After 2.5 months on the road, things feel different to how they first did when I started traveling some four years ago. That’s to be expected, of course, but it’s not necessarily a good different. I can’t really remember the last day I went out, without my iPhone, and just got lost. Taking photos was my biggest passion and it’s pretty hard to do if you’re too busy scrolling Facebook to notice what’s going on around you.
While I love being so easily connected to friends and family, I think our ultra-connected lifestyle isn’t that healthy. We’re so busy catching up on things elsewhere, that we’re not present.
So when my friend Stacey, another travel blogger at OneTravelsFar, and I decided to go to Burma we decided we’d give up social media. The thought of 12 days without Facebook made me anxious; what would I do in those boring lulls of travel if I could not pointlessly scroll through my Facebook feed?
I’d be present. Looking around, noticing the small details that make the world beautiful, instead of starring at pixels on a screen.
So, it has been decided. 12 days without Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. If you see anything on my Facebook or Twitter, it will be posted by my lovely assistant, Kristia!
I’m gifting myself 12 days of letting myself really fall in love with Burma.
While I appreciate that Facebook is an amazing tool for keeping in touch, especially as someone who has no fixed address, I do find aspects of it sad. It is changing our culture and how we interact with people. It’s a synthetic representation of our lives.
When was the last time you went a restaurant and didn’t see half of the customers glued to their phone? I can’t remember a time in the past few years that this hasn’t been true, except in some of the third world countries I’ve visited.
I want to fill the time I’d otherwise fritter away on social media soaking up as much as possible. Being present. Breathing it all in.
One of my goals of this trip was to be able to answer the question to “Where’s your favourite place?” with wherever I currently was. That’s all you have. The places in your memories are moments long gone. All you have is now.
Well after two days in Burma, I can honestly answer that question with: right here, right now.
There’s a special charm to Yangon that has me hypnotised. A curiosity about the outside world that is delicately balanced with a strong sense of preservation.
ALL of my interactions with each and every single person I’ve met in Burma, thus far, have been extremely pleasent. From a waiter in a restaurant who handed me back 20 cents because I’d overpaid due to my failing math skills, to the guy in the telephone shop that gave my blue eyes the “thumbs up” because he couldn’t express in words how much he liked them.
There are really few places in the world where I can honestly say that I have been so warmly embraced by a culture while being given enough privacy and space to soak it in all my own pace. The people are warm, kind, and there’s no hustling, no haggling and no being blatantly ripped off.
The drive from the airport to Yangon city center was interesting, you could see that buildings were popping up in every direction. There are lots of signs in English. Things are changing, and perhaps faster and more dramatically than anywhere else in this region.
If you can visit Burma, based on my two days here so far, go as soon as possible. There’s something special about this place…
I think you will find after the first few days social media will be out of mind while you will notice the beauty of what is around you.
Social media is good for keeping in contact with people. I think after 12 days you maybe able to set a limit on when and how long you choose to use them.
Burma sounds like a lovely warm place with friendly people I really like the pictures you have shared.
I find your site very enlightening and very helpful to learn about the places you have been too.
Thank you Izy. :o)