Letters from Myanmar - A Thousand Pagodas and More



Myanmar is the kind of place that grows on you - slowly at first, even tentatively. At least for me, maybe because there were many things I did not expect. First of all - the weather was fantastic! A bit hot but not humid during my 25 days. Second, I thought that because it seemed to have opened so slowly to tourism it would be rough, less developed, perhaps with more hardships than other South East Asian (SEA) countries. But Myanmar, rich in agriculture & other resources, & situated between China & India is in a position to grow its economy rapidly. The vast stretches of road work now underway is incredible & is making much of the central & southern regions more open. New cars & big rigs are signs of an emerging wealth. The north however, remains a bit of a mystery & in many areas travel can require a special permit or be inaccessible to foreigners. Talk of the conflicts with the Rohingya Muslims, the most recent, where hundreds of Rohingya were killed and raped between October 2016 and February 2017, is just about non-existent. It certainly seems that the average person is not well informed or at least unwilling to discuss the situation. One can assume the limited news is to hide human rights abuses. This horrible situation & the treatment of the Rohingya places such a dark stain on what otherwise seems to be a peaceful nation.

Myanmar offers many surprises and many inconsistencies - but the constant is the pervasive influence of Buddhism.

Myanmar is a land of thousands of Buddhist pagodas and even more monks. The pagodas are tucked in each neighborhood & stand out prominently on hilltops & ridges throughout the country. The monks can be seen everywhere - especially in the mid-morning when the streets are full of the monks seeking alms. Shops & households freely & without hesitation give to the monks -it is just expected. All young children are given the opportunity to experience the life of a novice by joining a monastery.  Most of the children will spend only one week in the monastery but there is no time limit on how long they can stay. During this time they learn the Buddha's teachings & ways of a good & productive life: honesty, faithfulness, respect, compassion.

Mandalay
My first stop was Mandalay - such a beautiful, romantic name.  I spent my first day on the back of a motorbike taxi I had hired to take me to the major sites within the city. We stopped at all the well-known and so many lesser known pagodas that the distinctions between them became a blur. The driver was determined to give me a good tour and to fill my day so that we could reach the last pagoda on a prominent hilltop just in time to watch the sun setting at 6 pm. Riding on a motorbike is such a great way to sight-see, I could get a feel for the rhythm of the city and all the various neighborhoods and business districts. We passed the marble masons who cut hundreds of look-alike Buddha statues without protective gear and so covered, head to toe, in fine marble powder each and every day. We rode through the large crowded city wholesale produce & flower market that sells restaurants & street vendors all that they need for the day's business. We made our way to quiet but ancient monasteries tucked away under sacred banyan trees where resident monks quietly attend to their daily routines.



Mandalay a small city trying to build rapidly in spite of poor roads & infrastructure.  I was not expecting modern multi-storied malls crowded with shops and shoppers looking for electronics and the latest sports clothes - especially when outside there is a distinct smell coming from poor sewage lines along the city streets. Many of  the streets are poorly developed and often just partially paved and yet… And yet there is a comfortable order to it all unlike the craziness of cities in Vietnam and even Sri Lanka. The traffic is orderly - drivers keep their cars and motorbikes within the lanes and actually stop at traffic lights! The speed of traffic is calm, there is relative quiet in the streets since horns are just tapped when necessary rather than blaring constantly. People walk comfortably along day or night.

Unlike some SEA countries, street food snacks are not
common but little sidewalk restaurants and tea shops are everywhere. If you are going to eat something - the expectation is that you will sit for a while & enjoy your meal - what's the hurry? A typical lunch or dinner meal is a multi-course production of small plates surrounding a generous plate of rice. A bowl of soup, one or two plates of veggie, some salad greens, and a plate of chicken, pork, or fish curry. Spoon up just a bit of each to put on your rice & then use your fork to scoop food onto your spoon to eat - slow & easy. Complimentary green tea is always available at the table. Tea shops serve green tea or the sweetened strong tea with milk (sweetened condensed milk is the best!); small plates of fried treats like samosas are placed on the table & you'll be charged just for the items you eat. Or you can order up small plates of seasoned noodles or spring rolls - all delicious.

