that amazing internet place in Mandalay was the last real internet place we saw. There were a couple of times I managed to send a quick email to Avi from a dialup place but there was no hope of updating the blog.
I have put up some photos and here are some words to go with them:
March 1 afternoon: we went to Kuthodaw Paya - a site containing the 15 books of the Tripitaka on 729 marble slabs. Then we climbed up Mandalay Hill (lots of steps - took about 45 minutes) and had a lively discussion with a young monk. We had a few more days when monks attached themselves to us - they do not have much to do and like talking to tourists and improving their English. It's always fun but a bit odd.
The ET Motel where we stayed was the place with the only nasty hotel keepers we met in Myanmar. Not recommended....
March 2: we took the boat to Bagan on the Ayeyarwady river. That took all day and not always interesting but very relaxing. We stayed for 2 nights in Bagan in the Eden Motel which was nice (especially the breakfast on the rooftop). Ate pizza which was much nicer than the local food.
March 3: We explored Bagan's pagodas in by horse and carriage. The number of pagodas is just stunning - the landscape looks like a sparsely planted forest where every tree has been replaced by a pagoda. Some big, some small, some falling apart, some under construction, many have Buddha statues and quite a few are gold-gilded (but there is a big lack of food and a lot of poverty. sigh.). Decided to stick with the pizza for dinner. Very good!
March 4: Flew to Heho and took a cab to Nyaungshwe on the shore of Inle Lake. Stayed at the Aquarius Inn which was charming and extremely friendly - the nicest place we stayed in! We took a canoe trip in the canal in the afternoon and ate Shan food which was very salty but the woman running the restaurant was very nice.
March 5: Took a motor boat ride on the lake for most of the day. Visited the floating market and some craftmen - cigar makers, paper makers, weavers, blacksmiths.... Also visited some women from the Long-Neck tribe which we found quite disturbing. Found the best pizza place for dinner (by then we were so hungry we were quite obsessed with food and talked about food most of the time).
March 6-7: Treked to Kalaw (about 30-35 km). Slept in a monastery on the way. The guide Sein Chu was great and highly recommended (The Aquarius Inn people put us in touch with him). A french woman joined us for the trek and we all enjoyed it a lot even though I found it a bit difficult. We decided to cut it about 2 hours short and caught some pick-up trucks for the last few miles. Quite amazing we lived to tell the tale!
March 8: Flew back to Yangon. Was hard to find accomodations (we got in around 6pm). We ended up in a triple room very close to Sula Paya - was nice but no hot water.
March 9: Went to see a movie - World Trade Center in one of those old fashioned huge cinemas. We were very moved by the movie but everybody else was busy eating, laughing, coming and going and making a lot of noise. At least one rat was spotted - also seemed indifferent to the movie. Then we went to high tea in the Strand Hotel (supposedly $500 a night for a room there! amazing). Was not the best tea we ever had but we enjoyed it immensly.
March 10: Flew back to Bangkok and had a great lunch on the street. What a difference! Went to the night market which was great.
March 11-12: Wondered around Bangkok, shopped, ate and had a good time. Einat & Yogi went with me to the airport in the evening. When I asked for a window or aisle seat I was told that my seat is "next to the aisle seat", which I found very funny and after some arm twisting got changed. I took a bag for them home. Was nice to come back to civilization but I would not have minded staying a bit longer with them....
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Mandalay
See Photos!
Leaving the Internet place yesterday, we found Yogi in a beauty salon getting a combination shave and foot massage. He looked very happy even though he said the shaving lady clearly did not know how to shave but the foot lady compensated.
The plane ride to Mandalay was horrible. We sat for an hour in a non-AC terminal and then for another 30 minutes or so in the hottest stuffiest plane ever. I was really afraid we'll get heat stroke. But His Excellency the Police Chief was on the plane with us with a whole retinue of officials, so that was a compensation. We had a stopover in heho which meant we had 2 take-offs and 2 landings in this very rickety looking plane but we survived.... Only 2 more flights planned in Myanmar which is a blessing.
The guesthouse we went to was full but the next one had a vacancy so we got 2 rooms - reasonably nice, for a total of $20. My main complaint is with all the bathrooms here - for some reason the sink drains to the floor which then drains to the sewer - that makes a big mess and I am half inclined to add my own piping to all the bathrooms. Oh well. We got rooms with AC, but as there was no electricity they did not work. The hotel has a generator so the ceiling fans did work and that was pleasant enough.
We went for a Chinese dinner... ha. I will be way thinner by the end of this trip. After that we took a 'cab' - a tiny truck ("Blue Taxi"), where the passengers sit on benches in the back facing each other - something like the tiyuliot we had in Israel 30 years ago but tiny, to the Mustach Brothers show. This is a local version of a standup comedy act - they are famous for being jailed , and they voice some criticism of the country but the whole thing was more bizarre than funny. All the extended family performs traditional dances and 'cutting edge' comedy, in something which sounds like English but is very hard to understand. Was great because it was so weird.
