Traveling to a Country the World Forgot About

Today we're exploring a country not many have traveled. A country that was once thriving with tourism, but now is completely empty. A nation that is home to the holiest sites in all of Buddhism, but is currently in an active civil war. A Gen Z guerrilla army fighting and dying for democracy. This is by far the most raw adventure I have ever been on in my life, but also the most eye-opening. Welcome to the country of Myanmar. So the trip has already been off to a pretty wild start. Since here in Myanmar, you do have to get money off of the black market. With the crazy hyperinflation, when you do take money out of ATM, it only gives you about half of what the black market does. So after converting a thousand US dollars, we were able to secure four million Myanmar Kyat. What is this? It's four million. Oh, okay. And then we checked into the hotel, where it came out to only $25 per person to stay in a five-star hotel. And by we, I do mean myself and Mr. Jordan Tuwali. Oh yeah, the boys are back in town. We're in Southeast Asia. Last video I think I featured in was Laos. About two and a half, three years ago, we did a boys trip to Laos, which was one of our favorite trips ever. So Jordan and I are running it back here in Myanmar. And first things first, we are heading to the holiest sites in the country. So we just made it here to the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is not just the holiest site in all of Myanmar, but also one of the most significant sites in all of Buddhism. And we were told to come here at sunset since all of this is made from gold. So when it is golden hour, the whole place just glows. Do you think it's called golden hour because gold glows during golden hour? That's correct. Yes, that's exactly right. We'll go with that. We'll go with that. Wow guys, this is definitely one of the more magical places I've ever traveled. It's like a giant village where everything is made of gold. And also another thing that I've noticed is that there's a lot of the monks and locals that come here to pray. But besides Jordan and I, there's not really any other tourists, which is crazy to me in a place as beautiful as this. So we just made it to an area called 19th Street, which is a giant market where there are a bunch of different restaurants and bars. And typically a street like this is filled with so many tourists. But here it is filled with only locals. Definitely sticking out like a sore thumb with everyone looking at me, but I love it. If you guys remember from my Amazon video, I ate a live beetle. So here they have it in milk. It's like they turned it into a cereal. Jordan, you're up. No. Sure you don't want a bite? I'll do all the rest of it. That's going to be it for our first day here in Myanmar. See you guys in the morning. So one of the best things about my job with being a YouTuber is having a built-in community all around the world. For even being here in Myanmar, we have someone who watches the channel and we are about to get breakfast with. Let's go meet our new friends. Hello. So nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. All right, guys. So we just made it here with our new friends. This is Genovia. Hi. And I did want to say how your comments do not go unnoticed because Genovia has been supporting the channel for how long? Almost four years now. And I always see you in the comments section about coming to Myanmar. Yep. So here we are in Myanmar together. So this is the local breakfast here in Myanmar and it has these big noodles as well as some chicken. And this one's spicy. I think maybe for you. For us, it's like zero spice. Let's see. I'm just kidding. This breakfast looks a lot different than what I'm usually used to, but I will say absolutely delicious. So much flavor and just only a little spice. So it is so insanely hot here in Myanmar that it is very typical to walk around with an umbrella. So do you always carry an umbrella with you everywhere just because it's so hot? It is. It's everywhere. We cannot live without umbrella. I don't know how you guys can walk around without an umbrella. So if you guys see me very sweaty in this video, now you know why. So to help combat the heat, we just made it here now to the local market where we're going to get a traditional outfit that'll hopefully keep us cool. How do I look? Good? Yeah. Yeah? Looks so natural. All right. I'm sold. All right. So Jordan and I just got our traditional longyi outfits and I feel like now we fit right in. What do you think, Genovia? You look absolutely smith. You look like a local. So we all have that one crazy friend, that crazy friend that you should probably never ever trust with planning a trip. Well, for me, that friend is sitting right here. Jordan, what did you sign us up for? So the fastest, most efficient way