Journeys With Stephen

Tag: Myanmar

  • Unique Myanmar culture seen through short videos

    Unique Myanmar culture seen through short videos

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    My posts tend to be heavy with photos to better describe the travel experience; but the unique Myanmar culture seen through videos is an opportunity to even better explore this fascinating land. I provide a little background to set the stage for each short video (most are around a minute long for easy watching).

    It is difficult to generalize about Myanmar, a country with so many ethnicities and different regions. I travel from the city of Yangon to the countryside of Bagan to the city of Mandalay to the remote Inle Lake. I find many cultural similarities, such as conservative Buddhism, as well as many differences, especially from urban to rural life.

    Let’s start with clothing. Most men and women wear a sarong in everyday life, called a “longyi.” But did you know that in some areas, a fabric, appearing to be silk, is actually thread made from the stems of the lotus plant? The video below shows how this fascinating thread is made and then woven on traditional teak hand looms.

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    Now, outfitted in a blouse and longyi, a woman in Bagan will carry rice and other food to the monastery in stacked lacquered dishes. How to carry it? On her head, as this video demonstrates.

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    This is a serious Buddhist country, with about a half million monks. In fact, most boys and some girls between the age of 10 and 16 go to live a short while in a monastery. This video shows young monks at the Mahagandayon monastery in Mandalay in line to accept offerings for lunch. I’m told that monks are not allowed to eat after noon.

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    I happen to be in Yangon on a holy day and to witness people paying respect to the Buddha in the temple among a sea of candles.

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    We have seen inside, but nothing compares to the sheer brilliance of the gold Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. Said to have been built more than 2,600 years ago, this famous stupa is covered in gold leaf, hammered almost paper-thin. It also contains sacred relics, the artifacts of the four previous Buddhas.

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    In western culture, it can be said to “make a wish upon a star.” Here in Myanmar, one makes a wish by lifting a stone. The video below shows how it’s done. Will his wish come true?

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    Now it is time to leave the urban life and explore the fascinating countryside. Here, we can imagine how life for some people has changed little over the years. A woman in this video is making traditional rice cakes as she no doubt learned from her mother. Now she shows her daughter how it’s done.

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    You can’t get more rustic than using a bull to make peanut oil out of peanuts. Even I tried my hand for a couple of rotations. The bull does all the work, but it still takes an hour!

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    Speaking of taking a lot of time, I watch an intricate tapestry being made that will take two people as long as three months to complete. Artisans seem to be everywhere in Mandalay.

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    Who doesn’t love a puppet show? I am lucky enough to meet an accomplished puppeteer in his shop, which is lined with wooden puppets of all shapes and sizes. Watch his little performance.

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    I am intrigued by the handcrafted items, made the same way for generations. The video below shows a craftsman making containers by hand.

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    One of striking curiosities of Myanmar culture is the habit of smoking the betel nut wrapped in its leaves to form a tobacco. Sometimes the nuts are chewed, staining one’s teeth and mouth a bright red. The short-term effects are like a strong caffeine high. The long-term effects are predictably worse.

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    It is time to move to even more remote areas in the north. To navigate Inle Lake we travel by several kinds of boats. Most unique is the boat guided by the Inthe fishermen, who live in stilted houses on the lakeshore. The rower stands on one leg and paddles with his other foot. You need to watch the video to appreciate the technique.

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    We venture further into northern Myanmar to encounter the Kayan tribe women with their long neck rings. Legend has it the rings emulate the magical power of the ancient Dragon Mother. The slow, progressive process of neck ring wearing (up to 14 inches!) is described in this video.

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    Our final video is one of my favorites. A motorbike ride from Inle Lake takes us to a local market, where we discover mostly exotic foods. Even the familiar foods are a long way from the processed variety of the western world. Naturally, I try a little of everything, which results in a bout of food poisoning – a reminder that sometimes it’s better to look, not taste.

