Myanmar Missive

Well due to the almost non existent internet connection we've not been able to post for a while so now we have got a connection a quick cut and paste from what we've been noting means that this is a fair length..... Feel free to just scroll through and look at the pretty pictures.

We arrived easily from Manila at Bangkok and sat down for a five hour wait for our connection to Yangon (Rangoon as was). Luckily we glanced at our tickets and discovered that we actually flew out of the other Bangkok airport. A quick panic discovered that we a) had plenty of time and b) there was a free bus service departing from 20 meters from where we were sat. So one unexpected trip around Bangkok ring road later we're on our way to Myanmar.

The first morning in Myanmar started our discovery trail..... first thing to note:- GOLD, if it is not painted gold it just does not count!

Second thing to note Stupas, if you cannot see one – at any point – you are probably in a different country. To say they are everywhere is not an exaggeration, they come in all sizes, from the mini to the overblown maxi.

Main roundabout central Yangon

Yangon side street

 Note bulldog clip on left - this is connected by string to the upper story flats for newspaper and post delivery

Well they can if they can find it! 

We wandered over at lunch on our first day to the best hotel in town, where we met Helen and Lee who had graciously agreed to join us for our first two weeks here. Even more graciously they had brought some things over for us so it was pressie time! Apart from replacement clothes toiletries and things of that ilk the arrival of replacement kindles was really appreciated. Thus fully re-provisioned and replenished we continued on our way, first to the massive must see Stupa in the centre of Yangon.

Although not made of solid gold it does contain probably the worlds largest single lump not to be found in a vault. At least one member of royalty donated 5 times their own weight to it. It also has one of the world's largest diamonds right at the top. Here Helen cases the joint with an eye to a nocturnal climbing expedition.

The place is central to Myanmar Buddhism, these monks were on a special pilgrimage and were not local, they spent most of their time taking photos of each other.

We loved the use of modern leds!

We left Yangon and headed to Bagan, the first of our Myanmar bus trips, which we have discovered are of an order of weirdness that is unique. All vehicles drive on the right, fair enough, but, all vehicles are right hand drive. One of the most important jobs of all bus conductors – of which there are always at least 2, is to stand near the door and tell the driver when it is safe to overtake. Our Bagan bus made in the 9 hour drive with only one stop; this, 2 hours in. Consequently by the time we arrived in Bagan bladders were bursting. We eventually pulled to a stop just outside town to pay the 5$ tourist admission to town fee, never has a tree been so friendly! We were entertained on the vehicle by the in bus system, whether we wanted it or not and on this bus we saw the Myanmar comedy competition. This seemed to have most of the locals almost literally rolling in the aisles. As far as we could judge it consisted of 5 troupes, all consisting of 5 men wearing skirts – (see later) doing their routines which consisted of hitting each other on the head with trays. This did however provide useful background research for what came later.

Bagan, a place that had not really made it into our consciousness came, for Liza and I anyway, as a total wonderful surprise. The scale of the splendour of the place was just awesome. At it's height in the 14th century, it must have been a massive city, all made of wood long since gone leaving a collection of thousands of stupas over the landscape. It is without doubt somewhere on par with the wonders of Anchor Wat in Cambodia and will with the rapid opening of this country soon change beyond recognition as it takes its place on the world stage.

 Lee chooses the right vantage point,

 Sunrise & sunset are by far the best times to view...not least because of the heat.

 Just to prove we made it to the top of the biggest one!

 Inside are interesting ;life of the Buddha stories and paintings.... only on some.

 In all of these places the wildlife is never discourages we have seen halls with lots of large Buddha statues used as a nocturnal roost for sparrows, the attending mess is just cleaned up. Here a wasps nest takes advantage.

 Lee shelters from the heat...10.30 am

We have enjoyed the food in Myanmar, much much better than the Philippines (not hard to be honest) Their main dish is curry and whatever you order wherever you are you always also get soup – with commandants.... By the time we had been served our table looked like this!

We enjoyed having Helen & Lee along for a number of reasons, having someone else to talk to was wonderful, even better that they are such easy going travellers  splitting costs by 4 rather than 2 was of great help and we could also indulge our bridge habit – even if we did have to teach them how to play first. We played boys v girls the whole time, with the Bagan matches being of course a decisive victory for the boys.

Liza also found us a puppet show to go to.... all very traditional dancing - a good meal.... Curry again was also enjoyed.

We left Bagan very early (4.30 alarm) to catch the boat to Mandalay along the Ayerarwady river. The boat which could accommodate about 200 only had about 25 passengers so we spent a very relaxing day cris-crossing this very wide river as it was the dry season and the captain had to spend all day avoiding sandbanks. Apparently it takes only two thirds of the time when the river is full. While initially interesting the view quickly becomes monotonous, especially with 3 meter high banks on either side which means you cannot see very far over them, so we again spent the days demonstrating the obviously superior bridge skills possessed by males. Liza's comments about her not being so expert because of beer had no real substance and were rightly ignored. 12 hours later we arrived at Mandalay.

 Note the very high banks as it was the dry season.

