Burma bound
With mind sound
Travelling around
With $ and £
We were really keen to visit
Myanmar (Burma) for a long while, generally because the entire Indo China region is
very beautiful (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc) – also, its extremely interesting
to see how Indian influences have been transformed by the cultures in these
places. Now that the new government in Burma has relaxed its controls and opened
up the country, tourists are flocking. We took advantage of Easter Holidays in April 2013 to visit. At least 3-4 people we know travelled
here in previous months, so we were fortunate in getting their trip highlights to follow. With mind sound
Travelling around
With $ and £
Yangon
Our first impressions were rather
charming. The airport looked to be quite decent even though basic and small. We
arrived late in the night, deceived by the sparse traffic on the roads, only to
find the next day that daytime traffic can be painfully choking.
Our hotel, the Savoy, was close to
the key attraction Shwedagon Pagoda, and is done up beautifully with indigenous
handicrafts and paintings and antiques. One really sweet thing is that they
dress up all the statues with jasmine flowers hanging from their ears or neck
or wherever space allows! The atmosphere is very laid back and colonial. They
have some antique pieces like an electric fan that I really loved.
There are other things about Burma
that make it interesting for us Indians. Buddhist influence is very strong: we
were told over 85% of people here are Buddhists. We have a shared history of
the same colonizer, i.e. the British. And it appears we won independence around
the same time, Burma in 1948 vs. us in 1947. The similarities don’t end there.
Our last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was extradited to Burma by the
British where he spent his last days. We saw his mausoleum – a rather nondescript
building. Cant help but feel sad about what the Mughal Empire represented and what an
insignificant end it came to. Similarly, Burma’s last King Thibaw was extradited to
Ratnagiri in India by the British where he died, again, rather insignificantly.
The key difference is our countries’
different paths after independence. Even though we lurched our way through the
last 50+ years of independence, I think we have to seriously congratulate
ourselves that we have managed to maintain the rule of law and a really vibrant
democracy. It may not have given us as quick progress as China, but at the same
time, we have done much better for ourselves than Burma, which started off at
around the same place (lots of valuable raw material like jade, rubies, silks,
etc. but also heroin and other drugs).
I get the impression though that the
Buddhists here are not as peaceful or mild mannered as our stereotypes would
suggest. Lately there has been some violence against the Muslims near Mandalay.
It’s the usual story: the indigenous population unhappy with the immigrants who
probably work harder and smarter and therefore take away opportunities. It was
also interesting that the guides don’t take us to all the places we ask them
to. Is this the government’s way of ensuring that tourists only stay in the
places they expect them to? The guides also seem reluctant to talk about the
king’s descendants who are still living in Myanmar. But they were very happy to
talk about Aung San Suu Kyi, who they refer to as “Our Lady” – never take her name.
We drove by her residence. We saw her home from the backside too: there is
a lake right behind: do you remember the incident wherein an American
surreptitiously swam across this lake to visit her (unbeknowest to her) – and her
house arrest was extended by another year as a result?
Yangon has many an interesting sight
Pagodas display The Buddha's might
Shwedagon needs time not too tight
Cos it's a sight to behold in evening and daylight
Pagodas display The Buddha's might
Shwedagon needs time not too tight
Cos it's a sight to behold in evening and daylight
We saw a number of pagodas and stupas which were rather sadly re-made into very modern styles. The best of all was the Shwedagon Pagoda. The inner complex was beautiful and ethereal: lots of Buddhas with different seating/standing positions and with different mudras. Because we had done the docent course in the Asia Society, we were able to appreciate the finer points of the Buddhist representation, including the Mahayana/Theravada differences, the various hand positions, the typical features of architecture in this region, the disciples names etc. The Burmese names for these are not quite the ones we know in India but very similar: interesting! Not sure if any of you have read stories with Burma in the background: I read Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace - these books always have the Shwedagon in the background. So over a period of time I have developed this image of Shwedagon, and I am happy to say the reality was that and even better: It feels like this Pagoda is the presiding monument benevolently protecting Yangon: you keep looking out for its silhouette at various vantage points in the city, and feel like you get this feeling of security when you can see it. Even more peculiar was what happened to me when we were inside the Shwedagon complex: our guide was really keen to explain everything but I was in no mood to listen at all. I just kept shutting down into myself and wanted to be really quiet to allow the atmosphere and experience to gently wash over me. Or maybe I had had too much of the sun and was really tired. :-)
The food here is also very good:
lots of vegetarian options. They eat a lot of rice here, not much wheat. We had
a tasty thali like meal at a local
joint. They give you lots of little plates of salads and cooked veggies, so we
can try out many options. Severe overeating is eminently possible!!!
