Mandalay, Bagan, Yenangyaung and Yangon (or Rangoon) in Myanmar (or Burma)

We thought it would be easy to get a visa in Singapore. We applied for the application via internet, received a number, the forms and a time slot for 8:00 in the morning three days ahead. The young, beautiful and charming lady at the counter looked at us and asked: “Isn't there a Myanmar Embassy in your country?” There is, but if you want to travel during the cold and dry season starting in November, it could take a few weeks, before you get your passport back. Bad luck, if your flight takes off before. The embassy in Singapore only hands out visas to people living there permanently.

We spend two days in Bangkok, obtain visas without any problem and fly into Mandalay.

If you think there are a lot of pagodas and temples in Thailand, you have not been to Myanmar. Do you want to improve your karma and live a better life next time round – build a pagoda, become a monk, donate money and food or simply buy thin gold leaves and stick them onto the next buddha. 

We hear they scraped tons of gold off the statues recently – but we cannot find out what happened to it. The famous Buddha in Mandalay still carries his precious coat – 6 inches thick around hips and waist. Women are not allowed near him, they have to watch from a distance. Men climb onto the narrow base and apply the gold on the body risking to be pushed down two metres by others. It is Sunday and very busy.

Before we get to the Buddha statues in the centre of the temples, we follow hordes of visitors pushing themselves through long alleys with stalls on both sides. I often think of Jesus driving the merchants out of the temple in Jerusalem – he did not get that far East!

Sorry, Buddha statues do not appeal to me that much, whether gold plated, painted or simply marbleous – standing up, sitting or declining. Dressing them (maybe because of the cold season?) does not help either, although the frocks in my opinion are prettier than the statues themselves.

As we cannot decide to get up early and miss breakfast, we also miss the sunrise at

U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world. We miss the monks crossing it, a pretty scene photographed against the sun, to be seen in all the guide books about Myanmar. Arriving late on a Sunday has the advantage that the bridge is empty of tourists and full of local people visiting it – how wonderful and spectacular. Families, groups of girls and boys, young lovers – they are all there, finding the sight of us equally exciting as we enjoy theirs. We exchange Mingalaba all the way, smile and laugh. 

The Burmese are the friendliest and most gentle people we have ever met. We walk slowly as this bridge is eight metres above the water, hardly three metres wide, and has no railing. The planks are by no means regular. Most of them are frightfully old, lots of them have been nailed onto the teak later to cover the gaps and are therefore a few centimetres higher.

The monks have all gone, they are probably all at the monastery nearby, where thousands of tourists watch 1.200 monks, most of them young boys or even kids, line up to receive food and eat what they have collected begging in a huge open hall on the compound. We do not get it! What are we, the tourists, doing here?

We talk to Myanmar people who describe monks a parasites. It is often the poorest of the poor who are pushed to donate. During the light festival – full moon, beginning of November, we stay with Eric at Lei Thar Gone (see previous post). During night (and day) it is difficult to catch some sleep. Constant music blares from aching loudspeakers, artists sing and play, comedy shows and theatre performances all through the night until the break of dawn. Not sleeping, we can see light in all the villages below and a constant flow of people going to and coming back from the temples in and around town. The sounds come from several temples around Lei Thar Gone's island of peace. At first we imagine the loudest temple only a couple of hundred metres away – mistake, it is on the Hill next to us! The sound machines must be enormous. All days long during the festive week those loudspeakers announce endless lists of names of those who donated, to remind the ones who haven't to do so. To encourage people and give an additional incentive, lottery slips are sold at the temples.

Despite these critical remarks about the obscurities of Buddhism it is fascinating to experience this devotion – was it not our South American Pope who said: “There is nothing wrong with religious faith, it is the Church which has to change!”

Fascinating was the boat trip on this mighty river between Mandalay and Bagan, with views of hundreds of pagodas on the Sagaing Hills and all along the river. It is like watching a film of rural Myanmar for ten hours – it does not get boring: villages, little towns, individuals houses and huts, people working on fields, women doing their washing in the river, little fishing boats, ships carrying logs of wood and other goods, ferries and every now and then a boat with tourist. It is so peaceful, calm and relaxing.

The hotel informs us the boat would leave the jetty at 6:30 am. The taxi picks us up at 5:45 and drives through the nearly empty city. We drive through thick clouds of dust – women are sweeping the roads. Myanmar looks tidy and well kept despite the poverty – also due to sweeping. It is still pitch black, we can hardly make out the ship. And we are an hour early! At the jetty local business is booming, women offering fresh fruits and all sorts of sweets, biscuits, chips and other junk food, carefully wrapped by multinational companies, contributing to a growing plastic waste problem. We carry our styrofoam breakfast boxes provided by the hotel and enjoy its contents sitting on small plastic chairs on the dimly lit jetty – early morning mosquitoes having a go at us.

We love the architecture of most temples and even more of the pagodas (maybe because we cannot go inside, but have to climb them instead – beautiful views). Visiting Bagan with its 3.000 ancient buildings is a must, do not miss it, it has to be seen to be believed. We spent several days there wandering, cycling and horse carting – enjoying the place in total amazement.

For rest and enlightenment in between we found the garden restaurant and bar of the Thande Hotel in Old Bagan, not under the Bodhi Tree, but under the huge and shady acacia, right on the bank of the Ayeryarwaddy.

Because of the main holiday season, we have problems booking a hotel in Bagan and a flight to Yangon. Bookings are not accepted unless you pay on the spot. We are running out of cash as ATM are rare in this still young holiday destination Myanmar. One has to carry wads of cash. 300.000 Kyats (EUR 240), the maximum we get out of the machine (credit cards only!!!), is supplied in brand new notes of 5.000 Ks => a pack of 60 notes. Also accepted are US$ notes, providing they are brand new and definitely have not been folded before. Even better hotels sometimes will not take credit cards. So unless you do not want to carry bank loads of Ks into remote corners of the country, unspoiled US$ come in handy.

Our plane to Yangon is operated by Mandalay Air. Our travel guides regards all Myanmar Airlines as not quite up to standard – amongst them Mandalay Air is the worst. We survive the 70 minute flight with one of those ancient turbo-props.

Yangon is big, six million people live there. Do not go there first, because the outstanding Shwedagon Pagoda on a hill just outside the city centre might spoil the fascination visiting all its smaller sisters all over the country, even that of Shwezigon in Bagan. The ninetynine metre high building in sunset and all lit up later on and all through the night, makes our hearts jump. We soon ignore the masses of temples around it and only remember that some of them where so full of buddha statues of all sizes, that at first we mistook them for showrooms selling them!

The city is bustling, the markets are full of stalls and people, narrow and absolutely splendid. Used to highly sterile butcher's and fishmonger's, we would probably become vegetarians, but still buy at the markets if we lived in town.

Thank you Myanmar for a lovely holiday, your friendliness and thousands of smiles. May you develop slowly and not make the mistakes of so many other countries. The temptations of mass tourism and money are strong, please resist them as long as you can.