to get from one area of Myanmar to another up north is by a bus. So we're just doing a quick 15-hour bus overnight to get from Pyongyang to Cologne. Not only that, but we have to take this first hour-long bus just to get to the overnight bus. So Jordan, thank you so, so much for planning this trip, man. You're welcome. This is what travel is all about, baby. This is what it's all about. None of this luxury stuff. We're gonna get down and dirty. Let the clock start now. Now this portion of the video is sponsored by BetterHelp. One thing that I've realized this year is that I've gotten really good at taking care of my physical health no matter where I am in the world. Whether that's going for a run, hitting the gym, or even doing Muay Thai. Since I know how much better I feel after moving my body. But something that I don't think I talk about enough is taking care of my mental health with that same consistency. With having a job that can be very demanding and quite stressful, where a lot of people do burnout, as well as with traveling as much as I do, I've learned just how mission critical it is to prioritize my mental health just as much as I do my physical health. That's why I am super excited to be partnering with BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes starting therapy super easy by matching you with a licensed therapist after you just take a short quiz. And if you feel like it's not the right fit, you can change therapist at any time for no additional cost. I've been doing therapy with BetterHelp for the past three years. And if you've been thinking of giving therapy a try, you can click the link in the description down below or go to betterhelp.com slash Brett Conte for 10% off your first month. Now back to the video. So after that first hour-long bus ride, we made it here to the bus terminal for a 12-hour bus. So we're loading up on some local food. Also, all the locals are staring at me. Hello. Welcome to our bus. Please tell me you're joking. I am joking. I wouldn't put it past Jordan to book the My Little Pony bus. It is cute. We can still change our plans. Just get on that and see wherever it takes us to go. And here is the moment of truth. Let's see what our home is going to be looking like for the next 12 hours. All right, guys. Not too bad. This is going to be a nice adventure. We have some space. Oh, my God. We also have a TV here that I don't think works. But I feel like this will hopefully fly by. You sure about that? Hoping to get some good sleep because we have a very big adventure tomorrow. Twelve o'clock midnight. All right, guys. So we are now four hours into this 12-hour bus adventure and starting to feel a bit delusional. Since this country is in an active war, every couple hours you do have to stop at a military stop for a checkpoint. So just when you're about to sleep, you don't. Only about seven more hours to go. I love traveling with you, Brett. Isn't this so much fun? So much fun, Jordan. So much fun. In 2021, Myanmar's military seized power in a coup, overthrowing the country's elected government and sparking a nationwide civil war. What began as peaceful protests quickly escalated into armed conflict between the military and a coalition of pro-democracy resistance fighters. Today, the military is estimated to control only about 25% of the country's territory, while resistance forces hold large portions of the rest. Nearly 22 million people in Myanmar now require humanitarian aid. 16.7 million people face acute food insecurity. Making Myanmar one of the world's most complex ongoing conflicts. Early the next morning. So the bus was actually comfortable, but we did have military stops just about every hour. We were told very strictly not to film that, but luckily after 15 hours, we made it. 15 hours, 20 minutes later. We made it, Jordan. Made it to this random village. If it looks like I only got an hour of sleep last night, please excuse me, since I actually did. And now we are about to be hitchhiking and hiking for the next 20 kilometers. Definitely the thing I'd prefer to do after a 15-hour overnight bus. These are the adventures I live for. And we are going to be doing this with our awesome guide. Hello. My name is Aki, and I work in the Eversmile Trekking Company. The smile comes from you. Smile trekking. Guys, if you want to go on an awesome exploration, you have to come here to Myanmar and meet our new friends and do it with Eversmile Trekking Service. Yeah. Welcome to Eversmile in Myanmar. And Aki, how long are we going to be trekking for? Six, seven hours. This is like an overnight thing? Yeah, yeah, right. We're doing a one-night, two-days tour. So hiking, hitchhiking, local tribe home. So we're here right now. We're gonna hike all the way through here, sleep here, and then make it all the way down here. So we began our two-day hike