Myanmar (Burma) - Country where there is always room for one more person on a bus :)

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Hey hey!

OK...so the first part is after us! Myanmar, the country of numerous stupas and pagodas and especially friendly people was G R E A T.

So if we start from the beginning...after the 15 hour flight we landed in Bangkok where we experienced temperature shock...we came from Slovenia to here on a 30 degrees difference so you can image how that feels like...SWEATING all the time 😊. We stayed in Bangkok just for 2 days and then caught a flight to Yangoon. First impression - chaotic city...everything is on the move, the streets are packed with people selling almost every kind of food (some of it not very pleasant to even look at it, what else to eat it). With a little bit of culture shop we decided to go for a more quiet city Kalaw to do some trekking, but unfortunately the bus already left early in the morning so instead we changed our trip and first headed to Mandalay, more exactly town nearby, Pyin u Lwin. The bus drive was pretty OK (as compared to others later in the trip). We stayed in Pwin u Lwin for 1 night, went in a botanic garden (Anja forced me:P), for a hike to some waterfalls (and of course as smart as we are we did it around noon...i don't recall when my t-shirt was that wet😊
OK...the journey continued with Mandalay..where the consequences of the noon hike was that Anja got a small sun fever so she just stayed at guest house and I was all alone for the day. But still it was great ( i had my quiet moments :P).
In the evening she felt batter so we went for a sun-set on Mandalay hill...on a half way we met some children who apparently enjoyed our company as much as we did theirs..so we learned our first Burmese words.
Next day we we're off to some ancient cities around Mandalay with our MAZDA blue taxi 😊. We picked an English guy and went together for some sightseeing...First Amarapura (1.2 km long wooden bridge), then Sagaing (hills with hundreds stupas around) and Inwa (an island with the leaning tower of Inwa where you move around with a horse cart).

OK...after Mandalay followed the most horrible bus drive ever...when we first saw the bus we thought it must be a joke...there was like 5m of cargo on the roof of the bus (boxes, bags of rice, motorbikes,...:o), bags of I don't know what, between our legs, seats,...Ok we sat down and started noticing that there was about 24 seats on the bus and around 50 people waiting outside to go in - they all went in 😊). And in the end there was the final surprise...in the back of the bus we were driving some 10 boxes of live chicks ( which were really laud in the beginning and then more and more quiet, so I'm not sure if they survived).
OK after 200km!!!! and 9hours!!!!! we came to Bagan..the city of thousands pagodas. We stayed there for 2 nights, renting bikes and cycling around exploring the pagodas (and how is it possible to meet a Slovenian in the middle of Myanmar...I guess it is). Evenings in Bagan were the best - the sight of the whole area with scattered pagodas in the sun-set is amazing.

After seeing enough pagodas for our life we headed towards Kalaw for some trekking. There we met an Australian couple with which we arranged out trekking together. We took a 2 night/3 day trek from Kalaw to Inlay lake. We walked aprox. 5 hours per day, doing a 60km all together in 3 days. On the way we stopped in some villages, getting to know the local life, slept in home-stay the first night and in a monastery the second. The monastery was especially pleasant experience...actually it was an orphanage, and all the novices (children monks) were constantly posing for pictures (if they did it too much the master just looked at then from the window and they started sweeping again😊). The next morning we were also woken up by a 4am praying which lasted for about 2 hours😊

We arrived to south end of Inlay lake...took the boat the north part and went for a well deserved shower...in the evening we went for a dinner and started with a whiskey for a medicine 😊. In the end we finished 20 shots of local whiskey (1 shot = 200 kyats = 0.2$) and met some local guys which stayed there with us until we were kicked out of the restaurant (we stayed there for 5 hours 😊). Next day we again rented bikes and went around Inlay lake (stooped in a hot spring - men/women separated - I (Uros) was alone in my own swimming pool)). we visited some more villages, saw tofu making, fried nuts making,...

The next day it started...as we decided to go for some beach relaxing (Chaung Tha beach) this also included a loooong bus drive to get there. We started at around 12.00 at inlay lake...then: 1st part was 16 hours to Yangoon...from there directly on second bus...5 hour drive to Pathein...and 3 bus drive...another 3 hours...so TOTAL: 28hours!!!
BUT, it was worth it...we got a nice bungalow, went for some fancy dinners and the best thing...we rented a motorbike and drove to the other beach Ngwe Saung...the best thing was getting there...you have to cross three river on a small wooden boat with vessels, drive on the sand along the beach, through the forest and then in the end...WHITE SAND, BLUE/GREEN WATER and NOBODY AROUND!!!! - PERFECTO!!!

Ok...in the end, we went back to Yangoon, did some sightseeing and then on the 5.march went back to Bangkok.

So overall what can we say about Burma: we couldn't say we will now change our way of life but some things really touch you. It is really a great country to visit just for the people, although sometimes it is a bit of a hassle with transfers.

OK so this will be it so far...it's Anja's Birthday today so we have to stop spending time in this Internet cafe and go enjoying the Bangkok life!

Till next update,
Anja&Uros

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Photos

Bangkok
Busy Khao san street

Yangoon
Trishaw drivers

Yangoon
Sule paya

Pyin U Lwin
Biking in botanical garden

Mandalay Hill
Monk studying English

Bangkok
Pad thai on a street

Bangkok
The massive airport

Yangoon
Street market

Myanmar
Tipical transportation

Myanmar
Myanmar biggest money only comes in 1000 (1$)

Comments

[Tim]

ej hudo, zakon fotke! vidim da vama gre dobr uzivita maks se za ns ostale!

[jure]

ola. ful fajn fotke. sem jih se sodelavcem kazal. tale fotic in oba fdotografa sta res dobra. Par lokacij je podobnih kot smo mi bili in sem kar zaplaval k vama kako uzivata. ful pa sem vesel, ker smo tudi danes uredili zadevo glede gibboni experience.

[jure]

fotke
au popotnika!! vidm, da uživata 100 na uro in prav zavidam... drga pa delata ful lepe fotke...pa ne samo okolje, ampak na in slikanja se mi zdi res profi - kdo jih štrca?? uživajta!

[jure]

hehe šele zdej sm vidu, da vsi fotke hvalmo :)