Last Updated on May 20, 2020 by PowersToTravel
When we travel, each night I download our photos to our tiny laptop. We select the best of the day and create a photo collage, and email it off to family and friends, and post it on Facebook – kind of like a newfangled postcard.
This means that I have an entire folder of our trip in a nutshell with pictures and text. All that is missing is the sounds and smells – and I often keep a log of those in addition! So, our gift to you is our 10-day Myanmar adventure and itinerary, in a nutshell, complete with the text we sent home, describing our days.
Day 1 – Arrival in Mandalay
No postcard today – just an afternoon flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Mandalay, Myanmar. We were picked up at the airport by our wonderful guide Boo-boo and driver Chit and transferred to our hotel.
Hotel: Yandarpon Dynasty Hotel
Tour Company: One-Stop Myanmar Tours, and our review
Day 2 – Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa
Mahagandar-Yone Monastery, U Min Thonze Pagoda, Soon U Ponnya Shin, Inwa’s Nanymint, Bagaya Monastery, U Bein Bridge
Hello Friends and Family,
We have arrived in Myanmar and had a full day today, visiting a working monastery and a primary school, seeing bunches of temples, taking a ferry ride, taking a horse cart ride to temples and the derelict old capital of Inwa. We walked on U Bien Bridge (no picture because not enough space!). This city is more dusty, crazy (no traffic lights and 600,000 motorbikes / motorcycles, cows, people carrying goods in baskets on their heads) than I imagined it would be.
Oh, and by the way, our guide’s name is “Boo-Boo”. We don’t think he is aware of how funny that sounds to us. Especially since I had to leave Yogi behind. Greg keeps say “Hey Boo-Boo!” (not really).
Day 3 – Mandalay and Mingun
Shwenandaw Kyaung, Maharmuni Temple, Ku-Tho-Daw Pagoda, Sutaungpyei Pagoda on Mandalay Hill, Mingun: Pondaw Paya, Settawya Paya, Pahtotawgi Paya, the Mingun Bell, Mya Thein Tan Pagoda, boat ride on the Irrawaddy River
What a adventure-fulled day we had again.
So many amazing temples – one in the center of the collage shows how the Myanmar people love to give Buddha a neon aura. The temples are so full of mosaic mirrors and shiny pastel-colored tiles. I’m standing in front of one of the walls. It makes me want to have Greg re-tile the master bathroom!
Another temple picture shows an historic teak temple with awesome carving.
We went to a number of artisan workshops – gold leaf, stonemason, carving, tapistry. Do you think we were able to escape unscathed? Hardly.
One of the pictures shows Greg applying gold leave to a Buddha. He had to pay 2000 kjat for it. ($1.50). Then he got to go up to the inner sanctum with our guide to apply it to Buddha. Women were not allowed. I had to wait outside and take the picture. They actually had the inner sanctum on video monitors and I could have also watched him on the monitor.
We took a long private boat ride up the Irrawaddy River this afternoon to the small town of Mingun. The trip was so relaxing both Greg and I fell asleep for a while (too many interesting pictures to put in the collage to put that one in!) Mingun was also an amazing place, and home to the world’s largest ringing bell, which Greg rung.
We had some very poor pizza for dinner tonight. But the chocolate cake was great.
It is so hard to choose the pictures for the collage because today alone we together took more than 500 and so many interesting ones had to be omitted. One collage / one day is my motto or I’d be up all night.
Tomorrow we will drive with our guide Boo-Boo and driver Chit south to the small town of Monywa, about 4-5 hours away and stay there overnight.
Time for bed.
Day 4 – Monywa
Buddha of Mudon, Caves at Pho Win Taung, Shwe Ba Taung
Hello friends and family,
Thank you for your overwhelming response to the Powers Traveling Subscription service!
Today we got an early start, leaving Mandalay for Monywa, a small town southwest, on the road to India. (We’re not going to India!)
We stopped in a village on the way, and it was an experience. We had felt all along in Myanmar that we were in a 3rd world country, but the village was more like a African “save the children” village than we experienced in the Amazon. We didn’t see any disease or poor health but saw a lot of dirt floors, wandering livestock, trash and bamboo houses. The picture of the women are from that village. I have no idea why the woman was wearing bananas on her head! Boo-Boo had us take the shampoos, etc from our hotel, and we presented them to the older women who were very gracious. Boo-Boo also brought balloons and the adults were more excited to have them than the children (most of the children were obviously at school and only a couple of little ones were around. “Minglabar!” is the Myanmar greeting. We certainly used it there because it was the only word we knew.
We saw the tallest Buddha in Myanmar. Then we ate at a Myanmar restaurant which was not pleasing to us. We had no choice in the food selection and ate very little, and sadly offended the owners.
