Gap Year Days 297 – 308
We landed in Myanmar after a long layover in Bangkok to find the slowest immigration counters we have experienced in this whole trip, possibly forever. We started chatting to the girl following us in line, who happened to be a British girl living in Myanmar. While we stood there in line, she gave us numerous tips about where to go and what to see.
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After ninety minutes we finally were all stamped and officially in Myanmar. We went straight off to do the first thing that our new friend recommended – we picked up a SIM card. It was really cheap, we had calls and 5GB of data for only 10500 kyats ($10.25AUD/7.90USD).
Armed with our SIM, we did the second thing recommended, we downloaded the Grab app. This is another ride-sharing app, like the more well-known Uber (in fact since our visit, Uber in South East Asia has been bought out by Grab, so they are now one and the same).
While we were in Yangon, we ended up using Grab to get everywhere, and it was so cheap. I was very thankful we took a stranger’s advice.
It was dark by the time we got to our accommodation in the Downtown area. This is an old, crowded area, and we were staying in a family-run hotel. It was okay, but small and in what could easily be considered a dodgy street.
We went out to grab some supplies and noticed the area was filled with street vendors, selling their wares on the pavements and streets. Chinese lanterns were being hung in long strings back and forwards across the street in preparation for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.
I saw one lady frying what, if I was in Australia, I would call witchetty grubs, but here I’m not sure what they were called. I was tempted to try one, but Simon hustled me away. I think he was afraid I’d make him try one too.
I don’t know a whole lot about Myanmar. I was gobsmacked when I learnt that Yangon has a population of about 6 million. Surely I had heard wrong? But no, that’s correct. How could I know so little about this city that is one of the biggest in South East Asia?
First thing the next morning we made our way to the Independence Monument to meet a walking tour. Or at least, we would have, had it been a Thursday or a Saturday, but that vital detail had been missed in our research. We would have to look around by ourselves.
So we spent the next hour walking aimlessly around the streets, ticking off the major historical buildings Google Maps showed us and trying to find information about them on the internet as we went.
Good information was scarce and we were soon melting in the hot sun, so retreated to the renowned Rangoon Tea House.
A coffee and a cake later, we were back out on the streets, this time making our way to the main Yangon railway station. We were going to spend the afternoon on the Yangon Circle train.
This is a local train that does a big, slow loop through the city and the surrounding countryside that makes up Yangon’s distant suburbs. The whole loop takes about three hours and is dirt cheap, at 200 kyat ($0.20AUD/$0.15USD)
I am sure you are wondering why, after spending many hours over the last few months on buses and trains and planes, we would want to spend yet another three hours on a train going, well, nowhere? Well, this train is a good way to get a snapshot of the whole city and the day to day life of many of the people. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly! Myanmar is an extremely poor country, and there is no way to ignore that on this train trip.
We saw a small amount of other tourists on the train, but mostly it was local people. It is becoming more popular with tourists though, and there are locals at the main station ready to take advantage of this.
A young girl who spoke English pointed us in the right direction to buy tickets, then wanted us to buy water from her friend. Luckily we had water already and could easily show her and say no.
Once on the train we wanted more water, and stopped a local seller coming down the aisle, and purchased the same bottle of water for 1/10th of what the girl was trying to get us to pay on the platform!
For dinner, we grabbed a Grab (Hahaha, just had to say that!) and went to a little restaurant recommended by our friend at the airport.
Wai Wai’s Place was located on the top floor of a bed and breakfast of the same name and serves local Burmese food, slightly dimmed down for the Western palate.
Here I tried the tea leaf salad, one of the foods I had been told I just had to try while here. It was, as I had been warned, quite oily and strong in flavour, so a small serve is enough, but it was delicious and fresh.
I also had avocado juice, which I love, but it was also so filling. It was hard work getting back down the seven flights of stairs to go home.
The following day we did very little until mid-afternoon when we made our way to the most popular attraction in Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda.
After all the temples only a few days ago in Thailand, I actually considered not going to see this temple. That would have been a mistake. Shwedagon is a whole other level of temple.
Its main stupa is huge, glowing gold in the sunlight. Around the base of it are hundreds more temples, stupas and all sorts of Buddhist monuments. Even the stairs into the pagoda are just awesome, but they do not prepare you for the top.
We ended up staying at the Shwedagon Pagoda until the sun went down, to see the colours change and the lights come on. Sunset is a popular time, and there were lots of other people here at the same time, tourists and locals alike.
I was seriously in awe of this place, and if there is one place in Myanmar you must visit, it has to be here.
We still had one more place we had to go before we moved on the next day, so dinner was of course at the Hard Rock Cafe! Here we saw another side of the city, modern, clean, upmarket. This city looks like it has many surprises if you care to look.
Our second stop in Myanmar was Bagan. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting – I mean, I’ve seen all those fantastic sunrise photos – but I was still surprised to get off the plane and immediately have to pay the entry fee to the archeological zone because, well, the whole place was the zone!
There are no fences here or entry gates, the pagodas are all around the area. We stayed in the Old Bagan area, and within 100 metres of our hotel was one of the huge pagodas.
There are just so many stupas and pagodas and temples here that if you were to try to see every one of them it would take weeks. I’m not even sure the exact amount, as I read online about two thousand, one local said four thousand and another just said “more, more!”.
We spent a lot of time walking around in the Old Bagan area, mostly in the mornings and evenings when it wasn’t too hot. We did hire a tuk tuk driver one day, and he took us to see the sunrise and then we spent the rest of the day seeing the largest pagodas that were not in walking distance.
