Ever since I stayed with my friend Travis during Songkran off of his "On Nut" BTS stop in Bangkok, and he showed me pictures from his recent trip to Myanmar and told me "you have to go to Bagan," I was sold. I even remember asking him, "What's Bagan?" Haha now I feel so silly. It is a marvelous, magical place that is comparable to Angkor Wat. As a matter of fact, I think that in 5 or 10 years, assuming that Burma still stays open, Bagan will be the "new" Angkor Wat. It is spectacularly out of this world.
I was so excited to have arrived in Bagan, especially since when our boat pulled up to the dock you could see the outlines of a few temples peeking over the edge near the river. Everyone from the boat was hustled off and forced to buy these shady $10 passes to see the temples. (I've read in guide books that this money disappears into the hands of the government, and after buying one I can tell you that you really don't need it to see the temples). However, there was an officer there checking to make sure that all of the foreigners had a pass. I got in the back of a truck to head to Bagan, and ended up I driving around for THREE hours with two New Zealanders and a Russian family with a 3 year old baby looking for accommodations. I wasn't stressed though! There are so many tourists in Burma right now that there literally are not enough beds for the tourists. I tried to book accommodations for Bagan as soon as I arrived in Mandalay, but everything was full when travel agents helping me called, so I figured that I'm not going to be "bedless," so I would still continue my route there and figure it out that evening. Wrong. It got to the point where the truck driver took me to a monastery because we had literally tried everywhere. "Full!" "Full!" "Full!" was all I was used to hearing. Even the monastery was full that night! (But with locals from a Buddhist festival). It was plain nuts. I ended up going back to a hostel that wasn't quite finished, and they had an extra new bed made up by the time I showed up. In the lobby next door there was a middle aged white man and his wife reading a book on a mattress. Just crazy!!!
After our driver finally dropped us off (the other people stayed at $80/ night rooms in Old Bagan...about a 15 min taxi ride away) the driver helping me charged everyone 10,000 kyat (about $12). For anyone who's traveled in South East Asia, that is a lot of money. Way way more expensive than Thailand or any other country for that matter. It's an interesting phenomenon really! I don't think that it will last.
When my driver dropped me off, because he'd been so helpful, I gave him a crisp $20 bill. He quickly tucked it away and asked if I wanted to go see the sunrise in the morning. I agreed. That night I got about 4 hours of sleep. I was picked up 20 minutes late as I waited in the freezing cold. While I was waiting I was approached by others who were already wandering the streets, just arrived to Bagan, looking for accommodations (good luck!) I met this one young man who went to Syracuse, had done Japan's "JET" program, and was now a new lawyer. He told me this ridiculous story about exchanging money on the streets of Yangon and how the exchange-men "count" it out properly in front of you, but because the way the money is folded they really only give you half of your one hundred dollar bill (Sidenote: In Burma, unlike in Brunei, large notes like $100 bills get a better rate than small bills). This young man was cheated like this twice (already not the sharpest tool in the shed, right). So, he tried to get his money back. He went to the exchange-men on the street a third time, and when they handed him the Burmese kyat he ran. (HAHA what an idiot!!!) He said that the men ran after him, very angry, and he ended up in a dead end alley. He said that he threw the money down and the men angrily grabbed it and ran away. He was lucky that he wasn't killed and left in the alley in Burma!!!
Finally, my driver in a freezing open-air jeep picked me up. Who was in the back? My two kiwi friends Isaac and Rich from Mandalay, the boat cruise, and the 2 hour truck adventure last night! It was great to have them there. The sunrise was absolutely incredible (see pics below).
After the sunrise, our driver took us to a local spot for breakfast. He picked up the tab, a whopping 1090 kyat (about $1.25 for all three of us). Then he drove us to a bunch of temples (I didn't really keep track of names...there were so many!) They were fabulous and the day brightened/ warmed up a lot. After lunch we went to one more temple. We discussed how much our driver would want, financially, from each of us. We agreed that a very generous price for the morning would be $10/ person. (In Cambodia, you rent a tuk tuk by the day (not per person) for $14 -$18/ day. Our driver, Stefan, took us to one more temple (where I saw some knockoff books I wanted to read). They were $7 each and the people selling them wouldn't budge. That is an outrageous price they are knockoff books and it is BURMA! Outrageous. In Cambodia they were $3 each.
