Myanmar (Burma) - Rangoon to Mandalay

I'm back in Bangkok after a couple of weeks in Burma. I've decided to use the most common/recognizable names for places in the country independent of whether they are Burmese or English. This is just for simplicity's sake, it's not a political comment of any kind.

First, a comment about the weather. It was very hot for almost our entire stay in Burma. Inle Lake, which is in the mountains, was a bit cooler and a very welcome relief at the end of the trip. The local women make a pale yellow paste out of a plant, which they apply to their faces (and those of the children) as both a form of makeup and as sunscreen.

I met with my tour group on the first evening of my stay in Rangoon. There is an interesting mix of people, all them traveling alone except for one couple from Canada. There is one American, my roommate Gabrielle, and the rest are all from the Commonwealth (Australia, England and Scotland). For most of them, this tour is a small portion of larger traveling plans. After our meeting we all went out to dinner together and then a few of us went out for a few more drinks. We had a great time finding the local watering holes and listening to Burmese karaoke. The bars close at 10:00 here, so there was no chance of a late night.

The following day we had a tour of the main pagoda in town, Shwedagon, which is a major pilgrimage site for the Burmese. All of the pagodas here have large bells situation around the compound. The worshippers ring these bells after their prayers to share their blessings with others. We also visited a nearby reclining Buddha and the attached monks' quarters. It's interesting to note that in Burma all the Buddhas have lovely manicures and pedicures, as well as generous amounts of lipstick. After lunch, a few of us decided to visit the national museum which is quite large, rather sparse and hosted no other visitors that day. Needless to say, it is run by the government, so security is tight and cameras aren't allowed. The museum itself wasn't overly inspiring so we amused ourselves taking illicit photos of a skeleton sporting Jason's sunglasses. Later in the afternoon we met up with the others to watch the sunset from the Shwedagon pagoda. We had a great dinner in a nice Chinese restaurant and went to bed fairly early.

The next day was largely a travel day. We had to cover 160 kms which took us about 6 hours. The roads are absolutely atrocious there. We stopped to visit the war cemetery along the way which was absolutely beautiful, impeccably maintained and very moving. We reached Kyaiktiyo at about 2:00 and jumped in the back of a truck, sitting on uncomfortable wooden slats with about 30 other Burmese. We had a 45 minute drive up the hill, followed by a 45 minute hike on foot to the peak of the mountain. We were rewarded at the top with a visit to the "Golden Boulder" one of the holiest sites in Burma. This huge boulder sits very precariously on the edge of a cliff (it really seems physically impossible for it to stay in place) and is painted gold. A huge complex has grown up around it on the mountain-top to support and cater to all the pilgrims who come here. Women are not allowed to get too close to the boulder, but men can buy small squares of gold which they use to gild a portion of the rock. I had one of my traveling companions, David, place some gold on the rock on my behalf. We stayed overnight at a lovely hotel on the mountain top, and were able to visit the rock after dark when it was all lit up.

Several of us got up early and watched the sun rise from the shrine. The site was already bustling with activity at that time of the morning, with worshippers spreading out vast amounts of food in offering. We made the assumption that this food was later donated to the monks and nuns on pilgrimage but could never get that confirmed (we can't imagine it would be wasted in a country with so many hungry people). After breakfast we went back down the mountain and to board a bus to Bago. The water festival started the next day, and ran for five days ending on new year's eve. We could already see the locals gearing up so we all bought ourselves plastic water pistols in the local market to defend ourselves - what an incredible display of naivete that would turn out to be.

In Bago we visited the largest pagoda in Burma as well as a huge reclining Buddha and a replica of the former palace. There is really nothing else of any interest in Bago, but several of us stayed up late on the roof of the hotel having a couple of drinks, chatting and singing quite loudly, much to the dismay of our companions trying to sleep in the rooms below. I bought a bottle of local gin which cost me about $1 US. Unfortunately the tonic was twice that per can (imported products are quite expensive) so I had to ration the mix.