Two earthquakes in the last 40 years have done a lot of damage to many of the pagodas in the area. The last was in late 2016, and there are still temples collapsing due to the damage – the latest one in March this year, just a couple of weeks after our visit.
This means that many of the temples are covered in scaffolding as preservation work is done to try to maintain them. Some of the larger pagodas also have photographic displays showing the damage and indicating where repair work has been done. It seems to be a race against time now for many of the pagodas sadly.
From Bagan we flew to Inle Lake – or more precisely, flew to He Hoe Airport, then got a ridiculously expensive taxi to where we were staying. After the prices we had paid in Yangon and Bagan, it was over the top here. These taxi drivers know there is little choice, and charge accordingly!
After we picked our jaw off the ground at the price (it was $40USD) we started to ask around some of the other tourists and found another couple to share with us, which made it a little better.
We arrived at our accommodation and I was – well, surprised! In a good way. It was a very nice resort! When I questioned Simon about it (he had booked it) he said “Well, you said you wanted something on the lake”.
That’s true, I did. I didn’t think that meant we had to have a full-on resort! I am the budget traveller of the two of us, Simon, given a choice, prefers luxury.
Apart from the price, the main issue was that we were 9km out of town, and had no facilities close. Breakfast was included, but our options for other meals were very limited – it was either the resort or catching another expensive taxi into town.
Oh well, the views over the lake were stunning, and it really was a lovely place to stay!
We booked a full-day boat tour of Inle Lake and the surrounding area. It was just us and our guide in a long narrow boat for the day. We were picked up from the dock right out front of our resort at about 7:30 am.
We had chosen the early hour because we wanted to visit the local markets on the other side of the lake. By late morning they are all packed up! Every day had been hot and steamy, so the coolness of the morning as we motored along quite quickly on the lake was a bit surprising.
As we crossed the lake we saw the famed fishermen who use their feet to paddle while throwing out the nets.
Our driver (for want of a better word!) slowed down and did a close loop around one of the fishermen so we could have a look, but he didn’t look all that pleased about the scrutiny so I felt a bit weird taking too many photos.
Suffice it to say I have no idea how these guys balance on their boats, steer, paddle and fish all at the same time. I would be in the water for sure.
Some of the farming areas on the lake were ingenious. The farmers have created floating beds of reeds etc over the years and on these they grow all sorts of vegetables. We saw many people in boats going up and down the rows tending their crops.
After almost an hour of crossing the lake, we arrived at our first stop, the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda and the adjoining local markets.
This pagoda was not the most beautiful we had seen by far, but it was the first time we had seen the local men (women not allowed) approaching the centre statue and covering it with gold leaf. This is a common good luck offering in Myanmar.
We couldn’t really see what was going on, but there were tv screens around to help out with that – I am guessing that’s so the women are able to watch the men of the family applying the gold leaf.
Next door was the market. This was possibly my favourite market in the whole of Myanmar, maybe even South East Asia. It was not full of souvenirs and tourists, but was a true local market. We only saw two other tourists the whole time we were there!
I would have loved a guide to explain some of the food, because some things were truely unique and we had no idea what they were. For a few cents we tried some local snacks that were almost like doughnuts, but had a much sweeter, sticky topping.
Throughout the day we visited various local businesses and workshops. Everything from goldsmiths, to lotus weaving and cigar making. My favourites were the lotus weaving and the cigar making, for very different reasons.
The process of turning lotus plants into lovely items such as scarves and other clothes is very labour-intensive. The strands are pulled out of the plants by hand, just a few at a time before being woven into a strong and durable thread. I was fascinated.
I was set to buy myself a scarf (I seem to be building a collection of scarves!) but when I saw the price of $150USD I couldn’t fit it within our budget. The scarves take days to make just one, so I see why they are so expensive.
The cigar making process was literally a few women sitting on the floor in a small building with baskets on their laps, happily chatting while they rolled traditional banana leaf cigars. The young girl who showed us the process was eloquent and interesting.
We chatted for a few minutes longer about all sorts of things and enjoyed our visit. Despite our assurance that we did not smoke, she still sent us off with one of each of the flavours of cigars for free, which we later gave to one of our drivers.
After lunch in a local restaurant, we visited another pagoda, Shwe Inn Dein. Again, the actual temple part was not all that impressive, but this one was memorable for the sheer number of stupas around the outside.
There were hundreds, possibly thousands of stupas. Some were clearly very old, others had only been in place for a year or two. They ranged from traditional stone stupas like the ones found in Bagan, to gleaming silver, white and gold. Even if you are all templed out, this one is worth a visit.
We began to make our way back to our side of the lake, but we went the long way, meandering through some waterways only as wide as our boat, others were wider and busier, like highways for locals and tourists alike.
While there were a lot of tourist boats, they only have two, or maybe four, people in each, so at the stops, it doesn’t feel crowded. I loved that it is still very much a local, rural area, and hasn’t yet changed into a sanitised version of itself to cater for the mighty tourism dollar.
At one of our stops, we had to literally step over a local woman bathing in the river to get back onto our boat, and we often saw people washing clothes, bathing themselves or their animals and generally going about their daily lives.
We passed through a floating village which was eye-opening. These houses were completely cut off by water, and a boat was needed to go even next door.
We saw kids as young as around five years old paddling around in their little boats, and I guess if that’s the only way they can be outside, they learn to do it young.
I loved seeing the local post office with its floating post box tied up out the front. And getting fuel for our boat meant pulling up to a floating platform in the middle of the lake.