Sep26

The End

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“Do not be sad it has finished; be happy it began”
I have had an incredible three weeks. We met a lot of cool people who made this trip really special. Chloe and I spent our last days in Yangon visiting the Schwedagon Pagoda (where by a weird coincidence we ran into someone we’d met in Bagan) and poking round the markets. Yangon is an unexpected surprise; I really like it here. Yesterday we found ourselves in the British council library here and apart from the fact that everyone there was Burmese we could have been in any small town library in England.
Anyway for now it’s back to the daily grind, in my spare time day dreaming, picking destinations and planning new adventures. Far from crossing Myanmar off places I wanted to go, it’s shot right back on the list. Maybe after the 2015 elections.. am looking forward to it.

Sep21

Day 2 in the hills

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The next morning, after an equally epic breakfast, we met Summer’s father, who’d tried to see us the night before but we’d already fallen asleep. He was such a sweet man, very chatty, and told us to be sure to come back next time we were in Myanmar with our whole family, and to stay for as long as we liked. As we left he also presented us with huge bags of home grown green tea. Such hospitality from a man I’d met only half an hour ago filled me with the proverbial warm fuzzy feeling, and strengthened my sense that on my return I’m going to have to lurk around London, aiding and abetting lost tourists, to repay the karmic debt I’m incurring here.
On our trek back Summer repeatedly urged us to stop for lunch, and finally, despite our protests of ‘not hungry’, insisted we stop in a small village, where we went to an old woman’s house and the two of them proceeded to whip up another feast. Although the three meals she’d cooked us replaced everest nepali food centre as the best meals we’d had in Myanmar, the extra stone or so I was now carrying in food was making the trek distinctly more difficult. It was only once we’d left and continued on our way that we found out from Summer that she hadnt known the old woman beforehand.. they have such a different way of doing things here!
On the final stretch back to Kalaw we encountered one of the buffaloes Summer had warned us about; it certainly did not like the look of chloe, and started ambling towards us in a distinctly menacing fashion. The buffalo herder redirected him but not before I’d panicked about how to cope with chloe being gored by a buffalo.
We’re going to Yangon tomorrow for our last night and flying out the day after that. I shall be very sad to leave and I wish we could spend longer here.

Sep21

Trekking day 1

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The trek itself was really great: despite my questionable fitness I managed to keep up and we were really lucky with the weather; it hadn’t rained for a few days so the ground wasn’t too muddy AND the rain held off the two days we were walking which made a nice change.
Our guide for the trek, a girl called Summer, knew so much about all the different plants and villages we passed. When I started getting blisters she showed me the brown flower leaf- a medicinal plant- and instructed me to put some leaves on the blister. Skeptically I complied and to my surprise it worked, at least as well as a blister plaster would have.
Had lunch really high up in a restaurant in a garden of wild flowers with a killer view, then stopped again a couple of hours later at a small village monastery for green tea and biscuits.
We spent the night in Summer’s home. It was a very interesting stay- like many in Myanmar the village had no running water so I had my first experience showering outside, Myanmar style, wrapped in a longyi. Summer warned us not to go to the rest of the village by ourselves as the dogs aren’t used to foreigners and sometimes bite, plus the water buffalo don’t like white skin or the smell of suncream.
In the evening she and her mother cooked us an epic spread- five different curries, fresh fruit, potato fritters and a mountain of rice. Whenever we showed signs of slowing they urged us to ‘more eat, more eat.’ Not entirely sure how but we managed to finish and collapsed, happy and full and exhausted, in the fort they’d set up for us out of mats, pillows, blankets and a mosquito net.

Sep21

Ever Smile

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Accosted as soon as we got out of our pick up truck by a pushy guy trying to get us to stay at Golden Lily and trek with him, a hotel we’d been warned off by the people at thorntree, running into Toe Toe on our way to our hotel was a breath of fresh air. Smiling sweetly she handed us her card, told us she arranged treks and where we could find her, then backed off, leaving us confused, especially as the guy from Golden Lily was still trailing us on his motorbike.
After we ditched our bags we decided to check it out and I’m so glad we did. Ever Smile is such an appropriate name for the company. After she’d explained the trek to us, she brought us some tea and we sat chatting. She completely shocked us when she told us that her husband who’d run the company with her had died just ten days ago. She clearly needed to talk about it and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with her, listening and eating fruit and talking about other things. Met her two beautiful children and were shown pictures from the many years she’s spent trekking. We left when it got dark, but I hope we managed to bring her a small amount of comfort. Her attitude was so inspiring, so resilient; just 10 days later and she’s grieving but getting on with her life. She is an incredible woman.

Sep21

Kalaw

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We found ourselves with 3 spare days left to us this week, and after asking around Kalaw was unanimously recommended. I’m so glad we decided to come here; it’s very cool as it’s a hill town, with a really chilled out vibe, and today, at Everest Nepali Food Centre, we had possibly the best meal we’ve had in Myanmar, and I enjoyed my first Indian chai in over a year- I have attempted to recreate it in the UK but always failed.
Tomorrow we’re heading off on a two day one night trek around the surrounding hills and villages. Stupidly we left our walking boots in Malaysia after climbing mount kinabalu, which is very frustrating because this is the third time we could have used them here- but Toe Toe, the woman running our chosen trekking company, lent us some- mine are actually walking boots a tourist gave her. Very excited.

