Advertisement
Yangon
Schwedagon Paya at SunsetAn early morning flight out of Bangkok placed us in Yangon, Myanmar--the country's capital city. The airport was . . .very nice . . .and very empty. Point of interest: for those of you who didn't know, Myanmar is the country formerly known as "Prince" . . .I mean, Burma. We soon realized a couple of interesting facts about Myanmar. Number One: The women have some kind of Buddha-Mud on their faces--which Billy was sure was their fancy make-up. Number Two: The men wear skirts. Number Three: Everyone chews Beetlenut. We are not entirely sure why any of these facts are important to the culture of Myanmar, but we are looking forward to asking Billy's Dad who should know all of the ins and outs of Myanmar. Anyway, Yangon itself was a different city than what we had previously been visiting. Our view out of the window in our room stared right into a huge pile of garbage and a little hut with a man who never moved from his sleeping pad. I sure hope he's okay. Speaking of our hotel . . .it was a refreshing sight amidst the hot trash. We stayed at Motherland Inn
Yangon
Sunset in Yangon 2 where we were fortunate enough to have air conditioning, and one English (Australian) T.V. station. Australian rugby anyone?
Bogyoke Aung San Market . . .Where Everyone is Your Friend--and They Follow You It was at the giant market that I realized I was a celebrity. Everyone--and I mean EVERYONE--stared at my newly braided hair. The reason I know it was my hair and not my skin was that everyone who was smiling and staring eventually pointed to the hair on their head and said, "very beautiful hair" or just pointed at my hair and smiled. It was great and not so great, but mostly, very annoying. One of our "new friends" who wanted to practice his English followed us around the market for a good hour. Billy enjoyed chit-chatting with him. Soon, there were about 10 little kids selling postcards all around us. They didn't go away . . .even if we ignored them. They just walked with us wherever we went. After a good ditch effort, one little boy found us again, and Billy thought it would be a great idea to buy one so he would leave us alone. Not the best idea . . .we ended
Bagan
Billy and The Monks up buying 10 postcards somehow . . .and they were all not so very good. With good intentions, we finally got away from the postcard boy with too many ugly postcards, but we were ready to browse around on our own! We saw some great wood carved elephants that I really wanted. My favorite was a large elephant carved from some beautiful wood that had a stool effect on the elephant's back. It would've made a great livingroom piece, but carrying that around Southeast Asia would be ridiculous and unthinkable . . .though everytime I saw one I thought about it! As we wandered around the market, we found the store where Billy's Dad bought all of the stone and jewel mosaic pictures--and had the one made of us! It was really amazing! I can't believe how beautiful the huge pictures are. Well, once we got sick of the market, we decided to walk around to try to find a fruit stand. After a lot of walking . . .a lot of sweating . . .and no luck finding fruit, we decided to hail a taxi back to our hotel. That night, we ate supper at an Indian food restaurant
Bagan
Some of the 4,400 Wats called "New Dehli". Not so bad, not so good. But we did eventually find some fruit--mangoes, mangosteens, and a pineapple. They were GREAT! And they made our room smell magnificent!
Schwedagon Paya The next day, we wanted to catch some Burmese culture--which seems to consist of Buddha. So, we headed off to the largest paya (wat, temple, pagoda, etc.) in Myanmar. Schwedagon Paya was amazing! It has small temples inside of the big one--several donated from different countries. There was even one from the United States! The main paya stood 98 meters from the ground. On the very top rested a 76 carat diamond (want one of those, Brenda?), as well as, several large rubies and more than five thousand diamonds and two thousand other precious stones. The paya itself was covered in gold leaf from top to bottom. If melted down and invested into their economy, it could single handedly move them from a third-world to first-world country . . .just kidding! When we first arrived it was POURING down rain. We waited to walk around until the rain died down. As we waited, Billy chatted it up with a nice monk who ended up being our tour guide
Yangon
One of Many Buddhas at Swhwedagon Paya for the day. He told us which paya was donated from what country. He knew the oldest Buddhas (some dating back 2,500 years), and taught us how to ring the large Buddha bell to drive off evil demons. We also found out that since I was born on a Friday, I am very lucky--for it was also the day Buddha was born . . .also, I am a rabbit. Billy was born on a Tuesday and is, therefore, a lion. The only really bad day to be born is on Thursday . . .the day of the rat. The most interesting thing about the paya was watching it during sundown. At about 6:30 p.m., the sun hits the large golden paya and lights up the 76 carat diamond at the top. The monk knew the best places to stand in order to see the diamond change colors from red to green to blue to yellow to orange . . .it was truly amazing! We ate supper that night at a lake side restaurant called "Sandie's Myanmar Cuisine". We had some delicious food while being serenaded by Eagles songs sung live courtesy of a two-man band. Good times.
