Burma/Myanmar

First of all: the name of this country, is it Burma or Myanmar?
In my blog I'll use the name Burma because I read an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi in Lonely Planet, and according to her Myanmar is a name which is chosen by the government, the people didn't have any say in this. This is why she prefers the name Burma. And since Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most respected persons in Burma, I'll do as she says.

About four years ago I read a book called 'De Onzichtbaren' by Karel Glastra van Loon (the Invisibles, a Dutch book). I read it because I had to, for school. But the book made a big impression on me. I became kind of fascinated by this country, and the people who live here. So many things have happened here, so many big things which were only small news items in the Netherlands. Most of the violence has stopped by now, and the Burmese government decided to open their borders for tourists a few years ago.

You can imagine I was thrilled when we arrived in Yangon. Finally I got to visit this mysterious country! And I don't regret visiting at all! Burma is wonderful. The temples are breathtakingly beautiful and the Burmese people are the nicest people ever! They're just so extremely friendly I've been starting to wonder how that's even possible. They seem to have dealt with their past and are totally willing to build up a present which is better for everyone. They all work together, and they try to help each other whenever they can.
They're also very kind and helpful to tourists! And sooo interested as well, haha. Their English is quite good, not perfect but they're trying. They all ask questions and try to improve their language skills whenever possible.

On our first full day in Yangon we realised tourism is still only happening on a small scale here in Burma. We could easily count all the tourists we saw on that day with a total of eleven. And we didn't at all stay in the Burmese neighborhoods, we went to the biggest touristic attraction of the city, the Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the biggest pagoda of Burma. It's fully covered in gold and the top of it is actual gold. It weighs about 500 kilograms. This pagoda was so shiny and the reflections of the sun were so extreme it hurt my eyes a little. Burmese people must be crazy about gold! To me, it was a little bit too much, but still definitely worth a visit. It is beautiful. Also, I loved the view of all the locals praying to Buddha together. The Shwedagon Pagoda and the area around it, is considered the most holy site of Burma.

Shwedagon Pagoda

Ladies praying to Buddha

On our second day in Yangon we did something totally different. We went on the 'one dollar circuit train'. This train, which rides in a circle around Yangon, is mostly used by locals to transport their goods. You can easily hop on in Yangons city centre and hop off at the same station exactly three hours later (we thought it had a delay because the train stopped moving for a long time somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a field, but apparently that's normal since we arrived in time).
One thing we loved about the train ride, were the views. You start in the centre of the city, and the train takes you through the suburbs to the countryside and back. We thought it was very cool to 'go local' and sit in this big, open, two bench cabin. The benches stand opposite from each other, and between them is an area the locals use to store their goods. They transport oranges, flowers, tobacco, bananas and big plastic bags (I think they contain rice but I couldn't look inside). All the people are hopping on and off the train, even whilst it's still moving. One woman even fell out of the train. We heard a big 'boom' and all the people started looking through the open windows. Guess it

happens more often as the train didn't stop.

 

View from train, market at trainstation

After a while two of the cutest kids ever stepped into the train. They must've been about four years old. At first, they were staring at us, a little bit scared. We really do look strange, don't we? After a while the kids must have realized we weren't going to hurt them, and they came over. We gave them an orange and that really broke the ice. I think we played with them for about two hours. A nice experience!

That evening, we took the overnight bus to Bagan. We expected the worst, but were positively surprised when we stepped into the bus. We had big luxurious seats, we got free foods and drinks, and they even had karaoke... with... George Baker's awesome song Una Paloma Blanca! Yes, a Dutch song in an overnight bus in Burma! How nice! We really had a good time in that bus!
Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell we had met an Australian guy on the airport in Yangon. His name is Lionel. Me, Bibi and Lionel shared a room in Yangon and decided to meet again in Bagan. He went to Bagan one day earlier.

When we met up again in Bagan, he told us about his awesome first day there. He had planned to go to the big temple area there when his bicycle got a flat-tire. Two locals on motorbikes saw him struggling with his bike and decided to help him. One took him on the motorbike, the other took his bicycle. They took him to their house and helped him repair his bike. While he was waiting, the women offered him as much food as he could eat. He took many photos of the house, since it was not a regular house. These people live on a market and when the market closes, they put all their goods in big bags and transform the market stall into a house where literally the whole family lives. Grandma, grandpa, sons, daughters, all the in-laws and all the little kids. They sleep on bamboo mattresses. Lionel decided to get his photos developed and bring them to the people as a present and to thank them for their help. The family was very happy with this present! They've never had any printed family photos because their money is better spent elsewhere.

