Burma!!!

Hey all,

release an Owl for extra super good Karma!

Sorry for not writing for so long. I suppose my life has not changed as much as I thought it would since I started writing this blog. I figured now that my life finally got boring I would have all the time in the world to write but as it turned out... things kept happening and I am hardly ever bored. Add to that I still hardly have any discipline to sit down and write, and that I usually have a stack of papers from school to check.. I hope I am hereby apologized.

On top of the Amarapura Teak Bridge.

Ah, Burma, as the title of this post goes. What a great place!

The famous Amarapura Teak Bridge

Somehow I lured my girlfriend of the time into joining me to one of the most secretive places I know, of which I had heard very positive stories from some travelling friends. This particular girlfriend still is my favourite London lass and has Nigerian roots. So as a pair, she so dark and I so fair, we stood out fantastically! To proof that the Burmese are not as much out of this world as most westerners think... Upon the sight of the two of us they would often start singing Shakira's "Waka-waka, it's time for Africa" song which was the tune of the world championship football the previous Summer. (Yes, the one where Holland so shamefully lost the finals against Spain, thanks for reminding me).

praying young monks in Bagan

Burma! Sorry for all that side-tracking...

Shwedagon Paya

Upon arrival I made my way straight to the shining Shwedagon Paya and thoroughly enjoyed it's Golden splendour that first evening. My favourite time to visit any temple is about one hour before sunset, when the light is always Golden, and the solemn atmosphere slowly changes with the artificial light. Around this time in a lively place like the Shwedagon Paya (agreed, it took me some time to get that name right too) the local Buddhists drop in after working hours, say their prayers and make their offerings.
The pagoda is massive! The huge one in the middle, and then loads of little ones around it. Inside you can find very colourful Buddha statues, often surrounded by multi-colour flashing lights. An amazing sight! Everywhere there are monks. I am not exactly sure how the dress code works. Older man usually wear crimson red robes, while younger, and female monks, wear the most beautiful dress I have ever seen on any religious person. Crisp pink with orange ribbons. Fantastic! To me, as a photographer with a strong visual focus, this was like paradise. I must have shot about 500 pictures in this single temple!

Word is that the bad generals are building a new capital city in Myanmar, Burma's new name. It is situated somewhere deep in the jungle and I don't think tourists are allowed to visit. It reminds me of Brasilia, or Almere (some city in the Dutch polder, but not really). A problem of this new city is that it must look as splendid as the rest of Myanmar, which looks pretty splendid, so it is costing billions of dollars. Money that is urned by selling lots of teak and other hard-wood from the forests in the outskirts of Myanmar... where large groups of minority tribes live.  For tourists, Yangon is still the capital and this is where the international airport is situated.

cheap internal flights with modern planes

Yangon is a lovely place. My favourite part being the bicycle rickshaws, that are very narrow and in which the driver is on the left, while the passengers are on the right side, one facing forward, and one backwards. The reason why they make such a great impression is because of the wonderful contrast, compared with the noisy Tuk-tuks that you find in places like Bangkok, for instance.

Rickshaw across the river in Yangon

Yangon does remind of some other Asian capital cities, like Phnom Pen of Vientiane (admitted: the latter one I have not yet visited) but this one seems even more laid-back. And that's pretty much exactly what is so attractive about Burma. It is indeed Asia as we want it to look like forever. And as the rest of it still did, about 30 years ago. Things are changing fast in Asia, but not so much in Burma.

Moustache brothers, Mandalay

I am not writing this blog to give you political warnings or official tourist information. I am merely sharing my experiences. I may be a Geography teacher, travelling all around the world to experience all kinds of places, which makes it able for me to show my photo's to my students and tell them all about the world.

Force-on-guide in Sagaing, we rode the bike as a threesome.

I may also try and convince them not to go... to save the environment... Generally speaking I am a very bad hedonist and travel addict. And I keep on looking upon the world as naive as I did when I first started travelling.

Lovely girl with tanaka cheeks in Bagan.

If you ask me to give my most honest opinion about Burma, I would say: "Those bad generals did a great job at saving Burma as a treasure of Buddhist culture. There is loads of Gold hidden in it's jungles and the people are about the happiest I have ever witnessed! They are held back from many modernities that the world does not need anyway and sometimes I think I would gladly trade places with them!" (But then again, who would write my blog and teach my students...?)

That would be me, acting all Buddhist and shit.

One of the worst stories I had heard about Burma was about it's public transportation. About locals throwing up their guts all night long and terrible roads. So, shamefully I admit... I took a bunch of internal flights. From Yangon to Mandalay. Then the bus to Bagan. Another flight to Inle Lake, one more to Ngapali beach and then back to Yangon. Four in total, which cost me about $200 US.

Ngapali Beach

In between some massive fights with my (soon to be ex-) girlfriend it was all so happy and peaceful! The security people at the airport carrying our baggage to the right place. The flight attendants, the fruit-sellers on the beach, the praying locals, the monks, the taxi-drivers, the force-on-guide that showed us around Sagaing,  the bird-releasers, the hostel keepers, the Indian Dosa maker, the scooter renters... even the backpackers seemed to be totally at ease!

Masala Dosa, my favourite Indian food in Yangon

I could go on forever, writing about this two week trip that turned out to be one of the most amazing I have ever made. But for now you will have to do with just this first starter, and some photographs. Chances are I will be going back this Summer to guide the first ever Junior-trip that Djoser organizes there... This will give me plenty of opportunity to check up on some more great stuff and fill in the blanks.

modern monk

Now I am in Amsterdam and I have to go hang up my laundry... To be continued!

Oh, and for all the disappointed perverts out there... sorry not to be writing about hot Japanese girls this time. It's just that those apparently draw the largest crowds to a blog and I hope you had a good read after all... So long. Will write about those more often later, I promise.