Bagan (Burma)

As magical as Bagan was, it was also filled with the most amount of street kids compared to Yangoon and Inle Lake. So that was a little conflicting, because it got hard to sometimes enjoy the place and let loose, when we'd talk to these boys and girls and hear about their stories of how they want to continue schooling or get into the university. It was absolutely saddening knowing that we didn't bring anything to give to them (they really wanted to trade something for our sweaters) in return for some art they painted which looked really amazing by the way. We had no more money left to spend (we were on a budget too!) so that was the only alternative. But these kids were all over Bagan, and not only kids, but almost every other sales person by the street tries to haggle and pester you into getting something. It wasn't TOTALLY unfamiliar though, so eventually we got used to it.

 How to get there: So we took the "Bagan Express" bus from Inle Lake to Bagan. Only this bus goes to Bagan from there. And it's nothing you would imagine an express bus being. It broke down once, and we stopped to pick up people quite a number of times but i think what made up for all of that was that we were travelling in the day (also for 12 hours) so we could look out the window and see interesting sceneries. The trip from Inle Lake costed us 12000 kyats per person. You wont get it cheaper than the other shops. Maybe more expensive. But that should be the price, because we were there apparently at a peak time. 

Gah! The toilets were horrendous! It was much much
much cleaner peeing outside, which is what i did most
of the time!

The Sky as we left Inle Lake on that cold cold morning! This was Kalaw where we saw ICE on the ground! And we survived with our not made for winter clothing!

Rest Stop! In the middle of nowhere! Time to pea.

The Bagan Express! It broke down and the driver know exactly whats wrong .

We sat on top of the bus for about 5 to 10 minutes with the
Russian gang of tourists! They were fun and always had
vodka ready to pour! Then the guards at the entrance to Bagan
said we had to come down! =C

Getting around Bagan: It works for everything: bicycles! We rented two bicycles for 4500 kyats. That was for three days because we were cycling around as soon as we reached Bagan. We went into Old Bagan (where the amazing temples are) only on Day 2 and Day 3. We rented in from the hotel we were staying at. You can cycle EVERYWHERE with a bicycle! the old temples are just by the sides of the road, so its easy to stop by every single one of them while ur cycling! The map we had helped a lot in locating a few big ones, that was a must see! And we also had a lot of help from two girls that just randomly followed us around on their bicycle without us asking, and showed us around. On the last day, they tried to sell us some postcards. But they were awesome company! And it helps to ask anyone you can, about temples around you, because its easy to get them all mixed up. They have beautiful names though. And each temple, pagoda has a family that looks after it. So they will take you around the pagoda and temple and tell you about its history and significance. That was truly awesome! All of them sell loads of stuff in front of the pagoda, like lacquer wares and paintings and clothes. So feel free to buy something if you want, for the service they've just offered you. Everyone we met at every pagoda was really nice though. It was an absolute joy talking to them about the pagoda, what they've done for it and about their lives!

There was a procession on the streets of Bagan,
with cows decorated and kids on each cow and
 lots more walking, dressed up very fancily.

Look 360 degrees around Old Bagan, and this is the view!

We loved climbing up the outside walls of the temples,some
get you quite high up to get awesome views! 

A view of a temple from another temple quite
close by, this kinda views helped us planning
our journey from one temple to another

These HUGE golden buddhas were in every ,
almost every temple!The bigger the temple, the bigger
the buddha! And a few parts of the buddha  was made
 with gold flakes on them. And not one statue has been
disfigured, or chipped off. 

More wall paintings, these were just so
amazing! So well preserved
and ALL OVER the WALLS! 

Original wall paintings in some of the temples
still so well preserved.

These were original statues of buddhas made from stone, very well preserved. But gated so no one could touch and destroy it.

Preservation process in progress. They were employed
and paid for by the UN. The government had no
 part in almost any of the preservation efforts.

Where to stay: We got a reasonable price for the inn we were at. Our bus was filled with tourists, and the bus just stopped at that inn, so rooms were being taken up as we were deliberating on the price! We took our room for 12USD a night, we stayed there for two nights. It was quite nice, the inn. And the compound was nicer! They had a swing in the front, a cute dogs, that all looked alike in Bagan! They were like bigger versions of shih tzus, and there were all strays! The dog in the hotel, was really smart and would jump on you when you gestured like you had a treat. All the dogs looked like they needed a bath though. But yay! doggies anyway.

