3/7/02 Wednesday 7:33 GMT +10
We're well on our way to Manila. The seats on the Continental flight were mixed up. One of the gate agents fixed it up, but there was still someone in one of the seats when we boarded. They managed to find him another seat.
Spent almost all day yesterday runnning around dealing with departure details. Typhoon Chataan seems to be headed for Guam at the moment, so we did most of the typhoon-proofing before we left, closing shutters, getting stuff off the floor, unplugging everything, etc. Hopefully it won't be bad if does hit. I caulked the window in the master bedroom shut, since it wasn't going to keep any water out otherwise. Bill will take stuff in from the lenai and front balcony if the storm comes.
It wasn't too bad getting onto the plane. Paul was pretty good. I took him for a walk up and down the length of the gate area of the terminal. It's a fairly nice little airport. The person at the ticket counter insisted on whispering, so I had to keep asking her to speak up. Some minor rudeness from some of the security people, not talking directly to people so they couldn't be heard either. Nothing that amounted to anything when you get right down to it.
9:58
Started working on the Burmese dictionary on the first flight. Built the outline structure with a bookmark for each head character. Now I'm working on alphabetizing the words. Then I'll do the definitions.
4/7/02 Thursday 6:13 GMT +6.5
Our first morning in Myanmar. We made the connection in Bangkok with no trouble. The age of everything starting to go back in time immediately. Older plane, no aircon on the ground. Then the airport here, which looks pretty cool,but is definitely one with the main train station in Singapore.
Tint Lwin was at the airport to meet us. He sent in some airport-type porters/employees to meet us behind customs. I thought the first guy (Cal Lwin ?) was him. I eventually figured it out. We got through customs and immigration without incident. Only had to change $400 for FEC's, since they looked at Andy and said don't bother. The fellow behind the counter wanted to change less for a "present", but I just bought the whole lot. He seemed disappointed.
Customs didn't say anything about my various electronics. Overall, both immigration and customs were unexpectedly efficient. They sent someone up the line collecting passports, so the wait wasn't particularly long.
The mini-bus is of the non-aircon variety, which isn't so bad when you're going as fast as they are.
Tinit Lwin is about what I expected. English a little rough, but very obliging, and he didn't laugh at my attempts at Burmese. He has three sons of his own, so hopefully he can manage to put up with Andy and Paul. He'll bring a contract to breakfast this morning and we'll settle any final details.
Mayshan guesthouse is a little doggier than I expected. Needs paint and a little maintenance. There is a tub, which makes showering easier. Some little things like water damage on the ceiling, etc. The aircon worked all night, though, and there was hot water as well.
The front desk gave me 800 kyat to the dollar for a small bill, said it would be higher for larger bills. We should really buy some Kyat on the way out this morning.
Tint will be here at 7:00 and we'll go to breakfast. We also need to do some shopping for some odds and ends to make it easier to live in guesthouses. Di did a little organizational work with the luggage, which will help when we move out.
5/7/02 Friday 8:26
We're on our way to Bago and Kyaiktiyo through Yangon traffic. Not a smooth ride and typing is a challenge.
Tint drove us around in his car yesterday while the minibus was being tuned up for the trip. We took a quick walk around the Shwedagon first thing before the rains set in. Didn't really want to this early, I'd have soon as avoided the admission fee, but Tint wanted to take us. We drove around Yangon afterward, which was interesting. It really is a lively city with lots of traffic and people going about their business.
Tint took us to a Bamar restaurant which was good. Plates of rice and several curries shared out, much as Okell describes it in his language course. Some salad and jackories [sic] for desert. Andy ate pretty well. He ordered fried catfish. The whole meal cost about 3300 kyat including the tip.
Tint changed some money ($200) for us at a place downtown. The rate was 877K to the dollar. He also changed some of the $540 I paid him for the first half of the tour for his own expenses. He gets the other $500 at the end. We stopped by Guestcare Hotel on our tour to see their rooms and conclude the paperwork for the trip. He's charging us for 26 days at $40 a day. He wrote a copy for us and one for him, with a proposed itinerary, which he emphasized was flexible. He hired the minibus from someone else, and it apparently comes with another driver who will help Tint along the way, but won't drive very much.
Spent a long time at the Bogyoke market. Bought some sandals for the bathrooms and some Dettol and a pan. Looked at some souvenier type stuff. $8 for a lacquerware betel box. The Dettol was a tiny bottle but still cost 700 kyat. Not everything is cheap here.
9:02
We stopped at a sort of convenience store on the way out of town, bought some black market petrol, snacks, etc. Tint bought a lot of water, Di picked up various things. Tint's helper driver showed up there as well. We don't have his name yet.
We went out on foot last night, walked around the Sule Paya, but everyone was too tired to do much. we went to bed before 7:00 pm. I woke up around 2:30 am and dozed until around 5:00. Paul started waking up around 3:00 am.
13:00
We did several stops in and before Bago. Htaukkyant war cemetary, Kyaikpun Paya, Shwethalyaung Buddha, Shemawdaw Paya. We had more Bamar food at a little roadside place. 1820 Kyat for 4 people.
I was able to extract Tint's helper's name, which is Ko Thet. He seems nice enough. His English is limited, which means most conversation with him has to take place in Burmese.
We're now on the road to Kyaiktiyo.
16:11
We got into the guesthouse around 3:30 in the afternoon. It's a lot like a Northern Minnesota lake resort cabin. You can see light through the floorboards, lots of plain wooden construction. Dinner at the guesthouse restaurant was 1300 Kyat without any soda.
The power is off at the moment. They say they'll turn the generator on at 6:00 PM, but off at 11:00 PM, so we know when we can get hot water. They claim they usually have power all night.
The drive here from Bago was an experience itself. The road is barely two to one-and-a-half lanes. It was raining heavily most of the trip, though it cleared up during the last third of the trip, which took about 2 1/2 hours. There are farms and small towns all the length of the road. A lot of the houses are traditional construction with what looked like woven bamboo walls and wood frames. You see mile after mile of flooded paddy fields. We saw quite a number of bullock-carts in use. Lots of water buffalo, oxen, cattle, pigs, etc.
6/7/02 Saturday 19:23
Well the power came on and off for a while last night, but eventually everything went and it was totally black with the rain coming down.
We got up and headed up to Kyaiktiyo around 8:15. Ori, a 26-year old from Isreal we met at the restaurant last night, and a couple of Finns each paid 1,000 K to ride along on the truck Tint hired for us, bringing our cost down to 4,000K. We had the same arrangement coming down, though that ride only cost 6,000K total.
The hike up was fun except for the porters and the sedan-chair people who kept running along, pestering us to let them carry stuff or the kids up the mountain. At one point they edged Di off the center of the path and she fell. I got fairly pissed at that point and yelled "Shweba!" ("Move!") at them. That seemed to scare them. They mostly went away after that.
It was rainy and foggy the whole way. We walked around at the top, and down below the rock. Tint hired two small boys to carry our sandals around at the top. They were much easier to take than the porters. I got a few pictures at the top, but we couldn't see much more than glimpses of the view, which must be spectacular. The camera was about out of battery since we hadn't thought to charge it last night, and there wasn't really power for very long at a time.
By the time we walked back down to the base camp I was pretty beat. Paul ran a lot of the way hauling Tint (who seems to like him) along, so we ended up going faster than I would have liked. My right knee is pretty sore now.
After we came back and cleaned up we went down and ate lunch at the Sar Sea restaurant (attached to the guesthouse). 1700 Kyat with a soda. More chinese food, which was quite good again. I didn't have much of an appetite, as it had cleared up (about the time we left the mountain) and gotten hot and humid again.
After lunch Di and I and the boys walked around the village shops and bought a couple of rain hats ("Wa-k'a-mauk" or Bamboo Leaf Hats) and umbrellas. Tint said that during the festival time they do a big business. Today it was pretty quiet. We bargained a little but not too much. Tried a little Burmese, but most of the shopkeepers would deal in English if I didn't catch it right off.
Di and I talked about the itinerary for the next few days with Tint. He's a remarkably obliging person. I think he's a little puzzled about what all to do with us, but he's figuring it out pretty fast. He's very good with the kids. You can tell he has boys of his own.
