding countries like India and Bangladesh. Because these countries cannot take the large number belonging to this ethnicity, many of them are living in torture camps – to not sugar-coat it. They are in horrible living conditions graphically brutal and inhumane. There is a deep-rooted hatred towards these people. Government leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi who once were a beacon of hope for Burmese people, are now turning a blind eye to this blatant violation to human rights.

The Semester at Sea ship is full of activists. We have people from countries all around the world that see their surroundings through a different lens than a lot of us. An activist group on the ship, who were particularly disturbed by the Rohingya crisis, held a Q&A seminar with our inter-port lecturer from Myanmar. I don’t think he was prepared to be bombarded with intense and difficult questions about the atrocities his home country is doing to these people, but he held his own and gave us interesting insight to the complex history of this country. He basically told the room of 20 years-old fired up to make a difference, they can’t do anything about it. As outsiders, there is basically nothing we can do. A reality that was hard pill for me and many other students to swallow because how are we supposed to sit back, travel in this country, and not do anything? It caused a significant amount of cognitive dissonance for me during my week in the country, which I’ll explain later.

During my time in Myanmar, I learned the immense power of knowledge and awareness. Information is empowerment, but it is also a privilege.

Because of government censorship, your average Burmese person has no idea what is happening. We take for granted as Americans our right to free speech and press, and when a country has censorship, people have no way of knowing what is going on. I learned in a documentary, and later first-hand, that Myanmar is generally an uneducated society because of the corruption of school systems and poverty. This makes them extremely vulnerable to brain-washing by their government. This has created a perfect storm of blind hatred towards a group of people and ignorance. Whoever said ignorance is bliss… you are so painfully wrong.

Despite all the heavy material we learned about prior to stepping off the ship, I had an absolutely incredible time in Myanmar. This is where the cognitive dissonance came in. I had this uneasy amount of guilt about having such an amazing time as a foreigner, knowing people were hurting a few cities away.

However, I was overwhelmed with the kindness of the Burmese people I encountered and the intricate beauty of this country so isolated from globalization.

I saw hundreds of beautiful pagodas, ate incredible food at outdoor styled restaurants, got haggled into buying things I didn’t need at markets, and had the best front row seats to hot air balloons over my head. This country took my breath away, and I know I will never experience anything close to it again.

Here are some highlights from my time in Yangon and Bagan, Myanmar:

Annie and I decided to do what we called a “couple’s retreat” because all of our friends from the ship were on field programs through Semester at Sea and we were independently traveling. We booked a hotel room at a resort in Bagan, and our good friend Natalie ended up joining us. The three of us had way too much fun. I did not think that level of pure joy and freedom existed.

On the first day, we went to the Shwedigon Pagoda in Yangon. We sat down in the shade to take a break from the scorching sun and to let our bare foot cool down. You have to take your shoes off at the entrance of every pagoda; my inner Colorado hippy was really coming out. A local man a little bit older than us sat down and struck up a conversation. He told us how he wanted to teach English in the US and wanted to practice with us. He told us all about Buddhism practices and answered hundreds of questions for us.

Upon entering a temple or pagoda, it can be a sensory overload. You have people kneeling before Buddhas intensely praying, gongs being rung aloud, people pouring cups of water over statues, and monks walking around in groups. Something I had obviously never seen in my life, and without a tour guide we were left with very confused looks on our faces. The man described each corner of the Pagoda had statues depending on what day you were born on. Mine would have been the “Tuesday Corner” which means my animal is a Lion and my astrology is Mars. I then would pour 20 cups of water on Buddha’s head because of my age. He told us all about the traditions and complexities and returned the favor. “What does ‘that makes sense’ mean?” he asked. Try explaining that. It was incredible to get some insight on this wildly interesting and beautiful religion and it laid a base for the remainder of the trip.

