The road to Mandalay

We left Bagan early Saturday for the 2 hour boat trip up the Irawaddy river. As soon as we got off the bus Ang acquired new friends. These kids grabbed her arms and wanted to walk with her. I think they have never seen a blonde pale skin before.

We got on the boat for a very pleasant journey up river in the blazing sun! Amazing we had to keep reminding ourselves it was December 30th. As we pulled in to the jetty the female porters were ready to unload the boat - below. One lady crouched on the bank was still doing her washing and didn't move much when we docked. Mind you the river was very muddy if not a bit dirty too. But if its the best you've got.

It's quite poor here as its not very good for agriculture and it doesn't rain much. The road infrastructure is still pretty good but it doesn't mean much if you're poor.

We went to visit a local village to see how they made incense sticks . It was a dusty place with around 600 houses - pretty much all bamboo or wood. The kids were fascinated by western visitors and followed you round holding your hand. We were lucky that there was a novication ceremony about to take place. This is the ceremony when 6 or 7 young boys join the monastery for a short or long period. It's a big deal to the parents and all the village. The parents of the novices feed the village in a feast. We came across the ladies of the village who were sifting the rice for the feast. As you can see a real community event.

After that we drove another few hours, boat across the river then onto the back of a truck to visit some sandstone caves to see more Buddha statues. I wasn't too impressed as there was too much litter and it looked a bit sham olio . And then back in the dark to our hotel.

Up at 6:30 for the drive to Mandalay only stopping to see some temples and these 2 large Buddhas on the hillside. Honestly they have Buddha OCD - you have never seen so many statues. One temple today had 550,000 Buddha statues in it! How many is enough?

So now here in Mandalay for New Years Eve.

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Bagan

It's now Monday 31st and we've arrived in Mandalay. Back to the Internet . We've had more non stop days since last Friday. We arrived in Bagan the site if the thousand temples. Bagan is the number one tourist destination in Myanmar . It's certainly the most tourist favoured destination we've seen with plenty of hotels and restaurants catering for softy westerners

Friday night we went to the top of one of the temples to watch the sunset over the plain. Really amazing to see so many temples. There are over3,000 temples spread out over a 20 sq km area. We asked our guide why so many in such an area. Burmese people believe the greatest thing they can do in life is to build a temple - that's one reason. Secondly there were many kings living in this area from 9th to 16th century and they needed to build lots of temples to ' make merit' , to outdo the earlier kings and to atone for earlier sins. So judging by the number like lots of kings they killed a lot of people!

Oh and we also got to see a lovely moon rise

Saturday morning we visited 3 or 4 of the biggest temples. Many of the temples are small and solid but a few are larger with inner rooms with large Buddhas and painted murals which are very beautiful. But after 10 or so it becomes a bit much. So we left Saturday lunch to visit a lacquer factory and for Ang to get some new friends!

 

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Some photos

This is the missing photo from Christmas Day. Obviously a batch of Royal Mail pink elastic bands in production.

And below that a day to day taxi wandering around the countryside. This one isn't too full as there is further room up top. The suspension is reinforced to take the weight - even with all those people on board it's not bottomed out yet,

A typical stupha. They all seem to be covered in gold. Some government official must have the gold paint rights

These are the lorries we used to get up to the golden rock. The ride was an Alton towers deluxe ride - hang on to your hats

The Golden Rock above with a viewing platform just below it. And below a SMALL section of the crowd looking on. Most of these people were there for the night.

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday to Saturday - Bagan and more

We have 1990s Internet here. A page takes 30 seconds or so to load and getting photos on is not possible. So I think I'll save them and post them in Dubai.

