Backpacker’s lifestyle

After almost 3 weeks traveling I’m getting used to this new lifestyle and how I can make it as comfortable and practical for myself. You never know what to expect even if you’ve travelled before or received useful tips from others. I have no issue with wearing the same clothes for many days (especially trousers) and I’m pleased I’ve packed light so I don’t have a lot of extras. Now I know why you have to wrap your valuables and clothes in plastic bags, after the first downpour my bag was soaking wet including some of the contents. So I’ve collected more plastic bags and am now searching for a rain cover for my bags. My hand or day bag contains the obvious, money, passport, hand sanitizer, water, sun cream, mosquito repellent, malaria tablets, lonely planet but the ‘spork’, plastic drinking cup and head torch are useful objects too. The head torch works out as a perfect reading light during the night bus trips too.

There’s almost a system in my bag with everything in a separate bag and always the same place so you can find it easily. My travel partner commented that I’m always re-packing my bag and advised not to take out too many things every time you stay somewhere overnight as you have to be able to leave in 15 minutes if needed. Maybe useful information but he’s a man and I do like to have my bag as organized as my wardrobe! On the flip side I feel that I do carry at least 2 kg too much in that bag so some items will have to go shortly when I had enough of them. The packing light makes a lot more sense when you’re traveling!

I already bought some tradition trousers and two lovely hand woven over the shoulder bags in colourful purple and red. However I wasn’t happy that there’s no zip in these handbags to make sure that your money or passport doesn’t fall out. So I took a zip from my current handbag and went to a lady at the market with as sewing machine that solved this problem incl shortens the handle for 75pence! Angel happy with a very useful bag which hopefully will make it all the way with me on my trips.

Betel leaf

For me a first but apparently in many Asian countries people chew on Betel leaf. There are little stalls everywhere on the street who sell these in little packages of 4 pieces. The Betel leaf is a kind of tobacco which has a stimulating effect when you chew it. They make little packages from the betel leaf, at some lime paste followed by some spices (kind of nutmeg) and tobacco. When you chew this the betel juice will colour your teeth red so you see lots of people with red or hardly any teeth as this is due to the betel leave. Once chewed they have to get rid of it so most of the time they will spit this on the floor or in a bin which results in many dark red stained bins and pavements.

Boat trip on Inle Lake

A 7.30am start at the bridge to meet our lovely lady called: she said that two of her cousins will take us for the day on the lake. Both boys didn’t look older than 16 year old but they knew how to use the flat bottom boats and its engine. After going through the itinerary for the day we left. The first half hour was a cold and noisy ride to the lake. There were many boats on there to take all the tourists so it was a race between the young boys who were in charge of the boats. When we finally entered the lake it looked very surreal as this is what I was expecting to see with many fishermen scattered around on the lake trying to catch some fish or weeds. Some of them look more traditional then others but our guides stopped at one of them so we could take a picture.MISSING  (silver and black smith) Finally lunch time at a very big restaurant with many tourist which was located in front of a big Pagoda which looked to shining and there were to many traders to flock their prullaria in front of it. So we decided to take charge of the rest of the afternoon and tried to communicate with the boys that we wanted to return to the lovely village called Nampan and no tourist attractions anymore. They kept on asking: to the jumping cat? And we had to reply: NO! Nampan is the best of the lake in my eyes as this is a quiet village with bamboo houses on stilts. The people aren’t used yet to tourist so when we were padding around in our boat the children spotted us and jumped alone or with granny in their boat and came over to see us and shake our hands. At some point we had 2 boats with kids next to us and more waiving or screaming from their houses to catch our attention. The Brangelina feeling returned and we waived and screamed back at them while taking pictures. At some point a couple of little girls threw butterfly kisses at us and we returned the favour. All very lovely and we didn’t want to leave here as it was so peaceful and great to see that people still live the way they like to.

