Burma 1984
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 2018
Burma 1984
“I am a part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and ever when I move”
–recalled by Rudyard Kipling during his brief stay in Rangoon, 1889.
In 1984 I was Head of Geography at a large independent boys’ school in Sydney. In the previous year (1983) I had led the school’s first overseas study tour, taking a group of students to Papua New Guinea. that year I led a study tour of students to Papua New Guinea, assisted by two other teachers, and accompanied by a few parents. It was (to the best of my knowledge) the first overseas study tour conducted by the school.
It was felt that significant benefits were reaped from this exercise both in terms of knowledge gained and values developed. Consequently; it was proposed an August 1983 to hold a further overseas study tour, this time with Burma as the ultimate destination. This destination was chosen because of its applicability to a wide range of content taught in Geography and because of its potential for values formation. At the time, Burma (or Myanmar as it is now known) was an isolated, enclosed country (the “Albania of the Orient”), one of the very few countries in the world where one could not buy Coca-Cola, and a place where the poverty of countries such as India or Ethiopia can be seen without the misery and dangers of travelling to such places.
In this travel diary, I have not included any close photos of any students for privacy reasons, nor have I mentioned any individual names for the same reason (even though all the students are now grown men who aged 50 or more).
The final tour cost for the 20 days was $1,090, and as a condition of undertaking the tour, students had to raise a proportion of the fare by their own efforts. A diverse range of long vacation jobs were arranged to fulfil this requirement, including labouring on a building site, being a cleaner and washer in a restaurant, and doing weeding and edges for a lawn mowing service. The tour price included all travel, transfers, airport tax in Burma, twin-share or triple-share accommodation, and about half the meals. Some meals were organised during the trap (this was the cheapest way, and meals so organized cost from 90 cents to $2.20. The total cost of additional meals on the trip was between $60 to $85 according to appetite, with soft drinks (necessary due do unsuitability of the tap water for drinking) adding up to an extra $70. One student who brought only $100 for food rather than the recommended $185 finished the trip by borrowing only $10, however, proving the practicability of eating cheaply.
Accompanying me as tour leader were two other teachers, one parent and a doctor. In addition to these five adults, there were 23 students: four from Year 8, seven from Year 9, eight from Year 10, and two each from Years 11 and 12.
The group departed from Sydney International Airport on Wednesday 25th April on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-300 (registration N119KE, flight SQ22). The reason we flew to Singapore was to reduce the cost of the trip; air fares were much cheaper into Singapore than Bangkok (the alternative option), even with the additional cost of travelling by train between Singapore and Bangkok.
The low point of the study tour was completed with a stopover in Melbourne, after the which light crossed beautifully clear Central Australia, crossing the coast near Derby. The flight arrived in Singapore at 8:30pm (local time), although departure from the airport due to the non-arrival of one student’s luggage. (This luggage was subsequently located and it joined the group at Bangkok, much to the relief of both the student concerned and the noses of his friends).
Day 1
Sydney to Singapore
Wednesday
25 April 1984
