The next series of blogs are about my trip to Myanmar (Burma), with my friends Brendan and Andy, during April 2011. It was an amazing trip to a really incredible place and, albeit stressful at times, I think we would all agree we would go back again.
Mengalaba Myanmar!
April 9th, 2011
Bangkok-Yangon, Myanmar
The time Andy, Brendan and I had been waiting for was finally here (we’d only been planning for a couple months!) and we found ourselves up early and at the airport waiting for our flight to Yangon. We’d done a bit of reading up on Myanmar/Burma (we found that locals refer to it as both) but really weren’t sure what exactly to expect from our trip. We knew we had to be respectful and careful not to badmouth the government, but I think those are things that are quite common no matter what country you’re in. We’d also read that it’s important to try to stick to buying local things as much of the money earned by Burmese institutions goes right to the government. I was a little apprehensive as Burma has always seemed so foreign and isolated from the rest of Asia/the world, but to get the chance to tour around its fairly unvisited sites was really exciting!
We went through customs in Yangon at its seeming spotless and brand new airport (not what I was expecting) and all seemed okay. A bathroom stop was in order and we all had a chuckle at the sign above the handicapped restroom which read, Invalids—at least it didn’t say mungaloid which is a word we’ve heard more than once in Asia. We’d pre-booked a room at the Motherland 2 hostel in Yangon and were picked up by a cheery Burmese guy who loaded all our belongings onto a bus that looked like a hippie commune may have donated it. It was so nice not to have to hassle with a taxi or wander around looking for a place (plus it made going through customs easier as they ask where you’re staying.) We made our way through Yangon and I was very surprised at how developed and clean it seemed. I guess I’d heard and read a lot about oppression and poverty in Burma, but the main city was really quite nice overall, with manicured landscaping and various architectural styles.
At the Motherland 2 we were allowed to get some of the free breakfast (BONUS!) as we waited for the staff to check us in. The check-in process is much more intense than other countries as the government keeps strong tabs on all foreigners entering their country. We exchanged some money (I think $200 USD got us about 160,000 Burmese kyat—sort unfathomable to think of that much currency) and got our things settled in our rooms. We walked around for a while and made our way to the ‘bus stop’ which consisted of some ticket vendors vying for your money and quoting you different prices for tickets. We soon found that prices were almost double for the Buddhist New Year and were even more for us because we were foreigners—the first of many lessons in Burmese public transportation. We wanted to head to Bagan first, but in the 5 min we took to decide if we should pay that much for a ticket the seats had magically disappeared (lesson 2). As such, we quickly switched our itinerary to head to Mandalay and bartered as best we could for a cheaper ticket.
That afternoon we found ourselves at a really fascinating place: Shwedegan Paya Plan, a 2500 year old, massive Buddhist complex complete with 4 entrances at each cardinal direction and a Shwedegan (pagoda) covered in gold. It was tacky and gaudy with flashing Christmas lights behind various Buddha icons and what appeared to be an influx of pagoda-vomit, (ie someone just got the idea to build a load of pagodas and shrines and just splashed them around the complex grounds helter-skelter) but all this somehow managed to maintain a chaotic beauty with the towering gold Shwedegan escaping the mayhem into the sky. This place also had the HOTTEST tiled floors I think any of us had ever set foot on; we had to walk around barefoot and one second on these floors felt like standing on griddle. The red carpets helped a bit, but the only real refuge was sitting down in some of the temples which is where we happened to meet our monk friend for the afternoon.
Our monk started talking to us and said he wanted to practice his English. As he asked us questions, some of which we had to be a bit vague in our responses, we noticed little groups of locals sitting around and trying hard to make it look like they weren’t eavesdropping; this happened on a number of occasions during our trip. The monk lead us on tour of the grounds with our first stop at a big bronze bell; he had us make a wish and ring the bell seven times by hitting it with a large wooden mallet. Next we scurried across the open plaza in front of the shwedegan in hopes of not getting 3rd-degree burns on our feet, and somehow a man was kneeling on the scorching ground praying. We were relieved when we saw the next task involved water; we took water and poured seven cups over a Buddha statue, three cups over the King and five cups over a dog statue. I’m not sure what this water represented (my gut tells me good luck) but I don’t know if my lack of memory is due to it being last year or whether I had tuned out the explanation as I was savoring the cool water beneath my feet. Then we headed for a little physical activity where we lifted a heavy stone three times to ensure ourselves good health. Lastly, the three of us sat in front of the monk who prayed for us to an auspicious Buddha while we watched. He then asked us for a donation which caught us all off guard. We were kind of expecting it, but it got a little awkward as we discussed how much to leave (we were still confused about conversion rates) as he sat about 6 inches from us and waited. In the end, I’m sure the amount we left meant much more to him than it did to us and we did get a pretty cool tour through an otherwise unfamiliar setting.
