Flew out from Mandalay to Bangkok on Saturday around lunchtime. Got talking to a Filo girl sitting next to me on the plane who had been working as a teacher in Mandalay. Her name was Monette, and we decided to hit up MBK Centre upon arrival at Bangkok for late lunch.
All was fairly uneventful - had udon noodles for lunch and Monette was trying to look for a particular shop from her last visit and I was trying to balance my 10kg backpack, plus 5kg day pack while hobbling along. Being a packed shopping centre, I bumped many people along the way.
When it came to catch a taxi, we departed ways at the taxi rank. Being a taxi rank, I figured it would be legit. Basically I asked several times for the meter to be put on, only to have a flat fare of 400baht thrown at me. I had a sense that something wasn't right but since the taxi was already moving, plus I had 2 bags and a bung ankle, I gave up and just went with it. If I had a good ankle, I would done a runner at a traffic light at the earliest opportunity.
Upon arriving at the hotel after the 'one hour, traffic ridden' trip - it was 20 minutes - I threw the money at him, called him a f*&^king cheat and liar, then spat at the taxi. I'm pretty sure he didn't care. If I see the dodgy MOFO again, I will punch him.
Upon reading the Lonely Planet guide and other online forums, never trust anyone who charges a flat fare. It's usually about 3 times as much.
The hotel staff were very appalled and sympathetic and informed me that the trip would've been 180 baht max. Anyway, lesson learnt.
Since it was about 6:30pm by this time, I just stayed in my room to email, Skype, eat my coconut and sugar filled buns I'd bought and catch up on more sleep.
Saturday 20 September 2014
Mandalay - Final Day
After a whirlwind tour of Bagan, I was back on the 9:30pm overnight bus to Mandalay. Luckily it was a coach and not a mini bus, so I managed to sleep for 2 hrs. I would've slept longer if the bus didn't keep stopping for noisy breaks next to markets and if the lights were turned off.
I arrived to Mandalay at 2:30am, back at the hotel by 3:10am at the cost of 4000kyats by motorbike (USD4 - this is a rip off compared to normal rates!). I pottered around with laundry, cold shower and emails so wasn't asleep till about 4:30am.
I was awoken by a message at 8am from Chen (the Chinese guy I met on the plane to Yangon) - he and Ryan had arrived to Mandalay the night before. We agreed to meet at 10am at the Royal Palace as they had not seen it yet.
The day spent with them was fairly uneventful but nice to have the company. We walked around the palace for about 90 minutes, then decided to have lunch. Lunch was another 45 minute walk away, so we saved ourselves the ridiculous taxi fare of 5000 kyats (USD5) for 5 minute drive.
Too Too restaurant had traditional Burmese food, which the guys were happy with. They had been raving on about the awesome, delicious 10 dish meal in Bagan which cost 2500 kyat (USD2.50), so I was intrigued to see it. Unfortunately Mandalay is considered a city and cities are usually not as generous with food servings as their rural counterparts. Chen and Ryan were disappointed to see only 5 side dishes, along with the main. The ladies did keep topping up the dishes whenever we finished, so that made up for it... a little. Lunch was 3000kyat (USD3), which was reasonable.
We departed ways afterwards around 3:30pm; they were catching the 6:30pm bus to Inle Lake (which I was very jealous of) and I was going to have an early night to recover on 2 nights worth of sleep and pack my bags.
I had a nightcap later that night (one free cocktail during happy hour), let the Myanmar waiter talk to me for about 30 minutes to practice his English, then was sound asleep.
I arrived to Mandalay at 2:30am, back at the hotel by 3:10am at the cost of 4000kyats by motorbike (USD4 - this is a rip off compared to normal rates!). I pottered around with laundry, cold shower and emails so wasn't asleep till about 4:30am.
I was awoken by a message at 8am from Chen (the Chinese guy I met on the plane to Yangon) - he and Ryan had arrived to Mandalay the night before. We agreed to meet at 10am at the Royal Palace as they had not seen it yet.
The day spent with them was fairly uneventful but nice to have the company. We walked around the palace for about 90 minutes, then decided to have lunch. Lunch was another 45 minute walk away, so we saved ourselves the ridiculous taxi fare of 5000 kyats (USD5) for 5 minute drive.