through one of the least visited countries. Not just because it's beautiful, but because we wanted to see what it's like there now since the world has forgotten about it. So we just made our first stop here for lunch, and Aki just handed us what we're gonna be eating. This is some banana sticky rice. I can confirm, it is very sticky. Well, they got some type of special bananas out here in Myanmar. I've never seen the purple banana before. Like a mix between a brain and some beef tartare, but we're gonna give it a try. Also, you do put a little coconut on top. That's pretty good. I mean, coconut and banana, great combo. Purple banana and coconut, even better combo. All right, we've been hiking for a few hours now. It is blistering hot, but Aki said, now we're gonna try and wait for a car to come by and hitchhike. That's the plan? That's the plan. How often do cars come by here? On this part, not too many. So if we can't hitchhike this part, then at the end we can hitchhike more, so we'll save our time. Looks pretty deserted if you ask me. Fingers crossed. Just when I was losing hope, a van pulled up. Hopefully it has room for us. Hello. All set. Aki, this is so much better than walking. No, no, no, no, no, no. I saw the excitement in your eyes when that truck pulled up. Oh, there's something about earning it, you know? Hardship. Um, you don't have to get in. You can get right out if you want to. How can we get lost? We're in the middle of nowhere. Excuses, excuses. Bye, guys. So after that hitchhike, we have now made it here to the first village, which is a big tea village. And as you guys know, I own my own tea company, Belief, and it's always so cool to travel to different countries and see how they do their tea, which we did see earlier in this video. But very curious to see how they do it here in the local village. Also very excited to be in some shade. Jordan, who would have known that hitchhiking through Myanmar would lead to a Belief business expense trip? Tax deductible, baby. Sign it off right here, right now. Yep. Not that it's very expensive. I think we're paying a total of $100 for two days between us. Not bad at all. And a potential new tea supplier. So we now have about four more hours left until we get to the village that we're gonna sleep in. But Aki, I did have a question for you. Since this whole day, we have not seen a single other tourist. Before there was the conflicts, were there a lot more tourists than now? Between 2013 to 2021, we had at least 100 tourists on this track. Every single day, yeah. How many tourists are there now? It's like 10 a month. 10 a month? Yeah. We're two of the 10 a month, if you're to guesstimate. That is insane. And being a guide with your family business, have you guys obviously felt a hit from the reduction in tourism? Lots of guides, changes, jobs, where I can survive with the money that I got. But for two years when there's no tourists, I also change the jobs, yeah. Do you know what the average salary is for someone who works a typical Monday through Friday job here in Myanmar? The average salary in Myanmar, it's around $80 a month. Developed company, they will earn maybe $100, $120. Well guys, if you want to come on an epic adventure here in Myanmar at Eversmile Trekking Company and support a local family business. In recent years, tourism in Myanmar has collapsed as conflict and political instability have kept most international travelers away. You may actually know this country by its former English name, Burma. But in 1989, the military government changed the name to Myanmar without democratic legitimacy. A controversial decision that led some people and governments to continue calling it Burma. So it just started raining. Now the plan is to try and hitchhike the rest of the way. Hopefully there's more cars coming by here than there were at the last place. Jordan, you got to show a little skin. Got to show some skin to get their attention, you know? You want me to do it? Yeah, show all those big muscles. Who can turn down that? All right, we found our chariot. Hello. Let's do this. So after one of the most eventful days of my life, we finally made it to our end destination here at the local village where we are going to be staying in this local's house. And something we just found out is that the house is on top of a garlic plantation. Luckily, the mats and blankets do look super comfortable, but the smell is definitely quite strong. Just really hoping for at least five hours of sleep tonight. All right, so we are going to be staying at a local family's house, which means we are going to have some roommates for tonight. Hey guys. So guys, we just met a new friend. This is Emu. Emu is actually blind, but is one of the locals here in the village. Aki, can you ask her? Yeah. What is her hobbies? What's her passion? Okay. I like singing. I