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.