Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand Highlights

The Wilson's wandered a great deal last year and got just a little behind on their travel posts, so we are happy to be able to share highlights and recommendations (because giving all the details would take too long) from our most recent trip last month to Myanmar and Thailand. Of course we wouldn't go to Myanmar without first stopping in Thailand. Using Delta miles we flew on Korean Air directly to Chiang Mai from Seoul, and discovered Thailand STILL has not figured out how to speed up their immigration entry process. After a short night, we took the familiar 30 minute flight from Chiang Mai to Maehongson, now flown by Bangkok Air in addition to Kan Air - both highly recommended. I posted a little more detail of our time in Maehongson on facebook but here are a few people and places I am especially fond of.

Fields, mountains and river in Patyng - my back yard growing up...

Fields, mountains and river in Patyng

Andrea and Doi

Andrea and Lee walking out to the orchards in Napajat

Ninae and Wi at Maesagert

Golf, Nam Waan and Ba Youie - Patyng

We had 5 wonderful days in Napajat and Patyng, seeing friends in both places. Then it was back to Chiang Mai and after a couple hour wait in the lovely Bangkok Air lounge, a direct flight to Mandalay.

Mandalay as a city was honestly a bit disappointing. As one of our guide books describes it, "spurred by massive Chinese investment in recent years, modern Mandalay is one of Southeast Asia's boom cities and a far cry from the low-rise, slow-paced, bicycle-powered backwater it was." In literature and history, Mandalay has somewhat of a mystique about it, but today, the actual city is just not that attractive. There are cultural and historical gems hidden in and about it that represent remnants of the four former royal capitals and some of these are definitely worth seeing. We had scheduled 3 days/4 nights but if doing it again, two days would be enough.

The highlight of our time in Mandalay was hiring a car and driver for the day who took us to three of these former royal capitals - Amanapura, Inwa/Ava and Sagaing for the princely sum of $40! The highlight of the day for me was on the island of Inwa, walking into Bagaya Monastery, a 200 year old teak monastery with massive teak floor boards and posts (267 to be precise, the tallest measuring 60 feet, one having a circumference of 9 feet). There was something so evocative about it, reminding me somehow of our former house in Dorpae where I lived during elementary school. It is also a lawsuit waiting to happen with nails protruding and gaps in the floors to slip through!

Ferry to Inwa

Another 200 year old monastery on Inwa...with a very long name but a fine example of the 19th C. Konbaung period.

Yes, if you go to Mandalay, you should walk up Mandalay Hill (barefoot - takes about 45 minutes), you should visit Sagaing, definitely stop at the iconic U Bein bridge and visit some of the temples at the base of Mandalay Hill especially Shwenandaw so you can compare the original intricacy of the only remaining structure of the former royal palace to the rebuilt one, but you should definitely catch the little boat to Inwa, get in a horse cart and do the tour of the island and don't miss Bagaya Monastery.

Moat surrounding the rebuilt Royal Palace in Mandalay looking toward Mandalay Hill.

Rebuilt Royal Palace

Shwenandaw Monastery - the only surviving structure from the original Royal Palace

In a land of longyi's, cell phones are always tucked here...

Ice cream for sale at U bein bridge

We left Mandalay early in the morning on the RV Shwe Keinnery one of several ferries that transport tourists to and from Bagan. It was a much needed 11 hours just spent looking at the wide expanse of the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) river for which we were grateful. And when we arrived in Bagan we were picked up by another horse cart driver for a quick jaunt to the lovely Oasis Hotel. (All hotel reviews can be seen at our TripAdvisor page here.)

Wide river but evidently not too deep as they have to measure it as they go along in certain places.

Bagan was a highlight of the whole trip and ironically, even though there we encountered more western tourists than Mandalay, it felt more like authentic Burma as we walked through some of the back streets of the local villages.

Small pagodas and temples abound - the trick is finding ones off the beaten track that aren't crawling with tourists like the first one we found...

...which had a tiny narrow staircase up to the top that provided a little view. We felt like we had stumbled on a secret.

Bigger temples...

Very Big temples

earthquake damage

Perspective shows how large some of the temples are

Sunrise

Balloons over Bagan

Yangon was just as I imagined it would be-  wide roads, large trees providing welcome shade, a booming busy capital city, quickly developing a skyline (a friend told us that two years ago there were only two 20+story buildings in the city) a mix of old and new - but there was one major surprise, motorcycles are banned! Ubiquitous in almost all South East Asian cities, it was shocking that they are not allowed in the city. Why? All the reasons we heard ultimately go back to the generals who outlawed them 10-15 years ago. A general's son was tragically killed in an accident. A general was assassinated from a motorcycle. The answer that makes the most sense...If you don't want people to be able to gather or disperse quickly take away their way of doing that - and in many parts of the world, that will mean no two wheeled hondas on the streets!

NO motorcycles

Of course, if you are in Yangon, the Shwedagon Pagoda is a must see simply for its size which is hard to appreciate from photos until you get some perspective...(the maroon dot in the center of the photo below is a monk walking around the edge.)

The light changes at dusk...

Meditating cat...

My tourist highlight in Yangon was walking from our hotel just a few blocks down to the river and seeing all the action there - boats coming and going, a fleet of water taxis transporting people back and forth across the wide expanse, watching sacks of rice being unloaded and knowing that some things don't change. I felt like I was watching the same scene that I had read about in several books of foreigners coming up the river for the first time 60 or 100 years ago and encountering Burma for the first time. My non tourist highlight was meeting up with a friend I had met several months ago who works in Myanmar and spending a few hours with her family. The benefits of being a TCK and having friends all around the world!

PS - I also loved the tea shops found all over Myanmar and sadly didn't spend enough time in them drinking down the sweet sweet milky tea...but next time...

PPS - We flew from Yangon to Bangkok where we spent two days before Andrea returned to the US and I flew back to Maehongson for a few more days there. Leaving Maehongson is never a highlight but I enjoyed flying to Chiang Mai on a small Caravan plane. Everyone should be so lucky as to experience such a great view of the Shan hills.

Flying directly over Patyng

Duncan