Some people...

Monday evening we came back with a flight from Air Asia. It wasn’t too crowded on the flight.  I hadn’t seen a flight this empty for a long time. The flight was uneventful. All kids fell asleep during and right after take off so I had time to read a book.

When we got to Yangon I saw three guys. They were in their mid twenties I guess.  Apart from them being the tallest people aboard, they had the distinction of wearing their sporty pants so low on their hips that, that at least for one, it was almost below his buttocks. Honestly!

I do understand that this is fashionable. I, for the life of me can’t understand why anyone would want to wear their pants like that. Let’s face it, it is very unattractive and it can’t be comfortable either. I do think this might have to do with a different generation and all that. I know that my parents weren’t too charmed with my choice of clothes either when I was young.

Of course I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and had to say something about it. That they walk around like that in their home country or even in some parts of Thailand, ok that is one thing. But Myanmar is still a very conservative country. Yes, you can see this look here in Yangon amongst the youngsters as well but mostly in nightclubs (the few we have) and among the rich.

They seemed fairly offended (then again, I didn’t really like having to look at their buts hanging out and they walked right in front of me). When I saw them later I noticed the pants had been hitched up. I tried to explain why I said something but no reaction apart from a contemptuous look. Ok, fair enough, so I left it at that.

It did however trigger for me the old question about how offending one can be as a tourist to the country and culture that one is visiting.  

A few years ago I was in Bagan at the market. A tourist with an enormous camera was pushing aid camera almost literally in the face of a young girl who worked there and who was wearing Thanaka (the local ‘suncream’/moisturizer/make-up). She was very clearly uncomfortable. The camera was obviously good enough to have made the same photograph from a much more relaxed distance.

This kind of behavior seems to arrive more and more with the influx of tourists. For example: they forget or don’t want to know about the Myanmar usually swimming fully clothed. I haven’t seen it yet but I wonder how long it will be before there will be tourists who will sunbathe topless. Like someone said, a few years ago in a travel documentary when she was asked to put her top back on which she took off again the moment the policeman’s back was turned: “I have paid for this holiday so I do what I want.”

Inappropriate dress, pushing cameras into peoples' faces, inappropriate behaviour,  and so on... The lovely extras that come with tourism. 

I hope that those three guys will be a bit more culturally sensitive. The sentiment is not often voiced so bluntly but often enough acted on already.