Advertisement
Chicken delivery
Always fresh, never frozen. We weren't even planning to go to Myanmar (formerly Burma) but several people we met on our travels said that the people are wonderful and people really make a country. Plus, the government stopped requiring people to buy tourist money that was only spendable in government owned shops, hotels and restaurants. There are still no ATMs there so you have to bring with you all the cash you think you'll need. We budgeted $50 a day and were easily able to stay in budget. Yeah, it's pretty cheap there. A little nerve wracking though. What if you get robbed or have a medical emergency?!
So the cash situation is difficult but even more difficult is getting around. The city taxis are slap dash, missing things like door panels and often stall at intersections. Buses are clap trap heaps and the roads are rutted and narrow, making travel unbearably slow. Just a 150 kilometer trip can take 7 hours.
We arrived in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and walked around the mostly decrepit old English colonial buildings in the city center and visited a humongous temple draped in gold. We eschewed the government owned trains and boats and took a bus to
Floating barge restaurant, Yangon
They have native dances and a nice buffet for $12 a person here. Not in the ol' budget and likely owned by the gov anyway. Still, rather impressive. Bagan, the ancient valley filled with temples. It was a hard pill to swallow when we learned that the bus would take between 14 and 17 hours but we had no idea we were in for even worse. Shortly out of town we pulled over and the bus operators filled a bucket with nearby river water and pumped it into the radiator. We kept stopping every 30 minutes for a refill until the sun went down and the air cooled a bit. But then we woke up around midnight and the bus wasn't moving. Metal gizmos spread on the ground behind the bus clued us in that we weren't going anywhere any time soon. We sat shoulder to shoulder sweating in the narrow seats. The sharp end of a screw poking through the back of my seat and cut a nice Zorro formation on my back. Everyone say yay for tetanus shots! We got going again around 10 am and to make an already too long story short, we arrived in Bagan a mere 27 hours after departure. Ugh!
We happened to pick the most brutally hot month of the year to arrive. Bagan is reminiscent of the Serengeti
There's no way out!
This old house in Yangon reminds me of the Haunted House at Disneyland. with dry brown earth dotted with Acacias and other thorny plants. But the Serengeti which is hotter than hell during the day cools down nicely at night which was not the case here. Think Woodland Hills. 😉 (Only Californians will get that one. Sorry) The draw of Bagan is the knockout view of thousands of Bhudist temples and shrines for as far as the eye can see. We rented a horse cart to take us around to see all the various temples for a day and by the end we were ready to barf Buddhas.
Next we headed to the small town of Kalaw in the blessedly cool hills. It was a pleasure to don long sleeves and pants in the evening. We were lucky and happend to arrive in time for the annual rocket festival. The locals build home made rockets with metal pipe packed with various explosives (nothing exactly measured of course) and fire them off at a target marked on an opposing hill several kilometers away. The rockets are supposed to bring rain during this driest of seasons and the team that gets closest to the target wins a cash prize. There's much wagering, swilling of
Shwedegon Pagoda
This is one of the most revered Bhuddist temples in Myanmar. Most people try to make a pilgrimage here once a year if financially possible. That conical zedi is covered in tons of gold. local booze and dancing to the sound of gongs and drums. Hm, explosives and alcohol. Brilliant!
We watched a few fired off which were rather impressive but the fourth one exploded. I didn't get a picture of it for you as I was too busy ducking the flaming bits of shrapnel flying through the air. Someone was killed at this event the prior year yet there is STILL no "safety zone" designated for onlookers. Could you imagine that in the US? Someone ignoramous 10 feet from take off would sue for bloody murder.
Also quite amazing was that everyone - man, woman, child - was firing off small rockets from the top of our pine clad hill. Rockets were flying into trees and grass. Everyone was giggling but I was certain that a raging inferno would be sparked at any moment. Nope, this may look like a tinder box but it's not really. Just another one of those things that gives Californians the heebeegeebees. Like warm windless nights (earthquake weather, yikes!) which always make us a little unsettled.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 9; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0807s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
victor
non-member comment
too many temples
Ok, really cool, but sort of weird. All those temples, what in the world? All that Gold?!! Looks like half the wealth of that nation is sitting on top of those temples. Hey, really, that bus ride makes a 3, or 6, or even 9 hour layover in Chicago seem like a dream. Glad your back where things are hopefully more reliable and predictable.