MYANMAR (BURMA) - IMPRESSIONS
TRAFFIC!!! I have NEVER been anywhere in the world where it was such an issue! Even Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) that I had always said was the busiest, most congested traffic anywhere - this is worse!! Myanmar hasn’t been open to tourism until recently. They don’t have the infrastructure! WAY too many cars, mostly taxis! And the lines just don’t move!! Walking in most cases seems quicker!
We arrived at the Pickled Tea Hostel - one of the friendliest, nicest hostels I’ve ever stayed at! In our 4 bed room, we were given an upper and lower bunk. Betty graciously took the upper - we handed up her suitcase. there was a platform up there, a huge cabinet - big enough for our suitcase to lay sideways and that locked, a comfortable bed with blanket and 2 pillows and a READING light and two plugs to charge stuff. Very up to date!! The bathroom across the hall had 5 toilet/shower stalls. The showers were the best - with those rain shower heads!! And no waiting for the hot water. And the room was air conditioned! Too cold most of the time for Betty but I was comfortable.
One of our roommates, Terry had been just released from the hospital - she’d had a bad infection - e-coli (we are constantly washing our hands, using wipes, etc.! and not buying any street food!
I had had an issue with my reservation so we spent some time with Wai Wai, the young Burmese girl at the desk. I had booked with a website called agoda.com and used my MBNA credit card. At the end of trip in Bali, I couldn’t find the card but was sure it was in my stuff. Then I got a fraud alert saying that there were some charges on it and the card was frozen. The day before we were leaving Malaysia I got a notice saying our reservation had been cancelled at Pickled Tea (that would have been a real shame!!) and so I quickly rebooked with another card. I had originally booked a mixed 8 bed dorm and now had to switch to a 4 bed female room. There was a price difference! Before we paid the difference, we had talked to Martin from Scotland. He gave us all kinds of good info on what to do in Burma. He mentioned Bagan which I had already thought about - it is further north, along the Irrawaddy (now called Ayeyarwaddy) River and is similar to Angkor Wat inCambodia - hidden, long forgotten temples, pagodas, stupas that had been abandoned and are now becoming a UNESCO heritage site. I decided it would be a shame to miss. so spent the hot part of the day in the cool small downstairs office/reception/breakfast room online planning what to do for our week in Myanmar (Burma).
People here still call themselves Burmese (rather than Myanmarese or whatever!). The people: they seem very friendly, stare at us a lot! The women and many of the boys especially young ones, all wear thanaka - a ground yellow bark of a tree, made into a paste - on their cheeks, sometimes in decorative designs, more often in round circles, and on forehead, nose, ears, etc. This is to protect the skin, supposedly a good sunburn preventative, bug repellant as well as astringent and generally good for the skin. It looks quite attractive once you get used to it. We tried it in the market the next day; not so attractive on old ladies!! and our skin pigment isn’t yellowy as theirs is.
I love the longyi - the sarong-like garment that men and women wear here. Burmese have kept their traditional dress, rather than convert to western wear. The men’s longyi is tube-shaped and they wrap it and tie a big knot at their waist. They are constantly retying (sp?) it! The women’s is one long piece of cloth - beautifully woven patterns here - and tied with string at the waist. The women wear a short blouse with it. Men can have anything from a t-shirt to a long-sleeved white dress shirt - like in the hotels. Most of the men seem to have narrow hips and small bums - they look very attractive and masculine in them.
We foreigners must look very strange to them! Yesterday (we just left Bagan) I was coming out of a temple and admiring these string puppets hanging on a tree when a young guy in a yellow tour-group cap - there were about 20 of them, I thought they were a Japanese group - they seem to always wear the same cap to identify them to the guide, I guess. Anyway, this young guy came up to me and asked where I was from and then asked if he could have a picture with me. I did; then someone took one with my camera. Then he brought his dad up and did a photo with baba! Pretty soon I had been squeezed and photoed by about 10 of this group! They seemed to think it was hilarious!! By the time Betty came out, they were headed towards their bus. Turns out they were Burmese - I think he said from Yangon. But hadn’t seen too many foreigners it seemed! Later when I had climbed 4 steep stone stairs on a temple, for the view, there came the yellow hats!! Same group! When they spotted me, OMG! You’d have thought I was a long lost relative!! This time Betty was there to get in on the pictures!! Mama, Baba and son all in one photo with us!! Fun!! Very friendly!
Enough for now!!
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