"If you've 'eard the East
a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught
else." No! you won't 'eed nothin' else But
them spicy garlic smells, An' the sunshine an'
the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells; On
the road to Mandalay ...
-
Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling
[1]
BANGKOK, Thailand - The dateline
should read Putao, Myanmar, billed as the
country's northernmost town, where the Himalayas
are a stunning backdrop to an exclusive resort
served only by air from Yangon and Mandalay. Your
correspondent's local travel
agent ruled that out. He
might get him a room at his favored hotel there in
about two weeks - not before. What about Yangon,
say the famed Karaweik Palace? "You'll have to
plan two months ahead for that one," he insisted.
Myanmar's return to the fold of
international relations has prompted a surge in
visitors that is forcing would-be tourists to book
well ahead instead of relying on the easily-found
space at near-empty hotels that has been the case
for the past several decades.
The number
of foreign visitors passing through Yangon
International Airport jumped 21.8% last year to
nearly 360,000, Myanmar Times reported this month.
Tom Bishop, who runs DTC Travel in Bangkok,
reckons there has been a 12-fold jump in tourists
to Myanmar in the past eight months.
High-profile changes in the country's
domestic and external political relations - among
them the release from house arrest of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the December visit of
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are
removing doubts many would-be visitors had about
spending cash in the formerly military-ruled
state, known for its brutal suppression of
dissidents, most recently in putting down the 2007
"Saffron" revolution.
They are now
flocking, consciences free, to see Myanmar's
remarkable sights, whether in the form of the
Shwedagon Pagoda's glittering beauty in the former
capital, Yangon, ancient semi-ruined temples in
Bagan, towering mountains in the north, or
tropical seas and near-empty white-sand beaches in
the southeast and west.
Businessmen are
also grabbing any available airplane seats as the
strength of United States and European-led
sanctions against the now nominally civilian-led
government crumbles. Once in Yangon or the new
capital, Naypyidaw, they are finding a leaner
bureaucracy, fewer obstructions in they way of
licenses, and less need for back-handers,
according to one European business owner who
declined to be identified in spite of the change
in political climate.
A dearth of
international connections direct to Yangon or
elsewhere in Myanmar means Bangkok remains the
leading departure point, a boon for the likes of
DTC's Bishop.
Last week, "we booked more
room nights in Myanmar than for all of Thailand,"
he said. "It's amazing."
Even Malaysians
are beating a path to his door, although Kuala
Lumpur at present is one of the few other
departure points for Myanmar.
An agreement
to operate daily flights between Yangon and Dhaka
in Bangladesh was signed last week, Myanmar Times
reported on Monday. Myanmar is DTC's top travel
promotion this year. Travel guide company Lonely
Planet pitches the country as the second-top
must-see place on the planet.
"It is a
whole new diverse destination," says Bishop.
"Culture, history, religion; river and sea
cruises, fishing, diving - the Mergui archipelago
- look at it. Untouched for 40 years - perfect,
pristine. Not even the oil companies have touched
it - yet."
Not to mention mountain
climbing, skiing and river-rafting based around
eco-resorts in the north, jungle-trekking, and
tours of World War II battle sites and war
cemeteries that dot the former British colony. "In
the '80s it was Thailand, a decade later Cambodia,
then Vietnam. Now it is Myanmar's decade," he
said.
For now, finding hotel space is the
first big problem, with top-end accommodation such
as Traders, owned by Malaysian tycoon Robert
Kuok's Shangri La group, well-booked in advance.
Rooms at the growing number of two- and three-star
hotels are more easily come by, says Bishop, but
not always to the liking of the better-heeled
travelers who dominate his customers, their
back-packing days behind them.
The surge
in demand is driving up prices. Four-star
accommodation that a year ago cost US$80 a night
can now set a visitor back US$150 to $350. An
evening at a popular Yangon restaurant, with a
floor show included, has more than doubled in
price in the same period.