After a different Christmas Day we set off back towards Yangon on the bus. The bus was a 40 sweater which had been recycled from another country I.e. old. We were heading to the Golden Rock - a famous Buddhist shrine. So the journey involved a 3 hour bus journey to the base of a hill. We then jumped in the back of tipper lorries - the kind which deliver 20 tonne loads of sand. There are 50 or so of these lorries with basic benches fitted in lines across the back. When full of Burmese there are 50 people jammed in the back of the lorry for the ride up the hill . We had our own truck - bit of an experience. It's a pretty steep hill, with bends and hairpins and they race up the hill with you hanging on for your life. No real elf'n'safety . Having survived this its another 45 minute walk to the top up a flipping steep road.

 

Our hotel was perched on the top with lovely views - or so everyone else told us! The hotel was full and we got the worst room ever - it was small , smelly , no view, the bed was rubbish , sheets smelled mouldy - easily the worst hotel room of the trip! So spoiled the experience somewhat and we had little sleep too...

 

The golden rock is just that - a rock perched precariously on the top of a mountain which is gold. It's gold because thousands of pilgrims come up the mountain to cover it with gold leaf. And all around it is a scene from Buddha does Disneyland , hundreds of people set up camp for the night paying respects and all of the paraphernalia that goes with it . Again too loud and garish for me but brilliant to watch the people.

Thursday back down the mountain in reverse and another long drive to Yangon stopping to visit some stuphas and temples on the way. Then up at 3:45 ,(yes 3:45) to leave the hotel at 4:30 for our 6:15 flight to Bagan where we are now. We're staying at the 'Amazing Bagan Resort' which is lovely. We've been out to see the temples over the last few days of which more later but have managed to catch up on sleep and washing which is great. We leave tomorrow for a boat journey on the Irrawaddy on the 'road to Mandalay' - this and the Bagan temples will be the next blog

 

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Christmas Day 2012

Only my second Christmas away from home and a memorable one - for the experience of seeing what these are made into:

 

Sadly blogger won't load photos in Myanmar - the Internet is painfully slow

 

 

Oh and I'm writing this on Friday 28th having just arrived in Bagan where we finally have wifi!!

Were now with our group of 16. We have 2 from NZ. 1 from the US and 13 English. A nice bunch of people but pretty homogenous. On these trips you tend to get sucked onto a roller coaster of tourism . Everyday breakfast at 7am, out at 8am onto a bus and away. It's a full day - back in at 6pm out again at 7:30 for a meal which takes ages as we are a) a big group and b) the Burmese are new to restaurants so food gets delayed, misserved and then the bills need sorting. So no real chance to rest or post blogs.

Anyway back to Christmas Day. We travelled south to Mawlamyine an old capital of Burma ( how many old capitals do countries have? I suppose London, Winchester, then other cities were capitals of various strains of England )

Christmas Day up early then onto a boat across and down the. River onto Bilyugin island - 32kms across so not really small then. We then got into the back of pickup trucks on benches and bumpily drove through the island to visit some homes and villages making a variety of things. Pipes - made using a wooden lathes and a variety of hand turning tools, walking sticks using the same lathes, bamboo hats made using bamboo leaves . That was interesting enough before rubber bands. The picture above is of rubber bands in the middle of the manufacturing process. The various coloured sheaves above are wrapped around a wooden pole - a bit like a coloured condom I suppose. They are then put out to dry, slipped of the pole and sliced into rubber bands. Amazing. There are thousands if the things bagged for export - a real cottage industry. And different farms / families make different thicknesses, colours or whatever. I suppose you think of them being made in some horrible sweatshop. And although its not fun or richly rewarding work it's not to bad outside in the sun, at home on the farm with your family isn't the worst thing in life.

Anyway 3 hours later then back on the truck 1 hour, then the boat 1 hour and up to the Khyaikthanian pagoda , built in 875AD, which overlooks the town and is a good place to watch the sunset. Our first site of Burmese pagodas and not that keen on them. They are big brash and loud. Burmese love gold paint and gilding and big statues which takes some getting used to. Apparently Kipling wrote his ' road to Mandalay' poem here.

So not a bad day with no real Christmassy things on the agenda.

