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Published: June 19th 2012
We entered the country that is still buried somewhere in the 80s Ah Burma...finally...after so many months on the road we were finally about to experience it. We must admit that the beginning of our tour around Burma has come in exactly the right time. As much as we loved those a few past months in Cambodia, Laos and northern Thailand, we also found them...well, quite similar. It is true that we did not find Vietnam amazing at first because of many things that happened during our stay there but at least it was different to its neighbouring countries. Now we can appreciate this fact. Yet Burma, we were more than certain would have been quite something extraordinary hence our big excitement.
Of course there is this problematic issue of money when you travel to Myanmar as all ATMs were closed by the government and you have to bring USD to be able to stay there. Not only USD is the preferred currency but also bills need to be intact, uncreased and frankly speaking brand new looking. There are also some serial numbers of US bills that they would never accept so one has to be very careful. This
country is said to be more expensive than others so you have to bring more money just in case. Believe it or not all those things cause some stress when you enter the country even if you are experienced traveller and you always do your research (more details on getting crisp USD bills at the end of a blog).
We made it to
Yangoon after short and comfy flight (Air Asia 150$ return standard price) and we were not sure what to expect when we exit the airport. The Burmese New Year was still celebrated so we had some troubles finding a cab to town and we ended up paying way too much for it (6000Kiat/7,5$ just to get to bus station a few km away) but there was no one that wanted to take us. Ah, holidays!!! What we saw was a place looking like all the modern stuff from the west did not have a chance to arrive yet. Old, crumbling cars and buses occupied old and sometimes unpaved streets – even our cab did not have windows and seats were brought from another vehicle. People all wore similar clothes, no matter if man or woman they
all wore sarongs. Street life was vivid and loud with food vendors and mobile restaurants everywhere to be seen. The long distance bus terminal was just a dirty and sandy site with some shops around;-) Loved it already!!!
We decided not to stop in Yangoon and head straight to the south to the pilgrimage site of
Kyaiktiyo Golden Rock. It is said to be one of the most intriguing places in Myanmar for a foreigner to visit. This is a place of miracles with legends around the rock, hanging on the edge of a cliff on Mt. Kyaiktiyo for centuries, withstanding gravity and even several earth quakes. It is a holy place for Buddhist pilgrims (Buddha hair was brought to the mountain on a boat that turned into the rock) and thousands of people come to visit it every day, which makes it a perfect spot for some fantastic human interaction.
We based ourselves in
Kinpun village at the foot of the mountain which seems just too tiny of a place to accommodate all those pilgrims. There are only 3 hotels licences to take foreigners and they all offer the same quality more or less – which is
crap. What you get for your 13$ is miles away from what you get for this in Thailand, Cambodia etc. Our room was a tiny cubicle, hardly accommodating bed and chair, with paper walls and very questionable cleanness standards. At least the village was fantastic – small, rustic and very authentic. So this is how SE Asia must have looked like 20 years ago? On the way we met Andre, German traveller so we made plans to meet him for dinner and then go to the Rock together. Burmese curry was not as amazing as we hoped (especially that we just came from flavour infused Thailand) – quite oily and everything was fried but not as bad as Mongolian food - always looking at the bringht side;-)
Sorry, what is internet? There are two ways of visiting the
Golden Rock – either climb for 6h at night to see the sunrise or just take one of the local trucks – and I literally mean trucks not buses – to the spot 45 min hike away from the top. It was like gazillion degrees outside so climbing was out of a question but we were happy to take a
cockfight
typical village entertainment truck. We met after lunch and headed to the stop to be packed on board. It was funny experience as people stared at us, children pointed fingers and some were afraid to sit next to us on a bench. This really felt like a real travel experience!!!! The way up takes around 45min of very high speed driving on winding mountain road. This is where Tomek and I disagree (we rarely do that) but he found that ride very entertaining and I found it a little bit scary -50 people on board of an open truck, wobbling from side to side just next to the cliff is not my definition of fun but we made it to top in one piece;-)
The remaining climb was not hard and very interesting. People greeted us all the time, asking where we had come from and how long we would stay in Burma. They seemed very content with the fact that we came to see their holy place. We saw few disturbing market stalls selling animal parts like elephant tails and black bear feet (for Chinese medicine). The vendor was proud to announce that the bear had been killed only few days
us and mini Golden Rock
not the real one as there is a few of them on the mountain ago in Laos (where it is illegal and where many people fight a difficult battle against hunters – so sad). There seem to be no regulations in Burma to prevent this trade as he told us many customers from China and Japan buy from him when coming on organised tours.