Our return trip went via the floating gardens; a massive area of tomato plants all floating it the water! They pick the tomatoes from their boats and put them in big wicker baskets which you can see coming into the village the next morning. Then an hour ride back on the lake while sunset was setting in and still fisherman catching their fish.

Inle Lake is truly a beautiful place but I’m afraid that tourism will take over which will be a big shame to see this happen.

Bike ride near Nyaung Shwe

As true Dutchies the Brangelina’s went on some bikes to explore the area and finally see the Inle Lake. After exploring the centre with shops, restaurants, travel agents and other useful establishments for our visit we made our way to the water. We spoke to a lady who wanted to ‘sell’ us a boat ride for the next day. This is needed to explore the lake as you can’t travel around it as its quite big. I will update you about the boat trip at later stage. So we cycled along marches on a very dusty road full of stones but the views were stunning. We stopped a couple of times to park the bikes and walk around to explore the area and make some pictures. We passed a family who were taking their cows to another area in the marches which means the cows have to swim to the allocated area.

Mother and daughter arrived on a flat bottom boat with lots of weed from the lake and parked it in the water. They greet you with Hello or the Myanmar version; it was obvious they are already used to tourists who wander around in their backyard to shoot the perfect picture.

Then we stopped at a village called Wan Lha Nar and underneath it showed

620 people, 320 women and 300 men.

We were greeted by children and amazing views of the village, most of the houses are made from bamboo and raised above the water. A couple of them were from bricks and looked very much out of its place but still beautiful. People were very friendly and greeted us while getting on with their lives: repairing the bamboo stairs, fishing, cooking, gardening, taking a screaming pig to a far corner and then the noise stopped. The river ran through the village and is a main focus for most of them as it’s used for fishing, cleaning your cloths, yourself, transport you and your boat and sure has many other uses. Unfortunately, the river bed is polluted with empty plastic bottles called, Pearl, Shine, Win or Rose as these are the empty washing liquids used for washing the clothes.

Later on a lady walked with a dead duckling in her hand (using a tissue) and threw it into the same river, leaving the cat watching it traveling along the stream and not in its stomach. You can image that I’m still not eating any meat or local street food as even the rice is washed in this same river and I’m pretty sure my Western stomach can’t cope with this. A real shame but very sensible for the moment. On the way back we treated ourselves on some Western food at the luxury Amazing Nyaung Shwe Hotel in town to enjoy a Beef burger with chips and Wi-Fi. Hooray for civilization; as you can take the girl out of London but London not out of the girl!

Kalaw, Taunggyi and Kakku

After our early and wet start in Kalaw we slept for a couple hours and decided to have a day off. The rain was still pouring down and it was very foggy.

The rest of the day we watched movies (as our room had a television) and tried to get on the internet with limited access.

The next day we wanted to do a hike but we were woken up by rain again so we decided not to go out and plan the next week of our trip as we now know that we have to make bookings long time in advance. November is apparently the busiest month of the year for tourist to visit and especially now with the borders open they are flooding in. We managed to get hotels and sorted out our transportation. I had a lazy day wandering around and visiting the local tea room followed by dinner with local food.  I’m still only eating vegetarian food as I’ve seen too many chickens at the markets that were dead for a long time but won’t be eaten for a long time either.

Kalaw is a pretty village in the mountains for hikes and enjoying the locals but unfortunately we didn’t have the pleasure to enjoy that due to the rain and fog. Only the next morning when we left by bus we could see the potential as the fog had cleared.

So it was a 7am bus to Taunggyi which is a bigger place and the base to take us to Kakku the next day (more about that later). This was a local bus so very old and full of locals and their belongings or food which they were planning to sell at a market that day. It was a 2,5 hr journey which was ok for a little Angel who doesn’t need much space with her bag on her lap but it’s a different story when you’re almost 2 meters long.

