The morning following the Popa trip, I had enough time at the Ostello Bello to enjoy breakfast and get my things together, but that was about it, and I was essentially prepared for today to be written off to travel time. I hopped a bus to Mandalay, taking around 5 hours, and arrived just in time to find Clara at the hostel (love it when a plan comes together) and jump on a 3-passenger motorbike with an Irishman “John” to catch the sunset at the bridge. We were fortunate the weather held – the experience was near-death enough as it was:
Near death experience #488
So bridge, I say? Why yes, Myanmar features the world’s longest wooden bridge! It’s hundreds of years old, constantly attractive to walk across, and it’s right here in Mandalay:
Bridgey McBridgeface
Whilst you can walk it for free, even if the weather isn’t perfect it’s quite an experience to jump onto a boat (costs about $8 for 1/2 hour) and see it from the water. I’ve heard it’s great during the day, but it’s especially impressive when in silhouette at sunset. Here’s a taste:
The rowing style is interesting
Boaty McBoatface
The atmosphere is wonderful
Clara having fun!
Bridge silhouette
Pretty lights
The boat
Hearing that it was a “full moon festival” in Mandalay (the moon was admittedly full, no tricks here) we were told that the monks all had a day off, and would frequently invite their families to the main pagoda in Mandalay to celebrate. We stopped by on the way back to relish in the happy, bustling atmosphere, with people lighting candles, halls scented with jasmine, floors cleansed by the fresh rain and every 3rd person requesting a selfie because they’re so pleased to see foreigners at the pagoda:
Candles aplenty
Full moon pagoda
Clara smiles a lot
Busy day at the temple!
Always time for another photo
The three-person deathmobile was our ride home too:
Death by falling, collision, explosion, heart attack and/or excessive mosquito bites
Snapping up a little free wifi at the hostel we ordered beer and takeaway noodles from the shop across the road. You can get the noodles delivered in plastic bags, but this looks a little too worryingly like a fairground goldfish for my taste, so I had mine in a box with chopsticks. Sometimes, it’s the little comforts.
My first thought this morning was that I’d had one more drink than was sensible last night. Thankfully, the coffee at the Italian-run Ostello Bello is brilliant, and they even have real milk, which is rare here in Myanmar.
After waiting what felt like an eternity for Thijs to finish his breakfast (after I got up especially early to give myself time) the 5 of us hopped into our booked private minicab to Mt Popa.
The scenery around Bagan is a real contrast to everything else I’ve seen so far – sparse jungle and palm plantations.
This area of Myanmar is famous for their palm products. We stopped briefly at a palm plantation “outlet”, where the plantation manager graciously provided us with free tea and tea-leaf salad (one of Myanmar’s national dishes):
Jungle Juice machine
Akira enjoying jungle juice
It’s like PURE JUNGLE
Palm plantation
Instafood tea leaf salad
Group selfie!
Palm oil!
The tea leaf salad is extremely bitter but relatively enjoyable thanks mainly to the super fresh crunchy roasted peanuts. On that note, if you have a peanut allergy, don’t come here – EVERYTHING is fried in peanut oil. We also had a sip of palm liquor, known locally as “Jungle Juice”. It’s also pretty bitter, and is either an acquired taste or just plain terrible, I’m honestly not sure which.
Getting back on the road, we turned the corner to the mountain road. A lot of locals appear to want to hitchhike along this road, but we didn’t have space for all 400 people we saw on the way, and what with the Myanmar hitchhiking gesture being a slowly-extending hand and a lean, it sort of felt like a zombie apocalypse, so we were happy to stay in our private air-conditioned cab.
Shortly, we arrived at the mountain and were encouraged to step out and profit from the specially built Popa viewpoint. The temple looked great from here:
Mount Popa, a fair climb
It was only a few more minutes in the cab before we found ourselves at the base of the 777 steps we were to climb. It’s a mission and a half:
The covered climb is interesting; spotted with shops, people collecting donations, monkeys demanding food – and holding your sunglasses to ransom if you don’t give it to them:
Monkey see
Monkey do
In the background you’re treated to an ever growing view of the Popa volcano:
The climb’s covered way
Worth the climb!
