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!

Day trip to Mingun and a short walk in Mandalay

We took a day trip to the nearby village of Mingun, which is located 1 hour via ferry ride, to the northeast of Mandalay. We walked around 2 kilometres from our hotel to the Mayan Chan jetty where we waited for 30minutes for our ferry and the ticket costed us 5000 kyats. There were already a few tourists queuing up for the once a day ferry, which I heard would not take us if there were less than 5 tourists then. At 9 am sharp, we boarded the ferry and started the journey.

The ferry sailed upstream of the Ayerwaddy River, passing by fishing boats and transports loaded with all sorts of cargo. I am quite amused to see the other foreign tourists being so intrigued by people living on or beside the river; they get so exhilarated seeing the local people bathing or doing laundry by the river! For me, I tried to catch some forty winks while enjoying the river breeze. 

After an hour, we eventually reached Mingun, and we were welcomed by the unfinished Mingun Paya. While we were busy gazing at the temple, wondering whether to go in and visit, we were ambushed by two government officers asking us to buy the admission ticket. Actually, any foreign tourist who visits Mingun is required to purchase the USD3 admission ticket, unless you are fortunate enough to get away with it. We were rather unfortunate, even though we acted dumb and just walked away, ending up with the officer trailing us for around 10 minutes. We gave in eventually; it's just our luck!

Since we paid for the admission ticket, we might just as well have the most of it. The Mingun paya, although unfinished, still looked humongous! If completed, it would have been the largest stupa in the world! Hence, it is now the largest pile of bricks in the world! We were not allowed to climb up to the top anymore as they put up a sign forbidding us to do so since the structure was not stable anymore, hence we just walked around it and take a few snap shots, barefooted under the hot sun.

Next to it is a temple housing the world's largest uncracked bell, the Mingun bell weighing 55,555 viss (90 tonnes). I managed to scramble beneath and stand within the 13 foot tall bell! The Hsinbyume Paya, further down the road has seven terraces, all laid up with small Buddha figures, while there's another Settawya Paya which has a footprint rumoured to be of Buddha's himself. 

Otherwise there isn't anything much else here, except hoards of tourist-preying pedlars and souvenir shops. We grabbed a quick lunch, and went back to the ferry to wait for departure at 1 pm. 

We encountered a Singaporean elderly couple whom we befriended (possibly a disaster, will tell in future posts) earlier in Bagan. Since they were also heading for Hsipaw too the following day, we booked the hotel they recommended to us. After arriving back in Mandalay, we took a songthaew for 500 kyats per person (cheap!) and headed back near our hotel, where we took a short stroll to the railway station to get us tickets for Hsipaw.

Well, we were advocated to avoid government-affliated facilities as much as possible, but the only way to experience the Gotheik Viaduct is by train, and that left us with not much choice. Hence, we bought 2 upper class seats for USD9 each at the station and headed back for our hotel to rest, after stopping at a local supermarket for some groceries.

I woke up from my nap in late evening, ad we went to try the local Shan dishes, near our hotel. It costed me 3500kyats for a eat-as-much-as-you-can buffet, but I never really liked Burmese cuisine so I felt content with just 2 rounds of servings.

Well, that's probably what we really had in Mandalay, and we skipped Inwa and Sagaing because we were already tired with temples and stupas. Maybe we just need something new.

Mandalay in a day

As I was saying, we struck a bargain with a fellow Thai backpacker for a daytrip in a taxi, which we started our journey at 12 noon. What sort of taxi you get in Myanmar depends on your luck; at times it could be a new vehicle, and at times it could be a dilapidating one. Regardless of which you ended up in, they do not turn on the air-condition to save fuel, and you'll get charged extra if you requested for it. 

Our first destination for the day would be Mandalay Hill; actually we requested for Mandalay Palace but it seemed that the locals would never encouraged you to visit there. Firstly, the military junta coerced the locals to rebuild it as forced labourers after it was almost flattened during the world war; and only 20% of the original palace site can be visited as the junta converted the rest of palace into an army camp; and finally, you would be paying US$10 to the military junta for visiting it. Hence, we conceded that there was no point visiting the Mandalay Palace.

I was actually relieved that we took a cab to Mandalay Hill instead of walking since it was actually damn far! From the map it looked like it is within a walkable distance, but honestly, I would probably break my leg doing so. Our taxi swerved past the tall palace walls and its complementing moat, until we reached a small junction that seemed to be heading to nowhere.

"It's a shortcut." He sniggered. "No need to pay entrance fees"

The taxi climbed up a winding serpentine dirt path, and within 10 minutes, voila! We were already at the foot of Mandalay Hill's. Climbing up the stairs which lead us to the Myatsawnyinaung Ordination Hall, we crossed it's heavily ornated interior, and gazed at the wonderful view from the top of the hill. Too bad it was very hazy that day, thanks to the severe pollution in Mandalay and the fumes from the nearby forest fire. 

After a few snapshots here and there, we descended from Mandalay Hill back to our taxi, and headed for the other places of interests around Mandalay Hill. Our first stop was the Kyauktawgyi Paya, which is just opposite the Chinthe Entrance of Mandalay Hill. We had our lunch in a small restaurant opposite the temple too. A stone's throw away is another temple; the Kuthodaw Paya and Sandamuni Paya are reknowned to have the world's biggest book -  the Tripitaka, in thousands of text-inscribed marble slabs. Later we took a peek at the Shwenandaw Kyaung, a teak monastery temple, from outside the gates as an entrance fee is required. 

We made a transient stop at the gold-pounder's district but since none of us were interested in it, nor the stone carvers, we proceeded with Myanmar's second most holiest shrine, the Mahamuni Paya. Although it is not as grand nor as lavish as the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon, it is still swarmed by zounds of faithful pilgrims almost everyday. I actually wanted to visit here at 4 a.m. where the temple attendants would brush the teeth of the buddha, but then it was a bit too early for me. 

Then, we visited the Shwe In Bin Kyaung, which was another teak monastery, but it has no entrance fees. Although it looked a bit delapitated, the worn-off carvings still are fascinating. It would definitely be as equally impressive as the Shwenandaw Kyaung that we spied early in the day. 

It was already 4.30pm when we ended the city tour, and it was time for the finale - U Bein's Bridge in Amarapura. The taxi took us there in a 20 minutes drive through the dusty  roads of Mandalay, stacked with cars and buses and trucks, until we could behold the Taungthaman Lake. And in the middle of the lake, lies the beauty that awaited us. The U-Bein Bridge, the world's longest teak footbridge.

We had a snack at a restaurant beside the bridge, since we had plenty of time before the sun sets. So, we just chilled for half an hour and relaxed. When it was almost 5.15pm, we started our slow and easy stroll on the bridge, admiring the beauty. There are always numerous people crossing the bridge from dawn to dusk, whether they are commuters trying to get from one end of the lake to another, peddlars wandering aimlessly on the bridge peddling their goods, or lovebirds holding hands enjoying the company of each other, or just photography fanatics trying to catch a nice snapshot of the picturesque view. We took really lots of photos when the sun set in, and finally agreed to leave after it was late. This truly is one of the best places to visit in Myanmar!

Eventually we arrived in our hotel, exhausted but content as it was a very productive day. We managed to finish a one and a half day's itinerary in just half a day, and thus we could allocate a couple of days to visit somewhere else! And we had just a place in mind - Hsipaw!