Yangon, Taungoo & Bagan - Myanmar
I took a 6am flight out of Kuala Lumpur and flew directly to Yangon., Myanmar. Myanmar was the first country, on this trip, that requires some pre-arrival legwork. In order to enter Burma you must present at immigration a visa that has been pre-approved. It was a relatively smooth process, but from what I have read it wasn't always as simple. The borders of Myanmar had been closed off to almost everyone up until 2012, so international travelers are still relatively new here. The moment I exited the plane I immediately began to feel the heads turn. It is clear that they aren't used to seeing foreigners (especially westerns), but more shockingly is a foreigner of my stature. I quickly grabbed a cab and then got a nice warm welcome from Yangon traffic. Yangon is the largest city in the country, with a population of ~ 5 million. I got dropped off at my "hostel" and then spent 10 minutes actually looking for the door. Hostels are not really a common practice in Burma, as they technically weren't legal till some time in the last year or so. I found a dingy stairwell that seemed to be the right address and walked up two stories to find the door I was looking for. The place itself was very clean, but they were in the middle of a power outage and I also was about 6 hours too early for check-in. A young man was there to greet me, pointed me to a dark bathroom I could change in and told me I could leave my bags with him. I quickly put in my contacts, grabbed my wallet and headed out. The first stop was to walk to the nearby Sule Pagoda, which is a large pagoda/temple in the heart of downtown Yangon. I walked around there and the neighboring park for a couple hours and then grabbed a taxi to the largest and most famous pagoda in the country, Shwedagon. It is massive and stands at 115 meters tall., with surrounding temples and religious structures. It was similar to the Grand Palace in Thailand, but it felt less touristic, in that there were many Burmese who visit regularly. I wore shorts, but since they teetered around my kneecap, I was required to put on a paso (longyi), which is traditional garb for men. Almost all men where this specific type of dress, I was just impressed they had one that fit me. It took about 2 hours to thoroughly view it all and then I grabbed another taxi back to the city to find some food. Once in the streets of Yangon, this is where things definitely got interesting. I became the attraction that day. I was constantly being stopped by strangers to compare foot size or see where their heads came up to on my body. Every so often someone with a camera phone would ask for a picture and so forth. I managed to find a really great Indian restaurant where the food was cheap and plentiful. I got a vegetable curry for 1000 Kyat, which is under $1, but it was unlimited. I finished my bowl and a boy would come around and fill it back up. Once I had eaten I wandered back to my lodging, only to realize I had been followed home by a few locals. I know they were harmless, but it was slightly off-putting to say the least. Once I motioned for them to leave me alone, I went inside and relaxed for a few hours. After a little down time I ventured back out into the busy streets to see what I could do. I ended up just walking to a bar that had tables out on the street and sat with a couple local men, who asked me to sit down. We had some beers (~$.80 ea) and spoke in a lot of broken English and charades. I didn't understand more than 50% of what we discussed, but one of them worked as an electronic repairman and the other worked in the restaurant. It was a fun way to wrap up the day.
On day 2 I found the Bogyoke Aung San market, which is basically a large indoor market that sells sandals, longyi()s, wooden carvings and other garments. The vendors all sell a variation of the same goods, so in reality it is just the same stand over and over again. I got a little tired of the constant head ducking and head turning, so I decided to just take to the streets and find a different part of the city to wonder in. Yangon is definitely very busy, with a lot of action happening outside on the walkways. Thousands of vendors selling street foods, fresh fruits, cheap cellphones, you name it. It is worth a trip just to see how the people live their daily lives. I grabbed lunch at a Nepalese restaurant that only served vegetarian. Myanmar shares 5 borders, so it is truly a melting pot of cultures. It shares a border with China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Laos; which makes it a great place to find amazing food from all over. I went back to the same spot as the night before and found a couple of German girls to talk with, who had also been traveling southeast Asia. The city really winds down quite early, so each night I was in Yangon I was able to get to bed at a really reasonable hour.
