Day 16 - 17 (13 &14 oct) Mandalay to Inle and around.

Day 16 – 17 (13 &14 oct) Mandalay to Inle and around.

Again up early ( I thought this was meant to be a holiday?) today we are heading to Inle Lake. A large freshwater lake in the Shan state, I say large because it can easily sustain a floating village numbering in the thousands, a fishing industry and still provide fast amounts of water that Myanmar uses for irrigation and hydro power generation.

I am afraid I will be going on a slight rant here – bear with me.

Leaving Mandalay Airport for a domestic flight to Inle Lake we were forced to go through customs checks twice – passport handed over the whole works – IT IS A DOMESTIC FLIGHT – before you say it was to check ID, we have picked up all our tickets at airline check in at every airport WITHOUT ID.

After the 45min boat ride to our hotel on a ‘long tail’ boat ( extremely shallow propellers fitted on long handles in the water sending ‘tails’ of water into the air as they move alone)

While our hotel wasn’t actually ‘floating’ it was built on stilts – not that it helped when boats went past as the whole room swayed with the waves – a very disconcerting feeling when you are on the toilet or in the bath.

After checking in our boat man took us around to various industry type cottages – the cigarette makers, lotus fibre weavers etc. The most interesting aspect I found was when we slowly motored through the residential area, through the stilt houses of the local villagers. I noticed a distant lack of waste water plumbing.. the ‘out house’ was just that. It emptied into the lake… usually beside the outhouse was a small covered pen, that housed the families livestock – a few chickens and maybe a pig – their waste too fell into the river below.

As we only have our boat driver to sun down – there are no lights on the long boats – so no night trips to the local restaurant – dinner was at the hotel. Now don’t they have a good scam going!!! They charge a lot for average quality food – all in USD rather than the local Kyat currency.

This region produced a lot of tomatoes – all in floating beds. It was unbelievable seeing farmers tend their crops… in boats.

Myanmar - Kalaw: An English village in the Shan State Hills via limestone caves of Pintaya

A journey into the hills

After leaving the banks of Inle Lake we headed up into the hills of Shan State.

On the steady climb up winding roads to the limestone caves of Pintaya we passed through some of the densest farmland in Myanmar. We passed small family farms growing cauliflower, pumpkin, potatoes, beans and cabbage all grown organically to be sold at local markets or if lucky, regional wholesalers.

Pintaya

Pintaya limestone caves, just like every other caves I encountered in Myanmar, have been converted to a Temple with every surface and grotto adorned with Buddhist imagery.

 The real highlight of Pintaya is the legend that surrounds the cave. Allegedly in mythical times, a number of princesses sheltered in the cave to escape a storm.

Little did they know a Nat [pre-Buddhist spirits] in the form of a giant spider was in the cave and proceeded to hold them hostage. A huntsman (a hunter, not of the spider variety) was nearby and heard the princesses’ screams. He used his bow and arrow to kill the spider. Why princesses were roaming the country unprotected the myth does not say. 

 

To remind all and sundry of the story there is a reenactment in Disney style large stone characters at the entrance to the cave. 

 

 

From Pintaya we stopped and had lunch at the lake where Kainnari & Kainnara (the flying lover gods as previously mentioned ) were rumoured to live. 

 

Not a bad place to spend a day. 

 

Onward, ever onward we moved to Kalaw – if the English gardens at Pyin Oo Lwin was freakish the English cottages and large homes of Kalaw are other worldly, topped off with Pine trees make this place look like an English village deposited in the Myanmar hills.
 

 

 A true highlight for me included a visit to the Kalaw markets during Market Day! All the farmers were out selling their wares – from veggies to batteries, dried fish to clothes - it was all there. We spent most of the morning wandering around the stalls and looking at odd parts of animals.

Pyin Oo Lwin Days 13 & 14

Day 13

Today we head off to Pyin Oo Lwin, in the hills outside Mandalay. The air is noticeably cooler and they even manage to grow grapes here for the local wine industry.

First stop is a waterfall (Dat Taw Gyain Waterfall) I have to say the walk down is not for the fain of heart. Taking 45 minutes to walk down, you know it is going to hurt on the way back. Due to recent rain the waterfall was in full flow covering the base area in a misty spray including the near by Pagoda.