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    You don’t really need video to show thanaka, the face painting that distinguishes Myanmar people from other Southeast Asians. In fact, the girl pictured here is the subject of another article I wrote, Myanmar woman working in a Bangkok market. Masks made of thanaka powder are believed to improve complexion, protect against the sun, and to be flattering. Just another unique aspect of Myanmar culture!

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    Do you have any Myanmar stories to share or suggestions to help others? Please comment at the bottom of this post. Disclaimer: I only spend a week in Myanmar, learning much from the perspective of four different local guides. I still have a lot to learn!

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    What’s upscale?

    I choose a private luxury tour of the country, because I want to experience the most in my limited time and do it in comfort.

    What’s budget?

    In general, the cost of living is reasonable, including food. And only a nominal fee to visit all those temples.

     

     

     

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  • Myanmar in a magical time machine

    Myanmar in a magical time machine

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    Modern culture is creeping into this South East Asian jewel. There is now a KFC in downtown Yangon. Toyotas are gridlocked from the airport to downtown. The National League for Democracy wins in a free election. Yes, Myanmar is rushing into the 21st century, seemingly skipping a few hundred years in the process. My advice to you – get here as soon as you can.

    I was fortunate to spend some time in Myanmar right before the historic national elections. There was excitement in the air. Rallies were held in the dusty streets of even small cities and villages. Businesses planned to close so their employees could travel back to their hometowns to vote (no one trusted absentee ballots). Yes, the election would have corruption. One village of 5,000 people had 12,000 registered voters, some known to be dead. Still, spirits were high. This is the dawn of a new, post-military era. “The Lady” (Aung San Suu Kyi) is back, stronger than ever.

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    Yet, with all this “progress,” Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) seems to be the magical land that time forgot. Travel just outside of a city and one sees Brahma bulls pulling carts and local markets where barter is a typical form of payment. Rice is grown in the summer, garlic in winter. Tomatoes grow on floating islands, held in place by long bamboo sticks.

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    Monks are everywhere. Indeed, every boy must become a monk, at least for a short while, some forever. One region, Bagan, has 4,416 temples. It’s like Angkor Wat on steroids. It is South East Asia without the hoards of tourists.

    I interviewed Hinn Moe Wai, Joint General Secretary of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA). She kindly invited me to attend the Thadingyut Lighting Festival, a big national holiday in Myanmar. She spoke of the challenges of expanding tourism in a country largely known to the Western world for its military-backed government, regulations, and infrastructure issues. Add repression and income inequality to that list. There are still areas she called “a little unstable” and off-limits to foreign travelers.

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    Visitors soared past 1 million in 2013, then doubled in 2014 and could hit 5 million in 2015. This has put a strain on infrastructure. Hotel rates have skyrocketed, as demand for better quality rooms exceeds supply. What that means to the upscale traveler on a budget is that your hotel costs will be higher than in neighboring Thailand and other South East Asia countries. New build was slow due to a lack of trust in landholders and developers, but that is changing rapidly.

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    Infrastructure issues also manifest themselves in other ways. The easiest way to travel between major tourist areas is to fly. Trains are the butt of jokes and busses can eat a lot of time out of your travel plans. ATMs are finally starting to appear, but few local establishments take credit cards. The Internet in many places is spotty or slow at best. This is what it means to be off the grid!

    Buying tickets online is a challenge. It’s one of the reasons I recommend the upscale traveler use an agency, such as One Stop Travel, to handle everything. They provided me with a local guide and driver for each region, whose knowledge and help were priceless.

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    What to make of a land both stuck in a magical time machine and rushing to be a modern tourist destination? It occurs to me that Myanmar is a little like Thailand must have been 20-30 years ago. We still love Thailand, but today it is harder to find the unbridled charm, the undiscovered beach or village life. That is still possible in Myanmar. But it won’t be forever. Get here as soon as you can. It is only a one-hour flight from Bangkok.

    Speaking of Thailand, some 2.6 million people have left Myanmar to live in Thailand, most in search of higher wages. You can read my story about a Myanmar woman working in a Bangkok market.

