I'm going to start this post off with a very bold statement: Myanmar is the most special place I have ever visited. It's like the Land Before Time, only without Littlefoot, Ducky, and all their dino friends. Since I could write volumes about how amazing our weekend was, I'll go the picture-is-worth-a-thousand words route here so I don't risk boring you with my amateur prose. However, here's a glossary of a few key terms to set the tone:
Myanmar: Burma
Yangon: Rangoon (perhaps the namesake of the delicious snack “crab Rangoon”, however, no evidence exists to support this claim)
Betel nut: the chewable seed of the Areca palm tree, which acts as a mild stimulant. Also results in blood-red stained teeth, which you will notice immediately when any middle-aged man or elderly woman gives you a big gap-toothed grin (this happens often).
Longyi: sheet of cloth worn around the waist, similar to a sarong or long skirt. Burmese men, and women alike, wear these. So do Joe Delgado, Ahmad Zakaria, and Ross Clements.
Stupa: the oldest Buddhist religious monument, typically built to cover relics of the Buddha. Many stupas in Myanmar have tall spires at the crown, and are adorned in gold and/or jewels.
Mothballs: the pervasive smell throughout all of Myanmar. We never quite figured this out.
Thanakha: part of traditional (and modern) Myanmar dress, this tree bark paste is painted on the face as a ubiquitous cosmetic, sunscreen, and moisturizer.
Milk tea: a highly caffeinated, very sweet tea made from black tea, condensed milk and sugar. Ahmad can typically be seen drinking this at all hours of the day and night.
Shan State: the largest administrative division in Mynanmar, this part of the country is famous for its culture and ethnic peoples. Also famous for its heavily-armed ethnic armies. And its noodles.
Chit-tey, la-de: “I love you, beautiful” in Burmese. Used frequently by my traveling companions.
2010: the first “free and fair” general election in Myanmar according to the new constitution adopted in 2008.
2013: the year Myanmar will officially open its doors and embrace Western tourism. What this means: go now. Trust me.
And now for the highlights reel...
Sights
Shwedagon Pagoda: literally the "crown jewel" of Yangon, this giant monument to Buddhism holds a 76-carat diamond in its gilded stupa. You can allegedly see the diamond at very specific times during the sunset, but we were more concerned with getting our shoes back from the military police station before it closed, so we missed that part. We did, however, with the help of a guide who may have spoken English (we weren't sure exactly what he was speaking, so we just smiled and nodded a lot), figure out what our planets and animals were (mine: Saturn/Snake), and made offerings to each of them by pouring holy water over statues of the Buddha. Pretty cool.
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| Our crew in front of the Shwedagon stupa |
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| Ahmad blessing the Buddha |
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| Small steeples surrounding the giant Shwedagon dome |
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Temples of Bagan: wow. All I can say is wow. Bagan, an ancient city in the middle of the country built from the 11th to 13th centuries, is now a spectacular monument to Myanmar history, with over 3,000 stupas dotting the desert-like plains. We rented (EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE) bikes, which we were on for 10+ hours, and spend the day exploring a miniscule fraction of the temples. Biking around Bagan involved navigating deep sand pits (which would be hit at full speed without warning, causing a significant amount of wobbling around and some very dirty feet) and dodging various local modes of transportation on one-way sand roads, which included horse-drawn carriages (taxis), carts hauled by huge oxen (trucks), and little motorized pickup trucks with exposed engines packed full with Burmese laborers in huge straw hats (buses). While the day was hot and exhausting, the memory of climbing to the top of our own private stupa with a cold beer in my hand just as the sun was going down is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. Despite the fact that I barely even knew where Myanmar was two weeks ago, I can now say that there's no other place like Bagan...
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| The valley of stupas, or as Ross says, "shtupas" |
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| Getting out of the way of a "truck" |
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| Our own private sunset stupa... |
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| ...and our own private sunset |
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| One of the thousands of temples illuminated at night... |
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Traditional Crafts of Inle Lake: Inle Lake, a fresh water lake located in Nyaungshwe township in the Shan State, is an incredible glimpse into Burmese handicrafts and the traditional way of life. Silk and lotus weaving takes place here, and the stilted structures in the middle of the lake also house cigar factories, silversmiths and monasteries. We arrived in the early morning (as we did in every place, every morning...thanks to our committed travel agents for all the 6AM flights) and immediately hopped on a boat to tour around the lake. What we didn't realize was the lake is 13.5 miles long and 7 miles wide, so we didn't quiiiiiite see all of it. We did, however, stop at a silk factory, a handweaving shop, a silver smith, and were also able to watch local fisherman using the Burmese leg-rowing technique while they collected fish in huge nets from wooden canoe-type boats. All of this prompted Ahmad to exclaim, "ah, the pleasures of the simple life". Which I found both amusing and true.
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| Scary gulls chasing our boat |
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| Lake scenery... |
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| More lake scenery...and a family doing laundry by the water |
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| Burmese fisherman |
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| Traditional silk and lotus weaving, done by creating a rhythm with foot pedals |
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| A stilt house. Note the laundry drying. Yes, people really live here. |
People
The Burmese are some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered in my life. Everywhere we went, people leaned out their car windows shouting "HELLO! HELLO!", or wanted to take photos with us, or wanted to help us hail a taxi or tie our longyis. We felt incredibly welcome. While the military junta's rule of law is still very much apparent - from machine-gun-wielding uniformed army officers lounging on every street corner to the government charging various fees at every turn - the Myanmar people are amazingly kind, generous, and welcoming. And there are really cute kids everywhere.
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| Ahmad with OT, our driver in Yangon, the cutest little muffin ever...I wanted to stick him him my pocket and take him home |
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| Our new friend "Gloria", who sold the boys their longyis |
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| Cute Kid #1 |
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| Cute Kid #2 |
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| Cute Kid #3 |
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| Entire truck full of cute kids waving to us |
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| Our favorite waiter at our favorite Yangon restaurant, Feel Myanmar | |
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| Fun-loving Burmese monks in Nyaungshwe playing a VERY competitive game of soccer |
Food
If you've never had Burmese food (which I certainly hadn't, and I'm not sure I even knew existed before I arrived in Yangon), you should find your local Burmese restaurant and go there right now. It's delicious. Myanmar food is served in little dishes (think tapas-style), with rice and vegetable accompaniments. We didn't meet a dish we didn't like. Highlights of the highlights were: sweet corn pudding, carrot-peanut salad, mutton curry, and the ever-present and ever-delicious Myanmar beer. Yangon and the other cities are also dotted with traditional tea houses, which serve milk tea and assorted pastries. Consuming either of these pretty much guarantees you will be awake all night long, but it's worth it. Here are a few gratuitous food shots for my fellow gourmands...
And finally, in summary: there's a lot in here, but a lot more that I haven't written about. The good news is, I now love talking about Myanmar, so if you have questions or want to know more, ask me. Huge thanks to my awesome, awesome, AWESOME travel companions: Ahmad Zakaria, Ross Clements, and Joe Delgado. I wouldn't have wanted to experience the magic of Myanmar with anyone else. Chit-tey, la-de.
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