I came back to our jeep to see Isaac and Rich arguing with Stefan about money. I am very well traveled at this point, and I know that I should always ask for the price beforehand. However, I asked the previous night and Stefan said we'll figure it out tomorrow. I also was on my last trip, and I also was traveling with two other similar boys...I figured we'd all just deal with it together. Stefan wanted 25,000 kyat from EACH of us (about $30/ person). That was so offensive!!! The boys were discussing with him that that was an outrageous price. I said $10/ person was fair (3x less what he was asking). It got really heated and Isaac pulled my sand-paintings and sweatshirt from the jeep. The problem was that we liked Stefan, and because everything else was so expensive we didn't know how much things really go for. Isaac kept telling Stefan, "I've read about your country, and the average person makes $400/ year...you're telling me you want almost one quarter of that just for one day?!" If you remember, I'd given him and his buddies a $20 tip the night before on a $12 ride out of the goodness of my heart, but now I felt ripped off and wasn't sure I'd have enough cash leftover to make it through the rest of my trip so I told him he needed to deduct the tip money. Then Stefan was pissed because he said that I "looked in his eyes and gave him that money as a present!" (which I did...). It was a present, and I was genuine. However, you either have the money to pay or you don't! That price was outrageously high, so now he needed to subtract it (Also, since living and travelling in SE Asia I know the value of the dollar...this is a lot of money he was asking for!!!) I told him that a fair compromise when he thought it would be $30/ person and we thought $10 would be $15/ each. Stefan was still very upset by this and told me to stop. I couldn't tell if this price really was that low for Burma? (To me and the rest of SE Asia $15 is still being taken to the bank!) Also, it was his first time working with tourists again in 8 years, so maybe he was trying to see what he could get. I told him "You make more money than I do in Thailand!" Stefan was really angry and didn't want to talk to me. So rude. I kept repeating "I feel cheated by you" and "You make more money than me!" The boys agreed with me, but literally did not have enough cash on them. Stefan drove us back to the bus station so that they could try and get money for a double seat they'd booked back in order to pay him. So insane. While they were doing that and I was in the car, I took out another $5 and walked over to Stefan. Yes he ripped us off, but it just wasn't getting into this big fight over money that will (always) be small to me in America. (However, it's also partially the principle). It's what my parents would have done :)
After this, Stefan didn't want to leave on bad feelings. The boys waited at the bus station for their 5pm bus and Stefan took me to have a few beers down on the Irawaddy. Stefan kept referring to me "My friend" haha. We drank some Mandalay beers as we watched women and men from all over come to the river in their longhis with packets of shampoo and soap to bathe. Some people were washing their clothes on rocks. It really was another world. He confessed a lot of life secrets to me there: He got married at 14 to a 21 year old Japanese woman who he really loved. He had an 8 year old daughter who he hadn't seen since he was a baby, and he wanted to divorce his current wife (who he also had two young children with). Then he threw his empty beer bottle in the open. I explained to him why it's bad to do that and he told me he really wouldn't do it ever again. He would remember that from me (I will never know!) We had a lovely heart to heart. I also remember Stefan saying, "We are all human...the water, the sand, the trees, the sky...this is all that we have." He also told me "I'm sorry. I am just getting into tourism again..you're my second tourist group." I am fine, too, because at the end of the day it's just money, and it's not worth it.
Then we went out for tea at his aunt's place, and then to dinner with the Russian family from last night. Stefan brought up Thailand and that he was proud that the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya (kind of funny to me because I have been to Thailand and Thais have still not forgotten this attack, now several hundreds of years ago). He also told me that he prefers the country to be called "Burma" not "Myanmar," which is why to this day I say Burma. When the bill for my rice and vegetables came it was 2500 kyat (about $3) which is still 3x the price of a dinner in Thailand, and certainly way more than he paid for all of our breakfasts that morning. Burma is way too expensive right now, they are just figuring out how to get money because the country just opened up and is in very high demand right now. I don't think that it's sustainable though. Then we took the Russian family to the monastery where they had to stay that night with their adorable little baby. At this point, it had been a long day for me and I wanted to go home. Stefan kept saying that he wanted to walk me home, but it was cold, I was cranky, and was having bad feelings from everything. We stopped a random motorcyclist on the road who went home to get there bicycle side-car, and I was on my way back to my hostel. It was 9pm, and I'd been up since 4am (from the sunrise).
