Day 3 Myanmar- Bagan (Mount Popa)

Our third day in Myanmar started out bright and early. We got up at 5:15am to see the sunrise- it turns out the sun doesn't rise until about 5:45am but we were able to sit out on top of a building and enjoy the views as the morning light spread across Bagan. The sunrise was totally gorgeous. After having breakfast, we headed out to Mount Popa. Adam, unfortunately, was feeling pretty sick so he stayed behind.

On our way to Mount Popa, we stopped along the way to meet some local people in Bagan and see some of the local products and work that people in the area do. First, we learned about how they extracted peanut oil by grinding the peanuts down.

Note the container on the bottom right- that is where the peanut oil drips down

All of us had a chance to hop on and give it a try. I found it hard to stay balanced, but Andy & Tim were pros!

All around us was work being done. People climbing the palm trees to get palm fruit juice, others cutting down wood and palm fronds to build sheds, etc.

We also saw how they made sugar from the palm juice (heating it up and then mixing/cooling it down)

Once it cooled down, the women  rolled them into small pieces that were used for cooking and eating. Notice the woman above with the thanaka paste on her face.

After seeing how they created/made some of the local products, they treated us to some local snacks that were very popular. Fruits, nuts, seeds, and pickled vegetables.

After that, we continued on our way toward Mount Popa. The vehicle we were in was starting to overheat so we pulled over on the side of the road to give it a rest (almost all vehicles in Myanmar are quite old so it was no surprise). While we stopped, we walked around the neighborhood and came across some kids that were excited (and surprised!) to see us. They had fun running alongside us, shyly peeking out at us, and running away from Tim who tickled them.

This guy was so fascinated by Tim, running up to him and then running off when Tim looked at him!

Finally when it was ready to head out, the guys needed to give it a push to get it going!

Our guide, Tim and Andy pushing the van along.

As we neared Mount Popa, we could see the temple towering above. It was a really neat sight to see from afar.  We kept lamenting about how it was a bummer that Adam was missing out on this trip because it was so neat!

To get to the top of the temple, we had to climb 777 steps up to the top, avoiding monkey poop and pee all along the way. We had to remove our shoes before climbing, so suffice it to say that our socks were NASTY when we returned from the top. We were warned that the monkeys would steal anything that wasn't securely attached to you (sunglasses, hats, cameras) so I was extra careful with my things. Shara had her water bottle stoled right from out of her hands. She felt her water bottle get heavy and by the time she looked down, the monkey had wrenched it from her and had run off with it (biting his sharp teeth into the bottle and chugging the water!).

A lot of the female monkeys were nursing babies

A monkey enjoying a stolen treat

Awesome views from the top of Mount Popa

We also met women who were selling a variety of items used for medicinal purposes. This woman was selling some pieces of petrified wood

We arrived back at the hotel for lunch and found Adam still feeling sick. We rested up in the hotel until the power went out... it became incredibly hot in the room! We decided to head out into the town since Tim & Shara were interested in picking up a lacquerware pot. We also did a quick photoshoot where the men tried out their longyis they bought.

Tim and Andy in their skirts (longyis)

Adam trying on Tim's longyi...he needed a bit of help from Andy!

 Afterwards we decided to try out a restaurant called the Green Elephant that was recommended in a guidebook. On the walk there, we met a young man who leads bike tours for tourists from Bagan to Inle Lake. He got to talking with us and recommended that we visit a pagoda that was along the river. He ended up hanging out with us for a good part of the evening, sharing a lot of interesting facts and stories with us.

Riverside view- fishing boats and sandy beach

The pagoda along the river

Watching the sun begin to set behind the clouds

We mentioned to our new friend that Adam wasn't feeling very well and had some kind of stomach bug probably from food. He told us that the perfect solution was a ginger tea- sliced ginger, the juice from two limes, two spoonfuls of honey, and boiling water. He offered to make some of the tea for Adam at his home and bring it by to us at the restaurant. He took off on his bike and said he would meet us at the Green Elephant.

We headed toward where we thought the Green Elephant was...and major confusion ensued. It was incredibly hilarious, with us asking several people along the way...most of who spoke no English so would run and get a friend of a friend who might know English. We were pointed every which way, attracted a large crowd, and had a good laugh. We were worried about finding our new friend with the tea (Tim was sure he wasn't going to come back and was so shocked when he reappeared with the tea!) but he was able to find us. When he found us, he laughed and said it wouldn't be hard to find a group of tourists in Bagan during low season!