Unusually for me, I managed to read a wonderful
travelogue called “The Trouser People” by Andrew Marshall as I travelled
through Burma. The book gives a very good sense of the culture here. And the
choice of words and descriptions are very poetic and evocative: a real
treasure. Funny too!
Another thing that's everywhere is "Burma teak" furniture. Remember how, while growing up in India, people used to refer to Burma teak in hushed tones as the Real McCoy? Out here it's so casually used in furniture. Solid pieces: beautiful! If I could, I would've carted back some pieces for sure.
Another similarity with India (in not such a great way) is betel leaf chewing. People keep eating this and spewing out gobs of red stained spit - marking a number of pavements and walls. Chee!
A third interesting thing that's everywhere is that girls put turmeric/sandalwood like paste (thanaka) on their cheeks and walk around. Apparently keeps them cool. I saw some having gone really overboard and covered their whole face with it: they look like strange and non fearful ghouls: skinny bodies, grinning faces with this weird mask.
I also like the way everyone here wears the national dress rather than pants. Both men and women wear longyis which looks exactly like our lungis. But thankfully I don't see them making it "half mast"...
Another thing that's everywhere is "Burma teak" furniture. Remember how, while growing up in India, people used to refer to Burma teak in hushed tones as the Real McCoy? Out here it's so casually used in furniture. Solid pieces: beautiful! If I could, I would've carted back some pieces for sure.
Another similarity with India (in not such a great way) is betel leaf chewing. People keep eating this and spewing out gobs of red stained spit - marking a number of pavements and walls. Chee!
A third interesting thing that's everywhere is that girls put turmeric/sandalwood like paste (thanaka) on their cheeks and walk around. Apparently keeps them cool. I saw some having gone really overboard and covered their whole face with it: they look like strange and non fearful ghouls: skinny bodies, grinning faces with this weird mask.
I also like the way everyone here wears the national dress rather than pants. Both men and women wear longyis which looks exactly like our lungis. But thankfully I don't see them making it "half mast"...
Yangon is very charming
When the sun is rising
Yangonese are very polite
In the day and in the night
When the sun is rising
Yangonese are very polite
In the day and in the night
You can see our pictures from Yangon in our album here.
Reporting from Inle Lake
After a short flight, we're at Inle Lake without a doubt
Haven't quite begun checking the place out
At the resort we've only just checked-in
And saw this huge umbrella (with a tiny one snuck-in)
Haven't quite begun checking the place out
At the resort we've only just checked-in
And saw this huge umbrella (with a tiny one snuck-in)
On March 31 we set off very
leisurely from Yangon bound for Inle Lake. We sat in this really small plane
with just around 20 seats. Very efficient local bus like operations by Air
Mandalay. Flight was a hopping one, so spent just 20 mins to board a few of us
at Yangon and then we were off. Within an hour we were at Heho, which is the
airport closest to Inle Lake where we were headed. The airport is really cute
and small, almost like a shed. Reminded us of another airport we saw at Kerry
in Ireland many years ago. Most of the local travellers didn’t even have a
carry bag on board. Just a newspaper or some other small effect – so they
literally walked out of the plane and walked away “into the sunset” while we
had to wait for all of…two minutes for our bags. Even our pee took longer than
this!!! We bundled ourselves into the car and we were off.