Huge increases
in state-set fuel prices are also forcing up
costs. This month, petrol prices rose overnight by
34%; electricity prices in November were 40% up on
a year earlier, according to the Economist
Intelligence Unit.
The onslaught of
visitors is exposing the country's dilapidated
infrastructure, particularly for those taking
advantage of the freedom to travel beyond Yangon
and main destinations such as Mandalay (some areas
still require special permits). Space on domestic
flights is hard to find, even though foreigners
have priority for seats - a sore point with
locals.
Maung Maung Oakka, who helps to
organize trips to and from Myanmar, said in
Bangkok at the weekend that he had been shocked
recently to find more than a third of seats on
buses on a long-haul run north to Mandalay,
normally the sole preserve of locals, occupied by
foreign visitors (his preferred travel choice,
airplane, was fully taken).
A
proliferation of new private bus companies with
modern coaches shows some entrepreneurs have
already spotted the opportunity [2] and internal
air travel will improve as local airlines boost
capacity and airports are upgraded.
Mandalay airport, the country's largest
and billed as "international", is for the moment
still closed to such business except for flights
from Kunming, in the neighboring Chinese province
of Yunnan. China led the world in visitors to
Myanmar last year, its 65,835 travelers up 33% on
the year before, closely followed by Thailand,
with 61,696 and Malaysia's 23,287, according to
the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.
Roads
are meanwhile being built and improved. Among
them, the link between Myeik, better known as
Mergui, and Dawei - site of a proposed US$60
billion port and industrial project in the
southeast of the country led by Thailand's biggest
construction company, Italian-Thai Development
Pcl.
Myeik is a jumping-off point for the
little-developed 800-island archipelago enthused
over by Bishop and seen as a tourist and diving
destination that will outshine anything Thailand
has to offer. The opening of road links between
Thailand and Myanmar - "inevitable, and maybe
within six months", according to the European
businessman - will boost traffic there. Ital-Thai
is already at work on one such highway to Dawei.
Foreign governments are already throwing
money at the country - though still reckoned among
the world's most corrupt - to improve historic
sites. The Italian government this month pledged
400,000 euros (US$520,000) to help UNESCO, the
United Nations cultural body, in "preservation of
Myanmar's cultural heritage". Temple-strewn Bagan,
and Srekitra Pyu city - the ancient city-state of
Sri Ksetra, north of Yangon - are the nominated
focus of attention.
While foreigners are
flooding into Myanmar, the traffic is two-way,
with folk from Myanmar increasingly willing and
able to take a look outside their country.
Large groups now traipse after
flag-bearing tour guides as they wander around
Bangkok's fancy shopping malls and take in the
sleazier sites available in the coastal city of
Pattaya. "That will change," says Bishop. "it is
just like the Chinese 10 year ago - first the
group travelers visiting the main destinations;
before long they will be doing their own thing,
seeing more of the country and visiting more
countries."
Their purchasing power is
already being recognized - thanks to some
influential phone calls, a group of about 140
Myanmarese had the river to themselves last
November when a government warning on the strength
of flood waters in Bangkok's Chao Phraya otherwise
closed the watery thoroughfare to river cruises.
Thailand also continues to host
Myanmar-related tourism of a quite different sort
- visits by well-meaning donors who slip cash to
guards at grimly crowded border camps to hear the
experiences of refugees from long-running
conflicts between the Myanmar government and
various ethnic groups.
Ceasefire
agreements are raising the prospect - if still
slight - that those refugees may yet enjoy the new
freedoms of their own country that are so exciting
travelers from further afield.
Meanwhile,
ill-prepared would-be visitors to Myanmar can
spend time hunting around Bangkok bookshops for an
up-to-date travel guide to the country. Last
weekend, at least, more than one usually
well-stocked store had run out of copies from any
publisher. [3]
Notes 1.
For full poem see here.
2. See here.
3. For another problem facing visitors, see here.
Chris
Stewart is Asia Times Online's business
editor.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times
Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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