Bagan: Beautiful People, Beautiful Place

My trip to Bagan was highly anticipated to say the least. Semester at Sea obviously hired a seasoned veteran to advertise this particular trip, because I was sold from the minute I read these words:

 

“Bagan is a truly mesmerizing destination, and often the favorite of seasoned travelers. Bagan can only be described as amazing and enchanting. You will experience the essence of Myanmar in a place still largely unaffected by the 21st century. Nobody leaves disappointed, only engrossed.”

 

Ok, Semester at Sea.

 

You got me.

 

So, from the minute we landed in Bagan, I had a feeling that this place was going to be different than anywhere before it. Even the airport was unlike anything I had seen before. I think the same guy who flew the plane was also the one to unload our bags, walk us through immigration, and lead us to our busses. No joke.

 

 

We arrived late in the day after our full day tour of Yangon and two blisteringly hot flights (seriously, I just can’t even explain the sweat), so we regrouped quickly at our hotel and headed out to dinner at a local restaurant. Not only were we treated to yet another amazing Burmese meal, but we had the opportunity to watch a cultural marionette show while we ate. While at first this felt like another inauthentic ‘Cambodian dance’ experience (please see ‘Cambodia Called: The Temples Are Here’), I actually felt as though I got a better sense of the Burmese people through their performance. The music was happy and light and the characters were jovial and satirical. There was a lot of laughter in the air around that dinner.

 

 

Afterwards, I was exhausted, so I finally treated my body to more than just a few hours of sleep.

 

It was thankful.

 

The next morning we got our first taste of Burmese hospitality in the form of a private sunrise buffet breakfast outside of our hotel. The meal and the atmosphere were beautiful and the service was so attentive and helpful that I felt as though I was eating a meal with close friends. Such a peaceful way to start the day!

 

 

From there, we started a very full day of sightseeing and touring all over Bagan. We began our morning the way that many locals do by visiting the daily food and vegetable market. At first, we were so out of place that I felt as though we were intruding on their personal space.

 

 

But this market, like so many others in Southeast Asia, had begun to cater to tourists as well. So where the fresh cut meat and homegrown vegetables ended, the ridiculous souvenirs and locally designed clothing began.  But the ingratiating smiles still seemed to abound everywhere.

 

 

After we had been given jasmine for our hair by local women and samples of food from the gracious vendors, we continued on our tour with our first of what would be many pagodas over the next two days. This particular pagoda, Shwe Zigon Zedi, was painted completely in gold and was stunning in the morning sunlight. We wandered around just mesmerized by the intricacies and details that set this site apart from many of the others.

 

 

Just outside the pagoda sat our next mode of transportation waiting to take us to another pagoda. What might that have been, you ask?

 

PONY CARTS! DUH!

 

 

At first I was beyond excited. We were finally getting the chance to weave our way through all the temples without being restricted to the tiny amount of actual roads in town. Then I remembered one inconvenient detail: I’m incredibly allergic to horses.

 

Oh well, as they say on Semester at Sea—YOLO!

 

Onward, Seabiscuit!

 

This part of the tour was hands-down my favorite. The horses were able to take us among hundreds of pagodas and temples, over the dirt roads of the desert to places where there were no roads at all. Our driver stopped every few hundred yards for us to take pictures of the various famous pagodas, and we laughed and talked the entire ride. It was really magical to watch the scenery and realize just how lucky and blessed we were to be there.

 

 

Our horse’s final destination was yet another pagoda called Ananda, which is one of the most famous in the region of Bagan. It had some of the most beautiful niches and Buddhas we had seen all day.

 

 

The rest of the day seemed to fly by in a blur of culture and temples.

 

We stopped at a small elementary school and fed school children their afternoon meal.

 

 

We ate lunch at a gorgeous garden restaurant overlooking the water.

 

 

We visited a temple with a giant reclining Buddha.

 

 

And last but not least… We climbed to the top of a pagoda for a breath-taking panoramic view of Bagan.

 

 

THIS PLACE WAS AMAZING!

 

We climbed down, well, more like reluctantly crawled down, and continued on our way to our sunset destination—the Irrawady River.

 

 

We boarded boats and set out to watch the incredible sunset on the river. The sunsets in Southeast Asia are especially amazing because the sun turns a deep purply-red before it finally falls behind the last clouds over the horizon. I still haven’t been able to quite capture it’s awesomeness with my limited camera and iPhone, but I still try every time.