Mount Popa Volcano
But you really have to fight to get there, it’s rammed with locals!
As busy as Yangon…
Finally reaching the top, we enjoyed the cool breeze and the incredible view over a Myanmar I didn’t recognise from the trek to Inle Lake:
A stupa at the top
We made it!
We enjoyed a few minutes tranquillity and descended to the bus. A quick stop for lunch and we were soon back in Bagan for dinner, another attempt at watching the sunset (far better today – I’mma plug that gallery again!) and a general farewell to the group, as we all headed separate ways. While Akira and Sabrina headed for home, Clara, Thijs and I made plans to meet in Mandalay, but I’m fast learning how quickly plans change when travelling – it’s all too easy to break your heart chasing friends, in the end, you just have to follow your feet.
Here, I’d really like to share some photos of the temples in Bagan. There isn’t a lot of information available on their names and history, though with enough time I’m sure it could be pieced together with more diligent documentation! But really, that’s not what I was there for. I suggest you just enjoy the views; as that’s all I did 🙂
I also took a few shots inside a couple of temples. There usually isn’t a lot to see inside, but a few of the statues are quite impressive:
Buddha in a temple
Mini Buddhas
Big brass Buddha
Sitting Buddha
Lying Buddha
Teaching Buddha
Finally, here are some sunrises and sunsets, which are incredible at Bagan. I was fortunate enough to have found a good few climbing pagodas to collect these over a couple of days!
I arrived in Bagan at 4.00am and was brought to the hostel on a recommendation by the taxi driver. I should have known better by then than to listen to the taxi drivers, but hey, I was totally shattered, and he said it was a good place to meet people.
Actually, it looked really nice, so I checked in and was offered a bed on the rooftop until morning, or invited to join in with the sunrise tour, starting in a few minutes!
Other than the facts that I’d hardly slept on the bus, was totally wiped out from walking and cycling, wasn’t really wearing the right stuff, hadn’t showered in 2 days and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do all day and I’d never ridden an e-bike before, I couldn’t see why not, so I signed up.
About 10 seconds later, another equally shattered guest (introducing himself as Thijs from Amsterdam) rolled out of a taxi and was also easily persuaded to join us.
Thijs, an e-bike, and a pagoda.
We bargained the e-bike fees (worked out as about $2 for the day, including free laundry, which is hilarious), joined “Akira” from Japan and scooted off after the guide into the cool, dry air – a refreshing change from the mugginess of the rest of Myanmar. Bearing in mind it was pitch black when I arrived in Bagan, you can imagine that climbing a pagoda to watch the sun rise over this unique landscape for the first time is quite an experience:
Here comes the sun, do de do doo
Wake up to adventure
Everything the light touches, is yours to explore!
We weren’t the only ones up early
If you ever come to Myanmar, even for a day, come to Bagan and watch the sun rising. And setting. And watch it doing everything in-between.
Returning to the hostel in time for breakfast, the group of us that had watched the sunset decided to spend the entire day using the e-bikes to take us from temple to temple. Another chappy from Japan joined us, making 4 lads on e-bikes ready to storm Bagan:
And storm it we did
We soon discovered the structures come in all shapes and sizes; stepped or smooth, round, square, rectangular, brick, stone, tall, tiny, climbable, ruined, recently restored and even one that leant disconcertingly and was affectionately nicknamed “temple Pisa”.
Although it wasn’t raining, the sky was pretty cloudy and the day’s heat grew, with dust swirling as winds picked up. It left me feeling constantly coated in a thin layer of clay-like mud, and stained everything like cacao powder.
We stopped off at a couple of major pagodas, the most impressive of which was the Schwezigon (almost the same name as the one in Yangon, though actually not as extensive or well-kept):
Schwezigon is nice, but you Shewedagon to the other one.
