MINGALAR BAR MYANMAR

I have always dreamed to visit Myanmar aka Birmania since I was very young, a mystic and charming place where nobel prize Aung San Suu Kyi fought many years for human rights and the freedom of burmese people.

Finally last february the dream came true and I could experience the real life of burmese people for 10 days.

Mandalay

I was traveling with my friend Giovanna and we flew from Thailand to Mandalay as we don't have direct flights to Myanmar from Europe. During the flight, I met an italian couple and thanks to them we got soem info about Mandalay and a place where we could ask a room for our stay. 

First thing you should know about this country is the only accept perfect US dollars in exchange of local currency Kyat. Yes perfect dollars or you can exchange euro in airport or bank but hotels wanna  perfect US dollars and of course cash. I saw very few ATM machine and at airport I understood the meaning of perfect dollars. I try to change 80 US dollars and the guy saw a very very little black spot on 20 bucks and he said no good, WHAT? Yes be ready they should be no tears, no folds, no ink marks, no stamps, preferably after 2006 but not always an issue, unbelievable..

After we changed the money, we decided to get a shared taxi with this couple as airport of Mandalay is in the middle of nowhere so the only way to reach the city is by taxi. We decided to spend our stay at their hotel: Royal City Hotel is well located and very important for me with wifi so I could be in touch with my family and friends too.

After 2 wonderful experiences in India, Burma is so different and Burmese are friendly but not easy to communicate and you feel its not easy to live as a local. Everything seems it made for tourists and just at the end I managed to travel as local as I always did in India.

First hours we spent to plan our next destinations so we decided to go  to Bagan by boat and  we bought a flight ticket from Heho to Yangon, rest of the trip was by bus but always bus for foreign tourist with stupid and cold A/C even if outside was not so hot.

After this we had a lunch in a nearby restaurant with first burmese food. You can see the influence of China and India. There was like a buffet where you can choose what you wanna eat and then they gace us many appetizers on the table. I got mutton curry and it was enough good and some banana as fruit. We decided to spend the rest of day discovering the city and Mandalay Hill.

First we went to visit the Royal Palace and from there we rented 2 motortaxi to visit Mandalay Hill where along its path are several temples and monasteries. The most impressive to visit was Maha Myat Muni Pya with its famous 4mt high Buddha Statue. Bea ready to see Pagoda and Buddha everywhere :).

We enjoyed the time with motortaxi so we made a deal to meet tomorrow to visit three main villages surrounding Mandalay.

After a yummi breakfast, we met our motordrivers and be ready they made many stops to tourist shops on the way selling silver, puppets, carpets and so on. The difference I noticed with India is they are  not pushy and prices are higher, guess so far its more high-rate tourism. First we visited Sagaing and its hilltops: most famous is  Soon  Oo Pon Nya Shin Pagoda where you have a 360 degree view of Irrawady River.

After visiting some temples, we moved to old Innwa and you can see how they live for tourism and there's no so much competition so prices are not so cheap. You have as way to reach Inwa: a boat by river. Of course they will bring you to the river and you cross the river in a boat in few minutes for 1000 Kyats return ticket. After crossing, you have a number of horse-drawn carts and be ready to another bargain to deal: we paid 3000Kyats but along the way many time he asked for more.

After visiting Old Inwa and another stop in a carpet shop, we reached Amarapura where the main attraction is U-Bein Bridge. It's a 1.2km wooden teak ( the longest in the world) bridge and we took amazing pics awaiting for a sunset: a must if you stay in this area. We came back to the hotel where we met our friends and spent a nite out dining in a western restaurant BBB European Restaurant where you had a nice meal and good wifi to be in touch with the world.

Bagan

We had an early wake-up as we decide to reach Bagan by ferry-boat along the river. If you don't have so much time you can skip it as it's very long journey and not so much to see along the route. Be aware in dry season boat can stop as low level of water, anyway we're lucky but it took almost 10hrs unbelievable. You arrived in a middle of nowhere where taxy drivers try to pick u up or find an accomodation with higher prices. We managed to find the right price and we follow an english guy to a very cheap hostel where for few bucks we could sleep in a matress in the hallway with other people just separated by each other with light curtains lol.

