Inle Lake - Our Guide's Further Thoughts

Indien, with its 1090 stuppas, is a wonderful place with a spiritual peacefulness that makes it feel quite special. The views of the surrounding countryside are lovely, and yet we are the only tourists there all afternoon. This leads to another long and frank discussion with our guide about the state of Myanmar. She explains how the poor people in Myanmar are not concerned with politics. Buddhists believe that what happens to them in this life is a direct result of what they did in their past life. If times are extremely hard in this life, they accept it. They do not blame the current regime for their misfortune. Our guide tells us that when the crackdown occurred she was actually traveling in the country, and she asked a woman she met, if she knew of what was happening in Yangon. The woman didn’t. And when the guide started to tell her that monks had been shot, the woman said “Don’t talk to me about politics, it doesn’t concern me”. It is only the educated who come to recognize the repercussions of the current regime’s behaviour. The regime therefore makes sure that the schools are poor, and education past elementary is expensive, thus insuring that the people remain uneducated, uncomplaining and uninterested. This is why most uprisings start with the educated.

She also tells us a fact that the Government does not want outsiders to know. The electricity for the country comes from one Hydro Electric Dam built at the end of Lake Inle by the Japanese in the early 60s. Over the years the level of the lake has dropped as village construction increases and silt builds up against the dam. This has severely impacted the output of the dam turbines. The entire country now only gets full power for 3 days a week, and for 6 hours a day on the other four days. All the major hotels and tourist restaurants have generators.

Another points she tells us is that the average Myanmar citizen, no matter how poor, donates around 40% of their earnings to the temples, thus showing how important religion is to them.


She also discusses the influence of the Chinese on her country. There are many Chinese in Myanmar , and particularly in this area, because of the closeness of the border. Rosa explains that the Chinese are very smart business people, and that all the businesses are owned by Chinese, while all the work is done by the Burmese. All the guides we have throughout our stay in Myanmar, are united in their dislike of the Chinese. Not only does China plunder the resources of Myanmar without a thought for the people, but a large proportion of the 300,000 tourists Burma gets each year are Chinese, and the guides say that the Chinese are rude and pushy tourists unwilling to pay much money for anything.

Inle Lake - A Guide's View of The Regime

Rosa, our guide, tells us that the hotels around Inle Lake have all gathered together and collected enough money to improve the road themselves, but the regime will not let them. It is hard to think of any reason for this, other than the fact that the government does not want the people to meet more tourists or increase their income.

This leads to a discussion of the state of tourism. In 1996 when Burma had only 100,000 tourists a year, the Generals decide to promote Burmese tourism. Unfortunately for the people of Burma, this had exactly the opposite effect as the rest of the world acted negatively to the Government’s promotion, and tourism dropped drastically. Since then it has been slowly recovering to the extent that Burma received 300,000 tourists in 2006. This compares to 30,000,000 that visited Thailand last year. But in 2007 Myanmar will have less than 100,000 tourists. In September and October, because of the uprising, they had almost no tourists. It is now December, their busiest month of the year and there are but a handful of tourists. She explains how this is a disaster for the poor people of Myanmar, many of whom earn their living by selling souvenirs, driving cars, or working in the hotels and restaurants. The last two months have been a terrible hardship for them, and she thanks us sincerely for coming to her country.

Rosa is scathing in her condemnation of the current regime, telling us how all the money that is collected goes directly to them, and very little gets to the people. Schools are few and far between and only primary school is free. If parents do make the sacrifice to send their children on to secondary schools, there are no jobs for them when they get out. So, particularly in the countryside, children leave school and start work at an early age. Rosa herself went to University and got a degree in Chemistry only to discover that there are no jobs for Chemical Engineers in Myanmar . She is convinced that the government does not want to educate its citizens for fear of the consequences. Poor uneducated people are much easier to control.

She goes on to say that Myanmar is a country rich in natural resources. It has oil, diamonds, rubies, and minerals, but none of the technology to exploit them. Instead the government plunders everything, selling the rights mainly to China , India and Russia , and keeping all the proceeds to themselves. Nothing filters down to the people.

The Army has 400,000 soldiers but the country has no enemies. Rosa is convinced that the figure of 400,000 soldiers that the Government admits to is vastly underestimated. There is no mandatory service for the people. Instead they keep such a large force by paying them about double what any other entry level job in the government pays, and then they throw in free housing and health care.

Finally she tells us that the daughter of one of the ruling Generals got married earlier this year and the wedding cost $5,000,000, an unheard of amount of money to almost everyone in Myanmar, and an amount that would have done an enormous amount of good if it had been spent on the people.

It is an amazingly open discussion with a Myanmar national (she prefers to call it Myanmar ) who readily admits that she loves her country and is proud of her people, but hates her Government. We arrive at our hotel feeling older, wiser and sadder.