Well, it’’s been nearly two weeks since we arrived in Myanmar and we are now back in Yangon, sitting in the same internet cafe we were in when we made our last post. I”ll try and summarise what we”ve been up to…

Saying goodbye to Yangon
Yangon is a strange city. When we first arrived it was kind of overwhelming - small narrow roads packed with strange smells, hundreds of people and grid-locked traffic. However, after you escape the city centre, the whole place opens up and it’’s actually a pleasure to stroll around the streets, explore the multitude of markets or just gaze at the crumbling buildings. Nevertheless, despite our initial love of the place, we knew we didn”t have much time in the country and if we were going to see anything other than Yangon, we needed to get a move on, pronto! Next stop… Bagan.

Bagan
Wow, what can I say? The temples of Bagan are amazing! I know everyone raves about Angkor Wat but, to be honest, Bagans where the temple”ings to be had - and I don”t care if that’’s not a real word.

True, Bagans temples can”t really compete with those of Angkors in regards to size but, as a collective whole, Bagans temples win hands down. Climb to the top of any of the taller structures and the view will blow you away - hundreds of temples, some grand, some ruined, dotted over a flat barren plain for as far as the eye can see. It might sound boring, but it was actually one of the most breathtaking sights I”ve ever seen.

The town of Bagan itself is nice enough, just a quite dusty. You can see that they”ve created the infrastructure to support mass tourism - evident in the unnamed ”foreigner food” road that currently stands empty - but things haven”t quite kicked off yet.

That said, you do see quite a few ”white faces”, but many are older folks on package tours. Compared with the other countries we”ve visited, we have met very few people our own age. The older tourists are nice enough, you just grow to resent their giant air-con coaches - one minute you”re sitting alone upon a lone temple when, from nowhere, the dreaded ”white coach” appears and quickly unloads 30 people who all want to share your Kodak moment.

Mandalay
Our next stop was Mandalay and, for this trip, we ditched the bus in favor of a boat. As it turned out, this was perhaps the best single idea I”ve ever had, ever. The boat was fantastic, there were no leg-space issues and the scenery was, for once, actually interesting. The only slight bummer was that we had to share the boat with a large French tour group (bummer because they were a large tour group, not because they were French), but there was enough room for everyone so no one had to die.

The hours ticked past fairly quickly and before we knew it we arrived in Mandalay. Well, we were pretty sure we had arrived in Mandalay although, thanks to a power cut, we had to take the captains word for it. Seriously, it was dark. The Burmese are used to the sketchy power and seem to be able to continue their life without the luxury of light. I however could see nothing and still have no idea how our taxi found our hotel.

The next day we hired two tri-shaw drivers to take us on a guided tour of the city. As is turned out, these two drivers were not only good guides… they were also the nicest people in South East Asia. They were so nice that we became convinced they were somehow going to scam us… but they never did. We talked tons and they told us all about their lives, their hopes and their feelings towards the *ahem* government. Honestly, they were really great guys and the made our time in Mandalay a highlight of our travels in both Myanmar and Asia generally.

Inle Lake
It’’s funny… Although we see quite a few tourists around, we never EVER seem to meet any on the mammoth bus journeys we undertake. The trip to Inle Lake was no exception, although it would have been nice to have some company on this nightmare(ish) bus ride. Thinking back it wasn”t really that bad, although there were a few points during the ride when I questioned whether I really wanted to see a big lake. Let me explain…

Thanks to a brief but powerful shower 2 hours before our departure, every main road in Mandalay became flooded and, unsurprisingly, traffic jams began to develop. Indeed, in the first 3 hours of our journey we travelled, and I”m not exaggerating, about 2 kilometers. It wouldn”t have been that bad, but we were on a hot and sticky non-aircon bus and the fumes from the traffic around us were terrible. Things should have picked up once we started to move but the lady behind us had other plans… Oh the vomiting was never-ending. Every time the bus turned a corner she puked, every time we hit a bump she puked… hell, every time anything happened she puked. What really pissed me of was that when she wasn”t puking, she was trying to make herself puke.

Actually, this happens a lot. I can honestly say that I haven”t been on a long distance bus ride in Myanmar without at least one person puking. But they don”t help themselves… if they stop puking, you can bet your life that at the next rest stop they will order a large plate of eggs, or something else puke inducing, and then seem surprised when the puking returns.

Once we became accustomed to the sounds of puking, gagging, and spitting, things seemed to be plain sailing… WRONG! The last part of the trip was on a small mountain road that was never designed to accommodate a large bus. As such, we literally crawled along, inch by inch, for the next 4 hours. There was excitement on every turn as the bus rocked from side to side and a man stood outside to warn the driver incase the bus was about to tip. The puke woman, who had been silent for a few hours (asleep or dead, no one cared) suddenly decided to show her dissatisfaction with the road conditions by doing what she did best - PUKING! I began wishing the bus would tip, preferably off a cliff. We made it in the end though.

Ok… no time left to finish this of but, to sum things up, Inle Lake was nice, lots of water, and we”re now back in Yangon. We fly back to Bangkok on the 26th before heading south into Malaysia. I will put some pictures up soon (too slow in Myanmar) and will try and keep the site updated.

Okay, don”t get too excited but I”ve uploaded some Myanmar pictures. Click here to have a look.

Categories: South East Asia
Tags: Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay, Myanmar