We checked into our hotel and had a wander around into the centre of Taunggyi, the market was still in full swing so we saw lots of people selling their produce which could be fruit, vegetable, rice, fish, chicken and surprisingly flowers. The flower market in Amsterdam was nothing compared with what was on offer. During our visit it was back to Brangalina again as everyone turns their head to look at you or tries to make contact. I’ve noticed that the children are very shy here and it was difficult to take their picture as a camera isn’t a common thing for them. We had tea in a tea room and again heads turned to see us or hover around us to see who these white people are….

Most tea rooms have a television which shows soaps or loud music and this means that lot of people come over for a tea and watch what’s on the box.

Kakku

Today Dutch Brangelina decided to enjoy  a similar treatment as the real couple is used to.  A visit to Kakku in the Shan State was planned this is a hill site garden with 2478 stupas, funded by the Buddhist missionaries of the Indian emperor Ashoka  in the 3^rd century BC. We had a driver and guide booked for the day as you can’t visit the site without a qualified guide (extra money for the site and less for the tourists). We had a 1,5hr ride through the rural country side which gives you another great view how the people of Burma live. You pass many small villages with bamboo houses and the odd brick one. Most of the time you‘ll only see mothers and children as most of the men are working on the fields. So when you pass these fields this is a wide view of green with many bamboo trees, fields , cows, little bamboo huts and in the far distance people working. This is the idyllic picture you usually see in the Conde Nast magazines but I can tell you these are real. Our guide Nang Hla Mu (La) told us that the main vegetable they grow here are ‘gullets’ , I told her that I’ve never heard of these and if she could show us the vege when we see one. Later on we stopped and went to a very old man who was peeling garlic and she said with a big smile: look these are the gullets! I told her that we call them garlic in which she responded: “yes so do we”. Later on I found out that La just started her job as a guide to learn English and we established that it’s very hard for her to pronounce the R, so at the end of the day she brushed up on her English with garlic, horse, garden and a lot more.

Moving on we arrived as one of the first at the site which was very tranquil and the sun was shining so Brangelina were thrilled to get a lot of great shots to memorise this beautiful site. We walked with ‘La’ through the garden with stupas and she updated us about the history and the 3 different types of stupas: open, closed (the front where the Buddha is placed) and chimney (see pictures when uploaded) and the 3 different iron ‘umbrella’s on top; Mandalay-en, Paoh and Saen, on top of that there are 5 concrete ones who have a special reason but I was lost in translation why. After more than an hour walking, talking and taking pictures the garden got busier with more tourists and their guides. We had a final look around and went to the Hlaing Konn Restaurant for lunch. Our guide was hovering around as out of politeness she wouldn’t’ join us but we asked her if she wanted to for lunch. We talked a bit more and found out that she likes to come to Europe at some point to learn English and travel the world. This is something that I hope she is able to do. More tourists arrived so we made a move and travelled back to Taunggyi with our driver, stopping a couple of times to get some more great pictures and walk through little villages, accept invites to visit a family home and stop at ‘La’ ‘s village to see her family house and meet some of her family.

After picking up our bags the driver dropped us off at the ‘bus stop’ which is a pick-up truck for people, the truck would take us in an hour to our next destination: Nyaung Schwe. The pick-up was already full of locals so I couldn’t image that we -including our backpacks-would fit on this too. But here they load people like cattle so every inch of space is used. I was lucky to get at ‘spot’ at the back – driving backwards- and facing the 4 men who were ‘surfing’ at the back of the truck. Michel was one of these guys and the locals assured him that is was all fine! (Don’t translate the following for my mum!!) So we took off at a vast speed, holding on to the roof and our bags, after 10 minutes heavens opened and we got very wet in 5 minutes time. Then the truck slipped and ended up jack knifed on the road (luckily the right side of it) and one of guys fell off. Then I was pushed out of the car as we had to wait at the side of the road while the driver would check his car. So we waited at the side of the narrow road, in the pouring rain and in front of us we saw a couple of motorbikes slip and fell on the road. We were right on a bend which was very slippery due to the rain, than another truck slipped and turned 45 degrees and almost hit a motorbike. By that point my heart jumped and I looked at Michel who was calm which re-assured me. After 5 minutes we could return to the car only soaking wet and still a bit shaken. We continued our trip and after 10 minutes the sun appeared with some wind which dried most of our clothes and belongings. Everyone started chatting and laughing again as if it never happened. They did tell us that this NEVER happens but I’m not sure if I will take another pick-up again especially when the weather is unsure. Thank you Saint Christopher (you know who I mean) for looking after me ;-)