We were up very early the next morning to board a train for Mandalay. We were traveling upper class but it was still fairly basic. At least the seats were comfortable and we could open the windows to get a breeze. Each time we passed a village, people would throw buckets of water in the windows of the train and soak us. Our little squirt guns were useless for retaliation and in fact invited more attacks than they discouraged. We gave up on them very early on and just accepted our fate gracefully. We were on the train all day, and when we arrived in Mandalay at about 8:00 we transferred to our hotel and went to bed early.

The next morning we took a lovely relaxing boat ride up the river to Mingun, home of the worlds' largest unfinished pagoda. It was deliberately left unfinished as the astrologers predicted that the king would die upon its completion. Gabrielle decided to skip this trip, as she felt she had seen enough temples to last her a lifetime. I enjoyed watching life along the river as much as the visits to the sites in Mingun.

During the afternoon, we all (except Gabrielle) rented tri-shaws and toured around town. It was here that we came to understand the full ramifications of traveling during the water festival. As we rode down the streets, we were bombarded with bucket upon bucket of water. We were traveling slowly enough on the tri-shaws that the locals could just run along beside us and take careful aim before dropping their loads. Most of them just dumped the buckets over heads. All along the street there are platforms built like stages, hovering about 10 feet over the road. These are sponsored by local companies and have music blaring out of loudspeakers. Crowds of people (usually teenagers and young adults) fill these stages and shower water down on the street with hoses of all sizes. More people gather in the street below to dance and party in the deluge. They all drive open jeeps and trucks which fill up with water as drive along the street under the hoses. When I say we got soaked, I mean it was literally like we went swimming in our clothes. Once we reached the point of saturation, we decided we might as well join the festivities so we stopped the tri-shaws and danced with the masses in the street.

Unfortunately, many of the sights we wanted to see that day were closed because the festival is a national holiday. We were able to see a couple of monasteries which interested us, including one which houses the world's biggest book written on thousands of marble slabs about 3x5 feet in dimension. In addition we saw a beautiful Buddha statue carved out of a single piece of marble. I can't remember the exact dimensions, but it was one big chunk of marble. At the end of the afternoon we climbed Mandalay hill to the temple at the top and watched the sunset. After dinner we went to see the Moustache Brothers' show. This is a political satire comedy routine, interspersed with traditional dance and skits. Because they are less than sympathetic towards their government, the three brothers were arrested a few years ago, and one of them, Par Par Lay, sentenced to prison for 7 years. (You can see mention of this in the movie "About a Boy" when Hugh Grant is volunteering at the Amnesty International call centre.) Due to the outcry from the international community and several celebrities, he was released a couple of years later. The show is now allowed to go on, however it is conducted entirely in English and locals are forbidden to see it. Gabrielle apparently did not leave the hotel room all day.

The following day was free to explore, so we all (except Gabrielle) rented a truck to take us to a couple of ancient cities outside of Mandalay. We rode in the back of the truck which had no seats or sides but was covered with a roof. This did us no good in keeping dry and we were soaked through before we were a block from the hotel. We drove to the river bank and then took a ferry across to the town of Ava. This is actually little more than a few old buildings scattered around the countryside. We rented horse-drawn carts and visited a few monasteries and temples in the area. The first monastery was in the middle of nowhere and was built out of teak. It was very quiet and peaceful and when I laid my cheek against the sun-warmed wood of a railing, it felt like I was lying on my dock. It was great to be away from the hustle and bustle of Asian city life.

We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant, shaded by a beautiful big tree. We ferried back across the river and jumped back into our truck, but not before we were treated to another deluge of water by the local children. The next stop was Amarapura which was a former capital city. The festival was in full swing here - imagine Parliament Hill on Canada Day. We could hardly navigate the streets for all the people, food stalls and festivities. There is a long teak bridge in this town that connects it to the town across the river. After a quick walk along the bridge, and taking many photos of drunken revelers who insisted on posing, we visited a temple as well as teaching monastery which was very quiet and peaceful. It was then back to Mandalay for a quiet evening of journaling and packing.