We really tried hard not to pay entrance ticket (6$) to the site but we did not succeed. Some people manage to blend in with a group of pilgrims but when we arrived at the top there was not that many groups and probably my blond hair would give us away;-) It is not that we didn't want to pay but this money goes to the government and this is why foreigners avoid paying it.
Very important is for woman not to wear trousers as you will be refused entrance!!! We had to leave shoes before entering and sun-heated marble tiles constantly burned our feet – maybe that is a part of pilgrimage too?The day was almost ending, sun light was soft and golden making this place looking quite incredible. People were arriving in big waves for the sunset and suddenly this place felt too small for its audience.
father and son
we heard that boys can be novices from the age of 10 but some of them are much younger than that We were stopped every couple of minutes to take a photo or to tell our story and we had never seen such honest smiles and greetings before. Of course we had to pay our respects to the Golden Rock, well actually only Tomek and Andre were allowed as women have to stay away of holy places like that as 'impure people'.... but it was quite something. I could only look from behind the gates when they were coming close to the magical rock. We are not Buddhist and we did not come for the same cause but we felt a part of it all.
When we rested few times at stairs or when we had coffee, people could not just pass by. I remember saying that if we charged 100Kiat/ 0.15$ for each photo taken of us or with us we would have made 10$ each at least haha We did not mind as these were curious looks and photos taken always after asking (not like in China). We even were asked to take photos of people with our own camera. When asked how can we send it to them they wanted to give us their home address.
Do getting on a truck
one of the two ways of reaching Golden Rock - you have to step on a platform and then climb onto the truck;-) you have email account? - we asked few times and the answers we got exceeded our expectations.
What is email account, what is internet? - someone asked. How do you explain that to someone who has no idea that global web exist? I never had to do it as even our grandparents know it – they may not understand how it works but they know it. Some thought we meant land-line and wanted to give us a phone number of a shop nearby as they did not even have telephone number. Mobiles are more common but still beyond reach for most. I felt happy for them in a way as they don't yet have worries and troubles of our western world. They don't need to worry about checking emails, important messages, internet banking (what banking?), security of your details etc. We have many times observed that simple life means happiness more often than wealth. Not sure if we could still live that way though....
It was incredible experience to visit this place, rich with local interaction, culture and spiritual atmosphere. We had so much fun at the top of a mountain that we almost missed last truck to the
sweet boys
thanaka/ beauty balm on their faces village. They waited for us anyway and the same roller-coaster ride took place but this time in complete darkness. Tomek says they should charge extra for this as he had so much fun hahha Golden Rock rocks - we could not have chosen a better place to start our Burmese days with;-)
Additional Note: *
if you travel from your home country you don't have to worry about crisp USD but when you are entering from Asian country it can be a problem. We can only advise if you are flying from Bangkok. You don't have to spend time looking for a bank or money changer in the city as airport exchange counters offer exactly the same rate and are already prepared for this. We were told by many money changers in Bangkok to buy USD at the airport if you look for crisp/brand new bills. They were right as clerk took out new pre-prepared hundred dollar bills out of the drawer when we mentioned Burma. They had small bills as well as you need them for paying for hotels, trains, entrance tickets etc and 100USD only for exchanging. ** another option to get ladies drinking coffee;-)
black coffee is served with lime and sugar - weird but really nice;-) USD in Bangkok is using ATMs at the departure terminal at BKK as they dispense USD. There are a few conditions though: 500$ max per transaction, 5$ commission and only debit cards as long as we know. If you have a few debit cards that should do as you loose more on your currency exchange into Baht and then in USD that 5$ per 500$ if that makes sense. The only think we cannot advise on is state of the notes – not sure if they would be crisp and new so there is always a rick here.
*** once in Yangoon you don’t have to go to town to get good rates if you are heading straight north or south. There are two banks when you exit the arrival terminal but they open 9-9:30 so you may have to wait. We got money changed by a tourist information at 780Kiat/$ rate and we could have gotten 800kiat at the bus terminal (only for bus company customers). Rates in Yangoon were around 815kiat so we did not loose much. It is not true you get best rates in Yangoon either – we got best rates in Mandalay photo session
it is not allowed for woman to wear trousers at the top of a mountain 830kiat in a jewellery shop (ask around and people tell you where to go) so don’t have to change all the money you have at once.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
NOW YOUR MONEY IS SORTED
Have a blast in Myanamar...interested if it gets expensive as I understand the prices to tourists have sky-rocketed.