Just another set of Stupas.

Another good descriptive word for Myanmar, especially in March is hot, very hot and with temperatures in the very high 30s or early forties we have become almost able to cope with it and have had comments when the temperature is around 26 or so first thing in the morning of 'oh it's quite cool'.

At Mandalay we went to see the longest teak bridge in the world. To be honest not a world shattering sight but the views from it as we walked the mile or so across and back were quite good.

The Myanmar people, like most people in Asia believe in taking the photos of a wedding before the event at a suitable location so we dodged brides as we walked.

Myanmar men almost all wear skirts, known as a Longi, Lee demonstrates.

We took the opportunity in Mandalay to escape the heat and found a swimming pool where we swam and again demonstrated the superior bridge skills males posses.

In Mandalay we spent the evening in the theatre where our previous bus video watching proved useful in helping us unravel one of theatres more surreal experiences. We went to see The Moustache Brothers show, performed without costume in their own front room. The without costume bit is because that makes it a performance and if they do that they may end up in jail – again! Their lead has been jailed on a number of occasions for his satire, he is now out and their show raises money for the more unknown political prisoners currently residing in local nicks. We are not quite sure if their comedy passed right over our heads or under our feet but it was a rewarding evening that we will long remember with pleasure.

The next evening we took the night bus out of Mandalay to Inlay lake. The main issue on this ride being the air conditioning which was on – and on full as we climbed high over the beginning of the Himalayas. Thus for the first time in this country we were cold. Secondly the seats were spaced for people my height so Lee had significant issues fitting in..... Not fun for a 10 hour epic. Luckily however for the first time in our experience the bus was early to arrive and we rocked up at Inlay lake at 4.00 am. This is not a good time to try and find a hotel, luckily we had been given a recommendation in Yangon and had called ahead which meant that we were expected and our hosts were able to let us have mattresses and blankets (Still cold at night as it's high.) until our rooms were ready the following morning.

On one of the most memorable days we have had so far we splashed out £4 each and hired a boat and driver for the day to explore the lake. Getting a 6.30 start to catch the dawn as we sped on our way to the daily market which rotates weekly around the villages that surround the lake.

 A boat like the one we hired - a dragon tailed boat for obvious reasons.

 Note long drop toilet on left!

For some reason they often get power cuts!

Fishermen have a totally unique rowing style here, standing on one leg they wedge an oar under one arm and use the other leg to skull their boats around thus keeping both arms free to cast their nets.

 The villagers houses are often of a good size and built of teak.... so quite substantive.

 A floating monastery!

The village market parking lot... boats which bring things the people from the uplands want to buy...principally fish and veg.

 While the inlanders use oxen to bring what the lake dwellers want - principally wood.

 Chilli for sale...

 The village has as per normal a collection of stupas.

 We went to our boat drivers grans for mid morning tea, here she is with some of her grandchildren.

 And a restaurant for lunch - it was 'Nice'!

You must see the lake from a boat as it is very difficult to see where the lake ends and the marsh begins. This is made more difficult by how the lake has been turned in significant parts into a garden. Water-hyacinth, the bane of rivers and lakes throughout Asia has been tamed and used. It is incredibly buoyant and it is this facility that has been utilised. The lake is never very deep, about 3m max at this time of year often much less. It has been collected and staked into long rows, river mud put on top and then this mud is planted on... Hey Presto floating gardens. You do not realise they are floating at first, our boat captain had to prove it to us by waving his oar under one for us. In the wet season these entire structures rise up the poles you see in the pictures. All tending has to be done on a boat.

We left the floating gardens, this time it was mid afternoon, so certainly time for a swim, en route to our swimming spot we noticed the fishermen were using a more proactive fish scaring fishing method..... no sitting very still and watching for a twitch on a line for these guys!

Our swimming spot was this hardly used and semi derelict government owned pavilion in the middle of the lake where we ran into an off duty group of guys from the nearest 4 star hotel who invited us to share their significant supplies of the local hooch. This put an end to artistic photography for the day!

For those interested the Inlay lake leg of the men v women British 2013 Myanmar bridge open competition was a slight and very fluky win for the women, the exact score escapes me but I remember it as only small.

Helen and Lee had to return to work and caught a plane from Inlay to Yangon, and then on back to London via Hong Kong. It was a shame to see them go and although we did suggest we kidnap them purely as a work reportage feint, they demurred.

Back on our own again we discovered that our planned trip further north up the Ayerarwady would not be possible due to recent nastiness and the low river levels (not sure which was the overriding reason of the two ) We thus decided to head south to the town of Mawlamyine on the coast south of Yangon and thus started the Hawkins all Asia bus journey record breaking trip. We left Inlay on the night bus to Yangon. This vehicle was by far the nicest we have been on and was a nearly new air conditioned bus that apart from the all night action films at full blast was very nice indeed. We stopped at 2 in the morning at a very up market coach stop which Liza, having finally managed to get to sleep through the televised gunfire, missed. I entered the place to find about 150 staff members, all between about 14 & 18 years old, half working and half chasing each other around having a food fight. Why, I have no idea. The rest of the bus passengers seemed to find this behaviour and 150 staff on duty at 2.00 am of no surprise whatsoever.