 

 

By the time the sun had set, our tummies were rumbling. Then, after an hour drive in the bus, our mouths were grumbling. Where on EARTH could be we going and what in the WORLD was taking so long?! The questions increased as we turned down a dark alley into what appeared to be a quiet neighborhood. These same questions got louder and more concerned as we descended from the bus and began our walk down the dirt path in front of us. What’s happening?!

 

But then… we saw it…

 

 

An entire pagoda lit with every version of pink and orange and purple and red imaginable.

 

And next to it, was our dinner.

 

 

It turns out, that while we had been driving around ‘aimlessly,’ workers were scrambling to put tiki-torches in the ground to light our walkway to a beautifully decorated, candle lit dinner. They had cooked the meal several miles away and driven it to the pagoda to then set up a kitchen on site to add the finishing touches for us. They had even planned a performance with two Burmese men in an elephant suit performing acrobatics with musicians playing in the background. Seriously.

 

 

These people are just something else!! I can’t stress enough how amazing they were. So attentive and caring. So selfless and ingratiating. The whole evening was among the most memorable of my trip.

 

The next morning, a few of us separated from the bigger group to try and catch the sunrise. We rented bikes from the hotel and cruised through the desert to the Shew San Taw pagoda, which was famous for its sunrise view. We climbed 50 nearly vertical stairs up the side of the pagoda and were rewarded with one of the best views I have ever seen in my life.

 

 

Sunrise. Pagodas. Hot-air balloons. Trees. Desert. Colors. Skyline.

 

AHHHHHH AWESOME!

 

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. All of the greatness of the pony rides without any of the sneezing. Perfect.

 

After getting our minds blown by the beauty of Bagan at sunrise, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast followed by a ride to Mount Popa, another one of Bagan’s main attractions. The mountain itself is actually part of a volcano that erupted years ago on top of which monks have constructed a gorgeous Buddhist temple. It was a sight to say the very least.

 

 

We climbed the over 700 stairs to the top… And by us, I mean me and the monkeys, of course.

 

 

Those little guys were everywhere!

 

The view was pretty amazing, but we were in for an even better one before we knew it. After we made our way down, we drove to Mount Popa Resort for a relaxing afternoon of lunch and lounging. The resort was stunning and serene and everything we wanted after days and days of pagodas in the Burmese heat. And the view… like I said, did not disappoint.

 

 

That afternoon after lunch we did a handful of other random activities including a stop at a sugar mill, one last visit to the local market for souvenirs, and of course, one final pagoda. It was magnificent so nobody complained of pagoda overload.

 

 

When I was standing on the top of that last pagoda, I experienced a very unfamiliar feeling. Something that I had yet to encounter thus far on Semester at Sea. Something that I hadn’t realized had been missing until I felt it.

 

I did not want to leave.

 

While that may not sound like all that novel of a thought to you, it was for me. Every other trip had ended right as I was ready to leave. 3 days in Tokyo, 4 days in Beijing, 3 days in Angkor, even 2 days in Singapore were just the right amount for me.

 

But 2 days in Bagan… it just wasn’t enough.

 

The entire drive to the airport, the entire flight to Yangon, and the entire bus ride to the ship, I tried to figure out why. The city was magical, and I fell in love with it, but why? Why hadn’t I felt this way about Cambodia as did many of my fellow travelers? Or Vietnam? What was it about this place that had me so captivated that I was actually sad when I boarded the plane to leave?

 

I thought through everything from the previous two days and found only one pervasive, salient quality that had woven together all of my time in Bagan.

 

It was the Burmese people.

 

The people defined every part of this place for me. They created the environment of peace and calm and splendor that I had rested and reveled in for days. They were the majesty of the pagodas. They were the taste of the food. They were the light of the sunrises and sunsets. They were happy, welcoming, inviting, open, playful, affectionate, silly, kind, beautiful.

 

I finally felt what others had felt for Cambodia… Vietnam… Japan… I had fallen in love with a country, a place, a people. I felt connected to them in some strange, undeserving way. What struck me most was the simplicity of their lives. They had almost nothing, and yet were so at peace, so thankful, so generous with whatever they did have. It was inspirational in every sense of the word.

 

The people of Burma are the real reason why I will definitely come back here.

 

The sunrises are just a nice perk.

 

 

I remember being so incredulous toward people who had returned from other ports raving about how much they ‘loved’ this country or that city. How they had some life-changing experience, some crazy realization from one conversation or one temple. I scoffed. Audibly. No you didn’t. You were only there for 3 days. How could you have possibly ‘fallen in love’ with a port that fast?

 

Well, people, I did.

 

I guess now I’m the crazy one.

 

I <3 Burma!

