THE BEARD
REPORT PT.1
Well well well.....
Hey all and big what’s ups all round, finally returned to a (semi) sane world
after 28 days that is the world of Myanmar. First up big apologies to
everyone that emailed me over the last month, email is virtually non-existent
in Burma,
and if its available its expensive and infuriatingly slow, not to mention the
governments trend to read and censor all outgoing emails, so I haven’t checked
my mail since then. I shall be spending the entire afternoon in this stinky
cafe replying to you all, so I hope your happy.
Now, let me give you all a brief, brief (but I know its gonna be way to long)
rundown on a few things we got up to in the 'golden land'.
You all heard the dramas with our visa, but after camping outside the embassy
at 3am we got one that afternoon, and flew out the next day to Yangon (Rangoon). First
impression of Myanmar?
Well, considering we walked through the airport without a single security or
baggage check (actually, we had far more security measures at the movies,
but more on that later) and straight into the back of a rusty 1970 Nissan sunny
(taxi) Id say it was interesting. Yangon is
dirty, filthy and smog filled. As we stepped out of the taxi I noticed several
men waist deep in the sewers, shovelling out mounds of black sludge by the
truckload. Mmmmmmmm.
After one day there we left on a lovely 18 hour bus ride up to a town called
Kalaw, an old British colonial hill station 1800 m above sea level. Now, the
roads in Myanmar
definitely leave something to be desired for, and it was the first of many
bumpy, shitty rides (you'll be happy to know mum that the china buses still
take no.1 shitty spot). Kalaw was a cool town, very laid back, had my first run
in with the military when I strayed into a no go zone and was firmly but
politely turned around. After a few days there we set out on a 3 day trek
towards Inle lake. The trek was perhaps the highlight of the trip, going
through minority hill tribe villages and staying the night at Buddhist
monasteries, a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Apart from that two noticeable
things happened on the trek. The first was the second run in with a soldier,
and definitely the craziest. We had stopped at a small shack of a train station
and I was taking photos of the villagers when a train pulled in. The thing was
so crappy and old that I immediately started snapping away. Suddenly a fully
fatigued soldier leaps out of the still moving train Indiana Jones style and
runs straight at me, trying to grab my camera. I dodged, and returned fire
Polaroid style. This did not make him happy, and the fact he spoke no English
made the situation rather tense. It was managed to be settled however, but I
had a new hip hugging best friend for the next 15 minutes making sure I took no
more photos of 'government property'. The second incident (don’t laugh
Australians) involved my first run-in with a snake. Now, being from NZ, vie
never seen one in the wild before, and I was remarking about this to my guide
as we were walking down a hill. Literally 2 minutes later, what do I spy out of
the corner of my eye? Yep, nice and bright green, right where I just put my
foot. I informed my guide, who promptly told me to move back, it has a yellow
head, most dangerous in Myanmar!
Yes.
After getting to the lake we enjoyed 4 days of relaxation. Met some cool people. One retired NZ couple who are on an 8 year trip sailing the world in their yacht, and yet were completely down to earth and clued in. Also met a cool swedish couple our age who we hung out with regularly on the rest of the trip, and who were nice enough to buy me an 80 cent 1 liter bottle of myanmar rum for my birthday.....\n\u003cbr\>Next were some small former british colonial towns up north. In the town of Pyun U Lwin, involved me & trish biking around looking for an indian restaurant. We saw a sign and were looking for the place down the street. The only thing we could find that ressembled the restaurant was a large gathering of tables, surrounded by tarpoline and filled with indian people. If you ever go to myanmar you'll know this is not an unusual setting for a restaurant, so after asking some people walking by who said it was the restaurant, we sat down. Everyone stared, not just curiously, but blank stared. A little girl started laughing hysterically at us. They bought us over plates of food, no menus. The bought us refils, 3 plates worth. Suddenly a man came over and said in broken english 'This is our aunties wake, she died 6 days ago, but please stay and eat with us!' Well, i dont need to say anything more!\n\u003cbr\>Next down to Mandalay, which was dissapointing, the royal palace is huge though, rivals the forbidden city in Beijing.\u003cbr\>Another of the highlights was next, Bagan. A similar thing to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but different in two ways. Whilst perhaps not as arcitectually impressive as Angkor, it makes up for it by the fact that they are all plunked down in one area, over 2000 massive temples right there in a little area, makes for an impressive skyline. Secondly, its nowhere nearly as badly touristed as Angkor, no wrap around sunglasses here. We found our own temples everynight to watch the sun set.\n\u003cbr\>Then we went South past Yangon, saw the western end of the death railway built by the Japanese in WWII. I went and saw the biggest reclining buddah in the world, weighing in at 170meters long, you can go inside it, 8 stories high!\n",1]
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After getting to the lake we enjoyed 4 days of relaxation. Met some cool
people. One retired NZ couple who are on an 8 year trip sailing the world in
their yacht, and yet were completely down to earth and clued in. Also met a
cool Swedish couple our age who we hung out with regularly on the rest of the
trip, and who were nice enough to buy me an 80 cent 1 litre bottle of Myanmar
rum for my birthday.....
