Details of my trip to Burma, part 1

I had planned to spend Christmas in Canada, something I haven't done since I left--6 years already! Two weeks before the holidays, an altercation at work made me decide to resign from this school. I love Singapore and SAS, but there has to be a place out there where I won't feel like my boss is out to get me....

So this means I will probably have to go to Boston for a recruitment fair (www.search-associates.com). I tried to get into the Bangkok recruitment fair, but it was full and past the deadline to register. It would have been the best fair to attend to stay in Asia. Back to the topic: if I fly to Montreal and then fly to Boston not even 6 weeks later, that's major $$$.... Better to just call the whole thing off and travel locally for the holiday, then spend my hard-earned cash to fly to the States in February. That's when I decided to go to Myanmar, before tourism messes up the country even more! To find out more about why "the decision to travel to Myanmar should not be taken lightly", check out http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/myanmar and scroll down.


I flew into Rangoon (also Yangoon, so confusing!) and spent the first day just strolling around. Went to see my first sunset at a temple, something I did every dusk during my stay in the Northern part (12 days). I met a "novice" there (a young monk--17 years old). We chatted for a few hours and I finally left him behind because I was getting serious hunger pangs! Next day, more strolling and I arranged for tickets to Mandalay for the next morning.

Mandalay was "OK", but nothing great. I started my day meating yet ANOTHER monk during sunset at a temple (what is it with these teenage monks and women travelling by themselves???). We chatted for quite a while. He invited me back to his school--7000 students!!! but not all monks---where I visited their new free clinic, catering to whomever needed medical care. I also taught an impromptu English class, which was quite fun. I was commenting to the headmaster (OLD monk) that Owen's English (my new young friend) was quite good. He said that Owen wasn't shy and that enabled him to learn many things. I was asked what I was doing the next day and was offered Owen as a guide, in exchange for a meal and a lot of English conversation. Wow, best offer I had had since my arrival! We had a great day and Owen knew many things about his country, both historically and politically (who knew these monks would be so political?). Here's a picture of him the day we met.

My last evening in Mandalay, I went to see a traditional puppet show. It was pretty cool; once in a while, they would pull up the panel hiding the puppeteers, so you could see them manipulating the strings and all. Next morning, I left at 5 am to take the ferry down to Bagan. This took the whole day and I was FREEZING! ---I don't know how if I'll ever be able to live in a cold country again; I'm such a wuss when it comes to the cold! Anyway, beautiful views of the life on the river and towards our arrival points, we could see the outline of Bagan's ancient site on the banks of the river.

I spent 5 days in Bagan. I would say most tourists spend 2 or 3 days there, but how do they take in this wonderful place in such a short time? I even brought a book along and would find a deserted temple, sit and read. It was just a magical place to be. Bagan is said to have had 13 000 temples built between 1100 and now. About 2200 are left.

"There are two preeminent ancient religious cities in Southeast Asia: Bagan in Burma and Angkor in Cambodia. Both sites are notable for their expanse of sacred geography and the number and size of their individual temples. For many visitors Bagan is the more extraordinary of the two cities and this because of the view. The ruins of the more than one hundred Angkor temples stand alone and isolated in thick jungles, and only from the top of the tallest temples it is not possible to see others in the distance. Sprawling across a vast dusty plain, the ruins of Bagan are unhidden. There being no trees to obstruct the view, one may gaze over forty square miles of countryside, upon literally thousands of temples. (from: http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/burma/bagan.html) I don't know if this picture actually gives you a clue of how many temples are out there.... If you look between the temple at the center of the picture and the temple on the right, what you see in the background is not an outline of trees, but the outline of more temples, stupas and pagodas.


You can see a few of my Bagan pictures in the next posting (I put them there yesterday, so just scroll down). I have hundreds of picture, but these are just a few. If you want more, just let me know and I'll put them on Kodak Gallery.

My last destination before heading to the beach was Inle Lake. Sadly, I had to change my plane ticket and only had 24 hours in Inle, so it was a mad rush to see what I wanted to see! After landing, I found a cheap homestay, dumped my stuff and hired a boat and a guide. He took me all around the lake, where I saw the fishermen, the temples and floating markets, the long-neck women, etc., etc. Wonderful day and I was exhausted when I hit the sack. Next morning was so cold that I would not have been surprised to open the door to my room to see some snow on the ground. Hohoho?! Argh, why did I only bring a thin sweater???