My year, in just one photo

The conclusion of my Burmese travels to come shortly, but until then a picture that pretty much sums up my year in Bangladesh:

Who is the man between Anina and Meghan? Definitely not a member of WT Bangladesh! LOL
(Photo courtesy of Anina Tweed).

Temple Hopping in Bagan

After a fun night out in Yangon after a not so fun day, I got some shut eye at the still-somewhat-stinky-from-Durian guesthouse and woke up earlier than the crack of dawn to take a flight to Bagan. In Burma the time on your domestic airline ticket seems to be a suggestion rather than an actual departure time, so it's important that you call and confirm the time of your flight the day before. I found it still did not guarantee timeliness, but what are you gonna do? Basically sit among a sea of foreigners in the domestic terminal in a room much too small while you wait for a man to start yelling frantically and pushing his way through the crowd wielding a large sign to inform you that your flight is ready to board.

A bit chaotic, but it works!

An hour later I was in lovely, lovely Bagan. People go to Bagan to see really just one thing: temples. According to Wikipedia (a source I do not allow my students to use, but to heck with that here), "During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2,200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day." Yep. Sounds about right. As soon as I left the airport the temples and pagodas started popping up on each side of the dusty road.

After making it to my peaceful guesthouse, surrounded by temples itself, I crashed for a few hours and then took to a bike with a basket - Kosrae style - to start seeing them temples. Of course immediately I got lost, but was happy for it: I biked past a school that was getting out for the day and elicited huge smiles and waves from the female students, all uniformed in white blouses and long, green longhis. Consistently in Burma I felt graciously welcomed by the very friendly people, and especially by the children.

After righting myself I made my way towards the old city, stopping to admire the many temples and pagodas along the way. Some are in better shape than others, but individually and collectively they are stunning, especially when you look out over an entire plain covered in them.  It's hard to describe in words, so here are some pictures:

That's me! JOKES - but it could be. Took this while bike riding myself.

 After a mild (compared to Thailand or Bangladesh) but delicious - and cheap - meal of some kind of fried noodles, prawns and vegetables I went down to see the river and then returned home for the night, tired from all that pedaling and temple hopping. Some beautiful sunsets Burma has!

I loved that manual labor jobs are acceptable for Burmese women! I have not seen that ever in Bangladesh.

View from the roof of my guesthouse.

I awoke early the next morning to go with a driver on a day-long tour of the area to maximize my time there. We started at a fruit and vegetable market  where I relished walking through the packed aisles to see all the women selling their products. As I was one of only a few tourists there, I really felt as though I was getting a vibrant picture of what real life is like. Even though I was there to see temples, the market was probably the best part of my day. I even got to try a sugar apple out of the deal!

The onion lady.

Avocado!!! After being deprived for 6 months in Bangladesh, it was so nice to see my
favorite fruit/vegetable (?)  appear again. 

Spices

In the midst of it all.

Then I hopped back in the jeep for a whirlwind tour of Bagan's most prominent temples and all the ones in between. One highlight was seeing a temple completely covered in pigeons. Another was the reconstructed grand palace - even though it wasn't ancient, it was stunning and completely empty of tourists, minus me. By the end of the day I had gone into probably about 50 temples and seen many more. Whew! Not gonna lie - definitely got a bit tired and jaded by the end. One thing that got old was all the hawkers that set up at each temple, who constantly approach you to buy things. I have a feeling it's going to get even worse in the coming years, so get to Burma now!

Child monks - The taxi driver had to stop for a "child monk crossing" in Yangon, and then I saw many more in Bagan.

Pigeon infestation!

Even Buddha likes to paint his toenails! 

The "new" Grand Palace. It was reconstructed recently based on the plan of the
"old" Grand Palace, discovered at a dig site.

More from the Grand Palace

One funny thing about Burma - people always seemed a bit in disbelief that I was traveling alone, and many asked me "Do you have a family?" which I think is Burmese code for "Do you have a husband?" LOL. It's just not common in this part of the world for a female to travel by herself, even though it's entirely safe most places. And most females my age in South Asia are already married.

And a note about Burmese food - not really my thing. The aforementioned noodle dish not withstanding, I had a few disappointing meals there. One notable experience was the buffet the driver took me to on the tour. Basically you sit down and are presented with about 20 different traditional dishes. The hardest thing for me to stomach was the taste of preserved fish in many of the choices. It's really one of the only tastes that results in that gross "I'm gonna vomit" feeling for me.

The dried-fish-based buffet

Stay tuned for the conclusion of my Burmese travels - Inlay Lake!

