Aimlessly Ambling Across Asia: February 2012

Buddhist Temple and boat, Inle Lake

, Inle LakeMyanmar (Burma)
It was a short flight and a no hassle ride to our guesthouse in downtown Yangon. We are staying in the Golden Smile Guesthouse in the old section of town. It is a bit of a misnomer, as it occupies the second floor of a big, old, kind of mouldy building. The family that owns and runs it is fantastic, very helpful and full of laughs and smiles. (In fact, it appears that everyone in this country is like that!) The weather is cool from 6 p.m. till 8 a.m., and becauseof the lower humidity, much more pleasant than Bangkok.

An Inle Lake fastboat

Since the military govenment has adopted a more "open door" policy over the last few months, the tourist industry has blossomed, and at the moment, there are not enough hotels and restaurants ( and tasty local foods) to keep up with the demand. Things are changing pretty fast, though. People are very excited that Aung San Su Kyi,(daughter of " the Father" of their country, General Aung San, who freed Burma from British rule,) is free and is going to be participating in the upcoming election in April. She won the election for president in 1990, but the military took over and locked her in prison. She has been in and out of prison and under house arrest since this time, and was just released a few weeks ago. No one seems to really know what is happening. Some say she will run in the election to be a member of parlaiment, others say as their Prime Minister, and others still, their President. But whichever, excitement is running very high.

Monks on their way back to the monastery after receiving alms

The military government has kept Myanmar kind of in the dark ages. Not good? In our eyes, yes. But here, common sense still exists. Family and friends are a very important part of people's lives. Materialism and money are not worshipped the way they are in the U.S. Kids spend lots of time with family and playing, and are hardly ever glued to a tv, computer screen or cell phone.

Off to the morning market

There are no ATMs in the country, and traveller's checks are not accepted. The only money that they accept are perfectly flat, crisp, clean US dollar bills that are used to pay for hotels and airline flights. All other purchases must be made by converting dollars to kyat, the local currency.
Here in Myanmar, even though there are many impressive sights to see, the journey often turns out to be more interesting than the destination.

An Inle Lake "legrower" fisherman

The people here are ruled by the iron fist of a military govrnment that does some pretty horrendous stuff, like providing no assistance to the people affected by a huge typhoon in 2008 in which thousands died, deciding to print a new currency, declaring the old currency worthless and not letting people exchanging the old currency for the new, ("Hey, lets all start from scratch, folks!"), and making many hundreds of Buddhist Monks "disappear". (Monks are more important than national soccer players here!!!!) So, how can they be such happy people? Is it because most of the people are very strong Buddhists? Two of the Buddhist tenets are nonattachment and non judgement. So for them, if something negative is happening, this thing is not judged as negative, only accepted as "what is". What is is only what is, and is accepted and lived with, not affecting their true happiness at all, as most of them live fully in-the-moment, and getting upset about it will change nothing. (If anyone can make any sense of that, please let me know-Steve.)

A silversmith, Inle Lake

A trishaw, a slow, but fun way to travel...except for the driver

Dailynlog by Martha Myanmar January 29-February14
January 29 Our early flight out of Bangkok had us leaving our hotel at 4:00am. An uneventful flight got us into Yangon (Rangoon) at 8:00 their time. Our whole trip into and through Myanmar was more into the unknown than some of the other countries. Steve will have more to say about it, but Myanmar has been ruled over the past decades by a military dictatorship and while there has been tourism; there are elements of it that are very controlled. There are parts of the country that foreigners are restricted from. Parts of the infrastructure are so neglected that it takes hours to go a few kilometers. We got into a guest house in Yangon after our arrival and used the afternoon to arrange to get out of the city. The Golden Smiles Guest House was a couple blocks from the waterfront on the Ayarwaddy River. It was on the second floor of a large building housing in addition to the 8 room guest "house" a Baptist Church, a warehouse room , a closet sized shop with 3 zerox machine that made copies for people, and I'm not sure what else. From the window in our room we could watch a huge crane and contstruction project across narrow side street (alley?) beside us. My enduring memory from our nights in Yangon is peering down into the alley that at dusk was converted into a mini restaurant food stall/concession stand with the addition of a charcol stove, 10 mini child heigth tables and stools to go with. Bring in a wide screen tv and a dvd player and you've got the working familys version of dinner and a movie.(or maybe it was a local soap opera-not sure!)

