MYANMAR - DAY THREE, ISLAND PAGODA EXCURSION & WHAT IS IT YOU CALL YOURSELVES?

Wednesday - 25 March 2015 - Excursion to the Thanlyin area, Myanmar

A local live-on fishing boat on the Yangon River heading out to sea

Our downtown Yangon pier continued to provide fascinating view of the river. A characteristic Burmese live-on fishing boat was heading down river early in the morning after Silver Wind's second night in port.

US and British newscasts seem to always refer to the country with this words, "Myanmar, also known as Burma". (You don't hear them saying, "Beijing formerly known as Peking.") As we headed back from the emotional stop at the British military cemetery yesterday I took on the task of getting a authoritative DEMONYM* for Myanmar from our guide.

Before getting into today's remarkable excursion, I thought that the change of name from Burma to Myanmar would help me gain some insight of this country that has just begun to join the world community. Yesterday's tour guide claimed he was "Burmese." The cuisine, which I believe he talked about (it might have been the native animals in the wild. His accent was pretty thick) were Burmese, and the history he presented during our stop by the statue of the guy on a horse in the monastery was of the "Burmese people".  But early in the tour, he stated very carefully and in no uncertain terms that the name of the country was now Myanmar. Perhaps there was more to this incongruity.

Third world labor less than 30 minutes out of bustling Yangon

All young men spend some time as monks with their rice bowls and "begging cups"

Myanmar is still emerging. The sights, sounds, and smells are exotic to Westerners to say the least. The real meaning of what diligent guides say can only be vaguely inferred. There was noticeable progress since my visit 20 years ago, but not overwhelmingly so. And the renaming of the country to Myanmar was quite recent.

"How do you refer to yourself as a citizen of your country?", I asked. Our guide's answer was, "I am from Myanmar." I said, "What would you call the kind of food served in the local restaurants?" His answer was, "Burmese". He explained that Burma, actually BAMA or BAMAR in Burmese, is the language spoken in the ethnic region that had been occupied by the British for a century and a half. From that comes the British word, Burma. After some further thought he answered, "But I am Burmese." So for him, his ethnic identity is stronger than his national identity. By the way, Wikipedia gives the demonym for Myanmar as Myanma (no "r"). We never heard that word used at any time during our 60-hour stay in country. Today's tour guide considered herself something else, what was not clear. More on that later.

In general some or most likely many of the Myanma people do not identify ethnically with their country. It's the political entity they may pay taxes to and the country whose name appears on the passport covers for the few who are allowed to leave the country and have given granted passports. It's the ethnic/language distinctions that prevail. Myanmar, as with so many other emerging countries, is tribal. Our young, college educated guide yesterday was Bama (in English, "Burmese"). From his commentary it appeared that he clearly accepted that many of the other ethnic groups in the country was citizens of Myanmar as well. We have seen in the news recently that this is not universal. The Muslim Rohingya minority appears not to be accepted to the same extent. Many members of  the dominant groups in the country seem to not consider them citizens of Myanmar, at least informally. I guess a lot can be surmised from a discussion of a country's demonym. And it's a good word to impress other cruise passengers with, but they just seemed annoyed with my question.

A police escort was provided to expedite our bus' way through the rural roads

For our last day docked in Yangon, we had booked a five hour excursion to explore the Thanlyin area east of Yangon. The touristic focus was to be a visit to the Kyaikhmaw Wun Island Pagoda, a unique sight often seen on calendars and postcards. As with the previous day's tour, a number of other experiences were included. Some of these were remarkable and as usual a bit puzzling.

A traffic jam was centered on a small pickup truck carrying young teenage girls

The girls were apparently going to Yangon for some event. They looked very sleepy

The first stop was unplanned, or may it wasn't. There was suddenly gridlock on the rural road as our tour bus headed out of the Yangon metro area. A number of the drivers had left their vehicles and were directing traffic, unfortunately in conflicting directions. Our police escort pulled over and just looked dour. Eventually a beautifully clad group of young teenage girls riding in the back of a covered pickup truck were ordered by their chaperone to climb out line up for photos. It wasn't clear if that was for us. We obediently took our photos. The lovely girls looked very sleepy. We surmised that they must have been traveling from far away for an early event in Yangon. After photos the girls climbed back in their truck and the traffic cleared. We were once again on our way.