A quick note about the cars here:
all seem to be Japanese made. We saw Toyota models that we haven’t seen
anywhere else in the world. I was very impressed that the cars on the roads all
look quite clean and non-dented despite the amount of dust here. Also the ac in
the cars work very well and all of them had bottled water to welcome us. The
drivers are really quaint. They wear pristine white full sleeved shirts on top
and a longyi bottom. I read in my
book that Burma used to be left hand side of the road like India (British
influence I suppose) so all the Japanese cars they import have right hand
drive. Suddenly one of the generals was told that it was astrologically bad for
his government for left hand drive and so overnight they changed to driving
right side of the road. Don’t know when this happened, but we noticed that
drivers are not too adept with turning and overtaking with a right hand drive
car and driving on right side of the road – all confusing. (if you remember, in
India we drive on left hand side of road, and driver sits on right)
After a 45 minute drive on a one
track road we were at our resort on Inle Lake, appropriately called…Inle Lake
Resort. This is a typical resort in Asia: has a nice spa, nicely appointed
rooms with balcony overlooking the lake, four poster bed with mosquito net in
colonial style, and people dress up for dinner etc. we lounged around and
relaxed and went to bed early since we had an early day next day.
Next day was April 1st.
We got up bright eyed bushy tailed at 5am to take a boat down the Inle at 7am.
So early in order to visit the local market before the other tourists got
there. There are a number of villages around the Inle Lake composed of many
houses and buildings built on stilts in the water. Feels like an Asian Venice!
We take the boat right upto the house or building and then climb up some
makeshift stairs into the building.
There is a five day local market that
keeps moving from one village to another around the lake. The day we decided to
tour the lake, the market was at the southern most tip village, so we got a
good excuse to have a long ride of about an hour on the river, with a gentle
breeze blowing through our hair and the fishermen still out for their daily
catch before the sun became too hot. The fishing is a little strange: the
fishermen stand on their little boats, one foot on an oar which they use to
paddle or turn the boat this way and that, while their hands are occupied with
their fishing nets. They look a little like those freak tall men on stilts that
we used to see at our school circus. What was really considerate was that our
boatman used to slow down and reduce the engine noise everytime we passed these
fishermen: so respectful of one another’s professions. Quite impressive.
The market was what you may expect:
started off being a market for local produce and the locals, but over time, it
appears that it became more lucrative to sell touristy stuff like jewellery and
trinkets rather than agricultural produce. Nonetheless, it was interesting to
see the kind of things being sold – not much by way of meat. There was a whole
paan stand. Lots of papads – but these were thali (big) size. They were also
selling Indian shampoo. Jaggery, tamarind, other spices most of which we are
familiar with. We took photos of the sellers: many of them wearing fully black
costumes but an extremely colourful headgear on which they carry wicker baskets
of produce. Lots of cute children, some of them manning stalls too. We had
carried some nuts and some pens, so we distributed them here and there.
Then we boated (drove? Floated?
Steered?) to our next destination on the lake: just like in Laos, there is a lot
of cottage industry that thrives in the area. Textiles, silver, paper etc. is
made in small home run factories around the lake. We visited a textile factory:
can you believe it – they make textiles out of lotus stems! We saw the process:
laborious indeed. You need kgs of stems to make one small thread. Better them
than I is what I said…We also visited a silver factory. Burma traditionally had
silver mines but I think they have all been used up over the years, nonetheless
there is still a bit of silver smithy going on here and there. Quite skilled
workmanship. Piece de resistance is a male and female fish which they manage to
construct so that they move like they are swimming, with their fins moving
vertically and horizontally respectively.
An entire ecosystem is Inle Lake
It's rural beauty simply takes the cake
Here, fabric and silver villagers make
From weekly markets, produce they take
It's rural beauty simply takes the cake
Here, fabric and silver villagers make
From weekly markets, produce they take
We had lunch at Inthar Heritage
House, to which is attached a Jumping Cats Sanctuary. Burmese cats are dark
black or brown, but they weren’t jumping at all. All were sleeping or curled up
here and there in complete torpor trying to brave the heat. But the lunch was
great. Salads and starters made out of unusual veggies like spring onions and
green tea leaves! The restaurant also had interesting paintings and artefacts.
The owners were probably people of curious interests: there were lots of books
about cats and herbs in the shelves.
By this time, the sun and the food
had got to us, and we slept most of the way back to the hotel. We relaxed at
the bar, went to a nearby hillock to watch a rather lovely sunset, and then I
came back to the spa for a foot reflexology treatment followed by dinner at our
hotel and another restful night.
