Myanmar (1) - A journey between dream and reality

"Burma, a country unlike anything you know," said Rudyard Kipling, author of the poem "On the road to Mandalay". And he was right!

While embarking on the discovery of Myanmar (the old and current name of Burma), we had in mind a whole kaleidoscope of images: ancient temples looming in front of the mountain, statues of Buddha all in gold, lines of monks begging for rice, rice fields. But we thought also opium, golden triangle, military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the victory of his party, the country was finally opening up more to the world. The long process towards democracy and development could finally begin. (But this before the recent miltary putsch)
Tourists rush to finally discover this country bordered by China, Thailand, Laos, India and Bangladesh. A craze which certainly provides financial income for this fascinating country, but which also poses the problem of infrastructure. You have to do it well in advance to find good hotels, a good guide, who is also english-speaking. And when you know that it is very difficult to travel the country individually, unless you have the experience of a globetrotter, this can pose a problem.

Traffic on bumpy roads ("we don't have potholes but elephant nests" quips the guide) is almost impossible: the (rare) road signs are all written in Myanmars signs, few people speak English.

A host of impressions

After a long journey by plane, our small group disembarks in Mandalay where the temperature and the humidity of the air are a first shock. But no time to think about it, let's go for the first visits.

Along the road, which our minibus traverses in a concert of horns, poor cabins on stilts are far from the splendors expected. Bu, it's, let's say, quaint, and the people who live and work there don't look miserable. If this beginning of the visit leaves us already perplexed, it was going to be the same during our whole journey. How to put into words all these impressions so varied, sometimes contradictory, this diversity of landscapes, this immense devotion to Buddha, this incessant work of the peasants in the countryside?

«Migalaba! »

If there is one thing to highlight, it is the extreme kindness of the inhabitants, the smiles induced by a simple “migalaba” (hello in Burmese and certainly pronounced with a horrible accent).

They lend themselves with good grace to requests for photos, certainly taking us for weirdos to constantly take out our camaras to immortalize the preparation of meals, the chore of dishes in the river, the manual manufacture of bricks ...
But how not to press the trigger when seeing the construction of roads? See the women spreading the pebbles from the base layer, the men using a bucket of heated bitumen in large cans before spreading it with a sort of watering can? How not to be moved, in the villages, in front of a beautiful woman pounding bamboo shoots? Or remove the fibers from the lotus stems that will be used to weave monastic robes?

In the markets, we are amazed by an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables, mountains of rice. Full the nose also by passing near the stalls of spices, fresh or dried fish, chickens killed and plucked on the spot…
And just after, a golden pagoda with its Buddha surrounded by a halo of small multicolored lights… It is rare to contemplate the landscape without seeing a small (or large) temple emerge, without seeing a stupa sparkle in the sun.
What is also striking is the incredible religious fervor. The people have nothing but they beg in order to be able to make

 . Along the roads, they fill jars of water for travelers. All in the hope of "gaining merit".
Myanmar is an enchanting, fascinating country that reveals itself to those who take the time to discover it. A country full of contrasts too: even in the rice fields, where the work is still done in an ancestral way, the pretty peasant women take out their iPhones. To take pictures of tourists ...

Our journey lasted 12 days. We will present our different stages to you:
- Mandalay
- Bagan
- Inle Lake
- Jangoon

Mandalay - Silver objects
The craftsmen's workshops are grouped together in different districts. All of them work according to ancestral methods. Here, near Mandalay, they work with silver. 

Bamboo-Lacquer
Lacquerware is famous. But did you know that the objects are made of straw? 

Pottery
In this potters' village near Mandalay, men carve metal objects while women fashion terracotta pots.