Last words

I had to confess that Myanmar was really tough and demanded a lot of patience and endurance. Undoubtedly it is a unique and beautiful country, but still it is like a raw unpolished gem. Once you can endure its hot and dusty streets with dilapidated public transport, as well as its unappealing choice of food, limited cheap reasonable accommodation options, and a constant fear of being stranded due to a series of unfortunate events, then I am sure there is nothing to stop you from loving this country.

The people are a friendly and honest lot, and it is amazing to see how they shape their faith around Theravada Buddhism, portraying their zeal through gazillions of stupas of all sizes and shapes. It's nice to mingle with the locals, experiencing their way of life through their eyes, and listen to them expressing their feelings and hopes for a new future.

Throughout my 13 days in this raw country, I witnessed both my feet turning to orange (due to the tan and the dusty road), sweated and panted like a cow, bruised and abraded myself from falling off a motorbike repeatedly, got into 3 series of bus accidents, stranded in a bus during a night curfew, got stupa-fied by all the temples and pagodas, and never in my life, enjoyed so many sunsets in a week! This was truly an experience!

Myanmar, no matter how much I despise you, you are still a gem in my memory!

Back to Malaysia

My last day in Myanmar was filled with emotional turbulences; I was somehow glad to leave this country, yet having spent 12 nights here I have developed a bonding with this unique country.

We woke up early to catch our bus back to Yangon's Au Mingalar's bus station, which we hope to grab a cab to the airport for our flight. The journey back was boringly uneventful, but I was grateful that we arrived Yangon in time. We wandered around amidst the horde of taxi drivers and touts, until we were content with one offering us 5000 kyats to share a taxi with another local. I was exhausted and would not really bother paying extra but my buddy was still enthusiastic enough to go around bargaining with the touts.

So, we dumped our bag packs and hopped onto the cab as we headed towards the airport. On the cab, I stared at the far horizon where lies Yangon, the old capital of Myanmar. The intense feeling of curiosity and enthusiasm when I first arrived this country was nowhere to be found; instead, it was a hearty feeling of ironically, content. I had seen enough of this country, and it was time to bid farewell and head for home.

The taxi arrived in the doorsteps of the departure terminal after 30 minutes; we disembarked, walked around the airport until it was time for check-in, and did some last minute shopping to use up our remaining kyats. Surprisingly, it is in the airport's duty free shops that I finally found the fridge magnets that I had been searching high and low for. However, it was a bit too costly so I only bought one for myself.

Our plane finally landed at 6 pm Myanmar time, and we boarded subsequently within 30 minutes. As the gigantic iron bird took off and headed southeast, I closed my eyes, laid my sore back and rested my weary mind with a grin.

"I survived Myanmar."

The Golden Rock

We finally made it to Kinpun, the last stop for our trip in Myanmar. As the bus stopped we were flocked by touts offering us accomodation options, yet, since we already made bookings at the Sae Saw Guesthouse, which was just beside the pickup truck terminal up to Mt. Kyaiktikyo, we decided to stick with it. 

After refreshening ourselves, we found ourselves a pickup truck heading up the mountain  soon at the terminal; the truck itself could fit 35 passengers at the back, and 5 more at the front seat. Imagine yourself cramped in a sardine can, bouncing up and down along the serpentine road heading uphill for an hour. Well, that was what I felt. Fortunately I had already swallowed my motion sickness, so the trip was fairly tolerable, except for my constant fear of falling off from the pickup truck since I sat at the side.

A fee of 1500 kyats gets you to the half point of the hill where one needs to trek up another hour to reach the mountain top. We had lunch somewhere near where the pickup truck dropped us, and soon after we started our journey. 

I was huffing and puffing, cursing and swearing at this ridiculous idea of mounting up this mountain slope just to see a golden rock. However, I began to change my mind as we walked past pilgrims of all sorts; some on crutches or walking sticks, and some too frail, yet still strived to make their way up the mountain just to fulfil their dreams of seeing and touching the golden rock. How mighty the power of faith can be!