Another thing which strikes you when you come to Asia is the dependence on the big rivers which flow through. They are hugely impressive and huge- 1 mile or so wide in places - and bringing water, food, transport and goods all in 1 go. I'm sure cars and lorries will take over one day for greater prosperity but not necessarily to improve the sense of community the rivers bring. It's a brilliant people watching experience to watch the world drift by on the river.

Anyway I'm going to try to post this blog with 1 photo to see if it will upload , as its really slow Internet, then i will try to post some other photos later.

 

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Thoughts on Myanmar

We arrived here on Sunday 23rd and its Christmas Day today. We've now travelled with our group down to Mawlamine 180 miles south of Yangon.

So for my own benefit here's what we've seen

Phones don't work. There is only 1 cellphone network which is owned by the government so 'foreign' mobiles don't work. So we can't make any calls without buying a new phone.

The Internet works but slowly and only some sites. No western news sites work or it seems anything with any news content. Some travel sites work, wiki sites work but I haven't yet worked out what does or doesn't. Update as you can see by the late posting of this the blogger site isn't easy to upload too. We've had limited Internet access

Men almost all wear sarongs - very few wear trousers.

They drive in the right in Myanmar - opposite to UK . However most cars are right hand drive so its a really strange way to drive. That's because most cars are second hand imports from Japan and Korea . The lorries and buses tend to be Chinese so steering wheel on the left. Very strange. It's beginning to change as the Chinese influence grows and cars begin to import from there.

Arriving at the airport in Yangon was a scene of clean , modern calm - with blokes in dresses . The taxi to the centre and our hotel was a scene of cleanliness and calm. Two and three lane roads, manicured parks and gardens, no litter and NO TUK TUKS AND MOTORBIKES. Which was strange. Our guide George has explained to us that motorbikes aren't allowed in Yangon, neither are cycles. So cars only- and as I've said cars are second hand only. The price of these has dropped from $50,000 to $25,000 as the government drops restrictions on imports - actually they license people to import cars ( the suspicion within Myanmar is that the people who get licensed are the government members who get rich from this)!! Out in the country scooters and bikes are more widespread - these cost $400 to buy. It shows the power of a socialist government when they can suppress the people to such an extent to limit there ability to travel, trade and prosper

The consequence of this is lots of pick up tuck buses driving around completely overcrowded - people hanging off the back and on the roof!

We've stayed in 2 hotels so far and their good quality hotels are pretty average, as you would expect. The tourist infrastructure will take time to build up , hotels , guesthouses, reasonable restaurants don't exist so eating out is a challenge with limited choice.

Another noticeable difference is the lack of trading. In most other countries in Asia people are trading everywhere on the streets. Markets are everywhere , people set up little shops in their house fronts and sell sell sell. It's not the case here. I guess due to regulation. So the streets are quieter (still dark as limited street lighting) . But the ability to pop out and get some water, a beer , get your washing done isn't yet in place.

Myanmar is richer than Cambodia and Laos. The road infrastructure is much much better than those countries. In Yangon and the surrounding areas the roads are pretty good. Out in the country the houses look the same as other places with high dependence on farming and plenty of bamboo houses but it looks more organised and less cramped

 

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Onwards - Myanmar

Ang asked me to point out that the last sentence on the last post should read ' But my advice is do NOT come to Sihanoukville .....'

So that's nearly 6 weeks done and the self-organised bit of the holiday nearly over.

Tomorrow (Saturday 22nd) we leave Sihanoukville on the 8am bus for Phnom Penh. It's a 3-5 hour journey dependant on traffic. We're then off to the hotel we stayed in to pick up our Buddha- we've bought an 8kg wooden Buddha. So repack the bags at the hotel and off to the airport. We are flying with Air Asia which is RyanAir for Asia so we've had to purchase extra baggage allowance.

Then off to the airport for the flight to Don Muang airport Bangkok. Taxi around Bangkok to our hotel. Then up at 6am for the 5 minute taxi to Suvarnabhumi airport and of to Yangon (Rangoon) where we meet our group at 1pm Sunday.

