Jan 2016: Myanmar part 1 (Yangon to Mandalay) (2/4 on the 2015 Adventure Christmas)

10 January 2016

Greetings again... it's 4 deg F outside as I type this here in Shenyang, so I want to keep the flow and warm thoughts going!  This entry is the 2nd of 3 for the Thailand/Myanmar trip end of the year 2015 beg of 2016 vacation.  This one will be limited to Bangkok and the 1st half of Myanmar (before we catch the boat in Mandalay) ...gotta pace myslef!

After Chiang Mai, we flew back to Bangkok and met up with the Viking River cruise fellow cruisers.  We had been on a viking river cruise here in China back in 2010 with my sister and brother in law and had a wonderful time, so we had high expectations...and they were met again!  This cruise we different in that it was a much smaller boat and only 20 cruisers...we just had a wonderful time with fellow travelers of a kindred adventurous spirit.  If you're interested in a river cruise in Europe, China and other parts of the world,  we highly recommend Viking River Cruises

In Bangkok, we got a nice hotel on the river and did some touring around with some of our future cruise mates.  Thai people are so nice and seem to always be smiling!  This time was no different.  We visited the Emerald Buddah palace and some other temples...after a while they all look the same!

Bangkok revisited

Our room with  view in Bangkok

You know you're in Thailand when the lobby is stuffed full of orchids!

One of the stupas at the emerald budda temple

Some close up tile work at one of the temples in Bangkok

Sarah goofing around at one of the temples in Bangkok

Rod and Sarah in front of the mythical guardian..half bird half human

one of the cyramic stupas in Bangkok

Rod and sara at one of the gardens in the emerald buddah temple in Bangkok

A garden at the emerald buddah temple at Bangkok

Rod with the royal guard at the palace temple in Bangkok

Rod and Sarah at a dinner river restaurant in Bangkok...more orchids!

After a quick tour around Bangkok, we flew to Yangon, Myanmar.

Here are some facts and photos I captured about Myanmar...trust me when I say I had to really be selective...we took over 1000 photos to try to preserve our memories of this nice vacation.

Myanmar (Burma) fun facts and history lesson (according to Sarah's memory...could be wrong!)

Myanmar is the original name of the area between China and India.  It used to be called Burma when it was under British colonial control.  They gained their independence from Great Brittan in 1948. Burma was named by the British after the majority (65% population) ethnic group the Burman's.   They kept the name of Burma until 2005 when it changed back to Myanmar . It is geographically located between India and China (in an area that used to be called Indo-China). In the entire country there are 7 states, 7 regions 54 million people and the area is slightly smaller than the state of Texas.  75% Buddhists, 5% Christian, 5% Muslim, the rest is mixed.  The language is Burmese.  Everyone learns this in school, even though there are different ethic languages.  It's base of Burmese is Sanskrit from southern India, but is has totally changed over time.  They still have wild elephants and tigers and teak forests, but they are all disappearing. Only 12% of the country is forested. 40% of the country has electricity, mainly hydro electric. They have natural gas, and export it to Thailand and China. Men and women both wear a skirt type of attire called a Longy. In a marriage, the groom pays for wedding and dowry, no rings exchanged. 50/50 arranged vs free choice.  If living together before marriage boy goes to prison 3 years. If man has affair after marriage it is 7 years prison. Divorce is not common (5% in city, in the country does not exist). When a baby is born, for first name they go by the day of the week they were born.  There are many people with the same first name!  They drive on the right, (switched from English standard left hand drive in 1960) but keep using right hand drive used cars from Japan.  British has been there 3 times (lower, east and whole part) king exiled to India after the last British take over.

In WWII, they were first allied with Japan with a promise that Japan would give them independence, but Japan didn't keep their promise, so they went to Brittan and re-allied back with them to fight against the Japanese in WWII.  One of the military Generals tried to get a union of all the ethnic groups. He was killed and became a national hero.  He had 4 children and his daughter was the only one that followed in his footsteps.  He led the independence movement from Brittan in 1948.  1st democratically elected president was from Shan tribe, but this didn't last and eventually a civil war started in 1952. 10 years very unstable and so the military took over again in 1962 to cool off civil war and put in place a communist government, nationalized business, stopped English etc. This lasted until 2007 when the monks  protested.  And 2008, government had a referendum to change the constitution to added 3 restrictions that the president cannot marry a foreigner, 25% of parliament must be military, if country unstable military can take over all over. In 1990, where the lady was elected, but not given power from military. In 2010, election held, but rigged to elected members of the retired military, but beginning of democracy.  The general's daughter (who was married to a british man) worked with them to start opening up the country. She was awarded the nobel peace prize, which was the beginning of opening up the country again.  Still many protests. In Nov 2015 another election and this time the same lady Aung Sun Suu Kyi  won in a landslide victory, but she cannot be president (because she was married to a foreigner), so her party will pick who will be president.  The election was held in November, but the military won't announce who will be president until Feb or March 2016...The parliament today is still with old military government party until Feb 2016. At this time the 75% of the parliament will be from the Lady's party since she won.  Will they give her power this time?  Not sure, there is hope, but won't know until March 2016.  It's still very fluid!
So much for the history/social science of Myanmar!

Yangon (used to be called Rangoon)

As I mentioned early, Yangon (used to be called Rangoon) was our first city and port of entry.  It was the capital until 2005 when they moved it to Naypyidaw.  They changed the name from Rangoon  to Yangon in 1989.  We took an early morning run in Myanmar and enjoyed some free time before the formal tours began.  Here are a few sites around Yangon.