"Passing a dangerous time": My introduction to beautiful Burma

After the Moser sisters took Thailand for 2.5 weeks and had a very merry time (minus some nasty food poisoning) this cat ventured on a solo trip to Burma. Thailand was lovely and just what I needed after 5 months living Deshi style, but now I feel moved to write about Burma and what I feel was a special, interesting, and somewhat complicated experience there.

Why am I calling it Burma, and not Myanmar? To be honest, I really don't know! "Myanmar" is the name given to the country by the military-led regime. "Burma," as is used by most Western free media publications, is the name people use when they don't want to recognize the legitimacy of that regime. Or at least that's my understanding. I found that most Burmese people I met still call the country Myanmar. As do the AUW students - that was the name for their home country with which they grew up. Mostly I use "Burma" because it's easier to pronounce.

Tourists have been flocking to Burma ever since its government made some important moves to open the country up last year, so now is the time to go! Hurry! Times will soon be a'changin there, I'm sure. What mostly impressed me about Burma was how much I felt I was really getting to see the people's lives. Burmese are very friendly and very welcoming of visitors, and mostly in a non-hassling way. Much like my experience in Taiwan, I felt the people genuinely appreciated me visiting and recognizing their country. And unlike my experience in Bangladesh, I did not feel that the people viewed me suspiciously or were trying to "get something" out of their interactions with me. It was refreshing.

I flew into Yangon from Bangkok (my new favorite city, Katherine Moser agrees!). The flight is only about an hour long. Even though Bangladesh and Burma share a border, it is not possible to do a land crossing at this time. But it was convenient for me as I was already in Thailand, and I managed to - easily - get a visa from the consulate in Bangkok.

The first sign that there would be complications - aka that I did not do enough research - occurred as soon as I landed and tried to exchange $100 for Burmese Kyat (pronounced "chaat").  The woman handed me back the bill and said it would not be accepted because there was a small mark on it. Airport bureaucracy, I figured, and took the ride to my guesthouse. But then it snowballed.

In Burma you basically have to use USD to pay for all guesthouses and plane tickets in-country. Hotels and flights cannot be booked online, and there are no ATMs from which to withdraw Kyats (which you use to pay for all smaller expenses). So you basically have to bring enough USD on you to fund your whole trip. (Yes, it's a bit terrifying to be traveling with a wad of cash.)  I brought plenty, but my epic mistake was not bringing dolla billz in MINT condition. My money was considered "dirty" and "old" and even when I arrived at my guesthouse I experienced much anxiety as I waited to see if they would accept the cash for my one night's stay and for all my in-country flights. I "passed a dangerous time" (taken from a student's email to me, when she explained how she did not save the final draft of her paper the night before it was due and had to rewrite it the morning of) but ultimately through the kindness of the guesthouse folk, the money was accepted. If it hadn't been, my trip would have been donezo before it even started. Whew!

After venturing to a large market at the advice of my guesthouse to do a shady money exchange with jewelry counter men (I had to accept a lower rate for my "old" money, but so it goes) I was feeling more confident that the trip might actually happen and started to enjoy being there. My first impression of Yangon was that it was a bit more developing than I initially thought. I don't think I initially thought much, really. The streets actually looked quite similar to the ones in Chittagong; they were fairly dirty with small shops (no 7-Elevens!) and even some tri-shaws (rickshaws with three wheels) rolling about. Then men and women both wore long skirts called longhis (men here wear the same, but much shorter!). A big difference from the super development and short shorts I had just experienced in Thailand.

The one thing that clued me off that I was not in Chittagong, though, was that so many people were missing. If I didn't realize before how overpopulated Bangladesh is, I did then. Yangon's streets felt almost empty.

As I left the bustling market, full of vendors selling beautiful jade pieces, I bought a few slices of durian fruit to enjoy back at the guesthouse. The creamy, pungent, garlicy, mangoey fruit was too much after only a few bites, though, even though I've had and enjoyed durian before. Probs cause the other one came from a Vietnamese store in Baton Rouge and had had months in a freezer to lose some of its pungency. LOL.

The offending durian. Pretty sure I broke guesthouse rules by bringing it inside.  After  it sat on the windowsill for a few minutes the room had a noticeable stink!

And because the Trojan family spans the world, that night I was able to meet up with a USC friend who was doing language classes in Yangon for her winter break from grad school. And, as a bonus, I met several other Trojans who were from/working in Yangon too. We ended the night with a stop at a corner noodle shop where we were the only foreigners (and women). Great times.

 

With my kind in Yangon! Photo courtesy of Anne Gillman.

Andd that's only my first few hours in Burma. Apparently I have alot to say! Tune in next time for the good stuff: peaceful temple-full Bagan and lovely Inle Lake.