After we gathered our shoes we headed out for more walking and, after realizing we were maybe heading outside of the ‘designated’ tourist area we decided to grab a taxi to the city center. It’s sort of an unwritten rule that as a foreigner in Burma you don’t wander to far outside the main areas of a place as you may be seen as investigating too much. It was quite interesting as we arrived and were greeted by another large Buddhist stupa which was surrounded by modern high rises, war-era cars, British architecture from colonial times and a mosque. A little bit confusing in terms of fluidity, but also really insightful into the past and present of the country. We got ourselves a Myanmar beer at a local beer shop and sort of took our first time to just absorb where we were. Again the locals in the bar listened in to our conversation which mainly consisted of our first impressions: it was interesting that seemingly everything was produced locally—we had seen some Coca-Cola and Fanta, but other than that there was NOTHING imported. There were no McDonalds, no chain restaurants or hotels, just local. Also, it is really common for one shop to specialize in one thing (ie the beer shop just has beer, the tea shop just has tea, etc.)
Our weary bodies brought us to Monsoon, which Brendan had read about in the guide book as being a top restaurant in the city. It turned out to be pretty tasty, but also a bit pricey compared to food we’d seen on the street, however, we had made it and survived our first day, so a splurge was welcomed! We walked back to our hostel in darkness as the lights weren’t necessarily working on every street. I didn’t ever feel unsafe, but it is strange wandering around a place at night, especially when you feel like anyone who sees you stares a bit longer than they should. We did make it back safely and headed to bed after some relaxing and recapping downstairs.
Pics: 0004, 0006, 0010, 0023, 0025, 0027, 0028, 0030, 0034, 036, 039
Colonial Glory or Wiped Out History?
April 10, 2011
Yangon, Myanmar
We were greeted by a nice buffet breakfast (orange drink, toast and eggs) and made our way to the Aung San Market. Aung San is a national hero in Myanmar and is the father of the famed Aung San Suu Kyi (‘she who must not be named’ as we dubbed her to avoid any stares if we brought her up in conversation), who was kept in her home for many years due to her outspoken beliefs of the Burmese government. We did think about trying to make our way to the house, but considering the last foreigner who tried to swim across the lake was imprisoned, we decided against it (at least that's what I remember Brendan and Andy talking about.) The market was pretty nice, set in an old colonial building with the standard wares for sale; however, we did come across a cool section with old relics, money and medals from colonial and pre-colonial times. We opted for a self-guided walking tour of Yangon which helped us uncover some of the history surrounding this city.
In a country not necessarily known for its openness to other cultures, it was really interesting to see the city, especially by the river, littered with colonial British architecture. The capital was recently moved to a different city and what was surely once a bustling riverfront had sort of been left to ruin. Some of the immense and stately buildings were cracked or unpainted or had vines growing in and out of window lattices. Still it drummed up some pretty vivid images of how Yangon would have looked and operated in those times—you can only imagine how the colonial settlers lived in their lavish estates, so I guess it’s not a huge wonder why the government didn’t want to try their hardest to preserve that part of their history. We continued our walk past the Independence Obelisk, a large stone pillar in the middle of a park around which tons of palm readers were speaking of the future, and on to Mr. Brown’s Café. This restaurant had almost s 50s style diner feel to it and we were glad to find that our traditional Shan noodles and not-so-traditional smoothies were quite tasty. We continued our quest after lunch only to realize the heat and amount of walking had lead us to one conclusion: we needed a cold beverage and a cool spot to sit.