 Strange food fighting night bus stop.

With very tacky fountain!

 We thus pitched up at Yangon bus station at 5.30 am where ¾ of an hour later we caught the 10 hour bus ride to Mawlamyine. We had to negotiate Yangon bus station which appears to have absolutely no rhyme or reason with passengers, buses, taxis, cars, vendors, hawkers, beggars and everyone who wants to travel milling round with seemingly no structure whatsoever. There is however some order and it does work. One simply asks and are directed. We pitched up in the middle of this and asked someone where we should go. He said 'Follow me' so we did, walked about 100m where he then said 'Follow him', which we did until our number 2 guide said, 'Follow him', this we did until we found ourselves at a man behind a desk who sold us tickets and gave us stools to sit on before our bus departed. How this bedlam actually works on a regular basis I have no idea, but work it does!

The Mawlamyine bus was defiantly NOT the best bus we have been on and was quickly packed to the gunwales with passengers for our trip south on what was one of the hottest days we have had. The open windows just seemed to push more hot air onto the bus and the endless loud bad Myanmar pop videos and very badly overacted soap operas were not a great joy. About an hour and a half before our expected arrival the bus could not cope with the heat and an enforced stop while the driver sprayed water over the engine wheels and battery(!) was not unwelcome.

Mawlamyine is a nice town on the coast behind a low hill on which there have been built more Stupas, not a great surprise. We went to the local monastery and found ourselves spending a good hour talking to one of the monks who showed us around and with whom we had a very informative time discussing religious matters and asking the questions that had cropped up during the journey so far, like “Why aren't the children at school?” The answer was its the school holidays

 It seems you can always build a new stupa but you can also ignore old buildings and let them fall down around you....

 The art of corrugated iron!

The next day we took the organised trip around Ogre island just off shore from Mawlamyine where we had a great but totally unexpected day. Our tour took in two weddings where it was obvious we were very much welcome; it appears that a wedding is more successful the more guests it has and the further away from home these guests come from. It is also absolutely essential to feed everyone so we had had two large lunches by 11.00 am and been given bags of food to take away. 

 Bride & Groom wedding 1

 Boy collecting Lotus flowers to give to us to make necklaces

 Liza & Lotus

 Bride & Groom 2

 Making elastic bands - pink pre cut...rubber trees are everywhere and yes Kate we have some for you at the bottom of our bag.

 Drying pre cut laggy bands.

 Of course we also had to walk up a hill to see another stupa.

 Ironwork on covered walkway to the stupa

 Diesel fumes are not a real worry round here.

 On old overgrown chimney.

Our hotel in Mawlamyine.

Our tour was also invited to the local summer school where we were invited to take English classes. A great time was had and I worked up a sweat revising old skills. Liza took a younger class and covered some basics whilst generally just causing amusement by being a novelty.

Walking at dusk along the front turned into a bit of a wildlife spectacular. First the locals really enjoy feeding the seagulls so the flocks around the front provided a good photo op. Secondly as it got darker, flocks of bats, bigger than I have ever seen before, certainly crow size if not larger took to the sky, all heading overhead and out to sea.

We took what was supposed to be a one tuk-tuk journey about 15 miles inland to a rather beautiful little village, this turned into a bit of an epic as we were moved from one to another half way through by motorcycle taxi. It was a truly local service ie no maximum capacity, Liza spent our return journey with a child on each lap, I counted the total passengers at one point and the best I could do was 'about 40'.

We moved on from Mawlamyine and took the boat up the Thanlwin river for four hours to Hap-an a gentle river voyage through sugar cane plantations, the scenery changing to limestone karsk with sharp high peaks rising out of the otherwise flat scenery. No prizes for guessing what could be found on the top of most of them.

We took another day trip around town where the sights are caves, torch in hand we went through these caves which have also been turned into places to put yet more stupas and Buddha images. For me however the highlight was after a cave walk through a hill a ride back to our tuk-tuk in a proper dug out canoe.

 Guess what you build in a cave around here!!

 I did not stay long at this gathering - it was music to attract or repel good & evil spirits, the racket was appawling... being blasted through a massive sound system turned up so full it distorted terribly - guess that puts me into the 'bad spirit' camp.

 We stumbled across another wedding - apparently it's the season (yes you get married when it is too hot to do anything else!)

Another days outing from Hap-an was to climb the local 'gentle incline.'

 Which was so gentle there were a number of ladders to get around the cliffs on the top.

 Liza positively bounced up.

 While I was a pool of sweat. We obviously did this early morning when it was only a cool 27 degrees or so.

But the view was worth it.

A collection of water bottle companies that we have patronised while in Myanmar:-

Our sheets in Hop-an were a bit original!

 We have moved on from Hop-an to Bago via the infamous Golden Rock on Kyaiktiyo Mountain. Here we have finally found a working internet connection. No doubt we will finish our Myanmar stuff from our next destination which is Indonesia where we fly to via Bangkok on the 27th March.