A P'dong lady weaving on a backstrap loom

30-Feb1 Taungoo
From a travel agency in Yangon and the man who spoke good English we got onto an AC nice bus to go to a town that will break up the long (14 hour) journey to Kalaw. The guide book was pretty brief about Taungoo except that it had a nice Guest House on the edge of the rice paddies and was a great place to hang out for a time. When we got on the bus (at the huge and chaotic bus station) a smiling man who spoke English asked us where we were going. We gave him the name of the town and guest house and lo and behold as we were coming into the town the driver stopped, the bus assistant helped us off, pointed down a dirt track and the sign at the end of it "Myanmar Beauty Guest House" and waved us on. We wandered down the raod and into the compound of 3 old teakwood houses of the Guest House. We spent 2 days just hanging out in the peace and quiet, doing homeschool, reading and wandering around. We slept under mosquito nets on comfy beds. All of the hotels/guest houses we stayed in in Myanmar included breakfast in their rates. This one was exceptional- they served typical Burmese breakfast items; many of which we couldn't identify! Our main problem was that most of the staff didn't speak much English and trying to arrange our onward travel was a little tricky. We finally ended up on a local bus that took 7 and a half hours to our next destination. It was the crossroads city where we wanted to get a bus east. We arrived after dark; again the driver stopping in town, pointing down a road and saying the name of the hotel we wanted. Someone from a nearby restaurant actually took us to it since it wasn't signed. -Martha

Floating gardens, Inle Lake

Boiling down the cane sugar juice, Inle

Myanmar-the new capitol Feb 1
We were headed north on a chicken bus along a rough, bumpy little road, when I glanced out the window and found myself looking down an 8 lane divided highway complete with a landscaped median strip and shoulders and fancy new streetlights! It crossed our road and went in both directions for about 2 miles, ending at nothing but scrubby, dry trees. There was absolutely no traffic on it. A bit further along, we turned off our little bumpy road onto a similar road, turned a corner and drove under a huge archway into what looked like a totally modern" ghost city". We pulled up to the most modern, pristine bus station I've ever seen. There were 4 or 5 other busses parked out in front of a line of bus offices, but all offices were closed! There were a few mechanic shops across the street, a few of which had mechanics out front on the street working on vehicles, but all of the others were empty. We had entered the outskirts of Nay Pyi Taw, the new Capitol of Myanmar. At the mere rounding of a curve in the road, we had seemingly been transported into a city of the future! -Steve
We left the bus stop, then passed miles of new developments, hundreds of brand new homes with mown lawns and paved driveways, but not a single sign of human life anywhere. A bit further down the road, we passed a beautiful bottanical garden, also devoid of humans, and a few minutes later, we saw an enormous amusement park and one of the largest stadiums that I have ever seen in the process of being built. All of this was right dead in the middle of nowhere! It seems that the astrologer of one of the ruling government Generals decided that the capitol should be moved, and this was the proper location! Most of the people we have talked to think it is totally insane!

Martha on the road early morning near Inle Lake

The "Sardine bus"
Early in the morning of February second, we jumped on a minibus we have appropriately named the "sardine bus" for 6 hours of the roughest, most uncomfortable ride yet! We were making the journey up into the hills between Mykietla and Kalaw. The bus had 35 seats, much smaller ones than on a US school bus, with an 11 inch wide aisle down the center. We got the back seats. The floors were already covered, aisles and under the aseats s, well, with huge bags of something??, so the floor? was nearly level with the seats. The only way to sit was with your knees tucked up under your chin. At mid trip, there were 43 passengers on board, not including the sack of chickens under the seat in front of us. Lots of road construction, thus lots of dust pouring in the open windows. We survived it!! -Steve

