With political fighting currently going on, the army run-government, the corruption of Buddhism, millions in foreign investments, and a newly adapting backpacking culture - Myanmar/Burma was more than a change of scene from the easily backpacked and modernized countries like Thailand, and Vietnam. Traveling from city to city was almost the same as traveling between timelapses.
My first goal was to understand the difference between Myanmar and Burma. Locals debate upon which name they prefer, however "Myanmar" is the Burmese name for Burma, and Burma is the English name. The change in name only occurred within the last 20 years. All locals have an opinion about the political situation in their country. Some are excited about the development, the freedom, and the money coming in, whereas others are concerned about what this will mean for their culture, their children, and their country. These folks are more up-to date about the happenings in their government than I am about my own government. Between student rallies being seized and arrests being made, to fighting from state to state within sections of the country, to monks begging on the street - Myanmar is a quickly developing, heavily confusing place.
The typical backpacking circuit in Myanmar begins in Mandalay or Yangon, and goes to Kalaw for trekking to Inle Lake, and also to Bagan for ancient ruins. Traveling outside of this circuit is easy, however there are parts of the country that tourists are still not allowed to go to because of fighting. I'll be honest, I don't know much about the fighting in Myanmar, but I do know that there are several different states and ethnicities within the country, and each of the 16 ethnicities have their own army. Since the British relinquished control of Burma to the Burmese government in 1948, all of the ethnic armies began to oppose the central-government. Since then, fighting has occurred between all varying parties, and the agreements appear to be far off. At any rate, Myanmar seems to be developing rapidly to join its famed fellow Southeast Asian countries - like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam - known as easily accessible, safe, affordable, and totally worth going to. The overnight buses are great, the people are friendly and patient, and when the power goes out it comes back on as planned (more like Nepal, and parts of Cambodia in that way).
I had read about some of the fighting in Myanmar and had been hesitant to go alone. I only knew people who had traveled there in group-tour style fashion. Sufficed to say Myanmar was another country, along with Laos, that was not on my "to visit" list before planning to come to Asia. People change, circumstances change, and somehow my attitude became so I had stopped putting shackles onto my own plans by creating concrete ideas. It was time to go with a feeling, and my feeling was that I shouldn't miss out on Myanmar. I would love the serene life temples and reflection.
The experience of backpacking solo there was freeing. There was little to no internet, so even if booking online was possible, it didn't happen. The best way to travel was to show up, fingers crossed. After showing up, fingers crossed, first I would walk hostel to hostel seeing what the condition of the rooms were. Accommodation in Myanmar is the most expensive that I have seen in all of Southeast Asia. I have stayed everywhere from a private bed capsule with an aircon in Yangon, to (almost) paying $10 to sleep on the floor of someone's living room in Bagan.
Yangon is the capital of Myanmar, some call it Rangoon - just as some say Burma instead of Myanmar. There are enormous pagodas, lakes and rivers to see here. On the street where I stayed there were no sidewalks, and everything appeared to be under construction. Locals were always excited to wave at any non-local possibly western looking person walking in the street.
The only thing I did in this friendly big city was visit pagodas, and drink at a local tea shop. I spent 3 hours at the enormous golden Shwedagon pagoda where I was invited to join a Burmese family for lunch. I motioned to get food, meaning it more as a question for where to get food, and they invited me to join them. Myanmar was one of the places in Southeast Asia where I found it most difficult to communicate. It required a lot of patience all around the country to voice questions properly, and I am sure that my English became extremely simplified by the end of my visit.
I made a lot of friends by laughing and pointing.
As friendly as the locals are, I found the tourists in Myanmar to be the opposite. Since the backpacking life in Myanmar is not accommodating for people to meet one another, I found myself alone most of the time, or taking notice of other solo travelers and locals who could speak some English. In Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, it was sometimes hard just to find time alone while backpacking - in Myanmar, it was the opposite. Most tourists traveled in couples, or groups - and other solo travelers, I noticed, would sometimes cling to each other for dear life. This offered me a lot of time for meditation, and visits to temples.
I saw all kinds of temples in Myanmar. In the desert city of Bagan, I climbed ancient ruins to view the sea of temples that remain there.
