Myanmar: The white happy faces and the red smiling teeth

Mingelarbar friends and family!

I’m back again. Ok, please take a seat and have a drink cause this is going to take a while, haha.

My last blog finished when I was on my way to Myanmar. I’ve been here for three weeks now and on the 15th of February we are flying to Bangkok where we will be seperated again.. Thailand will probably be very different, but I’m excited to discover a new country. Travelling through Myanmar has been such a special experience, it’s really hard to describe it in words but i’m gonna give it a try :)

I think that especially the Birmese people give this country a very unique character. Most of them are not really used to tourists. They have this fascinated look on their faces when they look at you, but when you smile they will definitely smile back with their red teeth and a lot of happiness. Most of them chew on ‘betel nuts’, it’s some kind of tabacco and a red nut rapped around a limestone leaf. They use it to stay awake, because they make long hours every day. They also have a beauty standard to look ‘white’, so they put some kind of whitening cream on their faces and make different creations with it. Men, women and even children do this! The Birmese are incredibly nice and want to take pictures with you all the time. This can be really funny sometimes, when they try to take ‘sneaky selfies’ with us in the background haha. Backpacking-wise it’s different than the rest of Asia (Jolien agrees on this), it’s more expensive and sometimes you need to be creative and use the best sign language you got. But the Birmese are really honest people and want to help you out whenever they can. I am happy I’m here with Jolien though, because in some situations you can feel quite uncomfortable when they stare at you all the time and they don’t understand what you want/need. You can really notice the upcoming tourism in this country. I would like to come back in ten years to see how much it has changed. There are some differences in the country itself – in some places (for example Inle Lake and Bagan) there are a lot of guesthouses and the menus in the restaurants are translated to English. But for example in Hpa-an, one of our last stops, there are just 4 guesthouses and 1 one restaurant with an English menu which is full of the tourists from the 4 guesthouses haha. Actually in whole Myanmar, you will encounter the same tourists. There are just a few hotspots in the country where everyone goes to so it feels like you are travelling together. In Nwge Saung Beach I even stumbled upon someone from my Psychology studies in Amsterdam! What a small world.

Yangon (Rangoon)

So our first stop was Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar! I would meet Jolien here at the guesthouse. So there she was, i walked towards her like a cripple but we were very happy to see each other. In the beginning it felt a bit surreal that we met so many miles from home. But in seconds, it was back to normal again as if we were in our hometown ‘Leusden’. We stayed at a nice guesthouse where a staffmember taught us some Birmese. It’s a fun language, with a hard pronunciation. But the most important thing he taught us: ‘You have to speak from the heart’. How cute. In the night we went out for some dinner in this very lively city (fun fact: motorbikes are not allowed in Yangon because the former leader had an accident with a motorbike and made this decision.. this means: a lot of cars and traffic). People are selling their fruits, vegetables and meat everywhere on the streets. We had something like a barbecue dinner at a streetrestaurant. 

Yangon was a bit too crowded for my taste, but there are some nice things to see. We went to the Schewedagon Pagoda (pagoda = temple). An incredibly big outdoor temple complex, which was quite overhelming. Everything was gold (schwe = gold, the favourite color of the Birmese) and there were so manny buddhas all over the place.. Right now i really can’t bare to see any more pagodas…. Myanmar is full of them. More than you can imagine. And even more than that. At night they lid up some candles, this was a very beautiful sight. Unfortunately because of my stupid ankle, we weren’t able to do that much in Yangon. We saw the parc and then were off to Mandalay, the second biggest city in Myanmar.

Mandalay

Mandalay had a better atmosphere than Yangon, and there was some more sightseeing to do. The first day we got up pretty late because we took the  nightbus from Yangon. We decided to go to Mandalay Hill. Because of my ankle (it’s starting to be a main character in my story..) I decided to take the motorbike-taxi up the hill and Jolien was feeling adventurous so she walked all the way up (a 40 minute walk). We made the mistake of not agreeing on a meeting spot, because we thought we would see each other there anyway. Then after three hours I started to worry. But there was a great view and I talked to a munk of 18 years old. It was a nice converstation. After looking everywhere for Jolien, I decided to go back to the hotel. Fortunately Jolien had the same idea so we felt a lot of relief.  Apparently we had just missed each other up there. The next day we did a nice tour where we saw a lot of nice sights. It was a full day: we went to a monastery were we saw the munks waiting for their breakfast. It’s a very nice place with a lot of tranquility and it was very interesting to see the life they live inside of the monastery. Especially the little munks looked very cute. During the tour we also went to a traditional weaving factory (where i bought a real silk scarf), we went to two very colourful temples, to a village on an island and in the end we saw the sunset at the famous wooden U-Bein Bridge. Simply beautiful. On our final day we went to the Royal Palace (the wall of the palace covers 2 by 2 km) , but you only get to see the most important part where the king used to work an live. Because of some misunderstandigs we almost missed our bus to Bagan, so we pursued the bus with a taxi and we got there in time. It was a bit stressful, but kind of funny in the end.

