Myanmar Accomodations

Considering this was just a father and son trip, our expectations for accommodations weren't particularly high.  We just wanted places clean and centrally located.  And a big plus was to have someone who spoke English working at the hotel.  It turns out that with Myanmar recent opening, their hospitality industry is just evolving, thus they have limited options with hotels.  Although there are a few high end resort style hotels, their pricing can be as high as US$300/night which is extremely high compared to Thailand, the neighboring country.  Most that I researched were backpacker type hotels (with the exception of the Thante in Nyaung Oo).  Due to the laws of supply and demand, the increasing flow of tourists have even driven these prices up too.

Our agenda was as follows:

Wed, January 8th, depart LAX for Yangon on Korean Air 18 11:00am via Korea with an arrival at 10:30PM in Yangon.
By the way, don't believe the signs in the immigration line, we staying in the "foreigners" line while others hopped the line for the shorter "diplomat" and "citizen" lines.  The authorities didn't seem to mind.
The taxi prices seem to be fixed at 12,000 kyat (about US$12) to central Yangon where we stayed at the May Shan hotel.  (although I was able to talk him down to 10,000, I ended up tipping him to the original 12,000 price.  Don't ask my why I do that...
The May Shan hotel was a good choice since it is located next to the Sule Pagoda which is one of the central roundabouts in the city and all taxis knew this landmark.  We rented the room that overlooked the street/pagoda as we wanted to be able to take some pictures from the room.  The room was small but adequate and was clean.  There was a distinct limitation of power outlets however so traveling with a power-strip may be handy next time.  The bathroom was a typical combo shower/toilet room that seems to be common amongst this level of hotel.  The hotel did have a generator although we didn't experience an outage on that day. This was the only hotel on our trip that accepted credit cards and was able to be reserved through Agoda.com.  The hotel had wifi and contrary to many connections in the country, the Internet had enough bandwidth to support a Facetime video call!  The hotel personnel were very nice and accommodating and even retrieved our tickets from the Air Mandalay office while were out sightseeing.  The manager was a nice lady named Thein Thein.

May Shan Hotel - next to Sule Pagoda

May Shan Hotel

May Shan
115-117 Sule Paya Road
Kyauktada Township
Yangon
+95 1 252 986
www.mayshan.com

The price for a room is between US$60 and US$90 through Agoda.com

On Saturday, January 11th we travelled from Yangon to Bagan on Air Mandalay flight 6T 401 leaving at 6:20am and arriving at 7:40am.  

Through the research and connecting with those knowledgable about Myanmar, I made a new friend in Bagan who happens to run a nice hotel! This was the nicest hotel on our trip as it consisted of a series of bungalows, pool, restaurant and bakery.  This hotel has a website where one can reserve rooms, however, it is not by credit card transaction so be prepared to carry cash for checkin time.  This hotel is in Nyaung Oo which is only a few minutes from the airport and at the start of the archeological zone on the Shwezigon Paya end.

Thante Hotel - Nyaung Oo

Thante Hotel
Myo Ma Quarter
Nyaung Oo
+95 61 60315, +95 61 61116
http://www.thantenyu.com/

The accommodations were great at this hotel and the staff friendly.  And the room rate includes a great buffet breakfast.

Through my friend at the Thante hotel, we did arrange for an English speaking guide for one day named Sai.  He was a great guide who knew when to rattle off historical facts and when to let us simply take pictures.  I highly recommend this guide!

On Monday, January 13th, we travelled from Bagan to Mandalay on Air Mandalay flight 6T 401 leaving at 7:55am arriving at 8:25am

There, we took the long taxi ride from the Mandalay airport into town.  At this airport, the taxi hawkers were particularly aggressive with their sales pitches. However, in the end, the pricing was pretty much fixed as well.  I believe this was around 12,000kyat too.  And considering the distance, it is a bargain.  The trip takes at least an hour.  We stayed at the Nylon hotel which again catered to backpackers.  This hotel only takes reservations three days in advance of your stay so remember to set a reminder to call otherwise you may find yourself without a room.