Back at the hotel we quickly showered and packed up; sandwich in hand our taxi driver picked us up to take us back to the bus stop. You’re told to be careful about what you say in Myanmar and I guess, out of respect and not wanting to stir up any hard feelings, you tend to stick to neutral topics. However, it seemed that if you spent a little longer with anyone (i.e. the taxi driver) they really wanted to discuss the topics you were told to avoid; he spent most of the ride discussing his opinion on the government and supporting ‘she who must not be named.’ It’s strange, because after being in Yangon you don’t really feel like you’re in a place that has the government that Burma is supposed to have, but when you get down to the nitty gritty it seems that they are just really really good at keeping things quiet. So, our taxi driver helped break a bit of the silence for us.
We arrived and Till, our new German friend, was waiting for us to hop on the bus. As I probably could have predicted the bus was not VIP as advertised and was seemingly made for the population of the Land of Oz. The seats were about as wide as my thigh, but I felt so lucky to have a seat as there were people sitting in the aisles too. I think my knees were almost in my mouth as I was having a fairly successful battle with the woman in front of me who kept trying to lean back (you know the battle when your knees are against the seat and someone tries to lean back so you push back a bit with your knees to prevent the recline.) Well, much to my dismay this tiny Matron of Munchkinland took it upon herself to literally WWE bodyslam herself into the chair causing what I thought was the end of my ability to walk. Were I in any other place beside one in which I was clearly being kept an eye on I probably would have said something, so I decided to just cut my losses. I managed to somehow wedge myself between the window, Andy and Frodo’s mom and slept for a bit. I soon found myself awake, dripping with sweat and largemouth bassing Andy’s shoulder; good thing a bathroom break was soon in order.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful until 4am rolled around and we found ourselves at another pseudo-bus stop in Mandalay. Here we met Stephanie and a Thai guy with whom we all shared a tuk tuk taxi to our hotel; picture six people crammed into a Hotwheels 2-door and that was us-with our luggage strapped on top of course The Sabai Phyu Hotel didn’t have our reservation, but they were able to get us boys a 4 person room for the night. It was pretty funny when we walked in and there were 2 twin beds and one double all pushed together along the wall forming one super bed, but we decided rather than think about it to just play rock, paper, scissors for which 2 would share and crashed hard for about 3 hours.
Pics: 043, 045/052, 051, 055, 058, 063, 066, 070, 072 (Mandalay folder)
Mandalay Bay?! No, Mandalay Hill
April 11, 2011
Mandalay, Myanmar
Our room was a bit of a blur after only 3 hours of sleep, but upon closer look I could see that at one point it was probably quite a nice place. The bathroom was abnormally large with a full tub, shower and toilet tucked down a bowling alley sized nook. We made our way to the roof for a view of the city and our breakfast. In my mind, I'm not sure why, but I'd always had this really romanticized vision of Mandalay. Maybe it was from a story or hearing about ancient Burma or maybe it's even the luxurious Mandalay Bay resort in Vegas, but when I looked over the roof I was surprised to see how much more developed and city-like it was. We were up there for a while as we quickly discovered that until you said 'enough' the toast kept coming (and we naturally took advantage of it)
Completely 'toasted' we went to book a bus for our next destination...all completely bookedand woudln't be running for another 3 days. Well now, this whole new year holiday was shaping up to be a bit of a hassle as our Burmese friends had mentioned to us before we departed, but did we listen? NO! Okay, no bus. Onward to the train station. $10 for upper class train tonight or $4 for a lower class train tomorrow. Looking back I think we would have opted for the more expensive option, but we were still in full on backpacker, budget mode and sprung for the $4 fare. It also gave us a couple days in Mandalay instead of a few hours. The 3 of us ended up booking our tickets with a French woman named Monica who was your standard, late 50s, wandering-spirit type. But, hey, it's always nice to at least have some idea who the person you're sharing your seats with are!
We left the train station and began a walking tour around the city with Monica and Stephanie (the girl we took a ride into the city with from the bus 'station' the night before) passing around the clock tower and various temples--Mandalay also kept up the ostentatious flickering light shows at in their shrines. One of the temples we went to was Shekyimyint Paya which housed and original Buddha statue from 1167. We stopped for lunch at a small local place called Mann restaurant where we enjoyed one of my all-time favorite Burmese dishes, Lapat, or tea leaf salad. I can't really relate it to any flavors in American cuisine, but it has tea leaves, chick peas and some other crunchy things with a sort of sweet, sour flavor. Man, I'm really doing a good job explaining it, but trust me when I say it's really good! After lunch we passed through a market with everything from peanuts and chilis drying in the sun to bicycles and piles and piles of onions. The smells were sometimes sweet and aromatic and other times rotten and pungent, but it's always so interesting to see the kinds of things to buy in various countries/regions.
