I spent a couple of weeks in Asia this summer, to visit my parents one last time before they moved back to Scotland. I haven’t really had a chance to travel much this year so I was determined to go somewhere new, even if it was just for a few days.
Initially, I looked at South Korea and Taiwan but couldn’t get the flights to align as I wanted. Good old Air Asia came through for me in the end, having just this year opened a new route from Kuala Lumpur to Yangon in Myanmar. I didn’t really know much about the country, but it sounded kinda cool and a friend of mine went there a few years ago and said it was amazing (thanks Max).
My good old British passport wasn’t doing me any favours here. Despite being a former British colony, Myanmar requires British citizens to get a travel visa prior to coming. Worse still, there was no Myanmar embassy in Hungary. I ended up sending my passport from Budapest to Kuala Lumpur by DHL and getting my mother to get my visa for me in KL. Hats off to the folks at DHL, they truly offer an amazing courier service. Exactly 7 days after sending my passport, I received it back complete with shiny new Myanmar visa.
Everything was a go.
Myanmar, or Burma as it used to be called until recently, is ruled by an authoritarian government who are not portrayed as the nicest of people in the Western world. Don’t get me wrong, North Korea this is not, but there are some odd rules. There is no international roaming on mobile phones within Myanmar and a local sim card costs US $1000, meaning that only rich locals and the military can use them.
Usually I like to use older names for places, such as saying Saigon instead of Ho Chi Minh City. Many foreign governments continue to call the country Burma and the capital Rangoon (instead of its new name Yangon) as an act of defiance against the military junta in charge. However I learned on this trip that there is a race of people who are Burmese, but also many other races living within the country. The name Myanmar is meant to be more politically correct within the country.
Touchdown at Yangon airport was pretty painless. The new modern international terminal wouldn’t look out of place back in Europe. Immigration was equally painless. We were met at the terminal by the company that had organised our itinerary. Having just 3 days in the country meant that it was probably best to get someone else to do all the planning. This really worked out well as I ended up experiencing a lot of different aspects to this vast country.
After a 15 minute taxi ride, we arrived at the Hotel Yangon. It was a fairly decent hotel with an abundance of marble features, yet had just enough rustic charm to remind me that we weren’t exactly in Kansas any more. All money gets changed on the black market. The official exchange rate is US1 = 6 kyat. The black market rate is US1 = 750 kyat. Didn’t they learn anything from Zimbabwe? After changing some money, we headed out for a walk. There were a lot of local restaurants and stores selling all manner of goods. Street vendors were everywhere, despite this being quite far from the city centre.
For this trip, I invited my mother and my friend Katrine along. Neither had been to Myanmar before so we were all in the dark as to what to expect really. After absorbing some local culture, we decided to go to one of the bars for some beers. Like Vietnam, the chairs everywhere were absolutely tiny. There wasn’t really a menu or anything and the waiter who spoke English just brought us some local beer. We had 2 or 3 each and asked for the bill. Expecting to be properly ripped off as a tourist, I braced myself. The bill amounted to US$3 for about 8 beers. I’m beginning to like this country….
The next morning, we got up around 4am and made it to the airport by 5am. We had a 6am flight to a place called Bagan. For me, this was the main place I wanted to see in Myanmar. Bagan is a UNESCO heritage site with some 4,000 temples and pagodas, spanning a few square kilometers. It is truly something to behold. Coming in for landing, there was an amazing view from the plane across the countryside. There were literally temples as far as you could see. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
We took a taxi to our hotel and hired a tour guide for the day. First stop was a rather impressive golden pagoda. The setting reminded me a lot of Japan, like something out of a movie set. It’s hard to really capture exactly how grand of an affair this place is. I think I need some photography lessons.
Next stop was an older pagoda that you could actually climb up. It was a very steep climb that you don’t realise until you look down. Upon reaching the top, I was pretty awestruck at just how amazing the view was. It’s been quite some time since a place I visited really captivated me in such a manner. It was a refreshing feeling.
Lunch was a typically Burmese affair. Various kinds of meats, various kinds of vegetables and some soup. It was pretty basic, but good nonetheless. For dessert we got some sugar candy which tasted a lot like something called “tablet” which you get back in Scotland. Wherever you go in the world, people always love sugar!
The early morning had taken a toll and combined with the hearty lunch, we all felt like taking an afternoon nap. At around 4pm, we decided it would be a good idea to take a horse and cart ride (as you do). I thought that they were just tourist attractions, but actually horses are still used for transport in Myanmar.
The driver (is that the right word?) was super nice, taking us to his family’s village, showing us around their house. It was cool just to ride around with a care in the world. We got taken up to some higher ground where there was another amazing view over Bagan.
There were definite similarities between Bagan and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I always remember this temple in Angkor Wat that had a pool of water outside of it. It provided an amazing reflection of the temple. There was a near exact copy of this idea in Bagan and it made for an impressive photo.
Finally, we went to the tallest climbable Pagoda in Bagan where it seemed that every tourist (and indeed every local trying to sell their wares) had gone for the sunset. Sadly, the clouds kind of obscured the view but it was impressive nonetheless. From October, they offer balloon rides over Bagan and I decided that I’d have to come back at some point in the future to do that.
It was a very long day and I was absolutely exhausted at the end of it all, more so knowing I had to be up at 4.30am the next day. It really was like going right back in to the deep end of travel. I would have loved to have spent some more time and enjoyed a more relaxed pace of travel but time constraints made this impossible. I just had to soak up as much as I possible could and make the most of what time that I had. And believe me, I intended to do just that. Still, I knew for certain that I’d come back again in future. How could I possibly not do that balloon trip!