In the seaside capital of Mawlamyine I saw the largest reclining Buddha in the world, and a Buddha made of bamboo.
I climbed mountains in Hpa'an to find pagodas at the top, visited monasteries inside enormous bat caves, and I saw giant rocks balancing on one another, with pagodas on top that were only accessible by a bamboo ladder.
Between the mountains, the pure sunsets and sunrises over lakes and rivers, and the authentic pagodas all over the country - I have to say my favorite part of Myanmar was the children.
In Yangon, I encountered a Hindi festival celebrating the Day of Happiness, and while there I came across dozens of fathers and mothers asking me to photograph there beautiful children. No English, just a hand expression and some pointing. I was stopped everywhere I went all over the country in order to take pictures with locals. Of course, my response was "yeah of course, but I want one too" - with some pointing and pretend clicking. Once someone asks for a photo, soon after a crowd forms around, and I feel like a celebrity.
Would you like me to kiss your baby? Lets make a peace sign. You want to make a face together? You want me to have a picture with your children? Monks took selfies with me. People stopped in prayer at pagodas to find me for a chat. The temples in Myanmar didn't tend to be very somber or peaceful, so a loud chat was hardly opposed. Often I would see couples hiding out around corners to have family-forbidden-private-time. Conservative countries like this tend to have strict cultural rules about dating, cultural rules that almost everyone seems to "secretly" break. Families bring picnics to chill with Buddha while they eat their rice and noodles in between hourly meditation. The mellowed out men and women light up cigars while they sit in silent reflection.
My first goal was to understand the difference between Myanmar and Burma. Locals debate upon which name they prefer, however "Myanmar" is the Burmese name for Burma, and Burma is the English name. The change in name only occurred within the last 20 years. All locals have an opinion about the political situation in their country. Some are excited about the development, the freedom, and the money coming in, whereas others are concerned about what this will mean for their culture, their children, and their country. These folks are more up-to date about the happenings in their government than I am about my own government. Between student rallies being seized and arrests being made, to fighting from state to state within sections of the country, to monks begging on the street - Myanmar is a quickly developing, heavily confusing place.
The typical backpacking circuit in Myanmar begins in Mandalay or Yangon, and goes to Kalaw for trekking to Inle Lake, and also to Bagan for ancient ruins. Traveling outside of this circuit is easy, however there are parts of the country that tourists are still not allowed to go to because of fighting. I'll be honest, I don't know much about the fighting in Myanmar, but I do know that there are several different states and ethnicities within the country, and each of the 16 ethnicities have their own army. Since the British relinquished control of Burma to the Burmese government in 1948, all of the ethnic armies began to oppose the central-government. Since then, fighting has occurred between all varying parties, and the agreements appear to be far off. At any rate, Myanmar seems to be developing rapidly to join its famed fellow Southeast Asian countries - like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam - known as easily accessible, safe, affordable, and totally worth going to. The overnight buses are great, the people are friendly and patient, and when the power goes out it comes back on as planned (more like Nepal, and parts of Cambodia in that way).
I had read about some of the fighting in Myanmar and had been hesitant to go alone. I only knew people who had traveled there in group-tour style fashion. Sufficed to say Myanmar was another country, along with Laos, that was not on my "to visit" list before planning to come to Asia. People change, circumstances change, and somehow my attitude became so I had stopped putting shackles onto my own plans by creating concrete ideas. It was time to go with a feeling, and my feeling was that I shouldn't miss out on Myanmar. I would love the serene life temples and reflection.
The experience of backpacking solo there was freeing. There was little to no internet, so even if booking online was possible, it didn't happen. The best way to travel was to show up, fingers crossed. After showing up, fingers crossed, first I would walk hostel to hostel seeing what the condition of the rooms were. Accommodation in Myanmar is the most expensive that I have seen in all of Southeast Asia. I have stayed everywhere from a private bed capsule with an aircon in Yangon, to (almost) paying $10 to sleep on the floor of someone's living room in Bagan.
Yangon is the capital of Myanmar, some call it Rangoon - just as some say Burma instead of Myanmar. There are enormous pagodas, lakes and rivers to see here. On the street where I stayed there were no sidewalks, and everything appeared to be under construction. Locals were always excited to wave at any non-local possibly western looking person walking in the street.