Tea at the market, Inle Lake

February 2 Meiktila to Kalaw
Folks from the hotel got us to the bus station where we found ourselves on the infamous sardine bus. (See Steve's description) Believe me when I say it was a treat to come around the turn in the road and find ourselves in the large town of Kalaw. It is in the Shan state, on a plateau, with mountains around.
February 2 to 5 Kalaw
Another great hangout spot after two days of rugged travel. We stayed at the Golden Lily Guest House that had great views of the town and mountains from our 2nd story room. Tourism is growing in this area; often package tours that use AC luxury busses or fly in and out and stay in the nice hotels all over town; while the locals have to use the tiny sardine busses to get around. (A lot of the roads between places in this part of the country are horrific). One day we spent hiking along trails and dirt roads in the area with a guide. (They call it trekking here.) It was a beautiful day, sunny, great views of mountains, stupas, indiginous villages and some agricultural lands. Other times we wandered the streets of town, the markets, and plotting where to eat our next meal. Breakfast at this guest house consisted of one scrambled egg on a chappati, a banana, and coffee or tea. Knowing that to go on to our next stop would require 3 hours on the sardine bus we hired a taxi and did it in 1and a half, much to the relief of our butts and knees. -Martha

A Myanmar smile

Bull cart, Bagan

February 5-9 Nyuangshwe-Inle Lake
Nyuangshwe is another tourist town with lots of hotels and restaurants. The town the juumping off point for the communities around and on Inle Lake. Inle has not only a large area of open water but a substantial part of the lake is shallow wetland with homes on stilts, gardens on built up marsh; thriving communities that live by getting around on boats with industries like silversmithing, handloomed cloth and so on. We took a day long boat tour (see Steve's write up). The following day we rented bicycles and pedaled 8 km to a once a week market. From there we ferried ourselves and the bikes across the lake and pedaled at least that far back to the town. It was a fairly level ride, another beautiful day, and got to get out into the countyside and see more of the real Myanmar and the people. We stopped briefly where a crowd had gathered in preparation for what we thought would be the local game played with a wicker ball, two opposing teams and a net like a volleyball net. It turned out it was going to be a volleyball game so we moved on. -Martha

Water and grease in a market wok. Photo by Sam

Bull cart.

February 6, a day in a boat on Inle Lake
Today we hired a 35 foot long, 5 foot wide wooden boat with a big motor and a driver and guide for the whole day for a mere $23. It was a beautiful, clear, crisp, cool, dry day! We saw the famous legrowers, (fishermen that steer and paddle their canoes with one leg while standing on the tiny stearn platform, freeing up their hands so that they can throw or place their nets). We went past acres of floating gardens and whole villages built on stilts. The floating gardens are made of a bamboo framework and filled with water plants. They spread a thin layer of soil on top of the plants, and plant almost any normal garden crop on them.The gardens are about 6 feet wide, and some are as long as 200 or 300 feet. They are kept in place by long bamboo poles stuck through them and down into te muddy lake bottom. We made many stops to visit many family cottage industries to include a silverjewelry maker, cigar makers, umbrella and hat makers, weavers, and even at a monestary to watch some monk-trained cats jump through hoops. -Steve

The Ayeyarwady River near Bagan

February 9-12 Nuang U/ Bagan,
Faced with the prospect of 14 hours on a sardine bus we broke down and bought plane tickets to Nuang U. (The whole area is sometimes collectively referred to as Bagan altough is actually consists of the towns of Nuang U, Old Bagan and New Bagan as well as some small villages.)We arrived in Nuang U at dusk and it is an even more touristy city and the first two guest houses were either full or didn't have an acceptable room in our price range. The New Heaven Guest House was on a peaceful dirt side street and very nice; handy to the center of town and restaurants, but not on the main drag.