We went to a 11th century man-made cave system filled with old Buddhas, and accompanied by hundreds of wild monkeys. The villagers there “managed” them, if you could call it that, with sticks and made sure they “behaved themselves” for the few tourists. Our guide had bought a lot of bananas for us to feed the little creatures. It was a lot of fun and the cave system was awesome. We felt like Indiana Jones, with parts of the system looking like Petra.
Tomorrow is our last day with Boo-Boo and Chit the driver. In Bagan we pick up a new guide and driver.
‘Night.
Hotel: King and Queen Hotel (solidly average, if only we had had hot water for the shower!)
Day 5 – Monywa to Bagan
Thanboddhay Pagoda, Panhangyi Monastery, Pakkoku Market, Shwe Ku Pagoda
Hello!
We are arrived in Bagan, which is the major tourist attraction of Myanmar – an area of millions (perhaps not that large) of temples. We are so happy to be here because last night’s lodging at the King and Queen Hotel was a little subpar – the bathroom was one of those “wet-rooms” where the shower just showers the whole room, which wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been hot water! Wendy had a “cool” shower, and Greg chose not to.
Breakfast was a little skimpy too on the western front. A couple of pieces of toast and some omelette with red and green peppers (yuck).
But we got on the road and started our adventures and they did not disappoint. We stopped at a peanut roasting place and Greg bought himself some warm toasty roasted peanuts straight from the roaster.
We visited several more amazing temples. Each one has been unique and interesting. One today had 58,363 Buddhas in it. You have to be very creative (or on some drugs!) to find a way to accomplish that!
We were so excited to have a great lunch at a riverside restaurant offering Chinese food. We had not liked the “Myanmar” cuisine yesterday. This food was really good. On the appetizer menu was “Fried Potato Fingers”, so we thought we’d give them a try. To our surprise we received a plate of krinkle-cut French Fries with sweet and sour sauce!
We stopped at a local market which took my (Wendy’s) breath away. It was the Super-Walmart of Myanmar with strange stalls for every need – especially flashlights. Stalls for face cream, radios, dried fish, vegetables, spices, rice, toys, pots and pans, clothing, books even!
We finally arrived at our riverside hotel in Bagan at 3pm! We were so excited to arrive before dark and while we had a little energy left to take a little walk around. We found some Coke Zero for tonight and tomorrow. The hotel is really nice – with outdoor dining overlooking the river, a swimming pool and spa. Definitely a big step above last night. There’s supposed to be some sort of local music or a marionette show during dinner. We’ll see how it is.
We said goodbye to our guide Boo-Boo and explained to him who Boo-Boo is. I may send him a picture one of these days 🙂 Here’s a link for you if you don’t know either
By the end of our time with Boo-Boo I started calling him “Boo-Boo Google” because he just knew the answer for every question we had.
We get a new guide and driver tomorrow to take us through the next 3 days in Bagan.
Day 6 – Bagan
Oak Kyaung Gyi, Shwe Zi Gone Pagoda, Htilominlo Temple, Dhammayangyi, Sulimani
Hello all,
We finished our first full day in Bagan. Bagan is an amazing place – a plain full of mostly brick temples from the 11th to 13th centuries. Some are new due to reconstruction following earthquakes. The area is dry and dusty; the weather was warm but not terribly hot and not humid.
We saw about eight temples – one gold and the others brick with the remains of plaster frescos inside. There are souvenir vendors clustered around each one. They are very persistent. “Want longyes? Want bracelet? Want painting? Not now? Later? Yes Later? You want? You buy?….” It goes on and on. Some of the smarter ones would chase Greg, “She want bracelet – yes she want it” trying to get him to buy for me. We did buy of course, but not from ones who were chasing us.
We climbed up two temples (rather difficult climbs up some very tall brick steps but in a narrow passageway where we could grip the walls.) The 2nd one was at sunset and we saw the supermoon rising. What you can’t see is the dark stairwell we had to negotiate down. Of course Greg always goes first!
My poor feet. I resent greatly the Buddhist tradition here that requires us to remove socks and shoes. In Mandalay for the most part the temples had tiled floors and were well swept. So while I didn’t like it, it was ok. Here the floors are stone and brick and uneven. Many are well worn over the years, but not all. My poor diabetic feet are uninjured but pulsing.
Our new guide is Min and our driver is “A” (that’s pronounced “Ah” – we don’t know how it is spelled.) The driving here is much less frenetic than in Mandalay. “A” never beeps his horn. Previously Chit was on it all the time!
Tomorrow morning we are up at 4:30am for our Balloon ride!
So that’s it for tonight.
Hotel: Thande Hotel Bagan
Day 8 – Bagan
Balloons over Bagan, Myazedi, Ananda Temple, sunset cruise on the Irrawaddy River
Hello!
We got up at 4:20 am (I woke up much earlier after having a bad dream about missing the balloon ride!)