The only thing I did in this friendly big city was visit pagodas, and drink at a local tea shop. I spent 3 hours at the enormous golden Shwedagon pagoda where I was invited to join a Burmese family for lunch. I motioned to get food, meaning it more as a question for where to get food, and they invited me to join them. Myanmar was one of the places in Southeast Asia where I found it most difficult to communicate. It required a lot of patience all around the country to voice questions properly, and I am sure that my English became extremely simplified by the end of my visit.
I made a lot of friends by laughing and pointing.
As friendly as the locals are, I found the tourists in Myanmar to be the opposite. Since the backpacking life in Myanmar is not accommodating for people to meet one another, I found myself alone most of the time, or taking notice of other solo travelers and locals who could speak some English. In Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, it was sometimes hard just to find time alone while backpacking - in Myanmar, it was the opposite. Most tourists traveled in couples, or groups - and other solo travelers, I noticed, would sometimes cling to each other for dear life. This offered me a lot of time for meditation, and visits to temples.
I saw all kinds of temples in Myanmar. In the desert city of Bagan, I climbed ancient ruins to view the sea of temples that remain there.
In the seaside capital of Mawlamyine I saw the largest reclining Buddha in the world, and a Buddha made of bamboo.
 |
| The largest reclining Buddha in the world was literally the size of a laying down sky scraper. |
Between the mountains, the pure sunsets and sunrises over lakes and rivers, and the authentic pagodas all over the country - I have to say my favorite part of Myanmar was the children.
 |
| Being a celebrity looks something like this |
Would you like me to kiss your baby? Lets make a peace sign. You want to make a face together? You want me to have a picture with your children? Monks took selfies with me. People stopped in prayer at pagodas to find me for a chat. The temples in Myanmar didn't tend to be very somber or peaceful, so a loud chat was hardly opposed. Often I would see couples hiding out around corners to have family-forbidden-private-time. Conservative countries like this tend to have strict cultural rules about dating, cultural rules that almost everyone seems to "secretly" break. Families bring picnics to chill with Buddha while they eat their rice and noodles in between hourly meditation. The mellowed out men and women light up cigars while they sit in silent reflection.
 |
| Me, Piopio, and little Chu. Precious |
In Bagan I had an interesting encounter with a little boy named Piopio. He wore my sunglasses, and I thoughtlessly told him that he could keep them. It turned out, since a dear friend of mine gave me the glasses, that I had a sentimental connection to them. Shortly after giving them to this boy I began to cry. The story turns into a funny adventure quickly. A little 5 year-old pops up behind Piopio saying "dont cry! don't cry!" and Piopio says he still wants to keep the glasses. So I told him I would give him other glasses, I would return tomorrow. When I arrived a few hours later with glasses for all of the 5 children who were outside of the temple earlier, I began to give them the glasses and suddenly there was a sea of children saying "give me give me." They have multiplied. I forgot one of my travel guides telling me not to give things away. Classic tourist mistake.
Well we've already begun... so I played a little game with the children for them to win the glasses fairly, and when all was said and done I walked back to my motorbike rental. Suddenly, happy with myself having cleared my conscious and kept my glasses, more children and one elderly woman crowded around my bike asking me for more gifts. I told them no, of course, but I couldn't help but laugh at this old lady. There are children begging, yeah kids always want free gifts from anyone who will give to them, but lady, what are you doing here. I laughed to myself and left before my heart was taken by these kids and I gave them everything besides the clothes on my back.
From Bagan I took an overnight bus to Inle Lake, where I thought I would spend several days. I stayed one night and two extremely full days. The lake is beautiful, and the surrounding nature was fantastic. I spent 24 hours without sleep, going on a lake boat-tour to see how the local cigars are made, and joining in on how to make them. I saw how lotus silk is made, and got to weave some of a scarf, and then I went to the market and a cat-themed pagoda. After this I felt I had seen all of Inle Lake.