don't know much, so I like singing. Who does she like? Justin Bieber? A beauty and a bee. Doesn't like Justin Bieber? She doesn't know. It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business, is it? Oh no. Okay. Who does she listen to? Those are the Burmese singers. Like, traditional. All right, I think it's time. She's like, I'm like so, so excited. Excited, but a bit nervous. Ah, no, it's hilarious. It's just fun. Wow. Well, good morning from the middle of nowhere, Myanmar. Luckily, last night was able to get much better sleep than on the bus, and now we have another big day ahead of us to hopefully make it to the Inle Lake. Also, if you are wondering why Jordan and myself have some new ink on our arms, last night we had a bit of a tattoo party with our new friend. So she say she's never like touched foreigner hand. Oh, tell her she can try again. Yeah. Jordan, so we're going to get these permanently inked on us when we get back to America, right? For real. Mine's a gangster. Yeah, you got like a cross, and then mine looks like a hamster Pikachu. All right, now time for today's adventure to begin. Bye-bye. See you next time. The locals are too kind here. We've been walking for an hour, and this car stopped. Even though there's people in it, they're rearranging themselves so that we can fit in as well. Hello. So they're from somewhere else, not around here. Okay. So we're going to get in the car? Yes. All of us? These two guys will stay here. They're going that way. I asked them to help to go around. Okay. Are the locals always this nice? Yeah. Insane. How much should we give him? He said no. He's not going to accept money, but maybe we should give him 30, 35. Right now, I got 20. Bye-bye. That was crazy that he just kicked out his friends, and he drove us for like over 20 minutes. They're just waiting there, and now he's driving back to them. And he didn't want to accept any money. Oh my gosh, man. The Myanmar people have not ceased to disappoint me. Also, this is my first time looking at myself in like three days. So if I look a little gross, it's also because last night I had a shower with a bucket. So cold. So our end and final goal for this mission has been the Inle Lake. This beautiful, magnificent lake where we're going to go swimming and go to this floating village. Now we've trekked over 20 miles, and now we should be in our last and final hitchhike of the trip. Even though this is quite fun. You definitely don't need a rented car in Myanmar, because the locals will just take you everywhere you need to go. This is definitely one of the more wild adventures I've been on, where we've just been constantly hiking, then hitchhiking, then hiking. And now we're going to be hitchhiking in the back of a potato truck. Perfect. Comfortable. Comfy, yeah. Until we start moving. Yeah, that's true. At least we got snacks. All right, so driver keeps honking. All right, we got a steep hill ahead. That means hold on. Bye bye. So we just got dropped off here in another random village, where Aki looks like she made a friend. Say he's very handsome too. Look at this like old school car. This is the cars here in the middle of Myanmar. Should we hitch a ride on that next? Nice to meet you. See you again. He probably has the biggest smile out of anyone I've ever seen on my travels. You know, that's why I say he is. He's got to work for Eversmile trekking tour. He is already. All right, so we have met the final boss. It's going to be our last form of transportation before we finally make it to the Inle Lake. What a journey this has been. So Inle Lake is famous for having all these different floating villages where there's a bunch of floating houses and even floating restaurants. So this is called the Eiffel Lake restaurant. And we just met the owner. And how long have you been doing your restaurant here? Oh, you're saying this is a new restaurant. You had to build it again because of an earthquake. Like how many tourists used to come? Over 100. And now, about how many tourists do you get a day? So guys, if you don't feel like taking a 15-hour bus and then hitchhiking and hiking for two days, there is another option I just found out right now. And why are you just telling us this now? I thought it was common knowledge. We hitchhike and we went for two days of trekking for fun, not because it's the only possible way. Wait, you could fly here? Yeah, the nearest airport is like 30 minutes away. Yeah, if you don't feel like going on a crazy adventure, then you can fly here. But highly recommend doing the hitchhiking. That's right. