Minga-lar bar! Rich in happiness

Myanmar/Burma: 26 May - 9 June 2014

“Myanmar people might not be rich, but we are rich in happiness” is what our cycling guide in Mandalay told us. We loved Myanmar – or Burma – the minute we stepped out of the plane in Heho on our way to Inle Lake. All our worries about getting sick or not being contactable completely washed away when we arrived in our water-bungalow hotel by Inle Lake. The food was delicious and the fact that it is all made with water they purify using the latest technology meant that it was also safe to eat. It therefore was a great and easy introduction to Burmese local fair. The hotel also had wifi which was a real and pleasant surprise.

The 2011 Lonely Planet talks about Myanmar having yet to be completely overwhelmed by western clothing, mobile phones not working and an almost total lack of internet facilities. Well, things have moved on massively in the last 3 years. We have seen:

• Children wearing ‘Angry birds’ or ‘Plants vs Zombies’ T-shirts – so obviously mobile gaming has hit this once remote corner of the world

• Farmers sharing photo’s on smartphones on train

• In addition we have spotted many monks with tablets – a new one on us - taking photos inside of temples and one even took one of us J. 

The age of smartphones and internet has definitely arrived in Myanmar even though it’s not yet as ubiquitous as elsewhere. Chit Min, our cycling guide, explained to us that families can enter a ‘sim-card  lottery' system for 1500 Kyat (¬1.5USD) to get allocated a ‘family’ Sim Card for a smartphone device. We think all the family phones end up with the youth as we saw them playing with them in tea houses around Myanmar. People can also buy phones at much greater cost from companies – and often unobtainable. What has still remained traditional is the fact that men wear Longyi's and woman wear the traditional Thanaka make-up. Thanaka has been used for thousands of years and is claimed to have sun-protection and anti inflammatory properties. And on a side note even the ‘comb in hair’ look can be spotted in Burma.

Inle Lake was our first stop and well worth the detour to get there.  We spent an awesome day on the lake seeing lots of cottage industry, 'one-legged' fishermen and a floating garden. Throughout our time in Burma we were able to see many different types of small industry – weaving, cigar and boat making, gold leaf pounding, bamboo-splitting and a bean paste factory. On the boat tour we made a side-trip to the Shwe Inn Tain temple complex which was well worth the 5USD extra, despite the slightly concerning (Ian) / terrifying (Astrid) ride towards a thunderstorm on open water with lightning strikes coming down on either sides of us. Exploring the temple felt like we had stepped onto an Indiana Jones film-set with 1064 stupas in varying stages of (dis)repair to explore. Those stupas closer to the entrance were the most fascinating as they had been consumed by the jungle, overgrown and entwined with trees.

The Burmese people are extremely friendly and genuine which came as a welcome change after the hard-nosed hustle of many we met in Sri Lanka. Here people seem genuinely excited to see and help foreigners, hopefully it remains this way for as long as possible. Everywhere we went children waved and screamed minga-lar-bar (hello). On Inle Lake we even got kisses blown at us and a flower thrown into our boat. 

Departing Inle also provided us with the chance to take one of the most scenic train journeys in the country – from Inle to Mandalay. The train trundled across the Burmese countryside and through a switchback system down a mountain range taking 12 hours to get to Thazi. Thazi’s claim to fame is the ‘overnight’ stay to catch the 4.30am train to Mandalay, as well as the fact that travelers get picked up from and driven back to the station by horse-cart. The train ride from Thazi to Mandalay was so violently bumpy that we quickly abandoned the idea of taking the 19 hour overnight sleeper train from Bagan to Yangon at the end of our journey.

We saw a nice sunset over Mandalay from Mandalay hill, where students interested in improving their English come to practice with foreigners. We had an endearing but somewhat stilted chat with Titi, which consisted of him asking us where we are from and how we liked his country and us dutifully answering. Comprehension levels of our reciprocal questions was rather limited. We also embarked on a bicycle tour in Mandalay, taking in early-morning markets, local snacks, the world’s largest book and pleasant surrounding countryside. In our attempt not to get sick we avoided most of the uncooked local snacks that were put in front of us such as the local tea leaf salad (pic below).

The great thing about travelling to Burma in the off-season is that you pretty much have all the sights to yourself. The downside is that some things are just not ‘on offer’, such as the boat journey from Mandalay to Bagan on the Irrawaddy river, which we would have liked to have taken. Unfortunately this was not possible due to the seasonal low river levels. Instead we took the bus, which was a nice and pleasant air-conditioned trip that cut the journey time significantly.

In Bagan we cycled through hundreds of stupas, climbed a few and enjoyed the beautiful view. Bagan is not a UNESCO world heritage site because of the slightly dodgy local restoration work on many of the 1000 year-old stupas. Well-meaning but untrained people took it upon themselves to ‘restore’ the temples and stupas, neglecting the traditional techniques/styles compromising the relics rather than saving them.

The following day we hired a driver to take us on the 300km return trip to Monywa to check out Pho Win Taung caves – a vast area of over 200 small caves containing Buddha statues and wall paintings in varying stages of decay often described as the Petra of Burma. Compared to the Damublla rock cave in Sri Lanka (see our last blog), these caves felt a little ‘unloved’ but were still quite amazing. We also visited a slightly kitsch temple which to Ian felt a little like a Buddhist-theme park, with 500,000 Buddha statues. We then drove to the second largest standing Buddha in the world at 129 m. We declined the trip half-way up inside the statue as it was just too hot and after a long day exploring we were too tired. 

We noticed on the bus journey and the Monywa trip that there are very few other cars on the road outside of Yangon / Rangoon. Most roads are single lanes, so there is plenty of excitement when a lorry occasionally comes in the other direction and evasive action is required.

In Yangon we walked to the 2500 year old Shwedagon Pagoda, walked a heritage train around Sula Pagoda and visited a couple of other Buddha Statues (Ngar Htet Gyi and Chauk Htet Gyi reclining Buddha). We also ate one of our best meals in Burma in Yangon at the LinkAge Restaurant. The restaurant and art gallery was set up in 2010 as part of a program to support the 'Street Children Integration and Youth Empowerment Project' by providing vocational training - brilliant food and a brilliant initiative

There is a distinct feeling of calm in much of Myanmar. The pace of life is slow and time seems to have another dimension. Time is almost irrelevant in a country still reliant for a large part on subsistence farming. It is incredibly liberating, refreshing and charming to experience, although we wonder how long it will last and how long the small cottage industries will be able to survive once ‘industrialization’ hits the country in earnest.