Breakfast was toast, bananas and eggs. Rented bicycles again and cycled to major places in old Bagan.
Natlaung Kyaung is purportedly the only Hindu temple in Bagan. Inside we saw figurines of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.
Thatbinnyu is the tallest temple if I'm not mistaken. But it actually has only 2 storeys. We didn't go in.
Ananda temple is also tall and we managed to get in.
Caught attempting to meditate under a Bodhi tree
Mahabodhi temple
Preparing Thanaka paste
End result!
The people we met as well went around the old temples were generally nice. There were some that wanted to sell us paintings of old murals located within some of the temples. I saw some of the old murals/paintings/fresco. They look quite interesting, and considering that there aren't many old fresco paintings in the South East Asian region (I think), there should be more effort to protect them. Sadly the authorities don't seem to know how to protect them well (such as allowing them to be exposed to sunlight etc).
After a whole morning of cycling out in the hot, almost desert-like weather, we went back to town to try an Italian restaurant which is famous for their "Bagan Pizza". It was not bad. I was glad we were there coz I didn't have any water left and it felt like our skin were emitting heat!
After that we went back to our hostel, bathed and waited for our bus back to Yangon. The bus was quite OK, but the windows could not be opened. The journey was most uneventful at first, and the only that irritated me was that the girl in front kept lowering her seat to the back but I couldn't lower mine :( trapped!
Shan buffet again for dinner. Love it that they top up the side dishes when it gets empty; but hate the flies.
At night I happened to see shimmering lights at a distance and was wondering where we could be. As I mentioned in earlier posts, electricity in Myanmar is very uncertain, and there are usually no street lights (or there are, but as the electricity supply is intermittent, it's barely of use). I surmised that we should be nearing Nay Pyi Daw, i.e. the new capital of Myanmar, and I was right.
In fact we had to pass by Nay Pyi Daw and it was a world apart from the rest of Myanamar, even Yangon: There were well manicured green grass patches, there were 4 lanes of roads on each side with the lines properly drawn and having a good surface, ample street lighting, large buildings and villa-like bungalows... There was also a magnificently large pagoda that was shone with many floodlights... roundabouts, flyovers, speed limit of 100km/h... I was awestruck. It was like what a modern Myanmar could have been. But knowing the real conditions that commonfolk had to live in... it was a confusing extravagance. Not to say I'm a real stranger to all this... it happens everywhere in the world; just compare any simple village in Malaysia and Putrajaya.
Day 11
When we got back in Yangon it was early morning I think. We had to bargain to get back to Yoma Hotel (reduced from K9000 to K4000!). Behind the hotel card we got before leaving Yangon someone wrote that K3500 was sufficient.
The New Light of Myanmar: Top left corner article title reads "American citizen Mr John William Yettaw, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Daw Khin Khin Win, Ma Win Ma Ma brought to trial"
After some sleep we woke up a little too late and missed the hotel's breakfast, so we went to have breakfast at a place near the hotel with Joseph and Lin-lin. Then they brought us to visit the National Races Village that showcases ethnic housing and wares from around the country. The major races include: Rakhine, Kayin, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayah and Bamar.
Entrance to the National Races Village
A Kayin House
Forgot where we tried this. But I like the dish at the bottom left corner: pickled tea leaves.
For lunch Joseph thought it proper to bring us to a more upscale place called Golden Duck Restaurant. It served pretty standard Chinese fare. The deco, cutlery etc was definitely better than all other places we've eaten at in Myanmar, but that actually was not what we were looking for. Well, at least not what I was looking for. But oh well, Joseph was just trying to be a good host I guess.
Xuwen started getting sick around this time so we went back to the hotel. Me and Hannah were considering of going to see Shwedagon Pagoda but somehow or another we didn't (+ it was drizzling or something). Ended up spending most of the afternoon in the hotel, sleeping and watching TV (I remember watching "Vantage Point"). Soon it was dark and we went out to look for dinner. Settled for a Chinese restaurant. Also bought some biscuits. Unfortunately I couldn't find Royal Myanmar Teamix! What I pity. Wanted to bring it back to share with friends and family coz I really found it different but tasty. Will definitely get it when I go to Myanmar next time (which I will because there are some places I want to go that I've yet to visit, such as the famous Kyaiktiyo golden rock).