We split off from the girls for a quick respite back at the hotel and to meet up with Till to head to the famed Mandalay Hill. This is a famous hill lined with various Buddhist shrines and images which you climb for a sunset view of the city below. It's one of those things that you read about in the guidebook that sounds so spectacular and beautiful and then you get there and realize the climb is actually about 3x longer than you were expecting. Not to mention it was really hazy, so, while the sunset was quite beautiful, it was a bit difficult to see the sites at the bottom. It's really amazing to me though how many sites and hills and mountains and forests, etc. are all dedicated to their religion. It just makes you realize that it's not only a religion, but also a part of life and culture.
In the evening we hung out on the roof of our hotel with Till and the girls, enjoying some peaceful night air and a couple local Mandalay beers (as each city seemed to have it's own beer and water named after it!) We forced our tired bodies to a local eatery where we couldn't stop laughing as people were trying to explain what was on display to eat in the glass cases and how we were supposed to order--in the end we just laughed and pointed and hoped for the best as random curries and animal parts were being slopped on our plates and the locals were staring. Time for bed before we caused too much more of a scene!
3 Ancient Cities and a Bridge
April 12, 2011
Mandalay, Burma
The four of us boys woke up and met Bamo, our tuk-tuk tour guide driver for the day. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable of rides, but thankfully Bamo let one of us ride up front, which gave us a little extra room to cram in the back. We made the standard 'foreigner' stop, look and (hopefully) buy souvenier stops at a local wood carving shop and a weaving center where they produce the colorfol longyis and traditional wraps that the Burmese wear.
The first of our three ancient city stops for the day was at Sagaing which has been around since the 1300s. Much like Mandalay Hill we were required to brave the heat and climb a seemingly endless number of stairs to reach the top. Along the way we were approached by a number of monks (young to old) who wanted to ask questions and chat while we walked. I tried my hardest to be polite, but a couple times I just couldn't fathom focusing on anything other than trying not to pass out from exhaustion (yea maybe it was time to start exercising back home!) At the top was an incredible view of the Ayeyarwady River and the surrounding shrines and pagodas. You looked in all directions and saw that the peak we were standing on was actually connected to the temples on the other peaks by series upons series of stairs and walkways. It was like an intricate maze or spider web spread out across the hills and mountains, each with it's own Buddhist identity.
The second ancient city was called Inwa and was the capital of Burma at five different times during the 14th-19th centuries. As the island is located on a manmade island, we had to cross the Irrawaddy river on big, wooden flatbed boat. Although we weren't allowed to cross until we we were bombarded by some of the world's greatest children-salesmen. Each child (mainly girls) seemed to match up with a tourist and five them a well-rehearsed spiel. My girl's name was Tje Tje and was able to give the same spiel in 5 different languages (just to test her I switched to Spanish and she kept right up!) It included pretty much a lot of 'Mista, Mista. You Handsome. You come back. I remember you. etc. ' Now, you feel pretty bad not buying anything from them, but she truly just didn't have anything that I wanted. I think Brendan and Andy also passed on the 'real' jewelery we were being sold. Across the river we were greeted by the option to take a 2 person horse and buggy tour around the ancient city; we decided we might as well go for the gusto and Brendan and I hopped in one while Brendan and Till got in another. We were really excited to hear all about the places we were seeing, although we quickly realized our 'guide' actually spoke no English and was therefore not very helpful in answering our questions. I do know we saw the inner and outer city walls, loads of temple ruins and the Nanmyin Tower (Burma's answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.) We meandered around some of the ruins, opting not to pay to enter a couple of sites as we were actually able to see them all from the buggy and ended up climbing to the top of the leaning tower to get a look over the former glory of Inwa. We were greeted back across the river by our sellers (yes, Tje Tje did remember me and tried to hold me to my promise that I would 'maybe' buy something when I came back from the island) and Bamo, who sat down to have lunch with us. He got us what he was having which consisted of rice and about 5 little servings of various 'fixings' to eat with it (pickled veggies, strong tasting fish paste, etc.)
