Myanmar with Joanna


Myanmar: the only country in SE Asia, bar East Timor and Brunei, which I had yet to check off my list. My only regret during my 2013 trip through SE Asia was that I passed on Myanmar. This Chinese New Year (CNY) I wouldn’t make the same mistake.

I took off the entire month of January, but for the other teachers at my school, their three week CNY break began on January 20th. Joanna and planned to travel for a week in Myanmar to start the vacation, and a week in Cambodia to finish. In the middle she would travel to Thailand to meet friends from England. As for me, I would stay in Myanmar and then meet her in Cambodia.

From India I had to go first to Thailand, and then
to Myanmar. Joanna and I planned to go to
Mandalay, Bagan, and Yangon.
Before I started my trip in Myanmar I first had to get there. I departed Delhi early afternoon on January 19th, but didn’t arrive for nearly 24 hours. India and Myanmar share a land border, but I first had to transit through Thailand. Plus I’m a cheapo, so I took the lowest price, which also meant I stopped in Kolkata on my way to Bangkok. After a long layover I arrived in Bangkok at midnight, and my flight to Mandalay wasn’t until the next morning.

I managed to catch some shut eye at a hostel near Dong Mueng (Bangkok’s second airport which serves AirAsia) before my morning flight, which got me into Mandalay at 25 past noon. Joanna's flight was delayed, but only by half an hour, so we reunited soon enough. It had been over a month since we’d last seen each other in Hangzhou, and I actually had butterflies in my stomach waiting for her to walk out of baggage claim.

Now I’ll give you the rundown of our trip, and in the next post I’ll cover what I did after Joanna left for Thailand. This will read more as a quick overview. I need to get up to speed at some point here—plus I’m not the greatest travel writer, so I’ll stick to the facts.

The royal palace moat
Joanna and I spent two nights in Mandalay, the second largest city and last royal capital of Myanmar. Mandalay is known as the center of Burmese culture and it boasts numerous temples and palaces. By the time our airport shuttle dropped us off at our hotel in town it was already late afternoon; that evening we explored the neighborhood to get our bearings and had dinner at an outdoor restaurant across the street from our hotel, after which we made it a quiet night.

The following day we got our steps in, visiting the royal palace, three Bhuddist temples, and trekking up Mandalay Hill for sunset. The royal palace is more of a walled city, separated from the rest of Mandalay by a moat. Foreigners can only enter through one gate, whereas the locals can use all four sides. Our tickets cost about 10 USD, which seemed pricey for Myanmar. Later I learned that the tickets are actually good for all the surrounding sites as well, so it was a much better deal than I initially thought.

Part of the reconstructed palace grounds
The palace itself was constructed in the 19th century, but, like many things in Asia, it has been reconstructed several times. It was first destroyed in WW2 when Japan took Burma from the British, and then rebuilt after the war. Once Burma gained its independence and the generals overthrew the government, the country largely sealed itself off from the outside world. During decades of isolation and economic stagnation, many cultural sites were left to rot. Only recently has money from both the Burmese government and foreign aid groups been used to spruce up these sites.

Although the Palace was renovated recently I felt that it was tastefully done and worth the visit. The same was true for the temples we visited afterwards—the area around the palace grounds is dotted with numerous sites, and it is common to see the iconic orange-clad, head shaved monks out for a stroll (nearly half of Myanmar’s monks live in the Mandalay area). After a late lunch and another temple we stopped for a beer and then climbed up Mandalay Hill for sunset. From the bottom the hill looked small, but the stairs seemed endless. By the time we reached the top the sun had nearly vanished beyond the distant mountains.

A bird's eye view of the palace grounds

Joanna posing in front of another temple

View of the city as we walked up Mandalay Hill

That evening we looked for a watering hole or some other late-night spot, but discovered that Mandalay shuts down after 9 or 10 pm. In the end it was no big loss, as we had a bus to catch early the following morning anyway.

On the 22nd we ate breakfast at the hotel and were picked up in a small bus which would take us to Bagan, a town 180 kms southwest of Mandalay. Google maps estimates the trip should take 3 hours and 42 minutes; I knew better. Along with renovated historical sites, another thing much of Asia shares is long bus journeys. Our bus stopped several times to pick up and drop off locals, to fill up for gas, and for lunch. From door to door the trip lasted 6 hours—including a 20 minute wait at the station in Bagan to switch vehicles so we could be dropped off at our place a couple kms down the road.

View of the landscape from one of the larger temples
Bagan is famous for its dense concentration of Buddhist temples, stupas, and ruins—over 2,000 dot the surrounding landscape. Most date to the 11th and 12th centuries, and although some have been rebuilt surprisingly much of the original material remains. Maintaining originals still takes work, and we noticed many temples under scaffolding. When we asked about the repair work, a local informed us that Bagan was hit by an earthquake in 2016, and more than 400 buildings were damaged. The temple where we watched the sunrise had scaffolding up, and another major site was off-limits.

Fortunately there was still more than enough to see; Joanna and I could have spent a week there and not done it all. A week would have been too long though; even after two days of exploring the buildings started to look the same. I felt similar about Angkor Wat: the site was majestic, yes, but there can be too much of a good thing. With only two and a half days there, it was enough to get our feet wet, but not to bore.

