Bagan, Hpa – An and Mawlamyine : Pagodas and Buddha everywhere !!

Bagan is one of the most famous places in Myanmar. In a 42km2 zone, more than 2200 temples and Stupas are standing. All were built between the 9^th and the 13^th century. It is the biggest Buddhist place of the world.

A lot of temples have been damaged by several earthquakes (the last one in 1975) but the UNESCO, some countries and other organisms try to restore this place!

 It is very pleasant to take a bicycle and ride in the middle of all these pagodas, but what is the most stunning part of it is to climb one of the temple and discover thousands of stupas all around you ! Sunrise and sunset are the best time to look at this place! Especially in the early morning when all hot air balloons fly above the temples!!! Even if you’re not a Buddhist you can feel the spirituality of Bagan!

We finished our trip in Myanmar in two cities south of Yangon: Hpa- An and Mawlamyine. The first city is well known for its natural caves used as temples and decorated with many golden Buddha and sculptures and the second town has the longest lying Buddha of the world. One finger toe is as tall as I am!!!

Romain tried also the national sport : Chilon. This sport is played with a 12 cm ball in rattan. There are several versions of the game: The Burmese traditional one is played with 6 men in a circle. During 5 inutes they have to pass the ball 30 times only using feet or legs. They have penalties if they use their head or if the ball hurts the ground!

In the Thai version,(the one Romain played with the children) : the Takraw : the 6 players are divided in 2 teams separated by a net. They have to make points in the opposite field. The team can only pass the ball 3 times before sending it to their competitors! Head and chest can be used to send the ball! It was really nice to play with children met few minutes before!!!

But after 25 days surrounded by Buddha and stupas, we are glad to see something else ;-) ! Let’s go to Bangkok and its French school! 

Mandalay : the Tek city

To go to Mandalay we took the train from Hsipaw. What an amazing journey! 7 hours for…120 km! And it isn’t a « quiet » journey ! The train is moving from left to right and from right to left every times ! Fortunately we travel in upper class and at least we had comfortable seats. We chose the train only to see (and cross) the Gkteik bridge: it was built in 1901 by the British; it is the highest bridge in Myanmar and at the time of its building it was the highest rail bridge in the world. Even if the bridge was (is) repaired, the train goes very very slowly on it! It’s beautiful!

After that, we spent 2 days in Mandalay, the first one with a hired taxi shared with Moché, an Israeli met before; and the second day with a bicycle! We saw the well known U Bein bridge: the longest tek bridge of the world, and we also visited different temples, monasteries and pagodas! In a tek monastery we saw young monks playing with rubber bands and trying to shoot a wood stick on the ground!!! They shoot very well! Some of them were attending class: 3 levels in the same place: when one class is having a music lesson and the others are learning Maths, it can be very loud….!!!  

Hsipaw : a visit in the Shan region !

To stay fit, we went to Hsipaw to make a 2-days trek. With Sai our guide and 5 other hikers, Iva from Australia, Seb, Delphine 1, Delphine 2 and Bertrand from France, we walked in the Shan countryside! Shan is one of the tribes which live in Myanmar. Its language is similar to Thai and themselves, they say they are Thai. After hiking and passing through several villages we stopped in a school: All pupils in the same room!!! That’s really noisy and loud…

As the teacher for the younger ones was absent, we try to “discuss” with the children; they were really impressed by my necklace made with camel teeth!!! They understood it is made of teeth but we don’t think they know they come from a camel…! At least we had fun together ;-)

At night, we were hosted by a Shan family who cooked a traditional meal. Rice, several vegetable curries, tea leaves salad and tofu chips! Ery good but very oily!!!

We spent a nice evening together, doing some “Light painting” (we will show you what it is later…) and chatting about everything and nothing! After that, good night, we were tired of the day!

The second day was easier, we walked only downwards and we had a bath in hot springs!!! We also had a delicious smoothie and a warm shower!!!

In Hsipaw we also met an incredible woman : Fern: She is the niece of the last Shan Prince and is now taking care of the Shan palace. The palace has nothing special but its history is really impressive to understand the political situation of the country.

Sao Kya Seng, the Shan prince, lived in this palace and had married an Austrian woman met in the USA during his studies. The life in the palace was nice but after the military pouch in 1962 the prince disappeared.. He was arrested by the army and sent in prison from where he could send a message to his wife. When all prisoners were free, the prince didn’t come home. The princess asked the government to give her a death certificate of her husband and wanted some explanation but the government did not recognize anything. They even said, that they never arrested the prince…

Because of the situation in the country, the princess and her 2 daughters left the country and find a place (as refugees) in the USA. Every year the spouse of the prince sent request to Myanmar to give her a letter recognizing the death of her husband. No answer came, except one letter with interdiction to come again to Myanmar!

