Myanmar With Jessica Mudditt

How does Myanmar’s complicated history shape the country today? What are some of the wonderful places to visit — if tourists are able to travel again? Jessica Mudditt talks about her experience in Myanmar, as well as facing fears around travel, and the experience of reverse culture shock on returning to Australia. Jessica Mudditt is an Australian freelance journalist and travel writer. Her latest book is Our Home in Myanmar: Four Years in Yangon. Show notes * Myanmar / Burma, and the complicated history and politics that shape the country * Diversity of the landscape and places to visit — once tourists can visit again * Dealing with fears when traveling — and how people are mostly wonderful, even if a country has a bad reputation * Reverse culture shock — and how we both struggled with Australia * Respecting local culture when traveling * Recommended travel books about Myanmar You can find Jessica Mudditt at JessicaMudditt.com Transcript of the interview Jo: Jessica Mudditt is an Australian freelance journalist and travel writer. Her latest book is Our Home in Myanmar: Four Years in Yangon. Welcome, Jessica. Jessica: Hi, Jo. Thanks for having me. Jo: I’m excited to talk to you about this. Where is Myanmar and how did you come to live there? Jessica: Myanmar is sandwiched between the superpowers of China and India. It’s a large country, and it’s got a lot of neighbors. It also neighbors with Thailand, Bangladesh, where I was living previously, and Laos. There are certainly tensions in the region, and India and China caught Myanmar in different ways, which makes the geopolitical region very interesting. There’s always announcements and then there’re layers of meaning underneath these formal announcements, especially when Myanmar was moving forward and opening up to the world. I’d always been fascinated with Myanmar, it had just captured my imagination, with Aung San Suu Kyi having been under house arrest for 15 years by the time I got there. I tried to go as a tourist but it had been too difficult because there were all these rules about flying in and flying out at the same place, it was going to be quite costly. So, when I did my long overland backpacking trip, I ended up missing out on Myanmar. But then I was in Bangladesh, from 2009 to 2012, and I had a mutual friend who owned ‘Myanmar Times.’ So, he was actually in prison at the time and, when he came out of prison, I contacted him and said, ‘Would you mind if I came over for a trial?’ and he said, ‘sure.’ And I arrived in July, 2012. Jo: I was just looking at the map. Yangon is near the coast. What is the country like in terms of the landscape? Because that often shapes a country, doesn’t it? Jessica: It does. And Myanmar is incredibly diverse. In the northernmost parts, in Kachin State, there’s snow-capped mountains, there’s spotted leopards and things like that. And then, right down in the south, below Yangon, is an archipelago where there’s sea gypsies who can stay underwater for 2 minutes. And it’s so untouched, it’s the same latitude as Thailand’s Phuket but completely untouched; people very very rarely go there. And you can go in very costly sailing boats for a couple of days. I didn’t do that. Yangon faces the Bay of Bengal. And, so, it’s a port city but, unfortunately, one of the errors, the many errors of the military, was to completely erase visibility of the water for most of the city. So, all you can see is cargo being loaded and offloaded, which is a real shame. People every now and again would say, ‘Couldn’t we have a promenade or something?’ But also the dictator,

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Escape and inspiration about unusual and fascinating places, as well as the deeper side of books and travel. I'm Jo Frances Penn, author of thrillers and non-fiction, and I'll be doing solo shows about my own travel experience and interviewing authors about how travel inspires their writing. Interviews cover places to visit and tips for travel as well as thoughts on modes of travel like walking, cycling, and travel by train and other modes. Plus book recommendations for every interview so you have things to read on the move.