Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts

05 Feb - 08 Feb 2012 Yangon

Republic of the Union of Myanmar aka Burma
Pabedan
Konzaydan Street 69
White House Hotel +951240780 whitehouse.mm@gmail.com
Spacious and clean double room (no. 702), with private bathroom, for US$ 25.- per night, including a bottomless, vegetarian buffet brunch for two.


Click below for an interactive road map of the White House Hotel in Yangon and for directions:










Strolling through the Theingyi Zei, Rangoon’s biggest market, which hasn’t changed much since George Orwell’s Burmese Days (“There were vast pomelos hanging on strings like green moons, red bananas, baskets of heliotrope-coloured prawns the size of lobsters, brittle dried fish tied in bundles, crimson chilis, ducks split open and cured like hams, green coco-nuts, the larvae of the rhinoceros beetle, sections of sugar-cane, dahs, lacquered sandals, check silk longyis, aphrodisiacs in the form of large soap-like pills, glazed earthenware jars four feet high, Chinese sweetmeats made of garlic and sugar, green and white cigars, purple brinjals, persimmon-seed necklaces, chickens cheeping in wicker cages, brass Buddhas, heart-shaped betel leaves, bottles of Kruschen salts, switches of false hair, red-clay cooking-pots, steel shoes for bullocks, paper-mâché marionettes, strips of alligator hide with magical properties…”), only extended by tons over tons of cheapish 21st-century consumerist dreck from Red China.



Saying goodbye to Myanmar/Burma and circumnavigating sprawling Yangon, formerly Rangoon, where about 12% of Myanmar’s 56 million people live, by means of the Yangon Circle Line, a relaxed 3-hour railway trip (US$ 1.- per foreigner) through a suburban litterscape, which departs/arrives at the main railway station (platform 6/7) and stops at 37 stations en-route.

"When the red sun sets
on the railroad town,
And the bars begin to laugh
with a happy sound,
I'll still be here
right by your side,
There'll not be anyone
in my heart but you..."



Sharing with fellow travellers Alba & Juan from Spain/Argentina a pre-booked taxi (pre-booked from our hotel for MMK 7,000.- or US$ 8.50, 30 min) to Yangon’s International Airport (Mingaladon), thus leaving a corner of Asia that in many ways has changed little since British colonial times, paying the compulsory passenger service charge of US$ 10.- per person (in crisp, clean and ironed bills), flying uneventfully with Thai Air Asia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in an Airbus A 320-200 from Yangon back to Bangkok’s futuristic Suvarnabhumi International Airport for US$ 70.- per person, one way and all inclusive, changing our watches in mid-air from Burma Standard Time (GMT/UTC + 6:30 hours) to Indochina Time (GMT/UTC + 7:00 hours), being issued with a 30-day visit permit for Thailand on arrival, free of charge, and thereafter taking the flashy Airport Rail Link’s City Line to Phaya Thai Station (THB 45.- or US$ 1.50 per person) and eventually the BTS Skytrain straight to our safe house in Khlong San (THB 40.- or US$ 1.35 per person): “Thwàbaoùnmeh Burma, and sawatdee-kha/khrap Thailand, you wonderful land of faked smiles and true massages with or without (nonfaked) happy endings…”



Click below for more blog posts about Burma

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2012 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:


For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here

28 Jan - 05 Feb 2012 Inle Lake

Republic of the Union of Myanmar aka Burma
Nyaung Shwe
Yone Gyi Road
Inle Inn +9581209016 inleinnns@gmail.com
Spacious, clean and comfy double room in a wafer-thin bamboo bungalow, including Myanmar breakfast for two and the most friendly service, for US$ 20.- per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Inle Inn in Nyaung Shwe, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:








Exploring the busy village of Nyaung Shwe, the base camp for the scenic Inle Lake (22 km long, 11 km wide, 875 m above sea level and densely inhabited by many different tribes), a highly frequented must-see pit-stop on the beaten tourist track for backpackers (where the Shan and Bamar locals have already started to develop a healthy appetite for tourist money and where they are undergoing the usual development from honest villagers to touts, guides and agents, but still with some traces of genuine friendliness, politeness and decency, as opposed to their much further “developed” and more aggressive colleagues in North Vietnam's squalid tourism industry) with umpteen (i) Buddhist monasteries aka kyaung, (ii) Buddhist stupas aka paya, (iii) Buddhist markets aka zei, (iv) Buddhist guest houses and (v) Buddhist beer stations (our favourite: Thauk Kyar Kyi with ice-cold Myanmar Lager draft for MMK 600.- or US$ 0.75 per pint).



Teaming up with our friend Doreen from England, an acknowledged expert and researcher about George Orwell (“Burmese Days”, “Animal Farm”, “1984”) and hiring from reliable Thar Nge +959378936 a motorised longboat with driver (MMK 4,700.- or US$ 5.75 per person for the full-day trip from 08:30 - 18:00) thus visiting (i) the picturesque and rather touristy country market at Indein, (ii) the huge array of floating gardens/fields (tomatoes, string beans, cauliflowers, pumpkins, flowers), where marsh, soil and water hyacinths were put together to form fertile solid masses which are staked to the lake bottom with bamboo poles, and (iii) the traditional home industries of (a) lotus-stem and silk weaving on wooden hand looms, (b) knife aka dha making and (c) silver smiths.