Internet is a bit iffy in Myanmar so blog postings may be a bit random so apologies.

And of course , from me and Ang, a Happy Christmas to everyone. Hope it's what you all want.

 

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Sihanoukville - 18 to 22 December

Sihanoukville or Kompong Som as the locals call it is a comparatively new beach town. It is home to Cambodias only deep water port - hence the reason for its creation in 1950. It had reasoable investment up to the early 70s and then the civil war and Khmer Rouge put paid to it. its suppoably on the way back now as a destination beach resort.

In the guidebook it says '. With its stunning white sand beaches and azure waters' the local guidebook describes our local Victory beach as ' a fantastic small clean beach with just half a dozen bars offering beach snacks- various developments in the area make definitely a place to visit' . Really? REALLY?

If you are the kind of person who likes Benidorm ' go to Benidorm as its miles better than this'. If you are the kind of person whose skin crawls at the thought of Benidorm , this place would make you ill. Sadly it's bit of a dump without any quaint areas, or litter free areas and sprawls over 3 or 4 miles of murky , smelly litter strewn coastline. Do you get the impression I don't like it?

Independent monument. I'm sure it looked nice once. But it's now tired, unkempt and dirty.

A view from 'our hill' down towards 2 of the 'beaches' and downtown. It shows how sprawling the town is.

However, we came here for a 3 day rest prior to 3 weeks on the go in Myanmar. After a long 11 hour bus journey on Tuesday arriving at 11pm we arrived at Pagoda Rocks resort which sits on the hill overlooking town. It's out of the way and really lovely. Given what I've said about SK we are glad to be out of the way. We've got a bungalow - 1 of 15 - with plenty of space and our own balcony.

The hotel also has a lovely pool, nice restaurants and nice staff. A lovely place to unwind and relax for 3 days. And as you can see by my postings I've had plenty of time to get things up to date.

So if you do find yourselves in Sihanoukville it's worth staying here. But my advice is - do come to Sihanoukville . If you want tropical beaches on the Gulf of Thailand go to Thailand!

 

 

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Ta Phrom - Preah Khan and others.

On Monday 17 we went back to do the long circuit of inner temples. The long circuit was the name given by French archaeologists to a 17 km circuit taking in the next inner ring of temples.

So we visited Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdai, Srah Sang, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Preah Neak Pean, Preah Khan and back to Angkor Wat. I've only listed them all so I can refer back later and add the names to the photos!

II can't jot all my thoughts down - each temple was brilliant to see. Pre Rup was impressive for its size and the majestic lions ( we've both a photo if this) . Srah Sang was a huge reservoir ornately finished in stone.

But I though I'd make some notes on Ta Phrom ( visited last week) and Preah Khan. Ta Phrom is the more famous - mainly because of the trees growing from the roofs making for good photos. It also featured in the Angelina Jolie tombraider films sexing it up a bit. And it's undergone some restoration ( currently with money from France and India).

Ta Phrom was another Budhist temple built by Jayavarman VII - he of Angkor Thom fame. The French explorers who found this place nicknamed it 'jungle Wat' and have deliberately tried to maintain it as close to the state they found it. So the temples have been preserved and reinforced with the trees remaining on top

One of the famous shots of the crocodile tree. You can see the roped off areas as behind the camera it was closed off with a big crane re-assembling and preserving another structure

Another Japanese tourist poses for the photo. You can see below that although the temple is open to visit there are still plenty of building blocks to put back together.

Preah Khan is not so famous but IMO is at least as impressive. Again built by Jayavarman VII it served as a temporary capital city and housed 1,000 religious teachers. It was originally a Buddhist temple and later was vandalised by Hindu rulers. Many temples were. The Hindu vandals went around chipping the heads off the carved Buddhas !

Preah Khan is spread over 2 sq miles with a 2 mile long wall surrounding it. It is currently undergoing restoration by the world monument fund (WMF) with many personal donations by wealthy Americans .