Too Too restaurant had traditional Burmese food, which the guys were happy with. They had been raving on about the awesome, delicious 10 dish meal in Bagan which cost 2500 kyat (USD2.50), so I was intrigued to see it. Unfortunately Mandalay is considered a city and cities are usually not as generous with food servings as their rural counterparts. Chen and Ryan were disappointed to see only 5 side dishes, along with the main. The ladies did keep topping up the dishes whenever we finished, so that made up for it... a little. Lunch was 3000kyat (USD3), which was reasonable.
We departed ways afterwards around 3:30pm; they were catching the 6:30pm bus to Inle Lake (which I was very jealous of) and I was going to have an early night to recover on 2 nights worth of sleep and pack my bags.
I had a nightcap later that night (one free cocktail during happy hour), let the Myanmar waiter talk to me for about 30 minutes to practice his English, then was sound asleep.
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| Chen's Polaroid shots - at Royal Palace in Mandalay |
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| At Too Too restaurant.... the lady is not a born photographer |
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| Infiltrating developing countries with giant billboards |
Bagan - The Quiet Life
Bagan. Definite highlight of the trip, along with Angkor Wat. Best part of the Myanmar leg of this holiday. The sheer amount of pagodas (general term covering both stupas and temples) don't even hit you until you are on top of one such monument and look over the countryside around you. They are everywhere!
My tour guide Zaw is in his mid-20s, plus spoke great English. He was very knowledgeable about each pagoda and made the entire day really interesting. I wasn't pagoda'd out by the end of it! It may have also helped that I had a half hour nap inside one of the temples after lunch. It was so warm and I had at most one hour of sleep in 30 hrs, so that gave me the pick-me-up to continue. I was drooling as well, so I must have needed it.
The first pagoda visited for the sunrise was a peaceful affair. Zaw had taken me to a smaller, lesser known pagoda, but it had great views for photography. In the distance, there were people clambering over the tallest temple for the sunrise. Zaw explained that beyond that tall temple, there aren't as many pagodas in the foreground to take nice photos. Plus I had a whole temple to myself, which made the experience quite intimate and peaceful.
Many of the pagodas are made from brick produced down south (near Yangon). Considering that Bagan is more than a few 100km north, it seems quite a feat to transport so much brick. The brick laying showed that there was not much mortar holding the structure together, yet it felt quite solid.
Many of the pagodas range between 11th to 17th century, with majority of the pagodas within the 11 - 13th century. This was due to the reigning king feeling at peace after speaking to a Buddhist monk; afterwards, he decided to convert the entire country from Hinduism to Buddhism. To have a legit tribute to Buddhism, a pagoda needs to have a relic of Buddha inside. A relic could be a piece of hair, piece of his cloth from his robe, toe nails, etc. The king in the Mon (?) state down south did not comply with providing the other king some Buddha relics, so Mon state king was invaded and relics taken by force. This also allowed winner king (I forgot his name) to also take charge of all the artisans, craftspeople and manual labour to create the numerous pagodas.
The paintings inside the pagodas are pretty cool and reflect the changing times, i.e. shift from Hinduism to Buddhism around 11th century with flat, 2D drawings, with Chinese influence and '3D' features shown in the 17th century.
Pagodas (stupas and temples) weren't exclusively for the reigning king/queen or rich to build. Ordinary villagers could also build their own monuments to Buddhism, provided they could get the brick and manpower.
If you notice that there is an Old Bagan and New Bagan, it started in the late 90s (1999 I think). People lived and farmed side by side to the pagodas for centuries. However, the government wanted to scrub up the area to make it UNESCO friendly, so the villagers were relocated to an area created called New Bagan, which is sad for the villagers.
In total I visited:
Booking a tour guide and driver was well worth the USD I'd set aside for this part of the trip. It had cost USD80, but this is from 5am pick up to catch the sunrise over Bagan until 7pm, when they both kindly waited for me to eat dinner and drop me off at the bus station. I would highly recommend a tour guide for Bagan since there are so many pagodas, you wouldn't know which one to start with first. It also made the experience much more interesting since the guide covered cultural, architectural, religious, historical and general information about the pagodas we visited. The above is basically what is covered in a 2 day tour as well, but I did not feel rushed at all. Also Zaw was happy to tell anecdotes about his village life, which added to understanding the Myanmar culture and lifestyle.