Our third and final city for the day was Amarapura (or Taungmyo) and is home to the U-bein Bridge (aka the world's longest teak bridge.) I know, I know you're all jealous, but in reality it was a gorgeous setting and had a really old-time feel to it. Along the 1.2 km walk across the bridge you are absorbed into the daily life of the locals who use the bridge as a means of transporting goods, selling wares and cutting across Taungthaman Lake. A young girl came up to me and kept saying 'Mister. Water. Mister Water. Mister Water.' Looking at her puppy eyes I finally gave in and gave her the little bit of my water bottle I had left and, rather than a thank you, she scurried under a nearby bench peeled off the label and drank it. Maybe she was going to recycle the bottle or maybe she was just a strange little girl. I'm not really sure, but we smiled and moved on to the far side of the bridge. There we were met with a small village and took up a spot in a tea shop for something to drink and relief from the heat. We spent time talking and people watching, although as per usual it felt like we were being stared at way more. The great thing though is that once you smile at someone who is looking at you they immediately flash the hugest, warm smile back at you. I think that there are still so few travellers and outsiders in Burma that most locals are just generally curious about you.
After a rest we made our way back across the bridge and decided to venture down a small path through the surrounding fields near the lake. While we weren't too sure if we were allowed to go where we were, it turned out to be the perfect spot to capture the gorgeous sunset over the bridge and the lake. The bridge came even more to life at sunset as people made their way home from work and I sat and came to realize that we were observing small-town Burma's version of rush hour.
Bamo finally took us back to the hotel after we curiously watched people buying sno-cones that were being flavored with syrup being squeezed from old motor oil bottles (serious!) We decided to have a quick bite to eat a Korean restuarant before we got to our overnight train, but I think we wished we hadn't as the food was terrible. Oh well, it was some energy for the eventful night we unknowingly signed up for when we opted for the lower class train...
The Midnight Express (by Express I mean painfully slow train)
April 12, 2012
Overnight train from Mandalay to Bagan
So our Korean dinner was trying to settle itself in our stomachs as we met Monica at the train station for our overnight train to Bagan. As we neared our platform it became clear to me that this wasn't going to be our average overnight experience: it was sheer and utter chaos. With our tickets in hand we tried to decipher where to go, but kept getting pointed in every which direction with everyone telling us 'Car 2.' We finally found an employee willing to help us and he brought us to our car, which we realized was 'class 2' not the 2nd car in the train, and were met with a bit of terror. The 2nd class car was packed to the brim with people and boxes and makeshift luggage and when our helper showed us our seats from outside the car we saw that there were 4 people nestled in our seat numbers. Now, my first instinct was to freak out and say they were in our seats and these were our seats and we had numbers on our tickets, etc., but instead I kept my cool and we asked the man to come on with us and ask the people to move. Thankfully he obliged and was able to get the seat snatchers to stand up; as I moved out of their way I was smacked by a Burmese woman on the arm as she thought I was going to steal her seat. We finally got into our seats and situated our bags in the safest positions we could conjur up and just looked at each other and burst out laughing. There was absolutely no other reaction you could have. I just looked around at the zoo that was around us and thought 'what in the world did we get ourselves into?' Bodies literally filled every crevice available, with those not having seat numbers sitting, standing, lying down, curling up, crouching, hanging in any available space not taken up by the copious amounts of knick-knacks surrounding them and still being pulled in through the open windows.
Yangon, Myanmar
We were greeted by a nice buffet breakfast (orange drink, toast and eggs) and made our way to the Aung San Market. Aung San is a national hero in Myanmar and is the father of the famed Aung San Suu Kyi (‘she who must not be named’ as we dubbed her to avoid any stares if we brought her up in conversation), who was kept in her home for many years due to her outspoken beliefs of the Burmese government. We did think about trying to make our way to the house, but considering the last foreigner who tried to swim across the lake was imprisoned, we decided against it (at least that's what I remember Brendan and Andy talking about.) The market was pretty nice, set in an old colonial building with the standard wares for sale; however, we did come across a cool section with old relics, money and medals from colonial and pre-colonial times. We opted for a self-guided walking tour of Yangon which helped us uncover some of the history surrounding this city.
