Day 3 - A visit to a different type of temple / Transit to Mandalay

Day 3 started off with some mohingha,  a local breakfast dish of rice noodles, and tons of other who knows whats.  After I booked a bus ticket for the evening to Mandalay and wanted to visit the Synagogue in town that I read about.  The Musmeah Yeshua Syngagogue was a remnant of the once thriving sephardic jews in the area. Now all gone, the temple still remains and has been actively restored and conserved by Jewish people around the world.  Very beautiful inside, and fitting that I went in on a sabbath.  It started to rain as I left so I went back to the guesthouse to kill time before my bus in the evening.  At the bus station I saw some sugar cane, and being that it's one of my favorite drinks in the hot weather I got a class.  The way they pressed it was very old fashioned.  In most of SE asia they use electronic rolling grinders, here it was much more manual and painstaking.  The bus stopped halfway to Mandalay at a giant rest area and I got a few things for dinner which I don't know what they all were but it was all super delicious. 

Yangon - Day 2

I had planned to wake up early on my second day and see the sunrise at Shwedagon pagoda but I ended up sleeping in as I was so very tired from the few days before.  When I woke it was raining and I think that there may not have been a viewable sunrise anyways.  I walked a few km to the famous and giant pagoda to see what it was all about.  Shwedagon is beautiful and mammoth.  I entered on the west side which I would later find out is the only side that has an escalator. Score! Though they were performing maintenance on it so I had to walk up the numerous flights. Ha!  I walked around it for a while before this old nice man came up to me and started speaking to me. Random strangers being nice and wanting to speak English is a common thing in Myanmar (well in a lot of Asia actually).  He gave me a big tour and told me a lot of information. He showed me the Buddha of my birthday and how to wash it and pray properly. It was really nice and sweet, but I kept trying to figure out if he was doing it for kindness or wanted money.  In the end, he asked for a donation and I sort of chuckled to myself, as this is all part of the experience.  I left shortly after and walked home, stopping at the big market to get an avocado smoothie. Well sort of a smoothie, as there is no electricity for blenders it was an avocado mashed into some milk and sweet milk which I then mashed even more with my spoon. Still, very tasty.  I headed home and then met up with Moe Moe again for lunch to eat some traditional burmese tofu soup thing (didn't take a picture, sorry. But a picture will come later as I'll eat this Shan people tofu soup many times again) and then ambled around before going back home to take a nap as I was still tired and also the heat was oppressive. In the evening I got some dinner with a few of the people in the hostel and after eating we walked back to the hotel and stopped to eat some yoghurt/ice cream desserts. A nice way to cool the heat.

First day in Burma

Yangon. Day 1

I arrive at around 9am and am very tired from little sleep in the few days previous leading up to this.  I spot another single traveller picking up luggage and ask her if she wants to split a cab to town. Soon there are three and after some serious time of haggling the price down, we head into town and I'm dropped at the guesthouse I pre-booked.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend who lives part of the year in Yangon so i called her up and made plans to meet for lunch.  Before I headed out to meet her I changed some money at a bank with a good rate and headed to the Sule Pagoda. Sule is a big and beautiful pagoda only a few blocks away from where I am staying.  For lunch I meet Moe Moe at some delicious restaurant. The choices are laid out buffet style and you pick what you want to eat.  She picked for us and though I don't really know what anything was, it was all delicious.  After we head to the market for her to show me around a bit and end up having her dad pick us up to show us some harder to reach pagodas.  Being really tired, I started to fall asleep in the car so after the second pagoda we all though it best for me to go back to the guest house and sleep.  Which I did for a little.  I woke up in the evening and went to get dinner, but the rain coming down was torrential.  So I went to the next corner and bought some take-away indian veggie thing.  I still don't really know what it was because on the way back home i realized the bag wasn't sealed and it had emptied out all over the insides of my day bag.  Luckily most things inside were pre packed in cases so my camera or other electronics didn't get dirty. But my bag was disgusting so I hand washed it. The only problem with this was it's the wet season so the air is always humid and the bag would never dry. (Fortunately, I was able to borrow a hair dryer from some travelers the next day and I spent a long time hand drying it.)  I decided to call it a night after that as I was tired and it seemed like a good time to go to sleep.

little note from tonggook, myanmar

Because the internet is so sparse and slow I won't really be posting things to the site until I get home.  I'm trying to keep a daily type of journal and will put it up with pictures when I can.  

Things are for the most part great in Burma.  The people very friendly and the landscape beautiful.  But a lot of travel is involved to get from place to place and it can be extremely draining. Throw in some intense heat and heavy constant rains and it makes for not the easiest of travels.  

I'm now in a small port town where I am hoping to catch the boat tomorrow to Sittwe. My plan is to go from Sittwe to Mrauk-U as it looks beautiful. However two main issues are as follows.  It's rainy season and the boat may not be going or it could capsize as the waves i was seeing in the south were pretty rough.  Secondly, there are culture clashes up around where I want to go and I'm not sure if it's open or how safe it is.  But something is driving me to go there, so off I hope to go....

I wrote the paragraph below for another day's journal but felt like posting it today as it's on my mind.  

I watched "Into The Wild" before going to bed and contemplated a lot of things.  Might I die in the next few days in a boat capsizing or during a riot up north. Am I a lot like the main character, escaping society of sorts by constantly traveling and trying to see the world as much as I can on my terms.  The book had a huge impact on me when I read it, and I'd be lying if I said that it didn't help put me on the path to leave my work and travel. It wasn't the catalyst, but it helped in my decision.  Thoughts rushed through my head and I missed home. I felt sad that my constant need to see more and do more put a strain and sadness on my parents who wanted to see and hold me.  I realized that I wanted to be home right now. In a comfortable bed, not being eaten alive by mosquitoes and ants. Very recently I really wanted to be home, to be done with this trip. I think somewhat because I've bought the ticket already and so the end date is close. But also because traveling the way I am in Burma can be very difficult and taxing. When things get tough we want to turn back instead of facing them. But too often we try to face things that we shouldn't just because we don't want to quit.  It's sort of a paradox within itself.  To quit is seen as wrong but to keep going into what we shouldn't go into is also wrong. So what is right?  Of course it's all personal and different and maybe I'm waxing too rhetorical here.  Anyways, the point is that as much as I'm trying to live in the moment. To be present and here. I also and excited to be home with the comforts of modern living.   

off to the military regime of Myanmar

Early tomorrow morning I will fly to Yangon to spend the next 28 days in Burma... I mean Myanmar.  I expect little communications with the outside world, though I know that there are some spots for internet.  I've been wanting to go here for years so am very excited to see what the country has to offer. I am more than excited especially for Bagan, that place looks AMAZING!!

I spent the last few weeks outside of Chiang Mai in a small Lahoo (Thai ethnic minority) village studying thai massage a bit more and I hope to get some pictures up soon before I head off.  If not, well.. you'll just have to wait.  Apologies for the lack of posts and pictures, but the village didn't have internet and then the last few days since being back have been a blur...

Wish me safe travels, lord knows I don't want to end up in one of their prisons... :)