andblahandblahblah: Myanmar(Burma), A True Love: Part II

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The next morning Cassian and I compared wounds, I had a few very minor scratches on my face and he had an elbow that was completely swollen. It was swollen due to the amount of mosquitoes that had bitten him throughout the night. I on the otherhand had four; two on my feet, one of my ankle and one on my wrist. At this point Cassian was not in the mood to stay in another monastery and he had been telling me the night before he really wasn't comfortable with the monk travelling with us the whole way. He said that he came to Burma to have some independence, and that while the monk was a great experience he didn't want that to be his only experience. I told him that I understood, and I also realized that Cassian had went against his own wishes to bring the monk along. I talked to Cassian and we decided that we would pay for the monk to get back to the monastery, but wouldn't allow him to come with us the rest of the way. Since I allowed the monk to come with us in the first place I decided I would break it to him that we wouldn't be travelling with him any longer. While Cassian went to get a buscar I explained to the monk that it was never our intention to come this far together, and that at this point we wanted to travel on alone. I told him if he emailed me when I got back to Yangon I would still come to his monastery and help with English for a day, but at this point we were going to go alone, I also gave him money to get him back to the monastery. I do not at all think he was happy with this decision as he seemed like he was going to begin to tear, but I told him sorry that we honestly could not afford to pay for three people on this trip, which I had told him numerous times before. How he actually felt about me at that point I don't think I will ever know, but I do know he never emailed me. I do feel like we slightly ditched him, but I tell myself at this point we had no other solution. If that is a morally correct stance or not, or if I should have fought for the monk harder I really don't know.

After this we hopped into a buscar with the young guy from Hong Kong who we had shared a taxi with from Yangon to the bus station, as he was just randomly on the same train as us. Once we got to Bagan we checked into a cheap guesthouse and decided we wouldn't take a nap since we would be embarking on our journey again in a couple of days. Before heading to Bagan we found an internet cafe in order to inform the outside world we were still alive and well, and then went and had some noodles at a local noodle stand.

After this we went and found a horse and carriage to take us around Bagan for today. It was a crazy experience riding around on a 19th century horse and carriage while viewing ruins from the 11th century. The first "ruin" we went to wasn't a ruin at all instead it was a brand new pagoda. Outside of it women put these little butterflies on you telling you they are for good luck while begging to hear your name. After you give it to them, even though the whole time you are telling them you are not going to buy anything, they say no it is fine it is for goodluck and you need to buy nothing. Since it is a pagoda, even though I am sure it was built as a tourist trap as the spiral was spray painted gold instead of real gold, you still have to take off your shoes. We walked around the pagoda for a minute, but literally everything was a tourist trap; hammer gold leaf onto a buddha! Buy water here! Light incense in front of Buddha! At this point we were pretty dismayed and hoped that this wasn't what Bagan was like all over or else we would have just went through an arduous train ride for a tourist trap. As we were walking out we noticed the ladies who had put the butterflies on us had also moved our shoes to right in front of their stands. They told us they had given us gifts and now we needed to buy things, I told them that I said I wasn't going to buy anything, and they repeated very angrily we gave you free gifts!! I told one she could have her free gift back if she wanted it, and she looked disgusted at me and took it back. The other lady who had put the little butterfly on me was just as upset but waved her hands at me in a dismissive way.