    I plan to write a number of posts going into more depth on life in Myanmar from my visits to Yangon, Bagan, Mount Popa, Mandalay, Inle Lake and elsewhere. Stay tuned!

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    What’s upscale?

    I used One Stop Travel & Tours to handle flights, hotels, guides, meals – everything, and I saved a lot of time and hassle. I highly recommend them, even if you are used to navigating on your own.

    I stayed in some pretty good 4-star properties.

    What’s budget?

    Except for hotels, most expenses are quite reasonable, especially the tasty Burmese food.

    Flights from Bangkok, as well as within the country, are cheap.

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  • Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

    Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

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    Am I really 14 1/2 hours ahead of Los Angeles? Why am I now craving pizza in a land of delectable Thai food? Do I even care about the U.S. news anymore? These are just some of the reflections from a month on the road in Asia. And I spend a lot of months away from home. What reflections do you have when you change your latitude?

    Apologies to Jimmy Buffett, who ran into a chum with a bottle of rum, and we wound up drinkin’ all night. I have no such excuse for what I am writing now, but it strikes me there are some tips and advice in here somewhere. So here goes, still under the influence of jetlag.

     

    #1. I only suffer jetlag returning from Asia. Thanks, NASA!

    Yes, studies by NASA and others with lots of degrees behind their names have told us that it is harder to adjust our body clocks when traveling from west to east. NASA’s chief of fatigue management (nice title) also says it takes about a day to adjust for every time zone. So when I drop back 15 hours flying from China to the U.S., I’m supposed to take a couple of weeks to adjust?

    After a decade of those flights, I have yet to figure out how to beat the system. I have tried Ambien and Melatonin and eye masks and alcohol and abstention. Frankly, nothing works, although I am usually pretty normal in 4-5 days. If you have the magic answer, let me and countless others know by commenting below.

     

    #2. What time is it? In fact, what day is it? Do I even care?

    I’m sitting in Yangon, Myanmar contemplating a Skype call to California. My world clocks app tells me to adjust back 14.5 hours. So, I email the family to expect a call from me sometime yesterday. Except it is 3:00am there, so they don’t see the email anyway.

    That reminds me that I have lost track of what day of the week it is. I got to Myanmar on a Thursday, I think, but it was a holiday, and who has a holiday on Thursday? Oh yeah, Lunar calendar, full moon, got it. At this point do I even care what day of the Roman calendar we are on? I will just let people back home know I am hopelessly lost in time.

     

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    #3. Why am I craving pizza, pasta and Mexican food?

    The menu in Thailand is full of delectable items, from Tom Yum Goong to Pad Thai to Duck in Red Curry. So many wonderful choices. Why am I craving Italian and Mexican food? I don’t know if NASA has studied this, but after several weeks in Asia, I start dreaming about cheeseburgers in paradise.

    My theory, and I don’t have a PhD, is that Americans like to eat all kinds of cuisines on a regular basis. We will eat pasta one day, burritos the next, then Chinese, then pizza, then fish, then a salad, and so on. In China, they eat Chinese food – every day. OK, it’s incredibly delicious, but eventually even KFC looks good to me. Is that normal?

     

    #4. Security and shoes and chargers and Global Entry

    Airport security in the U.S. sucks. There, I said it. Please don’t put me on a watch list. On my recent trip to Asia I take 12 flights. The toughest security measures are in trying to leave LAX. I’m Global Entry and TSA Pre. It doesn’t matter. Stand in a long line. Take out every electronic device, in fact, anything sort of metal. Take everything out of your pockets.

    Take off your shoes. On December 22, 2001, a guy had explosives hidden in his shoes. Since then, about 10 billion American flyers have had to remove their shoes. It is the only one of my 12 flights where I have to do that. Then again, we don’t get blown up.

