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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