After we settled on some travel plans, I stayed around and talked to Tint about Burmese. He and some of the guesthouse staff got interested in the Palm and the Burmese font stuff I'm doing in Wordsmith. We sat and he gave me words for the hats we bought today and critiqued the meanings and spellings I had in my proto-dictionary It was one of the best times I've had here. Unfortunately, around six pm I started feeling pretty queasy and got a bad headache. I think it was some combination of histamine reaction and culture shock. I took some aspirin and antihistimines, and I'm feeling a lot better sitting in the cabin and typing. Paul's already asleep, and I'm going to have to be soon.
Di and Andy went to dinner at the restaurant for 1700 Kyat, with two sodas.
8/7/02 Monday 6:00
Yesterday was a very long ride from Kyaiktiyo to Taungoo. Roads were very rough in places, which was very tiring. After mid-day my neck started to hurt from all the shaking.
All the roads are very busy. Lots of big Chinese-made trucks hauling teak and covered loads, many more bicycles and sidecards, as well as a fair number of bullock carts and just livestock moving up and down the road. People spend a lot of time avoiding each other. They honk to say they're about to pass, that the person passing is clear, etc. It seems fairly friendly.
We stopped at a little road-side place for lunch and had Bamar-style food. It was very good. 1500 Kyat, one soda. The older woman running the show was very amused with my Burmese. Most people seem to be.
We were stopped for around an hour at a bridge that was down to one lane due to road construction. Apparently two cargo trucks had got past the police on either side and met head-to-head on the bridge, with no room to pass. At first they talked about sending everyone back on our side, then they started a series of maneuvers to get our side moved over to one edge of the road as far as possible, and to edge the traffic on the other side past. They had to build some road on either side to do it. It was pretty entertaining, though Paul started getting impatient with the delay. There were several police around directing traffic. It seeemed to require their intervention to get things done. When there was a hold-up on one end you'd see them charge past and then it would all start moving in a little while.
We didn't get into Taungoo until after 4:00 pm. The guesthouse was very nice. They asked $20 for each room (we wanted two), but took $30 for both after we bargained on it. It's called the Mother Guesthouse and it's practically new. It's a lot like an American motel room. Clean rooms and bathrooms, hot water, 24-hour backup generator, aircon, hotwater, nice reception area and restaurant.
We went out to see the Shwesandow Paya around 6:00. It was raining and kind of dark, so the pictures are kind of dark. The statues of the 7 kings of Taungoo were there. The paya itself is older than the Shwedagon and Shwemawdaw. Cruder in some ways, and white-washed on the lower part rather than gilded. No admission fee, though, at least at that hour.
We ate a Chinese family-style meal last night at the guesthouse's restaurant. 2200 Kyat, one soda. It was pretty good, but I wasn't feeling particularly well. The TV was very loud and I was kind of queasy from being tired and getting bit by bugs and breathing air with organic stuff in it. I feel a lot better this morning after a night in the aircon. We're going to go to breakfast at seven and then try to get on the road.
10/7/02 Wednesday 5:00
I haven't had time to write for a couple days as we've been on the road qute a bit. We left Taungoo for Kalaw pretty much on time.
We ate at the hotel restaurant for breakfast, which wasn't the best experience. They'd put the sugar and so on out on the table before we came and it was thick with flies. They brought some traditional Chinese breakfast foods, but it was hard to enjoy it for the flies. The staff came out and tried to fan them away. Andy and Paul seemed to enjoy some of the food.
The road was fairly bad in a lot of places and Tint didn't make nearly as good a time as he thought he could. It would have taken about ten hours except that we ran into another traffic stoppage.
I took a lot of video along the road, just footage to give the idea of driving through Myanmar with the bicycles and traffic flowing around on either side and the other cars and trucks kind of moving around each other. When we drove through Lewe we ran into the local school kids heading out for lunch. The footage is very good but hard to explain.
Driving down the road and seeing all the bicycles and bullock carts you see you much the country still runs on animal and human power. Along the way you see very little evidence of mechanized farming. Tractors were very rare in Bago Division, though I notice since coming up into Shan state they're becoming more common.
We stopped for lunch in Tatkon. ? Another Bamar place but too many flies again. It was cheap, I think 1700 K.
After lunch we started coming into the Shan hills. At first the mountains in the distance just look a little higher and closer, but by the time you turn off at Pyebaw? you can see how high they are. Once we turned off the road dropped to about a lane and a little bit, sometimes less. As we climbed higher it also got a lot windier. Tint had to honk a lot at the curves which pleased Paul. The drivers seem remarkably tolerant of each other, which is good since any kind of American style road rage would probably leave a lot of people dead.
We'd almost reached Kalaw around 6:15 when we ran into another traffic stoppage. A fuel tanker and a smaller truck had tried to get around each other at a hairpin turn. In the process the tanker had apparently sheared off the lug nuts on one tire. Repairs were already beginning when Tint came back down the lane to let us know what was going on.
I noticed that the people stuck on either side pretty much just sat down and waited. They'd walk up to see how it was going and then walk back down to their vehicle, visit with other people in the line, etc. After a while as it lookied like the repairs were nearing completion, Tint struck somekind of deal to get us by most of the truck traffic and into Kalaw,s o we moved up the line. A young boy, maybe ten years old came back to gawk at the "english lady". I told him in Burmese that we weren't English, that we were from America. It took him a minute, but he was very amused when he understood. He brough back his younger sibling Pyiq-pyiq ? to see us, and then some jack fruit. We tried some and then he gave us a bunch more. I gave him what was left of our chocalate cookies. His name was something like Tat Ko, though it was hard to catch. He lives in Kalaw.
Eventually we made it into Kalaw. I got Tint to stop at a place for dinner, which he'd suggested earlier, thinking he and Ko Thet needed something to eat. As it turned out he didn't have anything. Only Andy was really hungry. He and I ate a little rice and curry for about 600 Kyat. There wasn't much variety at that hour, just a couple of curries. I think it was a case of mutual anadeh.
The room was nice. We bargained them down to 20 dollars given the off-season. Four beds all in one room, nice pine floors, a view of the mountains, decent bathroom. We washed some more stuff out since we were running out of clothes and worked on drying out the stuff we'd washed out in Taungoo. The weather was very cool, so we were only partly successful. The plugs were the kind with the large post which wouldn't hold our charge plugs from Singapore. We had to use an adaptor, and then rubber band things together with the help of some velcro, but we were able to recharge all of the camera batteries in the course of the evening.
The next morning (Tuesday) we slept in until about six. Breakfast was a little more relaxing since they had a little glassed-in veranda to eat on without any flies, though these were better in the cooler air. When I checked out the woman working the desk (not either of the people I'd talked to the night before) tried to charge us $25. She talked to the manager, who said $20 was ok, so I assume it was just some miscommunication.
Before we left Kalaw, we visited a small cave pagoda, Pyinumin.
We drove about an hour and a half north to Pindaya caves. I'd thought from things I'd read that this would be kind of boring, but it was really pretty interesting to see how all the Buddhas were packed into the space. There was a glass elevator that takes you up to the level of the cave entrance. It beats the 200 steps if you're feeling tired. Paul didn't really want to go in at all, but went as far as the cave entrance and then hung around with Tint.
When we came out we had some tea samples at a little shop outside the paya. Very good. I bought some loose leaf, though I don't know if I can take it back through customs. It's as good as Tint claimed the tea would be up here.
We had lunch at a very nice Chinese place in Pindaya town. It was expensive, 2800 Kyat, but very good, with things that the kids liked.
It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to Nyaungshwe at the head of Inle lake from Pindaya. The drive was better though still kind of rough. We did make it in by 4:00 pm, which was a relief as we were still pretty tired from all the drivng.
We bargained the guesthouse down to 80 dollars for three nights from 35 dollars a night. They seem to have a full house and don't seem particularly desparate. I heard the manager say somthing about my offer being too little for a room with a TV and everything, but then there's not really that much on TV, only two channels, one Burmese, one Chinese.
For all that the room is quite nice. They brought in an extra mattress and put it in a little alcove. There's a tub and everything in the bathroom. It all seems quite new. The place in called Aung Min Galar I think.
