Burmese Daze

Myanmar was like stepping back into the 1950's. I landed in Yangon (Rangoon), a city of 5 million, and emerged into 36 degree heat, an airport from the dawn of time, and cars that looked like Fred Flinstone should be at the wheel. It was quite a first impression, I must admit. Myanmar is probably the poorest country I've ever visited, and as seems to be the rule with most poor countries, the people were remarkably friendly. I stayed Yangon for a few days and saw the normal tourist sights. Easily the most impressive was Shwedagon Pagoda, a Buddhist temple with a stupa made of 7.5tons of gold. It was one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen, and if you're not familiar with it goole some pictures of it. Other than that I saw more temples than I could shake a stick at, and after seeing them all I was very ready to see something, anything that wasn't a temple. I decided to kill a couple hours walking around the main market in Yangon, Bogyoke Aung San, it was quite a sight to behold. I didn't even buy anything, but it was fun to walk around.



After having my fill of Yangon I hopped a plane to Bagan. I would Bagan is the heart of Myanmar; the ancient and spiritual capital. Bagan has around 4000 10-12th century temples in a 40km2 area. I had two full days to explore, and on day one I rented a bicycle, bought a map, and did my best Indiana Jones impression. This was a great way to see the temples, but having a bike that wasn't world war one vintage would have been much better. I stuck mostly to the paved roads, venturing down some sandy trails when it looked like the temple might have a cool view. I found a completely deserted temple, climbed up, and watched the sun start to go down. Then I headed back to my guesthouse for a cold shower and a warm beer feeling completely satisfied and utterly exhausted. The next day I decided to venture out to some of the more far-flung temples, but knowing my bike would never make it, I went on horseback (with a guide of course). This was alright, but the guy wouldn't really show me any of the temples way off the beaten track, and I wasn't really able to find that one great empty temple.

The next morning, before the sun came up, I boarded a boat for the 12hr trip to Mandalay. Mandalay is Myanmar's second city, and the last capital before the British came to town in the 19th century. My first day in Mandalay I saw some temples and climbed Mandalay Hill and got some great views of the city. That night I went out for dinner, and the beef curry made me rather ill. I did absolutely nothing for the next two days, and even now my stomach isn't 100%. Sufficed to say Mandalay left a bad taste in my mouth... pun intended.

Now my Burmese Daze (transport nightmares) began. The supposed six hour bus trip to Inle Lake in an air-con bus turned into 12hrs, and there was no air-con, but there were chickens! The bus trip was worth it though. Inle Lake was my favourite place in Myanmar, it was also cool at night, I had to wear a jacket! The one full day I had there I took a boat trip through the area and really got a taste of local life... and the Jumping Cat Monastery. The monks there have trained cats to jump through hoops, by voice command, in order to get donations for their monastery. Inle Lake, and the Shan State in general, is one place I'd go back to in Myanmar.



Getting away from there proved to be quite the challenge. Ideally I was going to fly, however I didn't quite have enough cash left and in Myanmar there are no banks with international facilities and credit cards are useless; you bring all the money you need with you. I was going to take the bus back to Yangon, 16hrs but I didn't have much of a choice. Unfortunately the bus was sold out, so I had to resort to plan"c"; the train. I wouldn't wish a non-express Burmese train on my worst enemy. 32 Hours later I arrived in Yangon, I think I had gone a little bit insane by then. The worst part was sitting on the train at a station approximately 1/3 of the way to Yangon for 5hrs... the army guy who was obviously on the train to make sure I didn't do anything, shall we say, contrary to the national interest wouldn't or couldn't tell me why we weren't moving. He just kept telling me "train 8am Yangon!". By this time I knew that wasn't true, and we arrived much closer to 8pm. After one night in Yangon I was on my way to Cambodia.

Now I'm sitting at my guesthouse in Phnom Penh writing my blog, internet access in Myanmar does exist, but is strictly regulated by the government. I've seen some thigns in Phnom Penh already, but that's for another entry. I'll post said entry from Siem Reap or Saigon, not sure yet.

Thai Time: Northern Edition

After finishing my year teaching in Korea, I headed off for the warm mountains of northern Thailand, Chiang Mai to precise. After spending a day in transit (Seoul to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Chiang Mai) I arrived at the Eagle House 2 in Chiang Mai. My room was big and clean, but those are pretty much the only good things I have to say about the place. It was noisy, the staff was unpleasant, the restaurant was plain bad, and their tour guides were not very knowledgeable. Apart from that I had a great time in Chiang Mai. It's a really laid back city, a great place to unwind from a crazy couple weeks in Seoul. While I was there I took a day trip to the highest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon 2500m, and visited a Karen (one of the hill tribes in the area) village. I did that with a guide, but everything else I went and did on my own.

Chiang Mai is a city of temples, and I visited three of them, but I could have easily visited 30 if I had been so inclined. The first temple I went to was Wat Chiang Man, just up the street from my hotel. It was a pretty serene place, but not too visually spectacular. It's the oldest temple in Chiang Mai and did have a rather impressive stupa, with a number of elephants carved around it.


The next day I headed out to visit two temples. The first one I went to was Wat Phra Singh. This is generally considered the most impressive temple in the city, and it certainly was beautiful. I walked around there for an hour or so and then headed for a forest temple, Wat U Mong. This wat turned out to be the most impressive Buddhist temple I have visited so far. I think part of the appeal was because I was the only tourist there; just me and the monks. it was built by a group of monks, led by an alleged clairvoyant monk. I don't know if he was clairvoyant or not, but he certainly made a beautiful temple. there were a number of brick lined meditation tunnels underground, with random shrines every few dozen meters. It was an eerie place to walk around alone. I tried to take some pictures, but the light wasn't quite good enough. This however inspired me to buy a small tripod when I got back to Chiang Mai, now i should be able to get some really good low light shots.

Those were pretty much the higlights of my trip to Chiang Mai, but problems getting my visa for Myanmar forced me back to Bangkok 2 days earlier than planned. Without going into great detail my guesthouse told me they'd have no problem getting a visa for me, days before I needed to leave. Next thing I know they told me there were no Myanmar visas being issued to anyone; I didn't believe this. I went to another travel agent and was told no visas until the 22nd; I didn't believe that. So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and after some Lonely Planet online searching changed my flight back to Bangkok and was able to get my Myanmar visa in one day, on the 13th. I did have to be at the embassy at 6am, but I got it done in one day for less than they wanted to charge me in Chiang Mai. If the job has to be done right, you have to do it yourself I guess.

So tomorrow I head back to the airport and set out for Rangoon, Mandaly, Bagan, and Inle Lake. I did the Thailand portion of my trip on quite a tight budget, but I think I will spend a bit more in Myanmar, stay in some nicer places. I have no idea what internet access will be like in Myanmar, but I expect it's rather limited. On the 28th i head to Cambodia, and will probably blog about my Myanmar trip at that point.