We checked in at Hotel Joy which is a lovely place on the river, Nyaung Shwe looks a bit like Venice but then Asian style. The hotel has big balcony with tables and chairs facing the river which I’m using for typing up my blogs. Sounds all idyllic but at 5am the fishermen leave the town to go to the lake which means a lot of noise as the engines are very loud.

Later that evening I met two French boys one traveling for 20 months and the other for one, we exchanges some information and stories and had dinner with them later that evening.

Nyaung Shwe has a very chilled, bohemian feeling so I’m pleased I decided to stay here for 4 nights to enjoy it, the lake and surroundings.

Bago and Inle Lake

Brangelina

While in Bago my travel companion Michel and I went to the back streets of the town where the locals live.  These streets aren’t paved and the houses are made from wood or other materials people could find to build their home. Most of the houses are on stilts to protect it from flooding. Some houses are made from brick and are painted colourful or even have an iron gate in the front. But most people live outside and have a little house for shelter and to sleep. Amazingly one thing that some houses have are a television which is on most of the time and many people mainly children are glued to it watching some soap series. If you look properly you notice that some houses include a shop or workshop for people to make their money, I’ve seen a many seamstress, cobbler, bookstore, cycle repair or selling some food and household goods.

Walking there people and specially children came out of their houses or stopped what they were doing to watch us or say hello. Most of the time the children come over but when you say ming guh la ba (hello) they start giggling or run away, only to find out that they are following you later or ask a picture to be taken. Walking there I felt l like Angelina Jolie again and as my travel partner could get away as Brad Pitt, walking there and meeting the locals.  The famous Brangelina have their own brood of children but even if they weren’t ours we always had a large amount of little ones around us to catch our attention.

Children

All of they are so cute and adorable it’s hard not to take their pictures or catch their attention all the time. They are always happy and return your smile, have no sorrows or are happy with their situation. The older ones look after the younger ones or carry them around if they can’t walk yet. Babies are sleeping in a small hammock or just lay on the floor and are doing need any toys to be entertained with. The older ones play with dogs, water, a tyre, each other, piece of rope, one plastic toy, and play hide and seek or domino with beer bottle lids. It’s great to see that these children don’t need much to be happy and entertain themselves. It’s such a contrast with the Western world and we shows that there’s too much available then the demand. As you can see in the picture lots of children and people have paint on their faces. This is a protection for the sun but also as a decoration. Women sometimes make beautiful drawings on their faces and children have bunnies on their cheeks. I still haven’t been able to find out the exact story behind it but it’s a nice touch to the face.

Children from about 9 yrs old work in restaurants, tea houses or cafés.  It’s amazing how many of them work already from such a young age. They are very friendly and try to talk to you in English or understand it but must of the time we fail as my Burmees isn’t up to date either. The big smile makes up for the wrong delivered food or not understanding your question or orders but saying: yes, yes no problem.

They work hard and I do hope they go to school at some point or get an education to help the country grow and learn a profession if they want.

Bus ride

Yesterday I experienced my first night bus to cover 300km from the South to the North. The journey took about 10 hours and costs 16.000 kyat ( £12). You travel in an old air-conditioned bus which is full of locals with a couple of travellers. The road is only for buses to transport people along form North-South and vice versa. Unfortunately, the road isn’t wide enough for 2 busses so this slows the process as when one approaches from the other side you have to stop to let them pass.

