Guide to Burma and The Alternative

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Subject: Guide to Burma and The Alternative reviewed in FEER

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FarEastern Economic Review
May 2, 1996

Hell and Paradise

Guide to Burma by Nicholas Greenwood. Bradt Publications,
41 Nortoft Road, Chalfont St Peter, England. =9C12.95.=20
Burma: The Alternative Guide by the Burma Action Group,
Collins Yard, Islington Green, London. =9C3.99.=20

With 1996 designated as Visit Myanmar Year by the Burmese
government, a number of guidebooks to the country have been
published, and not only the ordinary, glossy kind with smug
pictures of the Shwedagon pagoda and sunsets over Inle Lake.
Nicholas Greenwood, who has had a long - time love affair with
Burma, dedicates his guide to opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.=20

Burma: The Alternative Guide, a 36 - page booklet, struggles
with the moral issue of visiting a country under firm military
rule. It has maps indicating the distribution of forced labour in
Burma and even a "democracy map of Rangoon" showing the
places where people were killed during the pro-democracy
uprising in 1988. It actually recommends that people stay away
from Burma or, if they must go, to learn about the current
political situation there. =20

In his Guide to Burma, Greenwood also quotes people who
have been employed as forced labourers on such projects as
dredging the moat at Mandalay Palace or hacking through
malaria-infested swamps to build a new railway from Ye to
Tavoy in the southeast. But he does not recommend a tourist
boycott of Burma; on the contrary, he himself has travelled
more extensively in the country than any other foreigner.
Greenwood describes off - beat places such as Tavoy, Arakan,
Putao in northern Kachin State and the wild ruby - mining town
of Mogok.=20

His descriptions of these places are not always flattering. Even
the ancient royal capital of Mandalay gets a beating: "Mandalay
was once a beautiful city, the cultural heartland of Burma. But
it was also a repressed, forlorn city, with a spirit stifled by
succession of battles, kings, fires and governments."=20

What should have been a romantic trip by steamer on the
Irrawaddy River turned out to be "41 hours and 40 minutes of
sheer hell. No cabin, no bed, no food, no toilet, just the captain's
table to sleep on, a watermelon hurled at me by a drunken
soldier and a plastic bag in which to pee."

But precisely because of his honesty, and his deep affection for
the country, Greenwood's book is probably the best guide to
Burma ever written.  It also contains a wealth of information
about Burmese history, festivals and politics, in addition to the
standard tourist information.  A chapter about Burmese culture
written By Zar Ni, a former student at the University of
Mandalay who now lives in exile, adds to the book's value.

Given the country's underdeveloped infrastructure, Visit
Myanmar Year may hot bring in the hundreds of thousands of
tourists the government is hoping for.  But it has encouraged
many to air their feelings about travelling or not travelling -- to
Burma.  Ironically, even the introduction to The Alternative
Guide sounds inviting: "Burma is a country of breathtaking
beauty -- golden pagodas and temples beyond description,
countryside as varied as snow - capped mountains, lush green
paddy fields and white sand beaches."  Bertil Lintner

Bertil Lintner is a Review correspondent based in Bangkok

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