Sep17

Take a girl shopping…

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And she will burn a hole in her pocket.
Having been deprived of consumer goods for a grand total of two whole weeks now, I went a bit crazy when let loose on the markets today. I’m not one to shop and tell so I’ll spare you the gory details; let’s leave it at I can’t really afford to eat for a few days.
We took the mandatory boat trip around Inle today, and it was more of a shopping tour than sight-seeing. We stopped at a silversmiths, a market with a pagoda behind it, a cloth-weaving factory, a cigar-making factory, and even the monastery we finished off at had a few stalls attached. The cloth-weaving was the most impressive; after seeing how much effort goes into making the clothes I didn’t have the heart to haggle for my purchases.
Puttering round the lake was lovely though, really peaceful, (except when we passed other boats and bumped up and down over the waves in their wake: then it was like a log flume) and it’s certainly a fascinating, unique way of life.

Sep17

Inle

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Dogs here are a lot bigger and more wolf-like than their counterparts in the rest of the country, especially compared to Bagan. A lot of the ones there were downright cute; I had to keep reminding myself that cuteness did not equate with non-rabid to stop myself petting them. Be a shame to get rabies this late in the trip.
We rented bikes this afternoon and cycled a few miles to a floating village near here. A very sweet woman canoed us around it, it was really chilled out, just gliding slowly between the houses and floating gardens. Put me in a good mood- I’d been pretty grumpy due to lack of sleep on the night bus uptil then- and even getting epicly rained on, Myanmar-style, on the way back didn’t dampen my spirits.

Sep17

Monkeys at Mt Popa

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Had heard a lot about the monkeys at Mt Popa (a small stand alone mountain near Bagan with a Nat temple on top)- chasing people up, stealing their food etc. Ever wary of rabies we asked one Burmese guy if they bite. “No… but one peed on me once.”
Okay cool. Managed to overcome our rabie-phobia and went there this morning. The monkeys were actually pretty cute; a lot of them were tiny, just babies, though there were a few big fat ugly ones as well. They didn’t come anywhere near us although they were all over the staircase. I saw a few mentally unstable people feeding them but we steered well clear and came down without any of them peeing on us 🙂
The temple at Mt Popa is nice, though it looks better from far away- it’s a bit shabby up close. It was really interesting to see how many locals were there- the temple on top was a nat (spirit) one and there were a lot of dedicated people trying to gain their favour.

Sep17

Sunsets and Swimming Pools

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We’d read it was possible to pay to use the swimming pools at some of the fancier hotels so after a long morning temple spotting we decided to do that after lunch. We went with a couple of Americans from our guest house and when we got there the hotel was a bunch of spread out chalets so we headed straight for the pool. Felt kind of cheeky not paying especially as the place was pretty posh- when we got to the pool they laid out mattresses on deckchairs for us, and brought us over rolled-up towels with flowers stuck in the end. The pool was lush- like a free bath washing away the temple-exploring grime. When I went to the loo the towel guys asked my room number but I managed to fib without turning too red so no one came over to make us pay up 🙂
For sunset we went to a smaller temple than the most famous one and it was definitely worth it- other than the four of us there was only one other person there. The sunset was gorgeous and afterwards we stayed up there talking and looking at the stars- a Burmese guy in Mandalay had asked us if it was true you couldn’t see the stars in London and was completely shocked when we confirmed his suspicions- seeing the stars here I could understand why; I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many.

Sep17

Bagan

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Nothing is as definite here as it is back home. If you ask how much further to go on a bus journey, you’ll get a polite smile and a head wiggle; it’ll take as long as it takes. The roads marked on our map of Bagan were more guidelines than a to-scale rendering of the area. The angles at the corners of our room here aren’t quite 90 degrees. And the brakes on my bike today were more casual slower-downers than actual stopping devices…
We also do stuff here there’s no way we’d do in England. Excitedly bicycling along this morning, we swerved off the main road at the first cluster of temples we saw, parking our bikes and heading off to explore the ruins on foot. A Burmese man poked his head out of a thatched bamboo hut, beamed at us, then started beckoning us to follow him. Expecting a sales pitch, we warily went with him over to a square tower shaped ruin where he waved us inside via a small, dark archway. Following strange men into dark rooms is pretty much number one on the not to do list but we did it anyway. He didn’t seem to speak any English, but pointed us to a dark staircase, hidden in an alcove. The ceiling was really low, though once again our height worked to our advantage, and we climbed up after him and came out two stories up, on top of the tower.
The view was insane. To really appreciate the scope of Bagan you have to get a little air; we’d got it. Literally thousands of red brick temples in varying states stretched out around us, poking up through the trees, the odd gold one glinting in the sun. The sheer scale of it was mind blowing.
Once we’d caught our breath we went back down, and our self-appointed guide showed us another temple next door you could also climb up. Cynically I was expecting him to ask us for money any minute; when he yanked a couple of flowers from a tree and started making them into a chain I assumed he’d be giving them to us as part of the sell, but he’d been so nice about it and definitely shown us something we wouldn’t have found ourselves so wasn’t that bothered. Instead, he led us back to his house, where his wife and baby were standing outside, and gave the flowers to them. Their baby was adorable, very little, huge eyes, and it kept smiling at us. Then his wife offered him to me to hold. Appalled, I shook my head- I drop everything and I definitely did not want to add their baby to that list. They didn’t speak any English though, and just kept smiling and holding him out, so I eventually took him.
He was gorgeous, such a beautiful baby and so smiley and happy; I briefly considered making a run for it- in the least Gary Glitter way possible- but it was really hot and I don’t run that fast so I just handed it over to Chloe instead. I think she felt similarly.
We (reluctantly) gave it back then took our leave, smiling and waving, and it turned out there was no ulterior motive, no plan: just a nice guy, sharing what he knew with a couple of tourists. It was so sweet and unexpected; people here keep trumping my cynicism.