Annie and I decided to save some money on our travels to Bagan and took the overnight bus. We did enough research and inquiry from other SASers and decided it was safe enough to try. You know those life moments that are so insane, you can’t help but laugh? You know that borderline feeling where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry? Yea, that about sums up our 12-hour bus ride. Our taxi dropped us at the bus station, and I honestly did not want to get out. We sat down at a restaurant that broke every health code in the book and got a snack. I figured I should use the restroom, so I ventured to find one cause how bad can it be, right? The door was unhinged, barely hanging on, the floor was flooded with dirty water, there were wires sticking out of the back of the toilet, and the seat was as opposite of clean as you can imagine. I held my breath, did the shake and dry (every female knows what I’m talking about) and darted out of there. I have never experienced a bathroom that bad at any campsite, beach, or playground in my entire life.

We got on the bus and found our seats in the first row closest to the driver. Annie started spritzing essential oils everywhere to “cleanse the air” – still not used to her hippy habits. The driver puts the bus in drive and starts blaring weird Burmese folk music. The next five hours consisted of me almost falling asleep only to be woken up by a Justin Bieber song, loud honking, jolty turns, or our driver hacking up a lung. We made it to Bagan alive… somehow, but had to first navigate through sketchy restroom stops along the way. I think we combined got three hours of sleep, but hey we saved money on a hotel room!

Our three days in Bagan were so far from anything I am used to back home, but have been my favorite days of me entire time abroad. We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around the city for the day so he brought us to all the famous pagodas and anywhere else we wanted to go. We saw some amazing architecture and sculptures of Buddhas. Here’s some photos of the places we went:

We watched the sunset from the top of a pagoda that had a staircase to the top inside of it. If I would’ve ate a cheeseburger that day, I would not have fit up the staircase – that’s how narrow and confined it was.

The next morning we got up for the sunrise to watch the hot air balloons. We rented E-Bikes and after about 10 minutes of figuring out how the heck to ride them, we were on our way winding through dirt paths to find a good lookout. We found a group of pagodas with the help of a local boy a little younger than us and watched the show from there. Breath-taking. I could feel tears pooling in my eyes because it was so surreal. Annie said, “That’s it. We’ve peaked. It can’t possibly get better than this.” And she’s right, I can’t fathom anything better than that moment of sitting against a pagoda, in Myanmar, watching hundreds of hot air balloons overhead as the sun rises. I may not have been able to be in a balloon, but I’d say my front row seats were just as grand.

The remainder of the day we rode the scooters around and explored Old and New Bagan on our own time. I never wanted to leave. Every single Burmese person we encountered welcomed us with open arms and a warm smile and I have never felt so peaceful. I’m going to miss the sweet waitresses with beautiful yellow clay designs on their cheeks at Weather Spoons. I’m going to miss when Natalie almost killed us by taking us through soft sand off-roading on the E-bikes. I’m going to miss ordering cocktails by the pool at our resort. And I’m going to miss the absence of anxiety I felt the entire time in Bagan. A truly magical city.

We spent the last day in Yangon which is closer to your typical city with sky scrapers. We went to markets and found an alley filled with beautiful murals. I’ll add some photos below to give some visuals. In the end, this port far outweighs every previous one. This country is unlike any place I had ever been in the US and unlike any other place I’ll ever go again. I hope to go back some day, but if I don’t, the Burmese people and the beautiful sights I saw are everlasting and have changed my world-view.

I saw a level of poverty that ripped my heart open raw, but saw beautiful resilience in the pain. I saw contentment and kindness despite people’s situations, and I saw ignorance disguising itself as bliss. These people have food to put on the table and survival as a priority, they are less concerned what is happening to people a few cities over. It doesn’t mean it’s not happening, and it breaks my heart that people have no choice in being ignorant because of their government.

I was challenged in this country. I hope I can find a way to help despite what the SAS inter-port lecturer says, even if it’s being knowledgeable and informing others. I went into this country with one story in my head, which was quickly deconstructed. People are not their government’s mistakes, and the people I met confirmed that most people are good. This country made me realize being a traveler means laying down your inhibitions and accepting a country instead of judging. Myanmar was full of imperfections, but wildly beautiful despite them. The main lesson I am taking away is that knowledge is power and that whoever said ignorance is bliss, was full of shit.