There were about 20 balloons or so which took off from a field at dawn, and we meandered over the temples area. It was breath-taking and smooth. There were 16 people in the basket (plus the pilot in the center) – the basket had 4 compartments for 4 people, which meant that no one could rush to one side or the other. The pilot was also able to gently spin the balloon in a circle so everyone got all the views. It was especially beautiful because we stayed fairly low and got great views of the temples, and of the other balloons up in the sky. The pictures do not do it justice. Greg has some video I need to put together when we get home.
We had a late breakfast because our balloon pilot missed the landing area and we ended up in the middle of a farmer’s field. But the hotel held up breakfast for us so we didn’t miss out. We went to a lacquer-ware factory where we got the full demonstration, and got to see the artists in action – then of course were invited into the shop to buy. Of course we did.
My feet did better today since many of the temples today had tiled walkways. Ah – the relief.
They make a big deal about the sunset here, and we took a sunset cruise on our personal small boat (picture of a neighboring boat in the collage). It was relaxing but the sunset itself was not worth including in the collage.
Tomorrow is our “Free Day” which means we intend to sleep late, play on the computer and go to the pool. We may wander over to the archaeological museum, but aren’t going to any temples!
Day 9 – Bagan Free Day
Bagan Archaelogical Museum
Hello!
Well, we did what we intended. We got up late (barely making it to breakfast), played with the computer, visited the Archaeological Museum, took a horse carriage ride to a restaurant for lunch, napped, had dinner, and packed for our flight tomorrow.
There were few pictures taken today, so we entertained ourselves by looking back over our pictures of Myanmar and selecting some that show the interesting daily life – a farmer plowing with water buffalo, monks walking on a bridge in Mandalay, monks and novitiates on their daily march in the monastery for 10:30 meal, Boo-Boo giving balloons to school children (nuns are in pink), fish in the market and the view from our hotel room in Bagan. We had to discard so many other pictures.
Tomorrow we fly to Yangon for just the one day, and then off to Vietnam the following day. We’re supposed to see a HUGE gold plated temple in Yangon. Hopefully the sun will shine.
Day 10 – Yangon
Botathaung Pagoda, Chaukhatkyi Pagoda, Bogyoke Market (Scott Market), Shwedagon Pagoda
Hi.
Myanmar, you may not be able to tell from the pictures, has been a very strange place. Mandalay was so hectic but so “African” feeling – women on the street carrying their bundles on their heads, roads with pavement only down the center, filled with motorbikes, so few street lights and every junction a honking free-for-all. We were so happy to have our driver Chit who just honked his way around every day.
We visited a village, and it wasn’t a “tourist” village, but just one that our guide stopped at on our way to Monywa, which is a little off the tourist trail. It was as dirty and more poor than the Amazon village we had visited in Peru. Livestock everywhere – cows, ducks, sheep, chickens, and children playing in the dirt. The houses were bamboo huts with dirt floors. The motorbikes were stored in the houses alongside the beds and tables. One we saw had the double bed outside under an awning. The women were so happy to see us – Boo-Boo our guide had brought Balloons, fairly large strong colorful balloons, and the woman were so happy to have them and play with them. We also brought some of the complimentary bath gel and shampoo from our hotel to give to the women. It was an eye-opening experience.
Then in Bagan, we were in a small agricultural area where the mode of transport was eBikes and horse carts, with tourist cars and buses. It was very relaxing and laid-back, but the people were just as poor, and seemingly so content with their life. We didn’t signs of disease and only maybe one or two beggars, but I’m sure the disease is there, because the doctor only comes once a week for a half-day from down-river on a boat, to treat people.
The balloon ride was just wonderful. So safe – there were 16 of us travelers put into 8 compartments, 4 in each, so there was no scurrying from side to side for the best pictures. We just stood where we were allowed and the pilot was able to spin the balloon in a slow circle so everyone could see all the sights (and sites!)
We haven’t liked the Myanmar food, and have found that Myanmar food is cheapest, followed next by Chinese, followed by Western. But they don’t know really how to make Western, and one pizza we had a week ago gave us diarrhea, (we think it was the cheese) so we have avoided their concept of Western, and ate Lo Mein, Cashew Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork through most of Myanmar. Greg got a little sick on his “cheeseburger” one day, so we think it was the cheese which we are now avoiding. I think I have eaten enough Cashew Chicken for the next year!
The Myanmar food is not spicy, does have curry, but the quality of the pork or chicken in the kind of stew they make is very poor quality. It’s like someone has randomly taken a cleaver to a chicken and you might get a knuckle portion, next to a neck! So Chinese has been the best. Somehow they have been cooking with better quality meat for the Chinese food. In Thailand I ate Pad Thai (which is that noodle dish we introduced you to once at the Thai restaurant in Newport) almost every day, every meal. It was good. Now at this point I would be happy to have some more and skip the Cashew Chicken!
On to Vietnam…
Hotel: Sule Shangri-La, definitely luxury!
Click here for all my Myanmar posts, including the videos.
If you want to follow our itinerary through our entire 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey, click here for the next country, Vietnam
