Myanmar 06

Golden temples, smiling faces, isolation... a travel back in time

Under the recent regime myanmar has been isolated from the outside world for a long time. On one hand obviously this is horrible and you wish for the country and its lovely people to get liberated, but on the other hand, being a selfish tourist wanting to see really different places not yet completely westernized, it has its charm as well: no mobile phones, almost no internet, no western brands, only a few old cars from the 50s-80s, people greeting you and looking at you with big eyes, especially on the country side, everyone is incredibly friendly, after myanmar even the thais seem to be quite unfriendly,....
it really feels as time has stopped there the last 40 years or so,..
Yangon/Rangoon: visit the amazing Shwedagon Paya, check out the city with a local guide, drink plenty of myanmar beer with him at night on the streets and take part of the local street life, there is a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere and are many extremely friendly people despite of the political situation,
Inle Lake: very relaxed place to stay, take boat trip on the lake to visit locals living on the lake, get invited to drink tea & smoke cigars (or was it cigarettes?), at the time there is an amusement park, we hardly see any other tourists there, especially not during the night, locals at first were a bit shy but after having drunk a bit of the local beer, some dare to approach us, we drink together and are amazed by their friendliness, we also take a ride in the big wheel that is made of wood and works on man-power only: 2-3 guys turn the wheel with their bare hands, jump on it to accelerate it and then jump off, the ride takes as long as the wheel turns, very environmentally friendly, it's like being on an amusement park 100 years ago or so, very cool, we meet a little girl in a restaurant who wants to become a singer, she sings and dances to a tape of 80s music, we take pictures and film her which makes her even feel more special, we return the next day and give here a small electric guitar for kids, she is happy - we are too,
Mandalay nice place to stay, city walk, walk up mandalay hill, get to know a rock musician and learn about censorship in Myanmar (eg all the lyrics are checked before you can perform), take a tour to Amarapura to walk the world's longest teakwood bridge (1.2km) and check out the pagoda and giant bell in mingun;
Bagan amazing place and among my top10 worldwide, the temples themselves are rather small and not as amazing as angkor wat for example, but the whole scenery is truly amazing, as there are temples almost everywhere you look, 4000 in total to be more precise. We explore the whole area per bike and take 2 days to do so.

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