Sunrise run around one of the lakes in Yangon

Rod walking in a construction area around the lake...note the vintage truck and the construction man in the Longy skirt

Peaceful morning run

Restaurant barge on the lake in Yangon designed after the royal barges in Myanmar

The humpty dumpty happy dolls in Sule Temple in Yangon

A market vendor in Yangon

The most holy temple for the entire country is in Yangon  and it is called the Shwagadon pagoda.  It has 60  tons of gold, all of the stupas are pure gold leaf plated and on top of the main stupa there is a 76 carrot Burmese diamond.  This is a sight to behold...pictures do not do it justice!  We both learned more about Burmese buddism than we ever wanted to know...and certainly more than I understand even now as I try to type it!
Budda was born in India. Before he was born his mother had a dream about a white elephant, then she became pregnant. Buddah was born in Wednesday and his mother died immediately. Buddah was different..he walked 7 steps soon after he was born, with each step a lotus flower fell. He announced he would save the world. His father was a king wanted his to be king of the world.  Buddah got married, had 1 child. Afterward Buddah traveled and saught truth. He renounced his family. He meditated for 6 years and 1 day got enlightenment and after that he saught to enlighten others.

A picture at one of the entrances to the temple showing the story of buddah's enlightenment.  He is under a banyan tree with his hand facing down.  This signifies his connection to the earth.  When he was tempted, he called upon nature to drown the evil spirits. 

The days of the week are very important to the buddists in Myanmar and there are different alters around the main stupa for each day of the week. The day of the week that a person is born on is where the person gives their offerings.  The people here are pouring water on their flowers to give Buddah more water to keep the evil spirits away.

The main stupa at Swadagon temple in Yangon

Rod is a Wednesday child, so he is putting his on the Wednesday stand.  Notice the elephant in front..that is "his animal" in Myanmar Buddism.  He was born in the year of the Pig for Chinese and on the day of the elephant for the Burmese!  Not sure what that means!  Sarah was a Friday child (it's a ginnea pig) ..she was born in the year of the rat in Chinese year..looks like I have alot of rodents in buddism...not real satisfied with that...We're both staying Christian for many more important reasons!

 What is your animal in Myanmar Buddism?

Myanmar astrology for days of the week you are born:
Monday: tiger
Tuesday: lion
Wednesday: elephant
Thursday: rat
Friday: ginea pig
Saturday: dragon
Sunday: Garuda (mythical bird)

The spires and temples just go on forever in Swadagon pagoda

One of the monks in Swadagon pagoda

Rod and Sarah in front of some young female monks at Swadagon pagoda

Inde Village and Inhe Lake

After Yangon, we flew (a prop aircraft, in good condition) to a very small airport not far from Inde lake.  This airport was a holdover from days gone by...small, beautiful carved teak wood all over...I'm normally not a fan of airports...and I've been though many of them...this has to qualify as the most simple and ornate airport I've ever been in!

The building support columns in the Heha airport

The luggage cart in the Heha airport

Inde lake is a beautiful lake in the Shan state.  Our first stop in this area was a roadside market where they made paper  from mulberry tree bark and added fresh flowers...beautiful!

Pounding out wet mulberry tree bark (literally beating it to a pulp!)

The finished product of wet, freshly made mulberry paper

The beginnings of a bamboo umbrella

Some finished product umbrellas...yes, I bought one!  What will I do with it?  I don't know...just had to have it!

Inde village  the area in the inhe lake area  with 1000 stupas. 2200 years ago the king of India sent monks to the world to spread buddism. Myanmar and Thailand used to fight, and every time they were on a war conquest, they stopped in inde village to build new stupas.   Today there are some new, some old.  It seems that they see it as a much better good deed (to get good karma) to build new rather than restore old...so many of the old ones just crumble with the forces of time.

1000 stupas at Inde village in the Inhe lake area

Some of the women walking in the Inde village

One of the souvenir sellers in the Inde village

More stupas in the Inde village

Our accomodations in this area were spectacular.  A village of individual cottages on the Inhe lake...very peaceful and relaxing..too bad we didn't get to enjoy this more!  We think it is owned by one of the generals...there is money somewhere!   In this region, they used to grow opium (some places still do, up in the mountain...run my army generals, so not shutting down) in 1990's used to be 2nd only to Afghanistan for opium production). Now this is reduced due to heavy penalty (death) (unless you are a general!)...could there be a connection?

View of the lobby at the hotel in the middle of nowhere around Inhe lake

Rod standing in front of the bathtub in our hotel room

The bed with functioning mosquite netting..worked great!  It was the first time ever in my life I have been in a bed like this...felt like a princess!

The view from our balcony at our room

Rod with a random banana tree outside our room

Rod and Sarah in the lobby at the hotel in Inhe lake

On the lake there are many floating gardens. They are made with bamboo stakes anchored on the silt (last for 5 years), but the roots are growing in water only.  They grow tomatoes, squash, turmeric in the floating gardens. Also many houses built on stilts on the lake.  Many people still fish on a one man boat with a net. The area that time forgot!

Our transportation to tour around Inhe lake

Some of the houses on the lake

cooking on the lake

Floating tomato garden on the lake

Gone fishing...amazing balance!

A special fabric is made from lotus stems. They break the stems and use the threads to roll them together to make a yarn, then weave the threads together like cotton or silk. This is native to Inde lake in the Shan region.

Making Lotus threads...takes alot of them to make even 1 thread!

Weaving lotus threads at Inhe lake

After this delightful stay in the Inhe lake area, we flew off to Mandalay where we would get on the cruise boat.  That will be the subject of the next and final installment of Rod and Sarah's 2015/2016 Thailand/Myanmar adventure Christmas vacation.

Until next time, we wish you a safe and warm 2016!

Rod and Sarah