To Bagan! (But Yangon
Courtyard at Swhwedagon Paya not Bilbo)
The next part of this trip is called: Buses. Because we couldn't get on a direct bus to Bagan, we decided to take a bus headed for Mandalay and jump off eleven hours into the trip in the town of Meiktila. From there, we were to take a truck taxi six hours to Bagan. Although this seems pretty simple, my rear-end is still remembering the long haul six hours on the back of the truck taxi. Let me explain. The truck taxi is a truck . . .much like the old Datsun trucks from the 70s and 80s. The beds had a metal frame with two planks of wood on each side and a covered metal roof. You loaded the back of the truck on the planks and on the tires in the middle (where your feet should go) with about 25 people. Then you let about 10 more people ride on top of the truck's roof. Oh, and don't forget the 3 people in the cab of the truck along with everyone's luggage and about 12 large bags of rice! The worst part (and by now my rear is asleep and half of Billy's body can no
Yangon
Swhwedagon Paya's Sunset Glow longer feel any kind of touch) was when the woman sitting next to me was so enamored with my braided hair that she stared at me for four straight hours with a huge smile on her face. Point of interest: Every woman who boarded the truck taxi had to make comments about my hair--pointing, smiling, pointing, staring, pointing, laughing, smiling, pointing, thumbs up. Oh, and the woman who was staring for 4 straight hours was sitting so close to me, she was almost in my lap! I was ready to take out my braids right then and there. When we finally reached Bagan--six hours later, we headed for more trouble. Some guys and their bicycle taxis assured us they could get us to our guesthouse. Another small seat to squish into! The first motel we saw . . .we stayed at! It was a very nice guesthouse called "Eden Motel". We were exhausted . . .so the first thing we did in Bagan: sleep.
4,400 jigga-"WATS"! In a 42 square mile area, there are over 4,400 wats. We had a lot to explore! We went around to look at some wats that evening and climbed up Buledi Paya to watch
Yangon
Swhwedagon Paya's Diamond Glowing at the Top the sun go down. We went to the tallest wat and another wat that was the largest in the area. We also saw a million Buddhas and some nice fresco paintings on the walls of some of the larger payas. The most interesting part of the wat adventure is that you have to take your shoes off to go inside or walk up the outside of the payas. As the heat of Myanmar beats down on Bagan heating up the clay and marble and cement, our bare little feet were being fried to a crisp--like walking on hot coals, I would imagine. Finally, at our last pagoda, we raced up to the top with our shoes on! (since nobody was around to monitor us!) The only negative part about the wat adventures are the touts who sell things to tourists--all 3 of us. (seriously, there was almost no one visiting Bagan.) The sellers were everywhere . . .they followed you from wat to wat. The kids were almost the worst of all. Luckily, we had no postcard mishaps here!
758 Stairs Up to Mt. Popa Just south of Bagan is Mt. Popa . . .a little mountain top 1,520 meters
Bagan
The World's Ugliest Dog . . .Winner 2007 up with a paya resting atop its flat peak. On our drive to Mt. Popa, our taxi driver stopped by a sugar/peanut/alcohol "factory". We were able to watch the primitive farming methods and also took the grinder in hand and rode while the bull marched in circles to grind down the peanuts and sugar. The owner then took us inside the hut to see how sugar balls are made and let us smell his 45% alcohol--moonshine. It about knocked me out--smelled terrible! We also got to smell the 20% alcohol beer . . .it smelled worse! But he was very proud of his "factory" and farming. So, we took pictures and enjoyed our little side adventure. We then headed off again to our final destination. Upon our ascent of Mt. Popa, Billy was attacked by a monkies. We thought it was a fun idea to buy some monkey food--a.k.a. peanuts and corn. Without much thought, we held the little packages in our hands. We were ready to hand them out in a nice orderly manner. Monkies don't do orderly. They wanted Billy's nuts--and quick! One monkey actually got one of Billy's packages by jumping at him and scratching his hand
Bagan
Truck Taxi as he swiped a nut package away! Later when we thought they were all put away, another monkey attempted a football move to knock Billy off his guard. Luckily, he did no harm. Soon, we passed several stands selling various goods and some junk. We kept heading up, up, up toward the top! 758 stairs and no shoes later, we finally made it to the top. There was a beautiful view of the the countryside from the top, and we were thankful for a nice cool breeze as well.
Air-Con and Seats Lay Back (because they're broken!) Our last bus ride in Myanmar took us from Bagan to Yangon. I thought it was going to be my last bus ride ever! The nicest bus in Myanmar is a hand-me-down from Singapore via Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos . . .needless to say, it broke down . . .several times. It constantly overheated and the air-condition worked about 20%!o(MISSING)f the time. The aisles were full of people, and it was overbooked by about 50%! (MISSING)My favorite part of the bus were the Beetlenut spit covered chairs and floor. Oh, and let's not forget the music. I'm convinced the Burmese are deaf.
Bagan
Shadow on the Streets of . . .the Middle of Myanmar They played music like retired people play the news: LOUD and PROUD. "Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding . . .badda, badda, bing, bong!" The earplugs didn't work. The iPod didn't work--and then died and hour and a half into the trip. And then it got dark. Every twenty minutes or so, we stopped to throw water on the engine. It took 10 people . . .one to throw the water, one to fill the bottle, and eight to stand around and watch. About 15 hours into the 180 mile trip (that's roughly the distance between Nebraska City and Kansas City--which takes me 2 1/2 hours to drive), we figured we were almost there! We had spent the whole night devoid of air-conditioning . . .and pretty much breathing everyone else's breath over and over again. Almost there . . .no. The never ending nightmare ride finally ended 4 more hours later! 19 hours to go the distance of 180 miles . . .on roads that were like dirt moguls with potholes. That's about it. As you might guess, it was the most wonderful trip. Best time ever. NOT! It was NOT the best time ever.
One More Night Our last
Bagan
Ox Cart . . .From Days of 'Ol night in Myanmar, we stayed at The Winner Inn. It was great because there was a shower . . .and air-conditioning . . .and a bed. We rested from our weary travels and ate some great pizza for supper. The next morning, we were to head back to Bangkok on our way to Laos.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0599s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Thomas Michaud
non-member comment
Great read!!
Just wanted to let you guys know how much fun it was to read and see your adventures in this post ... Helps to take a mental trip away from Andrews University ;-) Look forward to more!!