Another term over. This has been a particularly busy one with 2 trips to Australia thrown in, a knee operation and all the usual local events but no visitors. What's happened? Have the Smiths gone off? Are we passed our Use By Date? Last Year's news?
Never mind, I'm sure that situation won't last another term. I must put in a little thank you there to Jenni Munday who was obviously thinking of us. She tried to arrange to send over some of her friends we all shared a trip to Borneo with some years ago. Problem is we didn't ever go to Borneo with Jenni and Glenn or any of their friends.
On Friday I saw the surgeon for a follow-up check and have the stitches removed. He has given me the all clear but I can revisit anytime in the next 12 months, so if I want the gel injection that supplements the fluid in my knee to help lubricate and cushion the joint I can arrange that in a month. At this point I will just wait and see as I can walk without a limp already, if I don't try to go too fast. Lots of bruising so it looks a lot worse than it really is. Meanwhile, Eric has kept up his walking routines and also this week purchased a new back tyre and tube for his bike so hopes to be out and about on it next term.
We finished the term at Grapevine, they have turned out to be a popular local choice for a Sunday night end of the week spot. We flew out early the next morning.
Yangon
Mingalarpar (Ming al ar bar) - Hello, and since knowing a little local language always goes a long way we will get more proficient at Kyei zu ba (Cheese Oo ba) -Thankyou and Kyo ba de (yar bar day) - You are welcome.
Lin, our guide met us at the airport and our driver took us straight to the hotel where we dropped our bags. The first thing you notice is that almost everyone is wearing the traditional longgyis, a sarong like-garment, and we are each presented with one by Sunbird Tours on our first drive.
Myanmar, a former British colony bordered by China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh and Laos, is a very conservative country and by giving us one of these the company is ensuring we will be dressed appropriately as we visit holy places. It is an option, so long as knees and shoulders are covered it is acceptable. The next thing we noticed was that there are no motorbikes. They are not allowed as the traffic is so congested and instead workers are encouraged to take the buses.
As we drive we notice the girls and young children have their faces smeared with thanaka paste, barefoot monks share the streets with bicycles with sidecars and the streets are noisy with continual beeping of horns; none of which you have in Singapore.
On the way we drove by the university which is over 100 yrs old and very well respected, originally a campus of the Calcutta Uni. It proved to be a breeding ground for the student uprisings and protests of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and later supporting the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi. Though locals are freer to discuss politics these days, it is recommended that foreigners do not initiate the discussions, but allow locals to if they want to.
We are conscious that the current President, Mr. Thein Sein, has officially begun to put the country on the path to democracy, yet it is not a straight forward road. The economy is largely controlled by individuals who amassed their fortunes through alliances with the dictatorship, hundreds of political prisoners remain locked up and the army is still fighting rebels in northern Kachin State near the border with China and clashes between Buddhists in Arakan State with Rohingyas, the stateless Muslims who have long been discriminated against by the Burmese government. It is very messy but many concessions have been made and elections are due in November. That is one of the main reasons we decided to visit at this time of the year actually, nobody can foresee what the outcome of that election will be. How will the military concede the power they have now held for so long? The opposition now welcomes all visitors, as long as they “promote the welfare of the common people and the conservation of the environment” so we have attempted to avoid patronizing enterprises that are owned by the country’s corrupt elite and chose Sunbird Tours, a small locally owned company.
Our Summit Park View Hotel is located in the Embassy Quarter, right beside the Shwedagon Pagoda right across town so we don't check in initially. Traffic is a problem but Lin took the time taken to get us to our first stop to explain that there are more than 100 different national races of people in Myanmar but the majority fall into the major 8 which match the 8 states. The majority of the people are Theravada Buddhists, the rest Christian, Muslim and a few animists who revere spirits. He also explained that there are 5 distinguishing number plates in Yangon, each a different colour and how they are assigned to private, tourist taxi, local taxi etc, etc.
Our first stop is Chauk-htat-gyi Reclining Buddah image, at 65m long it has the most fabulous feet, what a pedicure!
The soles of the feet contain 108 segments in red and gold colors that show images representing the 108 auspicious characteristics of the Buddha.
We had lunch at Padonmar (lotus) Restaurant set in a 2 storey Colonial era home decorated in the traditional style.
We soon learnt that if you order a local curry a succession of side dishes and soup will accompany your meal, sometimes even tapioca dessert will follow.
The other thing we learnt was the signal to attract a waiter's attention here is to make kissing sounds. In most countries this would get you your ears boxed, but here the waiters come smilingly over to ask what you want. Different.