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome. See you again. Yes, we'll be back. So now we are just cruising through the floating village, which is essentially just a village that's floating. And out here, instead of having cars, they have to use rowboats or motorboats to get around the village. And it's just been so cool to see such a different way of life of how they live out here in Myanmar. So like our new friend Tatui was saying, there was a massive earthquake here that destroyed this whole region. And as we are just exploring this floating village, you can just see so many people rebuilding their houses. So do you know about how many homes were destroyed in this village alone? 800 houses just in this village alone. That is insane. And it's crazy that they don't decide to go live on lands that they must love living on the water so much. I talked with them during the earthquake time, and they all say they just want to live on the water. It's a different feeling. So you know those women who wear the rings around their neck that I thought were from Thailand? Well, I just found out they're actually from Myanmar. And then Thailand kind of took them and brought them to Thailand for tourism. But the neck ring women actually is a tradition here in Myanmar. And we are about to go meet with one who lives in this home. Wow. Hello. Wow, so beautiful. I know how to say beautiful. Latte. Latte? Very latte. So I just found out that there are two main reasons why they do the neck rings. The first one was because back in the day, the king here in Myanmar used to go after the pretty women. So they would wear these neck rings to look ugly so they would not get chosen by the king. And then the second reason is that where they lived here in Myanmar, there are a lot of tigers. So they would wear that as protection on their neck, around their legs, and their arms, just in case they got bit. Jordan, I feel like we should try it out. You got a pretty big neck. I don't know how they even put them on. Let's try this out. All about indulging myself into cultures as I travel. So we are going to try and put these rings around my neck. I got a pretty thick neck, though. Oh, s***. I'm not going to be able to get it off. That's actually scary. Imagine I had this on. Kind of terrifying. It's kind of like you have handcuffs around your neck. I don't know how they do this. It's so uncomfortable. But if I can get an inch or two taller, we'll be good. Finally be 6'1". Stop the cow. So since Jordan and I are absolutely filthy from all day of hiking and hitchhiking, we figured it would be a much better option to just jump into this lake instead of trying to shower with a bucket again. Jordan, you can have the honors first. I don't know how we're going to get back on the boat. That sounds like a later problem. Watch out, watch out, watch out, watch out. Ow, I kind of didn't land the gain very well. Yeah, that was like a 4.5 out of 10, but it was still good. Wow, it's so warm. All right, time for our bath. This is taking a bath in Myanmar. Nice. There's no like crocodiles or anything in here, right? I've heard there is like a few. The most dangerous thing in this body of water is fish. After sleeping in another family's house in the pouring rain, we then woke up early to head out on an eight hour van ride where let's say it was still pouring rain. See guys, there's people that like to experience things and then there's real adventures. Right now we're on one of those real adventures and it won't feel good right now in the moment, but at the end of this trip we're going to look back and it's going to be the best week of our lives. Guys, the adventure does not stop on this trip. As we have just made it now, it's one of the most magical places in the world. Welcome to Bagan. So back thousands of years ago, Bagan was a thriving city with over 10,000 of these temples. I'm just imagining this place being the Manhattan of its time where instead of skyscrapers, there were temples. And even just back about 10 years ago, this used to be a thriving destination for tourism where every single morning at sunrise, there would be hundreds of hot air balloons floating over the temples. But now we are the only ones here. It's mind-boggling to think that a place this magical has zero tourists. Hey, what are you talking about? All right, Jordan, but... You just forget me, you're always forgetting about me. They ask you how you are, you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine. Besides us two, how many other tourists have you seen? I've actually seen zero and this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that used to be visited by thousands of people every month. After spending the past week exploring Myanmar, I can honestly say this has been one of those rare trips that stays with you long after you leave. Beyond the headlines and the conflicts, I found a country filled with resilience, incredible hospitality, and some of the most genuine people I've ever met. It's an experience that completely changed my perspective and one I'll carry with me for the rest of my life.