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Published: February 3rd 2016
It's 8.30 am and, having had a hearty breakfast and lashings of black coffee, I am wondering how on earth we got here! Our body clocks have been liquidised and our brains are envelloped in a blanket of soggy lemon cotton wool. Outside there is the continual tooting of traffic like audible punctuation marks in the humid air. Through the window the Shwadagon Temple is ablaze with early morning golden spendour - a golden lighthouse on the horizon. Random sounds assault our ears. There is the unfamiliar sound of a Burmese pop song - at least that is what I assume it is. Either that or it's a rather random Burmese ice cream van beconing us! We are amongst the 'Bare Knees' people - a description that came about in mid flight due to a misheard comment!
We are here in Yangon, Myanmar and Lord knows how it all happened!!! Well, OK, one coach, three airplanes, two shuttle busses and anything else I've forgotten! We have changed time zones on several occasions ( Dubai plus 4, KL plus 4, Yangon minus 1.5! Etc! Etc! Etc!). And we are now wondering why our bodies and brains are feeling a little confused!
Anyway, onwards and outwards people!
Having spent a single night at the aptly named youniQ Hotel in Sapang (KL) we are now esconsed in the rather beautiful Hotel Grand United in Yangon, Myanmar. The former is an interesting blend of Annie Sloan and Freddie Kruger whilst the latter is well above our usual two star standard accommodation! Our room is spacious and has a wonderflul view of the Shwedagon Pagoda which is the Burmese proudest physical statement of national pride in their Bhudist faith - a sort of Eiffel Tower and St Pual's Cathedral rolled into one. The Padoga glistens during the sunlinft hours and glows after sunset in floodlit splendour.
So (don't you hate it when people begin a sentencce with a conjunctive???) it's Tuesday 2nd February 2016 and we are now on day 13 of our most recent travels - Burma (Myanmar) and India. The reason for the long delay in making the first entry to the blog is twofold - 1 being relentlessly on the move and 2 the appauling state of the wifi system in Myanmar!!
At present we are settled in Bagan, just to the east of Mandalay in a charming
New Friends!
Met up o.n the Yangon Town train. Similar hairdos?!hotel called Arthawaka (named after Ashoka, a famous Indian king who had a profound affect on the Burmese nation many hundreds of years ago). Bagan is a fascinating backwater which is the home to over 2200 temples and pagodas which were built around the 12th century. You can hardly move for them. Somewhere scattered around these edifaces, people live and work. It has yet to becme really 'touristy' but it is only a matter of time!!! It is possible to spend many days simply wandering around looking at ancient ruins - Janie says she can always look at me!!
As a consequnce of not being able to write down the last days' events, my mind is now a tangled knot of memories. Here are some, in no particular order! Sort them out at your leisure!!
Yesterday we wandered around about a dozen ruins and finished off with a boat ride out in the middle of the huge Irrawaddy River to watch sunset. 'Magical' as my friend Diesel Leonard woud say! Our vessel was a local's boat with a few bamboo seats scattered around for us to recline upon. The engine was strapped to a large iron bar
Strangers on a Train
Yangon Circular Train. out over the stern which was rotated to allow change of direction. Fellow travellers were our newmade friends Charles Martinet and Tony who we had bumped into the previuos day on our trip up the river to Mingum to see the sights of the Mingum bell (second largest in the world - if you count one in Russia which is broken!) Charles turned out to be great company. An American by birth he lives in San Francisco and is famed for his voice which earns him a living as the voice of Super Mario! We chatted to him for most of the day, learning a great deal about what it is to be American and how Donald Trump managed to be in the running for President of the United States of America!!!
Having dinner at the Chinese night market in Mandalay! We obviously didn't speak a word of Burmese and the locals didn't speak English so we resorted to ordering food by doing chicken impressions and pointing at other people's food! Locals thought we were hilarious - or just plain mad! Plastic stools in the middle of the street is the way to go! We did, to
be fair, end up with BBQ'd chicken (I think) and okra with some kind of fried rice. The bill came to about £4 and that was with a good few Myanmar Beers - essential to help things down.
Getting to Mandalay on a 'VIP' coach - a scary rust bucket which played endless Burmese videos at full volume. Air conditioning which felt like we were locked in a deep freeze. Luckily we were provided with blankets to shelter from the icy blast! And the squalid 'motorway services' which consisted of a collection of bunkers in a sand pit. We had some food of some sort there which was accompanied by a bowl of liquid. I honestly didn't know whether this was for eating, rubbing on or washing fingers so I asked one of the serving girls (in finger washing sign language - assuming that such an insipid-looking watery offering could only be for washing one's finger after eating the meat and rice on the plate before us). She dissolved into hysterics, tears running down her cheeks, and proceeded to relate the incident to all her friends who then assembled to join in the hilarity around us. To
be fair, the Burmese are amongst the most charming we have come across in our travels. They are fearful of offending anyone and, as a consequence they are polite, quiet and respectful. They are also remarkably beautiful and elegant.