Bagan is also famous for its laquerware, so we stopped at a family run workshop. The owner took us on a proud tour of the modest factory, showing us the various stages in the process of creating the ornaments and tableware, which overall takes around 6-12 months depending on design and quality. Everything from start to finish is done by hand, and all the ingredients are entirely natural. Except perhaps the turpentine that they use to wash their hands when done…
Showing the various stages
All stages are done by hand!
Left to dry for 2-3 weeks between layers
10’s of layers take months to dry in total
I would have loved to bring something back with me, but had horrible images of the delicate bamboo and clay splintering and filling my bag with expensive dust, so abstained. Perhaps next time.
We stopped for a great home-made lemonade over at the river-view hotel, which looks out over the Aryewaddy river:
Mmmm, fresh lemonade!
It’s filled with tasty fish too.
Lunch was a quick-stop for noodles. When you’re in a photographer/explorer/adventurist playground, food is the last thing on your mind. It’s incredible out here in the wild, where you have your electric bike, no speed limits, no restrictions on where you can go, and no rules except taking off your shoes when you enter a temple. It’s hard to imagine growing tired of this place. Also, monks eat lunch too:
Presumably conducting monk-ey business
At one moment, I was fortune enough to witness a local placing gold leaf onto the Buddha:
“I’ll just leaf this here”
Traditionally, the Buddha statues are made with stone, marble, brass, or even iron, and then it’s down to the local people, monks and pilgrims to coat them in gold.
On the way back I took a rather cross-country route and ended up finding a great pagoda to climb up and watch the sunset from. It wasn’t too impressive, due to cloud cover, but the next day it was incredible! You’ll have to head over to my feature post for the photos!
Watching the sunset from tall pagodas is a must-do in Bagan
Back at the hostel, Thijs, Akira and I signed up to a day-trip to Mt Popa, a nearby pagoda on a hill with phenomenal viewpoints and resident monkeys. We persuaded two girls to join us (Sabrina and Clara) and after a “sensible” number of drinks at the hostel bar we retired for the night, prepped to leave early. This would be my last day in Bagan, so to end the post, here’s a few photos of me really, really having a great time!:
I woke up today feeling like I’d been rolling on rocks for 3 days, rather than hiking. A combination of dehydration and exhaustion left me in need of a rest day, and the incessant pounding rain left me feeling like I’d made a bad decision coming here in rainy season. I practically wanted to get out of Myanmar. Fortunately I’d heard that Bagan, my next destination, was much drier, so I was prepared to give it a shot before quitting.
But at Inle, instead of resting up, I wolfed down a decent, typical Myanmar breakfast of eggs and toast (no seriously, it’s everywhere here), packed my bags, booked my bus to Bagan, and jumped on a bicycle on the recommendation of Les Francaises, who I’d trekked across with.
We were headed for a market down in Mine Thauk, 12km down the main road, which looked like this:
Fast food
A good hour later (it would have taken much longer if I hadn’t managed to cling onto the back of a tractor up the hill) we arrived at Mine Thauk, only to be told that the market had ended. Sad face 🙁
We decided instead to walk the long pontoon into the lake, and grab a boat to take us across, which was another great experience:
Looks like a bridge, but it just stops in the lake
4 bikes and 5 people on one boat? No problem!
Passing more beautiful canal-homes
People here can spend their entire lives without leaving the lake valley
Shortly after arriving, one of the girls had a puncture, but as I had a bus booked for the evening I didn’t really have time to hang around. I decided to leave them to it and pedal off alone, in search of interesting stop-offs this side of the lake.
I stopped for a second at a monastery, which was again typically run down, though did have a lot of stupas:
Stupa stupa stupa. Sounds sillier the more you say it
Also stopped at the natural hot springs at Khaung Daung, but at $10 entry fee and nobody else in sight it didn’t really take my fancy. Instead, I turned 180degrees and decided to hike up these stairs instead! What better to do on a rest day?:
Can’t be that many, right?
I found this on the way up, just as the sun came out. Perhaps it was a sign?
This stupa rocks.
There was a pretty good view of Inle Lake at the top, but it was practically impossible to get a good photo, so I’ll leave it to you to visit and see for yourself! Instead, here are the stairs down.
You’re welcome.
