Yangon and Hpa-An Myanmar
Yangon and Hpa-An, Myanmar
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| Painted with Thanaka in local villagers home, Dala |
We flew from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar for 60 AUD pp. Prior to entry to Myanmar you need to obtain a tourist e-visa, you can apply for these easily online for 50 US dollars pp. This grants you 28 days to travel around the country. We had no idea what to expect from Myanmar with such a recent history of civil conflict and government corruption. It is safe to say that local Burmese people have not lost their ability to be welcoming and loving towards strange tourists but it is obvious that there is still a way to go in terms of their government.
Yangon (formally Rangoon) is a mixture of brand new high rise buildings and older multi story buildings from British colonisation. We stayed in one of these buildings at Backpacker Hostel for 17 US pn. All accommodation is to be paid in US dollars although you can ask to pay In kyat (pronounced 'chat') with a very low conversion rate. It is a city of contrasts. On one corner there is an Armani shop and two doors down there is someone bathing on the street with bucket and water due to lack of running water in their home. There are market stalls and eateries on most streets where locals eat but fancy restaurants behind them. To get around there are very cheap local buses but taxi’s are relatively cheap also.
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| Downtown Yangon |
Story time
Like Luke and I have found in most large cities we found Yangon city itself quite underwhelming. In saying that we had some awesome adventures. The first day we were in Yangon we had planned to tick off the tourist items:
- Shwedegon pagoda
- Circle train (local train for a few hours around the countryside)
- Walk around Kandawgyi Lake
Not one part of this plan occurred. We started our walk towards Shwedegon Pagoda when we got distracted by a park full of locals hanging out at 9.30am on a Friday morning. A local man Kyaw Kyaw came up to chat with us (something that's has occurred multiple times since) after talking for a while Kyaw Kyaw offered to take us over the river to Dala to show us the local community for “free” just to “hang out”. Against our better judgement we decided to go. Here is the story of how Luke and I were scammed and how our confidence from travelling was stripped from us. In saying that we actually had a really fun day (until the end), and we have since learnt from our mistake and can now (finally) see the funny side to the story.
It started off with Kyaw Kyaw taking us on a local bus ride to the ferry terminal. From here we caught a local ferry across the river that took 5 mins. I can not explain the contrast between the city of Yangon and Dala even with only a river separating them they could not be more different. Arriving in Dala is stepping into a shanty village rather than a city or town.
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| Local Woman with thanaka |
When we first arrived we were taken to a stall holder where we were painted with thanaka (a yellowish-white cosmetic paste made from ground bark) which is commonly seen on both Burmese women and men. It is said to have spf protection, but it also gives a cooling sensation which I can imagine would be very welcome in the summer. We then jumped on the back of three local Burmese men's motorbikes. This was our grave mistake, unlike every single other time before using transport we always agree on a set price, this time we didn't even ask. Instead we used none of our wisdom and relied fully on our trusting nature. I mean why wouldn't we trust these complete strangers?
On our first stop we were taken to some local pagodas. These were unimpressive but we were told that these were destroyed after cyclone nagris and have since been rebuilt. This cyclone caused the worst natural disaster recorded in Myanmar history. The secondary affect of the cyclone was a tsunami through Dala. We were taken to a local village that was damaged by this tsuanami. The people were lovely and it was great being able to communicate with them through Kyaw Kyaw as our interpreter. Here we were given free tea and tea leaf salad. After this we were taken to snake pagoda. On the drive there it rained like I have never witnessed before, resulting with us all being soaked from head to toe. The snake pagoda actually had at least 20 pythons throughout. It was disgusting.
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| Dala |
On our way back to the ferry terminal things went sour. We were pulled over on a back street before the terminal and this is where we were forced to pay an exorbitant amount for the day. As much as we tried to talk our way out of it, I mean I really tried, it was to no prevail. Luke and I felt pretty uncomfortable and the first time on our trip where we were worried for our safety. Instead of continuing to argue with the men over the price we decided that our safety was worth more than our money. We didn't have that kind of cash on us so I had to go back to the hotel whilst Luke waited with the guys at a local tea shop and I returned with the money. Luke didn't come with me as we didn't want them knowing where we were staying. Once we paid them Luke and I were glad that it was over. We were shaken for a while and chilled out in our hotel room for a bit before heading off to check out another pagoda. For a few days we were skeptical of everyone but since then we have definitely calmed down.