Staying in Mandallay at the Yuen Sheng Hotel where 'Terrence' the General Manager decided that I looked like Sean Connery and referred to me as 'Mr Bond'. The nightly puppet show was skilfully executed according to ancient custom and was accompanied by traditional Burmese music, which sounds like someone slowly strangling a ginger tomcat! Following this a young lady then gave an exhibition of 'cane ball' an ancient art form/sport which consists of keeping a wicker ball in the air by bouncing it endlessly on a foot - or any other part of the human anatomy! This is fascinating and would put all our famous footballers to shame! She them proceeded to balance on a chair atop several wooden blocks whist still bouncing the ball. Just when you assume she has reached the pinnacle of her act she outdoes herself and balances the chair on bottles and skips with a rope which she then sets alight - still
the ball is bouncing on her tiny foot! The sweat was pouring of US! We genuinely wished she would come to the end of her show quickly so that serious injury could be avoided! Several Myanmar beers were required to calm us both down!
The climb up Mandalay Hill in the heat of the day only to find that the 'top' wasn't the top! In fact the seventh 'top' turned out to be the summit! The stunning views out over the city to see sunset in the distance made the climb well worthwhile. A large gleaming, golden pagoda at the very top provided a wonderful panoramic view of Mandalay (including the Mandalay Golf Course, Pete!!!).
The circular train around Yangon. We couldn't work out how to pay but no one seemed to care! Made lots of local friends as we were definitely the only foreigners. Some of them wanted to have photos of us with them and seemed to think we were doing them a huge favour!! Rather like being famous - without the money!!! The old diesel rock and rolls around the city taking about 4 hours to do so. Janie and I missed the nearest station
as we were convinced that it was derelict. It was a really good way to get up close to the locals who invariably smiled sweetly at us and nodded a welcome.
The tender mercies of Tazar, our new best friend and taxi driver in Mandalay. He would drive whilst watching Celine Dion blaring full belt from his dvd player on the dashboard.
The sound track to Mandalay of the ticky-tocky men who spend all day and most of the night bashing the blazes out of sheets of gold to turn it into gold leaf. Don't think I could manage more than a few minutes of this back-breaking work, whilst they tick-tock on for hours upon hours for a few pennies. The constant sound is very similar to that of bell ringing as the four or more men 'ring changes' with their sledge hammers.
Overall impressions so far...? Well Yangon is very much like any other huge south-east Asian city but a bit more mad! Whilst our hotel, The Grand United, provided an oasis of calm, downtown was cramped, dirty and very very noisy. Poverty and filth is on every street corner and it's a relief
Interesting Porduct Names 2
If you eata this you will have a .... to climb back into a taxi and head 'home'! All transport appears to be of the 4 wheeled variety, there are few or no bikes, tuck-tucks or motorbikes.
Mandalay is much more laid back and affluent. Streets are clean and there are parks and green spaces everywhere. Temples and pagodas are everywhere you turn and people treat foreigners with humour and curiosity. The world has yet to fully discover the glories of Mandalay - but they soon will I feel. It is only in the last 5 years or so that foreign visitors have been allowed into the country with open arms. Visitors are seen as cash cows and you will often see signs which inform you that 'visitors must pay' whilst locals go free!!! Here scooters and bicycles are commonplace and swarm around the daily traffic, much as they do in other Asian capitals. Fumes and dust choke the passenger who dares to wind down their window!
Bagan is a good example. It costs 25000 Kyatts (pronounced Chats) to enter the archaeological area of Bagan - about £13 each. Having said this, entry to almost all the temples and pagodas is free. Bagan is exceptional is so
many ways. It is still relatively uncommercialised as it takes some effort to get here. The whole area is a carpet of temples which sit shoulder to shoulder in their splendour. If you climb to the top of one of the taller ones the view is breath-taking. It will doubtless become the Burmese equivalent to Ankor Watt in Cambodia. This morning (Wednesday 3rd Feb) at 6.00 am we jumped into a local taxi, driven by our new best friend, 'Goldwin' and bumped our way through the darkness to a local pagoda - don't ask me which one - there are sooo many!! Having clambered up the almost vertical face consisting of about 60 vertical steps, in total darkness, we were privileged to watch in awe as dawn broke over the endless blanket of pagodas which surrounded us. At the moment the sun broke the horizon, about 20 hot air balloons took off in the distance and drifted majestically across our view rather like a sombre procession of perfectly formed clouds of golden grey.
In a couple of days we leave Bagan and retrace our steps back through Mandalay and then on to Yangon. A day of travel awaits us!
Mignun Bell
We actually got inside this monster so that someone to ring it for us. Clears the ears a treat Yangon to KL and then KL to Cochin in the south of India. I must admit that we are both looking forward to some chill out time in India and intend to find a long, deserted beach and relax.
Love and hugs to all of you who have the stamina and tenacity to sit and read this drivel. Try attacking it like a bar of chocolate - one bite at a time! Sorry it's rather disjointed but it is just a list of memories from the last days.
Now to see if the Burmese wifi can cope with this blog at all!
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