Fortunately for me I was able to join up with a couple of Peace Corps Volunteers that I had met while I was training in The Gambia in May 2015. Jess and Tyler had recently completed their service and were traveling SEA before returning to the USA to start their Master's programs. We had kept touch on Facebook and since we were landing in Myanmar within days of each other we teamed up for a week or so.  Jess is a foody and found the most incredible places for us to eat. She also set us up in a cooking class in Mandalay. I had never taken a cooking class - though so many people rave about them. It was really a terrific experience - a full day of shopping in the market learning about all the produce & spices, an extended break in a tea house to taste numerous small plates, then on to a rustic setting in the country outside Mandalay for our class under a palm leaf terrace. We made such delicious dishes - incredible flavors with relatively few spices! My favorite then & throughout my travels in Myanmar was Tea Leaf Salad - made from lightly fermented tea leaves, tomatoes, garlic, onion, chili pepper, oil, and covered with chopped peanuts! The day ended with trip to another hilltop pagoda to see yet another sunset. 

After another day of sightseeing in Mandalay & of course yet another sunset - ok, they really are beautiful in Mandalay - we headed south west by bus to the World Heritage site of Bagan.  

Bagan
Bagan is an ancient capital on an expansive plain along the Ayeyarwady River. It is famous for its more than 2,000 remaining Buddhist pagodas that were constructed between the 9th and 13th century (there were over 10,000 pagodas & monasteries at one time). The pagodas were built by the wealthy to honor & receive "merits" from Buddha; a little down payment for a more enjoyable reincarnation.  Jess & Tyler were a little under the weather - so I rented an electric powered motorbike to tour the area; a great way to see the major pagodas & yet veer off on to little roads to see the smaller ones. The most interesting pagodas were the ones that still have remnants of the original Buddha statuary and murals & it was a treat exploring to find the ones that had these treasures.

Jess & Tyler had planned to stay about a week & then to head south to volunteer in a charitable organization through Workaway.  Since I was ready to move on after a full day & 2 nights in Bagan I left early one morning for the highland area of Kalaw in central Myanmar. 









Kalaw
It was wonderful to escape the hot dry plains for the cooler mountains - time to put on long sleeves, long pants, & fleece. The major attraction of this region for tourists is to trek 2-3 days from Kalaw to Inle Lake & pass through the villages & farmlands of several ethnic tribes. I opted for a 2-day, 1-night, 20 mile trek & it was just about right. Fortunately the paths were not wet or too steep so my thin little travel shoes were good enough (I abandoned my heavy trekking shoes long ago in Jordan). The trek was well planned so that our cook - could meet us with perfectly timed meals along the way. We spent the night on mats on the old wooden floor of a hilltop monastery - with of course - another perfect sunset view.  Our group of 6 travelers included 3 young Israelis (who had just completed their 2-3 military service & were taking a typical trip to Asia as a reward), a Czech woman in Myanmar for volunteer work, & a 50+ French botanist & organic farmer. It was a great time getting to know each other & learning so much about their lives & travel experiences.

On the trek we passed through lovely country with great views of mountains, rice paddies, and farmland. It was typical to see whole families in the fields - parents & older kids working while grandparents looked after the little ones & worked on less arduous tasks. The tribes still seem untouched by the emerging westernization of the country. Native dress, traditional manual farming methods, simple rural communities are still the norm. Our guide, a young 22-year old shared lots of information about the region's plants, agriculture, and village life. He was very much at home with the local families & stopped frequently to talk with people working in the fields or traveling along the paths. His approach showed a lot of respect to the tribal folks & helped reduce the feeling that our little group was trespassing. Folks seemed pleased to show us their work & let us spend a little time talking with them.

Inle Lake & Nyaung Shwe


We reached our destination, Inle Lake & our lunch spot, just in time for a torrential rain. There was little choice so after lunch we climbed into our small, motorized, wooden longboat & took off for the 2-hour trip across the lake to the town of Nyaung Shwe.  Fortunately the boat had umbrellas that we tucked ourselves under & even better, the rain came to an abrupt end about 30 minutes into the trip. There are small shops & fisher families living along the lake & they have created an amazing way to farm by creating floating gardens. The shores of the lake have a rich supply of a type of water plant & on top of that, farmers will scoop up sediment from the shallow lake bed to pile on top of these plants until finally there is sufficient soil to plant a great variety of veggies. 