After this Cassian and I were fearful this might turn into our day, but it definitely did not. Once past the tourist trap we were taken to an old looking cript, which was bit a little later circa the 16th century. Inside you were not allowed to take photos but you take a flashlight in and the ceiling was full of mosaics. There were tons of little entrance ways and side tunnels, some rooms field with sand, some concrete-- it was quite cool. After the cript the real beauty began. While we were riding down the road a man on a bike was riding behind us and he invited us over to the stupa that he cares for, well that his father cares for. Once there he let us climb up to the overhang and what we saw was enchanting. As far as the eye could see were stupas everywhere, while we were up there he was explaining to us the age of some of the stupas, their names, and the damage that an earthquake in the early 1990's did to them. After this we said thank you and headed back down. It turns out that while his dad was the protector of this stupa, the son was a painter. This means he tried to sale us some paintings he made, which were very nice, but we humbly declined and he said okay have a good day! The rest of the day we rode around Bagan on the horse and carriage stopping to see a lot of different stupas, each time of course having to take off our hiking boots. For lunch we stopped at a local Myanmar restaurant and they brought out so much food! We still don't know exactly how to order Myanmar food, but we got a lot. It was also a lot of different types of foods. Kidneys, Intestines, Stomachs, Muscle, every part of the animal was fair game. Some of it was surprisingly good and some of it was not. After this we continued on going to different stupas and then it started to rain, which as first was nice, but after a while of it with us also having not slept the night before led to us heading back to the guest house. Before turning in for the night we had some excellent Indian food, and while we were there we once again ran into the guy from Hong Kong. We sat and had dinner with him and one of his friends who he had met along the way. On the way back to our guest house we booked our bus ticket from Bagan to Lake Inle for not the following morning, but the morning after.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and decided to head to Mt. Popa, which houses an old monastery up at the very top of the mountain. While on our way there we stopped, and looked at a small palm sugar farm, where they grew their own palm sugar, and then made it into candy, wine, and a hard alcohol. The man let us try each of them, and the hard alcohol was extremely potent, the wine was good, and the candy was tasty but really sweet. He mixed the candies with either plum, coconut, or just plane palm sugar. We liked them so much we each bought a pack, Cassian bought the one mixed with plum and I bought the one mixed with coconut. After having a few they were way too sweet for me, so I ended up giving them to our taxi driver who loves them. Once we arrived at Mt. Popa it was pretty overcast, which at the same time made it eery and cool. Imagine what Mt. Olympus looked like to the Greek imagination, and I imagine Mt. Popa would come pretty close to how it looked. It was this towering peak, that on all sides had cliffs and there was only one little pathway up to the top. While walking up the pathway we had to take off our shoes, and the place had a large numbers of monkeys all over. To be honest I have never been that close to wild monkeys before and while the little ones are cute, the big ones are intimidating and downright scary at times when they hiss at you. We finally managed to make it to the top and it was beautiful, you could see all around and even Bagan in the distance. We walked around there for a while, while people looked at us kind of interestingly being that we were the only Westerners there at the moment. While we were up there the monks also began hitting the bells on the top of the monastery, which made a echo reverberate throughout the monastery.

Once we were on are way down one of the concourses was completely overrun by monkeys. I said sarcastically to Cassian and in a not so serious voice, "I'm scared Cassian, I dun wanna die." To be honest though I was slightly scared of the monkeys. After a minute they all started running all over and a path was clear for us so we hurriedly took it. Since we were still pretty tired from the day before and would have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning the next day to catch our bus, we didn't really do too much that evening. We went to the internet cafe for a moment, and then while we were back in the room Cassian said he was going to go for a bike ride and I told him it was raining. He replied to me that this was normal weather in England and left to go on a bicycle trip. About ten minutes later he returned having snapped his Havaiana sandals. this bummed him out for a bit, and we decided we would go eat one last time at the excellent Indian food place and call it a night.

The next morning at 4:30 AM it was deluging outside and the water was at least ankle high everywhere you stood. We went to the lobby of the guest house for a bit, and at 5 he told us it was likely the bus wouldn't be able to run since the power was out. He also told us we should go back to bed and if the bus came he would wake us up. At around 6:30 he came and woke us up in a hurry to tell us the bus was here. Since breakfast is included almost everywhere in Burma, he gave us a bagged breakfast and hurried us on our way. Once on the bus we realized it was going to be another adventurous 12 hours as neither of us could fit our legs straight in our seats, so Cassian had to sit with his legs permanently in the aisle, which was difficult because they had put up makeshift seats in the aisles and people were sitting on them. What the bus lacked in comfort the scenery made up for. We drove across dirt roads that were halfway washed away from the storm, and had to pass through newly formed rivers that sometimes rose to I'm guessing around 3-4 feet. It was a beautiful journey and it got interesting once we were going over the mountain passes. While we were passing over the mountain the bus was swaying back and forth, and at one point Cassian knocked me in head with his head as he had fallen asleep. Since he had to sit in the angle he was sitting in, his back was somewhat facing me which means when he swayed he swayed towards me. A little later in the trip it happened again, but this time he gave me a good whacking on the head, which left a bruise and hurt for a couple of days. He apologized sincerely and I told him it was fine, but it wouldn't be if he did it a third time!! A few hours later, once we were about a half an hour outside of Lake Inle our bus broke down, and we had to get off of it. This was perfectly acceptable to me as I had formed bruises on my legs from where they were rubbing against the seat in front of me. We hopped on a buscar with a few other foreigners for the rest of the leg, which was pretty uneventful as it was dark outside. Once we got there we ended up booking one of the first guesthouses we found and shortly after pursued some food. While we were looking for somewhere to eat, I stopped to buy a cupcake at this market, and out of no where, this old man came out of the dark and said "Want some drugs?" I kindly denied him, paid for my cupcake and left. After this Cassian and I found what seemed to be a good restaurant, that also seemed to be recommended in the guide book. The only problem was it was on the other side of the river and since the river had gotten so high, a lot of the streets right next to it were underwater as well. We found an alternate route that led to the other side and we arrived at the restaurant. The restaurant had beautiful views of the river, but was quite pricey and the food was just okay.