We went to dinner at the restaurant around 6:00, but I don't think anyone was really hungry. We all had separate dishes, so it came to 2600 Kyat. The sweet and sour chicken ws good, though there was too much of it. Di brought a bunch of stuff back to the room.
After dinner Di and the boys went back to the room and slept. I sat around with Tint Lwin and various people from the restaurant and talked about the Burmese words in my Palm dictionary. It was a lot like at Kyaiktiyo, but dryer. Tint seems to know some people here, which makes it pleasnt to sit and drink plain tea and talk in and about Burmese.
Today we're going to Taunggyi, since we want to visit Indein on Inle lake, and their market day isn't until tomorrow. Tint suggested we go to a pagoda complexe on the other side of Taunggyi, but Di and the boys really need some down time. I'm going to suggest that we just go to Taunggyi and come back here to Nyaungshwe. I'll need a nap by then. Paul was up at 3:30/4:000 this morning. I'd woken up at 3:30 and hadn't gotten back to sleep.
13:28
We got back from Taunggyi about 11:30 this morning. We walked around the Taunggyi market for 45 minutes or so and bought various things, grapes (450K), bananas (300K), tapioca cake (1 piece 50K). Tint stayed with Paul in the car, so I was on my own. The street vendors seemed to understand my Burmese fairly well. The first vendor was happy to bargain on the grapes, though the last refused to discuss taking less than 50K for the piece of cake. She seemed pretty amused that Di offered her 30K.
We went into the ? pagoda. It looked more like the older pagodas at Bagan than the ones we've been in so far. It was designed to be entered, and has statues of the four Buddhas of our era inside. There was no entry fee, which was a real plus.
We also stopped and took pictures of an Indian-style stupa inside a monastary off the road.
When we got back to the guesthouse the restaurant was closed. Apparently there's not much demand for lunch. Andy and I walked into the downtown. We found Tint across from a place where we ate. More Bamar style food. 1050 Kyat with one soda. He suggested we go canoeing at 4:00. Di seems to be contemplating it.
11/7/02 Thursday 6:23
Di and Andy went off and did the canoe trip yesterday at 4:00, 700 Kyat. I spent a couple hours after lunch working on trip notes and the Myanmar word list/dictionary.
We were all out at the van talking to Tint about the canoe trip and deciding that Paul and I would stay here, rather than have Paul watch Andy and Di sail off. Paul followed the conversation pretty closely. When Andy and Di left the room and we stayed here he was just crushed. Laid down and looked sad. Tint must have picked up on it, because he came back to the room asking if everything was OK. He and Paul and I walked around Nyaungshwe for a little over an hour. Out to the outskirts and then up some back paths into town, through the downtown and the big monastery complex. Lots of kids yelling "Hello". Two of them came up and gave us some flowers they picked. There's not as much of a downtown as I expected. Just the normal Myanmar shops and a few places aimed at the tourists.
Part of the laundry came back 2280 Kyat for 56 pieces.
Took a shower and went down to the restaurant for dinner. The waiter taught me the word for sweet and sour pork ("Weq-cho-chin"). Di came down and we tried a Myanmar beer. I didn't think it was bad but she wants to try Mandaly. I can't see drinking too much here without getting a lot more rest. Yesterday afternoon helped a lot, but I still know I had a beer last night. We probably need to take a day off at least once a week.
After dinner Tint and did a little more Burmese, looking at the Literary style word list. I've forgotten some of it, and there's a few words and endings (but not many) I don't think he knows. In any case I was tired enough to cut it off about half way through the list and get some sleep.
16:30
Today was the Inle Lake day. It is pretty touristy, but not so much as to obscure the basic fascination of the place. We hired a motor boat for 6000 Kyat to take us various places. We went to Indein first, which we've seen a lot of recommendations for. It was market day, which was interesting. We watched people playing a sort of manual slot machine. Three dice-like objects are held up by a pole. Each die has animal characters on each face. People bet on one of the animals on a board on the floor. A string is attached to one end of the pole. A man slowly pulls the string until the first die drops, then the second, then the third. We couldn't figure out for sure when someone would actually win. When all three came up the same animal ? Or did they have to put money on each animal they thought would come up ? I should ask Tint.
The market otherwise was a Myanmar market. Lots of people buying and selling.
We also went to see the Paya in Indein. It's actually something like a thousand or more payas all ranged around a central paya that's still in use. A lot of the small ones surrounding are in ruins or partly so. Most are missing their image. Tint says they date back to around 1035 or so. The effect is very impressive.
There were a lot more souvenier sellers around than in other places we've been, which was a niusance. After we left Indein, the boat driver started to take us to a Sliver smith's shop where we were just mobbed by boats of people trying to sell us stuff. Andy was kind of shook up by this. We bypassed the place and the ironworks as well.
We did go to the Floating paya (100 Kyat camera fee), and the jumping cat monastary (I put in a 500 K donation, the cats were worth it). The boys enjoyed the cats and we got some good video. We also ran into Ori, the Isreali from Kyaiktiyo.
We had lunch at what I think was the boat-driver's house. Fairly simple Bamar-style food. They seemed friendly, thought the boys were cute, etc. I think they found us quiet.
The boys really seemed to enjoy the boatride. Paul wanted to drive more in the van at first, but perked up when we got in the boat. We left around 8:30 and got back a little after 3:00, which was the right length of time. He was just starting to get bored and think about throwing things overboard about the time we left.
After we got back Di and the boys went off to some hot spring near here. I'll be interested to hear how it turns out.
12/7/02 Friday 5:34
I woke up early, Di and the boys are still sleeping. They had a good time at the hot springs last night. $3 for all three of them. Apparently it wasn't the usual arrangement, but Tint and the people working at the hotel worked it out, which Di really appreciated. She said it was a lot like a hot tub swimming pool.
In any case they all slept well. They had some take-out fried chicken and rice from the restaurant which went over well. I went down and ordered it to be delivered, and then went down to eat at the restaurant about the time it arrived. Spent some time practicing Burmese at the restaurant. Tint had ordered some Bamar food for me which was very good. People there seem to understand my Burmese a little better than when I got here. They're certainly very good about helping me with it.
The meals tonight and last night, plus two beers (big bottles, 1 liter) came to 4200 K.
I spent a lot of time typing up trip notes and working on the dictionary. I have all the basic definitions into the main list and I'm working on the alphabetization. Still a lot to do, but it's giving me somewhere to make notes and be able to find them again.
13/7/02 7:25
Long (7 hours) drive from Nyaungshwe to Mandalay yesterday. We took a very narrow, winding road from Aungban back to the main highway just south of Kyaukswe. It was very pretty country to drive through, and for the most part there was next to no traffic, which probably made it just as fast as going the other way. Getting back on the main highway from Yangon to Mandalay was wonderful. The jolting meter went way down.
As we were coming down the really windy part of the road out of the mountains we stopped and picked up a stranded truck driver (or a member of a truck-driver crew). The broken part went into the trunk of the tourist's car in front of us. We dropped him off in Kyaukwe. Also on the road down, the lug nuts on the wheel that went flat in Taungoo loosened up. They just tightened them up and drove the van back and forth to snug the hub up to the wheel.
We stopped for lunch at another little roadside place where Tint has friends. 1600 Kyat for Andy and me, no soda. The tourist whose car took the part was there eating lunch (this was before that). He was wearing bright orange and looked incredibly freaked out.
We got into Mandalay around 3:00 PM, and looked at the Prince Airport hotel. Di thought it was too Holiday Inn-like. They wanted $40 a night for a nice suite. They had 23 hour power. We went on into town and checked into the Silver Swan. We got 2 rooms for $40 a night. It was good to get away from the kids.
The rooms are nice though older than the other place. Dry bathroom floors, tubs, TV with about 5 or 6 channels. A kind of a grand lobby, big central teak staircase, and a really nice dining room on the 8th floor. Teak ceilings and a great view of the city.
There's no restaurant in the hotel, so last night we went out to a Chinese place around the corner. There was no English-speaking waiter around, so I ended up having to try to explain we wanted to take the food away in Burmese. I told them I'd order the food, and they would put it in a box. The youngish waiter figured it out, and shortly produced the food in nice take-away boxes. We also picked up one Mandalay beer to split between Di and me. 2600 Kyat for rice for two, one sweet and sour chicken and one order of fried chicken balls, plus the beer.