    To be fair, I have had device chargers confiscated in China. To solve the problem, I bought my latest charger in China. Also to be fair, Global Entry does work on returning to the U.S. from abroad. This time arriving at LAX, I make it from gate to kiosk to curb in 15 minutes. It’s the best $100 the government will ever take from you.

     

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    #5. Am I looking forward to traffic on the 405 freeway?

    It’s 8:00pm, and I have naively waited for rush hour to clear a little. I’m taking a taxi from central Bangkok to the airport. But there’s a problem. I’ve been in the taxi for 20 minutes and haven’t made it from the hotel to the street yet; traffic is virtually stopped. Eventually we inch along a pace that is slower than walking. And I have a flight to catch. It’s like that every day here.

    Of course, it could be worse. I have come from Myanmar, where every form of transportation is an adventure. Yangon, which doesn’t allow motorbikes, is now overrun by cars, and without the roads to support them. Trains are the butt of all jokes. Busses are slightly better.

    Near Myanmar’s Inle Lake, I am faced with a 40-minute walk to the market. The solution is to jump in the back of a sort of motorized wagon, as we bounce over the muddy, rutted path. I ride on the back of a motorbike on the way back. It is one of the US$400 models made across the border in China. I tell him to “take it slow.” It hardly matters.

    Yes, when I encounter an accident and Sig Alert on L.A.’s 405 freeway on the final leg of my journey, it seems almost acceptable. I’m driving a Lexus on a real highway. I’m sure traffic will clear anytime now.

     

    #6. Why am I starting not to care about news from the U.S.?

    When I first leave the U.S., I find myself checking the ESPN website, reading The New York Times International Edition and searching for CNN on TV. With each passing day my interest in U.S. news wanes. “What was the score in yesterday’s football game?” becomes “Is my team still playing?” morphing into “Why is every football game on TV played with a round ball?”

    I am reminded just how U.S.-centric the news is in America by how many interesting stories are presented to me internationally that would never be covered in the States. I can’t avoid the global news – there’s a television built into my bathroom mirror. I become a citizen of the world. I feel more intelligent. Still not smart enough to understand rugby from Australia. “That guy was tackled and down! Why is play still going on?”

     

    [/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Kayan women Inle Lake Myanmar” src=”https://journeyswithstephen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Kayan-women-Inle-Lake-Myanmar.jpg” alt=”Kayan women Inle Lake Myanmar” title_text=”Kayan women Inle Lake Myanmar” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

    #7. I’m still glad I carry a drug store in a Ziploc bag

    Bugs are attracted to me. Mosquitoes think I am dessert. How else can I explain the several bites that are showing up on my arm? And I am inside the convention center in Bangkok. Thank goodness a tube a Benadryl is as close as my hotel room inside my drug store in a Ziploc bag, fully explained in another post.

    How charming and quaint was the building on stilts as our longtail boat pulls up to the dock. Inside we find some ladies from Myanmar’s Kayan tribe, with their long neck rings, weaving and selling clothing. We have stepped back in time. Unfortunately, my stomach has taken a step back also. Nothing in that local store can take the place of the western medicine I carry with me. My drug store in a Ziploc bag comes through again, as it does time after time.

     

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    #8. It’s going to take 31 hours to get home?

    I enjoy looking at those old ads for Pan Am or TWA, showing well dressed people smiling as they are served their steak dinners in-flight. These days the romance is gone. We treat flights as almost a necessary evil.

    I am both upscale and on a budget, so I enjoy the comforts of a lay-flat bed on Asiana, but still endure an 8-hour layover in Seoul to save hundreds of dollars. I’ve done all the free tours of Seoul, offered as a nice perk by the airport, so this time I confine myself to the business lounge.

     

    #9. Final reflections

    Reading departure signs in some big airport
    Reminds me of the places I’ve been.
    Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
    Makes me want to go back again.

    You got that right, Jimmy.

    I may be tired and jetlagged, but already dreaming of the next trip. On this one I make new travel friends from all over the world, visit old friends, see a new country in the midst of historic change, and as usual, come back a little wiser about this planet we inhabit.

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