CONCLUSION

Overall a very varied and interesting trip. Myanmar is a very undeveloped country compared with the rest of south east asia. A huge proportion of the population still lives on the land and farms in traditional ways with virtually no mechanisation - and it’s hard to see that changing significantly for a very long time.

Their way of life is geared to that – the day seems to end at around 9 pm, shops and restaurants close around then and there’s little in the way of any entertainment or nightlife after that time. And the day begins shortly before dawn – you can usually hear chanting from the monasteries at that time. And I suppose it makes sense, if you don’t have electricity, to have your day largely determined by the daylight hours.

Buddhism is a huge part of most people’s everyday life, and provides a great part of their cultural and art heritage.

Many people we spoke to expressed an unrealistic amount of optimism in the future. Now that initial moves have been made towards democratic government  there is an expectation that there will be rapid and significant improvements in living standards. And much of the optimism is based on their admiration of Aung San Suu Kyi and their hopes that her party will win the next election and she will become president. Whether that happens or not I can’t see much change coming quickly for the majority of people – it will take several generations.

Because of the size of the country and the difficulty of travelling around – and the restrictions still placed on where foreigners may visit – we only went to a relatively small number of places that are pretty much a well-travelled route. OK, these are probably the main places for a first visit to the country anyway – but it would be interesting to get to more remote regions, particularly in the north where there are a number of national parks and wildlife reserves.