This morning we took a cab to the world's longest teak bridge. Next to it is a huge monastery with thousands of young monks and like all good tourists we went there to see them at their daily meal. Was rather depressing as it's like watching the feeding of dolphins in the zoo or something, but interesting nonetheless. Before that we talked to one of the monks - he was around 16 years old. He and Yogi had a lively discussion about soccer and then he showed us a book he bought about Israel - he claimed he was very interested in Israel as its people were very smart.
We took a long walk on the bridge to the village on the other side of the lake, visited the required huge Buddha and walked back. The hawkers were not too bad but I did buy a funny folding hat and got a melon seed bracelet as a gift. It seems ridiculous to haggle over prices with the people here so I did not.
Our cab driver had waited for us and drove us back to town. He claimed that new cars cost $300,000 and motocycles $20,000-30,000. As the Lonely Planet has a section about how the people here confuse large numbers, he probably was wrong (we hope). He also told us his wife had died on Feb. 20 and that his son promised her to become a doctor before she died. Was very sad.
We asked to get off at a huge mall we saw in passing this morning and again fell through a rabbit hole into a completely different world - very new, modern and relatively fancy shops, with prices which are not very different from the street prices (Einat bought a cap which cost about the same as my hat, but no bracelet!) We found a 'Japanese' Cafe here and had a decent meal - not great but the best so far. And the Cyber cafe next to it is amazingly modern with about 40 top of the line computers, decent connectivity and our gmail/yahoo accounts are not not blocked here. Go figure.
Many plas for the afternoon and tomorrow we are taking the boat to Bagan.
Riddle: Why are there no more night trains from Yangon to Mandalay?
Answer (according to the cab dirver yesterday): Because Yangon is the capital. ??!???
Leaving the Internet place yesterday, we found Yogi in a beauty salon getting a combination shave and foot massage. He looked very happy even though he said the shaving lady clearly did not know how to shave but the foot lady compensated.
The plane ride to Mandalay was horrible. We sat for an hour in a non-AC terminal and then for another 30 minutes or so in the hottest stuffiest plane ever. I was really afraid we'll get heat stroke. But His Excellency the Police Chief was on the plane with us with a whole retinue of officials, so that was a compensation. We had a stopover in heho which meant we had 2 take-offs and 2 landings in this very rickety looking plane but we survived.... Only 2 more flights planned in Myanmar which is a blessing.
The guesthouse we went to was full but the next one had a vacancy so we got 2 rooms - reasonably nice, for a total of $20. My main complaint is with all the bathrooms here - for some reason the sink drains to the floor which then drains to the sewer - that makes a big mess and I am half inclined to add my own piping to all the bathrooms. Oh well. We got rooms with AC, but as there was no electricity they did not work. The hotel has a generator so the ceiling fans did work and that was pleasant enough.
We went for a Chinese dinner... ha. I will be way thinner by the end of this trip. After that we took a 'cab' - a tiny truck ("Blue Taxi"), where the passengers sit on benches in the back facing each other - something like the tiyuliot we had in Israel 30 years ago but tiny, to the Mustach Brothers show. This is a local version of a standup comedy act - they are famous for being jailed , and they voice some criticism of the country but the whole thing was more bizarre than funny. All the extended family performs traditional dances and 'cutting edge' comedy, in something which sounds like English but is very hard to understand. Was great because it was so weird.
This morning we took a cab to the world's longest teak bridge. Next to it is a huge monastery with thousands of young monks and like all good tourists we went there to see them at their daily meal. Was rather depressing as it's like watching the feeding of dolphins in the zoo or something, but interesting nonetheless. Before that we talked to one of the monks - he was around 16 years old. He and Yogi had a lively discussion about soccer and then he showed us a book he bought about Israel - he claimed he was very interested in Israel as its people were very smart.
We took a long walk on the bridge to the village on the other side of the lake, visited the required huge Buddha and walked back. The hawkers were not too bad but I did buy a funny folding hat and got a melon seed bracelet as a gift. It seems ridiculous to haggle over prices with the people here so I did not.
Our cab driver had waited for us and drove us back to town. He claimed that new cars cost $300,000 and motocycles $20,000-30,000. As the Lonely Planet has a section about how the people here confuse large numbers, he probably was wrong (we hope). He also told us his wife had died on Feb. 20 and that his son promised her to become a doctor before she died. Was very sad.
We asked to get off at a huge mall we saw in passing this morning and again fell through a rabbit hole into a completely different world - very new, modern and relatively fancy shops, with prices which are not very different from the street prices (Einat bought a cap which cost about the same as my hat, but no bracelet!) We found a 'Japanese' Cafe here and had a decent meal - not great but the best so far. And the Cyber cafe next to it is amazingly modern with about 40 top of the line computers, decent connectivity and our gmail/yahoo accounts are not not blocked here. Go figure.
Many plas for the afternoon and tomorrow we are taking the boat to Bagan.
Riddle: Why are there no more night trains from Yangon to Mandalay?
Answer (according to the cab dirver yesterday): Because Yangon is the capital. ??!???