The next morning we woke up semi early, had breakfast and decided we would go on an all day boat tour of Lake Inle. We were able to rent a boat and a driver for 13,000 Kyiat, around 14 dollars, to show us around all day. The river was one of the most amazing parts of Burma, but to be honest all of Burma was awesome so I don't know if that is possible. At first you are riding up a river, and then you go through a lotus mangrove, and then you are on Lake Inle. A massive lake at a really high elevation surrounded by mountain peaks. When you are first going across the lake you see fisherman on their old school boats paddling along with their legs (see photos for example) while also fishing at the same time. Once you pass this you come into a mangrove in the middle of the lake where farmers have planted tomatoes. In order to get their tomatoes they paddle their boats between each row of tomatoes and pick them. After this it gets truly amazing, in the middle of the mangrove is a clearing that has a full functioning small city in it. All the houses are built on stilts, there is a convenience store built on stilts, a school, a giant pagoda, everything. It looks as though it was a city that was recently flooded, but it's not that is how it was built. Our driver took us to a small company that built lotus cloth in its small factory in the lake. The machines they used were old British wool making machines. We then went to their gift shop where the scarves were amazing and I would have loved to have bought one but they were relatively pricey at around 30 US Dollars. After this we went to a silver factory, and a paper factory both of which were also on the lake. While at the paper making place we saw a Paduang woman, the women who have the copper coils around there necks to make them longer. We were told we could take photos with her, but this was the only thing in Lake Inle that seemed to be really geared towards foreigners, and to be honest we both felt bad for the woman, not knowing if she wanted to be on display or not. Because of this we didn't want to take photos of the woman-- it was our silent protest to her rights. An interesting side note is if the women take off the copper loops they die, their necks can't hold them up.

After this we went to a market which was pretty cool because it seemed like it wasn't geared toward farang, as we were the only foreigners there. We looked around for a bit and bought some water and after which decided to go get some food on another little street--this part of the city completely reminded me of a SE Asian version of Venice as there were whole blocks built on stilts and bridges connecting them. At the little restaurant you could tell the water was high for even a city built on stilts as whenever a boat passed by the wake was enough to put waves onto the patio where we were eating--it was pretty cool to be honest. After this we stopped at one more place before we returned to the mainland. It was a monastery that had a lot of cats and supposedly the monks had taught the cats how to jump and do tricks on command, but while we were there all the cats seemed intent on was their nap. Once we were done we headed back to the city on the mainland.

That night we found another really good Indian place to eat, and this time it was excellent and cheap as well, around 2 dollars for a full meal. I enjoyed it so much I asked the lady what time she opened for lunch so I could come back one more time before leaving. After that we bought some popsicles, used the internet really quickly and headed to bed. The next day we didn't have a lot of time as our bus was meant to leave at 330 and it was about a half an hour drive to the bus station so they wanted to leave an hour early. We went to the Indian food place one last time and after I told her, her food was amazing and I would recommend it to all of my friends who come to Burma. So if you are ever in Lake Inle go to the Tandoori House on the main street it is towards the end!

We hurried back to the guesthouse after that and made it just in time for the buscar to the bus station. Once we arrived at the bus station we had to wait for the bus for a few extra hours as it was late, which at this point in my journeys is almost not blog worthy anymore. The bus was a fairly modern bus, and I really can't remember any of the bus ride back as I slept the whole way. We arrived back in Yangon before the sun rose and grabbed a taxi back to the main part of the city. Once we were there we decided we would check out a different guest house called The White House, but the rooms were pretty bad so we decided to return to the Motherland Inn 2. We had breakfast and crashed for the majority of the day, but around 3 o'clock we decided to get up and go to the 50th street bar as the Rugby World Cup was on and Cassian was quite excited to see it. Once we got there the place was packed, I imagine most of the expats living in the city, the pilots, embassy workers, and so on were all in the bar that night watching the game. It was pretty festive and was cool that the first ever Rugby game I watched was in a bar in Burma, surrounded by expats, and was the most important game of the last four years, as that is how often the cup occurs. After that we stayed for a while and played some darts with a pilot from New Zealand, who was excited about the outcome of the game 8-7 Kiwis over the French, and an old English dude who I have no idea what he did exactly in Burma. They seem to be a small community of expats who all meet up at the bar as everyone seemed to know each other.