The rest of the afternoon was spend checking in at the hotel and resting. That evening we had dinner with one of Frankie's friend from school, now an Myanmar Army Major, teaching at the nearby Joint Services College.

Day 14

First location we visited today was a deep cave with a natural river flowing through it. This river is diverted in parts to power mini hydro electric power systems - lucky since the inside of the cave, discovered in 1990, has been turned into a walk in Pagoda - every wall and shelf is covered in Buddah's images or grottos filled with religious imagery, all with the river running in and out of little rivers covered by walkways.

Then off to another waterfall located near by, called BE which I am told stands for Built by Engineers (Army) - a multi stage waterfall and river system running through a little township - water was a little dirty from recent rains.

In the afternoon we headed back to the township of Pyin Oo Lwin for a tour around in one of the many colonial era styled horse pulled carts.

Finishing the afternoon at the large botanical gardens built in 1917.

The whole place looks like an english park.. apart from the pagoda in the middle of the lake, and the monkeys fighting in the trees.

Myanmar: Bagan to Mandalay

Flying from the ancient temple city of Bagan  to the ‘last kingdom’ of Mandalay, we were the only passengers on this leg as the aircraft operates Yangon – Bagan –Mandalay – Yangon. All passengers had left at Bagan with only Frankie and I boarding for the flight from Bagan. Talk about premier service!

After arriving in Myanmar’s second largest city there was no time to rest – adventure awaits.

U Bein Bridge

I know it sounds like one of those locations were you may think ‘oh how exciting… a bridge’. I have to say I did think that on the way to the location, but I was immediately taken aback.

The 100 year old Teak Bridge and its surrounding lake was spectacular.

The day we were there it was drizzling – in some ways that added to the spectacular mystical atmosphere

Watching the weather beaten old men sitting on the low bridge with their lengths of bamboo for fishing catching a few little fish with just a flick of the wrist.

Mahar Gandar Yone Monastery

After the visiting the bridge we wandered over to the  Mahar Gandar Yone Monastery. The monastery is famed in the area for allowing the tourists to see the process of dishing out the main daily meal to the many monks that reside at the monastery. Monks traditionally only eat 2 meals a day. Arising at 4am for a breakfast meal followed by a single lunch meal.

Sagaing Hill Silk Weavers

A visit to the region is not complete without visiting the silk weavers of Sagaing Hill where we managed to find the perfect gift for one of our friends back in Canberra, a Longyi, the Burmese sarong.

Mt Popa 

Again up at 0400, all washed, dressed and headed to reception for the pick up at 0500. When there was no car waiting at 0515… we guessed it was cancelled again – sure enough reception confirmed – cancelled. While Frankie was devastated but it is the way it goes. So in the afternoon we headed off towards Mount Poppa. Stopping first to see peanut oil extraction “the old school way” – one cow walking in a circle and using a grinding stone to crust the nut and the oil flows out. Also the same plantation extracts the sweet palm water then boils it down to create palm sugar balls and palm whiskey.

Oh I just remembered, when we were walking home from dinner there was movement in the bushes – Frankie tells me it was a Ghost – no he isn’t even joking.

A temple that is built on top of a small yet tall mountain with winding spiral stairs… who are patrolled by naughty monkeys.

Yangon to Bagan

  After a night on the town with Frankie’s former school mates it meant another early start with minimal sleep. This time a domestic flight on Myanmar’s newest airline AirKBZ, owned by KBZ bank. The new airline also has new aircraft – the new ATR 72 600. Perfect for short haul flights in comfort. With a clever stroke of marketing genius the logo for AirKBZ is the Burmese mythical couple Kainnayi and Kainnyar. Who according to legend area flying couple who were so I love, when they were separated while flying though a thunder storm for 1 hour to the lovers it felt like years.

 

 

Arriving in Bagan starts the preplanned part of our trip that Frankie arranged with a local tour agency here. He provided the locations and the dates. They did the rest. We were booked into the Bagan Thande river side hotel, constructed for the British royal visit in 1922 by the Prince of Wales.

