The road to Mandalay

Today we took the road to Mandalay, but on Sunday we flew to Bagan - at 5:45 AM no less.  We arrived before 7 and after a quick stop at the local market, started visiting temples.  There are temples and stupas everywhere!  At Angkor Wat, the ruins are spread out over hundreds of kilometers, but here, in a very small area, are more than 2000 temples, some incredible and some tiny.  Some with ancient Buddhas and some with original frescoes.  It was just unbelievable.





It turns out that a lot of these temples were in ruins, both from age and earthquakes.  Bagan has dozens of small earthquakes each year and had a major one in 1975.  Against the advice of archaeologists and Unesco, the military government over the last thirty years rebuilt many of the temples which were in ruins.  Because of that no-no, Unesco will not declare the area a World Heritage Site.  Nonetheless, it is pretty incredible to see.

A few people had booked a balloon flight over Bagan at sunrise on Monday and they said it was even more incredible from the air.  A few other hearty souls went to one of the temples to watch the sunrise.  I slept till an almost civilized hour.  Then we went for a bike ride to a local village and to visit a few of the less visited temples.  The village was interesting but the ride was pretty much a disaster.  One of the men was very unsteady and slow, we went on sandy paths that were hard for everyone, and three people got flat tires.  We spent a lot of time standing in the hot sun waiting for people.  There was actually a bike repair outside the last temple, but by then the guide had given up and called for our bus.  Five of us rode on to lunch and the rest were happy to go by bus.  We had free time after lunch, so I took my bike and rode the entire loop again.  It is amazing to ride by all of the temples.  Both days we went to a temple in the evening to watch the sunset, an activity I am more than willing to participate in.

And this morning we were on the road to Mandalay.  The road, frankly, was not very interesting, but so far, Mandalay is.  We visited the 150 year old palace of the last kings, decorated in beautiful carved teak.  Then we went to the Kuthadow Pagoda which is said to house the world largest book.  The tripitaka, which can loosely be called the Scriptures of Buddhism, is engraved on 729 marble pages, each housed in one of the 729 little mini-pagodas around the main pagoda.



Finally we went for our nightly sunset viewing on top of Mandalay Hill.  A single hill rises in the middle of a flat plain.  You can see the city to the south, the river flowing by, and lush farmland, with the outlines of mountains in the distance.

At the Kuthadow Pagoda, we met two Burmese women who had traveled over a thousand kilometers to view the sites of Mandalay, and they asked us to take a picture with them.  So I gave my camera to the guide as well.

On Mandalay Hill three young monks, ages 14 and 15, struck up a conversation with me.  They said they walk to Mandalay Hill every night, a walk which takes an hour each way, to practice their English.  I am always happy to oblige people who want to practice English because I get to ask all kinds of nosy questions in my sincere effort to help them improve their English.

Tomorrow we are off again at 7:30 for what sounds like another full day.  At least in Mandalay, unlike Bagan, there is internet.  Slow, but it mostly works.  That is actually pretty amazing in a country where three quarters of the population lacks electricity and most villages have no running water.  The repressive military government finally opened up (maybe, somewhat) in 2010, and they are really trying to modernize and be attractive to tourists, but the infrastructure is extremely poor.  They have a long way to go, both to join the 21st Century and to have real democracy.

Yangon

I arrived on Friday in Myanmar, formerly Burma, where I am in Yangon, formerly Rangoon.  Yangon is also formerly the capital of Burma but Naypyidaw is now the capital.  I couldn't figure out why the flight here from Bangkok is less than an hour but it is two hours going back.  Ya gotta think outside the box.  The answer is ... Myanmar is in a different time zone - one that is a half hour behind Thailand - and off by half an hour from the rest of the time zones in the world.

There are some other odd things in Myanmar.  For example, they drive on the right side of the road, but most of the cars, trucks, and buses have their steering wheels on the right side.  Apparently they used to drive on the left but the generals changed that around twenty years ago, which leads to two interesting thoughts.  First, in twenty years couldn't they have found some left side drive cars and buses?  Second, I wonder how the change went on implementation day?  Because it is hard to drive on the right from the right side, our tour bus has an assistant who sits in the front left and helps the driver.

When I was walking around yesterday, I saw a bicycle with a sidecar.  The bike was the kind I had as a kid - thin tires and three gears.  We called it an English racer.  The sidecar looked homemade, with two wheels in back.  A man was pedaling and a woman was sitting in the sidecar with a sun umbrella.  That's love, I thought.  Then I saw a few more of these bikes.  Finally today when I was walking around, I realized that they are Burmese taxis.  Instead of a rickshaw with the driver in front or back, one person can sit next to the driver.

