Myanmar or previously known as Burma which recently opened up in 2011 to tourism for Westerners is where I spent my Malaysian spring break in March this year. I ventured with two others from my program and we went to four cities in Myanmar in our one week. We really wanted to get a feel for a majority of the country with the limited time we had, as much as we possibly could. This was an exhausting but extremely rewarding experience since we came back with years of stories, even after just one week. We had so many strange and wonderful adventures as well as quickly made friends each place we went. This was our first big trip outside of Malaysia since being here, and if this is what travelling in S.E. Asia is always like, sign me up for 100 more trips! From Elephants to temple climbing to walking on water, we were able to have extremely full days for a somewhat costly price. But… regardless of how much we spent (which was more than we were ever expecting but) you cannot truly put a price on the moments we had on this vacation!
Our first stop was the mid-south larger city called Yangon which was recognized as the capital for some time when the country was still colonized from about the 1840s to 2005. This was a crowded town with a lot of color and street food spilled into the alleyways, large buildings along the main roads, and close proximity for most of the major touristy places to see. I came in the evening and was picked up by my brother’s friend of a friend which was nice to get escorted for the first time visiting a new country without a program support or family coming alongside me. I was happy to also have a local to give me some tips to take with me for the week. We spent two weeks orienting ourselves to Malaysia when we first arrived but there would be no orienting here. I met a man on the plane who said he could teach me the basics of Burmese now also known as Myanmar language in 10 minutes. I took notes ferverously as I tried to absorb as much as I could. As I was already getting a bit comfortable and learning basic vocabulary for Malaysia, it was slightly daunting to go into another country knowing nothing. Learning a few basic greetings and such has seemed to make a difference in my travels elsewhere in terms of how people interact with you, are willing to help you, or how open they are to give you information about something. Once I was picked up by this unknown person who I connected with through trusted sources, I was ready to find a way to orient myself for the week. He treated us to dinner showing a glimpse of the Myanmar hospitality similar to that of Malaysia which already made me feel a bit more comfortable in this new place. Also being a young person the three of us and the two of them (him and his cousin) were able to connect and talk naturally about things over dinner. We got tips about the people, places to see, food to try, and he even offered to show us around the large famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda the next day. We parted our ways that night feeling much more rest assured, even getting help checking into our hostel.
The next day one friend and I decided to talking our own self-guided walking tour of the city. We practiced our greetings to buy things and interact with people as we clearly stood out as foreigners. Somehow I felt I stood out a bit less in Yangon though then in my town in Malaysia. Of course my town is much smaller than this larger city of Yangon so that was something to consider. People still stared and were shocked when I could utter something in their local language but I still felt I could walk among the city with a bit more privacy. We walked from 9th- 40th street and back to really get a lay of the land in the city. We ate good food we splurged on since Western food seems hard to come by in our area and toured a lot of the buildings in the area, even running into other ETAs also travelling through. Finally the evening to tour the Shwe Dagon Pagoda came. Our new friend gave us some context and background of the religious aspects of the pagoda as we circled around the overwhelmingly intricate gold structures of the pagoda grounds. We even got stuck in a jam of children training to be monks and got to experience their rituals coming in and out of the pagoda. It was a breathtaking view and a meaningful tour with the information our friend gave us. We learned about the Buddhist ideas about the significance of one’s birthday, the animal that represents that day as well as the meaning, and how to bless our own day of the year statue at the pagoda. Afterwards we got to treat them to dinner to return the favor before meeting our third friend afterwards with his international teacher friends.
On our last morning in Yangon my friend and I attempted to find a church service in which we went to an Anglican Church in the city which was an interesting cultural experience for both of us but very different from any services from home since Anglican services are rarely practiced anymore in the west. Ate more good food, attempted to visit the museum and instead stumbled upon Natural World where we walked on water in a giant inflatable ball, went on a merry-go-round, took several selfies, then headed to the airport for our next destination: Ngapali beach on the west coast of Myanmar.
Upon our arrival we took a similar tactic to explore the town, though it was much more spread out and practically a singular road along the beach with resorts, restaurants, and shops along the way. Things were much harder to walk from place to place here but we did find a resort where we could enjoy drinks and appetizers as well as beautiful beach and pool relaxation time. On our second (only full day) we packed in several adventures which became one of the most memorable days of the year for me. First we rented bikes early in the morning to ride along the road, one of my friends almost got hit by a truck which was just the beginning of our excitement. Then we all took the most bittersweet excursion I have ever taken which was riding on elephants. We all rode on the same young female elephant, fed her, rode through this dry jungle area, and saw the sad reality of how these elephants are treated and worked everyday. Chunks of her ear were missing due to harassment and forced riding despite her resistance. We tried to love on her as much as possible but there was sadness and fear during our whole interaction with her. Needless to say, her trainer also owned a restaurant and he offered to pick us up from our hotel to dine at his place that evening. We agreed and were happy to already be making new friends in this new part of Myanmar.
