Myanmar the Smiley Country!

Myanmar was surreal. For those of you who don’t know where or what Myanmar/Burma is (don’t worry I didn’t either before this trip), I encourage you to look it up. It is the most fascinating and happy place I have ever been in my life. The country has been experiencing a great deal of governmental turmoil these last few years and has just recently been opened up to tourism. This made our visit very unique.

A Burmese monk boarded our ship in Vietnam to travel with us to Myanmar and teach us a bit about the Burmese culture. Unan was the most inspirational, smiley little man I have ever met in my life. He had never left his country before and was unbelievably excited to experience a bit of Western culture. His outlook on life and his constant strive for happiness and peace was admirable. How fulfilled he was by such a simple life was really eye-opening and was a great introduction to the kind of cultural difference we were going to face in Myanmar. (our selfie together can be found below).

The first day we docked about an hour and a half away form Yangon. SAS provided a shuttle into the city, but my friends and I of course missed it, so we were forced to take a taxi. As we walked to the gate an overwhelming number of taxi drivers approached us all trying to bargain for a price. I was very overwhelmed. First of all, there w

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

ere cows roaming freely just a few feet away and all secondly, all of the men were in skirts (I later learned these were called longyi’s). We settled on a driver and headed straight to the bus station to buy overnight tickets for Bagan the following day. Our cab ride into the city was absorbing. We passed several small villages comprised of just a few single-bedroom, open-aired shacks. Trash lined the streets and animals roamed freely. I love seeing how different life is in all of these places. I found most fascinating the presence of Buddhism as monks casually roam the villages. After we arrived in Yangon and bought our tickets, we just like in every other port, wandered the city. Yangon was fascinating and more bustlingly than I had imagined. It was very dirty and beat-up. All of the buildings were stained and crumbly, but the energy was alive. We roamed a night market and explored a little before heading back to the ship.

Our second day in Yangon was a bit more productive. Our first stop was the most sacred pagoda in Myanmar, the Shwedegon Pagoda. I was completely amazed by this enormous religious relic. Two big dogs guarded the entry way of the completely gold plated site. The monstrosity of this place of worship was mind boggling. There were dozens of little pagodas within the enclosure. Although a bit disturbed by having to be barefoot, I really started to appreciate the respect the people have for these sites. After the Schwedegon we went to the Karaweik Palace. We thought this was another religious site, when in fact it is just a restaurant. Nonetheless, it was beautiful. Our last stop was the Scott Market. This market was MASSIVE and so much fun. We got a bunch of good souvenirs before heading to the bus stop for our 10 hour trip trip to Bagan.

We woke up in Bagan at 4:30 AM. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a morning person so this was definitely an experience. We planned to go straight to our hotel and nap before starting the day, but our cab driver quickly convinced us to watch the sunrise atop a nearby pagoda. I was truly unsure of what to expect out of Bagan, but it proved to be the most mystical and surreal place I have ever been. We headed down a bumpy dirt road (in the pitch black) when suddenly a massive architecturally beautiful brick building emerged from the tree line. We climbed to the top (which was three stories of completely vertical stairs- scary) and patiently waited for the sun to rise. It was so remarkable as we stood alone atop this pagoda in the dark. There were hundreds of pagodas as far as the eye could see (there are 3,140 to be exact). It was unbelievable. This feeling lasted about 10 minutes before the site was crowded with an absurd number of tourist. The uniqueness of this experience was suddenly disturbed, but I refused the let thousands of bare feet and pushy tourists ruin it. We watched quietly as the sun rose over the pagodas and as the hot air balloons slowly drifted across the horizon. What an amazing way to start a day. As we headed back to our hotel for breakfast, I got super excited seeing horses line all the streets! (Mag & Erica you would have loved this) Our guided tour of Myanmar by horse carriage was so much fun. Traveling by car is relatively uncommon, and since it was illegal for us to be riding motorbikes, horse carriage was the best way to travel. Our three guided carriages took us to some of the most famous of Bagan’s pagoda’s. We saw 3 temples (meaning you could enter them) and one stupa(the golden statues that can’t be entered). We were even able to give an incense offering to Buddha, which my guide said symbolized knowledge (and hopefully will help me earn an A on all my upcoming papers- fingers crossed). The day was so amazing. It felt like we were in a pretend world. Around lunch time, our horse guides took us through a tour of a local village, which I really loved. It was crazy how casually the pagodas are in the landscape. Just randomly in someones back yard would stand a pagoda. We even saw some cows tied up to a pagoda. After waking up at 4:30 and spending 6 hours in the blazing heat, we were all pretty much delusional and ready for a nap. We headed back to the hotel and ended our day relaxing by the pool.

The next morning we woke up and got ready for checkout. We hung-out at the hotel for a little before grabbing some dinner at a local restaurant. We wanted to watch the sunset atop a pagoda before we left, so we called a cab driver. We asked to go to the same pagoda we watched the sunrise from, unsure if there were even any other options, but our cab driver offered to take us to a private one. Skeptical from his broken English, we hesitantly agreed. We have been trying to make point to take advice from locals and be opened to unknown experiences. This was the highlight of my trip. Our cab driver pulled up to a small shack with a pagoda just feet away. He ran into the hut, grabbed keys and talked to what seemed to be a friend of his, and unlocked a pagoda for us to climb. As we sat alone at the top of the pagoda, I really began to reflect on my trip so far. How did I end up here? It feels like literally last week that I was laying in bed snuggling my dogs, but suddenly my trip is half way finished. Never in my life did I expect to be sitting in this spot feeling the way I did. I’m not quite sure how to describe it. It felt as though we were out of time- sitting atop a local’s personal pagoda, in the middle of such a surreal place, watching the sun set peacefully across the horizon. Who knew this world existed? What else is out there?

That night we headed to the local bus station for our overnight bus home. We woke up in Yangon and spent the day just exploring a little more of the city. Myanmar is definitely a place I will visit again. It is both thrilling and troubling to see the country open up to tourism. I couldn’t be happier about the demilitarization and change in government, but the countries rush to prepare for tourists is destroying some of the countries beauty. Our tour guide explained to us the rush to constructing markets around Pagoda’s to sell souvenirs for tourists and how hotel companies are buying out land to build on. The quick rush of reconstruction and rehabilitation is also, according to an academic on the ship, ruining the countries ability to become a World Heritage Site. It is both upsetting and exciting. I can’t wait to come back and see what this beautiful country has in store for it’s future.

FACTS!!!
1. Monks don’t eat after 12 and can’t be touched.
2. In Myanmar your name isn’t based off of your family, instead your name is determined by your date of birth- weird. They don’t even have family last names
3. COWS!!!!! they are literally everywhere.
4. Even though the streets and public land are very dirty, the religious sites and individuals homes are kept VERY clean. everyone takes their shoes off. I found this admirable
5. Again, everyone takes their shoes off… this was a hard one to get used to.
6. Everyone travels by trucks that have benches in the flatbed part… it is a very efficient and dangerous way to travel
7. Crossing the street is a legit game of frogger- feeling lucky to be alive

Welp my trip is half way over. I have no idea what happened to these last two months, but I am just as excited for these next two. A little update from the ship: so many people are sick that our crew is now required to follow different safety/cleaning precautions (Asian food takes an interesting toll on the Western’s body). We had sea olympics last week which is where all the hallways compete for a party with beverage service. I, of course, was on the worst team and came in last place. Typical. I have eaten more PB&J on this trip that my entire life combined and have successfully managed to finish just about all of my snacks.

Hope everything is well at home. Email me!!
Next stop: India!