Landing in Yangon was a big relief, we had finally arrived! We couldn't get a visa on arrival, so we had to get one ahead of time and that proved to be a bigger hassle than we made it out to be. We had planned on getting our visa in KL right after we got back from Cambodia...that was easier said than done. It just so happened that the Myanmar embassy was closed for a week, because it was a Burmese New Years festival (New Years in April I will never quite understand!). So no visa then. That's why we decided to go up to the Perhentian Islands for a few days. Finally the embassy was up and running again and we were able to apply for our visas. The embassy was a gong show, there was 5 minutes left in the application drop off and everyone was just shoving there passports through the window (us included). Picking them up a day later was also a close call with plenty more people shoving their pick-up forms through the window (including us). We finally got our visa and all was well, ready for a flight to Yangon.
We got picked up at the airport by a very old bus that took us and a couple more travellers to Motherland 2 Inn. We went for a bit of a walk around Yangon and in the evening we went to see the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. It was absolutely enormous and everywhere you looked there was gold, LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of gold. Archeologists believe the temple was built between the 6th and 12th centuries, although the legend is a fair bit more optimistic (apparently about 2500 years old). The pagoda faced a lot of earthquakes in the 18th century and was rebuilt in 1769. I think Shwedagon has constant upkeep because to me it only looks to be a few years old. It was very busy with locals and monks milling around and praying. There were tons of Buddhas everywhere! Some of the Buddhas were huge, one of them I could have comfortably had a nap in his hand (if I had climbing gear to get up there!)
We were on the bus to Bagan the next night, ready to see the stupas. Oh my, was the bus ever bad! To start things off we had something very loud and obnoxious on the speaker, I think it was someone chanting in Burmese. To keep the sound going we had some really loud Burmese music videos being played all night. The seats were quite hard and impossible to get comfy in, let alone sleep. We got into Bagan at about 3:30am so we walked around until we found New Park Hotel. Our search for the hotel was serenaded by about half a dozen barking dogs.
Once we checked in to the hotel we slept for a little bit and then walked out to the market for a shop. The market was composed of both stuff for the locals and souvenirs. I bought a nice hand bag for myself and wandered around to see plenty of vendors selling lacquerware, carvings, t-shirts and traditional longyis.
Our second day in Bagan we spent out at the stupas/temples. My oh my, neither pictures nor words can come close to describing the beauty. The temples of Bagan are unlike ANYTHING I have seen before. Stupas speckle 42 square kilometres of landscape, they are as far as you can see. My favourite stupas were the ones you could climb up and get a view. The first one we visited at about quarter to six in the morning was so mystical. There were stupas as far as you could see in every direction, and a thin layer of mist hovering around the temples for added beauty. I just sat and stared wide-eyed, it was incredible. I could describe it all day and you still wouldn't know what it is like. Even pictures don't near do it justice. The only way to wrap your head around the beauty is to be there and witness it. I'm sure I could have sat there for hours in silence soaking it in-and I LOVE to talk!
For our final day in Bagan we hired a taxi to take us out to Mt.Popa. On our way out to Mt. Popa we stopped at a family palm sugar factory. They were also making peanut oil there with the help of a cow. The cow was attached to a shaft and on the other end was a bowl stuck into the ground with peanuts in it. With a little motivation the cow would go around in circles causing the peanuts to get ground up. Of course they also made palm sugar stuff there too. One side of the kitchen was where they made yummy but excessively sweet palm sugar candies. On the other side they made the booze, palm sugar rum I think. I tried a little and it was pretty good.
They gave us a little bit of traditional Burmese food and Chinese tea. The plater consisted of tea leaves, roasted garlic, sesame seeds, fried beans, and fried batter of some sort. It was very good! After our snack was finished we went and bought a few packages of palm sugar candies from them. A little goes a long way with those candies so we shipped them back home to share and eat gradually.
There was a viewpoint we stopped at and took photos of Mt. Popa. There were some girls selling petrified wood and volcanic rocks at the viewpoint, I bought I couple of volcanic rocks, you could shake them and hear stuff rattling around inside.
Mt. Popa wasn't a hike it was just a bunch of stairs, but that was fine because the view was great. It overlooked the countryside below. The most amazing part was that there was a temple on top of the mountain, it must have been very difficult to build. On our way out of Mt. Popa village we stumbled across a nat(spirit) festival. As soon as we came to the door way everyone started taking our picture, and looking at us, I guess they were very surprised to see white people peeping in the door of a traditional festival. They were all very welcoming friendly but we had to go soon after we arrived. It was a very cool experience.
We are flying to Inle Lake next and staying there for a few days before going back to Yangon.
We got picked up at the airport by a very old bus that took us and a couple more travellers to Motherland 2 Inn. We went for a bit of a walk around Yangon and in the evening we went to see the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. It was absolutely enormous and everywhere you looked there was gold, LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of gold. Archeologists believe the temple was built between the 6th and 12th centuries, although the legend is a fair bit more optimistic (apparently about 2500 years old). The pagoda faced a lot of earthquakes in the 18th century and was rebuilt in 1769. I think Shwedagon has constant upkeep because to me it only looks to be a few years old. It was very busy with locals and monks milling around and praying. There were tons of Buddhas everywhere! Some of the Buddhas were huge, one of them I could have comfortably had a nap in his hand (if I had climbing gear to get up there!)
Once we checked in to the hotel we slept for a little bit and then walked out to the market for a shop. The market was composed of both stuff for the locals and souvenirs. I bought a nice hand bag for myself and wandered around to see plenty of vendors selling lacquerware, carvings, t-shirts and traditional longyis.
Our second day in Bagan we spent out at the stupas/temples. My oh my, neither pictures nor words can come close to describing the beauty. The temples of Bagan are unlike ANYTHING I have seen before. Stupas speckle 42 square kilometres of landscape, they are as far as you can see. My favourite stupas were the ones you could climb up and get a view. The first one we visited at about quarter to six in the morning was so mystical. There were stupas as far as you could see in every direction, and a thin layer of mist hovering around the temples for added beauty. I just sat and stared wide-eyed, it was incredible. I could describe it all day and you still wouldn't know what it is like. Even pictures don't near do it justice. The only way to wrap your head around the beauty is to be there and witness it. I'm sure I could have sat there for hours in silence soaking it in-and I LOVE to talk!
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