Supper next to an 800 year old Buddhist stupa

Bagan plain is covered with over 4000 Buddist temples, stupas and shrines of varying sizes. It is an incredible sight when you can get up on the upper levels of one of them and look across the plain. One day we wandered in the town of Nuang U and visited the large complex in town and later on in the afternoon wandered through several on the edge of a small village. The next day we rented bicycles and pedaled our way around the plain and to the town of Old Bagan (emptied of the residents 20 years ago by the government and now only has the temples, an archeology museum and some upscale hotels within the walls of the old city.) It was fascinating to see just a fraction of them, although we were thoughly templed out by the end of the day!
From Nuang U we were able to book a comfy overnight AC bus back to Yangon, which, while it was comfortable didn't allow for a good nights sleep.

Sam and Ben on a stupa, Bagan

January 13-14 Yangon
We arrived back at the Yangon bus station at 4:00 in the morning. There were plenty of taxis to be had even at that hour but where would we go? The Guest House wouldn't even have the door unlocked. So we waited in the smokey waiting room til 6:30 and then got a taxi to the just awakening city and guest house. Our room wasn't available until noon so we dropped our bags and went our for breakfast and sit one of the parks for awhile. Later in the afternoon we took in the great sight for Yangon: Shwedagon Paya an immense gold covered Buddist Stupa which is one of the enduring symbols of Myanmar.

Street scene, Nyaungshwe

is estimated to be covered with 53 metric tons of gold leaf. The compound itself has other shrines and prayer halls as well. Many Buddist Burmese come to do a pilgrimage here at least once in their lifetime, so the place was filled with foreign tourists and Burmese. Our last day in Myanmar we went to another market; but there were more foreign tourist here than natives and so it felt a lot different than the local markets we had been to.
Impressions from Myanmar; the smiles, the friendly people, who, despite their self serving current government are not without joy and hope.

Buddhist temples, Nyaungshwe, Inle Lake

pressions from Myanmar; the smiles, the friendly people, who, despite their self serving current government are not without joy and hope. -Martha

A gold Buddha statue, Bagan

OBSERVATIONS FROM UNDER THE BODHI TREE - BUDDHISM AT IT'S BEST
Buddhism runs very deep in Myanmar, and the people reflect it's philosophy in every aspect of their lives. There is an enormous bodhi tree out on the busy street corner in front of our guest house here in Yangon. It's branchs hang out over the whole sidewalk, and nearly cover two lanes of the road, and it's hanging roots create a deep shade underneath. Even in the noonday sun, it is a cool and almost dark reprieve from the heat. Here under this tree was my favorite place to sit and observe this magical culture.

Early morning in Bagan

the tree trunk is a small shelf containing a clay 2-gallon pot filled with cool, fresh drinking water. There is a little plate over the top of the pot, and on top of that, a cup. Anyone is welcome to stop and quench their thirst. The pot is "maitained" and filled by one of the nearby residents. There is no charge for a drink. Pots such as this one are abundant in every city and village in Myanmar.

Stairs inside a stupa, Bagan by Sam

age in Myanmar.
It was next to this pot that I often sat and enjoyed th laid back, in-the-momentness of these people. I watched big city buses give way to bicyclists, two young men spontaneously stop their work in their food stall to help a lady carry two large bags out to the bus and load them on for her, school children of all ages smiling and laughing and taking time now and again to stop and play and joke on their way to school.
The slow pace that everyone was moving, both the people and the traffic, made it seem like I was in a dream world. People crossed the busy street stopping only long enough to pick a time with a few gap between cars, then walking slowly and unwaveringly across the road as traffic gracefully redirected itself to avoid them. Drivers rarely use their horns, but rather use their in-the-moment intuitiveness to gently flow with the heavy traffic with total respect for other drivers, whether they be huge trucks or motorcycles.

An American Bhoddisvata

very rarely heard anyone raise their voice in conversation. The exchange of items is done with great respect. Things are given and recieved with the right hand and with their left hand under their right elbow. It is done with eye contact, and is almost always accompanied by one of their FAMOUS, real smiles.
I am really going to miss this magical land and its gentile people!