In the morning I woke up and booked a ticket to Taungoo. Taungoo is definitely off the beaten path, but I knew I didn't want to spend another night in Yangon, and wanted to see more of the country. The trip to Taungoo is 6 hours, and you can only travel on local buses, none of the nicer VIP buses travel there. It was an experience to say the least. I was the only foreigner on the bus, not a single person spoke English, and I hadn't booked any accommodation (I assumed I could find a place in the city center, wrong.) The bus was crowded and uncomfortable, but once we hit hour 5 I knew it would be over soon, except when the driver started gesturing at me to identify where I should be dropped off. I had not one iota of a plan, as to where to stay, so I literally just pointed to the side of the road and got off next to a woman selling betel quid packets (Burmese version of dip/chewing tobacco, really gnarly habit). I sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do, because I didn't see anywhere offering accommodation and I didn't have a name of a hotel as a point of reference. The skies parted and a very nice/broken English speaking man name Hein Thu stopped on his motorbike to lend a helping hand. He helped secure my pack to his bike and told me to hop on. He took me to a nearby hotel offering rooms w/ free breakfast for about $19. It was more expensive than what I was expecting, but that is actually almost all accommodation in Myanmar. I paid for a room, dropped off my bag and found Hein Thu still sitting on his bike. He offered to take me around to the different sites (only about 3 in Taungoo) for 4000 kyat. I had no plans and no mode of transportation, so I quickly thanked him and got back on his bike. He took me to the 2nd largest pagoda in Myanmar, which was very cool and had absolutely no one there, with the exception of a few local woman providing flowers for donations. The next stop was to a very scenic park, but as we were pulling in the rain started to fall, so we went to a small group of tables and had a beer. Once the rain stopped he took me to the local market, but it was overwhelming because I couldn't take two steps without being swarmed by vendors/buyers. They had never come across someone my size, so I spent most of my time smiling and trying to avoid hitting my head. Two hours later, Hein Thu had dropped me back off at my hotel and I just hung out on the hotel property. They had some nice sitting areas with a decent wifi connection, plus free water and tea. I booked a return ticket back to Yangon for the morning and then from there an overnight bus to Bagan. The bus on the way home was equally as crummy, but it had 2x as many people as seats, plus 4 roosters.
I ended up spending three nights in Bagan, because the city itself it unlike anything I have ever seen. It feels like the entire city has been completely preserved, with the exception of places to eat and sleep. It contains many local villages and over 2000 Buddhist temples. The first day I arrived from Yangon at 4am, so myself and a girl I met on the bus opted to grab a taxi, to a temple, to view the sunrise. I was completely worn out, but from what I was told it was the best time to do it, because you are already up! We ended up going to one of the temples known for its sunrise./sunset, so it was great to check it off the list, but ultimately the view was spectacular. Once the sun had risen over the landscape we grabbed our taxi driver and made our way to the hostel. We were hours premature for check-in, so we grabbed some breakfast, showered and then rented motor bikes. We wandered the entire city for close to 10 hours. The hostel offered a map, but it did not cover all the tiny dirt paths that you can meander along, which lead to other temples/pagodas not identified on the map. With the exception of one wrong turn leading to a literal sand field, which took 40 minutes to traverse, we had a great ride. It was a great opportunity to see some real old world culture that hasn't been so altered as to lose its history.
The second day I met a group of 6 people, who chartered a van to take them to Mount Popa. They had space in the vehicle, so I tagged along for the ride. It took about 2 hours to get there, and then it was approx. 25 minute walk up the stairs to the top of the temple. The temple sat on top of this cliff that stands in the center of the city. The views were pretty fantastic all the way around, so we spent a decent amount of time up there just enjoying the lookout. We climbed back down and then drove to the top of another mountain, so we could view the temple at a distance. The resort at the top was amazing and I honestly wished we had brought our bags, because I was up for staying (it was expensive, but clean and beautiful). Once we had all taken our pictures, we headed back to Bagan. We all took an hour nap or so, then headed to grab a late lunch/early dinner. Once we finished we went to one of the temples, we had seen the previous day, to watch the sunset. The view and the company were great. We road back to the hostel for trivia and then called it a night. The city has an 11pm curfew, so there aren't many things to do after sunset, luckily the hostel tries to provide some type of activity each evening.
On my final day I took a motor bike ride to a neighboring village where they make all things out of laquer. It was a very interesting and tedious process to make these pieces of art, but I wasn't looking to buy anything. I paid $4 to use the pool of at a nearby hotel and just then spent the day reading my book. In the evening I hung out with some people at the hostel and then grabbed the morning bus from Bagan to Inle Lake (more to come on that).
Neill
See photos here.