The local currency is Kyat, pronounced 'chet' and is all in banknotes. One thousand Kyat is about equivalent to US$1 so conversion is easy. We had been advised to bring all our spending money with us in US dollars as ATMs would be hard to find (but actually we found them at each airport as well as dotted around Yangon and Mandalay). We also discovered later that they are very fussy about the state of the US banknotes; they must be crisp, clean and unfolded.
We dropped in to the Kandawgyi (Royal) Lake and gardens and walked to Karaweik Hall, a cultural restaurant in a replica royal barge built in the shape of the mythological (duck-like) bird of the same name.
Downtown is mostly occupied by rich Chinese and Muslim traders but all looking rather shabby filled with aging tenements and cracked sidewalks.
I was intrigued by the rope system where if you want to call on the person living on the fourth floor you locate the right rope hanging from the balcony and pull, which rings a small bell. No need to climb staircases if they are not home.
Next we visited the Botataung Pagoda, most unusual for a stupa, Gawdama Buddha Hair Relic Stupa is one you can enter and walk through (in an clockwise direction as with all Buddhist pagodas) in a maze-like gilded interior walkway.
We met a number of young Buddhist novice nuns here. All children are expected to spend some time in a monastery, this could be a number of days or years. They are referred to as novices under the age of 21. At present it is the summer school holidays and many children undertake their training at this time.
We wandered down to the nearby Yangon River where there is a small port located. A small cruise ship, riverboats loaded with drums and a floating restaurant were docked at the jetty. We watched people crossing, in motor boats, to the less developed townships on the other side.
We dropped into The Strand Hotel, one of 188 heritage listed buildings in the city, many of them Colonial vintage. It is also one of the few buildings in the city it seems where the footpath outside is not splashed with betal juice, chewing the nut is still a common practice here, particularly for older men. We could have had high tea but settled for a cuppa instead.
We walked down Pansodan Rd and on to the Independence Monument in Mahabandoola Garden at Sule Roundabout.
This is recognised as the centre of British Rangoon. All of the nation's distance measurements start from this zero point. Sule Pagoda and City Hall share the other corners of the busy intersection. In front of the Town Hall a stage was being erected in readiness for next month's Water Festival.
Getting to this point we have passed many crumbling colonial villas that would be magnificent if restored but there is little foreign investment here. The original telegraph office, High Court, and banks to name a few. The government offices have all now moved to the new capital in Naypyidaw, about 320 km North of Yangon. The footpaths were crowded with vendors selling everything from second hand books to pig organ skewers and betal nut.
As we have driven today we have noticed a number of bundles of dried rice stalks clustered together and often tied in the trees or on railings. These, it turns out, are rice offerings for the birds.
Many, many crowded local buses fill the roads carrying the city's workers on average an hour to and from their homes on the outskirts each day. It seems Myanmar is catching up to the C21st and the neighbouring countries but this city, that so recently was the capital, is still a very different place to visit than the other SE Asian countries' capitals we have visited, lacking widespread infrastructure like decent road and rail networks.
Shwedagon Pagoda is the city’s most revered landmark and the country's biggest tourist attraction. It was here Gen. Aung San, the beloved freedom fighter, celebrated Burma’s independence from Britain in March 1947, months before his assassination by political rivals. His daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, rallied pro-democracy protesters in August 1988 and started her own political career in the same spot. At 107m in height, it is the largest golden monument on earth and it shone in the glow of sunset which is why we have left our visit to this time of the day. It is believed to be 2,500 yrs old.
The soaring gold leaf covered central stupa is said to contain several hairs of the Buddha and is surrounded by countless intricately decorated buildings and teakwood shrines laid out across a marble plaza. Bygone kings and queens donated their weight in gold to this stupa, but even today every five years the gold plate needs to be renewed. Such a cost to this poor country.
Eric found the Friday Corner and made water offerings to the image and guinea pig symbol. As a Buddhist you are assigned a day and creature according to the day you were born. His character is talkative (need I say more). I found the Sunday Corner and Garuda bird. My character is sweet and smart (of course). Adrian was also born on a Friday and Luke was Monday so he has the tiger symbol.
The place was swarming by sundown with tourists, locals and monks or nuns.
After sundown it lights up with both oil lanterns as offerings and the electric lights which illuminate the bejewelled orb and vane at the top of the spire.
We returned to our hotel and showered before having dinner in the coffee shop and an early night. We leave here at 4:45 in the morning.
Tuesday 17th
The hotel packed us off with breakfast boxes which we ate at the airport while we waited in the domestic departure lounge. There were many people milling about and it was impossible to hear and understand the announcements. What seemed like chaos was actually very well organised by the people responsible for getting us all on the right flights, it turns out they knew what we were supposed to be doing even if we didn't. Our 80 min flight to Bagan was lovely, with better complimentary service than the Jetstar leg. We were met at the airport by Aye who whisked us away to the Bu Le Thee Stupa in the archeological zone.