The next day I went trekking to a village through the mountains with a lovely little man named Mau Lau. At the village I met an old woman who smoked Burmese cigars with me, and talked to me about her children and growing up in the village. She was 61 and told me she was very old, and would probably die soon. I said NO, but realistically, since Myanmar is so under developed the lifestyles of people are rewound a hundred years in time. Life expectancy is in the 60s. Children are working beginning from 5-12 years-old, getting married before they are 22, and having many children by the time they are 30. Dancing in public is not accepted. Touching children on the head is not accepted. Women don't usually travel alone. This is all customary in the complex Muslim/Buddhist mixed country. For some reason day drinking and blood red chewing tobacco is widely accepted, even by the monks. Myanmar is so weird - nothing is allowed or "okay" but then at the same time anything is possible and perfectly okay to do what you want. Take your time.
I even learned from locals, that although Myanmar was the safest place for me - as a tourist - to travel, it is not necessarily safe for locals traveling between different states. Sometimes women are raped, and often people keep to their own state and culture for safety. The people are good, the money is enough, and there are no worries from day-to-day life within ones comfort zone.
After my day of trekking I took a night bus to Yangon followed by an early morning bus to Hpa'an, where I spent a majority of my time in Myanmar. The capital of Kayin State is underdeveloped like anywhere else, yet developed enough so that I stayed in a nice motel for a low price and was able to travel by motorbike to neighboring villages and mountains.
I met an enormous amount of people in Hpa'An. I became friends with boat drivers, children who swam at sundown by the nearby pagoda every night, and the people who worked at my hotel. I had the great opportunity to communicate with a lot of local people.
The dogs however, were some of the meanest I've come across. I found a lot of parallels between Myanmar and Nepal, like power outages, dog gangs, and incredibly friendly people.
One thing that came as a sort of culture shock to me, was the way of Buddhism in Myanmar. I expected monks to be quiet, middle aged, simple people. What I got was monks with tattoos, chewing tobacco, selfie sticks, cigarettes, and eating anything they can get including meat. The monks live entirely off of donation, and aside from the daily rice donations that they receive, the monetary donations can go towards whatever they wish or need to survive. Also there are different ages, from 5 to 500. I saw monk children playing football, older monks smoking long cigars as they give blessings. Many of the children choose to be monks because of who they admire, or maybe their parents are monks - it doesn't necessarily mean that they are at an age of understanding. As it is, monks can become monks, and stop being monks, then become monks again up to 3 times in their lives. As I spoke with a local, he explained to me that most children are sent away to be a monk early in their life for a week or two before returning home. He told me it is like going to camp. That's cool! I worked at church camp, so I get it. I could probably use a good retreat to monk-camp once in a while.
One of my favorite monk-moments was during my trek at Inle Lake. Mau Lau and I took a detour in our trek to go see the local monastery for prayer on the day of the New Moon. When we arrived a monk was sitting in front of the Buddha facing outward towards the worshipping people who came for the day. The room was silent, and the monk was sitting cross-legged in a meditative position. I bowed to him and began my meditation along with everyone else. As I bowed I heard a loud sound like a whale. When I looked up, everyone seemed unmoved. Thats when I saw it, the monk, in his seated position, gracefully lifted one of his butt cheeks and - while making an intensified pooping face - let out an enormous fart followed by a forced burp.
Thanks for the memories Myanmar. I'll never forget the meditating monk pushing out his farts in the middle of prayer.
Aside from the unique ways of Buddhism in Myanmar, children in Hpa'an were my favorite thing about the country. Since I rushed through most of the country, I didn't have enough time in some places as I would have liked to completely emerge and anamor myself with the people or the city. The reason was that the waterfestival - Burmese and Thai New Year, also known as Buddhist New Year - was quickly approaching making travel difficult and expensive. I wanted to return to Thailand before everything shut down for a week in Myanmar, and I wasn't sure how the border crossing by land would turn out. The land crossings are still somewhat new since Myanmar opened itself to tourism.
During my time in Hpa'an, I took a tour on a tuk tuk for a day to see caves, and temples that I had intended to see before arriving. Chugging along the bumpy dirt roads, around mountains, and through small villages, was one of the highlights of my day. At one point the tuk tuk stopped, and the driver with his limited English turned around and said "Camera! No!" I thought maybe it was because the villagers were out and wouldn't want their photo taken. I asked why, needing to be in the know about all, and he pointed ahead and said "wet wet." At that point we looked in front of the tuk tuk taxi and saw that about 100m in front of us was an enormous crowd of children playing with water. Celebrating the new year a little early no doubt.