At the start of the journey it was still light so you could look out of the window to see what was going on.  There’s TV screen in the front playing very loud music and later on showing a very bad version of the Myanmar version of Eastenders. The acting is so bad that I feel sorry for the people who are watching and understand the storyline. The sound is so loud that even with your IPod on volume 10 you can hear the noise of the TV. I tried to ask them to turn it down but that was only granted for 5 minutes and after that it was loud again till 11.30pm (thank god)

There’s a regular stop at a big gas station which includes big diners for a quick bite to eat or drink and loo break. Sometimes they just stop in the middle of nowhere and you just can do your business in the field.

We were told that the bus would arrive in Kale at 5am so I’ve booked a room for that night as we only had to wait for hopefully a couple of hours to get our room. But at 2am the bus stopped as we already arrived in Kalaw and we were misinformed about the arrival time. The little town was quiet, dark and I knew that all accommodations were full. We walked to our hotel and the ‘security guard’ said they had no room till later that day! We tried 2 other places to see if they had a room or bed for us to crash on for a couple of hours. By doing that we had to wake up the ‘security guy’ and then the owner to make sure they didn’t have any space for us. In the end we waited outside our hotel till 6am when the night porter woke up and let us into the reception. Then by 9am we finally we got our room and could have a couple of hours  sleep before exploring the town and make some more travel arrangements to avoid similar situations. On top of that it was raining and cloudy.

So we’ve left Bago now to explore the area of Inle Lake which is in the middle of the country. Bago was worth the short visit as it’s only the hub to visit the Golden Rock. The city is a busy strip of main road with hotels, shops, many people, motorbikes and traffic.

Our hotel was on the main road and the noise was only stopping for a couple of hours at night, the rest of the day and night you could hear the motorbikes,  cars, trucks and busses using their horns to indicate that they were there due to no traffic lights or road signs. After a day or two the noise gets to you as its never ending.

I've arrived in Burma

4 days in Burma and I’m now fully into the backpackers experience and this country.

My journey from London to Yangon was via Singapore, I had a fantastic flight with Singapore Airlines which provides the best service so far in my eyes. I was disappointed that the 12 hour flight was over. After that 3 hour wait at Singapore Airport which has all the luxury and an aircon environment. Then a 2,5 hours flight to Yangon which I spend sleeping as I was so tired from my trip and missing a proper sleep.

When I arrived at the airport – which looked very modern and very organize) a young man wearing his longyi was waiting for me with a sign with my name so I felt very welcome and pleased that there was someone waiting for me. When we came out of the exit and I felt the warm, sticky air I got tear in my eyes as it felt that this was the real start of my adventure and it was beautiful to start it here.

The taxi ride was half an hour but I think that driving in Paris on the Champ Elysees would be a piece of cake if you compare it with this; old cars, trucks, buses, bikes, motorbikes, families on a converted bike with seats and the fast moving  pedestrians. All cars blowing their horns as pedestrians just cross the road when they feel like it.

My arrival at the hotel was a bit of a shock, it’s in a street that I naturally would avoid but the welcome from the staff makes you feel better and they speak English.

That evening I’ve found many other travels (English, Dutch and Australian) and we chatted till late outside drinking Mandalay-en beer and exchanging travel tips and options. The next they we decided to take the circular local train around Yangon, this was an amazing experience as we were almost the only tourist amongst the locals who bring shiploads of stuff into the train, eat and prepare food in the carriage and look at us as if we are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt! But as soon as you smile they will return this with a bigger one and if possible they will come over to have a conversation with you in English. Many times a youngster was pushed into our direction as they speak our language and have to translate. The children are so cute and most of the time dressed up like princesses or fairies so it’s impossible not to snap away to capture these impressions. We hopped to different carriages to meet new locals and got off at a local market. The colours, smells and food were amazing and again we were the odd ones out walking around with our cameras and people were asking us to take a picture of them (specially the kids).

In the evening I walked around the city centre which is very much run down with some upcoming modern shops but the buildings (many of them were left by the English) are in need of some work and could host 4 star hotels in the future. Most street are full of people selling their goods which vary from food or electronic devices, clothes and furniture (a bit like Walthamstow market). I drank tea at one of the many tea houses but that sounds too posh for what it is; sitting outside on the pavement on little plastic stools with a big pot of tea (kind of builders one) and then soaking up the company and the city vibes.