We climbed up to the fourth tier (the first real test for my knee which coped well), for early morning views across the dusty plains dotted with more than 2000 pagodas and the Irrawaddy river in the far distance to the west. It was outstanding.
I had considered cycling around here but no doubt we would have been quickly lost among them all or worse, had a puncture and been stranded in the heat and dust. Pagoda is the universal word for stupa, temple or meditation cell. The largest ones were built by the royals. Next you find smaller ones built in clusters, these were built by wealthy families who continued the construction over generations. The smaller, single ones were built by poorer families. They range in size from just a few metres to more than 60m and many are shaped like bells, some like eggs but others are more flamboyant. Hot air ballooning across these plains would be extraordinary.
We bought a sand painting from an artist who had his pieces on show up on the fourth tier. He followed us all the way down to the car and back up again since we didn't have any money with us. He handed me a roll of newspaper when I handed over the cash and as I write this much later I have no idea if the painting is inside or not. It might turn out to be the most expensive newspaper I have ever purchased.
Funny, I didn't find coming down that much fun!
Aye then walked us through the bustling morning marketplace at Nyang U where fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat are all sold along with fish paste, bean curd and the thanaka wood used to make the paste favoured by the women and children of almost all of the races. It is believed to be a cooling agent, sun screen and will clarify the skin. We were shown a demonstration of how it is made by rubbing the bark of a chunk of the wood on a wet stone. When the bark is all used you can burn the wood in your cooking fire. Some people have electricity but they use charcoal to cook. The poor use wood.
The amount of vegetables and fruit available is staggering. Many we recognise but there are plenty we haven't seen before. The flood plains of the Irrawaddy are rich for growing and much of it comes from there.
There is also a mountain range not too for away rich with volcanic soils. Only the apples are from China.
Next door is the all day market where you can buy everything else, and I mean everything. Sand paintings (for half the price we paid) sandals, clothes, woodcarvings, kitchenware, foodstuffs. No need for a supermarket here.
The streets are very busy with locals at work or shopping. Here a nun and some novices are collecting alms, which they do twice a week. The monks and novices do it every morning.
Our next stop was the Shwezigon Paya, one of the oldest royal stupas in the area. Aye took the time here to explain how the architectural design of the stupas and Buddha image have developed over the different Bagan eras. This is the first of the more stable bell shaped ones and it became the prototype for all future construction in Myanmar where earthquakes had already damaged or destroyed some of the earlier ones.
We were lucky to see some very young novices, dressed like kings, taking part in an induction ceremony at the stupa conducted by a monk and accompanied by their family and friends. For a boy in Myanmar it is customary to enter a monastery between the age 10 and 20 as a Buddhist novice for at least one week. Sometimes the boys are even younger, and in rare cases, like this one, they are only 5 or 6 years old.
For Burmese people, the novice hood initiation is a very important ceremony and a big event as a family. Often families send their sons at the same time to the monastery and celebrate the novitiation ceremony together to save costs, because the event with music and traditional dresses is expensive.
Everyone was dressed in bright clothing and there were many offerings on show. The monk chanted and the audience responded.
The whole crowd then took part in a procession to the monastery accompanied by a loud band of men playing musical instruments and another dancing in a very comical style for everyone's enjoyment.
The novices rode on brightly decorated ponies and were followed by Brahmin bullock carts carrying some of the family members. It was all very colourful and noisy.
We went to Wetkyi-in Gubyaukgyi Temple next which is in the Indian style, the interior lined with hundreds of frescoes illustrating the previous lives of Lord Buddha.
Many of the frescoes were stolen by the German who discovered the temple and taken to Germany or sold.
Our last stop before lunch was the Htilominio Pahto, one of the largest at 46m. It was built by a new king in the C13th to commemorate his selection on this very spot as crown prince from among five sons of the king. In a test, the white umbrella had tilted toward him, and he became his father's successor.
There are 4 Buddhas on the two levels and traces of the wall murals are still visible.
The temple was surrounded by stalls set up in the shade of neem and acacia trees and as we wandered around these we saw a demonstration of how the sand paintings are made. First a glue made with the gum of the neem tree is spread over the cotton cloth, this is then covered with the finest sand from the Irrawaddy floodplain. When that dries the process is repeated, up to 5 times for the usual paintings. The design is then sketched on with pencil and then painted with acrylic. There is another style where the sand is built up to 25 layers and then carved away. We moved on to another stall where women who still wear the rings around their neck and legs were weaving cotton scarves. They were happy to talk and have their photos taken. I was able to handle another set of rings and I was amazed at how heavy they were.
