Myanmar Earthquake Devastation: It Could Have Been Me

I wrote recently about the kindness of a stranger in Myanmar when I travelled there in 2018 and I wanted to follow this up with another post, given the recent earthquake there.

I visited Mandalay — the epicentre of the earthquake — and was saddened to hear about the loss of life and extensive damage to buildings. This country has been through enough, politically, economically, socially. Rebuilding will take money, which Myanmar does not have a lot of, so they will need to rely on foreign aid. Incidentally, I had no idea Mandalay was located on a major fault line; I say in the title of this post that I could have been me who was affected because earthquakes are unpredictable. This earthquake could easily have happened in May 2018, when I was there. Luckily for me, it held off. Unlucky for the Burmese, it did happen.

I will be honest and say that Mandalay was not my favourite place in Myanmar, and if I’m even more honest, I’ll say that Myanmar was not my favourite place to travel to. In Mandalay, I stayed in a gorgeous hotel, smelling of sandalwood, and was eaten alive by insects that I suspect were bedbugs. The free cocktails didn’t make up for the welts on my legs that could only have been bug bites. Mandalay was where I did a pointless tour of Mandalay Palace and soothed my frustration with a wonderful foot spa, which more than made up for the tour, which was nothing but a rip-off. Mandalay was the location of a glorious night market, and the conversations with friendly locals families more than compensated for how difficult impossible it was to find a tuk-tuk or taxi to get back to the hotel. Myanmar was where I rediscovered the fact that travelling alone is my preferred mode of travel, and that a travel companion, even one who I considered to be a friend, has me desperately seeking solitude.

I’ll be keen to see how Myanmar develops its tourism industry in the aftermath of the military junta, genocide and natural disasters, particularly as it seems to be largely unregulated and (when I was there) anyone (with a horse and cart, boat, car, motorcycle etc.) can offer touristic services. Vietnam was the same 20 years ago, and tourism was a way to earn some quick coin without thinking about the experience of the traveller. It’s generally not that way in Vietnam now, unless one heads to more developing areas. Policy, planning and regulation will ensure Myanmar is more than a travel destination for the risk-averse traveller, but my prediction is that it’s a way off. A long way off.

446 words.

About the #MicroMemoir2025 Challenge

After successfully completing my #12Essays2024 Challenge — by the skin of my teeth, mind you! — I’ve set myself another writing challenge for 2025. This time, my challenge is to write 62 micro memoir pieces this year because I’ll be 62. I’ve done the maths: it’s one piece every five days or so. I got the idea from Deborah Sosin’s post on Brevity, where she wrote about the 70 x 70 word micro memoir pieces she crafted to commemorate/celebrate her 70th birthday. She ended up publishing these pieces as a book. Like Deborah, I enjoy the creative constraints of writing short pieces (and I’ve had some success writing flash fiction). I’ve done a number of Craft Talks workshops on writing micro memoir, but haven’t really written any. So, self, let’s get to it. Challenge accepted, although my word count will be a tad more lenient.

Image credit: Visualhunt