Burma, a historical visit, 1988

If you were in Burma in the early 1988, you probably have the same amazing travel experience as me. We entered Burma in June 1988, just 2 months before the biggest national democratic upraising in the country on 08 August 1988 (08.08.88). Burma was a truly beautiful country, amazingly friendly people and most of whom could understand simple English. It is still vivid in my mind, the day we arrived at the airport and discovered things were so basic and backwards. Although Indonesia was fairly underdeveloped in 1988, but it felt like I was from a developed country when seeing things in Burma on that visit. The land looked very rich and green, full of potentials, but the people were very poor. We entered Burma on a 7 day fixed tourist visa, but was lucky to stay for 10, as the train we boarded from Mandalay to Yangon (Rangoon) was broken down, hence we missed our flight to Bangladesh.