Me, Myself and Myanmar: Avoiding Western Tourists

Kyaikkami, a lovely place void of Western tourists

Some of the best things with solo travel include choosing whether or not to interact with other travelers and usually being afforded many more opportunities to interact with locals. I was perusing through some pictures today and noticing how I seemed to avoid other "Western" travelers in general. For the most part, I succeeded in evading conversations beginning with -

"OMG, when I was in Chiang Mai...yadda yadda blah..."

The only exception was this ethnically ambiguous guy from Great Britain. He makes time to travel internationally a couple times a year.  This however was his first trip to Burma, a place where his adoptive parents had previously lived, his mother a Burmese national.

Out of over 3,000 pagodas, EAGB and I succeeded in finding one to watch the sunset, a pagoda where there were no other tourists in site.

“So you were raised by a Burmese woman?” I asked. 

“This must be a pretty significant experience for you. The language, the history, the food, the mere fact that you’re setting foot on this land, all of it must deeply resonate for you….”

“Yes, it’s pretty profound. I’m not sure why it took me so long to come here,” he responded.

“My grandfather was from Hawaii. I’ve been all over the world, yet and still I haven’t made it there.  I think I kind of understand where you’re coming from,” I replied.

After sitting on the pagoda ledge for about 30 minutes watching the light of the horizon slowly begin to change, a long haired Caucasian male climbs onto the ledge from around the corner, seemingly from nowhere.  EAGB strikes up a conversation, asking him where he's from.

"San Francisco" he replied.

"I live in there. Do you actually live in the city?" I asked.

"Yes, Grove and Divisadero", he responded.

"Really? We're neighbors." I said, finding myself sort of turning away.

Literally, there's a farmer's market near his corner every Sunday and I live within walking distance from this guy.

"I work for Yahoo. What do you do in SF?" he asked, in a slightly over eager tone.

"I'm in Bagan on hiatus between projects and I don't want to talk about my work right now." I cringed. We hadn't even exchanged names, so why is there an interest to know what I do?

"This place is amazing. What a time to be here. I mean, soon this place, it's gonna be like Angkor Wat." he said.

"Very true...I agree with you, but wouldn't it be wonderful for Bagan to finally be listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, to have the same sort of aid and protection that Angkor Wat has?"

Finally the three of us sat on the ledge in a reverence of silence, while the sun, weighted in heavy orange colors, began its decent amongst the mountains in the distance. 

You can believe that you've found the most obscure of pagodas in a landscape of endless pagodas and it will be that exact place where you meet your neighbor.

The sunset though, how spectacular.