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Published: March 3rd 2010
Agi is doing our laundry...
Think she will be a perfect housewife. Here she's ironing our Chinese dollar bills. Just look at her smile and you'll see she enjoys these tasks...Myanmar (aka Burma) is weird. Coming from Kolkata, India we flew via Bangkok to Yangon. Our plan is to stay here approx one month, but we'll see.
Touristy Weirdo Country
Myanmar was also on our list of "weirdo" countries to visit, but apparently this is a rather touristy one: all facilities are here, tourist all around, no strange, abnormal military nor police presence on the streets, you can talk and walk freely here. People are very friendly and at night, you can walk safely home. So in itself it appears to be the perfect tourist place, cause there is loads to see and perfect weather. But it's a military dictatorship, which is not
that friendly to its inhabitants. It just gets a bit weirder and weirder once to start probing around:
*The human rights situation is pretty bad over here, but apparently is the Military regime here 'covered' by the Chinese, who get cheap gas, gems, gold and wood.... Besides the
ordinary trade, money is made by the top leader by heroin and opium.
*The guide we had on a 3-days hiking trek tells us about the current situation freely, but only when we're out of the villages and
The circular train.
The perfect place to have a chat and look around. Yangoon really looks like a rural village: loads of small shacks, dirt paths. Only 'hardcore' downtown looks like a 'normal' city. nobody else is around. He's afraid of eavesdropping, but really wants us to know how it is in Myanmar. Apparently the police can just sent anyone to jail without a proper trail. The guide's dad is doing 12 years...
*Kickbacks to military and police are needed for private companies to be able to exist.
*Forced labor is pretty common.
*In case you want to take the bus from A to B it appears that certain roads are closed, and especially off limits for foreigners. The reason is that certain states are not fully under the control by the Military (read: local tribes dealing in opium are ruling there and armed clashes do happen).
So while we're here we try to spent the most of our money in the private sector and in locations where we do have to pay for government stuff, try to avoid these by taking side entrances or going really early so the tickets booths are still closed... (and yes, I know: I'm a cheap Dutch).
Money Laundering and Yangon
One of the annoying things here is the fact that a lot of transactions are done in USD. Thanks god we got some 'fresh'
The main stupa in Yangoon
The entrance from the side. USD on Bangkok airport, as all notes have to be clear, crispy and smelling nice. The banknotes we got from a bank in China were used ones, so these are not popular. So in case you don't have fresh USD, then you have a problem, cause ATMs are not present in Myanmar. So the money you bring into the country is all you have to spent and there are basically no means to get cash advances. So in order to still be able to use our USDs we got in China we literally had to iron them, in order to remove foldings and so on.... So the next time when Agi is asked then she was engaged in money laundering, I guess that 'yes' should be more appropriate...
We stayed 2 days in Yangon and basically had a relaxed time: we exchanged USD to local kyat on the street and all was ok. We exchanged a larger amount the next day cause we heard that the best fx rates are in Yangon and immediately got ripped off. We don't have a clue how they did it, but we counted all the bills and kept an eye on the stacks
I forgot the name, but it's huge.
OVer 450 metrics of gold is covering this stupa... of counted money. But probably when we reached down to get our USD they swapped all stacks, cause in the end the stacks we got contained much less money. Think we got ripped for 100 USD, but this we only found out when we already left Yangon, so I guess we didn't get such a good fx rate.... Shit happens.
In Yangon we saw the gold covered stupa (of which I've lost the name... sorry), but it's over 120 meters high and is covered with over 450 metrics of gold: blinky-blink everywhere and impressive. Apparently every good Myanmar budhist goes here at least once for a pilgrimage. As we didn't saw a ticket booth and there were no signs in English we got in for free, although we did make an 'obligatory' donation when we deposited our shoes, but this donation might as well gone in someone's pockets...