The story could have stop here, but what Fern told us after, made us think about the political situation of Myanmar: from 1995, Fern and her husband Donald were used to welcome visitors in the palace to tell them about the tragedy of the Shan family; but in 2005, Donald was arrested and condemned to 13 years of prison because “he didn’t have a tourist license”. Of course it was only a pretext to arrest him: Few months before, in 2005, a meeting was organized to write the new Shan constitution. Donald was supposed to attend this meeting but his wife was in hospital and he was with her; so the army couldn’t arrest him because of the meeting and had to find another “reason”…

Visits stopped, because Fern was afraid to be arrested too and needed to see her husband once every two weeks. 4 years later, to show the whole world that Myanmar was a fair and democratic country, the government granted amnesty to 4000 prisoners. Luckily Donald was one of the 4000. He was free but had to stay in the palace with interdiction to speak to foreigners!

Since 2012, visits have started again and the couple explains its history to everyone who wants to hear it. And without being too “direct”, you can feel that they are against the government… Myanmar has still many progresses to do before becoming a real democracy and the country needs people like Fern and Donald to make the things change!!! Let’s see next year if the new election will bring some good news for the country…

Inle Lake : Life on the water

After 10 hours in a “frozen” bus (aircon was set on the lowest temperature), we arrived in Inle Lake. This big lake is famous for its traditional fishermen who use a net made of bamboo to fish!

After a “day off” to rest (that we also used to book our flight ticket to Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Easter Island, and Chile), we rented bikes to go around!! When we passed in front of the winery we couldn’t resist!!! But the wine was not really good (and the quantities too small)… but they had blue cheese… And I love it!!! (Romain preferred garlic bread…)

The next morning we did a boat ride on the lake. A whole life is organized on the lake. Houses built on stilts, with canals instead of streets and boats instead of cars are everywhere on the lake. Even the gardening is made on the water…a real floating garden! The market is also on boats! (Unfortunately we couldn’t see it because it was full moon and there is no market on full moon)

During our tour we also visited many temples, pagodas and monasteries, but also a lot of small handmade shops. Do you know that lotus is used to make string and then fabrics that are sold 7 times more than silk???

We met « long neck women », these Burmese women wear big necklaces which give an impression of a very long neck. It was astonishing to see them “in live” but we think that these women were only “paid to be long neck women” so that tourists can buy their cotton scarves…

Our tour ended with a cigar factory made with banana leaves, and filled with tobacco mixed with anise and other plants or spices!

 Even if the visit of the lake is very touristic, we really enjoyed it and we highly recommend it !

Bago : New games for our collection

We went to Bago, a city well known for its temples, monasteries and pagodas…But the entrance fees are 10 $ each!!! And as we will see other religious sites later, we preferred to visit a local school!!!
It is not easy to be understood in Myanmar… But we were lucky to meet a mother who speaks a little bit English. She helped us to explain our project to the head master and as usual we spent a great time with the children.

The oldest ones were busy, so we went in the classroom of the younger ones. In one single room, 3 classes sat on the floor. The oldest ones (6 years old) showed us 2 new games! In the first one, children make a circle. One player is inside the circle and one is outside. The circle sings and turns. The player outside of the circle has to catch the player inside. He can do what he wants: stay outside or go inside the circle, but the one inside the circle cannot go outside. It is funny to look at, but it is not clearly “organized”! 

In the second game, children make a column and hold each others’ shoulders. One player is alone, facing the column. He has to catch the last child of the column without getting caught by the others! Again, a lot of laughs in the classroom!! But nothing compared to the noise they made when we explained (and demonstrated) them the game “I lost a letter”!!! They really enjoyed it!!! (at least as much as we did!!)

Last but not least, we took the traditional group picture and them we let them learn… The head master offered us some drinks and we discussed for a while. School is free and mandatory in Myanmar but we noticed something (we didn’t dear to talk about it): There are as many girls and boys in the young classes but when we looked at the oldest class (10 years old), only few girls attended the lesson… And unfortunately we saw a lot of young girls working on the street market! We cannot make any conclusion, as it is only an observation but it is a point to consider!!!

