Burmese Daze

Nov 28 Bali, Indonesia

Wow, our travels through Burma are now behind us and I'm feeling both relieved but wistful. We're now in a rather luxurious Balinese villa resort with my parents, siblings and their spouses. We have a fleet of villa staff ready to bring us a g&t on demand and our beds get made for us every day. We have a beautiful pool and yard to ourselves and it is absolutely wonderful. It is hot and sweaty only until we slip into the pool or ocean or our air conditioned bedrooms. Did I mention it is absolutely wonderful?

Our one week of luxury living here in Bali stands in sharp contrast to our two week travel experience of Burma....a country which I admit, until recently I could not locate on a map. It was a challenging but adventurous 15 days that was eye-opening, sometimes in horrific shock, sometimes awestruck from breath taking sights.

Crash course on Burma (after reading this you'll know more about it than we did on arrival):

Burma, aka Myanmar, was a British colony until WWII. An English influence still persists and English is taught in the schools. There are several ethnic groups accross the land with Bama being the majority as well as Chinese and Indian migrant groups. In 1948, democratically elected General Aung San was about to take office before he was assassinated by a militant group which continued to rule as a brutal military dictatorship to this day. The general's daughter and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi is now poised to be Myanmar's next leader. Because of economic sanctions by the US and many other countries there are far fewer western conveniences: no ATMS or credit cards accepted (we had to bring adequate American cash-- crisp bills no less-- to last the entire trip), no 7-11s, McDonalds, and crappy wifi. In recent years the government has eased up and things are improved enough to warrant a US presidential visit.

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/myanmar/

Since the release of Ang San Suu Kyi from house arrest for hopefully the last time in November of 2010, there has been a dramatic increase in tourism with a demand for hotel beds that exceeds the supply. Hence our decision to stray from the backpacker path and travel via set itinerary. The whoIe trip was arranged and paid for via emails between Greg and a local travel agent recommended on trip advisor (our new web best friend). I recall thinking to myself, "this will be a snap" and rather naively looking forward to experiencing this nation untouched by McDonald's et al.

In truth, the trip wasn't a snap. The cities were hot, dusty and truthfully, unmemorable. Far fewer people spoke English than in Thailand. Our family couldn't seem to shake a fevering illness that passed from one the next. We had bed bugs one night but thankfully managed to leave them behind.  Things were altogether more raw.

We lived through an earthquake.

There were two beautiful places though: Bagan, land of 4000 temples; and Inle Lake, an expansive shallow lake bordered by mountains and rice paddies and lakeside villages on stilts. I hope to return to these places someday as they were truly magical.

Some memories:

We learned to dodge the betelnut spit from the chewers with red stained teeth toothy grins.

The men wear long strait skirts tied at the front in a bulging knot. I really loved the look of these.

The construction workers building roads and sidewalks (forced labour?) wearing flip flops.

Like all tropical countries dusk is brief and the dark comes fast. In Myanmar their are few electric streetlights and roads are illuminated only by the roadside businesses and the lights from motorbikes and cars (this is unbelievably eerie at first).

The women and children wear a paste from the sandlewood tree on their faces, ostensibly as sunscreen. The souvenir sellers are crafty about this and offer to smear it on you as you pass by their stall. Then, while you're basking in the warm feeling of cultural sensitivity and acceptance they rope you in.

As Greg can attest, I was a sucker all the time....

As Cynthia mentioned above, the two most memorable locations in Myanmar are Bagan and Inle Lake.

Bagan

Most of Bagan's temples date from 11th and 12th century, making them up to a thousand years old and in various states of disrepair. From what I read, Bagan's golden age ended in 1287, when it was invaded and sacked by the Mongols. It's population was reduced to a village that remained among the ruins of the former city. Finally, in 1998, the Generals of modern Myanmar forcibly relocated the inhabitants a few kilometers to "New Bagan".

What remains are the thousands of temples scattered within a vast, dry landscape.

We hired a horse and cart and meandered through the temples.

Perhaps Cynthia's favourite image, Max and Thomas deciding to run behind the cart.

While locals can no longer live in old Bagan, there are still goats and cows on the dusty roads.

Every Burmese Buddhist boy between the age of 7 and 13 is expected to enter the monastery as a novice monk for a period of a few weeks to several months. The monks of Myanmar wear red/maroon coloured robes, unlike monks in other Buddhist countries in South East Asia who usually wear saffron coloured robes.

Many temples are small and unattended, others like this one have mini-markets.

Boys playing with string. Note the skin treatment.

Don't even try to count them all.

A variation on hacky sack.

Pictures of monks are always cool.

Inle Lake

By the numbers:

Myanmar's second largest lake lies a couple hundred kilometers to the east of Bagan. Covering an estimated 116 sq km (remember Winnipeg is around 450) with an average depth of only around seven feet during dry season, Inle Lake houses a population of 70,000 in a number of villages on the shore and, more interestingly, on the lake itself!

We toured the lake in one of these long boats.

Our lunch stop.

The people who inhabit the lake, the Intha, are a different ethnic group than the Bama majority. Their livelihood depends on agriculture, with amazing floating gardens right on the lake, fishing using iconic wooden non-motorized longboats, and silk and lotus textile production.

The two fellows in the first picture below were clearly posing for tourists. Local fishermen are known for practicing a distinctive rowing style which involves standing at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar. This style evolved for the reason that the lake is covered by reeds and floating plants making it difficult to see above them while sitting. Standing provides the rower with a view beyond the reeds.

A long boat, perhaps carrying sacks of rice.

Note how the long boats are weighted so that one can sit or stand right on the bow.

Casting a net with hands while leg rowing.

These boys were pulling up sludge from the lake bottom to be used as fertilizer.

Wispy lotus thread.

She spins the raw wisps into usable lotus thread.

Finally the thread is woven into fabric.

Photo by Thomas

Excerpt from one of Cynthia's emails:

The Burmese women (well actually all the Burmese) are sort of enthralled with Thomas as he is the smaller and fairer one of our group. People literally point, stare, giggle, and touch Thomas on his shoulder or cheek, and try to get a response from him. The server at our hotel breakfast table progressively went from a smile to a cheek pinch to a kiss on his cheek with every visit to our table--we were laughing and trying to get Thomas to try our some Kung Fu blocks on her next time she approached.

What's also cute is that Thomas is referred to by all as the "baby". As in, "does baby want drink coke?"...."entrance fee 1/2 price for baby"..."baby so handsome...". We heard this in Thailand too so we're getting used to referring to our "baby" as in, "excuse me, baby wants to know the wifi password so he can play minecraft"...without hoping he lives up to his name.

One of our Inle Lake stops was at a monastery famous for trained jumping cats. Alas, we soon learned that the monks had stopped the jumping six months ago--now that the tourism was increasing the cats were getting overworked. What made our stop noteworthy, however, was that since Thomas napped in the long boat during our short excursion, Max now received the attention usually sent towards his younger brother.

Here an eighteen-year-old female posed with Max, the subject of her adoration.

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