Greetings from Myanmar

Yesterday was Pagoda Day and the photos in today’s blog were taken at Shwedagon Pagoda – the largest pagoda in Yangon, and it is huge!  There are 15 temples, the big pagoda and a smaller one and hundreds and hundreds of statues of Buddha.  It was very lovely.  I spent quite a bit of time there, visiting each of the temples and just sitting in the shade and listening to the breeze and the temple bell ringing.

         

Some Very Young Nuns

Shwedagon Pagoda from the Top



A Texting Monk

          

 

Today we left the bustling city of Yangon and headed North by bus to Taungoo – a half-way spot between Yangon and our next destination, Inle Lake.  The guest house where we stayed in Yangon booked our bus for us.  It was a little funky, but it was fine except for the really bad Burmese soap opera and music videos that played at loud volume.   This place seems on the verge of becoming “Westernized” and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.  People who in Yangon say traffic has increased greatly since allowing cars to be imported a few years ago.  Roads are being built and things are changing quickly.  I’m happy to be here now!  

Some Unlucky Ducks

Our "Taxi" in Taungoo

There were now five of us as we met some new people from Vail, Colorado who decided to follow us to Taungoo.  Once again, we are struck by the kindness and honesty of the Burmese people.  We arrived in Taungoo which is definitely not a tourist town and were bombarded at the bus station by young men with betel-stained teeth wanting to take us to our hotel.  Chuck rode the back of a motorbike while the other four of us rode on a one-passenger three-wheeled man-powered bicycle.  These young men have some serious leg muscles!  My ass barely fit in the seat and he was peddling me and my backpack, sometimes in traffic and sometimes on sandy roads – and for 2,000 kyat which is about $2.00!  All the way (probably a couple miles) people were looking at us, smiling, waving and saying hello.  We shouted back, “Mingalar Ba!”                             

I’m now sitting in my teak and thatch room at the Myanmar Beauty Hotel III after having a huge dinner that the hotel ordered out and brought to us.  We are at the end of the sandy dirt road and the view from my room is of rice paddies with mountains off in the distance.  Earlier we went up on a deck, had a beer and looked over the rice paddies while there was Indian/Hindu music playing loudly on the other side of the ride paddies.  Now there are what sounds like children or young girls chanting.  We have seen more nuns here than I’ve seen anywhere wearing pink robes.  The monks in Myanmar wear burgundy robes instead of the usual saffron one.  The food in Myanmar is acceptable, but not like Thai food where there’s great (and not scary) street food and restaurants everywhere serving up delicious meals.  This seems to be a cross of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and we can’t really find much that seems authentic, but it’s good and very inexpensive so no complaints.

Tomorrow we leave for Thazi on the train.  There are videos of the train online bouncing people out of their seats but it’s way shorter than the bus, so here we go.  We will spend one night in Thazi and catch the early morning Thazi to Shwengyaung 12-hour train.  This train travels at speeds of about 20 mph as it goes through mountains with switchback and has to go in reverse to make some of the turns.  Everyone who has taken it (and survived) loves it.  Kidding about the survived part.  After today, wifi will be non-existent until Inle Lake, so more then. 

Sunrise in Taungoo