One of the first temples Joanna and I saw,
just outside town
The first afternoon we walked from our hotel, which was a couple kms from the town proper, to Bagan market, and then along the river. From there we checked out the main drag for restaurants and shops. Bagan is a small town, with more tourists than locals, but considering the attractions on hand crowds are managable. CNY is a busy season, but even then Joanna and I often found ourselves alone when we were visiting a lesser known temple. Still, numbers of visitors have skyrocketed compared to even a couple years ago. I can only imagine the numbers to go up, so better to visit sooner rather than later.

The next morning we were up before dawn to see the sunrise on top a temple. We rented an e-bike for the day and spent much of it touring the countryside and the scattered pagodas. As we drove out to catch the sunrise we almost missed the turn off—there were few signs—and by the time we found the right spot the sun had nearly peaked up above the flat plains. We picked the most popular temple, but despite the crowds, the view was worth it. Just after sunrise hot air balloons floated up along the horizon (you can book tours in Bagan, although they are a few hundred dollars a pop).

View just before the sun rose

The balloons made for a scenic backdrop

As we left a busload of Chinese tourists were climbing the temple steps; that was a good time to head for the exits. Like I said, I can only imagine that more and more tourists will visit Bagan in the future—many of them from China. The Chinese already have a big presence in Myanmar, especially in the north. By some counts over a third of Mandalay's population is ethnically Chinese, many of whom emigrated from Yunnan in China’s southwest.

After a day full of sightseeing on the e-bike we caught sunset along the river (my cover photo for this post), and then ate dinner again at the main tourist street. The following day we took a morning excursion to Mt Popa, about an hour drive from Bagan. There are hundreds of monkeys who hang about the base of the hill, and if you’re not careful they will steal any snacks you have on you (it’s best to leave your food behind). Joanna and I avoided any confrontations as we made our way up the hill, where there is a temple with amazing views overlooking the surrounding countryside.

Our driver dropped us off back in Bagan for lunch time, where we finally ate at the most popular joint, which had been full the previous two nights. That afternoon we rented bicycles for a grand total of a dollar each and rode around to several more temples. After another sunset we had a white knuckle ride through the dark, without lights or reflective clothing, to drop off the bikes. Luckily it was only a few kilometers back to the center of town, but it sure felt longer than that.


Many of the outlying temples had few visitors
(well human visitors, that is)


Approaching Mt Popa

Beware of the monkeys!

The view from the top was worth it

On the 25th we caught one last sunrise, this time atop our hotel roof (not as good as the temple), and had the free breakfast buffet before heading to the airport, which was essentially one large room with a couple metal detectors. Instead of suffering through a much longer bus ride, we flew to Yangon, where Joanna would stay for 2 nights before flying to Thailand.

View of Yangon from a rooftop bar
With over 7 million inhabitants in its metro area, Yangon is by far the largest city in Myanmar. Joanna and I were used to the quiet streets of Bagan and early to bed atmosphere of Mandalay, and we arrived in Yangon like wide-eyed country folk. I was surprised in part at how modern and developed the city is—well, at least the downtown core. I assumed that Yangon would also be sleepy, but the skyscrapers and terrible traffic reminded me of many other SE Asian cities, not an isolated former capital.

The city has changed tremendously since the days of the iron-fisted generals. Our second night in town Joanna and I met two expat English teachers with whom we chatted over drinks. One of the teachers described the Yangon of 2012, when almost no one had cell phones and foreigners would stop each other on the street to say hello. Back then, the bar street downtown had one watering hole—today there are dozens.

Another view from the bar; most of Yangon is much
less developed
Despite the trappings of modernity, Yangon is still behind the times in many ways. Most of the towns and suburbs surrounding the city center lack basic infrastructure such as paved roads or proper waste disposal. Tens of thousands of rural Burmese stream into Yangon every year in search of work, and due to housing shortages many end up in slums. One positive of Myanmar’s isolation was that its British heritage has largely remained (it was a UK colony); the downtown area boasts the largest collection of colonial buildings in SE Asia.

On the first day we arrived Joanna and I walked to the central shopping market, stopping to check out a church and Hindu temple on the way (during the British Raj, thousands of Indian laborers and traders settled in Burma, and although many were evicted during the generals’ reign, Yangon retains a significant South Asian community). That evening we had a drink at the tallest rooftop bar in Yangon—there aren’t many to choose from—and ate dinner along the riverfront night market.

The pagoda is actually a huge complex with many temples
On the 26th we visited Schwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist site in all of Myanmar, which was worth the price of admission, plus an extra $4 for skirts—both men and women have to cover their knees, and apparently my shorts were a tad too short. After the pagoda and a light lunch at a local street food vendor, we made our way to Kandawgi Lake, which is surrounded by a city park. That afternoon we relaxed at the hotel and then went out for dinner and drinks downtown, which is where we met the English teachers. Joanna keeps track of our steps on her iPhone, and we ended up just short of 30,000. We’ll have to hit that milestone another time!

The ornate central pagoda

Even the stairs up the hill are fancy!

Relaxing during the midday heat

The toilet at the first bar
we stopped at; grim!
One of Yangon's many colonial buildings

The following morning we used our hostel map for a self-guided walking tour of the historical downtown core. We got back to the hostel by lunchtime because Joanna had a flight to catch, and if our ride into town was any indication, she should plan for horrendous traffic. I had booked another night in the same place, so after we said our goodbyes I had the rest of the day to myself in Yangon. More on that next time!

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