Yangon the green crumbling city
Visiting Yangon in the middle of the monsoon is seeing green crumbling city. The heavy rain makes everything soaked in water. The concrete give way to green plants of different kinds all the buildings are dressed in green. This can´t last forever in the end the concrete walls will dissolve and fall apart. I arrives this green steaming hot city by taxi in the late evening. I asked the driver is this city safe? The driver laughed and said. Indeed, very safe you can walk in the middle of the night in Yangon, no one will ever touch you but you won´t meet anyone either, we have all gone to sleep.
Bagan
Bagan is South East Asia most important tourist site in the same league as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Bagan is divided between New Bagan called Nyaungu and Old Bagan. In Nyangungu one can find all the services of a town, police station, hospital, market, restaurants and the cheaper accommodations. This is the arriving point for the buses from other cities. Old Bagan is in a bend of Ayeyarwaddy River several kilometers southeast of Nyaungu. In this part of Bagan are all the better hotels with higher standards since it is closer to all the old famous Padogas and temples of Bagan. I arrived in the middle of the night in NyaungU so I stayed overnight at In Wa Guest house. They offered a nice room with air-condition, toilet, shower and beddings for 5 US$ (2007). This was dirt cheap compared to our guest houses charging 20US$ for the same standard.
The Kanadan river journey
The mighty Kanadan River flows through the Rakhine state of Myanmar into the Bay of Bengal. The area around Kanadan River was once the most important farming area of the whole mainland South East Asia feeding millions of people with rice. After the British walk out of Burma leaving Myanmar to be ruled by despots of different kinds this farming area has dwindled from its glory days. Nowadays it can´t even support its own inhabitants with rice for the day, maybe not even bring rice to the people of Rakhine state. For the brave few backpackers who dares to go to the remotest corner of the world it has been a wet dream to do the Kanadan river journey. I turned this wet dream into an unusually wet river journey in the rainy season of 2007. Are you thinking about going? Please dream on Rakhine state are now closed and the Kanadan River Journey impossible. I will keep feeding your dreams with pictures and ideas from my river journey on Kanadan River.
Inle lake
The robes of the buddhist monks
A monk who had studied Buddhism for at least thirty years receives a robe as a gift from the local spinning-mill at Inle lake. Normally, the monk begins his studies at age of twenty, but he must start before he is twenty-seven years old. The process of manufacturing the robe follows the cycle of the moon. One cut the Lotus lowers stems at the full moon. Each process in the spinning-mill is according to the phases of the moon so the monks’ robes are ready for the next full moon. The owner said in the end of July, I will give six monks their robes during their initiating process, since they have completed their thirty year studies. According to the owner Burma had two monks on the highest level belonging to two different paths. The government pays all their expenditures.
Pyin U-Lwin to Hsipaw
After a twelve-hour rough bus ride during the night from Inle lake I arrived at six a´clock in the morning in Mandalay. I booked a seat in a shared taxi to Pyin U-Lwin for 6500 Kyats (about 5 US$). At nine o´clock the car filled up .with passengers. We left Mandalay in a white Toyota from the good old 1970s. The driver was a hotheaded man without any patience. He drove in a furious speed on the serpentine roads up into the mountains trying to overtake trucks in sharp bends but he usually failed and had to stop quickly. After a couple of hours driving the engine was exhausted and one could smell smoke in the car.
The bicycle Trishaw man
I stayed at the chinese owned hotel Great Wall in Mandalay. I walked towards the city centre it was 20th of July then I first met him the bicycle Trishshaw driver Myint Thein or the Trishaw man as he called himself. He had black hair was surprisingly tall to be a Burmese man in his middle age. Myint asked, do you need my service today, I go anywhere?
Burma
I visited Burma / Myanmar during the monsoon season 2007, started travelling in Yangon the capital of Burma, flew to the northwest coast to Sittwe. Continued by boat in heavy monsoon rain on the river of Kanadan upriver into the Chin state to Mrauk U. I looped back to Yangon again for a flight up to Heho in the Shan state there a taxi waited for a drive to Inle lake.