Our room had full river frontage to the Irrawaddy river. We often sat watching the river ‘push’ boats moving up and down the river with their loads of teak and other cargo.

First thing I must point out that Bagan has more pagodas than I have numbers. They are every few metres in some cases. The first we visited was built in the 11th century. Hosting four large images of standing Buddha. Two, the north and south are original 11th century magnolia wood. These two are built in the Indian style of Buddha’s image – meaning, they are smiling and their earlobes do not touch their shoulder. The east and west images were either damaged and or stolen along with their many jewels by the Mongol hordes that invaded Bagan at this time.

Original 11th Century Original North and South Magnolia Wood Buddha’s image

East or West Replacement Buddha’s image following the burning and looting by the Monguls

Myanmar: Kyaiktiyo to Yangon via Bago

  Sadly the time to leave Kyaiktiyo and head back to Yangon. But first to get down the mountain. We packed back into the converted dump truck with 30 or so of our closes unknown friends and all their belongings before rumbling to life setting off down the mountain. While the trip up was 45 mins of roller coaster action, the trip down was faster ( hey who needs breaks anyway). I managed to set the gopro up on top of the truck, and using the wifi remote mode was able to capture the trip down to show you.

After arriving at the bottom of the mountain - formerly referred to as base camp. Our driver was waiting to take us back to Yangon. The trip back was via the town of Bago with its colonial era town clock tower and coming together of the rural traders on the main road to Yangon to trade their wares with wholesalers who sell in turn in Yangon.

The scenes of rural life, without reliable electricity, without permanent housing structures ( currently built of palm fronds and bamboo with the odd tarp thrown in) by the mighty Irrawaddy river as it makes it's way down from the hills to the Myanmar delta to flow in to the Bay of bangl are the images of the REAL Myanmar for me. The untouched. The uncorrupted every day life really resonates with me.

Dinner in Yangon tonight with some of Frankies school friends, then another quick turn around out to the Temple city of Bagan again at stupid o'clock

Mt Kyaiktiyo – Myanmar’s Golden Rock

Mt Kyaiktiyo

The Golden Rock of the Golden Land

Getting there

 After leaving Yangon by the newly constructed multilane concrete hghway the former capital with the new capital Nay Pyi Daw located towards the centre of Myanmar it struck me – we are one of only a handful of cars on this road. It soon struck me as to why. Toll booths – paying the few kyats at each the toll gates located as close as 20km apart was simply beyond the means of many Burmese. They simply found less maintained paths.

Turning right at the big fork in the road heading towards the mountain the landscape changed from the rice producing flat lands to the fertile hilly region of Mon State where Mt Kyaiktiyo (to my ear it is pronounced Mt Jie Tee O) is located.

Some 6 hours after leaving Yangon we arrived  at the bus station at the base of the mountain. I say bus – really a tip truck with wooden planks for seats. Hey – if it was easy to get to, it wouldn’t be a pilgrimage site.

The season that we are  in Myanmar is the period between the end of the monsoon season and the start of ‘festival season’. (Early October).

Most of the religious sites appear to be forgotten, unrepaired and abandoned. This is a good thing – no other people around, locals or tourist.

During ‘festival season’ all the sacred sites are polished, painted, swept and thus crowed with not only foreign tourists but also Burmese pilgrims coming to pay homage.

Why See It

Mt Kyaiktiyo, with its famed Golden Rock is one of Myanmar’s 3 most holy sites. :

• Swedagon in Yangon
• Mt Kyaiktiyo’s Golden Rock; and
• The Maha Muni Buddha image in Mandalay.

Where to stay

We stayed at the well named “Hill Top Hotel” which really couldn't be any closer to the Rock if it tried. It is also the most expensive place to stay costing between $100-150AUD per night. For the cost conscious you can always stay at the bottom of the hill in the local village and day trip up the mountain.

3 Days in Yangon

Early riser?

Our first full day in Yangon was Sunday; Sunday is donation day for the local Buddhist monasteries.

After being woken at an‘unholy hour’ by the 'donation truck’ - a van with speakers calling out for donations of money and food for the local Buddhist monasteries and temples, we were treated to  what would, I later discovered, was a daily procession of the local monks in their crimson robes. Walking house-to-house barefoot accepting donations of food in their earthenware pots held in a sling over their shoulders.