Breakfast in the dining room was good. The waiters were as amused as all waiters here with my Burmese. Everytime I said something they'd run back and tell the others what they'd figured out I was saying. The young Indian who was mostly waiting on us is a physics student at the University. Paul really liked the view, and sat and ate without complaint. He'd screamed at the restaurant last night and refused to even sit inside and wait for the food.
14/7/02 6:23
We spent yesterday running around to the various ancient capitols, Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa.
We went to the Maha Muni Paya first which was very good. Lots of Bodawpaya's loot like the Khmer statues he took from Thailand, and of course the Maha Muni itself. Very good sets of captioned paintings explaining how it was moved from Rakhine to Mandalay.
We looked at the bridge in Amarapura, but not much else. The various vendors trying to sell us junk were pretty thick.
Sagaing was much nicer, much quieter. We took some photos of the big stupa, and then went to lunch (1400 Kyat) before going up Sagaing hill to see the 45 buddhas in a row and the U Ponya Shin pagoda. We walked down from the caves, which was hot but very peaceful. The views were very good. Di shot some video that Paul and Andy thought was entertaining to immediately view.
Inwa was a big hit, mostly because of the horse cart ride (2500K). Paul was beside himself. The teak monastary was interersting. They boys enjoyed climbing the watchtower from Bagyidaw's palace. It leans and the stairs are kind of shaky, but it didn't collapse while we were there. Lots of 10-12 year old girls around selling stuff. A bunch ran behind the cart pushing it along and hawking wares. I asked them if they were tired in Burmese, which they thought was funny. They kept talking about how cute the boys were. They gave up after a while, though there was a different bunch at the watchtower.
The masonry monastary was also good, though we were getting tired by then. There were also some gates which didn't look particularly old. Perhaps they're heavily restored like a lot of things here.
We drove back along the river front and the lake. Tint suggested a conoe ride, which we thought would be good later. We dropped Di and the boys at the hotel and went to see if we could get some Bamar take-out. It wasn't ready yet, so we went back to the hotel and I got a shower. We went back at 5:00 and they had a full spread. It was interesting to watch people coming with their lunch pails with the 4 or 5 little compartments and ordering stuff for therm. Tint is suggesting we pick up one so we don't have to take Paul into restaurants every time to eat. We'll probably pick up one at the Zegyo today.
We payed a lot of admission fees today :
We were going to go to the Mustache Brothers last night, but we were too tired. We sat down with Tint instead and talked about the itinerary. We decided to cut out the whole sidetrip from Pyin-U-Lwin to Lashio, and to spend at least one more day here in Mandalay. He's worried about us running out of things to see, which I can't see happening. I think he's used to people who just run from place to place the whole time. He does seem to be figuring us out, though. I think we got across that we just like to take our time and poke about.
Today we're going to Mingun in the morning to see the bell and the paya's and then to the Zegyo in the afternoon to shop. We'll see if we do anything in Mandalay after that.
15/7/02 Monday 7:16
Mingun was another good morning, and just about the right amount for us for a day trip. We hired a private boat so we wouldn't have to wait for the big boat to make its run. 6000 Kyat for the boat, as opposed to 2800 for four on the other. It probably saved us a couple of hours in the day.
The boys liked the boat ride. Family crew, father & mother, older son, youngish daughter. We road up on top of the cabin on the way there, but the sun was strong enough that we came back inside. It was slower than the big boats and the driver had to stop and clear the propeller once when we ran into weeds.
When we go there we elected to walk instead of ride a horse or ox cart. There were a lot of people selling tourist junk. They were only mildly agressive, but we were hot and tired enough that it was kind of annoying. Andy ran away and got off by himself, but Tint retrieved him.
Admission to all of Mingun was $6, $3 each for two adults.
We climbed the big stupa and took some pictures The steps were very rough, lots of rubble, which made it hard in bare feet. Andy scraped his foot and complained at length. he was pretty determined to get a crew in to start reconstruction. Paul made it up with Tint with no problem and happily sat on top looking at the view.
We went to the Mingun bell next which was impresssive. Tint use a wood clapper to ring it for the boys.
The final stop was Hsinbyume Paya, built on the Mt. Meru temple model. There were a few vendors selling incense and candles. Two little girls, Hti-Hti and I-I, followed us all the way to the top. They thought it was very funny when I told them I didn't need any incense or candles in Burmese. They turned tour guide at that point, and showed me that there were two Buddhas in the chamber, one behind the other, and that the one behind had had it's head removed at some point and then repaired. It turned into a fairly long conversation in Burmese. They spoke English fairly well, so they seemed to understand me better. I eventually bought some candles and incense from I-I. She asked for 200 Kyat but accepted 100. She showed me how to light the incense and candles and put them on the rack next to the altar.
I got a picture of Hti-Hti at the bottom of the stairs, but unfortunately I-I didn't come down.
When we got back to Mandalay we went to the hotel to rest and feed the boys some lunch.
After lunch we went to Zegyo, which was a really fun experience. A lot of vendors have some limited English, but you can do a lot better if you know a little Burmese. Aside from the improved communication, I think they find it so amusing to listen to a foreigner stumble around with Burmese that they take pity.
We hit a couple of places for Shan bags. The second had better prices. They were very interested in where I came from, particularly when they heard it was Guam. A vendor across the aisle had a son who'd gone through Guam to get into the US. In any case they were willing to bargain a little, coming down from their original price of 4800 Kyat to 4600 Kyat.
We spent a lot of time buying Longyi's for Di. We dropped off all the other stuff we'd bought (and Paul) with Tint and went back in. We bought two cotton longyi's at a fixed price place up on the 3rd floor. One was ready-made.
Then we went back to a place where Di had seen some silk she really liked that wasn't made-up. We'd been to another place where they'd quoted 2800 Kyat to make up a nice piece of batik into a longyi, with the labor being about 1400 Kyat. In the course of this I also learned the Burmese verb for sewing or making up clothers, "chouq". This was particularly helpful since they didn't really have any English at the shop where we bought the silk longyi. They were however just as amused with my Burmese as everyone else, and they were all in love Andy. I kept telling them he wasn't lovable and was very bad, didn't like to be touched, etc. ( some of this had to come out of my phrasebook vocabulary which one of the girls found interesting, "so many words").
In any case, we didn't get them to drop their price, but they did throw in making up the longyi. I think they'd have done the Eingyi as well, but Di wanted to do it to a pattern she has.
Everywhere we went, people couldn't leave Andy alone, which kind of freaked him out. They kept telling him "I love you" in English and Burmese. They thought it was really funny when he started getting mad and hitting and making faces at people who pinched his cheeck. One girl hid behind a shop wall and jumped out to scare him. We thought it was all very funny but I'm not sure Andy really appreciated it.
List of purchases :
Tint took us to a puppet factory after we finished up at Zegyo. We got to see making puppets, as well as tapestries. We ended up buying 4 puppets (we thought) for $30 :
Without the gold elephant, they had a nominal price of $43, he offered them for $35, we offered $30 which he took. Andy then realized we weren't buying the gold elephant and cried, so he said he'd throw in the gold elephant (which cost more than the white elephant), and a coin purse, for the same price. There was probably still a markup, but we did better since Andy cried. Later it turned out they simply substituted the gold elephant for the white elephant, so we really only got three puppets for the $30.
Di went and got take out Burmese food at the same place as the night before. 1020 Kyat for a lunch pail full, which we still didn't quite finish off.
Today we're seeing Mandalay fort in the morning, and the hill in the evening. We'll try to do the Mustache Brother afterwards. I may try to do some more shopping this afternoon.
16/7/02 Tuesday 6:17
Mandalay palace was kind of a mixed bag. Parts of it are well enough redone to look like the originals, but the back half seems to be awaiting futher attention. Still it was useful to walkaround and get a better sense of the layout than you can get from the maps and diagrams.
Some parts of the palace like the east entrance hall, the glass palace, the throne room, etc. are quite impressive, as is the view from the watchtower.
Getting into the fort was not as difficult as I imagined. We paid $10 for two adults to get in at the outer gate, and then just drove in. The soldiers on duty didn't search the van or anything. We had to pull over and I got out and walked up to the ticket window to pay and fill out the registration book.