The next day, our first 'active' day in Bagan, Lionel took us on a small tour through Bagan. First we went to the Shwesandaw Pagoda. This is not the highest one but it's definitely the one with the best view!
After the pagoda, Lionel took us to the market where his new local friends lived. We got invited in and talked a lot with them by using body-language. They brought us special local pancakes filled with beans and they made us some corn. After filling our stomachs, we talked a little more. We asked them what this thing is that all the ladies wear on their face. It looks a little bit like a mud mask, but they walk around with it all day. They told us it was special Burmese make-up. One of the men picked up a plate and a special piece of wood. Then, he started putting water on the plate and rubbing the wood against it. To our surprise, a strange, grey looking substance appeared. The lady put it on our face and after a while it became solid. Now we really looked like locals! All the ladies yelled 'oooh beautiful!!!'.

After the make-up ritual, we played football with the local kids. They play with a bamboo ball on bare feet. Yes, that hurts like hell. But it was nice to play with them. After the football we played some feet-friendly badminton. That was a lot of fun!



Bibi playing badminton with a local kid



We ended our local experience with a cup of Burmese tea (extremely strong black tea with vanilla cream in it). We said goodbye to the family and to Lionel, who was going back to Yangon that evening, and went to the temples to see the sunset.

When we discovered you had to pay a 15 US$ fee to watch the sunset from the big temple, we decided to find our own temple instead. After a short walk we found one. One problem, the stairs were inside. It was so dark in there you couldn't even see the stairs. But brave as we were, we decided to go into the dark hole anyway. We used the flashlight of our phones and managed to reach the top. And, I must say, it was totally worth it! An awesome sunset in Bagan with a 4000 temples view - on a private temple! Wow!

On our way back, after the sun set, we accidentally bumped into something which looked like a massive graveyard... We saw a lot of skulls and bones, and it was already getting dark. Very scary! We were a little bit freaked out so we were glad to finally find our bicycles. We hurried back to our guesthouse.

The next morning, we checked out at the guesthouse because we decided to sleep in one of the temples at Bagan. We figured this might be our one and only chance to ever do this, even if we would ever come back, it wouldn't be the same. I'm afraid the tourism will have increased so much, that maybe in five to ten years this place will turn into a copy of Angkor Wat, where big buses full of tourists arrive every other minute. The nice and quiet atmosphere will be gone by then, and of course, the security will increase. Ok, so we wanted to sleep in the temple. First we had to find one. We took a horse carriage to the temple area and started our search. We wanted to find a temple where no one would be able to find us, because we didn't know whether it was illegal or not to sleep there.

We walked through the fields for about an hour and finally found something suitable. A small temple, right in the middle of two villages, but the distance was just big enough so they wouldn't be able to hear or see us. The sun was already going down so we were just in time. Unfortunately, we saw the door of the temple had a lock on it. It wasn't locked, but we figured there might be a small chance someone would lock all the temple doors at night. If this would happen, we would be most likely to get locked up inside. Not the best thing that could happen... So, we decided to sleep next to the temple. No roof, no walls, only the stars above us and the nature around us. We made ourselves comfortable and waited for bedtime. During this wait, we talked a little and listened to the surrounding sounds. The village people singing songs, the birds getting ready for the night, the howling dogs, some distant motorbike sounds... It was a lovely experience, and though we were extra alerted by every sound we heard, we had quite a good sleep. Luckily we didn't get haunted by the dead people from the graveyard the other day, and no living humans nor animals showed itself during the night.

At four in the morning we were woken up by the slowly rising sun. It was the best sunrise I've ever seen (I have to admit I haven't seen that many sunrises in my life since I'm waaay to lazy to get up that early, but still...). We enjoyed the beauty of the sky, with all the temple-tops and hot-air balloons flying above in the sky. Wow! It was magical!



Sleeping at temple: before



 

Sleeping at temple: after

During the following day we rented E-bikes, you know, the electronic motorbikes, yes, those granny things. Haha! We drove to the river and rented a private boat for four hours. It was only 22 dollars and we had an awesome big boat with free food and tea! We did some relaxing in the sun, went to some more temples, and watched the sunset. We drove back to our hotel and fell asleep straight away as we were exhausted..

We got up early the next day to catch the 7 am bus to Mandalay. We had a big delay and didn't really do much that day.
The next day, I have to admit, we didn't do much either. We went to a really nice bar, had lunch, beers, dinner and cocktails there. We read a little and I wrote on my blog. Guess we were a little bit temple-tired.

On our last day in Mandalay we wanted to go to the Amarapura U-Bein Bridge. But then we got ourselves a food poisoning. So we ended up spending the evening and the whole night in the toilet. Yes... Very nice...
I don't know how we survived the flight to Bangkok the next day, but somehow, we made it.

After one night in Bangkok me and Bibi said goodbye and my mom arrived.

Next destination: Cambodia with my mom!



Wonderful sunrise after our night at the temple