In a country not necessarily known for its openness to other cultures, it was really interesting to see the city, especially by the river, littered with colonial British architecture. The capital was recently moved to a different city and what was surely once a bustling riverfront had sort of been left to ruin. Some of the immense and stately buildings were cracked or unpainted or had vines growing in and out of window lattices. Still it drummed up some pretty vivid images of how Yangon would have looked and operated in those times—you can only imagine how the colonial settlers lived in their lavish estates, so I guess it’s not a huge wonder why the government didn’t want to try their hardest to preserve that part of their history. We continued our walk past the Independence Obelisk, a large stone pillar in the middle of a park around which tons of palm readers were speaking of the future, and on to Mr. Brown’s Café. This restaurant had almost s 50s style diner feel to it and we were glad to find that our traditional Shan noodles and not-so-traditional smoothies were quite tasty. We continued our quest after lunch only to realize the heat and amount of walking had lead us to one conclusion: we needed a cold beverage and a cool spot to sit.
Back at the hotel we quickly showered and packed up; sandwich in hand our taxi driver picked us up to take us back to the bus stop. You’re told to be careful about what you say in Myanmar and I guess, out of respect and not wanting to stir up any hard feelings, you tend to stick to neutral topics. However, it seemed that if you spent a little longer with anyone (i.e. the taxi driver) they really wanted to discuss the topics you were told to avoid; he spent most of the ride discussing his opinion on the government and supporting ‘she who must not be named.’ It’s strange, because after being in Yangon you don’t really feel like you’re in a place that has the government that Burma is supposed to have, but when you get down to the nitty gritty it seems that they are just really really good at keeping things quiet. So, our taxi driver helped break a bit of the silence for us.
We arrived and Till, our new German friend, was waiting for us to hop on the bus. As I probably could have predicted the bus was not VIP as advertised and was seemingly made for the population of the Land of Oz. The seats were about as wide as my thigh, but I felt so lucky to have a seat as there were people sitting in the aisles too. I think my knees were almost in my mouth as I was having a fairly successful battle with the woman in front of me who kept trying to lean back (you know the battle when your knees are against the seat and someone tries to lean back so you push back a bit with your knees to prevent the recline.) Well, much to my dismay this tiny Matron of Munchkinland took it upon herself to literally WWE bodyslam herself into the chair causing what I thought was the end of my ability to walk. Were I in any other place beside one in which I was clearly being kept an eye on I probably would have said something, so I decided to just cut my losses. I managed to somehow wedge myself between the window, Andy and Frodo’s mom and slept for a bit. I soon found myself awake, dripping with sweat and largemouth bassing Andy’s shoulder; good thing a bathroom break was soon in order.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful until 4am rolled around and we found ourselves at another pseudo-bus stop in Mandalay. Here we met Stephanie and a Thai guy with whom we all shared a tuk tuk taxi to our hotel; picture six people crammed into a Hotwheels 2-door and that was us-with our luggage strapped on top of course The Sabai Phyu Hotel didn’t have our reservation, but they were able to get us boys a 4 person room for the night. It was pretty funny when we walked in and there were 2 twin beds and one double all pushed together along the wall forming one super bed, but we decided rather than think about it to just play rock, paper, scissors for which 2 would share and crashed hard for about 3 hours.
Pics: 043, 045/052, 051, 055, 058, 063, 066, 070, 072 (Mandalay folder)
Mandalay Bay?! No, Mandalay Hill
April 11, 2011
Mandalay, Myanmar
Our room was a bit of a blur after only 3 hours of sleep, but upon closer look I could see that at one point it was probably quite a nice place. The bathroom was abnormally large with a full tub, shower and toilet tucked down a bowling alley sized nook. We made our way to the roof for a view of the city and our breakfast. In my mind, I'm not sure why, but I'd always had this really romanticized vision of Mandalay. Maybe it was from a story or hearing about ancient Burma or maybe it's even the luxurious Mandalay Bay resort in Vegas, but when I looked over the roof I was surprised to see how much more developed and city-like it was. We were up there for a while as we quickly discovered that until you said 'enough' the toast kept coming (and we naturally took advantage of it)
Completely 'toasted' we went to book a bus for our next destination...all completely bookedand woudln't be running for another 3 days. Well now, this whole new year holiday was shaping up to be a bit of a hassle as our Burmese friends had mentioned to us before we departed, but did we listen? NO! Okay, no bus. Onward to the train station. $10 for upper class train tonight or $4 for a lower class train tomorrow. Looking back I think we would have opted for the more expensive option, but we were still in full on backpacker, budget mode and sprung for the $4 fare. It also gave us a couple days in Mandalay instead of a few hours. The 3 of us ended up booking our tickets with a French woman named Monica who was your standard, late 50s, wandering-spirit type. But, hey, it's always nice to at least have some idea who the person you're sharing your seats with are!
