Guest Posted June 6, 2001 Report Share Posted June 6, 2001 I have been traveling in Asia off and on for a decade and am looking to expand my horizons beyond the usual Southeast Asian hooker-friendly places. As much as I love Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia I have set my sights on the remaining three Theravada Buddhist countries in Asia that I haven't yet been to. Have any Nanaplaza participants been to any of the above, and if anyone has been to all three, which was your favorite (and why?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2001 Report Share Posted June 6, 2001 Correction: Nepal is Hindu-Buddhist, not Theravada Buddhist at all. The reason for my choosing religion as the primary factor is that in my experience Buddhist countries have the most relaxed attitudes to sex. And poor countries the most prostitution. Therefore the combination is a winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2001 Report Share Posted June 6, 2001 Winston I've been to all three, I couldn't pick a favourite they are all very different and have advantages and pitfalls which differ widely from one another. I like Sri Lanka for sunsets, Myanmar for the jungle experience, Nepal for the mountains. None beat LOS for the sanuk experience. Go as a tourist see the world but save your baht for where you know it's at. PS You forgot Laos. [ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: coquetislander ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2001 Report Share Posted June 6, 2001 Sri Lanka, poor selection, difficult to find, very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 Burma is it for one of the last genuinely authentic destinations. Only 100 000 tourists a year, and outside of Bagan, Inle Lake and Yangoon (see it for the Shwedagon and leave) , you could have the country for yourself. I do not know about the Nepalese, but the burmese rate high too in being absolutely great and wonderful, despite the situation. the women i find very simply gorgeous, out of reach from the thais (whom are cute, OK, but we are talking blooming beauty here). Forget about the sex, that should be the last reason you'd go there.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 Pattaya127 I agree about the looks of Burmese women. But what about hasip hasip Thai Burmese. There is such a girl in "The Tavern" in pong. Lovely girl only been there about 8 weeks from Kanchanaburi well worth the asking price I would have thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashman Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 If you go to Burma you are helping to prop up a regime that systematically tortures,enslaves and murders children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 Ashman I don't know where in the per capita GNP Myanmar is but by not visiting it's never going to get any higher. I agree that the military dictators that run the country have an appalling civil rights record. What to do:- Spend money with locals, try to stay away from government cash cows. Talk to the people let them know you are interested in their plight (discretly obviously). I was told by a Burmese guesthouse owner that while he agrees with Aung San Su Kee (sp) in that tourism should be not be encouraged he welcomes it. He went on to illustrate it quite logically. "Even a man on death row deserves some visitors! " Even talking about it on boards like this is preferable to saying nothing, the vast majority of Burmese welcome the few visitors they see very warmly. I personally think they are much more sincere than Thais. So go, but take the balanced view, write some letters of protest on return but don't just leave them to rot. [ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: coquetislander ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashman Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 Fair coment.Check out the films and journalism of Jhon Pilger. I just get a bit fed up with hearing from people who have been to Burma and talk abot it as if it was a cool an friendly country. Anyone who is in jail is going to be friendly to outsiders. i agree th more the subject is debated on places like this the better let's hear some more coments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2001 Report Share Posted June 7, 2001 quote: Originally posted by winston james: "Correction: Nepal is Hindu-Buddhist, not Theravada Buddhist at all. The reason for my choosing religion as the primary factor is that in my experience Buddhist countries have the most relaxed attitudes to sex. And poor countries the most prostitution. Therefore the combination is a winner." If you think Nepal is a sexually liberal country because there are some Buddhists, you are grossly mistaken. Don't take Thailand as the yardstick. Nepal is about as tolerant in this regard as India - which is not much at all. In fact, you can have infinitely more "sanuk" in Bombay or Delhi than in Kathmandu. Incidentally, only 5.3% of the Nepalese are Buddhists, 89.5% are Hindu. But unusually, both religions overlap for a large part, and sometimes it's difficult to determine if a temple is Hindu or Buddhist; very often you find elements of both religions in the temples, especially in the Kathmandu Valley. That said, out of the three above countries to choose from, I'd take Nepal any time. The people are incredibly friendly and accommodating(the current riots nothwithstanding); in my mind, they're much friendlier than the somewhat overrated Thais. Nepal also has the prettiest girls, but it is highly unlikely you'll be able to do more than gawk. Have a look around New Road in Kathmandu in the late afternoon - hundreds of stunning college girls going shopping or having a meal. Sri Lanka is 69% Buddhist, but there's not much "sanuk" either - unless you're into effeminate little boys, that is, or if you fancy the sleazy seaside brothels in Colombo. Again, the metropolises in India offer much more fun than staid Colombo. And I think during all my many travels in Sri Lanka I've seen maybe 4 or 5 pretty women. They were usually "Burgers", a mix of Singhalese with Portuguese or Dutch. Furthermore, the Singhalese unfortunately do not qualify for the list of the top ten most friendly people in Asia. [ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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