While walking around I stopped in a park for a little while to rest.  I saw a woman in a yellow wedding dress and thought it was a bride and groom taking photos as I had seen in Vietnam.  But everyone in the park got up to watch and were taking pictures as well.  I think it was a commercial photo shoot.  Check out her shoes. One other thing that has surprised me is how many Moslems I have seen in Yangon.

Burma is known as the country of pagodas, but unlike most of the ones I have seen in other countries, the pagodas here are both richly made and historically significant.  Last night on my own and tonight with my tour group I went to the incredible Shwedegon Pagoda, the highlight of Yangon.  The main tower, which is over 300 feet tall, is gold plated and adorned with diamonds and jewels.  There are dozens of smaller temples and stupas around the main tower; apparently you can never have too many Buddhas.  Ornate does not begin to describe Shwedegon.  The most impressive thing is ... this temple is over 2600 years old.  Deep inside the main tower are eight hairs of Gautama (Siddhartha) Buddha.  That beats the pieces of the true cross in St. Peters by about 900 years.



This morning I went for a walk through the markets to the Musmeah Yeshua synagogue.  I arrived at 9:20 to find that it was not yet open!  First time I ever made it to Shabbat services early.  Then I saw a sign on the door:  open 9:30 to 5:00 every day except Sunday.  Huh?  I waited and finally around 9:45, Moses Samuels, the caretaker, appeared.  The Sephardic synagogue was founded by Iraqi Jews and once had a thriving congregation when the British were here.  When the British left, so did most of the Jews.  There are only six families left, and Moses is not a young man.  I went upstairs to the women's balcony where I spent my entire childhood.  The streets around the synagogue are full of shops and most of those on the same street are paint and hardware stores.  There is a mosque on the same block.

Notice the paint cans in front of the store to the right

The view from the balcony

My days of going at my own easy pace are over, at least for this week.  I met up with my tour group this afternoon and we visited a few sights in Yangon.  Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 4:30 AM to catch a 5:45 flight to Bagan.  I sure hope there is a lot of bus time to catch up on my sleep.

Kuang Si waterfall

I had been trying all week to arrange a bike ride to one of the many waterfalls in the area.  In the end, no group was going, but the company that I liked offered me a bike and private guide for a reasonable price, so off I went yesterday.  The biggest waterfall here is Kuang Si which is a thirty five kilometer ride - each way.  I was pretty sure the round trip would be too hard for me if it was hilly, but with no group to slow down, I also knew I could wuss out and take a tuk-tuk back with the bikes.  Seemed like a no-lose situation to me.

The night before, I got together with Devin Mills again since he was leaving for Chiang Mai in the morning.  Devin and his friends had rented bikes and ridden to Kuang Si by themselves, but he is a lot younger than me.  I am happy to have a guide and mechanic with me.  Devin also told me that the waterfall is on three levels.  The walk to the first and middle levels is easy, but the walk to the top is very steep and slippery, and he implied that maybe I should not do it.  More on that later ...

My guide, Somhkit, was absolutely wonderful.  I was struggling on the hills, and he was helpful and encouraging.  One hill just went on forever.  Then on the other side it went down even steeper and longer.  The final approach to the waterfalls was another steep hill; I gave up and walked the bike.

Somhkit was the first private guide I had had in Laos, so I asked him all my questions about family, religion, education, politics, etc.  Among other things, he told me that Laos is a communist country.  How do they pick the leader, I asked.  He is elected by everyone over the age of eighteen.  Hmm ... I said.  That sounds like democracy.  What makes it communist?  He explained:  Everyone follows the same rules - the leaders and the people, everyone treats each other with respect, and there is no corruption.  So that makes them communist.  What about business?  Can anyone have any business they want?  Yes, but they are restricted by the rules that the communist government imposes.  Okay, I get it.  They elect the leader and they have a capitalist economic system, but they are communist.  Huh?

When we got to Kuang Si, Somhkit took me to eat at the guides' area rather than the tourist restaurant.  I love eating real food as long as I have a guide to tell me what to get and how to eat it.  I was feeling bad about how much I had struggled on the ride, so at lunch, I told Somhkit that I was a lot older than I look.   He asked how old I am (that is a non-offensive question in most countries) and when I told him, he went nuts.  I thought you were forty five, maybe fifty.  You are the oldest women I have ever guided.  Maybe the oldest of men and women.  After that, Somhkit was even more supportive and helpful.

We walked to the first and second levels of the waterfall.  Then he took me to the path to the top level.  I told him I heard the path was steep and slippery.  No problem, he said, you can do it, you are superwoman, it is only 500 meters.  I'm not sure why I listened to Somhkit rather than Devin whom I have known his entire life, but I guess flattery does work.   On the way up I started doubting my sanity again.  But it really wasn't that bad and we made it with only a couple of rest stops.  The top is kind of like the top of Nevada Falls.  I took off my shoes and waded across the pool, holding on to Somhkit's arm.  I don't know why I thought the path down on the other side would be easier.  It was steep and slippery.  Duh!  It was harder going down than up, but Somhkit held out his arm and I gripped his wrist for support.  Meanwhile, he is doing this whole thing - biking, climbing slippery trails - in flip flops.  And texting a friend, too, while we are walking.