Food: Food is good in Bagan! There's a lot of places to choose from, mostly around Nyaung-U, where all the hotels are mostly situated. And a few on the way from there to Old Bagan. And there's a lot of vegetarian places! So that was awesome. I was mostly vegetarian for the whole 10 days that I was in Myanmar just because it was absolutely delicious and very varied the dishes and the uses of veges in their food! Oh and its cheaper! The food places in New Bagan (Nyaung-U) is very close by the hotel, so we jsut walked around and looked at the menu and prices and then decided. We only wanted to eat at places that offered "Myanmar food". On average for two persons, we spent on average 9000 kyats for lunch and dinner. Hmm i guess it was a little pricey here. But that's also because all the restaurants, came with fancy lamps and decorated table and chairs and an ambiance! Its quite hard to find road side food in Bagan. Breakfast is provided by the hotel. Breakfast was toasted bread (w always asked for more but the most they gave us was about 3 slices extra!) and eggs (a choice of scrambled, omelette and bulls eye) they were all very good, but then again i think you can NEVER go wrong with eggs.

This was a mid range place in Old Bagan, recommended in the Lonely Planet
Guide. That's tanaka on my face!

I have to NOT recommend a place in Bagan though, although it was recommended in the Lonely Planet's Guide to Myanmar. It was called Golden Myanmar -- a buffet with about 20 different dishes for each of you for 3000 kyats per person. I have never ate so little at a buffet in my life! There were curries and vegetables , but almost ALL if not ALL were soooo sour! Like absolutely sour and bitter! So i only ate the rice, and one or two vege that was not sour or bitter. I soon discovered from eating at another rest stop (we crossed the road to eat in a family's small hut restaurant) on the way back from Bagan to Yangoon.  They were very grateful because the bus stopped at the bigger popular rest stop restaurant just opposite their shop and i think they dont get as many customers as they would like. Anyway we ordered one plate of rice, with some curries and vegetable and it was also sour, the curry at least! So i think the curries in Myanmar when they have meat in it, are usually sour! Just the way its cooked there maybe. But this family was really nice, we met his wife who was pregnant and resting and his daughter. He was very hospitable and we had a nice conversation about Bagan and his little shop! 

And i think that's the most important thing for any place, to make it a nice holiday or vacation. The people. And I've truly not met a more friendly hospitable down to earth crowd that i did in Myanmar! It was absolutely amazing and nice talking and getting to know all of them. And I even got two email addresses of two english teachers that were "lurking" around one pagoda to talk to tourists to improve their english. That reminds me, I'm going to email them right after this!<

The two girls that followed us
around to each temple.They were really
like our guides! And postcards she was
selling.We kept bumping
into them, having stalkers never felt so good!

These girls were selling some stuff in one of the temples
and were so amused that we had tanaka on our faces that
they commented on it as soon as we parked our bicycles.

                                        

The old lady that smoked and kept asking us to pay her when
we took her photo. She encouraged us to take her photo!

We were never hustled as much as we
 were at this place! We didn't want to
get anything else,but had to just
because they were so good at
making you feel like a monster
if you didn't.

These boys and their sister were playing
in one the temples. They grew up in
the temple and wanted
us to take a photo of them!

This cute couple was in Inle Lake!
Isn't that cutest baby and the cutest
old man EVER?

Monks that come down to the temples in their robes,and a pot for
left over food or anything else that is willing to give. They just stand
still in the corners of the temples, and people put in food or money.
These kid monks were hiphop influenced apparently! But had to pose
in secrecy, before an older monk saw them and had a talk with them.

The kind lady in one of the temple applying some tanaka on
our faces. Burmese people wear them all the time, like powder
to protect their fair skin from the harshness of  the sun.

Baby with face full of tanaka! Yumyum!

All in all, Myanmar was an amazing experience! To see these three places, 10 days is the optimal length of stay i would say. We had enough time to recuperate from the bus rides to enjoy the places! I hope a revolution is not far away, looking at the middle east and all the amazing revolutions that are happening there! The people there deserve as many opportunities they can get and to be free !  

Burmese kyats. The notes there looked like they've
absolutely been to hell and back. Just shows how much the same
money has been used again and again. Pretty sure the printing
of money has stopped. You only see nice notes if you have
1000 kyats onwards.