Hmm, well, I guess you want to know why the children have some “make –up” on their faces? Actually it is not “make-up”, it is called “Thanaka”. Thanaka is used to protect the skin against the sun, the heat… but it is also an antiseptic, a deodorising and a perfume… We thought it was like clay but it is made of…. Wood!!! This “medicinal” wood is transformed into powder by shredding it against a rock. This powder is humidified and you get the Thanaka. Everyone use it, women, men and children! 

 

Yangon and Kinpun : Welcome to Myanmar

Hey, sorry fo the late update but internet in Myanmar is like trying to find French Cheese with row milk....very difficult ;-) 

Even if everybody still think about « Burma », this country has a new name (Myanmar) since 1989. (Because Burma only refers to one tribe, and there are more than 100). Myanmar is “free” since 1948… the word « independent » is more appropriated because the government is still in the hands of the army !

After these few geo political explanations, let’s go back to our adventure ! We arrived in Yangon (before called Rangoon but it was the British name and after the independency, the country changed the name), which is not anymore the capital of Myanmar (Now it’s Napyidaw). Like most big cities, there is a lot of noise, of traffic (even if Yangon didn’t seem “traffic jammed”) and “few” sightseeing! (Thus the colonial area is nice to visit)

But discovering  the Schwedagon Pagoda is worth it. It is the most sacred site of the country. The pagoda is 99 meters high, covered by gold and incrusted with thousands of diamonds, rubies and sapphires. Hundreds of Buddha, a lot of gold and a peaceful place. We enjoy this visit even if the LED- aureole are a bit “too much”!

After these 2 days in the noise, we took a bus to the “Golden Rock”. The Golden Rock is located on the top of Mount Kyaiktiyo and it is also a sacred site for pilgrims. A 7,6 meter tall rock with a pagoda on top stands on the edge of the mountain at 1100 meters above sea level. The legend says that this rock only stands because of a Buddha’s hair. Male pilgrims put gold leaves on the rock.

We could have climb to the rock but we took the local way to go: a big truck where 50 people are put in…. Very funny!!! 

Thailand - Celebration of the festival of Lights (Loy Krathong)

Thailand was not on our “travel map” (As we’ve been there 2 years ago) but our Indian via was expiring just before the festival of Lights. And as we had to fly through Bangkok to go to Myanmar, we decided to make a 10 day stop in Thailand and explore the North.

First we went to Chiang Mai where Loy Krathong is very well celebrated. This festival occurs each year at the 12th full moon of the Thai calendar. “Loy” means “to float” in Thai. Like the tradition says, people put some “krathongs” on the water. A “krathong” is a small floating boat made with banana leaves and decorated with flowers, a candle and 3 incense sticks. The meaning of this boat is to abandon your fears, your anger and your resentment… to be free from all your negative and hard feelings accumulated during the year. Putting a Krathong in the water is a good way to well start the year. Candle is here to honour Buddha.

The origin of Loy Krathong is to be find in the Hindu festival Diwali which celebrates and honours the Goddess of the Ganges. During that festival, people put candles on the Ganges. 

In Chiang Mai there is also a specific tradition : people launch hundreds of lanterns in the sky: this paper balloons, heated by a candle, go high in the sky like hundreds of stars. It is also a good time to have fun with fireworks and crackers! 

Loy Krathong is celebrated during several days (between 3 and 6 depending on where you are) and is accompanied with parades, and dancers, all dressed with traditional clothes and lights of course !

We really enjoyed being in Chiang Mai because it remembered us our first holidays in this country and it was like a « test » for our world trip !

We also spend time with Emeric, Romain’s colleague who also took few months off to travel ! 

We then spent our few last days in the North of the country. In Chiang Dao we did a short jungle trek but most important, we met really nice people : Michel and Jennifer, a Dutch couple and Martin and Sarah, a Swiss couple. Together we had fun, played billiard, drunk cocktail (with moderation…), and had a bath in hot springs !

In Chiang Rai we were amazed by the beauty of the White Temple. It is a modern temple with traditional aspects! Incredible how incredible it is!!

We flew from Chiang Rai to Yangon in Myanmar but until the last moment we were really scared… In fact, we read “too quickly” the Myanmar Immigration website and we thought we could get our visa on arrival. But 3 days before our flight, we checked again and we realized that this visa on arrival was not for tourism purpose! We did our application for an E-visa, but this can take up to 5 days… The day of our flight, we didn’t receive the confirmation of our visa, so we flew to Bangkok and we were almost going to cancel the next flight to Myanmar but just at the airport we received our E visas! Wahoo, that was short but we got it!!!

See you then in Myanmar!!!