Myanmar Part II: Bewitched & Buddhazzled in Bagan and Inle Lake
My next destination in Myanmar was the area around Bagan. It is a landscape literally littered with some 4400 temples, rivaling Angkor Watt in terms of its memorability (so I have read as I have yet to actually visit Cambodia's crown jewel). I was surprised to discover that Bagan has not been declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the fact that during the 1990s, many pagodas which had been damaged in an earlier earthquake underwent restoration by the military government which paid little heed to original architectural styles and used modern materials. Frankly, I have to wonder whether it may have been this but also the fact that the military government responsible for the renovations had been largely condemned/sanctioned by most of the world for its human rights abuses. Hmmm....food for thought....
I arrived there in the middle of the night by bus and was relieved to see that there was someone from my accommodation, the New Park Hotel, who had actually crawled out of bed at 3 AM in order to collect me. I was further overjoyed to be informed that I could check in immediately and not have to pay anything extra for those extra hours sleeping in my room.
As I only had a couple of days in Bagan, I dragged myself out of bed at 8:30 and, after having a bite to eat, sped off on an archaic bicycle I rented from my hotel (1500 kyat per day). There are soooooo many temples to see in this archaeological zone which roughly covers 42 sq km but, thanks to the advice of the staff at New Park, I had an approximate plan mapped out for the areas I would cover both days, which would encompass the "Best of Bagan." The first day I focused on the temples which lie between the towns of Nyaung U (where most independent budget travelers stay including yours truly) and Old Bagan, as well as the best and brightest ones which lie just outside of Old Bagan. By the end of that first day, I was fairly exhausted, having slept next to none on the overnight bus and getting only about 4 hours of sleep once I arrived at my accommodation. Plus, having to cycle my way around to each and every temple in the heat & humidity also took a LOT out of me.
On my second day of touring, I chose a different bicycle as the one I had used the day previously had a faulty lock. BIG mistake! My new bike had absolutely zero pickup so it felt as if I was transporting a heavy suitcase with each and every turn of the wheel. It was an incredible Jane Fondaesque workout, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but...phew....talk about feeling plum tuckered out by the end of the day! I was one Sweaty
One of the memorable things I did that second day was an off-the-beaten-path visit to the small village of Myinkaba, where I was given a tour by a young lady named Mu Mu, whose family owned a shop there which produced/sold textiles as well as cigars. At first I was reluctant to allow her to show me around as I knew that I would feel obligated to puchase something from her when all was said and done, but by the end of the tour, Mu Mu had been such a charming hostess that I decided to buy a lovely scarf from her as a present for someone back home.
Other highlights from the second day included a visit to the Sulamani Pahto, known as the "Crowning Jewel" of Bagan, which had the most well-preserved wall paintings I saw during my visit. I also particularly enjoyed climbing the steep steps of the Pyathada Paya in order to see/photograph the sunset. Even though it was low season, there were quite a few other tourists hanging about as it is known as the best place in Bagan to see the sunset. Most of the tourists left once the sun had slipped beneath the horizon, but, fortunately, a Japanese tourist with a tripod set up informed me that some of the temples would be illuminated starting around 7 PM, so I stuck around and, boy oh boy, am I ever glad I did!! It was an awesome spectacle and well worth the wait!
To be honest though, as much as I did enjoy cycling around Bagan and exploring its incredible temples/stupas, at the same time, I found myself unpleasantly overwhelmed by the locals there. Everywhere I went people would shout out a friendly "Hello! Where are you from?" but then quickly follow it up with "You want to buy a...sand painting/postcard/t-shirt/etc?" It felt as if they didn't see me as a person, but more of a walking dollar bill sign. I couldn't help but start to respond slightly rudely by the end of the second day, interrupting them before they could finish their "friendly" spiel, by telling them, "No, thank you!!" I have visited many heavily-visited touristic sights around the world, but there was something about Bagan that just bothered me. Perhaps it all comes down to the simple, sad fact that not one person was friendly towards me without having an ulterior motive of selling me something. As a result? I was completely ready to get out of
Which takes me to....
Inle Lake, Myanmar (June 16-19)
Sigh....
How I adore thee, Inle Lake!! I am so thankful that I chose to stay there longer (4 days as opposed to just 2 in Bagan) as there is so much to see/do in the area. Inle Lake is a wonderful watery world and for any mother nature lovers, the perfect place to hang one's
That first day I went on an all-day boat tour of Inle Lake with 3 others (a Korean gal named Cha Cha staying at a hostel across the road, and Tim & Angela, a couple I had met on the overnight bus from Bagan). One can hire a boat for merely 15,000 kyat per day, so between the four of us, we each paid 4,000, tipping the boatman an extra 1000 in the process. He collected us at 7:30 AM and we were afloat by 8:00. We stopped at the floating market first, which wasn't particularly "floating" as there hadn't been much rain as of yet that season. We had a wander around the landlocked market instead and I broke down and purchased a silver necklace for my older sister, Jenny, there. Other stops on our tour included a vast Buddhist temple which shall forever remain nameless to me, silver/silk/tobacco shops, and last but far from least, the "Jumping Cat Monastery." As it just so happened to be the two-year anniversary of my beloved cat Mishu's death, I was determined to celebrate all things feline and not wallow in misery, so when we arrived at the cat monastery I was determined to see some pussycats performing! Unfortunately, the cats there were largely lethargic and were just lying around, seemingly half-dead or as if they were drugged. In fact, one cat in particular looked like the spittin' image of the cat which starred in the film adaptation of Steven King's "Pet Sematary." Shivers. Thankfully, just as we were getting ready to depart, a local lady came along and miraculously woke the cats up and got them to demonstrate their jumping for us. Hurray!!
