We're back! We're now in Thailand, on an island called Koh Yeah Noi in Phang Nga Bay in the Andamar Sea, where jungle-clad limestone karts jut serenely out of the turquoise sea. This is our respite before our return to the states -- which is only 6 days away. How time flies!
I'll preface my thoughts on Burma by saying that Erin and I had serious reservations about going to Burma -- not so much because of the recent elections and the possible upheaval it could have caused, but because we were reluctant to give any of our money to the Burmese government, which (as everybody knows) isn't known for being kind to its citizens. In the end our curiousity about the place was too much to ignore and we hopped on board a flight to Yangoon. I can say now that we made the right decision. I knew it every time we bought something -- anything at all -- from a person on the street and their face lit up with gratitude. The people are so affable, kind and quick to smile - they are quite simply the friendliest people I think I've ever come across in my travels. Giving them money made my heart sing.
Moving on to the trip: In short, Burma was fascinating. Because there is so much to recount, I'm gonna have do it in installments. For now I'll just do a brief summary of our trip. We started in Yangoon and spent a couple of nights there. Yangoon is an engima, and I'm still trying to get my head around it. The northern fringe of the city is home to upscale resorts (that looked virtually abandoned) for the package tourists (which apparently consist of nearly 90% of the foreigners who travel to Burma), well-manicured parks, and wealthy suburbs. The rest of the city is a carcass, a pathetic example of the government's complete and utter neglect of it's obligation to the people. The infrastructure is decrepit, the buildings are crumbling, and the sidewalks are laughably hazardous, with gaping holes that could swallow you whole if you don't pay close enough attention. The buses are relics, built in an era predating the dawning of the dinosaurs. They should be mercifully enshrined in the Museum of Contraptions and Conveyances of the Sick, Sadistic and Perverse. The highlight of the city is the Shwedagon Pagoda, a glimmering golden stupa about 10 stories high that can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city. It is the country's beacon of Buddhism -- the religion which predominates throughout Burma. There are some muslims and christians and hindus but they are a very very small minority.
From Yangoon we flew to Bagan and spent four days riding rickety bicycles to old buddhist temples and pagodas strewn across an arid plain, hemmed in on three sides by mountains and on the fourth by the Irrawaddy River. There are about 4000 temples and pagodas in all, many of which you can scramble to the top of and get jaw-dropping, 360-degree views of spire after spire after spire jutting through the trees.
From Bagan we took a 10-hour, bone-rattling, chicken-bus ride to a small town called Kalaw where we hired a guide to take us on a three-day trek to Inle Lake. The trek and Inle Lake (where we spent another 4 days) will be the subject of another installment -- as there is far too much to tell and, if I went into depth about it now, it would keep me here in front of the keyboard the rest of the night -- but, in short, it was one of the highlights of our trip. In fact, I'll be so bold as to say it was the highlight of the trip (Erin loved it too but I think she's still clinging to the Annapurna trek -- and rightfully so -- as her personal fav.)
After Inle, due to time constraints and GI issues, we decided to fly back to Yangoon where we spent one more night prowling the pell-mell streets. Two flights later and a boat across the bay, we're now getting our much-sought-after beach time.
Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to blog about the Burmese people some more, the government, and our trek. Hope all is well.
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