We rented a bike cause the area of old Bagan is so huge and you need all day maybe more if you wanna visit all the temples. So we decided an early wake-up, good breakfast then we exchanged soem money before we started our bike tour following a map that hostel kindly gave us. It's very hot but windy and you have many stops on the way and be ready to drink a lot. We just had this day cause we bought a ticket for a night bus to Inlay Lake our next stop. You can climb on the top of these temples and you have such a wonderful view of all the area including the river.

Around 3pm we decided to go back and we had a late lunch in the same place we stayed the day before. You have a good combination of local and western food here, go to Weather Spoon's Bagan Restaurant if you have a chance to be here. Sunset is a must here but I had to hurry up cause they said our bus was at 6 pm: so untrue and I missed  a sunset cause bus leaves at 6pm from main bus station and when they reach our hostel is like more than hal an hour later.

Inlay Lake

Night drive was not so long but we arrived in the middle of night with accomodation but we weren't alone and a guy had a great idea to open his tourist shop during the night. So we had a warm place and a warm tea as Inlay is cold in summer too during the night. We met a german girl and an english guy as we need to stay just one nite we decided to spend the time together. Be ready Inlay has few hotels and they fill up easily and prices are not so cheap. We shared a double room in four but we had two breakfast as we paid a lot for it. After relaxing a bit, we started our boat trip to discover this beautiful lake.

As I noticed, Burma is touristic orienteed and this boat trip followed this sensation. We stopped to take some pics of local fishermans. Then we visited the famous floating gardens before having a slong stop at the local flea market. During the day we had a chance to see the famous long neck women aka Kayan people.

Funny memory was our lunch of course they took us here and wow such crazy waiters. First problem of language then so slow and so messed-up. You order noodles maybe you get rice lol, one hour for a papaya juice and food was so so, at least we had some fun. We kept visiting the area with some temples too but we were bit late to get the end of sunset and visiting Cat Temple where you have cats everywhere. After a yummy dinner at least we were ready to our next adventure: Rangoon the capital

Rangoon and Chaung Tha Beach

Very early morning we took a flight from Heho to Yangon aka Rangoon, the idea was to go straight to the beach and then back after 2 days. So we took a taxy to main bus station but we discovered there were only morning bus to Chaung Tha so we decided to spend a night in Yangon.
Finally I managed to get some local bus instead taxi or touristic bus: so we lived some real local atmosphere and we found an hotel in a central and crowdy area. We walked around and first we visited Sule Pagoda that is like the center of the city.

We visited the colonial area and the main attraction of the city: Shwedagon Pagoda. It's also known as golden pagoda and it's most important temple for burmese people. We tried to find Aung San Suu Kyi's house but it was late and not the right area so we decided to visit it on the wasy back from the beach. Yangon is a crowdy city so I suggest to spend not so much time if you live real burmese life.

Early morning we got our bus to the beach and journey so not so long, the only problem was to find a good and cheap accomodation. It was Chinese New Year so place very crowdy and it was the end of trip so we got a nice apartment just in front of the beach. We had a nice walk on the beach and I had amazing pictures of the sunset and yummi food in a suggested restaurant. Second day was tottaly relax and they asked me to have  a picture with me so common when I was in India.
In front of the beach there's an island and as there was low tide we could walk there and we snorkeled around it. On the way back I ran and I had a warm bath in the Ocean after this lovely day.

Last day in Burma was just to visit the famous Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda for its 65 meter long and 16mt hig reclining Buddha. This pagoda is very close to Aung San Suu Kyi's house where we met some local activists of her party and after that we just relaxed before leaving Burma the morning after.

It was a great trip but it seems a country so touristic orienteed but with very good and educated people. As their goverment, it was not so easy to have some talks with local but on the way we met cool travellers too... Mingalar Bar my friends...