Random Enquiry: November 2014

After a day of going around Bagan, you get this feeling of having had enough of temples. I can assure you that every temple is unique and different from each other, however, it isn't just healthy to go on a two-day streak going around temples. So I decided to go to Mt. Popa instead on my second day in Bagan.

Since Mt. Popa is a popular destination near Bagan, most hotels and guest houses offer a shared Taxi ride. Sometimes, the tourists you share with would come from other hotels and they just pick people up on the way to Mt. Popa. (Shared Taxi Rate to Mt. Popa: 10,000MMK/pax)

Luckily, my Myanmar trip was a week or two earlier than the tourist season, so in my shared taxi we were only 5, plus our driver. The ride was comfortable indeed. In the shared taxi I met Mike and Christine, a British couple, both of which are retirees, Boris, a Russian tourist and Karen, a kababayan who already lives in Texas.

New found friends in Myanmar, from left to right, Boris, Karen, our Myanma driver, me and Mike.

The shared taxi picked me up around 9am. The trip to Mt. Popa took about 2-hrs., with a brief stop at a local palm sugar maker. With Mike and Karen around there was never a dull moment inside our van!

Traditional Sesame-oil extraction using an Ox-operated press.

Distilling Htanyet or Burmese jaggery.

Fermentation of the palm extract.

Htanyet condensing and ready for transfer.

Local palm used to make palm sugar and Htanyet.

Smoking pork using the exhaust of the distillation set-up.

Myanma Tea accompaniment: Nuts and Beans deep-fried in sesame oil.

After another hour of trekking a gently sloping hi-way, we arrived at the vicinity of Mt. Popa. The mountain is a pilgrimage site for the locals, especially because it is believed to be a dwelling place of "nats" or nature spirits believed to have magical powers.

The mountain is also a popular mountaineering destination, however most tourists content themselves with climbing the temple on top of a rock, or known as Taung Kalat. It is quite a climb of 777 steps, three times during the climb I wanted to give up. But, Mike and Karen, my new found friends urged me on. They were such a jolly folk that was so difficult to resist. So yeah, after about 40-min, we reached the top. Being at the top is very refreshing and the temperature is about 4-C lower than at the base.

Taung Kalat in the background of a Buddhist meditation centre.

Stupa at the top of Taung Kalat.

Roof of the 777-step staircase to the top.

Stupa on top of Taung Kalat.

Karen my new found kababayan friend!

Interior of the temple at the top, the "bed" belongs to the hermit-monk believed to have built the temple.

Close-up of stupa on top of Taung Kalat.

The trip down was of course less glorious and we reached base by around 12:30pm. At the base though, there was this Dharmsala-ish feeling, I believe it is because of the architecture of the buildings that look colonial with a Northern Indian twist.

On our way home, we passed by a street filled with fruit stands, our driver begged to stop a while to buy custard apple for his family.

By 2-pm I was back at my hotel. I still wanted to go to the Bagan Museum but, being too tired I decided against it. I just took a stroll and found a restaurant where I got to taste Myanmar Chicken Curry. It was delicious, but sorry I wasn't able to take a photo of it.

After my very late lunch, I just went back to my hotel to pack my things up and get ready for my night bus back to Yangon. By this time I have come to associate packing bags in Myanmar with that feeling of leaving a place, and how I hated that. I just consoled myself during these moments with that reassurance that I will come back.

Tip: Hotels and guest houses in Bagan are used to tourists who take night trips in and out of town. Usually they offer up front to guests the possibility of overstaying for 6-8 more hours after check-out so that you can take the night bus going back to Yangon or those going to some other destinations like Mandalay. My guest house charged me an additional USD 15 for this extended stay.

By 6:45pm I was fetched by my transfer-service to the bus station. It was quite packed with fellow budget tourists like me. By 8-pm my bus bound for Yangon left Nyaung-U Bus Station, and with it me. With a heavy heart I bade good bye to one of the most magical places I've been to in my life.

As the sun wearily shone it's last rays over Yangon on my second day in Myanmar, I was already on my taxicab to Aung Mingalar Bus Station. Travel time to Aung Mingalar from downtown Yangon was 1-hr. due to the crazy traffic and it cost 9,000 Kyats. Knowing that I just came from the Yangon Circular Train, several places seemed familiar and being anxious that I might miss my bus, I was thinking already if I should just have stepped out of the train hours earlier than riding-off back to downtown Yangon. But, eventually I arrived at Aung Mingalar. The bus station is very typical of many of its Southeast Asian cousins, it's simply a complex of buses parked in a file with small restaurants and stores all around. Gates or Bay-areas do not have signs and you have to trust the locals when they say a particular bus company parks their buses here or there. My taxicab driver took about 5-min asking around where JJ Express Bus Co. park their buses. Eventually we got to the bay for JJ Express.

Tip: When travelling by bus to other parts of Myanmar, JJ Express is a most convenient option. I reserved my seat through Facebook, yes they have a Facebook page. All you have to do is message them, they reply promptly. They reserve your seat and instruct you to come an hour earlier to pay for the reserved tickets. They do not have additional charges for this reservation.