After the palace we stopped by the National Museum and Library. They weren't officially open to the public, but they still took our $4 for two adults and let us walk around. The exhibits aren't bad and they had a few things like royal orders written on palm leaves that are pretty neat. The library was out of another era and it was hard to make sense of the collection. Lots of older stuff on American government and politics, spy novels like the Hunt for Red October, lots of Burmese works. It was a fairly small collection, though there was a lot of empty shelving around. There were a half-dozen or so people sitting around reading. Card catalog looked like it had been started in English and then continued in hand-written Burmese. There was no aircon and everything was much warped by the humidity. The card stock was much thicker than is standard in the US.
We got some more Bamar food for lunch, 1020 Kyat, and also got some fried chicken balls from another place for 450 Kyat. We took it back to the room and rested until about 3:00.
After lunch we shopped for a bit in the Zegyo. We bought :
We also stopped at the shop where Di had her longyi made up and took some pictures. The girls in the shop obligingly clowned around for us.
We fulfilled Di's dream by looking at the world's biggest book at the Kuthadaw Monastary. $5 each for two adults.
On the way to Mandaly Hill we stopped and looked at the Shwenandaw Monastary. The teak carving is very elaborate. $5 each for 2 adults. We could also have gotten into another less interesting monastary nearby for the price.
The view from Mandalay Hill was worth the $3 each for two adults. The paya isn't much, but you can see for miles and watch the sun set over the Ayerwaddy. It was also cooler than anywhere we'd been around here.
Dinner was Chinese take out, 1920 Kyat, from a place called the Golden Duck. They had something they called potato rolls that turned out to be potato chips on a stick. We stopped at a cold drinks shop while Tint waited for the food and got two Mandalay beers and a Lemon Sparkling (in a bag) for 960 Kyat. As it turned out we wished we'd avoided this place, as the next day I got seriously ill, and Tint and Di less so. We were fairly certain it was the sweet and sour from the Golden Duck.
We finished the day at the Mustache brothers. Paul really enjoyed a lot of the dancing. The humor was somewhat amusing. I suspect a Myanmar would find it more daring. The performance was 1000 Kyat each for the three of us (they let Paul in free).
Today we're going to Pyin-U-Lwin.
17/7/02 Wednesday 9:24
Well Pyin-U-Lwin has been interesting. We got up here in good time, and checked into the Dahlia Guest house. Kind of rustic, but they had hot water and 24-hour power. Wet floors in the bathrooms. We negotiated 2 double rooms for $25, down from $30.
We went to the botanical gardens (1000 K for each adult, 500K for Andy, 2500K total) around noon, and picked up some Bamar take-out from a Chinese Moslem/Bamar place for lunch. We walked around in the rain for a couple hours, and then I got sick, just a little diarreha at first, but then I went back to the guesthouse and slept a while, and woke up with a fever. Tint took Di and the boys out to a waterfall (900 Kyat for three people) to swim, and they did some of the other sights. When they got back I gave Tint a progress payment of $100, at which point I was feeling pretty good. He and Di went out to buy me some drugs, ar which point the fever and diarreha got really bad. The imodium helped, though I was throwing up by evening and couldn't keep the Tylenol down, so I had several hours of truly delusional fever dreams. I had to mentally line up pagodas in order to be able to sleep. Thankfully the fever broke after midnight and I got 5 hours or so of normal sleep without any pagodas that were out of alignment. I felt a lot better after I woke up, though I still have a little diarreha and I'm moving pretty slow. Tint and Di also bought me some electrolyte/salt supplemets to help with rehydration, which has really helped.
Tint seems very concerned. I keep assuring him I won 't die and it's not too bad. The fever was bad for while, but that seems to be under control. I really appreciate him finding Di and the boys fun things to do while I was sick. I'd have liked to have seen more of Pyin-U-Lwin, but at least they had a good time.
I had both of the blankets, so Di went down to find another at Reception. Tint thought she wanted "plain cake" and charged out into the night and bought some. Di thought he was going out to buy a blanket. Reception happily gave her one when we cleaed up the confusion.
I felt well enough after people got back from breakfast to attempt the trip to Mandalay to do some more shopping. With luck we can go on to Monywa.
18/7/02 Thursday 7:15
The drive went well enough. We got to Mandalay in about two hours, did some supply shopping - petrol, water, donuts, ice-cream. We tried the handicraft places Tint knows with no luck. I wasn't up to figuring out other places, so we went on to Monywa about 1:15. We got in here about 4:15.
We checked a couple of guest houses. The Monywa hotel was fairly nice, but they were asking $30 a night for a double, which Di was just not going to go for. We bargained a bit and got them down to $25 a night for a double, which was still too steep. We went on and looked at the Shwe Taung Tan Hotel & Restaurant, which has a so-so review in Lonely Planet. I think they were looking at the older building in front. They now have what looks like a newer building in the rear aimed at the foreign trade. They were asking $16 a night for a double, but gave us 2 doubles for 2 nights for $60. The rooms are quite nice. One of them has a tub in the bathroom, both bathrooms are very clean. The rooms are basic with no TV or fridge, but we're not that interested in either one, though a TV comes in handy to review photos with. The rooms are new, clean and have some nice amenities like a balcony. All in all a very good value in terms of what we're looking for. The only downside is that the hot-water doesn't seem to work, which isn't a big issue in this climate.
I fell asleep as soon as I laid down in a bed and basically slept for most of the next 12 hours. I feel a whole lot better this morning. The diarreha finally stopped last night. I think I have a little bit of a sinus infection, though it could be allergies. Andrew's nose is running this morning as well. If it's a sinus infection I wonder if I didn't pick up some flu somewhere. Hopefully no on else will come down with it if so.
Di and the boys went out last night and walked around with Tint Lwin and Ko Thet. They found an arcade built with Sony playstations. 140 Kyat for an hour's play. We'll give Andy some time there today. Di spent 1200 Kyat for some take-out at the Chinese restaurant here at the hotel.
Di seemed to like the town and the area we're in. Apparently there's a bunch of shopping just out the front door. Tint told her we take a boat to see the local sights. We were supposed to meet him this morning to talk itinerary, but he wasn't at breakfast. I hope he didn't come down with what I had. I know he had some stomach problems the night before last and was taking something for it. Di's gone off to look for him at this point.
Breakfast was good. Toast, eggs done very well, french fries and a fruit tray which I couldn't stand the sight of that early in the day, but I'm sure it was very good. Di liked it.
13:07
As it turned out Tint does seem to have a bit of a cold, which probably slowed him down a little this morning.
We hired a boat across the Chindwin (1000K each way) to reach Nyaungbingyi. We hired a jeep on the other side (Tint paid for this) and drove to the Hpo Win Daung caves. it's on of the oldest looking things we've seen here. Lots of caves in the side of a cleft hill, containing Buddha statues and shrines. There are some very nice paintings in some of the shrines. We walked around here for well over an hour. It was a nice climb and there was a cool breeze.
There was also the usual gang of kids selling stuff, plus some of their mothers. They crowded us a bit on the stairs, but all in all they were pretty tame. A couple of the kids, Aung Pyint and a girl whose name I can't remember talked to us in mixed Burmese and English. They tried very hard to convince me I was hot and needed a coke. I kept telling them the weather was just right. Their pitch had a certain amount of charm, but we resisted it anyway. Their mothers were very taken with Paul and walked him around holding his hand. Paul seemed to like them.
After the caves we went to see the Shwebataung Paya. It didn't really seem that impressive after the caves. A lot of shrines cut into the side of canyon-like rock walls. I'd have skipped it, but I was also getting tired.
After we came back across the river we decided to take a long rest till 3:00. Tint got someone to bring us up a menu, and we sent our Tamin Chaik (Funky-Burmese-Lunch-Box) down to be filled with various things and delivered by the hotel restaurant. 1980K with two soft drinks.
18:22
Di and Paul stayed in this afternoon, and Andy and I went to see the Thanboddhy Paya (200K for one adult) and a very large reclining Buddha which the government built in the mid-nineties.
We had a good time at the Thanboddhay Paya. It's fairly new, built in 1939, but they did a good job with the Mt. Meryu plan and the theme of encrusting every surface with Buddha images.
