Temples, monks and buddahs!

Well I have not been able to update my blog or have any access to internet for the past 10 days because we were in Burma. The government there is a crazy military dictatorship and does not allow any outside news and most websites on the internet are banned. So basically the people that live in Burma have no idea what it is like on the outside world because their governement does not want them to know how bad the political situation in their country really is in comparison to the outside world. All this being said about the horrible government, the people are still the happiest and friendliest people we have met throughout our trip.

The whole trip through out Burma went alot better than we had thought. Originally we thought that we were going to have to take four 15 hour bus rides and that turned in to only one 15 hour bus ride. Our good luck began when we arrived at the airport for our flight, we decided we needed to exchange a bit more Thailand Bhat into US dollars. Apparently the lady didnt count the money properly and we managed to somehow get an extra 100$. We were happy because this gave us so much more freedom on how we travelled. Also there are no bank machines or credit advances so it gave us just the little extra security just in case.

We arrived in Burma early in the morning trying to figure out how we were going to spend our next 10 days. With the extra money we had recieved we decided we would buy a flight to our first city. We didnt even leave the airport and we were able to buy a flight that left in 1 hour. It saved us 20 hours on a bus...thank god. We arrived at our first stop of Inle lake that afternoon soo happy that we skipped the dreaded bus trip. We found a really nice cozy family guesthouse and settled in to explore the city.

Inle lake was the smallest city that we visited in Burma..actually it is probably the smallest city I have ever seen. It was only one street of actual restaurants and guesthouses and the rest was villages. It is very rural..there is barely any motorized vehicles besides tractors. The rest of the traffic was all horse and carriage and bicycle. It is hard to even imagine a place like this exists until you actually experience it. Another thing about Burma is the government enjoys to shut off the electricity at all times of the day and night for some reason. So there is rarely electricity let alone hot water. It sure makes you realize how lucky you are to live in the western world.

Our time in Inle lake was spent going around and seeeing everything by boat. Around the lake there are 17 different villages that all specialize in their own thing. Such as weaving, cigar making, silver making, paper making and anything else you can imagine. All the villages were on stilts and you could only get from all the different villages by boat. It is amazing to see all the people that live like this. Each village had a huge market that sets up daily that almost anything was available. Nightlife and entertainment is pretty much banned in Burma so there is not much to do there besides soaking up the local life. The one exciting thing we did see is a bunch of monks teaching cats how to jump through hoops. We came to the conclusion that it was the most exciting thing that happens in Burma.

After Inle Lake we took a taxi to Bagan, we also had good luck in this leg of our journey. The taxi to Bagan from anywhere is about 120$. Luckily the driver doesnt want to go home empty so they lower the price to 50$. It was only about 10$ more than the bus so we decided it would probably be a good idea. The roads were the worst we have ever seen and we have seen alot of bad roads. The car was rocking back and forth and smashing down in all the pot holes. Half of it was mountains making it even more difficult and the rest was just horrible roads...We soon found out why. It was all women and children making the roads with no machines or anything. All by hand. It was the government forced slave labour of women and children. It was so sad to see the kids as young as 5 years old building roads. They would start by making a fire under a big boulder so it would get hot enough to smash to pieces. After that they kept burnings and smashing rocks until it was the size of gravol. Very hard work probably harder than most adults would ever do in their life in Canada.

After arriving in Bagan after a 13 hour taxi ride we checked in to another beautiful hotel run by a great family. We then organized a horse and carriage to go check out the main attraction of Bagan...the 4000 temples and ruins. It was amazing for the first 6 or 7 hours then we had enough. Throughout this trip we have probably seen over 500000 temples and 1000000 buddhas! Burma alone has more temples and Buddhas than all the countries we have been to put together. Even though we have seen so many it still makes the area so beautiful. Luckily the temples are different in each country so that makes them a little better.

After our couple days in Bagan we took a boat to Mandalay. Although it took 15 hours it was still way more enjoyable than a 10 hour bus ride. The boat was actually really nice. The chairs were reclining chairs and there was movies being played and a restaurant and an outside deck. It made the trip more of an activity than travel. It was a beautiful ride along the river seeing all the village life.

When we got to Mandalay it was already dark out and of course the electricty was shut off so it was really difficult to find a guest house. Especailly because the hotels here are only small family homes not huge elaborate buildings so you dont know what is a guesthouse and what isnt. We eventually found a place to stay but it was not as nice as the rest we have had.

Mandalay was a pretty boring city for me. There was not too much to do. We went and saw a festival when a young boy turns into a monk. It was interesting and we also met this local lady that explained everything to us about buddhism. We also rented some bikes when we were in Mandalay and went riding through the monks quarters where about 70000 monks live in all the different monastries. Riding bikes everyone is alot more fun then walking and we can cover so much distance..We basically spent 2 full days just riding around and exploring the city.

We also saw a group in Mandalay called the Moustache Brothers. They are a set of comedians that have been banned by the government for performing anywhere because of the jokes they tell. The jokes are not even really jokes they are just comments about certain things about the country. What is said about George Bush on CNN is way worse. They made comments about all the horrible things that the government has done to the people. For example they have cancelled all the money for the country and changed the denominations so the old money is invalid making everyone poor again. There are no banks in Burma either so it makes it impossible to keep valid money after the old currency is cancelled. Another thing they mentioned is how this one lady got elected to be the new leader of the country and the militarty government did not want to hand over power to her although she won with 80% of the votes. What they did instead was put her on house arrest for a long sentence. It was really interesting hearing about all this stuff because they are the only ones in the country pretty much that would even think of saying this kind of stuff to tourist. The penalties of even talking about this to anyone is 6 years hard labour. Very sad place..

After our time in Mandalay we took an overnight bus to Yangon the capital of burma. Thank god we only had one bus ride in Burma becuase the roads on this one were really bad also. It was even supposed to be the best road in the country. When we arrived in Yangon we just went to bed and slept for the day to recover. When we woke up we went and explored the city. We ended up buying a few things for our house and 48 movies for 3$!! Now we just have to hope they all work because they are all amazing movies!

The last night in Yangon we spent at the Shwedegon Pagoda. It is an amazing buddhist sight that is filled with a bunch of temples, stupas and monks. One of the stupas is actaully made out of 7 tons of pure gold and thousands of carats of diamonds and rubies. You can see a picture below..We met one of the monks and he took us through the whole complex explaining everything and taking us to all the different prayer stations. I think we have become experts on Buddhism over this trip. When he was done the tour he just said goodbye and didnt want any money from us. Usually in all the other Asian countries they demand a tip. I guess tourism hasnt ruined the way of life yet in burma as it has in other countries. When we tried to give him a little tip all he did was put it in the donation box. Too bad all countries werent that easy.

Although there are alot of bad things going on in Burma there are also alot of amazing sights and the people are so friendly. These people have nothing so if you are debating whether to go to this country I would say go for it! Support the people and spread your money around as much as possible and avoid most government fees within reason.

The next day was time to fly back to Bangkok for our 8th time. It really is starting to feel more like home now than Vancouver. Our last few days in Bangkok was spent shopping for gifts, clothes and sovenirs. We also decided to pamper our selfs with massages and facials for 5$. They sure felt amazing after all the hard travelling we have done in the last 5 months. Anyways we fly home tonight...cant wait to see everyone!

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