We passed by stalls selling icy cold beverages or desserts, and also peddlars selling souvenirs and exotic animal parts. I tried to catch a few minutes of rest whenever I could, resting my butt on benches, stools, rocks, etc., until I get that brackish look from the stall owner's face implying me to scoot. 

Miraculously, we managed to reach the peak of the mountain, alive in one piece! And there was already a big crowd there! We paid the USD$6 entrance fees and marched into the temple complex in a large stride, but the scorching marble floors made us run into the shades! I was glad that it was the last time I had to walk barefoot! 

And there, not far from us, was the fabled golden rock on the mountain, and we started taking photos frenziedly, as we approached it. Like other sacred sites in Myanmar, women are only allowed to get to a certain vicinity of the rock, and we squeezed ourselves past zealous devotees and other fellow travellers, getting closer and closer to it, until we could finally touched it for ourselves. Ah, what sense of satisfaction!

After molesting the rock a couple of times and made some prayers, we visited the temple complex and decided it was time to head down to the hotel. Certainly we would not want to get stranded on top of the mountain with this horde of pilgrims! Fortunately, the trip downhill was less exhausting, and we reached the pickup truck drop zone just within 30 minutes. We hopped onto a pickup truck, waited for 30 minutes for it to be filled with other passengers, and off we went downhill back to Kinpun. The journey downwards was more exciting, and it made me felt like I was on a roller coaster. I swear my hands were tightly clutching onto the sidebars of the pick up truck and onto my seat, while a couple of French ladies were cheering in excitement as in they were on a fun ride. After 30 minutes of drive, we finally reached Kinpun.

We headed back to our hotel, which was just a stone throw from the terminal, and cleaned ourselves from the toil and sweat we had for conquering this little mountain. Kinpun has evolved into a pilgrimage town catering for tourists and pilgrims, hence, there were tons of stalls selling souvenirs and local products, especially fruit jam. Otherwise, there was not really much things to see in this little town at night, so we headed back towards the hotel after our dinner to relax and unwind ourselves.

It was the final night of my trip in Myanmar, and somehow I was soaked in a concoction made up by various emotions. Anyway, I just could not wait to go back to Myanmar, head for the airport straight and hopped onto our flight back to Malaysia!

Last overnight bus in Myanmar

The next morning, we were surprised with the delightful breakfast the Golden Empress Hotel offered us. It was one of the best breakfast we had in Myanmar so far, apart from Lily's in Hsipaw. After breakfast, we freshened ourselves and headed out to explore this little town of NyaungShwe, which the foreigners adored so much.

I felt a little bit guilty for not being able to find some souvenirs for my sister, so we wandered into the local market and Eureka! We finally found stalls that sell some of the local hand woven stuffs, which I bought a couple to later satisfy the craving of my sister and some of my colleagues back at home. It's been a while since I had been bargaining (the last time was in Vietnam a year ago actually), but somehow I was too soft-hearted for these poor locals who depend so much on us for their livelihood so I gave in without much bargaining. Nonetheless, I could not find any fridge magnets or souvenirs of the sort, as most of the stalls here peddle silverware, wooden craft, antiques and etc.. 

We later lingered in the hotel until our bus at 4.30pm, where we boarded a small songthaew which sent us out to a local bus stop 10km away from NyaungShwe. The bus arrived after around 20 minutes, and we were heading down to Yangon, where we would take another bus to Kinpun. 

I slept soundly on that bus, since I was totally exhausted and fed up with all the long-hauled overnight bus trips. When I woke up, we were 30 minutes away from Yangon's Aung MIngalar's bus station. I was totally grateful that the journey was uneventful, after that disasterous bus ride from Hsipaw to Nyaungshwe! We hopped off the bus at Aung Mingalar, and was led to the waiting area for the bus to Kinpun; it was a non-air conditioned bus that costed us 6000 kyats.

So we had to endure another 4 hours of bus ride from Yangon, passing through Bago and several short stops for breakfast, and high tea. I was kind of fatigued and just felt like going back home already! Maybe I was homesick, or I miss work, or Myanmar has nothing more to offer me?