If anyone is going to Bagan, I would highly recommend Zaw. I had originally emailed Thein Than (who is recommended on Tripadvisor) but he was busy. Fair enough since I emailed at 1pm the day before going to Bagan. Instead he recommended Zaw and it is a recommendation that I wholeheartedly endorse :)
The cheap alternative is an e-bike (electric bike) and a map - at USD8, you can't go wrong either! I felt sorry for all the bike riders who got caught in the late arvo downpour though!
TOILET ALERT: I used the squat toilet several times! Most temples don't have Western toilets, so I had to learn fast as I ate something that didn't quite agree with me. I finally did it - albeit really slowly because the sprained ankle means that I'm not balanced :\
My tour guide Zaw is in his mid-20s, plus spoke great English. He was very knowledgeable about each pagoda and made the entire day really interesting. I wasn't pagoda'd out by the end of it! It may have also helped that I had a half hour nap inside one of the temples after lunch. It was so warm and I had at most one hour of sleep in 30 hrs, so that gave me the pick-me-up to continue. I was drooling as well, so I must have needed it.
The first pagoda visited for the sunrise was a peaceful affair. Zaw had taken me to a smaller, lesser known pagoda, but it had great views for photography. In the distance, there were people clambering over the tallest temple for the sunrise. Zaw explained that beyond that tall temple, there aren't as many pagodas in the foreground to take nice photos. Plus I had a whole temple to myself, which made the experience quite intimate and peaceful.
Many of the pagodas are made from brick produced down south (near Yangon). Considering that Bagan is more than a few 100km north, it seems quite a feat to transport so much brick. The brick laying showed that there was not much mortar holding the structure together, yet it felt quite solid.
Many of the pagodas range between 11th to 17th century, with majority of the pagodas within the 11 - 13th century. This was due to the reigning king feeling at peace after speaking to a Buddhist monk; afterwards, he decided to convert the entire country from Hinduism to Buddhism. To have a legit tribute to Buddhism, a pagoda needs to have a relic of Buddha inside. A relic could be a piece of hair, piece of his cloth from his robe, toe nails, etc. The king in the Mon (?) state down south did not comply with providing the other king some Buddha relics, so Mon state king was invaded and relics taken by force. This also allowed winner king (I forgot his name) to also take charge of all the artisans, craftspeople and manual labour to create the numerous pagodas.
The paintings inside the pagodas are pretty cool and reflect the changing times, i.e. shift from Hinduism to Buddhism around 11th century with flat, 2D drawings, with Chinese influence and '3D' features shown in the 17th century.
Pagodas (stupas and temples) weren't exclusively for the reigning king/queen or rich to build. Ordinary villagers could also build their own monuments to Buddhism, provided they could get the brick and manpower.
If you notice that there is an Old Bagan and New Bagan, it started in the late 90s (1999 I think). People lived and farmed side by side to the pagodas for centuries. However, the government wanted to scrub up the area to make it UNESCO friendly, so the villagers were relocated to an area created called New Bagan, which is sad for the villagers.
In total I visited:
- 15 pagodas including Shwe zi gone pagoda, Gubyaukgyi, Htilominlo, Ananda temple, Shwe San Daw pagoda, Sulamari, Dhammayangyi and Manuha
- Lacquerware workshop - the process was more intensive than I thought!
- Soy bean paste factory - this is Myanmar's most popular soy bean paste. It is also exported worldwide. When you see the 'factory', you wonder how on earth they manage to supply since the process is very manual and slow
- Local markets off Nyaung U-kyauk Padaung Rd - I was shown the village market and explained what many of the items were. One item I thought was cheese was actually soap! I also ate mohinga with Zaw (local Myanmar breakfast) for 200kyat - that's 20c!