Inle Lake Day 2
Was a day of extremes. We began the
day in a very relaxed way with a full body oil massage in the hotel spa. We
then decided to be adventurous and took a boat to the north part of the island
as planned. We hired bicycles and began riding on the dirt track. Initially it
was great fun. We were headed to a winery for lunch and wine tasting but on the
way saw a notice saying “Farmer’s ShanVegetarian Food” pointing to another dirt
track leading into another village. Intrigued, we cycled for 10 minutes and
came upon this shack. It was literally a hut with a big deep freeze. We were
the only guests. We decided to be brave and have our lunch there. The menu
consisted of just one option for lunch, and two options (beer and water) for
drinks. There was only one lady and a child. She began pounding spices after we
came and our hearts sank: how long was this going to take? Amazingly, she put
together a wonderful meal in 20 minutes. Soup with veggie like gourd/winter
melon floating, tomato salad, fried mixed vegetable, tofu curry and rice. We
were so glad we stepped off the beaten track to enjoy this. Her kid was also
very cute with the customary “thanaka” (that sandal like paste) on her cheek: we
distributed some nuts and played a bit of hide and seek with her. I remember
also making the comment that little girls engage with people around a little
more than little boys, who are normally bent on taking apart (ie destroying)
whatever they can get their hands on…
We then went onwards to the winery
and tasted their “Red Mountain” wine. Red wine I think is difficult to make,
but their white and rose wine seemed ok. We had a rather average banana pancake
dessert and were quickly on our way. We were looking for a resort that was
highly recommended by Fodors and my friends who had already been to Burma. This
was the Inle Princess resort, which we had tried to get a booking for but
failed. We thought we would go there for tea. So we cycled. And cycled. And
cycled. There was no resort for miles and miles, but in the process we got
quite an overdose of heat, dust and grime. The so called road was a marked
contrast to what we had been used to seeing in Yangon. One track, muddy in most
parts rather than well concreted, so even though traffic was not huge, the few
buses or tempos or bikes that were plying on the road were churning up the dust
quite significantly.
The Red Mountain Winery is Inle's hidden gem
It's wines and grapes will please Sahib & Mem
It's only a short cycle ride away from town
The views it offers are the jewel in the crown
It's wines and grapes will please Sahib & Mem
It's only a short cycle ride away from town
The views it offers are the jewel in the crown
After a fruitless quest of 2 hours
we returned tail between legs, to the town we borrowed the bicycles from.
Luckily the hotel (Viewtop) where we had taken the bicycles from, had good
bathrooms, so we spent about half hour cleaning ourselves, rehydrated ourselves
with lots of lemon water, and then had dinner in the restaurant upstairs. We
were so tired by then that we could hardly do justice to the food, even though
the dishes were quite interesting: a novelle take on “Shan” (a tribe here)
cuisine. We took a taxi back and literally crawled into bed and that’s all I
have to say about that.
Our pictures from Inle Lake are in this album.
Our pictures from Inle Lake are in this album.
Reporting from Bagan
From Inle to Bagan we have made our way
From lakeside to a place where Pagodas hold sway
Tomorrow, I think, will be a busy day
Looking at heritage up close - bricks, mortar & clay
From lakeside to a place where Pagodas hold sway
Tomorrow, I think, will be a busy day
Looking at heritage up close - bricks, mortar & clay
The next day we sat in another small plane and very efficiently transferred ourselves from Heho Airport (Inle Lake) to Nyaung U (Bagan). We flew via Mandalay. The flight barely took off before it had to land again – only 25 minutes to each destination. We had decided to skip Mandalay because we heard it wasn’t as great as the other destinations, and later, we heard there were some tensions there between the Buddhists and Muslims, so in hindsight, this was probably a good decision. Though for those of us who have read Amitav Ghosh’s “The Glass Palace” Mandalay will always have a romantic association as the truly exotic Orient. It’s probably a boring Asian industrializing city now, so better instead stick with our dreams. Though having said that, I haven’t been too unhappy with Yangon: unlike capital cities of Vietnam and Cambodia, it still has quite a bit of charm and lack of “development” – possibly because Burma was rather closed to the outside world until pretty recently. Also, thankfully the government was not communist, so they seem to have allowed traditions and cottage industry to surivive. In fact they have built many Buddha statues and temples too: admittedly some of them are a bit too “modern” for our liking, but at least its not some monolithic squat ugly square construction spoiling otherwise magnificent views.