Inle Lake

We hired a boatman, who would take us out sightseeing in Inle Lake from 12 noon until dusk. Since we only had half a day to spend, the boatman could only bring us to the nearby attractions. At least, it was better than nothing!

We walked from the tour agency opposite our hotel towards the jetty, a short trip that took us around 15 minutes, and ended up boarding a boat around 20 feet long, powered by a diesel engine. The boat steered itself from the jetty, out into the lake, under the hot baking sun! Still, the views were worth it.

We were welcomed by boats passing by, most of them loaded with foreign tourists, and only a couple by local Shan villagers. Across the distance, we could see the fabled Intha fishermen paddling their boats with oars clutched in their legs. As we continued further, we were welcomed by an Intha villager who started parading and posing on his boat, and that made me a bit suspicious. Eventually my suspicions were true, as he started begging for money after my buddy took a few shots of him parading. Since he already paid, he might as well took more photos then!

Our first destination was Nga Phe Kyaung temple, which was another tourist trap. The outer courtyard of the temple was packed with souvenir stalls, sellings things that I would not want to buy; antiques, silverware, wood crafts, etc.. Having visited a long list of temples and pagodas, I was not really impressed with this temple. So after a short visit, we had lunch at a local Shan restaurant next to it, and like other tourist traps, it was not really cheap but still relatively affordable.

After that, we hopped on our boat and our boatsmen cum guide took us for a short stride to the Tha Le Oo floating village where the villagers grow their vegetables on floatsams. We were not that interested to visit the overrated Leaping Cat Temple, so after the floatsam, we had a rest in a deserted floating restaurant in the middle of the lake, which now serves as a rest stop for tourists of all sort, while waiting for the sun set.

After lingering for two hours there, the sun finally set in; we hopped on our boat while our boatsman gently steered the boat to the middle of the lake, allowing us to take a few snapshots before we headed back to the NyaungShwe, where we foraged for food instead. 

I virtually felt like collapsing after we reached our hotel. We had a horrible bus ride the night before, and it was certainly comforting to be in our wonderous cosy little hotel!

The longest bus ride in Myanmar

I was surprised by that elderly gentleman after I stepped out from the toilet in early morning, the following day after all that misfortune happened; he came into our room and gave me a bear hug saying he had forgiven me for everything. I was still somehow perplexed with his sincerity, still I accepted his bear hug and tried to erase him from my wonderful memories in Myanmar. Anyway, since he would be leaving to some other places, I was glad that we would never have to see him again!

So, our plan for that day would be another venture in the local market to spot some indigenous people in their fancy costumes. We headed out pretty early that day at 6.00 am but still there were no sign of them. Probably they already were too modernized to wear their traditional costumes to sell wares in the market. Nevertheless, we had a great time looking at the stuffs they trade in the market.

After that, we went back to Lily's Place for breakfast and to chill a while till checkout time since our bus to Inle Lake would only come at 3.30pm. As usual, Lily allowed us to linger in her guesthouse till then and we spent our time watching telly in her husband's clinic.

By 3.30pm we arrived at the local "bus station", which actually is a row of shops where the buses would stop to pick up passengers. Somehow our bus only arrived at 4.30pm, and that actually was a bad sign for us, but since buses are notoriously late in Myanmar we ignored it.

Throughout our journey, the bus ran into a series of unfortunate events. They almost banged into a songthaew, they got banged by another bus from the back and that bus plunged into the paddy field beside the road, and they got banged again by an incoming truck. I was somehow very relieved that I was still alive and the bus was still in one piece!

What annoyed me the most was at 7pm, while passing through a local village, we were told that there was some riot happening in a town ahead and the military government had announced curfew, allowing no vehicles to pass through that very night! Consequently, we had to stop in the middle of nowhere, and sleep in bus until daylight! 

Astonished and totally speechless was I! 