After a couple nights in Nyaung Shwe I headed south to explore an area around Loikaw that was recommended by a British tour guide I had met in Bangkok on my way to Myanmar. Her specialty is SEA & she was on her own exploratory trip, her 1st, with a friend to get to know Myanmar better before she started leading group trips. Loikaw sure looked like it was along a highway on the east side of the lake that leads further south to my next stop of Hpa-An. Well - something curious about Loikaw - it may be easy to get to Loikaw but it sure is not easy to leave Loikaw!  I figured something was up when I found I was the only foreigner traveling to Loikaw. It was a lovely 7-hour bus ride through the mountains but I soon found out there were no bus routes continuing on south of Loikaw as I had hoped.  After a short stay I ended up spending 26-hours to get to Hpa-An by completely retracing my steps & heading well north of Inle Lake, where I came from before finally turning south to my destination.

I can't really get upset when these kinds of things happen. For the most part I have had great success with all my travels & I have to expect that sometimes you just have to go north to go south.

Hpa-An


And it was all worth it! Hpa-An is situated in a lovely region just east of the Gulf of Martaban along the Thanlyin River;  it is the gateway to the beautiful vast beaches of the south & a short distance to the Mae Sot border where travelers transit to Chiang Mai, Thailand. The town is small & easy to walk around - not much going on. I spent a couple of easy days…  watching life in the town from the terrace of the hostel while I drank coffee in the mornings & seeing sites a little later in the day. The hostels set up transport so small groups of 6-8 people can share a ride & visit the sites. I was with a small group for a full day of getting to all the special attractions - it's a great way to save on the transportation costs of seeing the remote sites & it’s always fun to spend time chatting with travelers from all over the world.

The Hpa-An region has beautiful green karst mountains along the river, great stretches of rice paddies - some green, some ready for harvest, & lots of caves to explore. Buddhist temples have been created in the larger caves - images of Buddha have been carved into & out of the sandstone rock. The best experience though was visiting the Bat Cave at dusk! Thousands of bats exit the cave right on time and fly out in formation across the river and over a bridge where they finally begin to disperse to feed on insects for their dinner. It was amazing - no sound at all as the bats fly out of the cave - they have their routine down to perfection.


Yangon
After traveling more than 1,000 miles over 21 days my last stop in Myanmar was Yangon & it was a perfect place to end the trip. As with all the places I visited, life seems productive in Myanmar but not too stressful. The businesses that benefit from tourism: markets, restaurants & shops, are friendly & not pushy.
The streets feel safe so being out after dark - when most of the towns & cities come to life - is comfortable. Yangon has lovely sections of town with lots of trees, parks, & water. The inner city is vibrant & streets are busy with produce street vendors & sidewalk restaurants. It's a great city to walk in & spot the colonial buildings &  temples tucked here & there (more pagodas!!). The finest landmark is the Shwedagon Pagoda which is a spectacular complex of pagodas. The complex is beautifully maintained & wide marble walkways comfortably accommodate all the foreign & local visitors & devotees. Of course - one must be there for sunset & I was among hundreds who come to stroll or pray at that time & to watch the fading light work its magic on the golden domes.





My goal was to exit South East Asia before March & the coming of the really hot, humid weather and so on February 25 I departed on another long series of flights & layovers for northern India.

Myanmar… a few stats from the  2014 Census,  INDEX Mundi
Population (of 242 countries): ranks 24, over 55.7 million (USA ranks 3, almost 320 million)
Population density (of 242 countries): ranks 117, 82 people per sq. km;  (USA ranks 176, 33 people per sq. km)
Poverty (of 215 countries): ranks 56, 32% (USA ranks 127, 15% ), population below poverty line
Literacy (of 215 countries): ranks 122, 93% (USA ranks 45, 99%)
HIV adult prevalence (of 169 countries) ranks 66, 0.6%  (USA ranks 62, 0.6% )
Life Expectancy at birth (of 221 countries): ranks 168, 66 yrs. (USA ranks 41, 79 yrs.)

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