Burma...Reflections

A monk crossing the teak U-Bein Bridge at sunrise

It was with a small amount of trepidation that we met up with our Burma (Myanmar) travel buddies as we feared we may be the oldest  in the group but we actually helped to lower the average age. Thankfully though it was a fabulous mix of wacky and wonderful characters comprising 17 English and one American girl but their names continually eluded us as there was a Jan, Janet, Jeanette, Joanna, Jane, John, Jerry and Joseph our superb guide for the whole two weeks who was strikingly similar to ‘Oddjob’ and incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about his fascinating homeland.  

Fifty years of unrest has left the country in a time warp but the people remain remarkably welcoming, greeting us with frantic waving, beaming smiles and the odd stare of curiosity.
 

Leg-rowing fisherman on Inle Lake

In temperatures reaching a blistering 42 C Joseph left us with nothing to do apart from wipe the sweat from our faces whilst we soaked up the Burmese smiles and the unique scenes in front of us. Glittering gilded temples, so many that we were in danger of being templed out at one point, red-robed monks, dusty roads with more horse and carts than cars, bullocks ploughing the fields, teak monasteries and bridges, floating gardens, stilted villages, buddhas in their thousands, glamourous face-painted women wearing colourful sarongs…and most of the men too.

Their were numerous highlights but the city of Bagan with its thousands of ancient temples scattered across the dry, red, arid landscape and the beautiful Inle Lake with its captivating and unique leg-rowing fishermen both stood out.
 

We cycled to temples and lakeside villages with their ancient cottage industries, cruised the rivers and lakes, climbed thousands of steps bare-footed, trekked the pine forest hills of Kalaw which marked the 7 month point of our trip and also my first bout of sickness which was a little embarassing as I was the first to retire to the support vehicle whilst the retirees had a silent chuckle to themselves.

The Burmese are deeply religious but despite Joseph’s best efforts to explain it, Buddhism remained a bit of a mystery when at these sacred temples a donation is required to the old man cleaning the steps whilst another man throws a bin full of rubbish over the temple wall onto the rocks below.
 

Very safe, very friendly and relatively few visitors but it will inevitably change as the country opens its doors to the world  and embraces tourism once again.

We may have got the timing just about right.

DAYS SPENT:   16

TRANSPORT:   5 planes, 2 taxis, 7 buses, 2 bikes, 2 boats, 1 tuk-tuk

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  6 hotels

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Mr. Toe’s Restaurant on Inle Lake

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  water buffalo, monkeys

TOURS TAKEN:  the whole tour of Burma

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY: two teas for 30 pence at the streetside cafes in Rangoon and Mandalay albeit it sat at children’s plastic table and chairs