We slept in the dormant bus from 9pm until the next day at 4am when they decided to resume the journey. My back was already aching from the hard seat. The idea of sleeping in a bus with no air conditioning (they turned the engine off!) was really unbearable! Lucky for us we only had 3 more days to linger in Myanmar!

The road to Inle Lake was horrible; the road condition was okay but the route was serpentine and undulating, as the bus slithered slowly up and down the hills. Fortunately I was well prepared for it since I had been swallowing my pills for motion sickness since the journey started! But everyone around me was puking out their guts, and I was somehow worried that I would puke as well!

We finally arrived in Inle lake at 12 noon; the journey took us 20 hours! Gosh! I was relieved and grateful to have reached the town just ouside NyaungShwe (can't remember it's name) in a piece! After hopping off the accursed bus, we paid 5000 kyats for a songthaew to NyaungShwe and USD3 for the entrance fee.

Well they say the best things happen when one has finally endured the worst, and I can't agreed more! It turned out that the hotel we booked here was fantastic! Golden Empress Hotel was such a jewel; the reception was good, and the room was comfortable and clean! I was so thrilled to be able to take a shower and change my clothes after that horrendous bus trip!

After settling down, we booked a boatsmen for 18000 kyats and headed down to Inle Lake!

Trekking in Hsipaw

The next morning, we actually planned to take a short walk around Hsipaw's local attraction, before taking the afternoon bus down to Inle lake at 3.30pm. Hence, after breakfast at Lily's Place (marvellous breakfast with blended strawberry + banana milkshake and fruits), we headed towards the north side of the town. However, after 10 minutes of walking, Lily sent one of her boys to inform us that there would be no bus on that day since it was a Sunday. We were totally devastated, and we had to turn around back to our hotel and replan our itinerary as we had already made reservations in Nyaung U. 

Back in the hotel, we rescheduled our reservations in Nyaung U, booked the bus for the following day, and then decided to rent a bike to go visit the nearby Shan villages for trekkiing. It was then I made a grave mistake.

Remember the elderly Singaporean couple whom I mentioned in my previous post? Well, he woke up late and missed his trip to some other place, and he requested to tag along with us since they had nothing to do, and regrettably I agreed to it. And that became the worse day in Burma!

We walked for 15 minutes to rent 2 motorcycles; one for me and the elderly gentleman, while the other for my buddy and the Singaporean wife. Lily told us the trek was easy, so we thought it was okay to give those 2 a lift. And it turned out that it was one of the steepest route that I have ever biked! Not only it was a dirt path laid with rocks and twigs and ravines and bumps, the road was somehow a bit too steep for 2 ordinary 700cc bikes!

Anyway, going uphill was not too bad, except for certain stretches of the road where it was too steep for 2 person on a bike, so one had to walk uphill while we laboriously steered the bikes up. The journey uphill had incredible views, but looking down from the hill we could only see a vast barren land, with trails of slash-and-burn farming. 

Having arrived at the second highest village, we paid a visit to a local sundry shop, where its owner, U Ba Mae is a friend of Lily's. She offered us tea and we tried to buy a few stuffs for her just to support her livelihood. We agreed to have lunch - local traditional Shan dishes - at her place after we were done with trekking up to the last village.

So, after another 40 minutes ride, we finally reached the last village; I was a bit dismayed as the local Shan villagers here do not really wear their traditional outfit anymore, and were quite shy to see us. So we visited the temple at the hill top to rest for a while, only to be surprised by a troupe of young monk novices who welcomed us enthusiastically! 

These bunch of kids are such friendly and effervescent that they kept us entertained for an hour! They tried to converse with us with their most fundamental English, and cheered us up with their stunts! They even dragged us to their dorm and started posing for us. We regretted for not buying candies or even biscuits for them earlier, had we known we would encounter them. Anyway, after chilling for an hour, it was time to descend, and the nightmare started.