There were a couple of young boys who followed us around, one of whom spoke very good English, carried a pad of paper and was clearly the front man. When we got around to the fish ponds in back he made sure we saw them and sold us some fish food for 10K. Andy sat and fed fish. Various other people came over when they heard me speaking Burmese to ask where I was from, where I was staying, etc. Tint showed up a little later and helped fish out a turutle for Andy to watch and return to the pond. We fed some more fish at another pond down the path before we left.
The reclining Buddha is impressive in terms of size. You can see it for miles, as it's sited on top of a high hill. Not terribly interesting otherwise.
We came back to the hotel and got ready to go see the sunset at the river. Just as we were about to leave I had another little bout of dirraeha and I decided to stay in. Painful but brief. I think it's still getting better. I just can't do too much at a time.
9:45
Judging by the pictures, it was a lovely sunset. Di and Tint came back to the room and we worked out that Tint and I would take Andy to the playstation arcade.
The arcade was a lot of fun. There was a youngish pongyi there playing at the machine next to Andrew. One of the picutres turned out well.
After a while Tint and I started talking to the proprieter, U Thaung Tint. He was very happy that I knew some Burmese and complemented me on it. We talked some about what I did and what Burmese books my library owned. He made me a gift of an older Burmese Grammar which should be interesting to decipher. I got his name and address and took some pictures of his shop. He apparently used to be a teacher, but opened the arcade because it paid more. He said he'd really enjoyed teaching
20/7/02 Saturday 19:14
I'm two days behind at this point. Apparently I wasn't getting better. Yesterday's trip from Monywa to Bagan was fairly stressful. It started with me being sick again, though we did manage to buy some more Imodium on the way out of town, plus some antacids (1800K for the Imodium, 500K for AirX).
Because there's neither a bridge nor a car ferry at Monywa, the initial part of the trip was down one of the worst paved roads we've been on, following the west bank of the Chindwin River. There were large, partly gravel-filled holes in many parts of it, and such pavement as there was was incredibly not flat. The road beds are made by placing medium size broken rocks on a surface that's been rolled sort of flat. Then they seem to add finer gravel, roll it and then pave over it. In this area they seemed to have let the road be for a long time. We saw some rock road beds with fairly large weeds growing in them. Tint drove very slowly, but the van still swayed and jerked like a covered wagon crossing the prairie.
Eventually we came to a huge, absolutely modern bridge. It was located for the railroad rather than the road, and they haven't built a good connecting road yet. In any case we got across and onto a somewhat less bad road, which eventually led us to a real road on which we made good time, all the way down to Pakokku, where we caught the car ferry (zeq) across the Ayewaddy.
This was an experience itself. The noon ferry was a little 4-car vehicle. There were only two vans waiting (us and another tour group), so they claimed they couldn't run the ferry. They asked for 50,000K to make the run. Tint Lwin seemed to be thinking about waiting for the 2:00, larger ferry, but I could see this running into the same problem. In any case, Tint and Ko Thet started talking to the other van driver, and worked out a deal with the ferry (which was a government operator), where we paid 10000K and the other van paid 5000K for the run. They also sold places to various bicycles and pedestrians. All in all I thought it was a good deal, but it seemed to upset Di a bit. I can understand why, given that they only charge 1000K per car, they were probably just trying to make some extra money. It's a government operation, and clearly always runs at a loss. I'll make sure Tint does okay out of it, he shouldn't have to eat the extra $11.
In any case, after some incompetent ferry maneuvering, we were on our way across the Ayewaddy. Di and I had the first of several intense discussions about the realities of travelling in Myanmar.
I chatted some with the other van driver on the way across. He lives in Monywa and is a graduate of Mandalay University, with a degree in Botany. Driving the van probably pays better. He offered the usual complements on my Burmese,and accepted mine on his English, which really was quite good.
There was also confusion over lunch. I thought Tint was telling me we should stop in Nyaung-U for lunch because it was right across the river at the ferry landing, and it would take 45 minutes to get to Bagan New Town. As it turned out it took 45 minutes on some good gravel roads to get to Nyaung-U, and New Bagan was only a little bit further. After this initial confusion, we stopped at a little bakery shop, the Thante Hotel, that had donuts and stuff. Di thinks Tint only wanted to stop for some donuts and cake for the boys, but I thought it was a lunch stop. By this point I was feeling pretty bad again, so she's probably right. In any case they produced a charred hamburger for Andy that he couldn't eat, and some so-so sweet and sour chicken for me. Paul enjoyed his donut. 1700K with a soft drink. We should have eaten elsewhere and just had the donuts there.
We got into New Bagan and checked into the Central Guesthouse, $12 per night per double on Tint's arrangment, so we didn't dicker. Aircon, 24-hour power, hot and cold water, and very nice new clean rooms. They had what seemed like an unexpected power cut and took a little while to get the generator running due to some malfunction. Our room had no windows that open, so this was a serious problem (I wondered why they were working so hard at it). They got it fixed in about an hour though.
The staff is very friendly, and obviously on good terms with Tint. The owner, Daw Cho, is here right now directing various work. She seems like a very proper Burmese matriarch. Glasses, slim, upright, sits having tea and talking to the employees' children. It makes for a good atmosphere.
I was getting worried about the fact that I wasn't getting any better by this point and Di suggested Andy and I go get some western, more familiar food. I went in and took him back to the Thante Bakery & coffee shop where we'd had lunch. he enjoyed the cake, and got some chicken sandwiches. He ate two in spite of them having egg on them, but choked on the third. I can't really recommend the place for anything but confections. I spent a lot of time trying to get the sandwiches right, and no mention was made that they had egg on them. The butter cake I took away was good though (1160K for the cakes and the sandwiches).
I had Tint stop at an Italian place on the main street where I had a pizza that wasn't bad for 1750K with a softdrink. I got Tint to try a little piece as he'd never had it before. He obviously didn't like it and admitted as much. I can understand why, it doesn't really go with Bamar cuisine.
I also bought some biscuits and bread, potato chips, etc at a couple of stores that sold packaged food. I forget what I paid.
We drove through Bagan in each direction and it was remarkable to see it all of the first time. The sunset was beautiful.
Di and I had a longish discussion with Tint after we got back about the Bagain itinerary and not trying to do to much. We got a very good basic plan in place.
Unfortunately familiar food did not help my stomach at all. I had episodes at bedtime and through the night and following morning when I got up. We were scheduled to go out at 8:30, but I went a couple of doors down and saw a doctor instead.
She was a woman in her late 30's-early 40's. She was the first person we talked to, so I wasn't sure at first she was the doctor (when was the last time the first person you talked to in a clinic was the doctor?). Her exam room was right off the street. She sat and listened to my account of the illness, looked at the drugs I was taking, asked me some questions, and then had me lie on her exam table (woven bamboo) and did a brief exam. They she gave me some antibiotics, an analgesic and something different for the diarreha. It seems to be working. $40 to be rid of this particular pest. Worth every penny.
After this, about 9:30, we went out and saw the view of Bagan from the X pahto, and then saw the Ananda Temple. Both were very interesting. The souvenier sellers were not nearly as bad as the postings seem to indicate.
Lunch for me was the Bamar place in Bagan Myo Thit with Tint and Ko Thet. Buffe style spread on your own table, 800 Kyat a piece. I managed to eat most of a plate of rice with some pork curry and some greens, all for 800K.
Before and after lunch Di and I had yet another intense dicussion of dealing with Burma. Things seem to be settled now.
After lunch we went to the Shwezigon Paya. It was interesting to see the prototype of so many other paya's. I especially enjoyed see the Shrine to the 37 nats, even with the non-original statues.
We also saw the paya in the afternoon. Very interesting painting remains. I was getting tired again, and was shorter with the vendors than I should have been.
We had dinner at the Bagan Restaurant in Nyang-U. They got Di's spagghetti order right (sauce and the cheese on the side), and the food was uniformly delicious. It was kind of slow, with my omelette and Paul's chicken and fries coming after Di and Andy finished eating. It was pretty early, so they may not have had as much help on as they would later. We took the chicken and fries to go. The fries were the best American-style fries we've had here. Worth waiting for. 2800K with two soft drinks.
