Day 40: Bagan to Kalaw

-We woke up early for a six-hour drive to Kalaw, a mountain town in the Shan state. Our driver brought along his brother for the ride so he didn’t have to complete the whole journey (there and back) by himself. Driving that long in the US would be one thing, driving that long in Myanmar is something altogether. The cars here are as old as me, and those are usually the nice ones. On top of that only recently did they build toll roads, which are actually paved. Even then there are areas under construction so you have to go off-roading for a bit. Additionally honking is used as an indicator here, and a way to warn the traffic in front that we’re coming up. It also seems to be just a thing for the driver to sound for no apparent reason at all. We frequently swerve around to avoid the multitude of stray dogs casually sitting in the roads. Seat belts don’t seem to exist in any of the cars we have driven in, and the roads don’t have speed limits. Near the end of our drive we saw a truck completely flipped over and stuck in a ditch on the side of the road. That should give you an idea of driving in Myanmar.

-We did take a couple of breaks on our drive. First was at a palm oil and brown sugar plantation where we saw a guy climb up a tree to collect some palm juice. We were given some different types of palm juice to try, including the highly fermented kind, so we casually took some shots at 8am. They gave me a present of brown sugar and sesame seeds (eaten together here), which is code for ‘tip me.’

-Our second stop was just for lunch in a little restaurant. The driver(s) used a hose to cool off the tires resulting in billows of smoke, another example of the perfectly safe driving methods of Myanmar. Lunch was nothing special; I’m just ready for a meal that doesn’t consist of fried noodles and chicken.

-Once we arrived at our hotel we soon discovered that a) no one in our hotel spoke English and b) there is really nothing to do in Kalaw. Therefore we ended up relaxing yet again, this time in a very un-relaxing room as they were doing construction next door.

-For dinner we made the 30-minute walk into town and found a little restaurant. I ordered a cheese sandwich much to Marco’s dismay, but I wasn’t expecting the little green worm that came on it. On our way back we bought some more movies and then were caught in a downpour. I had to use my book light as a flashlight since parts of the streets were pitch-black. Always prepared. 

Day 39: Lazy in Bagan

-Day 10 in Myanmar was a day of complete laziness. Marco was completely templed out so we opted not to rent bikes and see more temples. Instead we finished watching Tera Nova, surprisingly addicting, and read our books by the pool. That pretty much summarizes our day.

Day 38: Around Bagan

-Mr. Oo had a whole agenda planned for us today. First we stopped at the Nyaung U local market. It was full of all types of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, rice, etc. There weren’t many tourists so you really got the sense of what the market is like day to day.

-We then went to a series of temples, which I’m just going to list here:

1. Shew Zigon Pagoda

2. Gu Byauk Gyi Temple- known for its 13^th century paintings, half of which were stolen by Germans

3. Amanda temple- with a Buddha statue whose facial expression changes depending on where you look at it from

4. Sulamani Temple

5. Nanpaya- different from the others because it had a Bramah statue instead of Buddha

6. Manuha- also known as the Mon King temple. I wasn’t completely following but he built huge Buddhas in tiny rooms to represent how imprisoned he felt in Bagan

Temples, in no particular order:

-The temples were all gorgeous and they are everywhere you look in Bagan. Previously there was an earthquake in the area that caused most of the pagoda tops to collapse. Many have been replaced and reconstructed and on many you can visibly tell the difference between old and new, which is a little jarring. I personally prefer the old crumbly temples.

-We also made a quick stop at a laquerware workshop that was really interesting. So much time is invested in some of the pieces there.

-The highlight of the day was definitely lunch. Mr. Oo is quite the avid chef as well as tour guide and English teacher. We went to one of the restaurants owned by his students (who he teaches free of charge) and he cooked us lunch. Once everything had been prepared we were able to go back into the kitchen and see how everything was done. My favourite was their cutting boards- slices of tree trunks. The meal was delicious and it was lots of fun trying to speak English with the shy waiting staff.

-After a brief break after lunch we went to Law Ka Ou Shaung, another temple, to watch the sunset. Mr. Oo knows the ins and outs of Bagan so took us to a small temple completely devoid of tourists. Two adorable little kids came over with keys to let us in. They were part of the family assigned to look after the place. Marco and I had the whole temple to ourselves and were able to climb all the way up to the top to look at the view. It was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately we had come a little too early for sunset and it was a little hazy so we decided not to wait the extra hour and to head back for the night.

Day 37: Monywa to Bagan

-In the morning we drove to Pho Win Hill, known for Pho Win Daung temple complex. The area has lots of little manmade caves with Buddha images inside. We were more impressed with the monkeys that suddenly appeared once a local lady called them.  Interestingly she was feeding them rice. As we were walking down these young kids were walking behind us. I moved aside to let them pass but I guess they were following us. Our guide later explained they were from the countryside and we were the first white people they had seen, apart from in films and television.

-The rest of the morning was full of even more driving. We saw some copper mines on the way and learnt that the company who bought the mines also took away some of the local farming land from the people. They did this without any compensation for the land and in a very hush hush manner. I tried to relax and listen to some music for the rest of the drive but our guide, Jewel, was extremely chatty.

-We stopped very fast in Pho Win Daung to look at a woodcarving that was very impressive. Apparently it took two whole years to complete the whole thing. Then we drove to Pakokku to grab some lunch in a local teahouse. We received a lot of stares since we were probably the only tourists in town. Eating with Jewel and our driver lessened them a little.

-In the afternoon we took a two-hour boat ride across the Ayeyarwaddy River to Bagan. It was a beautiful boat ride. We tried to talk to our new guide over the sound of the motors but it proved to be a challenge. Once safely on the other side we drove from Old Bagan to New Bagan. The government moved people from Old to New Bagan in 1990 to help preserve the area. There are over 4,000 temples and pagodas in Old Bagan and that number keeps growing. Interestingly Bagan used to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but once the military took control of the country in 1962 they removed all funding.

-Dinner proved to be another fiasco as we were bombarded by local school children once reaching the main road. They wanted to know where we were going, where we were from, how old we were, and most importantly, would we buy them school supplies, sweets, or their hand drawn postcards? They were so funny and endearing that we eventually bought one boy's postcards and they were absolutely awful drawings. Marco and I couldn’t stop laughing. On the way back Marco started running away from the kids and then said his name was Mingalaba, which means hello in Burmese. They loved it.