Frankie's family, his father in particular, are devout Buddhists, along with running the family business that has been selling religious supplies such as robes, incense and fans for over 120 years.

Frankie’s Parents always offer rice and drinks of cool water to the full robed monks in the rapidly heating Yangoon morning.

Some of the monks could not be older than 5 years old.

Each Burmese child at some stage of their life is attached to a monastery where they undergo ‘live in’ religious instruction and teaching. This is usually only for 1 week.

Frankie was telling me that the reason you do not see people begging for food and money in the streets in Myanmar is that if you truly are in need, the Monks will share their food and lodging with you.

FOOD!

Today's food highlight was at a huge Chinese Dumpling House - we polished off 50 plates of dumplings between 5 of us - coming to a total of less than $50 aud.

Quick Yangon tour by car

Frankie's parents took us on a short driving tour of Yangon including a drive past Aung San Suu Kyi's now famous residence that also served as her prison following her home detention.

The rest of the day was spent with Frankie's college friends eating, being massaged to a pulp and eating some more - massage cost less than 4 dollars for 2 hours.

Myanmar: Gay Scene

After traveling for close to 24 hours, the last thing I expected to be dragged off to was a gay bar! After unpacking, and sprucing ourselves up, one of Frankie's Facebook friends from Yangon invited us to a 'gay' night that is held once a month in Yangon at a local club. Let's just say fun was had by all. Less than 2 dollars a shot of vodka with unregulated Thai style redbull.

Home in bed by 3am local time, 30 hours after we started traveling oh and throw in a few timezone changes.

Myanmar: Getting there

Leaving Australia

Departing Sydney at 2100hrs arriving Kuala Lumpur (KL) at 0400, flying flew both legs, SYD - KUL then KUL-RGN with Malaysian Airlines. I'm glad to see that most of their fleet now offer in seat USB to charge devices now. Their A330 and B737 that we have both had them with the standard inflight fit out entertainment wise.

Transiting

Anyone who has been to Malaysia's KLIA knows that's it's a pleasant airport to spend time in, as airports go. Free wifi, air conditioned and these cool chairs that you can sleep in.

Since our longest leg of 8 hours was overnight, the traditional sleeping times it did make the longer legs more bearable.

Arriving in Yangon

Initial impressions of Yangon reminded me of a cross between Bali's Denpasar Airport (DPS,  before their new renovation) and Bangkok's newly renovated DMK. Our B737 was the only plane that had an aerobridge attached. Air Bagan and Air KBZ (formerly Air Mandalay) both had ATR's sitting on the aprons ( sorry that's plane nerd stuff - basically they are flying very safe and new aircraft that are similar to the ones that Virgin Australia are now flying the Sydney - Canberra route along with the regional areas- the ones with the propellers).Air Bagan and Air KBZ mostly offer internal domestic flights.

Customs and entry requirements were easy to clear, as we had a pre-approved visa  ( issued by the embassy in Australia) prior to arriving. The usual stack of forms - customs declarations, quarantine, arrivals cards etc were all in English and easy to follow.

Frankie's parents also met us at the airport so the process was pretty stress free. No taxi arguments. Bags were collected and off we went.

The quick 30 min drive through the city to Frankie's parent's home looked like most developing countries (I say developing, actually it's exploding with development at the moment). Myanmar is wrestling with itself - maintaining it's cultural heritage and expanding to maintain need. Frankie pointed out a large plot of land that used to be a large cemetery that now happily had buildings on it. Like any city the past needs to be balanced with the future.

Related articles

• A week in Myanmar: Ancient city of Bagan

Packing list for Burma (Myanmar) and Malaysia (Redang Island)

As the count down begins to the big trip (roughly 30 days) through Burma (Myanmar) and Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur and Redang Island, I am putting together my packing list. As you will see most of my packing is actually mostly gadgets & electronics. I LOVE THEM.