All Beautiful Photos are the product of Lesly Leon Lee's magic touch: Click for other amazing photos and videos

Inle Lake (Burma)

Inle Lake in Burma was the first AWE that we experienced. That was mostly because I did all other research EXCEPT the temperature.

Transport: To get there, there is an afternoon bus (only one bus) from Yangoon and it costs about 12000 kyats per person, inclusive of the taxi ride to the bus station. It take about 12 hours to 15hours to the junction of Inle Lake. And then to get to the Lake , we had to take a taxi that costs 7000 kyats, for a 20 minutes ride. We would have walked, but it was so cold, almost 0 degrees! So we had no choice.

This wasnt the bus we took to Yangoon but you would
definitely see mostly these kind of old used cars
 and trucks and vans on the streets.

Getting Around: Getting around inle lake is easy! We rented a bicycle and cycled around the small village. Its a relatively small village so exploring it was quite a breeze. We cycled through some villages with huge pigs in the compounds of their houses and then went to a small temple that looked really nice.

Photos of some of the adventuring we did, and what we stumbled upon

Small kids working hard collecting soil!

The cycling paths

Weather: The drastic change of weather in Inle Lake is something we would NEVER forget! Silly me for thinking no way, Burma had a cold season. So when we approached the junction, it just kept getting colder and we didn't come prepared. So we started wearing more and more layers of clothes. I had on two long pants and three layers of tops. Topped by a sweater with a hood. And a hat! When we arrived around 4am or so at the junction, the temperature was about 4degrees. We were shivering all the way up to the inn where we finally decided to stay. When we got to the inn, we quickly got under the covers and tried to sleep the cold away. AMAZINGLY, we woke up to a bright and sunny and cool morning. I could go out cycling with my sleeveless and my three quarters. So thats the drastic weather changes, for Burma at the end of the year. Its usually hot all around starting from February.

Food: AWESOME! Because its so cold in Inle Lake, so all food are hot and steaming and taste absolutely appropriate! We ate by the road side, and in town there was a row of stalls that open at night, about 7pm or 8pm (just when it starts to get chilly again) and they have really good food. A lot of fried bean cutlets and of course noodles. Prices are slightly more touristy than Yangoon. So neals for a whole day for two persons might cost to about 3000 kyats.

They have water EVERYWHERE! for free to drink
! but they do use the same cup though.

Accommodation: Remember Inn. This inn was actually very nice! and the people there were also equally helpful. We got a room for 12 dollars a night inclusive of breakfast. They also have hot water. Good stay!

What to do?: The only main thing to do here is to hire a boat, to take you around the Lake. This costed us about 12000 kyats per person. But walking further down , we could have gotten a boat ride for about 10000 kyats per person. The ride though was amazing! They took us to a few places, and villages , to see silver making, cigarette making, umbrella and paper making, clothes making and a lot others. The ride lasted from morning to evening about 6pm. So it was worth it. And is a must to do! On the way to these places, we saw the one-legged fishermen. They use only one of their legs to row the boat while catching fishes. We also saw miles and miles of tomatoes growing on the lake! The lake itself was huge, felt like a sea!

 Of course more temples, this was when we stopped by the
 floating market. The location of the
 market changes every week

 Things to see on the Lake! Nice structures of
 houses with BOATS in the 'porch'

Lots of people selling vegetables and all, 
good food!! and very cheap!

The one legged boatman.

Silver making. All hand made goods. Earrings and necklaces 
and many others. very intricately made

.

The making of lotus thread. Its about 10times more hardy than silk 
and cotton. They use this thread to make the monks clothes.

The temple by the lake.

 

The jumping cat monastery. The lady there had a hoop and 
when she called to the cats, they all took turns
 jumping into it! The whole place was filled with fatties! 

All Beautiful Photos are the product of Lesly Leon Lee's magic touch: Click for other amazing photos and videos

Yangoon

This is going to a short post i think because there isnt a lot to say about Yangoon or Rangon. Its just blah. It's KL dirtier, dustier, hotter, and with a whole lot of abandoned buildings.

The best place to stay in Yangoon, is at the Garden Inn, it costs only 10USD for a night for a double room, and thats in the peak season! 