No one in the tuktuk really understood what was going on, other than those kids up there have water. While everyone packed up their cameras, I took my waterproof camera, jumped out of the back of the tuk tuk and ran to the children with my arms open yelling something like Yaaaaaah, I've come to play! Immediately I was attacked by the tiniest girl, chased her around while buckets were thrown on me, and I began tripping all over myself on the slippery muddy road. As the tuk tuk drove through after me with the rest of my group still on it, all of the children lined up on either side with a bucket and threw water inside the open sides of the truck. Everyone was soaked. After realizing that there was no point in not joining in the fun, the rest of the tuk tuk unloaded and we all began playing with the children. I really just wanted to play. Water fights are my sort of thing.
After this uplifting play-time I decided to buy a water gun at the market the next morning.
My last day in Myanmar was spent riding around on a rented motorbike squirting children with water. I went to the temple where crowds of children joined in throwing water from their bottles at each other. One little girl started directing me towards who I should attack next. Afterwards they all wanted to take pictures with me on their phone or my camera, whatever was nearby. They were adorable children.
I stopped at another house on my way towards the city, slowly got off my bike towards a few children playing with their mom, and went straight for it. Normally, where I come from, if a stranger gets off their motorbike and approaches you, chases you and sprays you with water - it just seems like the parental response would be more alarmed than the response I received in Myanmar. With the festival approaching, and the heart-pounding heat, most people embraced the water as part of the celebrations. When I ran towards these children, the mom clearly directed them in Burmese to get water and attack me back - yelling all of this while she takes out her cellphone to capture photos of the strange westerner coming to play with her kids off the street.
Nothing like being welcomed. I think maybe I am just weird enough to make it in Burma.
Well we've already begun... so I played a little game with the children for them to win the glasses fairly, and when all was said and done I walked back to my motorbike rental. Suddenly, happy with myself having cleared my conscious and kept my glasses, more children and one elderly woman crowded around my bike asking me for more gifts. I told them no, of course, but I couldn't help but laugh at this old lady. There are children begging, yeah kids always want free gifts from anyone who will give to them, but lady, what are you doing here. I laughed to myself and left before my heart was taken by these kids and I gave them everything besides the clothes on my back.
 |
| "You take photo me" |
From Bagan I took an overnight bus to Inle Lake, where I thought I would spend several days. I stayed one night and two extremely full days. The lake is beautiful, and the surrounding nature was fantastic. I spent 24 hours without sleep, going on a lake boat-tour to see how the local cigars are made, and joining in on how to make them. I saw how lotus silk is made, and got to weave some of a scarf, and then I went to the market and a cat-themed pagoda. After this I felt I had seen all of Inle Lake.
The next day I went trekking to a village through the mountains with a lovely little man named Mau Lau. At the village I met an old woman who smoked Burmese cigars with me, and talked to me about her children and growing up in the village. She was 61 and told me she was very old, and would probably die soon. I said NO, but realistically, since Myanmar is so under developed the lifestyles of people are rewound a hundred years in time. Life expectancy is in the 60s. Children are working beginning from 5-12 years-old, getting married before they are 22, and having many children by the time they are 30. Dancing in public is not accepted. Touching children on the head is not accepted. Women don't usually travel alone. This is all customary in the complex Muslim/Buddhist mixed country. For some reason day drinking and blood red chewing tobacco is widely accepted, even by the monks. Myanmar is so weird - nothing is allowed or "okay" but then at the same time anything is possible and perfectly okay to do what you want. Take your time.
I even learned from locals, that although Myanmar was the safest place for me - as a tourist - to travel, it is not necessarily safe for locals traveling between different states. Sometimes women are raped, and often people keep to their own state and culture for safety. The people are good, the money is enough, and there are no worries from day-to-day life within ones comfort zone.