Enough of my tirade. Our first
impressions of Bagan – took our breath away. Any visitor to Burma MUST visit
Bagan. Its like the earth just decided to sprout monuments every few seconds.
Felt a bit like Siem Reap in Cambodia. Lots of brick like pagodas (or stupas)
and temples all around. Our resort was only 20 minutes away from the airport.
We freshened up and had dinner in the hotel itself. Another marvelous meal: we
had a thali/bento box type arrangement with different vegetables/salads/curries
and rice, walked around for a wee bit before making it another early night.
The following day, we arranged a
guide and car through the travel desk of our hotel. We started off early at 8am
to avoid most of the sun. Great arrangement: sight seeing until 11am, then
visiting a lacquer factory, then siesta for four hours after lunch and more
sight seeing until sunset. This day was a special day in the village around our
hotel: there were some tiny tiny kids (6 to 10 yrs) being “initiated” – not
sure if its like the Brahmopadesham equivalent that we are familiar with.
Anyway, it’s for boys and girls who are each bedecked and made up and made to
sit on a horse and taken in procession with loud live music accompaniment. They
parade around the village and then go to the monastery for their initiation rites.
The guide told us they are given the choice to be a monk/nun or return to
normal life. The blaring music was through big speakers on a hand drawn cart
with a picture of the Buddha on it: reminded me a lot of the god processions
through the streets we used to witness in Madras when we went there on
holidays.
In Bagan, the day has unfolded with a tranquil dawn
On the banks of the Irrawaddy this lovely morn
Pagodas silently tell the tale of times gone
But like all things in life, Time moves on
On the banks of the Irrawaddy this lovely morn
Pagodas silently tell the tale of times gone
But like all things in life, Time moves on
Then we started our sightseeing in
right earnest. We began with a stupa to see panoramic views, and then visited a
number of temples. There are over 3000
monuments to see, but our guide had chosen the following:
Bulethi
Stupa - for its panoramic views
Shwezigone
Stupa – served as a prototype for most other pagodas including Shwedagon in
Yangon
Gubyaukgyi
Temple – has pictures from Jataka Tales! Modeled after Bodh Gaya I read
Htilominlo
Temple
Ananda
Temple – most holy, to me, most beautiful, seemed to have the most Indian
influence. In fact, the Indian government has donated USD3m for its restoration.
But Ananda does not mean what you think it does: apparently it is derived from
the Sanskrit word “anantapinya” which means “endless wisdom”. Also Buddha’s
first cousin and secretary apparently
Dhammanyangyi
Temple
Shwesandaw
Stupa for sunset views
We had
our fill of Buddha statues. Buddha sitting, Buddha standing, Buddha reclining,
and with different mudras (bhumisparsha, vitarka, abhaya etc. – ask us if you
are interested). Indeed, we actually started educating the guide about Buddha
representation! One interesting aspect we learned was of comparison between
Indian and Burma version of the Buddha. Skip this table if this sounds like
Greek and Latin to you, but very useful in case you do visit Burma.
Indian
Style
|
Burma
Style
|
|
1
|
Ears
don’t touch shoulder
|
Ears
touch shoulder
|
2
|
Fingers
are not all same length but more representative of reality
|
Fingers
are all same length and many times joined up
|
3
|
More
chubby overall
|
More
slim overall
|
4
|
Hair
and head bump (ushnisha) is like jackfruit
|
Hair
is more slicked back
|
5
|
Eyes
look downcast
|
Eyes
look ahead
|
6
|
Can
see knees
|
Cannot
see knees
|
7
|
Use
thin robes
|
More
heavy robes; Mandalay style even more decorative than Bagan style
|
We also
visited a lacquerware factory to see how it was done: lacquerware is everywhere
in Burma: large cottage industry, and some really beautiful artistry done very
painstakingly. Not surprisingly, most of the artists are girls: needs patience
and ability to work with minute designs – perhaps guys don’t have that kind of
patience?
We went
to another wonderful vegetarian restaurant called “Moon Restaurant” for lunch.