Wearing Somhkit's "official" hat

A rest stop on the way up

The pools were incredibly green.  At the middle pool, there is a rope for jumping in.  You just have to wade across slippery rocks, climb wooden steps nailed on the trunk, reach out with a stick to pull in the rope, and then jump into freezing water.

That is not me.  I am still moderately sane.

To go back to Luang Prabang, we put the bikes on a tuk-tuk and had the driver drop us off at the top of the killer hill.  For the first ten or fifteen kilometers I watched the road and thought, what a wuss - I could have ridden this.  Then we went up that hill and the tuk-tuk was struggling in second gear.  I would have died.  I had never looked back when we rode there in the morning, but from the top of the hill, there was a wonderful view of Luang Prabang in the distance.  We rode down the hill and ... it went on forever.  Now I know why I struggled so much.

When we got back to Luang Prabang, Somhkit took me on a tour of the city.  I think he felt bad that I had cut the ride short, but I was willing to call it a day the first time we passed his office.  Even with the tuk-tuk ride, it was a fifty kilometer day - the second longest ride of this trip - and a climb up a waterfall as well.  My legs are dead today.

Oh, Somhkit, who is 28, married, and has a one year old son, was a monk for six years starting when he was twelve.  He thinks everyone should be a monk twice in his life.

Today was my final day in Luang Prabang and I spent most of it reading at poolside and resting my aching body.  Tomorrow I leave for Bangkok, en route to Myanmar.

Luang Prabang

I can't say if all of Laos is like this, but Luang Prabang is so much less hectic and more mellow than Vietnam.  There are fewer people and, while this is still a tourist area, the Lao are not aggressive businessmen, even though Loang Prabang is reputed to have the best night market in Southeast Asia.

I had not seen much of the city before I left on my elephant excursion, so yesterday I took a bicycle from my hotel and drove all around, stopping at each significant temple, stupa, and museum.  I climbed a million steps to the stupa on top of the hill in the middle of town to get a great view of the area.  I loved the Royal Palace.  When you go to St. Petersburg, they ignore the entire Soviet era and tell the tourists all about the tsars and the unfortunate last one as if they loved them all.  Similarly here, they don't want to talk about the last fifty years.  The Royal Palace is where the kings lived in the first half of the twentieth century, but it was completely remodeled in the early 1960's.  So I'm looking at historical artifacts from my childhood.  In the Royal Garage are two unrestored Lincoln Continetals from the mid-60's (gift of the US government) along with a really beat up Citroen from the 40's and a 60's era Jeep that the royals liked to tool around in.

I was going to ride out to one of the many waterfalls in the area, but when the road turned to gravel, I decided that my one-speed bike and I were not going to make it up the final two miles.  Tomorrow I am going on a long bicycle excursion to the biggest waterfall here but I will have a good bike and a guide.

This morning I got up early to watch the monks' alms walk at 6:00 AM.  The monks here are not like Catholic monks.  It is not a lifetime commitment and it is very common for young boys to be monks for several years.  They go to school and work around the temple during the day.  They own nothing and when they are hungry, they go out into the community with their bowls and people feed them.  The monks, however, do not beg.  Rather, it is an honor for the people to give them food as they earn "merit."  Also the monks do not eat after about noon.  In most places the monks just walk into the village when they are hungry, but here in Luang Prabang, there is an alms' walk every morning at 6:00 AM.   People line up on the sidewalk as the monks walk by and put a little bit of rice or food in each monk's bowl.  There are warning to the tourists all over to respect the ceremony, but the Chinese and Japanese tourists are really annoying, getting into monk's faces to take pictures.  It is pretty impressive.





 Then I spent the day in a cooking school learning how to make Luang Prabang salad, chicken larp, feu khua ... the names just get weirder.  It is very pleasant and restful here.

Children of Ban Pak Ou

How do you make friends with kids when you cannot communicate verbally at all?

There was a tiny village next to the elephant camp with more little children than houses.  I wandered over during my few free hours to buy Diet Coke and tried to engage the children who were mostly laughing at me because I could not understand the simple things they said.  Then I figured it out.  One at a time, I took a picture of each child and showed it to them.  They laughed hysterically at each one.  On the second day, a few more children came up to me.  After I took their pictures, they took me to their schoolyard where we played tag (I can't catch a ten year old) and they taught be how to count to five.  They could count to ten in English, but five was more than I could learn at one time.