Watching the local Intha fishermen propel their flat-bottomed boats by standing at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar (this peculiar and unique leg-rowing technique enables them to have their hands free for handling their cone-shaped nets stretched tautly over bamboo frames) and visiting them in their stilt villages Ywama and Heya.



Meeting the friendly Kayin/Karen hill-tribe women aka “longneck women” who work as silk weavers and living mannequins, learning about their tradition of elongating their necks by adding around them an increasing number of brass rings/spirals over the years and philosophising about the huge diversity of beauty concepts on this planet: long necks, holed ear lobes, tattooed limbs, dyed hair, pierced genitals and thousands more of creative options; you name it they do it, since beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.


"You are so beautiful
To me
Can't you see
You're everything I hope for
You're every, everything I need
You are so beautiful to me..." 
(Joe Cocker) 


Visiting the young monks-turned-models in their 18th-century CE Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung monastery which features a venerable wooden ordination hall aka thein with unique oval windows and listening to the tinkling of the wind bells from the hti, the decorative metal umbrellas which top the many bell-shaped zedi in the monastery.



Having a very pleasant and stimulating encounter with U Kon Dala, the 72-year old head monk of the 127-year old, wooden Ywa Thit Kyaung monastery, and discussing with this sharp mind (i) the semantics of current European events ("...'austerity measures' is the wrong word; you better replace it with 'return to normalcy'..."), (ii) the subleties of Buddhist philosophy and (iii) the best practice of rice cultivation.



Cycling (with bicycles hired from our guest house: MMK 1,200.- or US$ 1.45 per bike per day) along the Inle Lake’s picturesque shoreline and visiting the villages of Paung Pane, Nanthe and Maing Thauk with their tin-roofed Shan monasteries, lively country markets and atmospheric stupa ruins.



Sharing with our French friends Marie & Jean an asthmatic thoun bein (three-wheeler túk-túk) for the bumpy ride from the local pick-up stop in Nyaung Shwe to the basic but well-organised express bus stop at Shwen Yaung Junction (11 km, ½ hour, MMK 1,000.- or US$ 1.20 per person ), flagging down the punctual Man Thit Sar overnight express bus (with very comfy recliner seats) to Yangon’s Aung Mingalar Bus Terminal (about 560 km, 12 hours, MMK 15,000.- or US$ 18.30 per foreigner, pre-booked from reliable and professional Win Travel +09581209174 in Nyaung Shwe) and finishing our trip with the help of the bus company’s courtesy pick-up in front of the Sule Paya pagoda in Yangon’s downtown.



Click below for more blog posts about Burma

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here

19 Jan - 28 Jan 2012 Nyaung U

Republic of the Union of Myanmar aka Burma
Nyaung U
Anawrahta Road
Oasis Guest House +956160923
Adequate a/c twin room with private bathroom for only MMK 10,000.- or US$ 12.- per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Oasis Guest House in Nyaung U and for directions:










Exploring the touristy town of Nyaung U, the principal gateway for Bagan where the kings (and their forced labourers) built as many as 4,400 temples over a 230-year period on an arid riverside plain until it was overrun by the millions of Mongols of Kublai Khan in 1287 CE, with its gilded Shwezigon Paya, the prototype of virtually all later stupas over Myanmar, which is armed with an incredible number of donation boxes (“Buddhism isn’t merely a religion, it’s a philosophy…”, at least according to all those friendly, soft-selling Buddhist professionals who chant unflinchingly this tricky mantra from the East and from the West).



Strolling over the lively morning market of Nyaung U, chatting and bargaining with the sweet and overweight local market women and learning (i) that plumpness is being perceived as a sign of attractiveness (maybe, the husband pays for the good doctor when his chubby later suffers diabetes, heart problems or degenerative joint diseases) and (ii) that the yellow stuff on the belles’ faces is made from the ground bark of the thanakha tree and serves as wildly popular combination of sunscreen, perfume and sexy make-up.



Studying the delicious Bamar breakfast cuisine at our favourite teashop, one of many cheap no-name neighbourhood teashops in Nyaung U: (i) spicy tea-leaf salad (la-hpeq dhouq) for MMK 400.- or US$ -.50 per helping, (ii) thick rice-noodle salad (naung-gyi dhouq) for MMK 300.- or US$ 0.35 per helping and (iii) dry yellow-noodle salad (khaut-swe kyaw) for MMK 200.- or US$ 0.25 per helping, always spiced up with a local masala of turmeric, ginger, garlic, salt and onions, plus plenty of peanut oil and flavoured with ngapi, which is a salted paste concocted from dried and fermented shrimp or fish.



Watching a team of young men playing Burmese chinlone aka “cane ball” by forming a circle and keeping the 12-cm diameter rattan ball airborne by kicking it soccer-style from player to player.