 

Question of the Day: What is your favorite place in the world?

 

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing for Burma

After our very brief stop in Singapore, we had just three days to recalibrate for Burma, which was easily one of the most highly anticipated ports on our trip. Semester at Sea had not visited Burma (now Myanmar) since 2006, so the ship was on particularly high alert in preparation for our landing.

 

Unfortunately, that landing was delayed.

 

I think we all expected a certain degree of difficulty in dealing with the Burmese government (and possibly Burma in general), but maybe not as quickly as it came. Before we even neared the waters surrounding the country, we were informed that ‘routine’ river maintenance was going to occur on the day of our debarkation. Because the Burmese government has incredibly stringent immigration laws, this process would delay our entry into the country by about 10 hours, ultimately shortening the length of our stay in the country from 5 days to 4 days.

 

Total bummer.

 

So the day that we began our trip up the river to our port, we knew we had some time to kill. We enjoyed the onboard pool deck and slowly took in the changing scenery around us. As we watched the beautiful blue sea turn a dark muddy brown, we were all a bit intrigued as to what our experiences would be once we finally arrived.

 

 

But after laying out, working out, eating a leisurely lunch, and laying out again, I was relaxed and ready to see what Burma was all about. By the time we arrived and debriefed with a few ambassadors who had boarded the ship, it was about 5pm in the afternoon. Naturally we were all itching to get into town and see what there was to see.

 

But this too, had to wait.

 

All of our ports prior to the one in Burma had been within a reasonable distance to ‘town’. By reasonable, I mean spitting distance.

 

Except Singapore. No spitting in Singapore!

 

In Japan, we could walk to Yokohama. In Shanghai and Hong Kong we could hit the nearest skyscraper with a rock. In Vietnam, the lights of Saigon cast shadows over the ship.

 

But in Burma, we made port at a lumber yard and had an hour and a half shuttle bus ride to Yangon.

 

 

Not exactly convenient.

 

But from the moment those busses came in sight, I knew that we were in for a treat. Next to the busses was a welcoming committee like none other before it. Dancers and banners united to greet us with smiles and cheering. I knew from that moment on, that these people were going to be different than any others we had experienced thus far.

 

 

Longyis (those skirts in the picture) and laughter were everywhere!

 

So off we went to explore the largest city of this enigmatic port: Yangon (or Rangoon).

 

Once we arrived, we realized just how incredibly unprepared we were. Every other stop was at least somewhat ‘touristy.’ Not touristy in the sense that the local people knew we would be visiting or that there were people selling things everywhere, but in that there was some sort of infrastructure that allowed foreigners to successfully navigate the city.

 

Yangon had none of that.

 

But it did have a lot of pagodas.

 

 

Thankfully, we ran into our savior for the day, Chase. Chase is dating a fellow shipmate and was traveling in the country to surprise her. He had visited Burma before and had made friends with a local boy, and between the two of them, we figured out where to get money, and more importantly, where to get food. After our slightly sketchy encounter with a money changer (don’t worry, I made sure we got at least something close to the right rate), we headed into Chinatown for dinner at Shwe Mingalar.

 

But again, not so fast.

 

Boy, did we get lost.

 

This city was just so incredibly different than any we had seen before. No street signs. No English anywhere (which was surprisingly available elsewhere). No easy way to get around other than walking, which is really not something I would call ‘easy’ in this case. The streets were supposedly numbered, but there was no comprehensible way to figure out which number you were on. And our damn map had about half as many streets as there were actual roads. Tough travel to say the least.

 

But eventually we found it. And we celebrated!

 

 

With Myanmar beers of course!

 

 

And just wow… Chase really delivered on the food! This place was phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. That meal kicked off what would be an amazing food adventure in Burma. Not only that, but all seven of us had full meals, beers, and waters for less than $40 USD TOTAL. So happy to be out of Singapore and back in the land of a good, cheap meal.

 

After our amazing meal, we wandered around town for an hour or so before the last shuttle would leave to take us back to the ship. Had we realized at the time, that we could get a taxi from Yangon to the ship (again, this was over an hour away) for less than $10 USD, I’m sure we would have stayed out all night. Considering we all had very early on-ship times, it’s probably better that we were in the dark on that one.

 

During our late-ish night wanderings we stumbled on a public religious service that showcased what I was told was one of the most famous monks in Burma. Pretty awesome stuff.

 

 

When we finally found our way back to the bus, we were all exhausted. This place had already taken so much more mental and physical energy than the other ports. I was honestly worried that Burma just wouldn’t be all that great—that I might not like it. I was discouraged by this first encounter with Yangon’s dirt and difficulty that I thought Bagan would be exactly the same, and not at all the oasis I had expected.