The Journey to Bagan

I was very impressed by the state of the bus I took, it was a VIP (2+1) bus so there was lot of legroom for a comfortable overnight journey. Blankets were provided as well as a bottle of water and snacks on board. Bagan is a 9-hr. ride from Yangon, this includes one 30-min stop and 2 shorter stops along the way. Since this was a night bus I wasn't really very particular with the stops. I alighted the bus only during the 30-min stop to light a cigarette or two, but I slept through on all the other two stops.

Sunrise in Bagan

As soon as we arrived in Bagan, a throng of horsecart and taxi drivers were already waiting at the terminal for tourists willing to hire them for the day. Following the advice of many blogs, I took a horsecart. The driver and I agreed for a price of 40,000 Kyats for the entire day. I didn't bother to haggle because, one, I was still sleepy, it was 5:00-am and two, the price is quite standard already, many blogs I read said it was 40,000 Kyats a horsecart. Ugh...that was one of the moments I regretted having traveled solo, I wouldn't have anyone to split the fee with.

As soon as we cleared-off from the Bus Terminal, and we approached Nyaung-U, we dropped by the Tourist Counter to pay for the Archaeological Site Fee of US$15.

Tip: It's good sense to keep a US$ 100 in small denominations in Myanmar. Since 2012 the Myanmar Kyats have gained dominance in the country's market, but, the US Dollar is still widely accepted. In fact, I paid my hotel in Yangon in US Dollars and this Archaeological Fee also in USD's. There's good maths involved here too. If I paid the archaeological fee in Kyats, I would have paid 15,000 Kyats, but at the time I was in Myanmar, the rate was only 994 Kyats against the dollar, so US$15 = 14,910. I saved roughly 100 Kyats in paying with US$.

Sunrise that day was around 6:02-am, so my horsecart driver, Zaw Latt, and I had a good chat going to the Phaya where I would greet the sun.

Few moments before sunrise watching a twin pagoda from where I stood.

And the sun casts its first rays of light!

The head of the sun just about to appear casting light on the many stupas of Bagan.

A view of the pagoda/phaya were I watched the sun rise. It was kind of a touristy phaya.

Tour of Bagan

Bagan is an ancient city on the bank of the Aye Yarwady (Irrawady) River. It was the capital of one of the flourishing kingdoms of old in Myanmar. If the Khmer kingdoms in Cambodia built one huge complex of temples in what is now known as the Angkor Wat, the Mon kingdoms of Myanmar built individual temples or locally known as phaya over a vast area. Bagan had at the zenith of its civilisation, about 10, 000 pagodas scattered over its vast plains. Today about 4,000 remain intact. Reconstruction is going on for some notable phayas as many of them fell victim to the 1975 earthquake that hit Bagan.

One of the well-preserved frescoe/mural interior of one of Bagan's Phayas.

The Shwezigon Phaya

A Burmese Lion guarding the Shwezigon's main stupa.

Beautifully adorned parapets or minor stupas of the Shwezigon.

Many of Bagan's Phayas are still places of worship to this day.

At around noon, my driver now doubling as my tour guide brought me to Ananda Phaya, one of the large and well-kept temples. By this time, I began to reach diminishing marginal utility of watching temples, one after another since sunrise earlier. But, Ananda offered a bit more perspective because it is home to 4 standing Buddhas. To those familiar with Buddhist art, the Buddha is most commonly depicted sitting in full lotus position, in Siamese Therevada style, the Buddha is depicted usually in a reclining position. Myanmar offers a different twist, here the Buddha is standing. The photos below are the standing Buddhas each facing a major direction.

The Ananda Phaya also offers a very majestic courtyard, half of which was undergoing renovation but gave a very magnificent view of the pagoda.

Wide courtyard of the Ananda Phaya.

Ananda Phaya seen from its courtyard.

The main stupa of Ananda Phaya.

Myanmar Buffet Lunch

After my visit to Ananda Phaya, I was brought by my driver to a restaurant offering Myanmar Buffet Lunch. For only 3,500 Kyats, the buffet was so huge, I wasn't able to finish my meal.

The entrée included a slice of stewed pork, curried chicken, braised beef and fried fish.

There were so many accompanying dishes, I couldn't name everyone of them.

The Burmese noon heat took its toll on me so I requested my driver to drop me off at my guest house and told him we shall resume our Bagan Tour at 4-pm. He happily agreed so he could rest too. Besides I was raring to take a cold shower already.

My cool hotel room waiting for me to take an afternoon nap, an interim during my Bagan Tour.

By 4-pm, my driver was already waiting for me outside the guest house, so hopped in to finish off my Bagan Tour by watching the sunset in one of the Phayas. My dirver asked me if I wanted to go to a famous Phaya, but cautioned me that there would be lots of tourist, I told him, no, I'd rather be in a quiet pagoda where I could recollect more on the beauty that is before my eyes. So my driver brought me exactly to where I asked him to bring me to. Unfortunately it was cloudy so the sunset was not really visible. So I just contented myself with the view of the Aye Yarwady River and the surroundings of the phaya. Thus, ended my third day in Myanmar and my tour of the very magical place of Bagan.