21/7/02 Sunday 15:51
We spent the morning touring various pagodas. - We did the sunrise pagoda "Mingalaba Paya" at 6:00 AM and took some pictures of the view. After 8:00 we did the Pitaka Taik, the Shwegugyi, the Nathlaung Kyaung, the Bupaya, the Myinkaba Paya,
At the first paya, one fellow who was working there showed us the paintings inside with a flood light. Another fellow showed up, wanting to show us paintings to sell us. Sadly he spent the tour feeling up Di's rear end, so when I asked if she wanted to look, she definitely didn't. These guys really need better marketing consultants.
For lunch, Tint cooked us a traditional Bamar meal, which we ate out in the hotel courtyard. It was very good, and the amount of food more in line with what we can actually eat.
After lunch we went shopping. We hit the two big lacquer shops mentioned in lonely planet, U Bya Nein and Htun/Moe Moe. U Bya had the cheapest asking prices but the poorest quality. Moe Moe was about twice as much and the quality a little better. We bargained some on some gold leaf pieces for Andrew but only got them down from $46 to $36.80, and we had to actually start to leave to get that. We went on to a 3rd workshop, the Golden Cuckoo, owned by Ko Tin Htun and Ma Aye Aye Aye. They're a 4th generation workshop. Their quality was excellent. We spent $160 for two betel boxes (one high one medium quality), 14 little boxes, and three animal shaped boxes for the kids.
We also went to a handicraft place and bought Carol's mask (a bilu) and 4 teashirts, all for 10,000K. Their original asking price was $8 plus 4400K.
Di went out some more while I stayed at the hotel with the boys. She bought 3 paintings for $37 at one of the temples. The artist had asked for $42.
Tonight Di and the boys are going to watch the sunset from the sunset pagoda, and we're all going to a puppet show dinner theater later.
23/7/02 Tuesday 9:11
The puppet show was a bit of a bust. We got there about five minutes before it was supposed to start and it was already well in progress. We had to order a little dinner over the music. The food, the dancing and the puppets were fairly good, but way overpriced at 4300K. We only ordered a couple of things and two Lemon Sparklings.
As near as we can tell, because it rained a little in the afternoon, they moved the show inside, and started a half hour earlier. I still haven't had a chance to talk to Tint about it. We saw a waiter give Tint 1000K afterward. I don't know if it was a fee or refund on what he paid for good seats for the performance..
The next day, Monday, we went to Mt. Popa. Two hour drive each way, 25 minute climb up the stairs, aggressive monkeys that some eurotrash were feeding on the way down and creating an annoying situation. The mountain's very pretty, but the two major nat shrines aren't much to look at. We stopped and talked a little bit to the old man at the shrine to the family. No fee to see the mountain.
We got back early and rested a bit. The boys and I went out with Tint and Ko Thet to see a few more payas. Gold one by the river, biggest in bagan, one more.
Afterwards we picked up Di and went to the restaurant in Nyaung-U again. Just as good as the last time and the food all arrived at the same time.
After dinner Di and I borrowed the TV in the lobby and spent some time weeding pictures off the cards. We have free space for about 80 pictures this morning. Still a lot to go through.
This morning we're on the road to Pye. We've had one stop for mechanical problems with the van. We've gotten about as far as Yenanyaung.
25/7/02 Thursday 8:35
The trip to Pye was fairly grueling. The morning stop was for electrical and transmission problems. The electrical problem (the battery wasn't charging) went on all day. About 10 miles short of Pye, the fuel filter clogged and they had to stop and clean it out. Then a few hundred feet down the road we had a flat tire and they stopped and changed that. Once we got to the hotel around 4:30, both Tint and Ko Thet went off to get work done on the van. It seems to be running better now.
The hotel is fairly nice. There are two rooms in each bungalow. Most of the rooms are rather plain, and the first one we looked at was kind of musty. We also looked at their deluxe roms which had big baths with tubs. We bargained with the female half of the couple that owns the place on these two rooms, and got two double rooms for two nights for $80. More than Di wanted to pay, but we all had colds and I wanted somewhere better to be sick.
The next day in Pye was kind of a fiasco. Tint had come to breakfast and talked over where we were going. I was wanting to see Sri Ksetra. He showed us the hotel brochure and explained we had to drive and hour and a half and take a boat. I assumed the route mentioned in the guidebooks was inaccessible. I did tell him more than once what I wanted to see.
After breakfast I sat and talked with the male half of the owners, mostly in Burmese, while we were waiting for the hot water for the day's tea. His name was U Tin U. He gave me some of his tea leaf for the thremos (it was pretty good) and told me some about the sights in the area. He'd had a paleontologist staying sometime before who showed him a fossilized sea creature of some kind, I couldn't make out which. Like everyone I've talked to, he was delighted I was learning Burmese. I still had trouble getting him to talk slow enough for me to understand much of his Burmese.
So we set out and drove the 1 1/2 hours, took a boat and then climbed a cliff up to a paya. I asked Tint again if this was Sri Ksetra, at which point he admitted he didn't know what I was talking about. It was a place called Akyauktaun. There are some Buddhas in little caves along the river. It's all very new and not at all interesting. I was fairly pissed at this point and told him this wasn't what I wanted to see. I probably was showing too much temper, as he was very taken aback. All four of us had colds, and had just climbed a cliff and taken a long trip for no reason.
As it turned out, he doesn't know the name Sri Ksetra. He knows the Pali Theikhitaya which is what's on all the local literature.
We went back to the hotel and cleaned up some and then went out at 3:00 and we saw the Payagyi and the Payama, as well as the museum in Hmawza. We started to go see the other ruins but it was raining and the road was too rough. It would have been five kilometers over rough dirt road, and we might not have made it. If we'd gone to the right place in the morning we could have managed it, even if we'd gone by bullock cart. All in all it was a disappointing day. We should have pinned him down on exactly where we going and showed him in the guidebook. By afternoon we were too tired to really do the stuff we needed to do to get there.
We stopped at a place in town to get a light supper for Di and the boys. We tried a Dagon beer, which wasn't too bad. 2870 for the lot. There was a crazy old lady running the place who came over and talked to us in Burmese and complimented our children. She asked where we'd come from, etc.
This morning we're heading back to Yangon. People are getting over colds and seem to have an appetite. We're probably about ready to start our vacation.
10:19
The guys have changed the fuel ilter on the car, which has added 20k per hour to our speed. I was beginning to wonder about 5 hours to Yangon at our previous speed.
We stopped at a toll booth to use their outhouse, admire their pigs, and of course pay the toll and do auto repairs.
19:40
We eventually made it to Yangon in late afternoon, but not before the van had one final problem. The battery didn't have enough charge to make the wipers work in the heavy rain, so we stopped and bought a new battery about 20 minutes short of the hotel. Then we went to the airport and parked under the passenger drop-off overhang to change it. I guess this made sense, it's where Tint and Ko Thet work. They knew everyone.
The hotel asked 35 a night for a family room and 45 a night for adjoining doubles. We bargained them to 30 a night for the family room for 5 nights. The room's not bad. It has a view of the Shwedagon.
After we rested and sorted out our luggage, we went down and talked to Tint about Yangon plans and dinner. For dinner he and I walked to an Italian place and ordered spaggetthi and pizza. While they cooked it we went back to the hotel, picked up the van and drove a few blocks and bought a couple of beers. Then we walked back toward the hotel, buying some Ritz crackers and Sparkling on the way. We went back toward the Italian place and past it, bought some plain cake and fried biscuits at a bakery, and then went back to the Italian place and picked up our food. Then back to the hotel. I asked Tint to have the hotel send up some plates and silverware, but they never showed.
We watched some Asian tv, but we'll probably turn in around 8:00. Book and VCD shopping tomorrow.
26/7/02 Friday 7:35
Tint is coming at 9:00 this morning. Breakfast was ok, through slow. I can't see it being worth the $5 the owner was talking about. They served an Indian tea made to be sweetened. It was good tea, but I asked for plain tea.
27/7/02 Saturday 7:35
We had a good day shopping yesterday. Tint came just after 9:00 and we went to the Bagan Bookshop. The have quite a bit of stuff, much of it photo-copied, that I don't want to take through customs. I bought The Burman, his life and notions, and An outline of Burmese Literature, as well as two cookbooks for Di for $10.