The cycle back from there was pleasant enough, and I stopped for a moment to take this shot of a monastery visible back over the rice paddies:
Wooden monasteries are very common here
I enjoyed dinner at a very local pub in Nyaung Shwe:
2 pints of Mandalay lager, please. And noodles. Mmm.
Finally rolling back into the hotel, I sat enjoying a beer with the manager who spoke pretty good English and introduced me to some strange Myanmar cheese; which basically tasted like butter. In fact I think it was butter, but “cheese” was lost in translation.
Finally, my chicken bus stop-over to the bus station arrived, and I was on my way to Bagan. I’d heard great things, and by now my expectations were high. Come on Myanmar, let’s see what you’ve got.
I arrived in Kalaw at 4.30am, stumbling dreary-eyed off the bus and feeling like I’d eaten a bucket of butterflies. And the butterflies all had flamethrowers, and knives. They also wanted out, in all directions, and they weren’t hanging about.
Throwing myself into the “cheapest hotel” as directed by the bus driver, I haggle a few hours sleep out of the night guard at the “Golden Lily Hostel”, dump my stuff into the sweaty little room and proceed to spend the next 5 hours either 1) in the bathroom, or 2) in bed thinking about being in the bathroom. It was not a good night, leaving me feeling like jelly and sticks. In the morning, I walked straight past the breakfast room, my brain conjuring images of the food sprouting legs and spears and threatening me to an early grave. No breakfast, thanks.
At arrival in reception I was immediately asked if I wanted to join the 3 day trek to Inle Lake, starting that morning. As my stomach turned over again, and my eyes glanced the heaving rain spewing waterfalls off the side of the reception shelter, my gut reaction was “YOLO”, which should have been the first sign that I was about to make a bad decision. I accepted, hastily separated my necessities into my daypack (I suspect this was the moment I lost my laptop charger) and joined 4 other travellers and the guide to start the tour. Here goes…
Day 1
Straight off, we introduced ourselves. There were two French girls, a German girl, an English lad, and me (or at least, my body. My brain and stomach were elsewhere). Our guide introduced himself as Saloi – easy enough! So straight away, I insisted that we pass by the market to stock up on electrolytes, unless someone was prepared to volunteer carrying me up the first hill.
Pumped and ready, we were soon off, stopping briefly by a holy “Banyan” (or “Bodi”) tree to hear a little about Buddhism, and why it was gated off to stop the kids and monkeys from nicking holy tributes. I didn’t get any photos because it was hooning it down, and I was terrified to get my camera out. This was a common occurrence throughout the trek, unfortunately.
It didn’t take us much of a climb to feel like we’d really left the city, and entered the middle of nowhere:
Village life, traditional bamboo houses
A 45 minute climb from Kalaw
Smiling… for now!
The weather wasn’t holding out well – there was continuous rain, as well as a mysterious fog everywhere.
Fog descending
What lives in the mist…
The ground was suffering too; with every 3 steps forward we slipped 1 back. It was slow, gruelling progress, but often we found an alternative path by trudging through a farmer’s field or forking off the main road onto a path through the jungle.
A nearby field was often the best route to avoid the muddy main path.
These grow wild here, incredible!
The semi-jungle paths were interesting, and super-muddy
The views are always worth the climb
After a few hours trekking we made it through our first village for lunch. We had the same chef for all 3 days and he did a fantastic job of keeping us well fed with hot, totally edible food. I started slowly at first, but grew to love the cooking as the trek went on. The village we stopped at was charming, and occupied by the “Pa-O” tribe, who have large presence in the area. Saloi told us about how the locals are self-sufficient, and sell surplus vegetables in bulk to the local market vendors, which brings in extra cash for building repairs and other expenses.
