Five "Must Do" things for a visitor visiting Myanmar/Burma?

Five "Must Do" things for a visitor visiting Myanmar/Burma?

From NYI LYNN SECK:

Rather than a "Must Do" list, I've just listed some things that will usually be done by a tourist visiting the country.

Sooner or later, some local is going to shovel a mouthful of mohinga into some foreigner, claiming "It's a national dish, you will like it!" If the visitor does not find it too hot already, and he or she usually will, there will be the long procession of nangyee-thote, ohn-no-kaut-swe, chinhmaung-hinn, etc. A memorable spoonful of durian usually finishes off the strongest of them.

After that, there is the inevitable tour of the religious sites closest to where the visitor might be located. If in Yangon, the first place would usually be the Shwedagon. There, the ignorant visitor is introduced to the custom of taking off one's footwear while at the same time stepping into large murky puddles of what look like betel nut juice, and is made to rejoice in his realization of the sufferings of life. If possible, he'll be driven, flown, dragged, etc, over to Bagan to marvel at the beauty of the now newly renovated stupas and temples, that somehow remind one, in terms of color, design, and technique, of all the Yuzana Construction sites in Yangon.

Then there is the visit to the lacquerware store, where the poor expatriate will be expected to inject large amounts of foreign currency into the local market in the form of purchasing a variety of lacquerware sets that will often end up collecting dust in some glass-case in, say, Tokyo. Or Kuming.

The next thing he'd be expected to do, after all this shopping and meals and whatnot, is to sit down and relax at a nice typical Burmese teashop, sipping sweetened tea while listening to contemporary rock musicians, which will remind the foreigner of the glorious "eighties" rock music that has lost popularity elsewhere in the world. Occasionally, they might end up sitting in a teashop where "rap" is being played, in which case the tourist will drop down on the ground and die a painful death.

Finally, as the evening sun sets into the distant horizon, the now fatigued tourist, after all the religious, culinary, and material delights he has experienced, will be taken to the closest karaoke bar where all forms of traditional Burmese decency is thrown aside as he enters the neon-lit world of the local commercial sex trade. Dollars are, of course, kindly accepted forms of currency.

Via: SethLoop's Oct 25 post

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