The town market was very busy

Small service businesses provided services to the locals

Clearly surplus and probably very cheap goods could not be for the nonexistent tourists in this out of the way town 

The first scheduled stop was billed as an "historic Thanlyin village". This otherwise somewhat modern looking village had a gigantic covered market. The goods for sale were mostly functional household items: cooking utensils, cloth, laundry detergent, and the like. Included were some items apparently surplus and functional, albeit of dubious taste. At least for English speakers. And there were local service industry establishments. Some businesses such as a ladies' hairdressing establishment appeared to be thriving.

A bumpy carriage ride through the otherwise unremarkable town

After a longer than necessarily time in the market/hardware store we were loaded onto a number of horse drawn two-passenger carriages. We were told we would now get a tour of the historic town. Actually it was essentially a pretty conventional nondescript village. After bouncing around behind a tired looking horse for 30 minutes or so, we then rejoined the bus and headed out of town.

A view of the Burmese floodplain from the hilltop temple was stunning

A side chapel in the sprawling Kyeik Khauk Pagoda

Many Buddha images in a small side chapel 

I could not find an explanation for the strange image in the lower left of this picture. The stupa in the largest in Myanmar

The hilltop Kyeik Khauk Pagoda was as huge a complex as the one we visited yesterday, and the central stupa was even a few feet larger. We were told that this stupa was the highest in Myanmar. Besides the stunning location this temple appeared to be much less touristy than the others. In a country still not on the major tourist routes most sights in Myanmar can not be considered major tourist destinations. The Kyeik Khauk Pagoda seemed to us to be more functional and less glitzy. Perhaps this temple is more for the local people and less a pilgrimage site. No explanation was given by today's tour guide. The stupa was surrounded as usual with interesting images, perhaps requiring a lifetime to identify if not ever truly understand. We found this temple to be more relaxing, but as with yesterday's pagoda, circumambulation with photo stops appeared impossible in less than two hours. Maybe affected by the heat, I estimated that the total distance around the pagoda was the better part of two miles. I now suspect it was not quite that big.

The Kyaikhmaw Wun Island Pagoda completely occupies a small island in a tributary of the Yangon River

Characteristic Asian longboats ferry tourists across the brown aromatic water

We arrived at last at the Kyaikhmaw Wun Island Pagoda, the major destination for the five hour morning excursion. Long boats with loud gasoline engines balanced on long drive shafts ferried our fellow tourists across a wide river in the Yangon estuary. I had seen larger versions of these boats in Bangkok many years ago. With the temperature hitting 100F, we choose to stay on shore and take pictures rather than tour yet another temple, also to avoid wading into the boat through the brown water. The color for the water was not the issue: let's say the texture was. We enjoyed seeing the temple from afar nevertheless. The view as well as the aroma was stunning.

Tourists pay twice the citizen price to use the facilities.  Barbara reported that most of the toilets
 were Asian consisting of  a hole in the floor 

Tour Guide Mimi attempted to introduce us to a local Indian family

The neighbors peering over their laundry were curious

After a "comfort stop" in a native facility--note the markup for tourists--our guide for the morning, "Mimi" led us to a small settlement of local people. Not ethnic Thanlyin, they were Indian, perhaps immigrant laborers. Mimi seemed to know them, but they seemed a bit reluctant to be put on display. We stared at them; they stared at us. Mimi insisted that the family come out and look at us. There was essentially no interaction. Most members of our group were a bit embarrassed by this experience as the small family was. The curious neighbor kids, also Indian, were having a lot more fun watching the curious scene unfolding.

A large temple wasn't quite big enough for the Buddha image

Our last stop was a local temple housing an oversized Buddha image. Mimi, who lives in Belgium half the year, was fond of referring to herself in the third person and mixing butchered French with over the top histrionics. As we stepped down from the bus Mimi's entire explanation for the stop was as follows:

"The Buddha is trop gros. When I first saw this Buddha, Mimi could not see tout la tete."

After five hours I began to find Mimi had become une grande douleur dans le cou. Look it up. Mimi was indeed a character, a big contrast from the more reserved escort yesterday, but no more informative. (We found out later that Mimi had been assigned as there were a couple of French passengers on our bus.)  Silversea states that they obtain, "The best guides available." Of this I have no doubts. Looking at the tours at least partially as "performance art" does make the experiences a lot more fun and perhaps more enlightening overall. Mimi was clearly part of the show. Sadly, she knew it. But I was not désappointé.

A now abandoned inexplicable amusement park was in full swing at the mouth of the Yangon River when I visit Burma in the 1990s 

A short ride back across the Bogo River brought us again to Yangon. After a wait for high tide so as to clear sand bars in the Yangon River estuary, Silver Wind sailed down river at 3 pm past the incongruous ferris wheel I had first noted in 1997. We started our three-day crossing of the Bay of Bengal. After only one sea day in a week since we left Singapore we were looking relaxing en route Colombo, Sri Lanka.




