Myth No. 1: There is a bamboo curtain.
No, there is no Big Brother watching you.
Myth No. 2: Burma is full of the starving and the poor.
No, we didn't see a single beggar. There may be poverty but no hunger.
Myth No. 3: Democracy is the national obsession.
No one is overly concerned about democracy as we understand it and whatever even that may be.
After Thailand, Burma is a culture shock in the reverse. The Burmese are civilised, friendly and unaffected by globalisation. No one hassles you. The women are infinitely prettier, the men graceful even in their lungyi and chappals. Mobile phones, wallets and newspapers are tucked into the back of the lungyi. Ask any Burmese his greatest anxiety. The lungyi unlocking, he will tell you.
Rangoon is a beautiful, skyscraper-free city with vast stretches of greenery, parks, lakes and studded with pagodas. It is better manicured than the best cantonments in India. Traffic is heavy but fine-tuned. There is no honking and traffic lights work all the time. With its golden spiral sticking out against the Rangoon skyline in the heart of town is the holiest of holy, the Shwedagon pagoda, the source of Burma's Gross National Contentment. The Buddhist Socialist nation is run by 21 generals in uniform and has been ruled uniformly by the military since 1962. On January 4, we watched the sombre dawn ceremony commemorating Burma's 57th anniversary of independence, six months after India's. The Rangoon district military commander read out Senior General Than Shwe's message about Burma's seven-point road map to democracy