Bagan (or Pagan)

I think Bagan is for most people the highlight of their trip to Myanmar. It’s in every travelguide, on every postcard, in every promotional video of Myanmar etc. In a period of 230 years (until 1287) the kings commissioned more than 4000 buddhist temples in 26 sq miles. Some of them where destroyed by  earthquakes, neglect, erosion etc., but they are surprisingly well preserved. Some look massive, and some are a bit smaller. It’s really hard to describe it in words or to show it on pictures. You really have to experience it. Especially the views are amazing, there are no houses or buildings as far as the eye can see, just loooots of temples and nature. You really feel like you have gone through a time machine. There is actually a 25 dollar fee to enter the Bagan Archeological Zone. We never had to do this. They really have to regulate this better. Right now a lot of people may have never heard of this place, but i think in ten years or so it will be on the Machupichu – level. Mark my words! 

We had the full experience. On the first day we saw an amazing sunset and on the second day we saw a breathtaking sunrise! It felt just like a fairytale. We got up at 5 am and we started to look for a particular temple in the darkness with our e-bikes. It was really adventureous, because there were no signs or illumination indicating the temple. When we got there, we climbed the temple (with more tourists) on our bare feet and waited till sunrise. At 7 am all the airballoons go up in the air, with an almost pink sun in the background. Magical! That day we went to visit some more isolated, non-touristy temples with our e-bikes (mine went 60 km/h wohooo). Pretty cool and fascinating to think this place exists on the planet.

Kalaw + Inle Lake

So after saying goodbye to Bagan we took a shitty bus ride to Kalaw. Kalaw is a village that is just very boring, but it’s nice to see a traditional place in Myanamar. Tourist come here to do trekkings to Inle Lake, also a famous sight in Myanmar. Unfortunately because of my lovely anke I was not able to do this. But because i’m such a good friend I allowed Jolien to do her own thing, haha. So she went on a two day hike to Inle Lake and I took a bus. I took some rest and waited until the next day for her to come back. In the meantime I had met some Dutch guys and a Canadian girl, with whom I went to the Red Mountain winery the next day. We did a wine tasting and ordered some bottles. It was a nice afternoon with a beautiful view, just like in Spain or Fance. In the evening we went for some dinner with blistered-up Jolien.

The next day we took the boat tour every tourist does on Inle Lake. It is an enormous lake where there is a lot of stuff going on. People live and work here on their wooden houses on poles. There are a lot silversmiths, weaving factories and they even built there crops in the water. And of course the fisherman are the most famous on Inle Lake. At the end we visited a weaving place where we also saw the longneck ladies. The rings they have are incredibly heavy, the heaviest are 12 kg. The old ladies were very friendly.

On our final day in Inle lake we rode with our bicycles up to some village on the water. When we got there we were standing on a bridge and wanted to have a drink in the restaurant 10 metres across the water. We didn’t now how to get there, but then a boy called the lady from the restaurant and she went to pick us up with her little boat. They have a really special rowing technique. They stand straight at the end of the boat and row with the peddle rapped around their feet. It looks quite functional.

Hpa-an

After travelling for almost a day, we finally got to Hpa – an (pronounce it like Pa-an or Pan… haha). It was quite a hassle to get a room, but when we finally got one we could take some rest. We were both feeling a little bit sick from the bus ride so we just stayed in. Hpa-an is very different, there are a very few guesthouses and the people don’t really speak English. There is a lot to see in the surroundings, so we booked a cheap tour with a tuk – tuk and saw a lot of caves with buddhas. We also went to a field where there are 800 buddhas located… it’s like they multiply themselves. Incredible. The most impressive part of the tour was the Bat Cave, I must say. At sunset thousands of bats fly out to the sky in a perfect line and return in the morning. I think it took 20 minutes more or less before all the bats were out. It was very fascinating, because there were some eagles flying in circles already waiting for the bats to come out. Some very quite succesful and had a nice bat-meal i guess. In Hpa- an we also saw a small celebration of the Chinese New Year. There was a group of boys playing drums on the streets with two dancing dragons. It seemed like a very traditional ritual.

Nwge Saung Beach!!

Our last stop was the beach… finally. It may sound a bit spoiled, but travelling can be exhausting as well. Every  2 or 3 days changing your bed, sitting in buses for 10 hours in a row.. figuring out what you are going to do every day… So we really could use some rest. Because it was a public holiday, we had some trouble finding a room for 4 nights for a reasonable price. Of course the Birmese are always very helpful, and we got a nice little bungalow in a more local guesthouse. We chilled, had some food and enjoyed the weather. We also took a snorkeling tour (my first time snorkeling!), but unfortunately there were no fish and a loooot of painful rocks at the coastline. My ankle really enjoyed this. It’s getting a bit better than it was three weeks ago.. but it’s still a bit swollen and it’s very annoying that I can’t do everything I would like to do. So I just need to be patient I guess.

Tomorrow I will have to say goodbye to Myanmar and to Jolien… We had a really great time. I think I am really going to miss this fascinating country and especially the beautiful people. But I will be back someday!! 

Tar tar :)

Ps. I you want to contribute to the Jolien foundation – please send a donation in the form of  choclate, pizza slices, ketchup fries, sprinkles, some cheese or milk to the following adress: Jolien’s Backpack, Koh Tao, Thailand, Asia.