After my day of trekking I took a night bus to Yangon followed by an early morning bus to Hpa'an, where I spent a majority of my time in Myanmar. The capital of Kayin State is underdeveloped like anywhere else, yet developed enough so that I stayed in a nice motel for a low price and was able to travel by motorbike to neighboring villages and mountains.
I met an enormous amount of people in Hpa'An. I became friends with boat drivers, children who swam at sundown by the nearby pagoda every night, and the people who worked at my hotel. I had the great opportunity to communicate with a lot of local people.
The dogs however, were some of the meanest I've come across. I found a lot of parallels between Myanmar and Nepal, like power outages, dog gangs, and incredibly friendly people.
One thing that came as a sort of culture shock to me, was the way of Buddhism in Myanmar. I expected monks to be quiet, middle aged, simple people. What I got was monks with tattoos, chewing tobacco, selfie sticks, cigarettes, and eating anything they can get including meat. The monks live entirely off of donation, and aside from the daily rice donations that they receive, the monetary donations can go towards whatever they wish or need to survive. Also there are different ages, from 5 to 500. I saw monk children playing football, older monks smoking long cigars as they give blessings. Many of the children choose to be monks because of who they admire, or maybe their parents are monks - it doesn't necessarily mean that they are at an age of understanding. As it is, monks can become monks, and stop being monks, then become monks again up to 3 times in their lives. As I spoke with a local, he explained to me that most children are sent away to be a monk early in their life for a week or two before returning home. He told me it is like going to camp. That's cool! I worked at church camp, so I get it. I could probably use a good retreat to monk-camp once in a while.One of my favorite monk-moments was during my trek at Inle Lake. Mau Lau and I took a detour in our trek to go see the local monastery for prayer on the day of the New Moon. When we arrived a monk was sitting in front of the Buddha facing outward towards the worshipping people who came for the day. The room was silent, and the monk was sitting cross-legged in a meditative position. I bowed to him and began my meditation along with everyone else. As I bowed I heard a loud sound like a whale. When I looked up, everyone seemed unmoved. Thats when I saw it, the monk, in his seated position, gracefully lifted one of his butt cheeks and - while making an intensified pooping face - let out an enormous fart followed by a forced burp.Thanks for the memories Myanmar. I'll never forget the meditating monk pushing out his farts in the middle of prayer.
Aside from the unique ways of Buddhism in Myanmar, children in Hpa'an were my favorite thing about the country. Since I rushed through most of the country, I didn't have enough time in some places as I would have liked to completely emerge and anamor myself with the people or the city. The reason was that the waterfestival - Burmese and Thai New Year, also known as Buddhist New Year - was quickly approaching making travel difficult and expensive. I wanted to return to Thailand before everything shut down for a week in Myanmar, and I wasn't sure how the border crossing by land would turn out. The land crossings are still somewhat new since Myanmar opened itself to tourism.
During my time in Hpa'an, I took a tour on a tuk tuk for a day to see caves, and temples that I had intended to see before arriving. Chugging along the bumpy dirt roads, around mountains, and through small villages, was one of the highlights of my day. At one point the tuk tuk stopped, and the driver with his limited English turned around and said "Camera! No!" I thought maybe it was because the villagers were out and wouldn't want their photo taken. I asked why, needing to be in the know about all, and he pointed ahead and said "wet wet." At that point we looked in front of the tuk tuk taxi and saw that about 100m in front of us was an enormous crowd of children playing with water. Celebrating the new year a little early no doubt.
 |
| Water fight action shot! These kids are precious |
After this uplifting play-time I decided to buy a water gun at the market the next morning.
 |
| The temple team |
I stopped at another house on my way towards the city, slowly got off my bike towards a few children playing with their mom, and went straight for it. Normally, where I come from, if a stranger gets off their motorbike and approaches you, chases you and sprays you with water - it just seems like the parental response would be more alarmed than the response I received in Myanmar. With the festival approaching, and the heart-pounding heat, most people embraced the water as part of the celebrations. When I ran towards these children, the mom clearly directed them in Burmese to get water and attack me back - yelling all of this while she takes out her cellphone to capture photos of the strange westerner coming to play with her kids off the street.
Nothing like being welcomed. I think maybe I am just weird enough to make it in Burma.
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