Once we were done playing Cassian was pretty hungry so we decided to go get some food and another important game was on, this time on every TV you passed. It was Manchester United Vs. Manchester City, who are cross town rivals. Up until recently Man U always won this game, but recently a billionaire bought Manchester City, and they have gotten much better (Everyone by the way in Burma is an absolute Man U fan). The game started off pretty auspices as Manchester City scored the first goal. After that goal we went back to the guest house where everyone was watching it as well. Cassian is a Chelsea fan, enemy of Man U, and I just really like seeing good teams get humiliated so we were both having a good time as Man U ended up losing the game 6-1, which is said to be one of the most embarrassing losses in their history. At the same time it was to their crosstown rivals, which made it even worse. All the Myanmar guys were pretty sad but they took solace in the fact Cassian's team lost that day as well.

Our last full day in Burma was pretty uneventful, we changed into US Dollar the remainder of Cassian's money, and after went for a long walk. We walked by the US Embassy, Yangon University, and went to check out the swimming pool at this club where you were supposed to be allowed to swim if you bought a drink, any kind of drink. When we got there it was very beautiful, but the pool was empty and they told us we had to pay ten dollars, plus buy a drink to use it. So we said no thank you and I didn't even have swimming shorts now that I think back. After that we got some lunch at a nice deli across the street, and began our walk back. On our way to the guesthouse we stopped at the restaurant we had visited earlier in the trip that I said looked like somewhere in Cuba. While we were having a Starcola a guy invited us over to his table to sit with him and his friends. It turnes out he was a travel agent, but once we turned him down saying we were leaving tomorrow he began talking about politics, and his viewpoint of the government. He also talked about how he feels it is opening up and hopefully that will mean more Western tourists will come. After talking to him for a while we said our goodbyes and headed off.

I can't say I fully understand the Burmese culture, because in one light it is a closed of society that is considered a radical player in the world. This is the same society that killed a Japanese journalist who was filming the protests just a few years ago. It is also a society that has thousands of political prisoners due to their dissentt from the government. Yet it is also a place where anyone who sits around you talks to you about politics, where the populace listens to the BBC and Free Asia, which is enough to throw them in prison. Also it is a society where street vendors sale photos of Aung San and her father without any fear for their well being. While at the same time it is a society that held Aung San under house arrest for decades and shot her father when he tried reentering the country. Are they dying for outside communication, which is why they are so eager to risk talking to foreigners about politics? Are they so dire to make ends meat they sale these photos in the direct face of a watching government? Or is Burma beginning to change? Was the release of Aung San and over 300 other political prisoners a sign of good will and a changing government? I really don't know it could be any of these, or hundreds of other reasons that have popped and haven't popped through my head.

One thing I can say, Burma changed in me my feeling toward government sanctions, as the US has many sanctions against Burma. It doesn't hurt their government, their government is still in power decades after the sanctions, and their leaders are still driving Mercedes and Land Rovers through streets riddled with holes leading to open sewage. These sanctions I feel hurt the people, the people who from my experience truly want to become a part of the world community. Certainly in their own Myanmar way, but they are so eager for outside connections that while you are walking through this country you feel like a celebrity. To the level it occurs it is exhausting at times. The Myanmar people are an amazing people, and while we did have misunderstandings, with the monk for example, they are overall an extremely knowledgeable people in regard to outside events. I know it isn't a black and white situation and that even without sanctions the Burmese government would have taken a lot away from the people, but I honestly feel that excluding a people from the world community isn't the way to allow them to find there place in the world.

Well anyways after we had our cokes we headed back to the hotel and we both took showers. After which we had a relaxing evening reading books and called it an early night. The next morning we woke up at 5:30, had our breakfast and by 6:30 were on our way to the airport to catch our AirAsia flight back to Bangkok. It was a very uneventful customs check and flight. After an hour and a half flight we ended up back in Bangkok, where I will leave off for now!