On the way back, we encountered some locals with their pack of horses going downhill; and the elderly gentleman wanted to give it a try. So he mounted up one of the horses while i trailed from the back. After 200 meters, he was still happily riding the horses and I got sick of trailing him at the speed of 10 km/hr, so I overtook him and made a few intermittent stops to wait for him, and yet he was still riding. Hence, I decided to drive down the steep narrow path which was around 1 km far and waited for him down there. 

I rendezvoused with my buddy and the Singaporean lady, and we waited for that gentleman in the shade. After 20 minutes he reappeared, grumpy looking and keep on insisting that he wanted to continue walking and do his birdwatching. Hence, the three of us continued our bike trip down towards the previous village where we were supposed to have lunch there. 

Lily's friend really cooked up some nice dishes for us but it was a bit too salty, and charged us around 1500kyats per person, and we just digged in at the insistence of the Singaporean lady. When the Singaporean gentleman eventually arrived, he refused to eat saying he was not hungry, and that seemed like a bit rude towards our hosts since he initially said he wanted lunch as well. Still, they only charged us for 3 paxes and sent us off our way.

And on our way back, the Singaporean gentleman agreed to go back on the motorbike but  he started whining.

"How old is your father?" I thought he was trying to make small talks. "You know I am the age of your father. How could you possibly abandoned me back there?"

WTF?!? I was kind of dumbfounded. If I really wanted to dump him back there, we would have gone down straight back to the hotel, instead of making intermittent stops to check on him.

The other difficulty I faced while giving him a lift was that he was constantly trying to outbalance me, and he started occupying more and more of my space until I could not really balance the bike. Somehow the bike went out of control and both of us fell, for the first time.

"You know what?" He said coldly. "I think this is your karma for abandoning me back there. Buddha is teaching you a lesson"

I was infuriated but I tried my best to keep calm. If I hadn't I would have just pushed him off the cliff and let him die and rot there. And since it was my fault to let him join us, and it would be so wrong to just leave a 65 years old demented gentleman in some God-forsaken wilderness, I just apologized and insisted to give him a ride back. 

Well, the unforgiving steep road and my obtruding passenger kept on throwing me off balance and we fell again, for another two times. And this bloody idiot kept on shoving me with ungrateful words. 

Bloody hell! 

I held my breath and just persisted until we reached the foot of the hill, back to civilisation so I can send him back in one piece and shrug off this erroneous decision of letting this imbecile join us for the trek. So I told him that he could just go back to the hotel with his wife while me and my friend visited the Shan Palace where we intended to do this morning. Unshamedly he said he still wanted to tag along, saying that it would be rude of me not to make it up for him. I was just too lazy to argue with him, so I gave him a final lift to the Shan Palace. 

I returned the battered motorbike to the shop with an extra charge to compensate for the damages due to the few falls. I was kind of taken aback when the workers in the shop actually took out medications for me to clean my wound! They were actually more concerned of my wounds than me destroying their motorbike!

I limped back towards the hotel with my buddy after we returned the bikes, and stopped for dinner halfway, being glad to be rid of that ungrateful pest. Lily was shocked too to see my wounds and she brought some gauzes and medications from her husband's clinic next door for me.

"Lily, please charge him for all the medications." That idiotic guy said when he saw me dressing my wounds in the courtyard. I just felt him strangling this moron with my own hands. 

We ignored him and went back to our rooms to rest. I reflected to myself for today's tragic itinerary; I should have said "No" to them, but who knew that guy would be such an ass. I should have dumped them halfway along the road had once we realised the road was a bit too tough, but it felt so wrong dumping two elderly people there and the wife was actually much nicer than her husband. And I should have pushed him down the cliff to make him shut up when I had the chance!

Morning train to Hsipaw

The alarm of my smartphone woke me up at 2.00 am, and I swiftly packed and braced myself for checkout. We settled the bills, and marched out into the chilly quiet streets with our backpacks on our shoulders. 

It may sound weird, but I loved how the streets were at early wee hours; it was barren, cool and quiet. What a total opposite of day time! Although there were poor street lighting, and we were virtually alone, except for occasional "Hi, you want motor taxi" yells from passing by motorbikes. To be honest, I was least worried that we would be mugged here, and this bizarre sense of tranquility felt so comfortable to me.