Next we hit the sidewalk shops. I paid 500 Kyat for some 1950's movie magazines, 1200K for two volumes of U Ponya's collected plays. It's definitely worth going back there later.
At Innwa bookshop I found a CD-ROM Myanmar-English Dictionary for 1500K. No idea if it's any good, but at the price it's worth a shot.
We tried various places for Burmese movie VCD's with no luck.
We stopped at a restaurant called Burger Treats for lunch. We paid 3330K for thre burgers, fries, 3 cokes. They did the burgers well, though it was hard to special order.
After lunch we stopped at the IFL, or the Foreign Language University as it's now called, to pick up course materials. The people I needed to talk to were at a meeting. We stopped back after going to a video store and I talked to the head of the Myanmar language program. They're pretty oriented to students coming for a fall/spring academic year, but their programs are very interesting.
The video store was entertaining. After much discussion, they undertook to buy me 12 Burmese movies on VCD for 66000 Kyat ($77.80), all pretty recent. I tried to negotiate on some VHS, but it was too much of a stretch. It was obviously a family operation and friends of Tint's. I tried to give them some kind of commission for their trouble, but they wanted to do it as a present.
As we were leaving, two soldiers and an officer came in. Di said they watched her from outside for a long time. I don't know if they were just checking her out before they came in to rent videos, or were curious about what we're doing. I hope Tin't friends didn't get into any problems by selling us videos or taking our US Dollars.
Finally, we went to the Nandawun book store. Obviously a very connected operation. Their website doesn't really do it justice. They have a lot of books, prices are high by local market standards, but they give a lot of value added. I talked with Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung, who's the son of Dr. Thaw Kaung, who's on the CONSAL board. He's retired from the historical library here in Yangon. I bought a half-dozen 20th century novels for $46. Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung was very helpful in picking them out of his warehouse, and also undertook to find me Pe Maung's history of Burmese literature, and a book on Burmese film.
We had a little time before the restaurants were ready for dinner, so we went to Bogyoke park. We were walking around taking pictures when a guy came up on a bicycle and demanded 200K for a camera fee. I still don't know if he was legit, but it annoyed Di that it wasn't posted at the entrance.
We picked up dinner at a couple of place. Some rice and pork curry from a well-known Bamar restaurant for 600K, and some fried fish chips and fried potatoes for 2990K from a fancier Chinese place.
Today we're going to the zoo and the National Museum. We'll probably do some shopping as well.
19:50
The regular manager was here this morning. They seem to have two. An older fellow who was very amused when I ordered breakfast in Burmese, and a younger guy. They both have very good English.
The zoo was good ($15 for three of us), but it got very hot quite early. It's an old-fashioned zoo, but things are well laid out and the animals are pretty lively given the climate. Paul really enjoyed the snakes. Tint has clearly done the zoo before, and knew to buy food for the hippos and lure them out of their pond. One walked right up to the barrier and opened its mouth, demanding to be fed.
Unfortunately I was pretty tired and didn't take any pictures. I did manage to walk through the whole thing, though.
After the zoo we went looking for WinMyanmar Systems, which sells Myanmar custom fonts and keyboard drivers We went to the right building in Theingyize. No sign of them, though Tint kept inquiring and finally got a phone number from Myanmar Computer Systems school, from which he got an address down by the Sule paya. We did pick up some more longyi's (2 for 1500K) and some conditioner (1500K) while we were there.
We went down to the address by the Sule, and found Zaw Htut's partner, who didn't know much about the fonts, but did get Zaw Htut on the phone. Zaw Htut (Steven) will come by the hotel at 9:00 am tomorrow morning to meet me. He's out of stock on his font package, but expects to have the new one in three months.
We went back to Burger Snacks for lunch, and they were just as good the second time. 2910K for three burgers, fries and two cokes.
We came back to the hotel and I slept as well as I could with the kids in the room. At 5:00 Di and the boys went to Inya lake to walk around. They seemed to have had a good time. Di brought back some food to eat here. Tint came up and collected the last of his money so he could pay off the van. He also explained that the longyi's we bought were a little small, and it wasn't surprising they didn't fit me.
29/7/02 Monday 8:17
I met Steve yesterday. A typical nerd. He's done some interesting things like a sorting engine for Myanmar, a spell checker, etc., but can't really market them without legal copy protection.
We went to Bogyoke Ze afterwards and bought some carvings (2 animals 2 Buddhas) for 13,000K. We also bought 2 longyi's for me for 7100K.
I also did another round of the bookstores and got the History of Burmese Literature and the book about Myanmar movies from MBC for $16. I bought 4 titles, two by Htin Aung, 1 by U Nu and 1 other for $30 from Bagan Bookshop. The proprietor threw in the map of Yangon for free. Also bought Luce's translation of The Glass Palace Chronicles for 900K, and a pocket dictionary for 350K.
Did another J-dounuts run and got dinner on the same trip with Andy.
After dinner Andy and I went to the Shwedagon and bought the paper machie owls he wanted for 300K, and the little brass containers for the betel boxes for 600K. The guy at the brass shop seemed to like Andy and threw in a little brass stand for free. I hadn't haggled on the price, so he probably had some room, but he did seem amused with Andy.
Today we're doing the National Museum and a glass factory, then going on to buy a Burmese keyboard and pick up my VCD's this evening.
30/7/02 Tuesday 7:00
Lots of running around yesterday. The National Museum didn't open until 10:00 am, so we went to the computer place and negotiated on getting a keyboard and fonts, which we stopped back and picked up later. 5500K, and they even burned me a CD for the fonts and installer.
We went out to the VCD place to check on the Burmese movies, and found I had to pay an extra 2000K per title to get exportable copies. So I have them some more dollars. Supposedly Tint was able to pick them up last night around 9:00 PM and he'll have them this morning. We'll see.
After that we went to a glass factory and watched them blow glass. Free tour, mild expectation we might buy someting, really poor safety standards. It was fun.
Around 11 we got to the National Museum. Very airy and spacious, and they have some remarkable things. No photographs, unfortunately. We spent about 2 1/2 hours. I thought it was worth the $15 for three adults.
That was pretty much our day. Andy and I went out after lunch and bought some flags (Myanmar and Buddhist). Then we packed and got some more food for dinner.
I gave Tint a $50 bonus for doing a good job. I hope it was enough. I'd thought about $100 earlier.
Tint is supposed to be here in about an hour. He swears an hour and a half is enough time at the airport here.
3/8/02 Saturday 17:00 GMT +10:00
The return trip went well. Tint showed up with the 12 VCD's, and a refund of 15,000K of the extra 24,000K I'd payed for exportable copies. All the copies had the stamps from the Censor Board. The hour and a half was more than enough time in the airport at Yangon.
We got into Bangkok and spent a couple of hours looking around, eating some lunch at the Thai Airways transit restaurant, and buying a book to read on the plane.
Getting out of Manila was real work. We weren't really sure the Continental crew had ever actualy boarded a plane before.
Bamboo Leaf hats 300K $ 0.35
4 woven bags 4600K $ 5.41
Silk longyi/material
(4 yards silk total) 7800K $ 9.18
Lunch Pail 6700K $ 7.88
3 puppets $30.00
Thermos 1680K $ 1.98
Longyi 850K $ 1.00
Bagan Lacquer $160.00
2 betel boxes
14 little boxes
3 animal boxes
Mask (bilu) &
4 t-shirts 10,000K $11.77
3 paintings $37.00
4 books (Bagan Bkshp) $10.00
50's magazines S 500K $ .59
4 Books (S) 1200K $ 1.41
CD-ROM Dictionary 1500K $ 1.76
12 Burmese VCD 66000K $77.80
$29.00
6 Books (MBC) $46.00
Subtotal $431.13
2 cotton longyi (f) 2000K $ 2.35
2 cotton longyi (m) 1500K $ 1.76
2 cotton longyi (m) 7100K $ 8.35
4 carvings 13,000K $15.29
2 books S 1250K $ 1.47
4 books BB $30.00
2 books MBC $16.00
2 PM Owls 300K $ .35
4 brass containers 600K $ .70
2 flags 1200K $ 1.41
Subtotal $77.68
Total $508.81
Keyboard 5500K $ 6.47