At lunchtime we were taken to a lovely outdoor restaurant, under the shade of huge acacia trees on the bank of the Irrawaddy River. The water was a long way away, and in between we could see the sand being trucked away to building sites and some people working on vegetable plots on the higher ground. My goodness it would be hot, hard work at this time of the day. We enjoyed our meal of typical Myanmar dishes; fish with tamarind, chicken with squash and green tea leaf salad.
We went to New Bagan to our hotel to check in. We were greeted with face towels scented with lemon grass, and the welcome drink was fresh lemonade poured over crushed ice. Sultry breezes filtered through the open-air lobby decorated in colonial style, with wicker chairs, spinning ceiling fans, SE Asian antiques and pillars of solid teak.
Before you do anything you have to wash your feet as you must take your shoes off before entering any of the pagodas. You are not just walking around on tiles or brick passageways but anywhere within the grounds so your feet become tired and filthy very quickly.After a refreshing shower we both snoozed, then Eric had a swim. We found the Areindmar (Arrow) Hotel like a cool oasis retreat from the dusty roads and hazy views.
At 4pm we met Aye again in the foyer and went directly to the Ananda Pahto, the temple considered to be the most beautiful in all of the Bagan region. The four standing Buddha images are all over 9m tall.
The style is more gothic, reflecting a more European influence in the construction of the buildings.
From here we took a ride in a horse drawn cart to one of the largest, Shwe San Daw Pagoda, and climbed to the fourth tier to watch the sunset across the Irrawaddy.
This was a pleasant pace to watch out for birds at that time of day and we were pleased to find a hoopoe among others.
Sandy would smile if she knew I had taken a ride in one of these tourist contraptions but at that time of day, with the heat abating it was pleasant.
The climb was well worth the view though a very popular spot so crowded with tourists. At sunset the brick pagodas turn fiery red against the dusty plains dotted with acacia and cassia trees.
When we returned to town we were dropped at the Green Elephant Restaurant just around from our hotel. We ate outdoors, in the cool of the evening trying more traditional Myanmar recipes including grilled aubergine salad, chicken and mint skewers and fish with lime. We tried the local wine which was very drinkable. Who'd have thought? There are 2 wineries in the country, both in the Shan region towards Inle Lake. The first was developed by a German vintner, the second by a French one, but both are locally owned.
Wednesday 18th
After breakfast poolside we met Aye who took us to Okkyaung Temple to look out over the pagodas in the morning light.
The one directly west of us was a huge royal temple enclosed within a walled garden but being renovated at present. This shows just an outer building.
Then we continued on to Popa, along the way stopping off to see how a number of the local producers operate. From top left and going clockwise the first picture shows an ox grinding peanuts to extract the oil. The left over mash is used as stock feed so nothing is wasted. Next you see Aye and Libby enjoying laphet thoke, the popular finish to Burmese meals which is a snack including fermented green tea leaves mixed with a combination of peanuts, seeds, fried lentils, dried shrimp and fried garlic. It is actually very tasty.
Bottom left you can see Libby having thanaka paste applied to her face which felt like a mudpack and would take some getting used to. Middle bottom row is rice in different stages of fermentation for rice wine and whiskey and to the left a woman constantly stirring the palm juice to create sugar products including sweets with coconut. Above that Libby is having a massage using another product which looked like the whiskey, but could have been rice wine, with a root soaking in it. Eric remained happy to stay on the other side of the camera throughout the visit.
Popa is the 'Mountain of Deities' so we first visited the House of the 37 Nats (celestial spirits of Burmese mythology which are worshipped in conjunction with Buddhism). Almost all of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths. There's the mother, the father, the children, the blacksmith, the horseman, one of the river, of the ocean, of whiskey and gambling ......
We are still a little confused about their significance but we watched a number of people making offerings and you could see how deeply they believed. If you don't know exactly the right words to say you can employ the skills of the local Nat keeper. People come to the shrines to make offerings, including food. Many pilgrims from all over Burma visit Mount Popa to pay homage to the Nats.
Then we made our way up the 800 steps to the temples of Lord Buddha on top of a steep volcanic rock outcrop called Taung Kalat (pedestal hill). It is an extinct volcano plug, about 50 km southeast of Bagan. Apparently it can be seen from the Irrawaddy River, 60 km away, in clear weather. You don't get that at this time of year though.
The stairway to the top is covered fortunately, as it is very hot even though we are in the mountains. All along the way to the top are shops selling various items including flowers, wooden handicrafts, food, clothing and local herbal medicines. Along the stairway are monkeys that are always on the lookout for food. I
t reminded us of Kek Lok Si in Penang, and Dambula in Sri Lanka. My knees were both looking forward to a rest when we got back down.
The views had been disappointing as with the summer heat it was very hazy.