 

I would eventually be proven incredibly wrong, but that is yet to come.

 

The next morning, we had a proper tour of Yangon before heading to the airport to travel to Bagan. This had not been in my original plans, but because of the delay in arrival, it was added last minute. I’m definitely thankful, though, because we got to see a lot of the finer parts of town that would have been difficult to explore otherwise.

 

The Shweddagon Pagoda was our first stop of the day, and it was magnificent.

 

 

The locals use it as a town square. People come with picnic lunches, bring their whole families, go on dates, you name it! It was amazing to see their interactions and the generally friendly demeanor that would come to define the local culture for me. I just can’t stress enough how beautiful these people are. Happy, loving, playful, affectionate, ingratiating—not only with each other, but with us as well.

 

 

I decided to get really into the experience and get my Buddha on.

 

Fit pretty nicely, if you ask me.

 

 

From there we hit a few more town highlights including:

 

Bo Aung San Market

 

 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s house

 

 

And of course, the Burmese airport… which was a SIGHT, let me tell you…

 

 

That was literally the whole thing airport. This picture. And the flights were announced by one man with a picket sign with the flight number on it. Pretty low tech, to say the least. But the Burmese and Buddhist colored chairs were a nice touch.

 

But once again, we were thwarted by a delay.

 

However, this delay gave me some good life perspective. We had two flights to get to Burma, and a layover in Mandalay, but these were no ordinary flights. This plane was incredibly old, had two propellers, and oh, NO AIR CONDITIONING!

 

 

I cannot possible describe to you people how hot a small airplane can get on a tarmac in Mandalay when the sun is setting and it is still at least 40 degrees Celsius outside.

 

It’s so damn hot.

 

So, henceforth, I will never (yes, never) complain about a flight again. I type this while staring an 11 hour flight home from Milan in the face at the end of May… but still. That was one of the most miserable flying experiences to date.

 

So thank you, Burma, for the perspective.

 

But as we landed in Bagan, there sprouted up a teeny tiny glimmer of hope as the setting sun illuminated the tips of the pagodas on the horizon. Even from thousands of feet in the air, this place looked magical. I absolutely couldn’t wait for the adventures that lie ahead.

 

 

So while my first day and a half in Burma was a lot of sitting, waiting, and wishing for something I could not yet see, the rest of the time was spectacular, and Burma quickly became my favorite port of the trip thus far.

 

Stayed tuned for the next post to find out why!

 

Question of the Day: What was your worst flying experience? (I can always use a little more perspective.)

 

Making the Most of a Short Stay in Singapore

The two days at sea after departing from Ho Chi Minh City went by in a flash that was just long enough to have laundry done (thank goodness!) and write a couple words about Vietnam. Then, before we could blink, we arrived in Singapore.

 

Our pre-port preparation for Singapore was pretty straight-forward, which was a welcome relief. For several consecutive ports we had been warned of the perils of dengue fever mosquitos in Cambodia, the prevalence of malaria in rural China, and the ways in which we could be drugged or otherwise taken advantage of in Hong Kong. Needless to say, we needed a port where our greatest concerns were laws against chew gum or spiting on the ground.

 

Because of our short 2-day stay and the relative lack of concerns for our immediate health and safety, my friends Natalie, Keaton, and I decided to do Singapore on the fly. On the day we arrived, we hopped off the ship and headed for downtown, without any real plans in mind.

 

The Singaporean government is a bit, well, let’s just say ‘particular’ about the comings and goings of persons in their country, so by the time we got off the ship, it was time for lunch. Because it had been nearly one whole month since our stop in Japan (seriously, wow), all three of us were crazing sushi. I had missed out on the conveyor belt sushi experience while in Tokyo, so we decided to make our first stop at Ngee Ann City (also known as Takashimaya) to visit the restaurant Sushi Tei for some quality fish.

 

 

That meal was our first realization that we had taken a brief step out of the developing world. The restaurant bill plus state tax plus compulsory gratuity was between $25-30 USD per person—a bit of a sobering departure from our $2 pho and $0.50 beers in Vietnam. Once we had recalibrated the value spectrum of our port, it was on to see some sights.

 

All three of us agreed that with such little time, we just wanted to get a quick survey of the city to see the most we could in the fastest way possible. So we went with one of my favorite options: the open-air, hop on, hop off tour bus.