Charming kids at the local school
It’s a simple life, everything is hand made
There’s always time to smile
Farmers fueled by Betel nuts and cigarettes
Saloi talking about cauliflowers
Dedicated
Charming villages spot the mountains
Vegetable farming is all done by hand and beast
A Burmese woman carries her child as she works the carrot fields
Setting off with a little more energy, we climbed higher into the mist and found ourselves following high ridges looking down on rice-paddy laden valleys and spectacular jungle farmland hills:
Gaps in the rain bring the green out
The rice fields divide the land in a beautiful organised chaos
JUNGLE COWS
Enjoying the view
“Don’t mess with your tour guide – we know places where nobody will find you”
I don’t know how he stands like this
Knees deep in rice soup
As we left the higher areas we dropped altitude towards our destination village where we’d rest for the evening. We came across a group of locals gathered in front of the Stupa (shrine). Saloi asked them what was happening, and we were told that a young monk (17 years old) had died, and that this was his funeral. They were celebrating his life, by gambling and drinking in front of the Stupa. This to us seemed strange, but the locals seemed to be having a great time in the monk’s memory, and in a way that’s undeniably a beautiful thing.
The locals gather for a funeral
What better way to celebrate?
Our accommodation that night was a simple, beautiful village again occupied by the Pa-O tribe. We were told upon arrival the most important thing: the rainwater falls straight from a metal roof into a clean, large basin, and this is where all of the village gathers their drinking water. So, don’t wash your feet in it. Instead, take a bucket, scoop up what you need and use it how you wish (with the amount of rain, there’s damned plenty of it, so fill your boots) – just remember to pour away the extra, never back into the pool.
Our living quarters, no shoes please
Dinner, by naught ‘ere fire and iron
Dinner was beautifully prepared and offered, and we learned that Burmese culture requires that guests eat first, with Saloi and our host waiting until we’d finished before commencing their meal.
Darkness fell like a stone, and with 17km under our boots, we were assured a good night’s sleep.
Day 2
IT WAS BELTING IT DOWN. ALL DAY.
Nothing we’d hung inside had dried over night due to the sweltering humidity, and the rain was so relentless that after a rapid breakfast and a near-sprint to the cover of the jungle, we were all soaked to the skin.
Saloi took the initiative and hijacked a “chicken truck”, which happened to be heading in the same direction:
Chicken truck!
Chickens?
More than ominous
We then only had a short walk to the next village before we could hide inside, lapping up the time the truck saved us by playing cards and drying out over green tea:
52 Card Pagoda!
Cheat and Tea
When the rain dies down, we bring ourselves to continue walking, and climb around the valley to a viewpoint where we can see our destination that evening; a wooden monastery 15km away from Inle Lake:
Can’t you see it?
It’s just next to the white one!
First, we ascended through the pouring rain into the jungle. I couldn’t get the camera out for the downpour, but the views, experience and climb were fantastic. We didn’t see any monkeys, but we heard them!!
The rain didn’t stop until we’d dropped down the other side of the mountain jungle and entered the bamboo forest which housed our monastery:
Welcome to the bamboo forest
BAMBOO JUNGLE COW
Shredding bamboo for fibres
The monastery itself was beautiful too. Made in wood over 200 years ago, it houses 15-17 monks full time, with 10-20 more young monks in temporary residence at any one time. We stayed, and attracted a lot of attention from the younger monks, who were intrigued by my camera’s ability to capture pictures in complete darkness:
Bamboo monastery
No ghosts here, they don’t believe in them.
Relaxation corner, for monks only
I don’t think monkfish was on the menu
Day 3
The final day’s trek was definitely the most interesting, as the scenery evolved around us into lush jungle and lowland rice fields during our approach to the lake. We came across a Banyan tree that had been struck by lightning, and Saloi told us that only the monks may use the wood from the hoy Banyan tree. They make ornaments, and burn the wood, though it’s very rarely used for furniture or building due to its heavy, wet texture.
Even the farmland changed subtley
Look, the lake!
A dying Banyan tree
A further few kilometres and we wound down our trek through a beautiful, sparse jungle, where red clay soil contrasted with the green of the leaves and trees like an alien landscape.