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| Maha Wizaya Pagoda |
I really don't want this one story to take away from Myanmar or the Burmese people as they really are the sweetest most welcoming people. Like all places there a bound to be a few bad eggs! What probably helped us to get over it was starting a 10 day Vipassana meditation course.
Vipassana meditation
We arrived at Dhamma Joti Vipassana Meditation Centre. Here Luke and I were separated into groups of men and women. We were taken (eventually after difficulty communicating) to our rooms which consisted of a basic bed, toilet and cold shower. The rooms were relatively clean and we would be sharing with another person (I later found out that Luke got the room to himself for 10 days, lucky guy!). We took a vow of noble silence for 10 days which means no speaking, no gestures and no physical contact with anyone. We were also given some basic rules like
- No lying (easy since we were silent)
- No killing any living being (not so easy when there was mosquitos zooming around your head)
- No alcohol
- No stealing
- No eating after 12pm
- No writing, no phones, no reading
The idea was to live like Monks for 10 days, to work on oneself but without the focus on Buddhism.
The basic idea of Vipassana meditation is to observe ones own sensations that are true in that moment of time. Whether that be pain, discomfort, unworthiness, self-frustration, impatience or pride, euphoria or happiness. Whilst experiencing these pleasant or unpleasant sensations you are trying not to react to them or observing how you react to them. By the end of the course it enables you the ability to understand and implement how to find balance in all situations. Whether that be during low moments or happy moments.
It is a step by step, practical, guided technique focussing on science, body and mind. Not religious or airy fairy rights and rituals. The idea is to learn from your own experience and grow wisdom from your own practice.
That is as well as I can explain it. It really is something that you have to experience for yourself and I would recommend to anyone who wants to be able to enjoy the moment, and be a better person to seriously consider doing a course. They are found throughout the globe: www.dhamma.org
It might sound crazy thinking that we sat with our eyes closed for majority of the day thinking about nothing but ourselves, but I'm glad we did it.
Here is our daily timetable:
- 4am: Morning bell
- 4.30am-6.30am: Group morning meditation
- 6.30am-8am: Breakfast (and I usually snuck in a nap also)
- 8am-9am: Group meditation
- 9am- 11am: Group meditation
- 11am-1pm: Lunch (2nd nap of the day)
- 1pm- 2.30pm: Group meditation
- 2.30pm- 3.30pm: Group meditation
- 3.30pm- 5pm: Group meditation
- 5pm-6pm: Break (3rd nap of the day)
- 6pm- 7pm: Group meditation
- 7pm-8.30pm: Daily Discourse
- 9pm-9.30pm: Question time
- 9.30pm: Lights out
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| Foreigners from Vipassana Course. There were also around 150 local Burmese who took the course as well. |
What was awesome is on the eleventh day we were able to FINALLY talk to the group of people we went through this experience with! We all went and visited the Shwedegon pagoda which was a short walk from the meditation centre. It is such a beautiful pagoda which was built somewhere between the 6th and 13th century, although buddhists believe that it was built 2500 years ago.
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| Shwedagon Pagoda |
Our time in Yangoon had some highs and lows but it was an adventurous time of our trip!
Hpa-An
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| Hpa-An main street |
A short bus ride away from Yangon… (8 hours) to the east is Hpa-An. This is a small town with picturesque countryside. There are mountain hikes up Mount Zwegabin and multiple caves to visit. And much like all towns in Myanmar there are a just few pagodas to visit.
Unfortunately due to the weather we were unable to hike Mount Zwegabin like we planned. But the idea was to get a beautiful panoramic view at the top. Due to all of the cloud cover this wouldn't have been possible anyway. In the one break in rain we were able to visit Kyaut Kaw Lat Pagoda which is a pagoda in the middle of a man made lake.
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| Kyaut Kaw Lat "Chocolate" |
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| Kyaut Kaw Lat Pagoda |
Apart from that in Hpa-An it was nice to walk around the local town, enjoy the markets and local food. Meals cost from 1-2 AUD and beer ranged from 45 cents to 80 cents.
Next stop is Bagan only a short 10 hour night bus ride away.
Lots of love,
Claire and Luke (Luke was enjoying a beer and the sunset on the roof of our hotel whilst I wrote this, so he counts as a co-author too right?)
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| Luke enjoying his 45 cent beer and priceless sunset |
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