Day 50, Summer in Asia, Yangon, Myanmar
If there ever was a way to do a reset on one’s perspective on life, it would be the circle train in Yangon. For only twenty cents and three hours, it will take you on a journey of sites and smells, the likes of which you may not have seen before, or hope to never again. You will see garbage, poverty, and beauty in a profound mix that leaves you feeling changed and grateful. The entire afternoon we did not see another foreigner since this is a local train for people to bring food to market or travel to and from the city.
I must tell you, that I didn’t take photos of the poorest sites I saw, somehow I’ve never been able to do that. I know every person wielding a camera draws different lines. I don’t have the stomach to photograph raw human suffering, perhaps because I’m not sure I’d want someone recording mine. So the photos below are the more palatable scenes of what I saw, little huts, people interacting, fields of green.
While still in the city, much of the area by the tracks are used as a garbage dump. The water is dark brown and full of garbage, some people are sorting through the garbage, or kids are playing in it. Feels and smells like you’re traveling through a garbage dump for miles, because you are. Sobering.
After that passes, you start seeing some hard core rural poverty. The kind that you can only stomach for a while and then have to take a break from, unlike the people who are living it.
The beautiful scenery came by way of rice fields and other water crops growing in the muddy water that seemed stagnant along the tracks.
The vendors on the train were mostly selling fruit and eggs.
Each of the 39 stops had street dogs hanging out at the station. The Burmese, who are on average spending less than $3 a day to feed a family of 5, do not waste resources of any kind. At one station a woman was openly nursing two puppies, one on each breast. Paul and Kier were sitting in two different booths at that time and it took them a couple minutes to process what they saw. Then when we moved to a different part of the train they compared notes and confirmed that they saw the same thing. There’s something none of us had ever seen before, but as one of the girls pointed out, we drink cow’s milk, so it’s just from one mammal to another.
We saw many woman and children with the yellow shiny Thanaka face cosmetic and sunscreen.
There are monks walking along the tracks, and many families and little groups of friends also sitting on the parallel rails.
In no way was it a lighthearted day, but an important one.
We got off the train as the sun was setting.
After we left the station, we stopped by a grocery store to grab some snacks. These aren’t stocked in the same way they are in other countries. They had a limited selection and almost no one else in the store.
Grocery stores are not the primary way people feed themselves here. Most of the shopping and cooking takes place on the streets, this much is clear. There are very few restaurants, and zero chain restaurants save for Marry Brown (two r’s), no 7-11 or coffee shops, just thousands of little stands on sidewalks.
Tough day, but a good one.