*Demonym is defined as "a name given to natives or residents of a specific place." As such it is a noun, but it is often used as an adjective when referring to local foods, customs, etc., as in  fine English cuisine. (Maybe a poor example). While most demonyms are obvious such as French, English, American, they are not always obvious. I used "Kuala Lumpurian" earlier in the blog. "Sydneysider" is correct for a resident of the Australian city. A citizen of Monaco who is not born in the small Mediterranean country surrounded on three sides by France is a "Monacan", but a natural born person from Monaco would be most offended if you don't refer to him or her as a "Monegasque". 

MYANMAR - DAY TWO, BOGO DISTRICT

Wednesday - 25 March 2015 - Excursion to Bogo, Myanmar

The Mon language speaking kingdoms ruled large sections of what is now Myanmar at various times since the 9th Century, the last time briefly in the mid-1700s. The Mon are one of the various ethnic groups in Myanmar. Our tour guide pointed out that the "Burmese" are only one group. More about that later. Our 9 1/2-hour excursion was to visit various sights of interest in the Mon territories of Myanmar.

Myanmar is not like its Southeast Asia neighbors of Singapore and Malaysia. Ox carts are used just outside of the capital.

In general, full day excursions are offered by the ship to get to a particular tourist sight far from the ship's berth. Rather than schedule continuous long drives to and from the focus of the tour, the local operators sometimes break up the trip by including experiences that are not well known or even considered touristic. We've learned that some of these stops can be pretty strange but perhaps the most memorable.

The touristic focus of this excursion was the most impressive Shwemawdaw Pagoda, a huge Buddhist temple complex built around a gigantic stupa.

Our guide on this all day tour was enthusiastic if not particularly informative, but no matter

Our assigned local tour guide was a bit hard to understand, not particularly used to escorting Westerners, and short on knowledge of the usual briefing details of where we were going and why. Not to matter, the tour was a gem. Even with the best narration, assimilating the sights and sounds of a developing country with a vastly different culture than our own is at best difficult. Rather than getting frustrated, I remembered the guy in downtown Yangon selling cages and human hair dusting brushes. What amount of details could possibly explain him adequately? I have learned to observe, enjoy the sounds and smells, and take lots of pictures. It is best to consider the inexplicable sights to be "performance art" as I hinted to in an earlier entry. The guide got us to the various destinations and did the best he could. Fortunately, he was informed well enough of the needs of our age group to make a point of advising us of an upcoming "adequate toilet stop", with emphasis on the "adequate".

The market town gave us a good view of rural life in Myanmar

Our first scheduled stop was a street in a busy market town. The view of the town's activity was fantastic, most of which was inexplicable. After our tour resumed the guide advised us with great sadness that the order of the itinerary would have to be changed. Solemnity he shared his hope that we would not be upset by what he was to disclose. We already had the toilet stop, but he  hadn't previously explained the original order of the sights we were to visit. So our fellow tour participants ignored him. Our guide was anything if not sincere. The guide soldiered on by saying that we would now proceed directly to the Kyakhatwine Monastery. This is the largest school for monks in Myanmar. He explained was that the monks were to be having an early lunch due to this being an examination day. The few of us listening to the guide assumed that this meant we were rescheduled so as not to interrupt their meal time.

But the purpose of the stop was specifically to watch the monks eat.

The architecture at the Kyakhatwine Monastery was as beautiful as it was puzzling

We waited for the big moment as the guide explained something about the history of the country

Our tour bus parked adjacent to the the massive Kyakhatwine complex. The architecture was impressive. Our guide led us up majestic stairways, through covered walkways, and eventually through large rooms, but then he stopped abruptly halfway down a gold columned breezeway. For no apparent reason he started in a an interminable exposition on the life of what he said was Myanmar's most important historic figure, represented by a statue of a guy on a horse in the garden. Then after 20 minutes he looked relieved and said we could proceed. The monks were now eating, he proclaimed with a big smile. We were ushered into their dining room. It was precisely 10:30 am.

The novice monks were having an early lunch before their examinations

After lunch, the monks walked out with their rice bowls

From the statuary in the monastery, he deduced that the procession after lunch was worthy of commemoration

We were ushered into a large room where a bunch of monks were eating lunch. Yup, they are having a nice meal of some sort of meat and rice. There wasn't a sound from the monks. Talking among themselves was apparently not allowed. Our guide seemed very proud as we stood around watching these kids eating. A few of us just stood around; some wondered off and explored the food prep area. The area looked like a school cafeteria, which of course it was. After a while the monks were done with their meal. They silently arose and marched out. Some of us who had taken pictures of them eating took more of them marching out.

