Welcome back, world! (a visit to Myanmar)

I've long been intrigued by the nation of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly and variably known as Burma. Until quite recently, it was largely cut off from the outside world for some very good reasons. Few countries have changed so much in such a short time. Over the course of just a few years, Myanmar went from an economically and politically isolated nation to one that is increasingly opening up to the broader world. Some of this is due to Myanmar's geography. Bordered on the north by China's Yunnan Province and on the northwest by India's northeastern states, Myanmar offers the least complicated land bridge between these two Asian powers. Perhaps even more importantly, Myanmar and the Irrawaddy River Valley that forms its heart provides a "back door" linking China's western provinces to the Indian Ocean, bringing China that much closer to the oil flows from Africa and the Middle East without the journey through the all-too-vulnerable Straits of Malacca. Myanmar, like much of Southeast Asia, is now firmly a part of the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China in the region. 

Street dining in Yangon

A few moments in the Yangon airport is enough to take away any sense that you have entered a hermit kingdom. Airplanes from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok regularly disgorge hundreds of passengers into the sleek, modern terminal. Tales of "Myanmar Moments" with cranky immigration inspectors seem a thing of the past, replaced by some of the friendliest immigration officers I've experienced (Zimbabwe, however, still wins my award for friendly immigration officers). Numerous banks, ATMs, service counters, and taxi queues await the arriving passenger. 

The star of Yangon - Shwedagon Pagoda

The shadows of Yangon's (formerly known as Rangoon's) glory days before World War II are hard to miss on the wide avenues into the city. This was once one of the most prosperous economic and cultural entrepôts in Asia. The continual crises that have beset the country since World War II isolated and impoverished it, but also preserved the city much more than Bangkok, Jakarta, or Manila. Although there are a good number of modern towers in Yangon, there are also some lovely colonial-era buildings, as well as some fabulous old wooden architecture. Perhaps as much as anything, I was struck by the sheer number of trees and green space that give the city a living, breathing ambiance, something that so many other cities in the region lack. 

a quiet street in central Yangon

Yet one wonders how long the remnants of this simpler time will remain. I'm told that developers are buying up entire city blocks to build shopping mall and that there are 1,000 new cars on Yangon's streets every week. There is also rapid growth of a city that already is home to 5.5 million. Despite the opening of a number of new elevated expressways, traffic seems to be frequently at a standstill, especially in the crowded grid of streets in the city center. Sleek new Japanese, Malaysian, and Chinese cars are everywhere, and the Cuba-esque rebuilt cars that dominated Yangon's roadways ten years ago are a rare sight. Mobile phones, an unimaginable luxury a few years ago, are now everywhere. 

old and new Yangon

Yangon is indeed welcoming back the world. It is not yet a fully confident welcome, as the shadows of ethnic insurgencies, uncertain politics, and a military still unsure about giving up power linger. The benefits and challenges of "development" are everywhere to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Yangon has a lot of human and natural capital to work with.