We left the train station and began a walking tour around the city with Monica and Stephanie (the girl we took a ride into the city with from the bus 'station' the night before) passing around the clock tower and various temples--Mandalay also kept up the ostentatious flickering light shows at in their shrines. One of the temples we went to was Shekyimyint Paya which housed and original Buddha statue from 1167. We stopped for lunch at a small local place called Mann restaurant where we enjoyed one of my all-time favorite Burmese dishes, Lapat, or tea leaf salad. I can't really relate it to any flavors in American cuisine, but it has tea leaves, chick peas and some other crunchy things with a sort of sweet, sour flavor. Man, I'm really doing a good job explaining it, but trust me when I say it's really good! After lunch we passed through a market with everything from peanuts and chilis drying in the sun to bicycles and piles and piles of onions. The smells were sometimes sweet and aromatic and other times rotten and pungent, but it's always so interesting to see the kinds of things to buy in various countries/regions.
We split off from the girls for a quick respite back at the hotel and to meet up with Till to head to the famed Mandalay Hill. This is a famous hill lined with various Buddhist shrines and images which you climb for a sunset view of the city below. It's one of those things that you read about in the guidebook that sounds so spectacular and beautiful and then you get there and realize the climb is actually about 3x longer than you were expecting. Not to mention it was really hazy, so, while the sunset was quite beautiful, it was a bit difficult to see the sites at the bottom. It's really amazing to me though how many sites and hills and mountains and forests, etc. are all dedicated to their religion. It just makes you realize that it's not only a religion, but also a part of life and culture.
In the evening we hung out on the roof of our hotel with Till and the girls, enjoying some peaceful night air and a couple local Mandalay beers (as each city seemed to have it's own beer and water named after it!) We forced our tired bodies to a local eatery where we couldn't stop laughing as people were trying to explain what was on display to eat in the glass cases and how we were supposed to order--in the end we just laughed and pointed and hoped for the best as random curries and animal parts were being slopped on our plates and the locals were staring. Time for bed before we caused too much more of a scene!
3 Ancient Cities and a Bridge
April 12, 2011
Mandalay, Burma
The four of us boys woke up and met Bamo, our tuk-tuk tour guide driver for the day. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable of rides, but thankfully Bamo let one of us ride up front, which gave us a little extra room to cram in the back. We made the standard 'foreigner' stop, look and (hopefully) buy souvenier stops at a local wood carving shop and a weaving center where they produce the colorfol longyis and traditional wraps that the Burmese wear.
The first of our three ancient city stops for the day was at Sagaing which has been around since the 1300s. Much like Mandalay Hill we were required to brave the heat and climb a seemingly endless number of stairs to reach the top. Along the way we were approached by a number of monks (young to old) who wanted to ask questions and chat while we walked. I tried my hardest to be polite, but a couple times I just couldn't fathom focusing on anything other than trying not to pass out from exhaustion (yea maybe it was time to start exercising back home!) At the top was an incredible view of the Ayeyarwady River and the surrounding shrines and pagodas. You looked in all directions and saw that the peak we were standing on was actually connected to the temples on the other peaks by series upons series of stairs and walkways. It was like an intricate maze or spider web spread out across the hills and mountains, each with it's own Buddhist identity.