Adam holding up his ginger tea

We ended up at a restaurant (not the Green Elephant) that was situated along the river but was pretty expensive! We stayed for a little bit at the restaurant to chat and snack before we headed back to the hotel for a more filling and economical dinner option!

View of the pagoda along the riverside, all lit up and beautifully gold in the night sky!

Day 2 Myanmar- Bagan

Early the next morning we flew out to Bagan, a famous ancient city where the landscape is dotted with thousands of stupas/pagodas/temples (someone explained that stupas have no entrance, whereas pagodas and temples do...not sure how accurate that is). Some of the buildings are from the 11th century, but several of them are brand new or were in the process of being built.

We were flying a new airline called Asian Wings Airways and weren't sure what to expect. At the airport they gave us stickers that we had to wear indicating which of the airlines we were traveling on. We weren't sure how it would be, but it was just fine (a little loud as it was a prop plane) and they even served us a little breakfast. We arrived at our hotel without any problems and were impressed with the amazing views of the stupas that we had right form our hotel. There was a wedding party going on when we arrived, which was neat to see.

Relief from Andy to see that our plane wasn't some duct taped mess!

The wedding car!

After dropping off our things in the room, we immediately decided that we would take horsecarts to see the stupas and temples as that was the easiest way to get around and up close. We ended up taking 2 horsecarts  because jamming the 5 of us into one would have been near impossible! We spent the entire morning (almost 5 hours!) traveling around Bagan by horsecart. We were hit with one stunning view after another. We saw interesting frescoes, many images of Buddha, entered several temples and pagodas, saw teak doors that were hundreds of years old, climbed up to the top of some of the pagodas to witness amazing views of the landscape (albeit while practically burning the soles of my feet! walking on the hot bricks was like walking over coals!).

View of a temple from afar

Tim making some friends

View from atop the pagoda...pretty sure I was doing the "ouch hot hot hot" dance while taking this photo!

A cute little boy that I was playing peekaboo with before he ran off pretending he was a plane. In Myanmar, women and children wear a paste made of wood/bark/roots from a tree (thanaka) on their face to protect them from the sun and also as a form of makeup. Some women made designs out of the paste (such as leaves).

Woman selling mangos and other goods outside of the temple

During the ride we passed by farms where we saw farmers using the old style of plowing. I don't think we passed a single farm that had any kind of machinery.

 Tim and Shara politely admiring the artwork

Inside the Ananda temple- this is the south facing Buddha. Something interesting about this is that from up close, Buddha looks very serious and sad but as you step further away, his mouth turns into a smile. Andy has a video of this so perhaps I can get that up on the blog. You can see in the photo below that Buddha appears to be smiling.

Perspective so you can see how big it was.

Us with our horsecart driver

Afterwards we had a late lunch at the hotel before taking naps in the room. Andy, Shara and Tim decided to take the horsecart back out again to visit some of the pagodas we missed and to catch the sunset from on top of one of the pagodas. At this point, Adam began to feel more sick (he wasn't feeling well for most of the morning) so I decided to stay back at the hotel with him and just catch the sunset from on top of one of the buildings nearby.

Adam ended up taking a dip in the pool to try and feel better. I think it helped a little bit! The views just from sitting at the hotel were great and we ended up catching a very nice sunset. The only thing that detracted from the sunset was a few men that followed us up top of the building because they were trying to sell us their paintings. They were very nice (asking about our travels, etc.) but finally came out and told us that they were painters and could sell some of their work to us. In addition, there was an older gentleman that we had seen earlier in the morning at one of the sites who also tried to sell us some of his work. He ended up following us back to the hotel and appeared at sunset to see if we wanted to buy something. I don't blame them stalking us since it was low season and I really didn't see hardly any other travelers.

The sun was a beautiful blazing red color as it set

For dinner, we decided to give a Lonely Planet recommendation a try. We headed out to an Indian Restaurant and it turned out to be very good, very filling and with phenomenal service and nice ambiance. Everything from their mango lassi to their naan to the curries were good. Even Adam, who was a bit under the weather, filled up!

Lots of dipping sauces, including mango chutney

Seriously it was a feast. We had soup, bread, rice, curries, appetizers, etc. etc.

And clearly, with all that food in our bellies we were sufficiently tuckered out so we went to bed right away (plus we were waking up at 5am for the sunrise!).

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!

And of course, traveling as a group of 5 people means we did a lot of squeezing together into taxis.