This seems to be an institution. Once again we had very exotic food including
tamarind leaf curry with peanuts, papads with guacamole, papaya salad, green
tomato salad etc. likely we will return there for another meal. There are two
other veggie restaurants that have set up in competition around this one, can
you imagine! Repeated dinner at our hotel out of laziness. Hopefully we will
have more initiative tonight.
Burmese food is a culinary delight
Tea Leaf Salad is just so right
Green Tomato salad & Tamarind curry
We ain't forgetting that taste in a hurry
Eggplant Salad with peanuts is yum
Green tea with sesame makes us go mmm
The accompanying coolers are slurp slurp
All in all, it's really tasty! Burp Burp!
Tea Leaf Salad is just so right
Green Tomato salad & Tamarind curry
We ain't forgetting that taste in a hurry
Eggplant Salad with peanuts is yum
Green tea with sesame makes us go mmm
The accompanying coolers are slurp slurp
All in all, it's really tasty! Burp Burp!
A word
here on water and rest rooms. Very thoughtfully there are earthenware pots like
matkas placed everywhere along the road even in remote villages for the general
public to slake their thirst: haven’t seen this anywhere else. Very socially
aware populace it appears. On washrooms: we keep visiting them with some dread,
but although some are rather basic, they have been maintained quite spotlessly
clean. Oftentimes I feel a nation’s culture is exhibited by the state of their
toilets…
Our picture album from Bagan can be viewed here.
Our picture album from Bagan can be viewed here.
On Mount
Popa
To Mount Popa we went and climbed steps aplenty
Prayed to deities for a world less argumenti
You may wonder: What?!? Why so senti??
Maybe it's the Myanmar effect, please dont be offendi
Prayed to deities for a world less argumenti
You may wonder: What?!? Why so senti??
Maybe it's the Myanmar effect, please dont be offendi
It
seemed to be a cloudy day, so while the views from the top looked promising,
truth be told we didn’t see too clearly or visibly. Nonetheless, we had the
time and were glad of the exercise. Makes us feel less sinful when we hog all
this lovely food. From there we went to a Mount Popa Resort for lunch which was
really average compared to all the yummy food we have been accustomed to here.
It was good to sit out al fresco though. We are trying hard to do as much outdoor
dining as we can given the lack of it in Hong Kong.
Came
back for our customary siesta. At 5:30pm we set out again for a boat cruise
down the famous Irrawaddy River to view the sunset. It is all that the books
promise and more. Not too many tourists, so apart from a few luxury liners
parked along the shore, ours was one of maybe 10 boats in the river. The
boatman took us to a point in the middle of the river, switched off the engine,
and then we had 20 minutes of silence in the middle of the Irrawaddy, the
setting sun on one side, the silhouttes
of the pagodas and payas on the other, and the gentle swish swish of the water
lapping against the boat, with a few birds flying in formation back to their
nests. Was a very meditative moment for me. Very restful indeed.
We came
back onshore once the sun had set and set off to another restaurant we had
heard about called Star Beam café where we had amazing French baguettes and
mint lemonade apart from the traditional Myanmar food like eggplant salad and
tea leaf salad. Walked back to the hotel past the ghostly temple structures:
lovely evening walk.
Next day
was agenda less. We wanted to get as much of our fill of the pagodas here, so
went out for a walk again this morning to see early morning scenes of Bagan:
the people walking to work with tiffin boxes (indian style) in the hands or on
their heads, devotees going to the temple for early morning prayers, sellers of
thanaka, flowers and other small items for the temple, and horse cart drivers
looking for passengers: as always its really interesting to see a city come to
life.
We flew
out to Yangon and Hong Kong over the next 24 hours. It was a wonderful trip and
I highly recommend Burma as a place to visit before the tourist hordes become
too much. Perhaps we could have squeezed it in 6 days but spending 2.5 days at
each place made it truly relaxing. Burma reinforces our love of the Indochine
region including Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos: glimpses of things we find
familiar, and yet different. A perfect holiday.
And here's a glimpse of our Faces of Myanmar
Visit the Vixabs Wanderlust page for other trip descriptions.
And here's a glimpse of our Faces of Myanmar
Visit the Vixabs Wanderlust page for other trip descriptions.
1 comment:
Vikas
Very interesting. Sounds wonderful but more importantly great to see the effort you have taken to write this up and provide the links.
- Vivek Shinde
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