Back at the hostel, per usual, there was no internet. (A Vietnamese contractor I later met in Yangon told me that only 30,000 people in Yangon can be on the internet at once (!))
All in all, it was quite a crazy, long, day. Phew!!! Definitely one of the craziest days I've had on my travels! enjoy the spectacular pictures!!!
I was so excited to have arrived in Bagan, especially since when our boat pulled up to the dock you could see the outlines of a few temples peeking over the edge near the river. Everyone from the boat was hustled off and forced to buy these shady $10 passes to see the temples. (I've read in guide books that this money disappears into the hands of the government, and after buying one I can tell you that you really don't need it to see the temples). However, there was an officer there checking to make sure that all of the foreigners had a pass. I got in the back of a truck to head to Bagan, and ended up I driving around for THREE hours with two New Zealanders and a Russian family with a 3 year old baby looking for accommodations. I wasn't stressed though! There are so many tourists in Burma right now that there literally are not enough beds for the tourists. I tried to book accommodations for Bagan as soon as I arrived in Mandalay, but everything was full when travel agents helping me called, so I figured that I'm not going to be "bedless," so I would still continue my route there and figure it out that evening. Wrong. It got to the point where the truck driver took me to a monastery because we had literally tried everywhere. "Full!" "Full!" "Full!" was all I was used to hearing. Even the monastery was full that night! (But with locals from a Buddhist festival). It was plain nuts. I ended up going back to a hostel that wasn't quite finished, and they had an extra new bed made up by the time I showed up. In the lobby next door there was a middle aged white man and his wife reading a book on a mattress. Just crazy!!!
After our driver finally dropped us off (the other people stayed at $80/ night rooms in Old Bagan...about a 15 min taxi ride away) the driver helping me charged everyone 10,000 kyat (about $12). For anyone who's traveled in South East Asia, that is a lot of money. Way way more expensive than Thailand or any other country for that matter. It's an interesting phenomenon really! I don't think that it will last.
When my driver dropped me off, because he'd been so helpful, I gave him a crisp $20 bill. He quickly tucked it away and asked if I wanted to go see the sunrise in the morning. I agreed. That night I got about 4 hours of sleep. I was picked up 20 minutes late as I waited in the freezing cold. While I was waiting I was approached by others who were already wandering the streets, just arrived to Bagan, looking for accommodations (good luck!) I met this one young man who went to Syracuse, had done Japan's "JET" program, and was now a new lawyer. He told me this ridiculous story about exchanging money on the streets of Yangon and how the exchange-men "count" it out properly in front of you, but because the way the money is folded they really only give you half of your one hundred dollar bill (Sidenote: In Burma, unlike in Brunei, large notes like $100 bills get a better rate than small bills). This young man was cheated like this twice (already not the sharpest tool in the shed, right). So, he tried to get his money back. He went to the exchange-men on the street a third time, and when they handed him the Burmese kyat he ran. (HAHA what an idiot!!!) He said that the men ran after him, very angry, and he ended up in a dead end alley. He said that he threw the money down and the men angrily grabbed it and ran away. He was lucky that he wasn't killed and left in the alley in Burma!!!
Finally, my driver in a freezing open-air jeep picked me up. Who was in the back? My two kiwi friends Isaac and Rich from Mandalay, the boat cruise, and the 2 hour truck adventure last night! It was great to have them there. The sunrise was absolutely incredible (see pics below).
After the sunrise, our driver took us to a local spot for breakfast. He picked up the tab, a whopping 1090 kyat (about $1.25 for all three of us). Then he drove us to a bunch of temples (I didn't really keep track of names...there were so many!) They were fabulous and the day brightened/ warmed up a lot. After lunch we went to one more temple. We discussed how much our driver would want, financially, from each of us. We agreed that a very generous price for the morning would be $10/ person. (In Cambodia, you rent a tuk tuk by the day (not per person) for $14 -$18/ day. Our driver, Stefan, took us to one more temple (where I saw some knockoff books I wanted to read). They were $7 each and the people selling them wouldn't budge. That is an outrageous price they are knockoff books and it is BURMA! Outrageous. In Cambodia they were $3 each.
