Adventures with Adam and Emily: Day 1 Myanmar- Yangon

Just as a preface to my posts about Myanmar- it was a fascinating country to visit and I would highly recommend anyone take a visit out to Myanmar to learn about the country and the people. Although it is a controversial country to visit, I found the people of Myanmar to be very kind and hospitable and the country to be an incredibly interesting cultural experience. The U.S. has a large number of sanctions against Myanmar, including economic sanctions, which made travel in and around Myanmar very different from other trips we have made. As a result of the sanctions, credit cards are not usable in Myanmar and you won't find an ATM anywhere (everything is paid in cash and since there isn't a way to withdraw money, we had to be sure to bring enough US dollars from the bank to exchange in Myanmar). We were high rolling with a LOT of cash- an amount that I would never have dreamt to carry in Ecuador (and that I certainly couldn't have concealed in the soles of my shoes).

I am not sure how I feel about the sanctions/embargo because I understand the reasoning behind some of them, but I can say that it has isolated the country from a lot of the technological advances and trade opportunities that could really improve the living situation of the people in the country. Although it was "interesting" for me to feel like I had gone back in time to the 1980s, I felt that it was unfortunate for many of the people in Myanmar to not have access to the things that we take for granted. I have a lot more to learn about Myanmar before I can really form an opinion and honestly, before this trip, I knew very little about the country and US-Myanmar relations.

We flew out early in the morning from Bangkok and arrived in Yangon where we were immediately greeted by someone in the airport who asked if we needed transport. We were helped over to a van that took us to our hotel in Yangon. As all of you who have traveled with me before, I typically come with a detailed itinerary, contact information for all locations we will be visiting/hotels we are staying at/etc., and a list of possible activities to do in each location...this time...I came with NOTHING!!So in the end, we had a few issues with figuring out whether the travel agency I had contacted the day before had arranged our hotel booking, or if we had to pay the original booking price. Interestingly enough, in Myanmar it is always cheaper to book through an agency than directly with the hotel. We ended up paying the higher price because the agency was unable to switch our original booking so late in the game (a $25 difference and no breakfast at the higher rate!) but they had figured out our other hotel stays. There was also some confusion regarding where we were to meet the agency rep to pay them for the other hotels since credit cards aren't accepted but luckily it all worked out because they called the hotel and were able to get in touch with us! Andy had similar issues with getting our airplane tickets so there was a bit of stress that morning!

All was solved by lunch! We were able to exchange money at a nearby hotel (after aimlessly wandering in the Bogyoke Market) and then we headed to a random streetside teahouse for a bite to eat. Andy was skeptical but Shara and I just dug right in and even drank the milk tea. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that this teahouse caused Adam to get sick for a few days!

*Photo courtesy of Andy- Already Adam looks skeptical...should've been a sign!

It started to drizzle right before we were going to head to the Shwedagon Pagoda, so Adam and Tim ended up buying horrifically tacky umbrellas for inflated prices from some street vendors. Adam's was green with a gold handle- NICE! The Shwedagon Pagoda was really beautiful and we had a very interesting guide who took us around and explained the history of the pagoda, the different layers of the pagoda, and the things that make this pagoda particularly special (including 8 hairs of Buddha that is enshrined within). It was stunning to realize that it was actual gold on this pagoda, and not just metallic gold-colored paint. On top of that, there are thousands of diamonds and other precious stones, the largest being a 76 carat diamond at the top. Can you believe that? I have read that it is covered in almost 60 tons of gold leaf. I haven't read anywhere official that says that (only travel agency sites and the sort) but it very well could be true.

Tim & Shara with our Shwedagon Pagoda guide, who is wearing a longyi. Most men in Myanmar still wear the longyi, a sheet of cloth that is wrapped around and then knotted in the front or side. Throughout our trip, Andy and Tim were amused at the fact that men were constantly readjusting their longyi.

Our guide looked up our birthdates and told us what days of the week we were born. In the Myanmar Zodiac, there are 8 days of the week (Wednesday is split into two days) and Monday (the day I was born) is the day of the tiger. Around the pagoda are 8 stations for the days of the week and so each of us had the chance to do the ritual of pouring water over Buddha, guardian spirit and our animal.

Pouring water over my tiger...and yes, we were barefoot because when you enter pagodas or temples, you have to remove your shoes. We were barefoot probably for 1/4 of our trip!

Andy doing the washing ritual at his station (he was born on a Sunday so his animal was the garuda)

In Myanmar, it was common to see monks and nuns just about everywhere you went. And of course, it makes perfect sense to see them at a religious site. The Buddhist nuns wore very pretty pink robes. During our entire trip, we saw monks and nuns of all ages, including novice monks that are as young as 7. From what I understood (probably should research this more), almost all Burmese men are novice monks at some point in their boyhood (anywhere from a few weeks to months) and Burmese men often are temporary monks at some point in their adulthood (for example, one of our taxi drivers told us that he is a monk for a week each year during a certain religious festival). I didn't take a lot of pictures at the Shwedagon of the monks and nuns because it was hard to be discreet since we were seriously the only non-Myanmar people around!