We were obliged to be barefoot in our walk throughout the huge monastery, the common procedure in Buddhist sites in Myanmar. The polished marble floors were filthy. Wet wipes were provided by the bus driver as we retrieved our shoes and socks outside the monastery. With our feet sticking to our socks we boarded the bus and pulled out of the lot.

Gigantic stupa at the center of the Shwemawdaw Pagoda

A side chapel 

An resident astrologer in the temple, apparently hedging the religious bets. The sign says that the astrologist on duty uses the "Combination Scientific Method" among others

Lunch for us at a local restaurant catering to Westerners (our group understandably was the only diners). After lunch we proceeded to Shwemawdaw Pagoda. This is one of the most impressive Buddhist temples easily accessible from Yangon and our primary touristic destination for this excursion. The pagoda surrounds a huge stupa, actually larger than the stupa of the Shwedagon pagoda site we had visited in Yangon the day before. This temple was too large for us to completely circumambulate during our photo stop, but we did find some interesting and inexplicable sights, including the temple's astrologist who appeared to be bailing. We weren't told what relic was encased in the structure.

A traditional Mon house in the interior of Myanmar

Probably a more powerful resident of the village who had done some remodeling

Next on the unpublished itinerary was a visit to an historical Mon community. A number of such traditional villages are scattered around the Mon-speaking districts we were told. The houses in the settlement are built on stilts above storage, apparently to provide some ventilation and as a guard against floods from the nearby creek. Most interesting was that the houses varied from very basic to extensively improved. There were even a few satellite dishes. This village reminded me of an oddly similar traditional community in Papua New Guinea I visited some years ago. As with that one, I suspect that the residents of this village had chosen to keep the traditional way of life, or at least chose to live in traditional houses. There were electric lines to each house, but the guard said the power was not connected.

Second largest reclining Buddha in SE Asia

Four sided Buddha on the outskirts of a local village

Our potpori visit to the interior of Myanmar brought us to the Shwethalyaung Buddha, one of the largest reclining Buddha images in Southeast Asia said our guide. That's all he said. The statue was a block long. It was housed in an immense temple. We walked around the statue, admiring the bejeweled feet. Many of us could only say, "What a big reclining Buddha."

There were a lot of Buddha images throughout the countryside of Myanmar. We stopped briefly at a unique four sided image. Each side had a slightly different expression and somewhat differing dress. The statue was on the outskirts of a nondescript contemporary town.

British WWII cemetery in Myanmar 

Acres of graves of soldiers who died defending Burma against the invading Japanese 

The final stop on this remarkable if bewildering excursion was a World War II cemetery maintained by the British government. An informative sign provided an explanation. The graves in military style were those of Gurkhas, regular British soldiers, and some Burmese who lost their lives defending the country from the invading Japanese during WWII. It was a solemn site and oddly a fitting end to our long day. Tomorrow we were to visit a morning market and the intriguing sounding "island pagoda" on a short morning tour.

MYANMAR - DAY ONE, YANGON EXPLORATION

Tuesday - 24 March 2015 - Yangon, Myanmar

Our balcony faced the continually fascinating Yangon River

Early Tuesday morning Silver Wind sailed up "Mouths of the Irrawaddy" and entered the Yangon River. The pre-cruise materials said that we would be docking at a commercial wharf 15 miles from town. So we were delighted to see the Silver Wind tie up at the downtown pier instead. This is a tricky approach for a large ship. Silver Wind had to wait for flood tide and rotate to bow downstream just as the current pauses before reversing in the river so as to avoid going sideways. We were thrilled by this maneuver since it provided  us with a view from our starboard balcony of the always fascinating river.

Some of Yangon's streets appeared at least from afar modern and well kept, although the buildings were decaying

Side streets were more interesting, definitely Asian

Myanmar is a just developing country. The military dictatorship ruled with an iron hand until the recent thaw. Outside investment has come, but the country formerly still has a way to go. We walked on shore as soon as the ship was"cleared"and took the first ship's shuttle to the far end of downtown as a shortcut for our intended destination, the Shwedagon Pagoda. We had a plan for a day of independent exploration in this city of 6,000,000.