 

 

I know these look dorky, and I ALWAYS make fun of people riding them in New York, but they are seriously the best way to see a small city in the shortest amount of time. Plus they double as a taxi and they triple as a tour guide. I’m a value shopper, and I think that’s a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

 

Which you did by reading the blog.

 

Our first stop off the bus was Little India, one of the largest ethnic neighborhoods in the city. We walked up and down Serangoon Road, taking in the smell of jasmine flowers and wondering what India might be like in just a few short weeks. We made a little stop at the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple along the way, and the road finally ended at a massive shopping mall called the Mustafa Centre where we loaded up on cheap supplies for the rest of the voyage.

 

 

Back onto the bus we hopped, and we continued the tour around the city as we passed the Raffles Hotel, the Singapore Flyer (which I’m told is the biggest Ferris wheel in the world), the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino, the Esplanade, the Fullerton Hotel and the famous Singaporean Murlion. The skyline there really rivals Hong Kong is some ways, and I was so happy to see it from so many different angles.

 

 

We decided to hop off the bus at a different ethnic neighborhood that had become all too familiar in the weeks prior: Chinatown!

 

Thankfully, they were still celebrating the Lunar New Year, so we had plenty of vendor stalls to try out and sights and smells to experience. The whole area had such an authentic feel to it that we were momentarily sent back to our short stays in Shanghai and Beijing.

 

Oh, what a difference a port makes.

 

 

I sampled some herbal medicines, bought a new dress, ate a questionably famous egg tart, and decided it was time for our next move. By then it was late afternoon, so we headed back to the ship to rest and get ready for the night out—which was highly anticipated, to say the least. When we only have one night in port, people tend to go a little crazy, and Singapore was no exception.

 

Our first stop was Clarke Quay—a strip of bars and restaurants that notoriously caters to expats traveling through Singapore. I had expected a dingy road, like any other bar alley, but when I stepped out of the cab I was floored by what I saw.

 

 

The place was gorgeous! Bright lights and people everywhere! Even a fun fountain to play in!

 

I was sold.

 

 

While I could have stayed there all night, running in and out of bars, sitting aimlessly on the foot-traffic bridge, or just taking in the chaos, there was a bigger agenda on the minds of our constituents.

 

Zouk.

 

By the time we arrived, this local bar had achieved almost mythical status among Semester at Sea students. Zouk was supposed to be the club to end all clubs. The craziest party of all time. The one stop you HAD to make while experiencing the Singaporean nightlife.

 

Guess what: it was.

 

I’ll spare you the details and instead share some pictures.

 

Let your imagination run wild(ish).

 

 

 

 

(Picture blurriness is intended to add to the effect. Just in case you were curious.)

 

Needless to say, we were up WAY too late. The next day, it was decided that the only cultural activities we had the tolerance and acumen to try were food and drink related. So we headed off the ship (a little later than usual) to experience all that Singaporean cuisine had to offer.

 

Our first stop was a traditional breakfast of kaya toast, runny eggs, and sweet coffee. This simple meal can be found at what your local Singaporean version of Starbucks called Ya Kun Kaya. We finally found one back in Chinatown. It was phenomenal.

 

 

After that we went in search of the famed cultural dish of Singapore: chilli crab. I’ll pause to note that people might argue that Singapore doesn’t exactly have its own culture, let alone cuisine. Now that I have visited, I definitely disagree with that opinion. But if that’s the case, this is the closest thing that you will get to it. Mud crabs fried and covered in tomato chili sauce—not shabby.

 

Just avoid the brain. They don’t take it out for you.

 

 

From there we decided to keep the merriment (and drinking) going with the country’s signature drink, the Singapore Sling, at none other than its birthplace, the Raffles Hotel. I was warned in advance that this would be a very expensive cultural experience, but having lived just outside of Manhattan, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be too sticker-shocked.

 

Idiot.

 

 

These damn things were more than $30 a piece!

 

Don’t worry, though. We ate our weight in free peanuts. Take that, Sir Raffles.

 

 

After our drinks, it was getting really close to on-ship time (the 2 hr. mark before the ship sets sail), so we scrambled back to make sure we wouldn’t miss our moving home. Thankfully, the boat was backed up to the skyline, so I was able to snag one more photo before we sailed away. This one’s for everyone back in Stamford, CT! Love you guys!

 

ZERO!

 

 

Singapore was a blur, but the show must go on!

 

The onslaught of ports continues with Burma (Myanmar) in just three short days! I’m particularly excited about this one… one of the places I’ve had the most questions and anxiety about visiting.

 

Can’t wait to see it!

 

Question of the Day: How have your travels challenged your preconceived notions of ‘culture’?