We drove up to the Mt Popa Resort Hotel nestled into the side of the bigger mountain which had tranquil gardens and another lovely outlook. Then we made our way back down to the village of Popa for a well earned lunch.
By the time we returned to Bagan it was time for the afternoon siesta.
We arose from that and sat by the pool for awhile before taking a stroll through the streets looking for birds before ending up once again at the Green Elephant for dinner.
Thursday 19th
We flew the 30 mins to Mandalay (flat land of the universe) and met Sue, our local guide. She took us to Amarapura (beautiful town), the former ancient capital, before it was moved to Mandalay, less than 20 miles away. Now, with the growth in both towns it is really a township within Mandalay. Unlike Yangon, motorbikes buzz about like swarms of mosquitoes here.
Our first stop was the U Bein Bridge, the worlds longest teakwood footbridge of more than 1km in length which crosses the Taungthaman Lake.
On the flood plains we watched women harvesting peanuts or tending the crops of vegetables and bullock carts laden with freshly harvested hay.
We saw many domestic ducks which were feasting on the water hyacinths and the snails too before being herded back to their huts.
On the lake we watched fishermen plying the waters in their boats or working together in the shallows to trap the schools of fish.
The bridge was crowded with locals, visitors since it is the summer holidays and tourists, not to mention the ever present monks.
The bridge was built in the 1850s from wood reclaimed from the former royal palace in Inwa. It has more than 1,000 pillars, only a few of which have been replaced with concrete in the middle section. Though it feels quite sturdy to walk across, there are fears that it will not hold up much longer with the increasing foot traffic.
Next we visited the Mahagandayong Monastery which has more than 1000 monks attending.
We watched as they lined up for their lunch, first the novices
followed by the monks
and moved into the dining room past the people who were today's donors, offering rice and curry for the meal
and loading their bowls with biscuits, snacks and drink cans.
Afterwards we wandered around the grounds and visited the kitchen. We were very impressed at the size of the rice boilers, curry pots and woks. With 1000 mouths at each sitting, twice a day, they would need to be. As we left the grounds we saw a number of the monks giving their snacks away to the poor.
Our next stop was a weaving workshop where we were able to see the weavers working at hand looms and creating the most intricate traditional patterns in both cotton and silk. This picture gives you an indication of how many shuttles are required for each individual colour in an intricate design. If it is that complicated the weavers work in pairs. At the showroom opposite we each bought some clothes.
Then we were truely on the road to Mandalay, 'city of gems' since it is recognised as the cultural heart of central Myanmar as well as having the country's biggest jade and gem market. Nearby Mogok produces the best gems in the world. We drove to the Mahamuni Temple, which houses the country's most holy Buddha Image, the Arakan Buddha Image. On the way we passed through the district for wood carving and bronze casting so we stopped off to see the works in progress. There was also the marble carving district. At almost 4m high this image is believed to have been cast in bronze when Buddha was alive. It was made in a region well to the west of here and then transported overland and by barge to this temple which was built in what is considered to be the most auspicious place for a temple. We visited a gallery where massive paintings depicted the journey.
Over the years, thousands of devout Buddhists have completely covered the body of the image in at least 15cm of gold leaf so the figure is now quite disfigured, only the serene face remains true to the original form.
After lunch of soup, salad and curry followed by laphet thoke we checked in to the Amazing Mandalay Hotel and had a short rest.
Who wouldn't after that huge meal and it is even hotter today. It is located right beside the railway station so there is a lot of traffic right at the door, but then I think you could say that of anywhere in Mandalay.
In the afternoon we began at the Golden Palace, a throne room that had belonged to the first king here. When he died his son who succeeded him decided to donate the beautifully carved teak building to the monastery.
It is a good thing he did as later the whole palace was destroyed in the war and this too would have been lost. It was once completely covered in gold, both inside and out, but now very little remains on the outside.
From there we went to Kuthodaw Pagoda, where the world's largest book is housed. It is extraordinary. The pages are the entire Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, each etched into both sides of a marble slab and each slab is housed in one of 729 stone-inscription caves arranged in concentric circles on the perimeter of the main stupa. The stupa is gilded above its terraces and modelled on the Shwezigon Pagoda which we saw in Bagan. It is such a serene place, so cool with all the white mini temples and shady star flower trees. In 2013 UNESCO added this site to its register for Memory of the World register.
Top left are a few of the stone inscription caves, moving clockwise is the UNESCO dedication stone, an elderly nun, a child selling clutches of star flowers, the gilded stupa, one of the marble pages.
Next we visited the Kyauktawgyi Pagoda located at the foot of Mandalay Hill. Its exterior is modelled on the Ananda Temple at Bagan. One of the great prides of Mandalay city, the 8m sitting Buddha image was carved from a single block of white marble.