Local woman apparently on a shopping trip in downtown Yangon

Shopkeepers relaxing. White makeup is a plant based sunscreen said to "enhance the skin"

Myanmar was to be the only country on our 32 day cruise that could be honestly called, "third world." Politics, lack of a true middle class, and the barely a hint of human rights were not evident to us as tourists. Just as well. I've learned that no matter what the state of a country is, it still 2015 everywhere. There were satellite dishes, the usual range of retail business along the traffic laden streets, and some people fiddling with cell phones. Just fewer cell phones and those we saw were flip phones. So maybe there is something left of a "backwards nation." It was evident as well that the infrastructure in Yangon is way below any of the major capitals in Asia we had visited. With a few notable exceptions the buildings, rail lines, and streets maintenance consist primarily of decaying remnants of the British colonial era. That is, pre-WWII. The constant heat and humidity are partially to blame for the decay of course. The average (not record) high for March in Yangon is 97 degrees Fahrenheit. It was somewhat hotter for our walk from the shuttle stop at a large tourist market.

Cleaning equipment and cage salesman

Less than appealing hotel cafe and hospital in downtown Yangon

Travel has many mysteries, such as what these ladies were pumping

The shuttle dropped us off at an unexplained huge shopping center consisting of only high end Jewelry stores

When I visited Rangoon, as Yangon was called in the mid-1990s, there were open sewers and the streets were not nearly so busy. Soldiers with big weapons were everywhere. Those things have changed for the better, but the buildings seems in worse shape. What was much better was the vibrancy of the people on the still garbage strewn streets. (It seems that the more repressive the government, the more the people use the streets as linear open garbage cans.) Some street scenes seemed almost modern, but some of the activities we observed proved a very important rule of international travel: the more you see, the less you really understand. It's worse in developing countries. A gentleman selling some sort of cages as well as cleaning supplies apparently made from human hair stood in the street amidst the traffic. I don't know what the cages were for. A sign for a hospital reminded us to stay very healthy. 

The huge shopping center the shuttle dropped us off at consisted of only high end jewelry shops, a puzzlement with only tentative explanations coming to mind as we were the only tourists.

Railway stations in Asia are often government provided shelters

We found to our delight a local train station immediately behind the jewelry center. We checked it out. As is common in Asian countries without formal government assistance, that is just about all of them, the railway stations are informal (or maybe intended) shelters for homeless and destitute.

Smaller Buddhist temple on the way to the gigantic Shwedagon

The stupa centering the Shwedagon Pagoda is almost 400-feet high

The walk around the Shwedagon took almost an hour, passing numerous shrines

Buddha likenesses graced this side temple in the Shwedagon complex

The walk around the Shwedagon Pagoda is worth the visit to Myanmar

Young monks on a pilgrimage to the Shwedagon Pagoda 

We moved on to our primary destination, the Shwedagon Pagoda. The hilltop 6th Century Buddhist pilgrimage site is centered around a 368-foot high stupa, a characteristic solid monument containing a relic of Buddha. This stupa holds six strands of Buddha's hair given in person to the local people by a monk a 1000 years ago said a sign in English.  The Shwedagon complex is immense. It is surrounded by dozens of small chapels and various Buddhist monuments. Young monks, local people, and tourists walk--always clockwise unless you want to be scowled at--around the monument. Our circumambulation took the better part of an hour. Shwedagon is on a hill surrounded by some smaller stupas and a couple of smaller shrines. More were visible from our shuttle ride from the ship. Yangon has a lot of Buddhist monuments.

Lobby of the Strand Hotel, the third of the grand Raffles hotels visited on this cruise

Exhausted by the heat and our long walk from the shopping center to the Shwedagon, we engaged an air conditioned taxi for the couple of miles ride back to the river. I asked the driver to drop us off at the Strand Hotel. The cab cost $5. The Strand is the third of the original Raffles properties we visited on this cruise. Like the Eastern and Oriental Hotel we visited a few days earlier in Penang, the Strand had been restored and is now of course air conditioned. Otherwise it looked as I remember during my 1997 visit. That that time the lobby reeked with the aroma of brewed tea. The a/c must have cleared the air. The lobby just smelled like an hotel lobby.The tea smell was a legacy of decades of colonialists discussing their empire in the small bar off the lobby. We dodged the traffic and crossed the street to the entrance to the small downtown port and returned to Silver Wind for cocktails. I had a gin and tonic, an homage to the British who ruled then Burma for 150 years.

Tomorrow we were booked for an all day excursion. We were looking forward to seeing Bogo, the historic inland kingdom capital of the Mon people.