11 Days In Burma

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It is quite a confronting experience arriving at night in Burmas former capital city Yangon. The streets are dimly lit, slightly flooded and Ancient buildings lean over you in the wind. On the flight there you hear of burmas courrupt goverment, its "Big Brother" like nature, so your walk begins to quicken as you make a dash for your hotel door. You scrub off the city dirt in your urine stained shower, questioning your decision to come to the country.

Then it is morning..
The Buildings are still old, the goverment is still corrupt but Mayanmar in the light begins to show its beatuy. Yangon, denounced as the captial city in 2005 is thriving with culture.The city has a showcase of international cuasine due to its borders with thiland, china and india. There are remenants of culture from countrys throughout all of asia , yet there could not be anywhere else in the world quite like Mayanmar.

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I intended to see four main parts of the country. Yangon,Mandalay, Bagan and Inle lake.

Yangon;
Described above, yangon is a run down city still full of life. I was lucky enough to see Burmas largest Pagoda, towering well over 90 meters and covered in over 75 tones of gold plate. As it was the closing of the buddist lent, a large festival was on. I managed to get a few pictures that you can see, but they do not even come close to doing this night justice.

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Mandalay ;
Mandaly, situted a 12 hr bus ride north of yangon is a much cleaner, relaxed part of burma and im very happy to have seen this part of the country. It was however the worst bus trip i have experienced, mainly because there are no arm rests to designate personal space. Of course i was seated next to the loudest and sweatiest person on the bus, who felt it was necisarry to spoon me a number of time throughout the night. Taking a bike around the city was ausome, there is a 1.2km teak bridge wich was a perfect place for photos.
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Inle Lake;
The first 30hrs arriving at the lake were quite tiring. It appears my stomache does not take well to highway (unfreash) food. Suffering food poising, and not knowing wich of the 100 pills in my medical kit to take , i layed in my room vomiting for hours as a cyclone passed overhead.
Once i stoped being a winger, i played tourist and hired a boat and explored the lake. The Inle is probably the size of pittwater, with teak "stilt" towns scattered throughout . Once again amazing photo oppotunitys (crap photographer).

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Picture scaling down the cliffs of the blue mountains, following along side the murry darling and then meeting Rice fields like that in bali. Throw in thouasands Palm Trees and the occasional sunflower farm and you will get a light picture of my 10 Hour minibus ride from Inle Lake to Bagan. Sounds average?
How about ontop of a mini bus roof?
For most of the 10 hour journey I had the roof to myself and could lay down on the rice bags or hang my feet of the side. For the day it felt like i was in africa, the landscape plained out for hours and was in full growth, as it was just the end of the raining season. No pictures unfortunatly as i had no battery, but got a little boring clip going through a town.

Bagan;
I have not yet seen the temples of Ankor Wat, but this must create a sirious competition. On view in Bagan, is over 4000 temples from differing eras scattered across green plains. Sunset here was worth the trip to Burma itself, but during the day i explored the temples on a "pushy" and could take in the scenes alone. The wether wasnt the best, raining most of my time there but i managed to get one or two "snaps".




If you find yourself traveling to south east asia in the near future, Burma should be ranked high on your "to do list". The general public have not yet learnt the many scheems like the rest of asia, making you feeling more at ease with your belongings. Rather than constant hassel from shopkeepers, you are free to explore and therfore feel more comfortable doin buisness with these lovely people. Most importantly as the public is serverly opressed by its current goverment, tourisim or at least raised awaerness about this countrys beauty is siriously needed.

p.s sorry for spelling and grammar!

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Comments

[matty]

. . .
wooooooooaaaaahhhhhhhhh

[Matty]

!!
sounds absolutely fantastic and some of your pictures are great. I'm so jealous of you :) hope you having the most awesome trip. see you soon mate

[Emma Denton]

The world is like a book, those who don't travel are only reading one page.
thanks for sharing your blogging stuff so sick sounds like you are actually experiencing the (real) world and the photos are amazing as well. Glad to see you hvnt cut your hair haha! stay safe em