I came back to our jeep to see Isaac and Rich arguing with Stefan about money. I am very well traveled at this point, and I know that I should always ask for the price beforehand. However, I asked the previous night and Stefan said we'll figure it out tomorrow. I also was on my last trip, and I also was traveling with two other similar boys...I figured we'd all just deal with it together. Stefan wanted 25,000 kyat from EACH of us (about $30/ person). That was so offensive!!! The boys were discussing with him that that was an outrageous price. I said $10/ person was fair (3x less what he was asking). It got really heated and Isaac pulled my sand-paintings and sweatshirt from the jeep. The problem was that we liked Stefan, and because everything else was so expensive we didn't know how much things really go for. Isaac kept telling Stefan, "I've read about your country, and the average person makes $400/ year...you're telling me you want almost one quarter of that just for one day?!" If you remember, I'd given him and his buddies a $20 tip the night before on a $12 ride out of the goodness of my heart, but now I felt ripped off and wasn't sure I'd have enough cash leftover to make it through the rest of my trip so I told him he needed to deduct the tip money. Then Stefan was pissed because he said that I "looked in his eyes and gave him that money as a present!" (which I did...). It was a present, and I was genuine. However, you either have the money to pay or you don't! That price was outrageously high, so now he needed to subtract it (Also, since living and travelling in SE Asia I know the value of the dollar...this is a lot of money he was asking for!!!) I told him that a fair compromise when he thought it would be $30/ person and we thought $10 would be $15/ each. Stefan was still very upset by this and told me to stop. I couldn't tell if this price really was that low for Burma? (To me and the rest of SE Asia $15 is still being taken to the bank!) Also, it was his first time working with tourists again in 8 years, so maybe he was trying to see what he could get. I told him "You make more money than I do in Thailand!" Stefan was really angry and didn't want to talk to me. So rude. I kept repeating "I feel cheated by you" and "You make more money than me!" The boys agreed with me, but literally did not have enough cash on them. Stefan drove us back to the bus station so that they could try and get money for a double seat they'd booked back in order to pay him. So insane. While they were doing that and I was in the car, I took out another $5 and walked over to Stefan. Yes he ripped us off, but it just wasn't getting into this big fight over money that will (always) be small to me in America. (However, it's also partially the principle). It's what my parents would have done :)
After this, Stefan didn't want to leave on bad feelings. The boys waited at the bus station for their 5pm bus and Stefan took me to have a few beers down on the Irawaddy. Stefan kept referring to me "My friend" haha. We drank some Mandalay beers as we watched women and men from all over come to the river in their longhis with packets of shampoo and soap to bathe. Some people were washing their clothes on rocks. It really was another world. He confessed a lot of life secrets to me there: He got married at 14 to a 21 year old Japanese woman who he really loved. He had an 8 year old daughter who he hadn't seen since he was a baby, and he wanted to divorce his current wife (who he also had two young children with). Then he threw his empty beer bottle in the open. I explained to him why it's bad to do that and he told me he really wouldn't do it ever again. He would remember that from me (I will never know!) We had a lovely heart to heart. I also remember Stefan saying, "We are all human...the water, the sand, the trees, the sky...this is all that we have." He also told me "I'm sorry. I am just getting into tourism again..you're my second tourist group." I am fine, too, because at the end of the day it's just money, and it's not worth it.
Then we went out for tea at his aunt's place, and then to dinner with the Russian family from last night. Stefan brought up Thailand and that he was proud that the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya (kind of funny to me because I have been to Thailand and Thais have still not forgotten this attack, now several hundreds of years ago). He also told me that he prefers the country to be called "Burma" not "Myanmar," which is why to this day I say Burma. When the bill for my rice and vegetables came it was 2500 kyat (about $3) which is still 3x the price of a dinner in Thailand, and certainly way more than he paid for all of our breakfasts that morning. Burma is way too expensive right now, they are just figuring out how to get money because the country just opened up and is in very high demand right now. I don't think that it's sustainable though. Then we took the Russian family to the monastery where they had to stay that night with their adorable little baby. At this point, it had been a long day for me and I wanted to go home. Stefan kept saying that he wanted to walk me home, but it was cold, I was cranky, and was having bad feelings from everything. We stopped a random motorcyclist on the road who went home to get there bicycle side-car, and I was on my way back to my hostel. It was 9pm, and I'd been up since 4am (from the sunrise).