As an idea of how much work has to be done. The 2 mile wall has 72 garudas ( carving of a large mythical bird) holding Nagas (serpents). You can sponsor the restoration of one of these for $25,000 . And that's just the wall!!

The WMF is restoring the temple and as such is removing the trees that are in the way. The photo below shows a severed tree rot which will be removed. And you can see the HUGE numbers of bricks which require a jigsaw reassembly.

One reason it is so important is the detail of the carvings in and around the temples. Above is a section of bas reliefs of the Hall of the Dancers (Apsaras) . Above this you can see some small domed areas that used to have Buddhas which were chipped away by Hindu vandals

And on this photo you can see more bricks requiring putting back together. And zoom on the photo to see the intricate carvings which are everywhere. I took lots of wide shots. My travelling colleague and slave takes the close ups!!

Siem Reap. We've now been twice and will come again. It's absolutely fantastic. As the years pass Angkor is gradually being developed and improved. So even 5 years later Ang and I enjoyed the temples as much as last time. And the hospitality industry is improving so you don't have to worry about staying in a hovel and eating rice all day ( if you ever did) . A huge range of all kinds of hotels await from $10 guest houses to $500 suites. And western cuisine abounds including the ubiquitous coffee shops. If you are of a far flung travelling bent you must visit here!

 

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Tonle Sap - Sunday 16 December

Tonle Sap means Great Lake and is the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. For most of the year it is a 2,700 sq km lake 1-2 m deep from which the Tonle River flows south to feed the Mekong river at Phnom Penh. In the rainy season June to October the Mekong river becomes swollen by all of the rain and melting ice from the Himalayas. This raises the height of the Mekong to such an extent that the Tonle river reverses and flows back into Tonle Sap swelling the lake to 15,000 sq km to a depth of 12m.

This raises several problems and opportunities for the villagers. We went on a trip to Kompong Phluk which is about 25 km south of Siem Reap. We had just entered the dry season so the waters had begun to recede 3-4 weeks ago.

The main problem they face is to build their houses high enough to avoid the flooded lake, but close enough to the shrunken lake to fish it. So the houses are built on sticks. The photo below shows a newer house ( with corrugated metal ) next to an old bamboo house. The villagers have to build any new houses from metal as fire protection , even though they are much hotter. A couple of years ago a fire burned down 50 or so houses hence the change in materials.

The main opportunity is food. The swollen lake brings with it lots of fish to eat. And as it recedes the exposed lake bank is very fertile and the villagers get to grow several crops of rice and vegetables whilst the land is exposed.

Below is the Main Street in Kompong Phluck. It's now above water and has been for 2 weeks . The town is1 big street with these houses side by side.

This is a picture taken in the wet season a couple of months ago ( not by me of course)

It's fascinating wandering around the village looking at how it works. As you can imagine its almost a 'bee like community' with people working together for the community. Under 1 house was a noisy smokey generator charging 50 or 60 car batteries - which they use to power their tvs. Not to good if your house has the generator under it.

When we went it was Sunday so the children were not at school . Kids go to school 6 days a week either 8am to 12 or 1 to 5 pm. So the kids in the picture below we're chopping the heads and tails off the small fish. The fish bodies were eaten by the villagers. The heads and tails were mashed into a pulp and fed to the pigs. The villagers don't get to eat the pigs as they are too valuable. They get sold or traded for commodities the village wants. Pork is only eaten on special occasions .

In the photo below you can see the lake is still lapping at the edges of these houses. The greenery is morning glory which is being grown as a vegetable for the villagers to share. And in the foreground if you zoom in on the wooden cage you will see some pigs who are being fed the fish paste

We really enjoyed the trip. Fascinating to see the village life which hasn't changed since the 8th century. This village is close to Rolous , where wevisited the local market. Rolous has been continuously occupied since the 8th century. Mind you it's only the temples which date it - these temples were built before the King moved the capital city to Angkor- as the houses are wooden shacks!