The few things in Yangoon that might be worth it:

1) Shwedagon Pagoda -- I didn't like it that much. It was majestic and beautiful and one of the main attractions in Burma but it was just another glorified huge Buddhist temple. It apparently has 53 metric tonnes of gold on the huge Pagoda in the middle, and to me that just does not make any sense because the poverty level in Yangoon or Burma as a whole is ridiculous and here we were staring at a complete waste of resources. But you would see many many people there, praying and worshiping and its funny how everyone thinks Buddha is god. I guess leave anything long enough in the world, and ideas get mixed up and flawed eventually. We are after all only human.

Mahabodi tree and the wall opposite tells the nice stories of Buddha and his magical ways

2) The amazing breakfast at The White House Hotel -- On the last day , 31st of December, we couldn't find any of the many recommended cheap hotels in the lonely planet's guide to Myanmar that still had rooms and the prices were all jacked up for the new years apparently and we were on a strict 10USD budget for a room for the night. Then we stumbled upon this very humble hotel just up a few shops from yet another UNavailable lonely planet recommended hotel called Daddy's Home. Yes i know. And it was for a modest room, with an "outside" shower and toilet, but it was very clean although i tried not to take as many toilet trips or shower trips! Then we soon discovered that this hotel was featured on Discovery Channel for their "amazing breakfast buffet". The buffet we had the next morning on the rooftop was absolutely worth it and was the only thing that saved Yangoon for me. It was a fully vege breakfast with mostly fruits. They had fried rice, and fried potatoes, and papaya juice which was amazing and 10 different types of homemade jams to try. We stuffed ourselves enough to last us for a whole day. And then we climbed even higher for a nice chillin' time on hammocks (first ever for me!) and then even higher for the REAL rooftop filled with plants and just a view of all the other dingy neighbouring buildings rooftops.

3) A meal at Sky Cafe in Sakura Tower -- This was only another one of the lonely planet's recommendation "Take a FREE ride to the top of the tower to get a 360 degree view of the city" . Little did we know that the free, aint so free now. There was a nice cafe/bar/restaurant at the top where the FREE view used to be so we sat ourselves down by a window and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. Unfortunately, after a day of walking around Yangoon looking for recommended places only to discover they've been abandoned, we truly did enjoy being there in the fancy cafe. The had nice beer food to go with the one glass of beer we ordered and we stayed about 4 hours just looking at the view and taking in the atmosphere.

The view from the Sakura Tower, with the Shwedagon Pagoda in the background

With their fancy menus and their prices, and a beer promotion

4) Kandawgyi Lake -- This was also a waste of time. It was deceiving because they had two entrances, and we didnt know the entrance we paid for didn't actually lead to the nice parts of the lake, only the dirty side and when we tried to enter the other side, they insisted we paid an additional 2 USD each but we just didn't want to do that. There is an awesome restaurant on the lake though called Karawek Palace or something like that, that has cultural shows every 6pm but costs a whopping 15 000 Kyats which is just a little under RM 75 each.

The Palace!

It would probably be wise to get a newer edition of Lonely Planet and to not totally believe the prices in there, cause it turned out for us that nothing was as it said in the book. And the Bogjoke Aung San Musuem that we walked half an hour to find had been shut down by the government, because well anything of anything that reminded them about freedom and democracy obviously had to go.

Transportation:

1) Busses -- Good and cheap and plenty around town. There's a bus that goes to almost every part of the town. Getting on the right bus is a whole other story though. Hotel staff, wherever you stay are very helpful though so its wise to ask them to write down the number in the Burmese numbering system of what busses you should take. We took a bus to Kandawgyi Lake and to the airport although we were taken for a ride there. Sule Paya, the pagoda right in the center of Downtown Yangoon is the main waiting area to take bus number 51 to the airport. You would have to sit in a share taxi after the bus ride though but its not even a 10minute ride.

The kids playing on the streets at night! foooottball!

The Sule Paya , dont know why it was covered and we had to pay a donation to enter

2) Taxis-- Expensive. A trip to the airport would cost you about 5 to 7 dollars and a bus only 150 kyats which is only about 75 cents per person. But if you're a good bargainer, then try your skills out.

Food:
1) The best meals are the meals by the side of the road, the ones prepared by hand! Scary, but awesomely delicious. And super cheap, one bowl of noodles would normally cost 300 to 500 kyats. And in almost all their noodles, there's always some kind of beans or peanuts, it was heaven!

An old coffee house with a lot of cakes and biscuits

The sales in Myanmar! =D