Hiring Soe Naing’s no. 132 horse cart for a relaxed 1-hp morning tour (08:30 - 13:00, MMK 8,000.- or US$ 10.- for the two of us) and touring the North Plain of the 42-sq-km “Bagan Archaeological Zone” for an introductory into Bagan’s 3,000-some tall and awesome temples (mingling Hindu styles from India with local-brewed Buddhist images) which are the most wondrous sight in Myanmar; our favourite ruins: (i) Ananda Pahto, a terraced temple, with a corncob golden hti (the umbrella-like decorated pinnacle atop a stupa) towering 52 m high, and one of the largest, best-preserved and most revered of all Bagan temples, (ii) Gawdawpalin Pahto, one of the largest temples, 60 m high, and (iii) white-coloured Thatbyinnyu Pahto, Bagan’s highest temple with a gold-tipped sikhara (the Indian-style, corncob-like temple final), a proud 63 m up.



Studying the Buddha’s stylised body language and noticing amongst the hundreds of Buddha images three distinctive body postures (standing, sitting and reclining) and five distinctive hand gestures: (i) abhaya (Buddha's Protection: both hands extended forward with palms out), (ii) bhumispara (Buddha's Persistence: right hand touches the ground), (iii) dana (Buddha's Teaching: one or both hands extended forward with palm up), (iv) dhyana (Buddha's Meditation: both hands rest palm-up on the Buddha’s lap) and (v) vitarka (Buddha's Doctrine: thumb and fore- or middle finger form a circle, like PADI’s OK gesture).



Hiking repeatedly the Central Plain (from Myinkaba in the west to Nyaung U in the east) of the 42-sq-km “Bagan Archaeological Zone” (in 1975 CE Bagan was shaken by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake; many of the temples were badly damaged, but major reconstruction started almost immediately) and recuperating afterwards with excellent Myanmar vegetarian food (MMK 500.- or US$ 0.60 per person, from any of the stalls and cheap local eateries: sour veggie soup, rice with five different vegetables, bottomless Chinese tea) and with ice-cold Dagon Lager Green Label draft (our favourite pub: Holiday Beer Station, MMK 500.- or US$ 0.60 per pint).



Hiring Soe Lwin’s no. 240 horse cart for another relaxed 1-hp morning tour (08:30 - 13:00, MMK 8,000.- or US$ 10.- for the two of us) and touring the South Plain (famous for its many 13th-century CE murals) of the 42-sq-km “Bagan Archaeological Zone” for a farewell trip of Bagan’s almost innumerable stupas aka zedis (solid, bell-shaped holy shrines), pahtos (hollow, square or rectangular shrines) and kyaungs (Buddhist monasteries); our favourite ruins: (i) Tayok Pye Paya, a spired temple with great views from its upper reaches, (ii) Nandamannya Pahto, a small mid-13th century CE temple with the “Temptation of Mara”, a mural with nubile young girls with remarkable boobs who attempt to distract the Buddha from the meditation session that led to his enlightenment, and (iii) Kyat Kan Kyaung, a working underground monastery dating from the 11th century CE (where apparently a Buddhist monk died during meditation in recent years and was left undisturbed for days; everyone thought he was still meditating…).



Climbing the steep Buledi Pagoda stairways to watch the sun dip behind the mountains in the west and the famous Bagan sunset turning all shades of tangerine, lavender and rust, afterwards sun-downing with genuine Scotch (Highland Pride, labelled: “Singapore - Duty not Paid”, for only MMK 2,500.- or only US$ 3.- per 0.7-ltr bottle from any of the rugged bottle stores near the market) and people-spotting two distinctive tribes of international tourists who looked as if they were coming from a fancy-dress ball: (i) older folks, mostly from the more republican homelands, clad in khaki expedition uniforms “out of Africa”, very expensive and fresh from the mail-order catalogue, and (ii) younger folks, mostly from the more democratic homelands, who tried “to blend in with the locals” by wearing pseudo-native, home-spun stuff (which no Burmese could afford or would ever put on), also very pricey and fresh from the local souvenir shops/boutiques for western tourists.



Taking the bone-shaking, crowded Nyaung-U-Mann bus from Nyaung U to Shwen Yaung (about 290 km, 10 ½ hours, MMK 10,500.- or US$ 12.80 per person) on a very dusty, pot-holed road with many roadworks, where beautiful young Burmese women slaved as manual labourers in the sun and where strong young Burmese men meditated as monks in the shade, and thereafter hiring a túk-túk (11 km, ½ hour, MMK 1,000.- or US$ 1.20 per person; plus, at a roadblock, the compulsory US$ 5.- entrance fee to the Inle Lake zone for foreigners) right to our hotel in Nyaung Shwe, the hyped-up, overrated tourist trap (with prices for street food unbudgingly two/three times higher than in the rest of Myanmar), situated about 3 km north of the Inle Lake and overrun with elderly Westerners (mostly monoglot Merdestanis).



Click below for more blog posts about Burma
05 Feb - 08 Feb 2012 Yangon

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2012 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here