The children of Ban Pak Ou, with an adult or two.

Mahout for a day

Not as regal as queen for a day.  A mahout is an elephant handler.  I have done some crazy things on this trip, but today I really thought I should have my head examined.  Backing up a bit ...

I arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, and back into the sun and heat on Thursday afternoon.  My hotel had overbooked, so they put me in their resort across the river.  You can take their little boat across the river or you can walk across the bamboo bridge.

Both hotels had completely overbooked for last night, so I looked for a two day excursion to some of the local sights.  I found a kayaking trip to a cave with an overnight at an elephant camp, and I signed up.  My companions  were two very nice young men - Fullbright scholars who are in Korea for the year, one of whom is from El Dorado Hills.  First we had a very pleasant day kayaking eighteen kilometers down the Nam Ou River.  The river and rolling hills reminded me of when Bob and I used to go to western Virginia and canoe on the Shenandoah River. The water was mostly calm with a few spots that were barely Class I rapids.  Nonetheless, the Fullbright scholars managed to fall out.  They had taken off their life jackets and when they tried to paddle upstream to retrieve them, they fell out again.  Well, they are not rocket scientists.  The Fullbright scholars also came on this overnight trip with the clothes on their backs - no change of clothes, no jacket for the evening and morning, and no sunscreen.  They would come to regret the lack of sunscreen the most as they both burned badly, and needless to say, I don't carry any.

We finally arrived at our destination, two caves that are filled with Buddha statuettes.  Yawn.  But I enjoyed the kayaking, so I didn't mind.  After the caves, we kayaked back across the river to the elephant camp and were given our rooms.  Our guide was not great in English and did not explain what we were doing very well.  So with no explanation, they told us we were going to ride the elephants into the jungle.  Okay.  Do you know how hard it is just to get on an elephant?  Then it turns out you straddle her neck in front of her shoulder blades, put your hands on the top of her head, and press down for dear life.  No saddle and nothing to hang onto.  You just have to trust that the elephant is surefooted.  That trust is immediately tested as the elephants walk down giant steps to the beach.  All of your weight is forward as the elephant steps down and you know that if you fall, you are landing on your head and then getting trampled.  I have driven a motorbike for nearly a thousand kilometers and I have crossed streets in Saigon, but nothing scared me more than sitting on an elephant.

We rode for a kilometer or so, going up and down as we crossed little streams and part of the river.  Then the elephant handlers told us to get off.  We did, and the handlers walked off without a word, so we followed them.  These guides were not great communicators.  We walked back the way we came and crossed the river on a canoe they had left there.  It turns out that we had just taken the elephants to their pasture for the night and in the morning we were going to bring them back to the camp.

The Fullbrights were in agony from their sunburn and I thought I had had all the excitement I could handle, so we all slept late, thinking the guides would go without us to get the elephants in the morning.  No such luck - they waited for us.  We rowed back across the river section, hiked through the sand and remounted our elephants.  It wasn't nearly as scary this time since we knew what to expect, and going up stairs is a lot less nerve-wracking than stepping down.  The biggest surprise was how hairy the elephants are.  More like bristles.  The top of their heads that we are leaning on are covered with one inch long stiff bristles.

Back at camp, they fed us breakfast and by then, the day trippers had arrived, so they put the howdahs on the elephants and led everyone around for rides.  By now we were so experienced at bareback riding that this was pretty dull.

We were ready to head back, but we were scheduled to take the elephants to the river to bathe, and some girls we talked to yesterday said it was a lot of fun.  The guides told us that the elephants play bucking bronco in the water and no one can stay on for more than five seconds.  One of the Fullbrights didn't want to spend another minute in the sun, so he passed, but El Dorado Hills and I got back on.  That was when I began to doubt my sanity.  Why was I leaning on the bristly head of an elephant going down steep stairs again?  Didn't I just do this yesterday so I knew how scary it was?  And how many bones was I going to break when the elephant started tossing me around?

But there I am, riding down to the river.

And there I am swimming back to shore after the elephant threw me.  We thought the guides had the most boring job in the world, walking a one hour circuit several times a day with tourists on the howdahs on the elephants, and we wondered what they did for fun.  We found out at the river.  Every time an elephant threw one of us, they would say, go on, get back on.  So we would get on and the elephant would just toss us off again, and they would say, go on, get back on.  At least it is a lot easier to climb onto an elephant in the water.  The guides were doing back flips off the elephants.

So it turned out that riding and playing with elephants really was a lot of fun, and I guess I am still moderately sane.  Then we drove back to Luang Prabang where the Fullbrights were finally able to buy some aloe vera.  I strolled around for a while, and then had ceviche for dinner in a French restaurant.  It makes as much sense as anything here.