The next morning I’ve visited the SchwedagonPaya which is an impressive golden pyramid with many buddah’s and places to pray. It was a Sunday so many locals were there to pray or bring offers for their loved ones to Buddah.

I’m now traveling with one other Dutchie to explore the rest of this beautiful but challenging country. It is a lot easier to travel in pairs as you just have to take it day by day in this country. They are very happy that the country has now opened their borders and everyone is ‘free’ as they say and feel it too. This means that people are able to be an entrepreneur and make some money and not the government. In my opinion this is a struggle for them as the infrastructure isn’t there yet and most of them don’t know yet what tourist want or need. So far I’ve noticed that the country is swamped by tourists but there aren’t enough places to stay or to get them from A-B.  Most of the travellers came just like me here with the idea to book and arrange trips as you go but it’s proven that it would have been easier to arrange most of it in advance. On the other hand being a traveller with not a set time to get back home you can adjust your ideas or route and that’s what I’m doing at the moment.  The Dutchies are now in Bago which was a 2 hour bus ride from Yangon with locals in the afternoon in an aircon bus but aircon is not what we expect from an aircon bus so you come out soaking wet and dusty from the open windows.  Then a 6 person tuk-tuk will take you with your luggage to your hotel and there are always people to help you with this. Your first reaction is that they want to hassle you or just want your money but the majority are kind and genuine so you have to step back and take that all in.

Tomorrow we are planning  a 4 hour journey by taxi, truck and then walk up to the Golden Rocks at Kyaikto  leaving at 5am as you want to be back before it gets too hot.

My travel companion became ill last night so we couldn’t go today  but that means we both can get some rest and make some travel arrangements.

Food and hygiene: till now I’ve been lucky not to get ill or feel effected by the weather. My diet is very basic and I’mkeeping it to a minimum so that helps too. I’m still eating my cereal bars and only have fruit with a skin. Drink lots of water and no alcohol so that’s been very successful till now. There’s lots of street food around but I’m afraid to touch it as it’s all out in the open air with no refrigerator or covered by anything form the dust and city life.  It looks amazing but I’m sure my Western stomach won’t cope with it so I’m visiting the supermarkets to find something that looks familiar and safe. A shame but I’ve seen many people already been ill and I don’t want to end up like them.

The scenery is changing the more you enter the rural area, Yangon is a city so fairly civilized and I was able to find or get everything I wanted. Internet or wifi are there but not much or very slow. Now in Bago it’s already a different world where people live on the street. The few paved roads are busy and the noise is overwhelming from the motorbikes, cars and trucks blowing their horns and dogs barking to everything that moves.

Walking around this morning I felt again the odd one out as I was dressed in my Western clothes and look pale against these women in beautiful colourful clothes with tanned skin.

You see children swimming in the river and at the same time the man next to me on the bridge is throwing a bag of rubbish into that same river! Then I moved on to the local market which again is very colourful from the food which they try to sell to me and  I’m sorry I can’t so the only thing I’ve bought  is bananas for my sick companion. The old lady selling these to me shows me with her own money how much they are so I can pay her the correct amount. It’s moving to see how they adapt so quickly and invite you into their world which is very welcoming and I can’t wait to find out more about this. Walking back to my hotel again I had tears in my eyes as I feel so blessed to be here and see how other people live and how happy they are living their lives.  London feels already very far……….

We are heading North from Tuesday to the Inle lake for hiking, boat trip and floating market  then to Kakku with 2478 abandoned stupa’s (kind of minnarets) and then hoping to get to Bagan and Mandalay which are bigger cities which means that accommodation is fully booked or a challenge to get one.

Thwà-me-naw from Burma!

Final leaving drinks

Last night I had a lovely evening with many dear friends to send me off on my travels. Thank you all for joining me for some cocktails.