Nylon Hotel

Nylon Hotel
Corner of 83rd and 25th St.
Mandalay
+95 233 460

On Tuesday, January 14th we travelled from Mandalay to Heho (Inle Lake's closest airport) on Air Mandalay flight 6T 402 leaving 7:55am arriving at 8:25am

We arranged for a guide to meet us there.  The drive from Heho to Inle Lake is about an hour although we stopped at a few places for sightseeing including a 100 year old wooden monastery.  At Inle Lake we stayed in the May Guesthouse.  It appears guesthouses are somewhat of a bed and breakfast.  This guesthouse had nice grounds, friendly staff, a good breakfast and a generator (we did lose power for a period one night).  However, the walls between the rooms are paper thin so bring earplugs if you want to get some sleep.  The shower in our room was particularly difficult to adjust so one either has a scalding or freezing shower.  All in all, it was fine for the price which was 28,000 kyats/night.  This hotel can be reserved through email but they won't hold your reservation if you don't call them three days in advance to confirm.

May Guesthouse
85 Myawady Rd.
Nyaungshwe
+95 81 209 417
mayguesthouse@gmail.com

Inle Lake

Inle Lake is on a plateau at about 2,900ft and is surrounded by a several small villages, including Nyaungshwe where we stayed at the May Guesthouse.  It also has villages built right on the marshy lake.  We rented a boat and spent most of the afternoon exploring the lake.  This series of photos shows both their traditional culture as well as their dependence on tourism.  Many of their activities are based on the tradition of fishing, leg rowing and floating gardens which likely has been constant for hundreds of years.  Tourism mixes in a series of workshops producing items such as lotus and silk weaving to cheroot leaf cigars.  Overall, we had a great tour of the lake.  And although we usually try to avoid tourist spots, it was fascinating nonetheless.  Including the hand full of Padaung "long neck" women weaving in one of the workshops.  These women stretch their necks by using brass rings.

Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery This all teak monastery, on the way to Nyaungshwe was built in the early 19th century. Young monks known as "novices" live here and were studying when we arrived.

Shwe Yan Pyay Monk This monk, at 88 years old, eats only one meal a day of rice.

Shan girl at market - near Inle Lake

Inle Lake village building

  Inle Lake - boat meeting

Inle Lake - leg rower

Inle Lake

Inle Lake - fisherman

Inle Lake - spearing

Inle Lake - traditional net

U Bein Bridge - Mandalay, Myanmar

The U Bein Bridge is just outside of Mandalay on a marshy lake.  The bridge was built in 1850 out of teakwood reclaimed from the royal palace.  We planned to catch the bridge at sunset after climbing the steps of Mandalay hill.  Fortunately the walk down was faster than going up since we were running out of time to get over to the bridge.  And of course, I forgot my tripod back at the hotel so we had to take a detour to stop to get it.  Fortunately, our timing was just right and captured a series of sunset shots.  After the sun went down, we decided to walk across.  It was fortunate that Logan had his LED light handy so we could make our way partway since there were missing planks and holes that we would have missed in the dark.  As you can see, the drop down would be substantial.

Old Bagan - Tharabar Gate Shrine Keeper

This man's job was to mind the shrines at the gate of the city wall of Old Bagan.  I'm not sure what that entailed but I would imagine it is to keep them clean and harvest the offerings that are left there daily. (also spelled Tharabha Gate on maps)

Smoking Shrine Keeper

One of the pair of guardian "nats" for the gate of Old Bagan's city wall.

  Tharabar Gate "nat" or guardian. Known together as "Lords of the High Mountain"

Bagan - Shwezigon Paya

This was one of the larger and most well maintained payas in the area and is close to the Nyaung Oo end of the archeological zone close to our hotel.

Shwezigon Paya

Shwezigon Paya

Shwezigon framed

This is a reflection of the Paya in water pooled in one of the original drilled surveying holes in the rock. (Thanks to Logan for the picture composition idea!)

Shwezigon reflection

Thatbyinnyu Temple

This is a view of the Thatbyinnyu Temple from the doorway of the Nathlaung Kyaung Temple. Nathlaung Kyaung was apparently built in the 10th or 11th century and is one of the few hindu temples in the area.  Thatbyinnyu is relatively new being completed in the mid 12th century.

Thatbyinnyu Temple through the doorway of the Nathlaung Kyaung Temple

As luck would have it, the moon just happened to be in the right place to view next to the spire through narrow holes in the Nathlaung Kyaung wall.  And there were birds too.