After a 20 minutes stroll we eventually arrived at the railway station, which looked more like a hotel to me from the outside. Along the way, there were the homeless sleeping on the streets with merely a dirty unsightly blanket, and that was really sad; we could see children hugging each other for warmth in between their parents on a used unwanted sofa on sidewalks, with stray dogs wandering around entertaining themselves with their own game of tag. 

Inside the railway station however there were already a small crowd waiting to board the 3am train to Hsipaw. Somehow, everyone was very courteous to foreign tourists, and we had no difficulties locating our train nor our seat. USD9 for an upper class seat - a semi-functioning reclining chair, with ample leg space too! - is already comfortable enough for me. 

As the whistle blowed, the train slowly rattled and started crawling along the tracks towards the northeast. I dozed off almost immediately when the train exited the stony concrete jungle of Mandalay into the rural area, and as we woke up, we were already approaching Pyin Oo Lwin or Moulmein around 9 am, which is a hilly escapade for locals, but a more rundown version of Malaysia's Cameron Highlands.

The train only had a 30 minutes halt in each major stops; so there was sufficient time for peddlars to hope on trains to sell their wares, or for passengers to leap off the train to stretch their legs and buy something to fill their effervescent hunger. I bought some fried noodles and deep-fried bird that looks like chicken, while my buddy bought some strawberries. We expected it to be sour, but to our surprise it was not too bad! We came at the right season where Pyin Oo Lwin is packed full with strawberry harvests! 

Train services in Myanmar are very slow, and inefficient; it is almost twice the normal travelling hours via a bus, but cheaper. Only at 11.00 am did we arrived at our most anticipated sight of wonder - the Goktheik Viaduct. This architecture wonder (well, it was considered to be amazing in 1900) spanning almost a kilometres across a deep valley, has been described by Paul Theroux in his "Great Railway Bazaar" as "a monster of silver geometry in all the ragged rock and jungle, its presence was bizarre". The train gently danced it way across the viaduct, as we gasped with vertigo while we looked down and frantically take photos of every angle we could. It took us around 20 minutes to span the entire viaduct, and soon we were on our way to Hsipaw.

Hsipaw is a small little town located to the northeast of Mandalay, in the heard of the Shan region. So far, this laid-back town has been gradually prospering from the increasing tourists visits, but still the people here are very much friendly and we still enjoy the "Hello" and "How are you" from the locals. We arrived here around 4 pm, and stealthily sneaked past the touts who ambushed the other foreigners like vultures.

I almost fell in love instantly with this cowboy town! It's such a laid back town with no hustle or bustle or crazy wild traffic like Yangon or Mandalay! Our hostel was within walking distance, and upon arrival we were amazed; it was one of the best places we had  stayed in Myanmar! Lily's Place is just simply gorgeous! It is clean, and near to downtown and Lily (the owner) by far is the most hospitable and helpful innkeeper we have met in Hsipaw! She made us feel so in home and helped us almost very sincerely (well, it felt that way) and we really liked this place.

As we arrived, we checked in, dumped our bags and headed towards the sunset hill which is like 1 km away from downtown. Having panted with exhaustion hiking up the hill, I was rewarded by a splended view from the temple above the hill. We could see the sun setting beyond the horizon with our little jewel town, Hsipaw, under our feet. We were joined by a local monk and 2 visitors, as we chit-chatted and waited for the sun to sink into the mountains. However, from afar we could see the thickening haze from the forest fires afar. Pollution indeed has crept its way to everywhere we go it seemed. 

When nightfall has already encloaked the town, we were already on our way back to our hotel, looking for a place to ease our hunger. We stopped at a local restaurant, run by a local "Mr Food", but the services were inferior to its reputation. After dinner, I had a glass of strawberry lassi at "Mr Shake's" place and it was just splendid.

And when we finally arrived in the hotel, we met the elderly Singaporean couple whom turned out to be a nightmare for me, the second day!