Packs

Kathmandu 70L convertible ( roller with hidden backpack straps)

Kathmandu 15L Backpack ( day pack) – came with the 70L

I am still tossing up whether to get the Kathmandu 30L ‘Transit’ Day pack and use it as carry on. Additionally it has a secret compartment for my MacBook Air. The lady at Kathmandu kindly talked me out of buying it on the weekend, instead to wait until September when the 40% member discount starts.

Clothes

2 x neutral coloured ‘zip off’ travel pants for comfort.

3 x T-shirts

3 x singlets

3 x shorts

1 x Swimming Shorts

7 x Underwear

2 x socks

1 x boat shoes ( these are my every day, go anywhere, comfortable traveling shoes- I hate thongs / flip-flops )

1 x pair decent going out shoes (never know when a club night calls)

Cameras

Go Pro Hero 3 Black

Go Pro Hero 3 Silver

Samsung NX1000

Laptop

MacBook Air 11in Mid 2011 128gb

Phone / Communications

iPhone 5 64gig in Lifeproof Fre Waterproof Case

Delorme InReach enabled GPS tracker and 2 way communicator

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This is really just gear nerd porn, I want to be able to update my family and friends (and you through this blog) on our adventures. Also it would allow me to fire off a SMS style message to my parents who are meeting us for part of the trip, if any plans change. I am still working through some bugs on the posting map locations here. At this stage posting by email is my only option – this does not produce a ‘sexy’ post – more a quick and dirty text only post with links to an external map.

Where possibly I will endeavour to get a local sim – hopefully with prepaid data – in Malaysia this is no problem, Burma I think will be a different story.

Tablet

iPad Mini 64gig in folio case

Power

Solar

Goal Zero Guide 7 Solar panel

Goal Zero Guide 10+ AA Battery Pack with 4 x AA batteries x 2

Portable Power

In addition to the the Goal Zero Guide10+ I have a PLOX 6000mAh battery pack

PIXO USB Camera Battery Charger from Goal Zero – can charge the NX1000 battery from Solar, USB port or via a wall socket.

I know it sounds like a lot of power, but the guiding premise of my whole kit is that it can all be charged from the wall or from the Goal Zero Panels on the road. I am never quite sure of power availability, reliability or how safe it is (spikes). The only item I can not charge by solar from the above kit is the MacBook Air. Goal Zero does have products that could do it easily, but my budget and weight allowance doe not stretch that far this time. Their Sherpa 50 would be great with some folding panels, I just can’t convince the other half to allow me to get that one.

Have I forgotten anything? Comments ??

Related articles

A massive 6 months!

Laguna Resort, Redang Island, Malaysia

My first dive

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New Toys

Since our last holiday a few new electronic toys have been added to my pack.

• We sold our 2 x GoPro 2s
  • Replaced them with 1 x Go Pro 3 black and 1 x Go Pro Silver.
• Sold our Spot Tracker
  • Replaced with a Delorme InReach 2 way GPS tracker / communicator
• My underwater point and shoot was lost during our trip to Penguin Island, off the Western Australian Coast.
  • Point and shoot replaced with a combination of my iPhone 5 (now in waterproof LifeProof Fre case) and my new Samsung NX1000 Mirrorless 2/3rd DLSR
• iPad 2 given to my partner as I updated
  • Updated to iPad Mini

Video Shot at Redang Island Malaysia (Oct 2012)

http://youtu.be/P5HJNg9RA6U Shot on my go pro 2 in Redang island, Malaysia 2012

A note for any one who uses @gopro and #iPads

As we are in the testing stage for our upcoming trip to Burma and Malaysia, I was testing our new GoPro3 Black on the weekend. It is planned that after we use our cameras (GoPro included) we would use our iPads as quick offload of photos and videos and then using FTP upload to our wireless HDD. I managed to procure a SanDisk 64GB Micro SDXC, knowing the battery on the GoPro would die long before the card was full.

All fine and well UNTIL I plugged the card into my iPad mini. You get the following errors “Contents Unavailable.  The connected storage media may be damaged” or “Contents not Available.  Cannot read the connected storage media.” which as you can imagine a pain in the bum. But glad to have found it out now.

I do have Micro SDHC and they don’t suffer from the same issues thankfully but they are only 16GB.

Here is some further info:

http://www.simondean.org/2012/12/gopro-hero3-ipad/

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