We took a boat out in the afternoon for island-hopping to the small sight-seeing locations which turned into fake snorkeling, endless jokes and laughter, along with a pit stop at a fishing boat where we were thrown into taking pictures with them and their catch of the day then asked to give $1 for probably $200 USD worth back in America (depending on where you live) of seafood or so. We got 20 large prawns, five huge 2 ft long fish, and a smaller fish to take with us for the evening. As we already had dinner plans, we asked the hotel to put our seafood on ice as we prepared for our dinner pick up, hoping he could cook us a feast with our gifted catch. Our boat friends said they also wanted to meet up with us later and show us around their village as well as meet their English teacher. We wanted to embrace it all so we agreed with laughter and excitement in our voices.
Then dinner came. We were picked up on time, the chef, our friend agreed to use the fish for us and we took off so excited for how the end was to unfold. We arrive and get a nice table overlooking the night view of the water. We order some appetizers and drinks then… our boating brother friends show up… This was unexpected since we said we would meet them afterwards but we went with the flow. We were then given a tour of the restaurant kitchen and got to see him work his magic on our fish feast for dinner. There seemed to be tension between him and our boating friends but we over-looked it for the time being since we could not really understand their strange interactions and conversations as it was in the Myanmar language and we were still getting to know the culture. Our food came clearly only prepared for the three of us, which was awkward for our boating friends although they said they didn’t mind. As dinner went on the younger brother kept asking “so… you promise you will come with us?” And we replied with the same enthusiasm “Sure!” Then we would cheers and continue our conversation until things took as turn for the weird. We are not really sure where the miscommunication happened even after looking back but somehow they got onto the idea that we would stay the night with them which we re-assured them that we already had a place to stay and we did not want to do that as well as our ride back would cost a significant amount of money we were not counting on from unknown friends of theirs.
All-of-the-sudden the tables’ cheer and excitement started to fade as we were trying to finish our meal and see our way of this progressively growing sketchy situation. Finally the dinner ended with us paying for their drinks, them in tears, us confused, and the chef of the restaurant’s brother sneaking us back to our hotel without the boating brothers knowing. As we were leaving they asked if not tonight, when tomorrow they could pick us up since we owed it to them after breaking our promise. Since they were not taking no for an answer we threw out 9am and vowed to each other as ETAs to be out the door by that time so hopefully we would avoid anymore confusion or heartbreak for them. The next morning we did run into them on our way out which caused slight panic but ended in an okay mutual understanding of misunderstanding on both parts. We got messages on the beach to relieve our tension which was a perfect way to end this pit stop in Ngapali, freshened up, and headed for our next destination in Bagan; the temple town.
We arrived in time for sunset and to plan out our day at the temples for the next day, walked around a bit, bought souvenirs, then had more great food. The next day we rented e-bikes to motor through the temples all day since there were 100s to see (of course knowing we had to prioritize and that we would not make it to all of them). From running into two more ETAs whom we shared dinner with the night before, one of our friends got to go up in a hot air balloon to see the temples so it was just two of us on bikes watching sunrise together. This was incredible to sit atop a temple and just watch the sun come up over the horizon above miles and miles of temple tops surrounding us. Once we broke for breakfast to meet up with our other friend and hear about her experience another guy we met in the hostel joined us for temple cruising the rest of the day. As I fell off my bike in the morning, I was a bit hesitant to ride again but told myself it’s better to “get back on the horse and ride” even when we don’t want to (and since I was not severely hurt, it was not a huge deal).
At one of the temples we met this incredible family of children who were the temple’s security and offered to let us inside, getting a secret tour and view from atop the temple. Most temples in Bagan are only accessible on the ground level to see the Buddhas or you cannot access the inside much at all so climbing up for a view is uncommon aside from some larger ones monitored by security and open to tourists as select times. So, this was a special treat since we got to see this unique view and get to know these sweet girls who loved taking pictures and playing with our sunglasses. We were then invited to sit inside the temple worship area with the buddha to get our faces painted with a traditional skin care local product called Hla Hmwe Thankatkha (do not ask me how to pronounce that). The mother of the family painted leaves on our faces, the girls did our hair, and we wasted the day away with lovely company for over three hours. We left hoping to see them again before leaving Bagan but with the realistic view of keeping this regarded as a special moment in time that would most likely never be repeated again yet, always remembered. Spending the afternoon with that family was incredible to connect so quickly and appreciate each other even coming from such different backgrounds. These are the types of experiences I like to stumble upon authentically when I travel. It was completely accidentally and unforced but turned into a beautiful way to get out of the heat and spend the afternoon. We finished watching the temples and returned the bikes at sunset. The next morning we barely got up in time, thanks to our MVP friend for jumping out of bed and rallying us for our 4:30am bus and my tennis shoe which was misplaced from the day before (we think by some animal) was not found until after we already left. Although the casualty of losing my tennis shoes was worth all the experiences we had on the trip.
We then went to Mandalay where we would be flying out, originally hoping to have a half day or full day there but did not count on certain aspects of transportation to be as they were in Myanmar so we just looked outside the bus window and airplane windows as we flew out. Our layover was in Bangkok which we tried to maximize our travels by getting the longest layover possible without having to stay a day in an attempt to leave the airport and just grab dinner in the city but to no avail. The airport would not let us leave, we did not really do our research thoroughly enough so instead we had a six-hour party in the airport with the three of us. We ran into our friend from Yangon which was crazy and a great way to end our crazy adventurous trip, then spent the night back in KL before our returning flights the next day. A great first adventure outside of Malaysia for the year. Myanmar was quite a unique experience I will fondly look back upon this year and after.
On My Malay Way 