The country has eight nationalities (called here the races), and in each there are varying ethnic groups which total up to 165! Hence permanent deep social and political separations, and in the past, for those reasons, the country had easily surrendered to the British colonization.
At present, Burma is in the early stages of great changes. The economical ones are already evident at every turn. During our previous trip (November 2011), we had seen a technologically backward country, and barely two years later, the Internet is at a good level and everyone has a smartphone in hand. Two years ago those were unreachable. There also are ATMs and charge cards in use!
This is just an example of changes that occur in all areas. There remains much to do in the social and political issues.
The people are anxiously waiting for the parliamentary elections in 2015 which can bring a change: the opposition party the National League for Democracy (NLD) with its famous leader Aung San Suu Kyi should win.
Today we are visiting the National Races Village, a kind of ethnographic park, where we can see a miniature geographical or ethnographic attractions of each state and region, and their typical housing and clothing.
It was not particularly involving, but we had the opportunity to hear the history of this invariably fascinating country.
Our guide and a representative of The Golden Bell Family, who once again is helping us to organize a tour of Burma, took us to his home for lunch, to celebrate the second birthday of his son. We were welcomed and served in the Burmese way, and the multi-dish meal, whose main course was biryani chicken, was delicious.