The weirdest thing we had in Yangon was not a 'tourist sight', but a local lady. While we had dinner in China town (cheap BBQ's), she approached us for a chat. Ok, we chat. She spoke perfect English, as she spent quite some time abroad (including: Europe, Panama, US, Israel
The strange Myanmar Lady
While watching the Chinese Dragon dance. Standing on a custom made Myanmar jeep. and Australia). So she invited us to go to a Chinese dragon dance for Chinese new year. So we went with her jeep and a bottle of import liquor to the dragon dance. There we figured out she's a designer of jewels and against the government. Interesting talk, but we moved on to and expensive bar where we continued drinking import liquor per bottle
(from this point I had to rely more on Agi's memory than mine...). Finishing of at 4:30AM at a 24 hours restaurant, where she bough curries for the street dogs in her street, cause nobody else fed them... But spending money like crazy, having a custom-made jeep, being able to travel freely abroad, being critical of the government, designing jewels and buying curries for dogs: Weird, but who is she? She wasn't older than 35...
But after the drinking night, we had to catch a bus as we decided to move on, as we heard that transport is really slow here, so we got a bus ticket to Kalaw
3 days hike
Kalaw is a town where many hikes start. We hiked from Kalaw to Inli lake in three day. While we had breakfast
an American guy we met on the bus arranged for the three of us a guide. so after our breakfast we could set of almost immediately. The season is not that good for hiking in February: the dry season has been going on for some time, so there is quite some dust in the air: misty views. But the villages we passed and the places where we've slept were brilliant. Small kids gave flowers and after our experiences in India we checked with the guide whether we need to give something in return (read: money), but nope: this was sincere. The first night we slept in a bamboo hut in the village consisting of 12 houses. The second night a monastery gave us shelter: 2 senior monks and 7 novice monks. Especially the novice monks were fun to watch. Sometimes we didn't know when they prayed or played as they kept on kicking each other... On the third day we arrived at Inli lake, where we spent some nights relaxed.
Commissions crazy and free wine at Inli lake
Inli lake is a lake known for the floating villages,m although by now they do not really float as the water
Cow wash
There are literally cows lined up for this cow wash. Think the cows really enjoyed it, cause it was bl##dy hot and dry. level is too low (dry season) and the houses themselves are standing on bamboo poles. But the gardens & market do float. We got on a boat a took a tour. Nice ride, but somehow the boat driver didn't understand phrases like "no workshops, no shops" and "we want to eat cheap local food", but this commission crazy guy kept on going to the workshops and brought us to a lovely tourist restaurant with inflated prices... But we can be stubborn as well, so in the end we ended up eating on the market and the boat driver ended up grumpy. Guess he wasn't too happy he didn't get his free lunch from the lovely tourist restaurant.
But the good thing was that we figured out there was a vineyard nearby and from an American wine lover we heard that a wine diner for wine merchants would be held... We smelled our chance for free wine. So On one morning we got some bikes and cycled near the lake and in the afternoon we showed up at the vineyard. The vineyard had its first harvest in 2009 and they were just bottling their second harvest. We tried all wines
Devote novice monks
Novice monks praying at the monastery where we spent a night. Sometimes we couldn't figure out when they were praying or playing, as they kept on kicking each other. doing the normal winetasting-thing and managed to get ourselves invited for the wine diner (sometimes is so good to be typical Dutch). Ok, the wines were so-so, the wine dinner appeared to be only simple buffet, we still managed to stay for some hours, watch the sun go down while enjoying our Myanmar Shiraz...
The road to Mandalay
Next stop: Mandalay, where we currently are. The second town of Burma and for us it was relaxed. We did some sightseeing, but of most places I've lost the names and the Lonely Planet is not next to me.... We cycled around in the city going from sight to sight. We saw lovely teak monasteries, budha covered with LOADS of gold, a mass concentration of small 'temple like' building each containing a marble slab with holy text engraved and the 200 years old U Bein bridge, where we went to this morning early, just to avoid paying its entrance fee of 10 USD pp. Our next plan is going to Bahmo. We got the boat tickets, but we got conflicting information: information brochures says the trip lasts 2 days - 1 night, while ticket booth said it's 3 days - 2
The monastery itself
This is the monastery where we slept. In the left wing we slept, while you can see Agi on the 'veranda' drinking her tea. nights. The other fun thing is that the road going south of Bahmo is closed / off-limits. So we're not sure how we'll get back, maybe we'll take the same boat back. We'll see.
Ps: I found the following on a street banner. Somehow I'm remembered of North-Korea, while being in Myanmar....
People's Desire:
- Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding negative views.
- Oppose those trying to jeopardize stability of the State and progress of the nation.
- Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State.
- Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy.
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