Thatbyinnyu temple

Yangon Sights and Sounds - Chinatown

We arrived late at night in Yangon and we had the next whole day in Yangon to explore until we took the plan the following day very early in the morning to Bagan. We found that Yangon is comprised of several ethnic areas including a chinatown. While taking video of the sights and sounds, we noticed three men working to try to start what looked to be a leaf blower. But since it was a street congested with people and street markets it was puzzling how they could blow leaves. We found out quickly that this device was actually a fumigation machine and they were set to gas the sewers to kill some sort of critters. However, as the street filled up with the gas, many others got the experience too.

sewer fumigation in Yangon

Thanaka Kids

In our first day at Bagan, we hired a guide who brought us to a local monastery which was being used as an camp for families coming from more rural areas (keep in mind, Bagan is already rural) to be prepared to celebrate the "moon festival".  They moved their "camp gear" using small covered wagons sometimes with traditional wagon wheels, others with modern truck wheels.  It must have been slow-going as they were apparently pulled by oxen which also were scattered among the families at the camp.  While it appeared that the family were of scarce means, yet the kids wore bright, clean clothes and seemed to be very happy.  While having a couple of tall white guys with cameras wander into the camp, you'd think that they'd be apprehensive.  Much to our surprise, they were delighted we were visiting them!  And they loved getting their pictures taken!  As Logan pointed out, it didn't matter whether the person was 6 or 60, they all wanted to see the back of the camera to see how they looked in the picture.  We were very fortunate that we had a guide who we were able to communicate through as we found out more about their family relations in the group.

As you'll see in this set of shots, most of the kids and women had their faces painted with thanaka which is a ground tree bark paste used for both sun screen and decoration.  Actually, throughout our entire visit, we estimated that 80-90% of the women and girls both in the cities and country wore thanaka.  Most boys up until the teen years also wore it but most men didn't.

sisters or cousins - I lost track

sisters or cousins

the pattern of the thanaka design seemed to correspond to family units

thanaka again? They typical apply this twice a day to the kids

grinding tree bark for thanaka paste

older boy's turn

mom or grandma

a couple of the girls had some western makeup yet still had a thin layer of thanaka on

The kids were happy and smiley but it appeared that they thought stoic poses were right for the camera

proud grandma

preparing the food

hopefully a happy gesture!

Shwedagon Pagoda

The Shwedagon Pagoda, positioned in the center of Yangon is apparently the most sacred and oldest of Myanmar's Buddhist temples.  By some accounts, it is over 2,600 years old (although rebuilt-refurbished several times due to periods of neglect and earthquakes).  Archaeologists estimate that the date of initial construction was somewhere between the 6th and 10th centuries AD.  What makes this temple so sacred is the belief that it contains relics from four of the past Buddhas including eight strands of hairs from one of them.  This was our first destination the morning after we arrived in Yangon.  Even in the morning, it was busy with both tourists and locals.  Shwedagon is a dizzying array of shrines, stupas, bells, incense and Buddha statues.  We found that we were still fairly rare as western travelers and we were viewed with curiosity.  I was a bit tentative at first taking pictures of people since I didn't know how they'd react.  We soon found that they were friendly and accommodating, mostly when we showed them the result of the picture on the back of the camera.  We spent a couple of hours there since we wanted to see more of Yangon before our flight to Bagan the next morning.  If I am to visit again, I'll certainly want to visit at night as we noticed in our passing that it was lit beautifully.  One thing common to many Buddhist temples in Asia is the need to have your legs covered if you have shorts or a skirt above the knees.  They will happily lend you a longyi when you arrive which is a traditional wrap that both men and women wear in Myanmar.

Shwedagon Pagoda - main stupa

One thing that we saw in Myanmar that I didn't notice in other Asian countries is little girl pink monks. Logan and I saw these girls leaving a prayer bell and were ready to snap a few shots. The leader noticed our cameras and immediately stopped the girls and positioned them for a group shot just for us! Thanks for stopping for us pink monks!

pink monks (girls)

Another thing that I noticed with the people in Myanmar is their stoic picture poses. This girl selling incense or candles welcomed the picture and I even got a smile out of her. Another example of thanaka design on her face (pronounced as in gin and tonica).

vendor girl

Shwedagon statue

From our conversations we found that with government's slight loosening of control that they were starting to get better quality of news sources. In the past, 100% of all news was censored. As we saw, there was a great appetite for news and politics, including with the monks.

monk reading paper

There were many cats hanging out around the various Buddha statues. We figured they were their pets or caretakers. In any case, they were enjoying basking in the early morning sun and playing.

praying monk

meditation

incense and candles

friendly visitors

Shwedagon statues

praying monk with incense