On my first trip to Burma, as it was known then, in 1977 l was able to stay 1 week. Someone asked what happens if you overstay your visa. The answer was, no one overstayed as you just got sent to gaol. The only way in and out was by plane.
It was a country that was tired and it was being dragged backwards. At the end of WW2 it was the largest exporter of rice in the world. By the time l went there, Burma was importing rice, meanwhile Thailand its neighbour, had replaced it as the largest exporter of rice.
The military leaders ruled with an an iron fist, and l swore that l would not revisit until the military had stood down. Aung Sun Suu Kii won a nobel prize in her struggle to bring an end to military rule, and an elected govt. brought decades
of oppression to an end. Things began to look up and tourist visas were extended to 2 weeks.
All that has come crashing down. Yet Myanmar is not alone in this practice, military coups are common in Thailand as well, and the army currently rules there once more. Pakistan is another country that has faced many coups over the years, and the day l arrived there, was the day president Ali Bhutto was overthrown.
I went there in 1988 as part of a WHO funded hospital project. It was to build a new 120 bed hospital in the nicer parts of Yangoon; most money came from Australia and most of the suppliers were Australian Companies. Aung San Suu Kyi had just returned from exile and there was lots of international support and goodwill. We all met her at a reception and she was just a startling beauty with a massive presence.
Then we found out the truth of this new hospital, it was located in a gated “village” that was the realm of the military and their families. It was not for the general population. Not long after Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest and the place is a total mess.
After giving the military, police and organised militia groups free reign to terrorise the Rohingya population, the silly moll deserves what she gets. And I can’t help feeling that the large sections of the population who stood by because they didn’t mind what was happening to those poor bastards deserve their treatment as well. Those opposed to then government’s approval of the ethnic cleansing have my sympathy.
I was there in 1975 when the conditions were as you describe. In fact a month or so before I went there there had been a student demonstration that had been crushed hard with the full blast of tanks, shootings, etc. There was still barbed wire around the main square in Rangoon to prevent another mass gathering there, and a curfew from 8 pm onwards. It was the poorest country I’ve ever been to. In Pagan, which apparently is now a big tourist destination, I didn’t see a single car; what goods there were were transported by ox-cart. At Mandalay station there were many people sitting on the ground outside; I don’t know why they were there but it wasn’t a political demonstration. I saw a patrol of armed soldiers march through those people literally knocking men, women and children out of their way with the butts of their rifles, and nobody protested or even seemed to think it was at all unusual.
There was an interesting lurk for tourists like me. On arrival at Rangoon it was mandatory to change $US10 to the local currency (kyat, I think) at the official exchange rate, which bore absolutely no relationship at all to the real value of the Kyat. But I had been told in Bangkok that the thing to do was to bring with you into the country a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and a carton of 555 Filter cigarettes. There were only two places to stay in Rangoon: the Strand Hotel and the YMCA. I stayed at the YMCA, and sure enough, as I had been told would happen, during the evening a man tapped on my shoulder and asked if I had whisky and cigarettes. I told him I did, and he then paid me a large amount of Kyat, enough to see me through to the end of my week in Burma. So that week cost me $US10 plus the price of duty-free Black Label and smokes, which was very little in those days.
I did the same deal, 555 or Benson & Hedges smokes and JW Red. The sale of the 2 of them paid for my entire week there, for $10 duty free. In those days most of the men in Rangoon wore sarongs, as they couldn’t afford long pants. Rangoon was in decay, the tropics was taking its toll on the facades of buildings were beginning to crumble and were covered in mould. Most trucks getting around the city were of this vintage.