- The Moon restaurant for lunch - awesome vegetarian restaurant with a great dragonfruit, mint, ginger and apple juice
- Irrawaddy River - went to see the river just before sunset. Apparently the Irrawaddy dolphin that is found only in 2 places in the world - the Irrawaddy river and Samoa
Booking a tour guide and driver was well worth the USD I'd set aside for this part of the trip. It had cost USD80, but this is from 5am pick up to catch the sunrise over Bagan until 7pm, when they both kindly waited for me to eat dinner and drop me off at the bus station. I would highly recommend a tour guide for Bagan since there are so many pagodas, you wouldn't know which one to start with first. It also made the experience much more interesting since the guide covered cultural, architectural, religious, historical and general information about the pagodas we visited. The above is basically what is covered in a 2 day tour as well, but I did not feel rushed at all. Also Zaw was happy to tell anecdotes about his village life, which added to understanding the Myanmar culture and lifestyle.
If anyone is going to Bagan, I would highly recommend Zaw. I had originally emailed Thein Than (who is recommended on Tripadvisor) but he was busy. Fair enough since I emailed at 1pm the day before going to Bagan. Instead he recommended Zaw and it is a recommendation that I wholeheartedly endorse :)
The cheap alternative is an e-bike (electric bike) and a map - at USD8, you can't go wrong either! I felt sorry for all the bike riders who got caught in the late arvo downpour though!
TOILET ALERT: I used the squat toilet several times! Most temples don't have Western toilets, so I had to learn fast as I ate something that didn't quite agree with me. I finally did it - albeit really slowly because the sprained ankle means that I'm not balanced :\
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| First light... 5:20am |
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| Sun is up a bit higher... This is probably about 6:00am now |
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| Unilever infiltrating developing countries. Even Myanmar people know that 1 in 4 people have a Unilever product! |
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| Soy bean paste 'factory'... first heat the soy beans in water so all the good stuff like nutrients come out |
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| Discard the beans and cool/re-heat/repeat until you get a thick paste |
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| This the soy bean paste packing process - yep, these guys scoop the paste into sachets and seal for distribution |
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| I can't remember what this temple is called but it the biggest one in Bagan |
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| Colourful tiles donated by Belgium |
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| No one knows where these guys came from but they're really old. Note the Mayan influence in Buddha's faces |
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| I forgot this temple's name but this is where a German archaeologist got a bit saw-happy in the 19th century and cut of slabs of paintings for his own collection |
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| These guys knew how to earthquake-proof their building in the 11th century. Note the vertical bricks to add strength to the structure |
The |
| Does this need a caption? |
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| This painting is on cloth. I'm amazed it's lasted so many centuries |
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| The German archaeologist had the gall to leave his signature in another temple. Fool. |
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| Forgot the name of this temple, but this is the most beautiful temple out of the 3500+ pagodas in Bagan. Note the restoration effort - clean on the right, still undergoing restoration on the left hand side (black walls) |
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| This Buddha is small in comparison to a lot of other ones I've seen |
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| City gates of Bagan. They are protected by a brother and sister spirit, whose alcoves are located on the left and right of the road |
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| Lacquerware process. Yes I realise there is a bottle in the way. Sorry. |
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| Physical samples of the lacquerware process. It's darn labour intensive |
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| Drying cell for the lacquerware |
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| One out of many things you can make out of bamboo and wood! |
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| Treasures would often be hidden in either Buddha's head or tummy. This is why this Buddha is missing his tummy - looters got to him. |
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| An example of Chinese influence via painting in the 17th century |
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| Temple which showed a good example of the Chinese influence (inside) |
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| Irrawaddy River. There is a dolphin found here native to this river and Samoa. |
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| At the top of the tallest pagoda in the area, waiting for the sunset (or rain) |
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| The Thai girls who let me crash at their hotel at 2:30am :) Thanks again! |
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| Zaw and I |
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Mandalay - Day 2
After the previous day, I was wondering how I could top it off. I hired a driver for USD30 to take me to some of the outer sights of Mandalay. The tour consisted of:
With all that out of the way by 12:30pm, I decided how to make tracks to Bagan. I ended up on the Shwe Man Thu 9:30pm bus, which as supposed to be the best way to Bagan. I did not sleep a wink as the bus driver was doing 70km/hr down dirt, bumpy roads. There was heavy braking at some points in which I saw he had almost missed a freaking gouge hole. The hole would've sit a hippo inside quite comfortably.
