Asia trip - July 2015

Bangan, Myanmar, July 21, 2015

The day was taken up by a long almost 10-hour bus trip from Yangon to Bangan in central Myanmar. Very nice scenery could be seen on the way. Initially, there were plenty of trees and bushes and grass, all very green, almost like in Ireland. It was clear that there had been much rain recently. It all looked very lush and rich. Then gradually the soil seemed to become less fertile and it looked all a bit harsher though still very green. Then hills and some modest mountains came into view an hour or so before Bangan. The countryside looked almost empty from the passing bus. There were only occasional people to be seen: people riding bicycles and leading oxens in front of carts or looking after their strong white cows. We also passed a few villages and towns, however, and they of course were teeming with life; people were trying to trade their goods as always. The Myanmar people seem to be great salespeople - or rather poverty has made becoming excellent traders an utter necessity for survival.

After a couple of stops we arrived in Bangan just before 5pm. A taxi driver showed me around a little (with the dozens of Pagodas in old Bangan coming into view on the main road - most impressive sight) and took me to the excellent hotel. I used the pool and went for a meal to a restaurant that also featured a string puppet performance.  Unfortunately the music accompanying the play with the puppets was dreadful (but the food was good) though the puppets themsevles were masterfully done and very skillfully used during the performance.

Afterwards I met a couple of ladies from Canada and Australia at the pool. They had been working for the Red Cross in the south and east of the country for the last three months. One of them also visited prisoners in their cells. Conditions weren't too bad compared with some countries she said. Cells were overcrowded but no torture and similar seems to take place. They are still shackling the more seriouis offenders however, many are forced to do hard labor, and there are no special prisons for women. While women have separate cells, they are in the same prison with the male offenders, often in the same wing, and there are only few female prison guards which effectively means limited privacy for the women prisoners. 95 per cent of all inmates are there due to drug related issues and women mostly for prostitution which is still illegal in Myanmar. 

Interestingly one of the Red Cross nurses said that they mostly were there as a precautionary measure in case something happens. Right now the districts and regions they worked in were pretty stable and calm but this might not necessarily last forever. Since the introduction of the liberation policy (and as they call it the introduction of "disciplined democracy," (largely since 2012) by the military regime in Myanmar, conditions in prisons and general healtcare seem to have improved one of the Red Cross ladies informed me.