The following day I hired a bicycle and rode it to the village of Maing Thauk on the eastern shore of the lake. It was market day in the village so I first had a wee wander through the aisles, checking out the variety of cheap goods for sale, but the only purchase I made was a tiny container of tiger balm. From Maing Thauk, I negotiated transport (6000 kyat) across the lake from one of the taxi boatmen there. His boat was loaded down with locals who had been selling their wares at the market but there was just enough space left for me and my cycle to squeeze in. Riding across the lake in that traditional longboat ended up being one of those surreal, magical moments travelers have where they think, "Wow! This is sooo not Kansas." I did my utmost to entertain all on board by pretending to "panic" at the idea of the boat flipping over, all the while feeling like some sort of exotic fruit (a derrian perhaps?) sitting atop a bushel full of golden delicious apples.
Once on the other side, I peddled lackadaisically along, stopping at various nameless temples which struck my fancy. My favorite moment had to be getting into a laughing contest with three young boys sitting on the ground near one of the temples. First I would laugh in a weird way, then they would copy me. Then I would try another strange, silly laugh which they would copy and so it carried on, back and forth for a few uproarious minutes. By the end of it, nearly all the villagers present were giggling uncontrollably. Am I hopeless ham? You betcha!
On the third day, I headed off for a 5-hour hike which had been recommended to me by the staff at the Aquarius Inn. I managed to find the "Temple in a Cave" on my own, but once inside the cave I was delighted to make the acquaintance of two female tourists, Yuko from Japan and Katerina from Poland, who were doing the same hike as me but accompanied with a guide they had hired from their lodging (for only 5000 kyat + 2000 more from me). I asked them if they would mind me tagging along and they raised no objections so OFF we went! I was so unbelievably fortunate to have hooked up with them for it immediately became apparent upon leaving the cave that I would have gotten hopelessly lost if I had carried on by myself. The paths were ill-defined and none of the villagers we met during our walkabout spoke a lick of English. The highlight of our walk most definitely was our visit to a primary school where Katya and I robustly sang the ABC song for the schoolchildren. In response, the kids sang a medley of songs for us in English, including "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and the "Hokey Pokey." As the children sang for us, they acted out the lyrics with cute little hand gestures and wiggly dance moves, which I captured on video with my trusty Canon 60D. Sooooo friggin' goshdarn cute!!! Feeling emotionally overwhelmed, I was practically in tears by the end of their musical recital!
One final thing I absolutely MUST mention was the Aung Traditional Puppet Show (off Yone Gyi Road- 3000 kyat) I attended one evening in Nyaungshwe. The delightful marionette performance lasted nearly 30 minutes and was well worth the ticket price. If you are ever in the neighborhood of Inle Lake, I highly recommend a visit, especially if you are traveling with a few kiddies!
The next day I dreadfully departed, traveling back to Yangon in an overnight bus with the A/C cranked up ridiculously high causing me to wear my rain jacket fully zipped up with the hood placed over my head for warmth and seated next to a continuously upchucking male passenger (as mentioned in my previous blog entry). Good times...NOT.
For my final rainy day and a half in Yangon, I decided to go to the cinema where I watched the "Avengers" which, incredibly enough, had no subtitles nor was it dubbed! I couldn't believe so many locals were willing to fork over precious kyats simply to watch a movie without understanding any of its dialog. Seriously, I wonder why the film had no subtitles. Even the film "Paranormal 3" which I watched in a small cinema in Potosi, Bolivia, had subtitles for gosh sakes! Is this evidence of the government still trying to somehow keep the masses isolated from the rest of the world?!? Perhaps...perhaps not.
Just before catching the airport shuttle on my last day, I hopped in a taxi with a couple of friendly gals named Mary and Maggie, who I had met previously while staying at the Aquarius Inn in Inle Lake, and were now staying at the Motherland Inn 2. We went to the NLD office headquarters as we all wished to show our (financial) support to the party by purchasing an official t-shirt from them. I had hoped to get one for my father, but unfortunately the t-shirts ran small, so the largest size wasn't, in fact, large enough. Sorry Pops, but it is the thought which counts,right??
Thus endeth my Myanmar Tales of the (pleasantly) Unexpected. It is assuredly a land which shows clear signs of suffering for decades under the military yoke of communistic buffoons, but its liberal light is shining brighter, day by day. NOW is the time to go!!
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