 

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Angkor Golf Resort

 

Cambodia isn't known for golf. There are only 6 or 7 courses in the country either near to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. They are all aimed at the travelling tourist as they are all resort courses.

The Angkor course opened in 2007 and I played it on Friday 14 December. A short tuk tuk ride to the course just out of Siem Reap. You get delivered to a buggy area just inside gates where buggies take you to the clubhouse. It's a fantastically luxurious clubhouse with its own Blue Pumpkin cafe ( we went in several Blue Pumpkins which are excellent ).

As you can see from the map above each hole on the course has water running along it. Sometimes not really in the eyeline, other times right in vision . The course is immaculately kept . Loads of green staff tidying , cutting, even sweeping up leaves on the grass! Fairways were incredibly well manicured and not the fluffy grass of Thailand. Fairway grass was quite short. No rough to speak of. Missing the fairways was never too bad except for being out of position and usually having to contend with some trees and huge bunkers.

 

First hole. Green up by the biggest tree. Bit daunting if you hit right to left on the first tee. And 400 yds so you don't get an easy start.

This is the 16th. Only hole I hit the ball in the water. And I did it by thinning a bunker shot from the green side into the water. Idiot.

These 2 ladies were sweeping up the leaves of the course and putting into those bags!

A typical approach shot. Greens were generally protected on all sides. If the water was close by then Faldo used water on 1 side and a bunker on the other. If not then bunkers both side.

My caddy crossing the bridge to 15. Long hole and having avoided water left side you had to hit over it and avoid the cavernous bunkers. As you can see by my caddy carrying the rake I hit it in the green side bunker.

Once agin I hide King Cobra hire clubs - regular shaft - and played ok. I hit a lot of fairways. The fairways were sandy and damp so not much carry on the ball. Iron shots let me down a bit but the course was 6,666 yds so a lot of 2nd shots were 170-200 yds having to negotiate green side water and bunkers. But I managed to hit 84 which was the top side of my target.

Cost $115 green fee, $33 caddy and buggy.

On my score the golf course gets an 8.0. I'll come and play again if we come back to Siem Reap.

Not sure about the economics though. Only 25 golfers played the day I did , 50 the day before. Faldo is designing a new course near to Phnom Penh as part of a $150m development which is not going to be in the reach of your average Cambodian for a while. Obviously someone thinks it works.

 

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Angkor Thom

A new museum has opened in Siem Reap since we were there. We went in 2007 and its well worth the visit. It is very modern and has some excellent displays to put the temples and building of the various temples into context. And it's pretty deserted too- sadly. Not many tourists go even though its on the way to the temples and a new shopping mall next to it has now shut

Angkor Thomas is another well known temple and the biggest collection of temples. It is surrounded by a 7.5 mile wall and moat and inside has a range of temples including Baphoun, Phimeanakas ( the royal temple that the King comes to pray at) the terrace of the elephants - another 300m long structure engraved with huge elephants on which the king stood to inspect his armies and address the people

It was all built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century and as with kings all over the world it was an attempt to build bigger and better than his predecessors. Which he did. And also used most of the nations resources doing it so it also signalled the start of the decline of the Khmer empire.

In his defence he was considered one of the greater kings as he spent money on buildings for his people - he built 100 or so shelters around the country for travellers to rest in . He also built 120 hospitals scattered around and staffed them to ensure his people got access to healthcare. But ultimately this version of the welfare state was too much spending...

All of the kings are called 'something.... varman '. so you only have to remember the first bit.

The most famous temple is the Bayon which has 54 large towers with 4 faces on each side. It is said that the faces are either Jayavarman or Buddha. The 54 represent the states in Cambodia at the time. As well as the faces there are galleries of bas reliefs depicting many scenes from everyday life and the battles again the bitter rival the Cham (Vietnamese)

One of the 200 or so faces

An inside view of some of the towers

 

Mr and Mrs in front of the temples. Both baked to a medium to low heat. And Ang is showing her legs!

 

 

 

 

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