A strong Indian influence exists here, with the pagoda full of colourful glass mosaics and you could well imagine Indian beauties in Bollywood outfits swanning around the passageways.
Our last stop for the afternoon is Mandalay Hill. I'm glad they didn't expect me to climb the more than 700 steps to the top, we drove instead. My soles, ankles and knees are all telling me they have had enough of walking around on bare concrete over the last few days.
The view was hazy in the summer heat but extensive looking across to the Shan hills, the Irrawaddy River and right across the city and paddi fields that surround it. This is looking down on the 'world's largest book' pagoda.
Mandalay Hill is known for its abundance of pagodas and monasteries and is a major pilgrimage site for Burmese Buddhists. At the top of the hill is the Sutaungpyei (literally wish-fulfilling) Pagoda.
Shoes off again to wander around Sutaungpyei Pagoda.
In the evening we had dinner at the hotel in an outdoor setting where we were entertained with a traditional marionette puppet show, dancing and gamelan music.
Friday 20th
We took a boat trip on the Irrawaddy River, (Elephant River) which is the principal river and lifeblood of the country coursing over 2000 kms from glacial beginnings below Tibet in the north to the fertile delta where it finally empties into the Andaman Sea. We were able to sit and watch the washerwomen pounding clothes, children swimming, dogs and even horses being washed and fishermen at work. On the river there are many boats and barges transporting people and goods. There are also a few touring boats that take passengers on longer journeys. Bagan is a one day trip downstream. We were intrigued by the teak logging boats and bamboo rafts. We traveled upstream for about an hour to the village of Mingun, passing islands that appear and disappear with each monsoonal flooding. While they are in existence they provide fertile ground to grow vegetables and sand to be carted back to town for construction.
From top left is the temporary homes of farmers working the fertile soil exposed on islands while the waters recede in the dry season, these are often submerged in the monsoon. Moving clockwise the river provides the carriage for boats carrying goods, passage for locals and tourists. The larger one shows the longboats with outrigger rafts for teak logs.
Drawing closer to Mingun on the western bank we could see a colossal structure that looks like another volcanic rock plug but is in fact an attempt by King began by King Bodawpaya to build the worlds biggest pagoda in 1790. His attempt failed, yet even the dimension of his failure is impressive. The project was never finished because a fortune teller told the king he would die if it was ever completed. Rumour has it the finance minister recommended that outcome as the enormous number of people forced into slave labour to build it had left the countryside in poverty and unable to produce enough food. You can see the foundations in the top right hand picture below. It is the biggest brick pile in the world. Successive earthquakes over the centuries have damaged the foundations to such an extent the Sue advised us not to climb it (phew). Leading to the temple is a formal processional path from the river with crouching guardian lions marking the entrance.
Middle left we are approaching the beautiful Myatheintan Pagoda (a thousand emeralds) built by a crown prince for his princess. The curves in the structure represent the feminine form and to the local people it is their Taj Mahal (bottom right). The same king who began the world's biggest pagoda did manage to create the worlds largest hanging bell and the world's biggest bell that rings. The largest or the heaviest bell in the whole world was in Yangon, and was donated to Shwedagon Pagoda. During Portugal colonialism it was removed and taken to Thanlyin, a port city across the Bago River where the great bell and the boat sank. King Bodawpaya actually attempted 4 great, noble deeds: the Great Pagoda, the Great Bell, the Great Lake and the Great Lion. Overlooking the Ayeyarwaddy river in front of the eastern face of the Pagoda, were two Great Lions, each standing 29 m in height but now very difficult to distinguish from a further pile of bricks.
Middle top you can see the rafts transporting bamboo from way upstream, centre is a dog being washed while children play, below centre an ox cart was lined up on the shore and as we approached we discovered it was the local taxi. Left a woman is smoking a locally made cheroot cigar and right a child daubed with thanaka paste.
Returning downstream was very pleasant, lulled by the rhythmical engine and the rise and fall from the wash of other boats, we could easily have nodded off but lunch awaits back in Mandalay, this time a Thai restaurant by the river but well clear of the jetty area which is so busy, dusty and littered with rubbish.
We drove through town, by a huge lake, and crossed the river on a relatively new bridge to Sagaing hill which is dotted with more than 2000 pagodas, their gilded roofs dazzling through the trees even at this distance. The bridge runs parallel to one built by the British when they were in power, and the first to cross the mighty river. It takes the train and still a good deal of light traffic but lorries and trucks use the new one. This is the main route to India and Bangladesh. After all, Mandalay was an important stop on the Ancient Silk Route from Asia to Europe through Turkey.
Can there ever be enough pagodas in this country? Apparently not. New ones are still being constructed all around us.
We visited two originals, the first was a cave like structure with 34 gilded Buddha images. U Min Thonze Pagoda is a cave like structure in a curving colonnade that follows the shape of the hill.