Next were some small former British colonial towns up north. In the town of Pyun U Lwin, involved me
& Trish biking around looking for an Indian restaurant. We saw a sign and
were looking for the place down the street. The only thing we could find that
resembled the restaurant was a large gathering of tables, surrounded by
tarpaulin and filled with Indian people. If you ever go to Myanmar you'll
know this is not an unusual setting for a restaurant, so after asking some
people walking by who said it was the restaurant, we sat down. Everyone stared,
not just curiously, but blank stared. A little girl started laughing hysterically
at us. They bought us over plates of food, no menus. The bought us refills, 3
plates worth. Suddenly a man came over and said in broken English 'This is our
aunties wake, she died 6 days ago, but please stay and eat with us!' Well, I
don’t need to say anything more!
Next down to Mandalay, which was disappointing,
the royal palace is huge though, rivals the forbidden city in Beijing.
Another of the highlights was next, Bagan. A similar thing to Angkor Watt in Cambodia, but
different in two ways. Whilst perhaps not as architecturally impressive as
Angkor, it makes up for it by the fact that they are all plunked down in one
area, over 2000 massive temples right there in a little area, makes for an
impressive skyline. Secondly, its nowhere nearly as badly touristed as Angkor, no wrap around sunglasses here. We found our own
temples every night to watch the sun set.
Then we went South past Yangon, saw the
western end of the death railway built by the Japanese in WWII. I went and saw
the biggest reclining Buddha in the world, weighing in at 170meters long, you
can go inside it, 8 stories high!
Then back to Yangon for a few days, the highlight of which involved going to the movies to see the new James Bond film for under $1. Housed in a colonial area 2 story theatre, having to stand to the myanmar national anthem and not being able to hear a word of the movie since there were no subtitles for the locals, who dont understand english so just chatted, laughed and roared through the whole thing. Finally we had to wade through a sea of sunflower sea husks left on the floor, apparently the snack for movies here..????\n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Anyway, god ive blabbed way too long, sorry for the novel.\u003cbr\>Hope all is well wherever you are in the world, and yes, my beard is coming along nicely!\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Shane\u003cbr\>",1]
);
D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dsg\>\u003cbr clear\u003d\"all\"\>\u003cbr\>-- \u003cbr\>Check out my photos online......Steve French Demands It!!!\n\u003cbr\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://community.webshots.com/user/Deralikt\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>http://community.webshots.com\u003cWBR\>/user/Deralikt\u003c/a\>\n\u003c/span\>",0]
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Then back to Yangon for a few days, the
highlight of which involved going to the movies to see the new James Bond film
for under $1. Housed in a colonial area 2 story theatre, having to stand to the
Myanmar
national anthem and not being able to hear a word of the movie since there were
no subtitles for the locals, who don’t understand English so just chatted,
laughed and roared through the whole thing. Finally we had to wade through a
sea of sunflower sea husks left on the floor, apparently the snack for movies
here..????
Anyway, god i've blabbed way too long, sorry for the novel.
Hope all is well wherever you are in the world, and yes, my beard is coming
along nicely!
Shane