Back at the hostel, per usual, there was no internet. (A Vietnamese contractor I later met in Yangon told me that only 30,000 people in Yangon can be on the internet at once (!))
All in all, it was quite a crazy, long, day. Phew!!! Definitely one of the craziest days I've had on my travels! enjoy the spectacular pictures!!!
At our temple perch to observe the sunrise in Bagan, 430am.
5am
The wee hours of the morning!
My first real glimpse of Bagan!
All of our "company"
So incredible
Looking out
Looking up!
The sun is starting to come up...
Me! (Freezing...)
There's the sun!
More sun
Even more
Wow
The sun rises over Bagan!
Now it's really up!
Around 7am the "Balloons over Bagan" rise
(Only $350/ person and a 2 year waiting list!)
Wow, though
SUN!
Rich (left), Me, and Isaac
The sun rising over Bagan
Thousands of temples dot the plain
Isaac modeling
Morning light
We were all amazed at just how many temples there were
A really beautiful temple!
Me again
Bagan.
Unreal!!!
Asian pose :)
It would be so cool to go up in one of those balloons!
Next time :)
White light!
Spectacular.
A man making "beetlenut," a red substance that most
men are addicted to and chew on. It turns their teeth really dark!
Stefan briefly took us to his home, where we met his daughters!
At first they were both really shy
They reminded me of my sister and me when we were little!
Then Stefan told them to smile and showed them how :)
His home
We had tea at his home
Stefan (center, wearing a longhi) and his family
His Burmese wife (center- next to the daughter in red)
She taught her daughters how to do a "thumbs up!"
Do you see the youngest?! It was ADORABLE.
Then Isaac taught her how to do a "rock on" symbol haha
In Burma, the monks still go barefoot :)
Burmese road
Giant Buddha statue
BEAUTIFUL.
You can't really tell, but this baby's face is painted white
with the chalk-like substance that all of the locals still wear!
Sooo cute!
This man was incredibly carving wood, using his
feet to steady the wood.
These children were playing with a self-made limbo stick!
They were pretty good at showing off :)
So adorable
A home near the first outside temple we went to
Ducks and a puppy :)
Beautiful temple!!! No one else was in sight
800 year old paintings inside.
We climbed up a teeny tiny hidden staircase inside
one of the temples. This is the view from the top!
More view from the top
Some huddled ducks on my way down
(You know I love ducks!)
Beautiful red-gold pagoda
Just. Wow.
A man farms in the land between temples.
Here, he is burning a small fire.
I'm the queen of the world!!!
Peace!
Isaac, Rich, and me
We were very happy!
(This was still post-price-drop drama)
I was so happy :)
Close up!
Look at how many tiny temples dot the plains...way back!!!
This temple was under construction...covered in mats!
The Irawaddy River :)
Stefan, Rich, and Isaac...having a bro moment
I caught this one of them from the back!
I bought two beautiful sand art pieces from this young man.
There was a pretty big local crowd that grew to watch the action :)!
(Even a Burmese monk haha!)
More beetlenut making. I am still so intrigued!
That is s a stack of BRICKS on this woman's head!
Another great Buddha
Construction within the temple
Stefan and my chill session on the banks of the Irawaddy
The woman in yellow washes clothes while the woman
behind her leaves after a "shower."
I know a person or two who might not find this very sanitary.
People do what they have to do!
As the sun set it got cold! This is when Stefan jumped in haha.
There is Stefan! Having an evening "shower."
I was freezing just watching.
Cool tricycle and side-car!
Stefan's children played with the Russian couple's child, Daniel.
I love this photo because it will always remind me
that children are colorblind.
Emily, that was absolutely AMAZING! What a crazy, crazy day it must have been! I miss your sense of fun and your wisdom. Your photos capture the magic of Bagan and bring back beautiful memories. :)
ReplyDeleteBrendan
Dear Emily, I've found your blog at last :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is Svetlana (mother of Daniel).
One month ago we came back to Moscow after our two months travel.
And I can say, we remember Bagan and the whole Burma very often. That was amazing trip :-)
If you would going to visit Russia one day, contact us!
Svetlana, Stanislav and Daniel :-)