The jungle descent
A final bamboo forest emerged, and at the final clearing we found ourselves at the banks of Inle Lake; exhausted, soaked inside-out, and utterly inspired by the beauty of our new-found land. I’ll show you in just a moment – don’t fall off the shadow of my boots 😉
Feet throbbing and shoulders aching, the group’s energy instantly lifted when we left the shade of the bamboo forest and started winding our way between rice paddies and beautifully crafted irrigation and transport canals towards the south end of Inle Lake:
Rice fields and mountains
Inle grows a lot of rice
Waterlogged tomato plantations
For people here at Inle, the canals are the roads, and the lake is their central hub. Even their vegetables are grown half submerged in water. I noticed that everybody has a boat, but there are relatively few mopeds and only a handful of pretty compact trucks.
A short distance later we’d navigated our way to a typical bamboo-stilts house for lunch, which I shamelessly insta-fooded:
We ate it all too.
We posed for a farewell photo as Saloi departed to gather another group for the reverse-trek from Inle to Kalaw. The legend was going to walk another 3 days back, without a break. Kudos to him, he did a great job:
Byeeeeeee!
His final gesture was to show us around the corner where a Mad-Max style engine chugged away at the back of carefully hand-carved boat, featuring bamboo deckchairs for seating:
Yes, you DO have to get in
I had to sit down before we could move
When we settled, the propeller was dropped into the water and we were propelled forward at a surprising speed. They don’t hang about on those boats, and the ride along the narrow, green canals was pretty thrilling:
We suddenly burst from the canal and entered the main portion of the lake. I noted that the Mad-Max boats are often also paddled in a unique fashion to allow both hands free for throwing fishing nets. It was pretty tough to get a clear shot of this with the speed our boat was going!
I presume this is Max?
We almost didn’t make the gap
When all else fails, punt
Fishermen balance the paddles between their leg and shoulder
The long boats are incredibly stable
Finally, the boat deposited us in Nyaung Shwe, a bustling town which grew rapidly from the influx of money brought to Inle by tourism. We found our way to the hotel where our bags were being kept, and grabbed a few minutes of free wi-fi until they switched it off. We suspect this was likely due to the huge number of muddy-booted foreigners who had trudged in to collect their rucksacks and then sod off elsewhere.
We sodded off elsewhere, negotiating a 25% discount on a room in the White Avenue, a pleasant little hotel just outside Nyaung Shwe city centre. We were grateful for free wifi, amazing showers and a towel folded to look like an elephant:
Seriously, there’s nobody that doesn’t think this is cute
A full day at Inle awaited, so I crawled into the first real bed I’d slept in for days and slumbered like any guy who’d just walked 50km is expected to sleep: Amazingly.
I was off the grid for days, due to a combination of things! Wi-fi out here in Myanmar is either non-existent, or exists but doesn’t work very well. The dated telephonic infrastructure of the country is clearly bursting trying to cope with the sudden influx of tourists and high-end dual-sim Chinese smartphones… which are actually awesome.
The biggest delay has come from me losing my laptop charger, and therefore carrying around a brick for the past week. So, now I’ll explain what I’ve been up to and try to catch up, backdating posts so they make sense.
On Tuesday I took an early bus from Bago to Taungoo, taking 5 hours to get there via the old state highway. It’s bustling with traffic from busses to freight lorries to mopeds with goats on the back, yet wouldn’t really earn more than “single-track road” status in Europe. Illustration:
Cow-sually resting in the highway.
I was dumped in the city of “Taungoo” in the afternoon, hopped onto the back of a suicide and promptly booked my onward travel to Kalaw, anxious to get trekking the next day. I had a few hours to kill so I took a wander into town (goo).
I found the pagoda interesting; run down but clearly in the process of renovation. It’s very similar to other major city pagodas.
A little run down, but under maintenance
Bud
Saturday- day of the dragon
I was directed towards a palace garden by a helpful caretaker – he said “very good very good” a lot of times. So, I had high expectations, which weren’t entirely met… I’d probably give it no more than one “very good”.
Enjoying a stroll through the park after school
A replica pagoda at the palace in Taungoo
I didn’t have long before my bus, but I did still figure I had time for a game of football with the local kids!
I genuinely felt bad when I scored a goal.