The second ancient city was called Inwa and was the capital of Burma at five different times during the 14th-19th centuries. As the island is located on a manmade island, we had to cross the Irrawaddy river on big, wooden flatbed boat. Although we weren't allowed to cross until we we were bombarded by some of the world's greatest children-salesmen. Each child (mainly girls) seemed to match up with a tourist and five them a well-rehearsed spiel. My girl's name was Tje Tje and was able to give the same spiel in 5 different languages (just to test her I switched to Spanish and she kept right up!) It included pretty much a lot of 'Mista, Mista. You Handsome. You come back. I remember you. etc. ' Now, you feel pretty bad not buying anything from them, but she truly just didn't have anything that I wanted. I think Brendan and Andy also passed on the 'real' jewelery we were being sold. Across the river we were greeted by the option to take a 2 person horse and buggy tour around the ancient city; we decided we might as well go for the gusto and Brendan and I hopped in one while Brendan and Till got in another. We were really excited to hear all about the places we were seeing, although we quickly realized our 'guide' actually spoke no English and was therefore not very helpful in answering our questions. I do know we saw the inner and outer city walls, loads of temple ruins and the Nanmyin Tower (Burma's answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.) We meandered around some of the ruins, opting not to pay to enter a couple of sites as we were actually able to see them all from the buggy and ended up climbing to the top of the leaning tower to get a look over the former glory of Inwa. We were greeted back across the river by our sellers (yes, Tje Tje did remember me and tried to hold me to my promise that I would 'maybe' buy something when I came back from the island) and Bamo, who sat down to have lunch with us. He got us what he was having which consisted of rice and about 5 little servings of various 'fixings' to eat with it (pickled veggies, strong tasting fish paste, etc.)
Our third and final city for the day was Amarapura (or Taungmyo) and is home to the U-bein Bridge (aka the world's longest teak bridge.) I know, I know you're all jealous, but in reality it was a gorgeous setting and had a really old-time feel to it. Along the 1.2 km walk across the bridge you are absorbed into the daily life of the locals who use the bridge as a means of transporting goods, selling wares and cutting across Taungthaman Lake. A young girl came up to me and kept saying 'Mister. Water. Mister Water. Mister Water.' Looking at her puppy eyes I finally gave in and gave her the little bit of my water bottle I had left and, rather than a thank you, she scurried under a nearby bench peeled off the label and drank it. Maybe she was going to recycle the bottle or maybe she was just a strange little girl. I'm not really sure, but we smiled and moved on to the far side of the bridge. There we were met with a small village and took up a spot in a tea shop for something to drink and relief from the heat. We spent time talking and people watching, although as per usual it felt like we were being stared at way more. The great thing though is that once you smile at someone who is looking at you they immediately flash the hugest, warm smile back at you. I think that there are still so few travellers and outsiders in Burma that most locals are just generally curious about you.
After a rest we made our way back across the bridge and decided to venture down a small path through the surrounding fields near the lake. While we weren't too sure if we were allowed to go where we were, it turned out to be the perfect spot to capture the gorgeous sunset over the bridge and the lake. The bridge came even more to life at sunset as people made their way home from work and I sat and came to realize that we were observing small-town Burma's version of rush hour.
Bamo finally took us back to the hotel after we curiously watched people buying sno-cones that were being flavored with syrup being squeezed from old motor oil bottles (serious!) We decided to have a quick bite to eat a Korean restuarant before we got to our overnight train, but I think we wished we hadn't as the food was terrible. Oh well, it was some energy for the eventful night we unknowingly signed up for when we opted for the lower class train...
The Midnight Express (by Express I mean painfully slow train)
April 12, 2012
Overnight train from Mandalay to Bagan
So our Korean dinner was trying to settle itself in our stomachs as we met Monica at the train station for our overnight train to Bagan. As we neared our platform it became clear to me that this wasn't going to be our average overnight experience: it was sheer and utter chaos. With our tickets in hand we tried to decipher where to go, but kept getting pointed in every which direction with everyone telling us 'Car 2.' We finally found an employee willing to help us and he brought us to our car, which we realized was 'class 2' not the 2nd car in the train, and were met with a bit of terror. The 2nd class car was packed to the brim with people and boxes and makeshift luggage and when our helper showed us our seats from outside the car we saw that there were 4 people nestled in our seat numbers. Now, my first instinct was to freak out and say they were in our seats and these were our seats and we had numbers on our tickets, etc., but instead I kept my cool and we asked the man to come on with us and ask the people to move. Thankfully he obliged and was able to get the seat snatchers to stand up; as I moved out of their way I was smacked by a Burmese woman on the arm as she thought I was going to steal her seat. We finally got into our seats and situated our bags in the safest positions we could conjur up and just looked at each other and burst out laughing. There was absolutely no other reaction you could have. I just looked around at the zoo that was around us and thought 'what in the world did we get ourselves into?' Bodies literally filled every crevice available, with those not having seat numbers sitting, standing, lying down, curling up, crouching, hanging in any available space not taken up by the copious amounts of knick-knacks surrounding them and still being pulled in through the open windows.
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