We didn't get to meet Joseph & co anymore before leaving and that was a problem because we still had a bunch of Kyats with us! (this has thankfully been settled by Hannah)
Day 12
We had a special early breakfast thanks to a prior arrangement with the hotel management, and we then took a taxi to the airport to catch our AirAsia flight to Bangkok. We really wanted to go straight to Laos but there's no such connection and land connections in and out of Myanmar are a tricky business.
Mural painting inside Yangon International Airport
The AirAsia flight was uneventful and pretty soon we reached Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. It still looks unfinished with bare concrete slabs at certain locations. From my time I interned at Changi Airport I surmised that Suvarnabhumi was quite a mess (for an international airport that handles so many passengers) and after seeing it for myself I have to agree.
After some confusion we managed to find the taxi queue and through a staff positioned there the taxi driver knew we wanted to go to Mo Chit bus terminal which is near the famous Chatuchak market. Looking at my surroundings, Bangkok was more modern than I thought! And the smooth journey on the highway was sooo different compared to the bumpy bus rides we had in Myanmar. Makes me wonder how 2 neighbouring countries can be so different (other examples worth looking at would be N. and S. Korea, Haiti and Dominican Republic).
Decorated roof of a toll plaza
At the bus terminal we bought our tickets to Mukdahan (Thai is also a tonal language. Mukdahan in hanyu pinyin would sound something like muk3 da2 han3) which is located along the Mekong at the Thai-Laos border. I remember the counter lady saying the ticket costs si1 pet3 pet3 which is 488 Baht. We then placed our big backpacks at the left baggage area and decided to go to the hospital because Xuwen really seemed to be quite sick.
It seemed like no one really knew any English, but we still managed to get a taxi outside. Then came the problem of telling him where we wanted to go. Showed him the location of one hospital on a map (forgot if it was the Lonely Planet book or just a tourist map). It was called Phaya Thai 2 (coz there was another Phaya Thai). I guess he can't read English so I decided to try reading it out to him, saying "Pa Ya Tai (counting with fingers) Neung3... Song2!" He got it! As we drove he asked me if I were Thai and complimented me on my pronunciation. Haha, so happy =)
The hospital was quite near on the map but it took quite long to reach it because of traffic lights and jams. I think I saw quite a lot of trannies (人妖) along the way, at least more than I usually would on a normal day in Malaysia or Singapore. Anyway the hospital staff were very courteous and obliging! No wonder so many people come to Thailand for surgery etc. There were also English newspapers to read for us to kill time waiting for Xuwen.
After she got her medicine we walked to the nearest MRT (or was it monorail?) station and took the train to Siam (pronounced "Si-am") station, as I saw from the map that many shopping centres were located near there. We weren't touring much of Bangkok, just transiting. Plus, it's very convenient (and not too expensive) to make a weekend trip to Bangkok from Malaysia/Singapore nowadays.
Concrete trees
The area around Siam station is literally a concrete jungle. The view in front of the malls were obstructed by huge concrete pillars supporting the MRT/monorail. The malls were, as expected, modern and thus, typical. Hannah commented as we were sitting down for lunch that this could be a shopping mall in Singapore, and I concurred. Xuwen managed to call back home and after that we took a cab back to the bus terminal. It was raining quite heavily by now. It was nice that the taxi driver was playing the Bee Gees live in concert album! Was humming along all the way.
We went to collect our backpacks and as we were walking to the bus area the Thai national anthem was broadcasted and suddenly everyone stood dead in their tracks!!! It was an amazing phenomenon to me, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering how much Thais revere their King (and I presume then the country, flag, anthem etc as well).
Bus was not punctual but that's OK. It was a pretty nice bus, like those VIP ones I take in Malaysia. There was a lady conductor we went with us all the way. She asked me where I was going but as I didn't understand, the kind guy beside me translated for me and I said Mukdahan. She then said something and the kind guy said "She say you speak well Thai" =D
The bus was leaking at some places though... Hannah had water dripping on her head for awhile. Along the way I saw Petronas petrol stations as well as CIMB banks. It was flooding at some places but business was usual for the roadside sellers (except that at some places they were knee-deep in water). They served coke, biscuits, juice, water and blankets on the bus which is already better than most bus journeys I take in Malaysia. We stopped for dinner somewhere.
Next to come: Stuck in Savannakhet!
No comments:
Post a Comment