Myanmar

Our first country is officially checked off our list. I can’t believe how quickly that happened.

Myanmar was unlike anywhere I’ve ever been before and probably unlike anywhere else I will go, at least on this trip. The people of Myanmar are genuinely surprised to see a tourist. And honestly, we even got to the point of being surprised if we saw another tourist outside of the few in our hostel. It was a very new feeling.

Mandalay, Myanmar

Mandalay was our first stop of three in Myanmar, and it was easily the biggest culture shock. Before we landed, I read the directions that our hostel gave us from the airport. They literally said “find a bus and it will take you right to our hostel.” For a city of over 1 million people, I was a little concerned that it may not be so easy… but I was wrong. When we walked out of the airport, there was just one bus stand. We told them we were staying at the Four Rivers hostel, and without another word they loaded our bags and brought us right to the front door. That’s when we knew this probably was not a popular tourist destination.

The bus took about 45 minutes, and I swear about 42 of those minutes were spent driving through fields and passing roaming cows. Where were all of these people? Finally we arrived in the actual city, hungry and curious. Honestly, I was very apprehensive about what we would eat here. The area we were was a intimidating and there were no signs of any restaurants nearby. After searching online I found a restaurant called Mangia, which was closer to the more developed parts of town. Well, we soon realized that you can’t survive in this city without a bike or vehicle of some sort. It was NOT pedestrian friendly. Our 0.5 mile walk took us at least a half hour because there were no sidewalks and no one stopped for us to cross any roads. At multiple points we found ourselves sprinting across a street without a seconds notice, because it was the only break we’d seen. We held it together pretty well but I know both of us we’re slightly concerned at this point.

But alas, an oasis in the desert, we found Mangia. I don’t know how Myanmar ended up having such great Italian food, but we weren’t complaining.

Our second day in Mandalay was significantly better. We woke up, ate breakfast at our hostel, rented a motor-scooter and saw the few touristy things in the city. (Yet somehow, we were still the only tourists at them). We went to the Royal Palace, a few more pagodas, and watched the sunset from Mandalay Hill. It was our only full day in Mandalay, and that was enough, but we were happy we came.

Bagan, Myanmar

BAGAN. After a really unpleasant bus ride, we made it. The culture shock hit us again, but as soon as we found our hotel we knew we’d be alright. Learning from our last mistake in Mandalay, we rented a motor-scooter right away and set off to explore and see the sunset. Bagan is the land of over 3,500 beautiful pagodas, most of which were built a thousand years ago. We could’ve spent a week here and not seen half the pagodas, so we made sure to see the three most significant (according to some of the locals we spoke to): Dhammayangyi, the biggest; Thatbyinnyu, the tallest; and AnandaPhaya, the most beautiful.

We were heading to a pagoda which a hotel employee had recommended to us for the sunset when we were stopped by a group of young, local boys. They told us that they knew the actual best pagoda to watch the sunset and convinced us to follow them there instead. In the pagoda, we had to crawl up narrow, steep and cracking stairs in the dark to get to the top, but it was absolutely worth it. The views were beautiful, and pictures don’t do it ANY justice.

The next morning we woke up early to watch the sunrise, and wow am I glad we did. It was 10x better than the sunset in my opinion. We watched from the Shwe San Daw pagoda; it was slightly crowded as it is a well-known pagoda, but still incredible. I can’t really find the words to describe it, but watching the sun display the silhouettes of hundreds of pagodas and illuminate others was something out of a movie.

After a huge and delicious breakfast, we spent the day exploring as many pagodas as we could. We also found a floating bar and, of course, checked it out. We sat on a bamboo raft as a very scrawny kid pulled us to the bar, but not before he fell into the water. Guess we’re a little heavier than he was used to.

After a perfect day exploring, we decided that we liked Bagan so much that we should extend our stay here. Despite already having booked a hostel in our next city, we cut our losses and stayed another night in Bagan. It is such an incredible place, I’d urge anyone to go there (and low season was great due to the lack of tourists and cooler weather!)

On our last day in Bagan, we actually decided to change things up and take a tour to Mount Popa, the “city on a hill”. Our taxi driver told us a lot about the history of Bagan and Myanmar along the way.

  • Around one thousand years ago, 55 or so kings had these pagodas built to honor themselves and their families. Some were partially destroyed in earthquakes over the years, but most were still in great condition.
  • Myanmar was originally named Burma, until roughly 100 years ago when it gained its independence.
  • Myanmar was just re-opened to tourism only five years ago, so their tourism industry is still developing (which explains all of the shocked looks and requests for pictures that we’d been getting)

Something else that I think is worth noting – Sloan and I were pretty shocked to see a few KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurants in Myanmar. We started discussing this with our taxi driver and got onto the topic of McDonalds. If I would have expected to see any American fast-food chain in another country, it would have to be McDonalds and certainly not KFC. Well, our taxi driver confirmed that not only did Myanmar not have McDonalds, he had also NEVER HEARD OF IT. Considering McDonald’s international presence, this was so shocking to me that I had to at least note it.

We arrived at Mount Popa, and some 770 steps later we made it to the top. Personally I liked the view of the mountain from afar better. The top was just a few outdoor temples, and a beautiful view of the lush forests around us. The monkeys were really the highlight of our walk up… and the bathrooms were definitely the low.

All in all, Bagan was amazing, and we were sad to have to leave this beautiful place, but we were off on an overnight bus to the next city, Yangon.

Yangon & Twante, Myanmar

Since we had paid for the previous night at our hostel and did not show, we were able to check in and eat breakfast as soon as we arrived to Yangon (about 6 AM). We met some fellow travelers who gave us great recommendations for parts of our trip, including a “snake pagoda” in a small nearby village, Twante. Of course we were intrigued and made it our mission to check it out. After a walk to the river, a ferry ride to Dalla, and some excruciatingly tough negotiating for a tuk-tuk ride to Twante, we made it to the snake temple.

And no, they were not lying about snakes. We walked up to a pagoda in the middle of a pond with a long, narrow walkway to its entrance. Upon entering the pagoda we noticed no less than 25 anacondas, casually laying around the Buddhist statues and in the windows. WHAT… Growing up I never had a fear of snakes, I actually liked them, but I was definitely pretty cautious here.

At one point, I heard a thump behind us. I don’t really know where it came from but suddenly a 10 ft. long anaconda was slithering around on the ground right by us. It wasn’t very happy, and the monks started trying to coax it underneath a blanket while ushering all the tourists (aka, just Sloan and I) out. It didn’t like that very much and started hissing/striking at the blanket. I watched through the window, but naturally Sloan did not leave the temple and watched it up close. Eventually the monks were able to trap the snake under the blanket, but that was enough for me. This place was so incredibly off the beaten path and we weren’t trying to get a snake bite with no hospital nearby.

Our day ended with a visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the second tallest pagoda in the world, and a fun dinner at an American expat’s restaurant. Myanmar was, as I said, unbelievably different than anywhere I had ever been, but I’m so so glad we came. The people were so kind and the places we found were unlike any other I’ve ever seen.

Next up: Malaysia!

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