The central pagoda, Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda, is connected by a set of covered staircases that snake up the 240 m hill affording views across the river. If you have good eyes you can see the spans of the bridge in the top left picture and below it the staircases. Centre is the gold robed Buddha image. The courtyards are lined with beautiful walkways in gold and green and the plazas have beautiful mozaic floors.
Returning to town we visited a gold leaf beating workshop in the handcrafts quarter before being dropped at our hotel for a restful afternoon.
In one area stone pedestals are placed side by side in a row and men use a large sledgehammer to beat packages of gold sheets into thin gold leaf. It is a hard work as they swing the hammers rhythmically to create thin gold leaf 0.000005 inch thin. The entire beating process can take 5 to 7 hours. Meanwhile, women employees sit in a muggy room next door because windows must always be tightly closed, preventing the gold leaf being blown around. They cut the gold leaf into 5 cm squares and package them for sale.
Heading out for dinner we were looking for the Triple B Restaurant which everyone seemed to know but when given directions we were led astray. Evening walking in the streets can be challenging but eventually we found it and enjoyed a western meal for a change. Very reasonably priced and good feel. We walked home, running the gauntlet of falling down pavement holes or slipping into drains to avoid traffic and had a reasonably early night considering another early departure.
Saturday 21st
Ensconced in our lovely villa at Pristine Lotus Spa Resort I think we can be very happy here for the next 3 days. From our balcony or on the mezzanine floor we look out toward Inle Lake through gardens full of bamboo and teak. Even in the heat of the day we can hear the birds. We are over 300kms SE of Mandalay in the Shan region, our flight here was quite comfortable but we went back to Bagan before landing at Heho, both legs about 30 mins.
It was an hour's drive to the Mandalay airport and the same time again from Heho to our new abode beside Inle Lake so the whole journey took most of the morning (but still we didn't need the 5am wake up call, the arranged 5:30 would have been quite early enough).
Sai met us and travelling to our villa we could see how fertile the area is, despite the dry season, with many crops including sugar cane and a mill. All agriculture is done the way it has always been done here it seems, with hard physical work by the local people and their beasts of burden, both buffalo and ox. We traveled through the hills and saw this train crossing a bridge built by the British. Because of the fall, it did a big loop and cross back under the bridge before continuing.
We also passed some natural hot springs and there are more of these at our resort. The rest of the day was at our disposal and not before time, we have been on the go since we arrived in Myanmar. Inle’s attractions are its floating markets, monasteries, golden-spired Buddhist temples and surrounding hills, populated by tribal groups who each wear traditional ethnic dress. Tucked into the side of a hill,our villas are in quiet gardens with a babbling creek and across the road are more cabins lining the lake edge. We made the most of our villa in the heat of the day and then had a swim in the pool and a sundowner on the restaurant deck. Today was a NO PAGODA DAY.
Sun 22nd
Sai was waiting for us as we finished our breakfast and we took a 30-foot longboat from reception along a channel that led into the lake.
One of the first things we saw were Intha fishermen, known as "leg rowers", because they manoeuvre flat-ended canoes standing up, with one leg wrapped around an oar. This leaves both hands free to fish.
Some of the Intha houses are on stilts on the lake itself and they are also the architects of the floating villages and gardens which are made from woven bamboo and thatched with water grass.
Collecting the water grass is a big job that both provides the compost and mulch but is also essential in keeping the canals clear in the dry seasons when the water recedes.
These gardens are then anchored in place with long bamboo poles. These same long poles create perfect roosts for all the birds which suited us just fine. We are surprised by the huge numbers of drongos. These people originally came from the south of the country but now make a living selling fish and vegetables (mostly tomatoes, gourds and beans at this time of the year) from the lake.
Next we called in to the Nge Phe Chaung or more commonly known as the 'Jumping Cat' monastery. This remarkable teak building was built before the royal palace in Mandalay and has beautiful flooring and many Buddha statues in beautifully carved cabinets.
Visitors used to enjoy watching the cats, who had been trained to jump by a monk, but that practice has now finished. These cats look pretty happy about that.
Next we went upstream along a tributary, the boatman threading us through the narrow sluice gates which control the flow for farmers, that lead us to the Pa-O village of In Dein.
Along the way we came across a number of young novice monks bathing, but they weren't too shy, in fact several did back flips for our benefit, but we weren't able to capture them on camera. It was refreshing to see them behaving just like boys anywhere.
There are 200 small stupas located here. Pa-o are another tribe who speak a completely different dialect, have different cultural dress and have more in common with Thais. We walked a couple of kms uphill to these ancient brick stupas.
