Mystical Myanmar

I will try to describe Myanmar beauty in words but I feel pictures do it more justice. At least that was my excuse for not writing about our trip.

Truth of the matter is that we have been exhausted from teaching ten and a half hour days during summer session. They should put a warning label on the summer session application form - Excess exposure to screaming kids may cause permanent damage to reproductive organs and possible brain damage! Sign up at your own risk. The four weeks have finally come to an end and I think I made it out wilh only partial brain damage.

Myanmar is a place that not many people have travelled to, or even heard of, so of course Lauren and I jumped at the opportunity to travel there. Because many people don't know of it, there are few tourists, which allows the country to continue with its normal routines, undisturbed by the presence of tourism. This can be appreciated by the traveler in Asia who doesn't desire being accosted by street dealers.

Myanmar is like taking a trip back in time, back before South East Asia had highways and mini-marts. I guess the best way to describe it would be Thailand 50 years ago.

Before the trip started to Myanmar, we had a big scare at the Incheon International Airport in Korea. There is nothing worse than seeing Lauren walk out of the bathroom, pale, with tears in her eyes, and shaking. "Dana, I don't have our visa papers!!!" What???!!??? Did I just pay for an all expense paid trip to the custom's office in Myanmar? I guess we were going to find out because there was no turning back to get the visa papers. We had just travelled 4 hours by bus to get to the airport. With a lot of smiles and an academy award winning performance by both us, we were able to slip by customs without the necessary visa papers. For a military state, their custom officers are super nice.

We arrived in the capital, Yangon, 23 hours after first leaving our apartment in Daegu. The bus to Seoul, a layover in Bangkok, and the flight all added up. Our first night in Myanmar, we stayed in a twenty dollar hotel in Yangon. Walking around town I felt like Myanmar had been cut off from the rest of the world. The buildings were worn down, vegetation was slowly growing up the walls of the buildings, and there were mangy dogs everywhere. Plus, everything was playing in slow mode.

We made it out that night in search of a bar and we ended up in old colonial Myanmar. The bar had the makings of an 1800's establishment - everything creaked when you walked through it, and the dim lights kept fading in and out. To top off the experience, there was a local group of friends enjoying themselves with drinks, singing songs, and playing the guitar. The whole experience was surreal.

The next day we went to Mandalay to see why so many hotels, restaurants, and stores are named after this famous city. We went to the top of Mandalay hill and took in the breath taking view. To get there we had to take the smallest taxi in the world. It was made in a toy factory in China and somehow it was able to fit all four of us inside of it. The blue bomber lacked in size, but it make up for it in street appeal.

The best part of Mandalay Hill was not going up it, but coming down from it. We hopped on a taxi that was obviously filled with half of the surrounding town. There was no room for Barry and I, so we jumped on the top of the truck, and held on with white knuckles to some rope, as we descended down the hilltop road.

Having built up an appetite - we set out to find the best Indian joint in Mandalay. It just happens to be on a street corner where they cook the Chapati over an open fire fresh on the spot. We coined this restaurant "82nd and 27th". We scarfed down tons of curry and chapati, cherishing the new flavor that our kimchi accustomed palates were experiencing.

After much discussion, we opted to take the boat from Mandalay to Bagan. Seems easy enough until you factor the 7 hours you spend on a boat. We were able to sell Lauren on the deal after much persuasion and soon we were on a boat at 7am the next morning. The slow boat through Myanmar is the only way to truly take in the serenity of the countryside. Plus, they sell beer on the boat.

Bagan is a must see if you are traveling to Myanmar. It was the best part of the trip because of the natural beauty and the countless pagodas that litter the countryside, over 4 thousand of them. They are breathtaking to see, especially if you are traveling by horse drawn cart. We also rented bikes one day, cruised through town on old bikes, and ventured out to see more temples. Our only other means of transportation were trishaws (cycle rickshaws), while in Bagan. The four of us hired drivers to take us out for dinner and drinks. After the drinks set in we had trishaw races. The drivers seemed like they needed some extra pushes as they lugged us around on their passenger bikes, so we converted our trishaws into skateboards and pushed them down the town streets. Lauren and I won the race!


I almost forgot about the monkeys of Mt. Popa. You can see this secluded mountain spot in Bagan and visit the pesky monkeys that make the mountain their home. Check our crazy monkey pictures.

The last place we went was Inle Lake. In Inle we went on a hike and a boat ride to see the floating village. Again the pictures do it more justice. After the hike, we got $5 massages. Did I mention how cheap everything was in Myanmar? The most we paid for a hotel was $25 and our meals averaged $2 a pop.

It is truly a privilege to be able to experience such an amazing country and we all feel extremely lucky. The people of Myanmar truly made our time their so special. Although, they deal with an oppressive government, you would not see it on their faces. Their smiles were almost as big as ours!


Quote of the trip "That's what she said".