This has been another incredibly busy month. Its amazing how much you can fit into such a short amount of time and the experiences that can be gained!
Since my last post I have been all through Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City up to Hoi An which is a fantastic riverside town with great architecture and a relaxed feel. Whilst we were there they were having a lantern festival on the river which made it look amazing.
In general I have found the country to be quite rude and unfriendly, with the people seeing tourists as potential cash cows rather than people who want to enjoy seeing the beauty of where they live. It seems so westernized and lacking in its own traditions as a result.
During my final week in Vietnam we headed up to the north to Hanoi, stopping for an evening in DaNang. As it was the weekend the famous dragon bridge was putting on a show. It's a bridge that has a dragon in its structure and every Friday and Saturday night it breathes fire. We were ready to watch it at 9pm with all the locals. It was so hot even from a distance when the flames were coming out.
We spent a couple of days in the old city of Hue exploring the old capital the the palace, which although impressive, was just a reconstruction of the one from hundreds of years ago after the original was destroyed in the Vietnam war.
From there we went up to Hanoi and then further north to the mountain town of SaPa where we met a local guide and went trekking for three days up in the mountains, staying at local houses along the way. The scenery was amazing and the local ladies wore beautiful traditional costumes and produced local handicrafts. It was an amazing experience to eat traditional food and try the homemade 'firewater'. Never again!!! We also went into the market where there were sections for vegetables, horses, caged birds and buffalo.
This is the view from the local's house that we stayed at with the material that she had woven on the loom and dyed drying.
After SaPa we went to the coast to see Halong bay which had amazing limestone outcrops. After a quick return to Hanoi to pick up my passport with my Myanmar visa it was a quick flight to Bangkok to meet up with a friend ready to go into Myanmar the next day.
Myanmar was called Burma until recently and has only started letting tourists in over the last couple of years. We wanted to go there for that reason. The rest of Asia so far seems so packed with tourists and westernised that we didn't feel that we were getting a true flavor of what its really like. Myanmar should be untouched and uncorrupted by tourism. We were told stories of how there were no ATM's and you had to take enough US dollars to last your trip and they had to be crisp, unmarked and printed after 2006. The transport system would be next to non-existent and a recent civil war left the country virtually paralysed...so we got our crisp dollar bills and prayed!!!
We flew into Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and were immediately struck by how friendly everyone was. It was full of people who wanted to stop and say hello and practice their English and offer us assistance whenever we looked at our city map. Everyone smiled and seemed desperate to help us whenever they could. Not what we were expecting at all in a country which is 'so hard to get around in!' We went to see the palace on the city lake and the pagoda that Yangon is famous for and then returned after dark to see it lit up.
We went to the tourist office where the two old ladies working there stayed an hour after they were supposed to be closed to help us plan our time there. We went to the park to relax and spent ages talking to people wanting to speak English and suggest ideas for how we should spend time in the country.
The next morning we got on the bus to Mandalay which was the most luxurious bus we have had in all of Asia so far. It was on time and the brand new road went straight through the country without a single bend... So much for poor transport links!
When we arrived in Mandalay we found that our bags weren't on the bus but had been sent to Bagan about 300 miles away. When you're traveling for over a year then your whole life is in your rucksack. We were so worried! Everyone was so desperate to help us so phone calls were made and our bags were located and put on the next bus from Bagan. We were taken to a hotel and the next day we went on a motorcycle tour of the city on the back of the bikes of two locals seeing temples and all the city had to offer before going to see the sunset at the 'teak bridge' - 1.2 km of bridge over the river which we walked over before going to the bus station to be reunited with our bags. We had a good couple of days in the city, even though the streets of Mandalay weren't paved with gold and the city itself was very modern which wasn't what we expected.
From Mandalay we took the night train to Bagan. The train must have been built during the war and the tracks not repaired since then either! It had no windows and was freezing all night. Luckily we didn't get sea sick considering the way the train was rocking around. We thought it would leave the track at times!
We arrived in Bagan and rented bicycles to explore the area. This is the area that is covered in pagodas and is the main symbol of Myanmar. There are 4000 pagodas in total in an area of about 3 square miles. Everywhere you look seems to be a view worthy of being a postcard. It was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been and we spent days looking around them, especially the derelict and overgrown ones with paintings on the inside of the life of Buddha. We climbed up onto the top of one to watch the sunset which was incredible because of the view over the whole area.
The next morning I got up early before the sun came up and cycled out to the temples and climbed up one to watch the sunrise which was made even more spectacular by hot air balloons passing above.
From Bagan we took a bus (yes, we had learnt our lesson about trains) to the mountain town of Kalaw where we had heard you could go trekking to Lake Inle which was our next destination. We set of early with a local guide for two days of amazing views, food, local people and much-needed exercise! After a hard days walk we spent the night in a Buddhist monastery where we met with an old monk who dispensed gems of wisdom!
We stopped at the house of the village teacher and saw his play for that week - a table with vegetables on it donated by the parents of the children! I've never even been given a turnip!
We kept trekking until we reached the banks of Lake Inle, home of wooden houses on stilts, floating vegetable gardens and fisherman that use their feet to paddle their wooden dug-out canoes so their hands are free to throw their nets. This is also the place where the ladies use brass rings around their necks to stretch them, making them more attractive (!!!)
We spent 6 days at the lake instead of the 2 we were intending because there was so much to do and see. We went to a local cooking class to learn how to make traditional Myanmar curry and rented boats to explore the lake. We also rented bicycles to visit the local winery up in the hills (and had to get a tuk tuk back, jamming our bikes in with us!)
One night we went to a neighbouring village to see the balloon festival. This was one of the best experiences of my trip so far. There were easily 7000 people there and we were the only tourists. This was a chance for the locals to get together and release balloons that they had been making all year in their communities. The release of the balloons is not only a chance for that group to win the prize money, but sending the balloons away also sends away the evil spirits. Each one costs $4000 to make and can have designs on them, candle lanterns or fireworks attached. 16 balloons are set off each night for a week making nearly 120 balloons over the course of the festival, each the size of a house. As they rise the fireworks are set off from a frame hanging underneath into the crowd below. One even went up 200 metres and then came crashing back down and burst into flames! Safety first kids!!!
From Inle Lake we took the bus back to Yangon and flew to Bangkok. Myanmar was the most amazing country witth such great people and traditions. Im glad that I have been there in the early days of its tourism industry because maybe in the future it will change and become more westernised with the increase of visitors and the people become corrupted in the pursuit of money. The transport links are good, there are plenty of ATMs and the people will do anything to make your trip enjoyable. If you're going then go soon. You'll love it!!!
I'm now in Bangkok to resupply ready for going into Nepal tomorrow. Hopefully I will spend a few days in Kathmandu then hike for 10 days in the Himalayas before going to a village in the national park to teach in a school there until just after Christmas. Then into India for a bit before heading home for a break towards the end of January. After that...Africa!!!