The pagodas are quite different in design to those we saw in Bagan and are crumbling with age and intruding weeds, somewhat like Angkor Wat. Rather than being restored as they are in Bagan, these fragile ruins are being replaced with replica concrete ones.
Walking back to the river we found ourselves under a walkway that continued for just over 3kms supported by 400 huge columns and the whole way was lined with stall after stall, all selling pretty much the same stuff.
Fortunately the people who operate the stalls, like those we have found all over the country, are quite reasonable when you say you are not interested in buying. We returned downstream to the lake and entered an interesting silversmith workshop that has been in the family now for 3 generations. The fourth is just in training. The stone is brought from several hundred kms away in Shan state and contains four minerals. These are separated out and then the silver is hand worked into jewellery and ornaments.
Our final stop before lunch was the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda.
Once again it was unique in that it once had 5 miniature Buddha images but over the years they have been subjected to layer upon layer of gold leaf and are now completely unrecognisable. It was a beautiful building and in October each year when the whole country celebrates Pagoda Festival a huge royal barge, which belongs here, travels around the lake with much ceremony and excitement.
We had lunch at the Mr Toe Restaurant, funny because we have just been reading an unusual story about a hairy toe to our P4 students. Next year we will have to show them a picture of this one. We filled the afternoon with visits to more traditional handicrafts including weaving of lotus flower stem fibre (and cotton and silk), the blacksmih and boat building. The woman at the top is setting the loom, below left is a piece of fabric being finished, next the boys are belting iron after is has been removed from the heat, boat building and bottom right is the cheroot making.
Watching the rolling of cheroots was more interesting than we expected. Did you know they use tobacco leaf, wood shavings, star anise and honey in the mix? Not tempted to try it but it is very popular here, as popular as betal nut chewing. We traveled all day in a boat on the lake right from our doorstep. It is a huge lake measuring more than 9 kms across at its broadest and more than double that in length but then also connected to two further downstream lakes. The people living on or beside it have schools, post offices, stalls, gardens, markets, handcrafts, mechanics...... And it all seems so peaceful, interrupted only by the noise of an occasional outboard motor and the lap of the resultant wake. Tourists provide employment opportunities in hotels and restaurants and in fact there is a training facility for that very purpose on the lake too, so they don't even need to leave home to attend. We had a very interesting day and doubled our bird sightings list.
Monday 23rd
We spent the morning on the lake birdwatching with Sai and a guide from the Conservation Department. His knowledge was so appreciated as he could identify many of the birds we had already seen and helped us find many more. We began on the north shore which is a conservation area and we had access to a building on stilts above the lake which acts as both a bird hide and an education centre.
Then he took us to Linn Khin and Thele Oo where we were able to see cormorants, herons, egrets and openbill storks all nesting together in shared rookeries. The egrets were particularly beautiful in their breeding plumage and absolutely nonplussed about people observing at close range. We were on the water for 5 hours and our bird list has doubled again. It was an extremely hot day so we sheltered in our villa through the heat of the afternoon.
Tuesday 23rd
It was always going to be a day of waiting. We waited for the guide and driver to collect us, then we waited at the airport for the flight to Yangon. That landed at about midday so we had more than a five 5 hour wait for the next flight home. Lin was there to meet us though and took us to the Bogyoke Market which is a huge 2 storey complex that sprawls across a whole block. The stalls in the area where we ventured sold all the handicrafts we had seen at all the other stalls across the country however I did manage to part with some spare Kyat - well no point taking it home. Then we went to lunch at the same Padsomar Restaurant we had dined in on our initial day here.
We visited the home in which Gen. Aung San had lived between the end of World War II and his assassination two years later. (His widow and three children remained there until 1953 when she was packed off to India as an ambassador.) The Bogyoke Aung San house museum was closed between 1999 and 2007, and then opened only once a year on Martyrs' Day, the anniversary of his murder. It was an attempt to downplay the significance of his daughter but the government lifted the restriction in 2010 after the NLD's overwhelming success at the election and her release from house arrest. The mansion was built in 1921, formerly the home of the ruling British.
It is a lovely building with circular verandas and elaborate turrets set in large grounds with shady trees and a pond (where one of the sons drowned). His black Wolseley car was parked in the garage.
On the way to the airport we drove past her home in University Ave where she spent all those years in detention but the fence and gates prevent any photography.
We arrived at the airport at 4:30 with still more waiting ahead of us but at least it was cool there and out of the traffic. Lin kept offering other ideas to fill in time like visiting the white elephants but none of the ideas appealed, so we waited first in check-in and Immigration queues and then the departure lounge. Waiting, waiting..... we notice on the tv that Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore, died yesterday. Not a surprise since he was on a respirator before we left, but we can't imagine what Singapore will be like when we return. Since we haven't had wifi for the last 5 days we had no idea.
