Over the Chinese New Year holiday I finally had the chance to get out of China and travel somewhere in Asia. I set off to Myanmar with two friends because I knew some friends from college living in Yangon and figured it would be a great way to see a new country and catch up with my friends.
We planned our trip around the major tourist spots- Inle Lake in Shan State, Bagan, Ngwe Saung for the beach, and a few days in Yangon to check out the city and see my friends. I had high hopes for Myanmar because everyone I talked to told me how wonderful and undeveloped it was and this trip definitely didn't disappoint.
We arrived in Yangon late the first night, stayed in a really nice hostel and collected our tickets for our first internal flight. The next morning we flew to Heho, which was about an hour from Inle Lake. The airport was pretty crazy. We got there two hours early (at our travel agent's suggestion) and proceeded to wait around with nothing to do. Security took 2 minutes and they didn't even look at our passports before giving us our tickets. I guess we looked pretty trust worthy. Once our plane landed the airport staff quickly ushered off the previous passengers and then loaded us in to a pretty small plane with visible propellers. The flight was uneventful but we did make a few stops before landing in Heho, so it was more like being on a bus than a plane, but at least it was comfortable.
After landing we took a taxi for an hour to our hotel near the lake. It felt way too touristy because I was expecting there to only be a hand-full of backpackers, but once I got over that it was great.
We rented bikes and road around town, eventually finding a winery that was recommended to us. The view was great, the wine...not so much. We still had a great time.
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| Amazing View! |
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| Look how exited we are about the sun! |
The next day we arranged a boat tour and spent 8 hours on the lake, stopping off at different places to check out some of the local culture. We saw the famous fishermen who fish with their feet (they also tried to pose and ask for money), lots of handicraft shops, the long-necked Kayan Lahwi weaving, a pretty sad lotus textile factory and the first of several thousand pagodas.
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| Local fishermen: They use their feet to paddle while they try to catch the fish. |
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| Kayan Lahwi |
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| Budda in one of the temples |
That night we also took a cooking class with a local Myanmar family. They showed us how to make some classic Burmese dishes with a western flare, and it was all amazing!
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| Enjoying our dinner |
From Inle we took a 7 hour bus ride to Bagan, home of over 1,500 Buddist temples and pagodas. This spot was much less touristy (strange) but very beautiful. We spent most of our time here checking out all of the different pagodas and the surrounding area.
Our first day exploring was very eventful. We rented electric bikes and rode around town, stopping at different pagodas and restaurants for breaks. The group (actually just Danielle...)had several issues with the bikes. Her kickstand stopped working so we had to wait around for a new bike, which the company that rented them happily provided. We also had a very nice man and a police officer help us while we waiting. Once the bike was switched, we continued on our way exploring a few of the pagodas in New Bagan.
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| More pagodas |
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| Danielle trying to fix her bike |
Once we got tired and hungry, we decided to stop for lunch. This was the best part of the day because a.) Danielle crashed her bike in to a fence and it was hilarious--no one got hurt! and b.) we found an amazing spot to have lunch. Our friend who helped with the bikes told us that he worked at Hotel Bagan, so we decided to stop in to check it out. It was ridiculously nice. Part of the hotel was built around an old pagoda and it was right on the water. We decided to stay there for lunch and a few margaritas before continuing on our journey.
After lunch we explored more of the town and then headed back to one of the most popular pagodas to watch the sunset. When we arrived we found that about 1,000 other people had the same idea, so we asked a guide if he knew of any other places to watch that were less crowded. He pointed us to a much smaller pagoda and we decided to check it out. It was definitely worth it!
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What we avoided for the night. Too many people!
(We ended up at this pagoda in the morning, though) |
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| Tight Squeeze going down |
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| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon |
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| Beautiful Sunset |
The next day Danielle and I decided that we had to go back to the pagodas for sunrise because we wanted to see the hot air balloons come up over the pagodas. We left our hotel around 5:30am and it was worth the lack of sleep. As we were driving in, the sky started to turn purple and it was a beautiful morning. I forgot the dress code and wore shorts because I'm an idiot, but luckily there were vendors selling some delightful hippie pants outside. We opted to climb the main pagoda because it wasn't quite as crowded and my bike was not going to cooperate on loose sand, but it was much less crowded at sunrise and we had a great spot.
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| All the steps we had to climb to get to the top |
I have thousands of pictures of the pagodas and the balloons, but I won't bore you with them all here.
After Bagan we flew to Yangon and caught an overnight bus to the beach at Ngwe Saung. This was one of the worst bus rides I've ever had. It was so uncomfortable and took forever. Plus, once we arrived at the resort our room wasn't ready and the hotel staff suggested that all three of us share one double bed. We politely, but firmly, told them no way and the quickly sorted out our room.
Once all of that drama was dealt with we had an amazing 3 days at the beach. We lounged under the tiki huts, had drinks delivered to the beach, swam in the Bay of Bengal, and hung out in the pool. It was so great to be in the sun and out of the pollution. Unfortunately, all three of us got horrendously sun burnt. In Inle Lake we bought what we thought was sunscreen (because it said Sun Factor 50 on it!), but after we spent 10 minutes in the sun and turned lobster red we realized we had made a mistake. It turns out that we bought skin whitening cream (very common in Asia) and it did not prevent sunburns. We made the best of it, though, and spent the rest of our time in the shade. Sunburns be damned! It was our only chance at the beach and we were going to enjoy it!
Our group did walk in to town in search of aloe, but all we could find was some menthol, mushroom cream. Whatever it was did the trick and we felt much better, just in time to head back to Yangon.
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| You can already see the sunburn coming in! |
Once we begrudgingly left the beach, we headed back to Yangon via taxi. There was no way we were taking that bus again! It took us 6 hours, but we finally made it back to the city in time to meet Mark and Kelsey for dinner and drinks. Our massive group enjoyed some Myanmar BBQ and national beers. It was a great night out.
The next day we explored Yangon a bit. We went to Shwegadon Pagoda, famous for housing 9 of Buddas hairs, and spent some time looking at all of the different statues set up in the space. Afterwards we walked around Kandawgyi Lake and saw the famous dragon boat restaurant. We also found a shop with some of the best ice cream I've ever had! That evening we met Mark and Kelsey for dinner and drinks again before heading back to Shanghai. Our time in Yangon felt way too rushed and I wish we had another day to spend with friends and explore. I'll definitely be back to see more soon!
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| Shwedagon Pagoda |
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| Dragon Boat! |
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| Yay! Reunited with the Cices |
Once we made it to the airport we realized there was a little bit of drama because Danielle's flight was the following day, but she was able to sort out her ticket and flew standby to Seoul. I made it home with no issues and had two full days to recover, which were 100% necessary.
It's been a hard week back at work, but this trip reminded me of why I am living in China and what I have to look forward to for the next few years. =)