Food in Taungoo was a quick and practical affair, at a Chinese-style restaurant which treated my like royalty. I practically had my own room (outside, under a beautiful palm pergola) and was fed a huge quantity of questionable, cold food. As I ate, I was thinking “this will definitely make me feel ill”. Tune in to tomorrow’s post to see how THAT went down. Disclaimer – it’s not pretty.
Overall Taungoo was strange, I seemed to attract a lot of attention and didn’t see any other tourists during my time there. It even went so far that the staff in the shop I went to buy phone credit from thought I was selfie-worthy:
Smile!
Whilst that may be refreshing in some places, actually it just made me feel like I was standing around in the wrong place.
After watching Myanmar beat Singapore 5-1 at the bus stop TV I jumped onto the night bus and headed on further North to the mountain town of Kalaw.
This morning, three of us jumped on the train to Bago, itching to see a different city and see some Burmese countryside, even if just from the train window.
Wistfully watching the countryside roll by
Bago didn’t do much to impress at first, the train station is a bit of a dump.
Well who WOULDN’T want to stay? There are even goats!
This man’s had enough already.
In honesty, Bago in general is a bit of a dump. I’ve heard great things about it, but it’s either gone downhill since, or we missed the good bits, or perhaps it’s just not great in the rainy season.
If there’s one thing we did learn, it’s to ignore the first people that approach you when you step off the plane/train/bus. They’re usually over-charging time wasters. Or even if they mean well, they’re probably a bit annoying.
Still, we got away from the train station by each hopping onto the back of a scooter (I’ve never ridden pillion before, this was sort of a trial by fire, it was great) and getting a hotel room. After dumping our bags we hired bicycles for the day and rode off to find some food. After nearly being crushed, knocked off, swept aside, drowned, mauled and falling down a pothole about 4 bajillion times we stopped for chow at the “Royal Taste”. It was good enough, and being the only people in there we got top service and fresh cooked food. My Mynamar curry was amazing.
Venturing out again, we went to what was undoubtedly the highlight of the day, the Snake Monastery. Featuring a python who has lived in the monastery for 125 years (so it’s said), the snake is one of the largest in the world. And it’s right in front of you, being washed and pampered with care by the keepers.
The MONSTER python himself!
Views into the country were amazing
The monk who was “reincarnated” as the snake who lives here
Gold gold gold gold gold
We cycled on back to the hotel (3 crammed into a double room – cosy) and snacked on misc. Asian treats for dinner. Got to be up fresh and early for the train tomorrow – I’m headed North!
At the Pagoda on I was invited to help out with an English class the next morning, but I didn’t make it. Not for trying though – I walked for over 30 minutes down the road, counting down the numbers until… the road ended unexpectedly.
Not really sure what to do from there, I sat down in a local café and grabbed some coffee and a few cakes for breakfast. Nice atmosphere, nice cakes, interesting coffee (thick enough to stand a spoon in, and rammed with sugar) and all only $1.
There were as many cats as people in here…
I wandered back to the hostel, gathered my things and met with some other Westerners to travel over to the Drug Elimination museum in the northern area of Yangon. After I snapped a couple of shots at Yangon Central we took the train over there, which was probably about as interesting as the museum itself in the end!
There’s more than one way to wait for a train
Even if you’re on the train already you have to wait.
Presumably an old copper clad roof. Quite a colour.
Still, quite a good adventure, and I’ll never forget the smell of these fish being grilled by the train bridge:
The local “Grilled Train Fish”
After we got back from the museum we headed into Yangon to check out 19th street, in the centre of China town.
There was a pretty awesome looking array of vegetables and assorted seafood/landfood, so we grabbed a basket full of stuff we couldn’t really identify and sat as they were freshly barbequeued in front of us. They went down REALLY well with a bottle of the local Myanmar brew.
Things on sticks – my favourite!
I had a moment to snap a couple of interesting items at the markets on the way home too.
Mangosteen – they look great, haven’t tried one yet though!
Loving the spices and colours in the night markets
Given that we found a bar where Mojitos are <$1 each, I felt a little worse for wear in the morning. But that didn’t stop me getting up and out – stay tuned!