At 2:10am, the bus stopped and the driver told us to get out since the next bus station was about 17km out of Bagan, whereas this one was only 5km. I had made friends with a young Chilean couple who were just as confused and disorientated as me. We hopped of the bus and into a truck, which then dispersed us to lodgings (booked or unhooked). The stupid driver was going to leave me at an open, dirty, dark bus station where it looked pretty darn unsafe at 2:30am. A Thai group of 3 girls were also on the bus and said I could go back to their hotel and wait in the lobby. It turns out that they are super organised because they had just opened their own travel agency, so were doing a recon holiday. I happily accepted their offer, which leads us to now.
It's now 4:30am and my tour guide/driver is to pick me up at Kaday Aung Hotel at 5am. I hope he finds me...
- Mahina something Buddha
- Supposed to be something special about this Buddha. There were guys touching a gold leaf covered Buddha since women aren't allowed up close and personal with him
- Wood carving workshop
- Added in as a freebie since I spent all of 15 minutes in the previous place. It was interesting to see the craftsman just going at the wood and seeing what they had already achieved on the same piece of wood. There were also embroiderers in the workshop to make costumes fro wooden puppets and cushion covers. My eyes were hurting just watching how precise they were
- Something Monastery
- Have you ever seen 1500 monks ranging from young to old wait in lines of 2 (like the French cartoon Madeline) with bowls for their daily meal? If not, I have and it takes a freaking long time for the procession to end. The monks eat only once a day, which is usually a bowl of rice. I don't get why they carry such big alm bowls if they can't eat it all but anyway. Maybe it's symbolic or something.
- Silk weaving workshop
- Very manual and labour intensive. I can see how this could ruin your eyes, along with embroidery. I ended up buying a longyi for freaking USD20. I better wear it.
- U Bein Bridge
- 150 year wooden (teak?) bridge which is around 1.6km from memory. I walked about 1.3km since the other side didn't look so great. It is rickety as hell, especially when you have groups of old, larger European tourists walking on them at the same time. Interesting to see the fisherman standing in the water fishing and the rubbish floating alongside them. Very pleasant.
- Gold Leaf making workshop
- Again very manual and labour intensive. It takes about 20+ hours to make a small piece of gold leaf about 5cm x 5cm. The Buddha in the photo (uploaded soon) needed 1000 gold leafs to cover him. F*&k. No wonder people are employed over there. With the amount of pagoda building and craftsmanship required, there's no job shortage if you can make gold leaf or carve ornate figureheads in roofs.
With all that out of the way by 12:30pm, I decided how to make tracks to Bagan. I ended up on the Shwe Man Thu 9:30pm bus, which as supposed to be the best way to Bagan. I did not sleep a wink as the bus driver was doing 70km/hr down dirt, bumpy roads. There was heavy braking at some points in which I saw he had almost missed a freaking gouge hole. The hole would've sit a hippo inside quite comfortably.
At 2:10am, the bus stopped and the driver told us to get out since the next bus station was about 17km out of Bagan, whereas this one was only 5km. I had made friends with a young Chilean couple who were just as confused and disorientated as me. We hopped of the bus and into a truck, which then dispersed us to lodgings (booked or unhooked). The stupid driver was going to leave me at an open, dirty, dark bus station where it looked pretty darn unsafe at 2:30am. A Thai group of 3 girls were also on the bus and said I could go back to their hotel and wait in the lobby. It turns out that they are super organised because they had just opened their own travel agency, so were doing a recon holiday. I happily accepted their offer, which leads us to now.
It's now 4:30am and my tour guide/driver is to pick me up at Kaday Aung Hotel at 5am. I hope he finds me...
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| Wood carvers working on a piece |
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| Lots of wooden Buddhas to go around |
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| Embroidery workshop next door to the wood carving workshop |
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| Dogs taking a nap at a monastery construction site |
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| Lining up for the 1500+ monk procession |
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| I'd be solemn too if my only meal was rice at 10:30am everyday |
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| Stragglers |
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| U Bein Bridge |
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| That's fisherman in the water... no fishing rod for them! |
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| Bridge delicacies... looked intriguing but in the interest of my stomach, I decided against it |
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| Silk weaving workshop - hard work on the eyes |
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| Gold leaf making process |
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| This Buddha took over 1000 gold leafs to coat |
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| These guys bang away at the gold (which is wrapped in a thick book) for 2 x 5 - 6 hr sessions to get it to the right thickness |
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