FOGRO In Yangon Plus Laos and Myanmar Wrap Up!

FOGRO... Fear of getting run over... but more on that later!

Prior to coming to Yangon, we thought $25 for a hotel arranged taxi airport pick up wasn't a big deal. Having been in this country for two plus weeks and knowing how far $25 can get you, we cancelled our hotel arranged transportation and figured it out ourselves. $10 for taxi at the airport!

Nothing like being in an SE Asia big city to start bringing my senses back to reality! Yangon is known for their street food scene, tea houses and of course the Sule Pagoda though the city is not aesthetically inspiring. It's actually one of the dirtiest cities I've traveled to. Trash on the streets among other things is abundant. If you've got the shopping bug, Bogyoke Market is the place to be. It's also where we met an 11 year old well spoken boy named Minh who said, "Obama country!" when we told him we were from America (Folks in Myanmar love Obama. When we tell folks where we are from, they respond with "America! Obama!" or "America! Michelle Obama!"). He was selling postcards..I bought postcards. What can I say.. apparently I have a soft spot for charming boys selling postcards.

The people here aren't nearly as warm as in the smaller towns in this country. Young monks beg for money which is a whole new concept for me. People on the streets for the most part are very nice and polite. They still say "you look Asian" when I tell them I'm from America. Special shout out to the UN security guard who told us to go left and when we figured out after walking for a bit that "left" was wrong, we back tracked and walked right only to pass him again directing "right"...yup got it! People behind the wheel of a car..not so much. Unlike Vietnam where crossing the street is a strategic art (you don't stop..you just keep walking once you start and motorists will calculate your steps and avoid you), crossing the streets of Yangon is like a game of chicken each and every time! Cars come inches from you and they're not stopping...hence FOGRO! Yangon is a lot larger than I thought it would be. Certainly too big to walk all over the city. The saving grace is the affordability of taxi fairs..on average $2 will get you from point A to point B. This is my last stop in Myanmar and it's been a remarkable 3 weeks as I reflect on Luang Prabang, Bagan, Kalaw, Inle, Ngapali and Yangon.

 I will remember Luang Prabang for the last morning we were there and witnessing the spirituality of 100s of monks in their call to alms ceremony. I will treasure the beauty of my favorite temple, the Sulamani and the private sunsets atop the Thien Mazi in time locked Bagan. Of course, we can't forget about the adventures with the e-bikes! My day with the gentle giants at the elephant retirement camp in Kalaw will always hold a special place. The bike riding along Inle Lake saying "hello" to the delighted faces of locals was pretty darn special. I am so thankful that I was able to experience the beauty and authenticity of Ngapali Beach with the Lintha village folks alongside, though the dog procreating situation may need to be controlled a bit. Of all my years traveling, Myanmar may rank as my favorite country. There is an authenticity to the beauty here and these people are so hopeful about their future... it's inspiring. After all, at the end of the day, materials are immaterial. It's hope that inspires.
I hope Myanmar stays time locked in their traditions with their yellow sunscreen pasted faces and their longis but as Sue from Ngapali Beach has said..it's all changing already. The folks here love their Korean soaps and the fashion influence seen there. I hope locals continue to simply greet you vs trying to sell you and kids continue to wave hello with their hands vs having their hand out asking for money but with all the construction going on here, sadly, it might just be a matter of time. Myanmar is ready and welcomes travelers with open arms. "Take care of tourists" signs are abundant. I hope travelers, in return, stay responsible, respectable and informed when they visit.

The best tip I can give about visiting Myanmar is bring cash and two converter plugs (the two circle prongs and the three prong one)! I came with $1200 in crisp bills for the three weeks (including Luang Prabang, all lodging, shopping and food) and went to the ATM once for $100. Clean, unmarked, new dollar bills ($100s get the best exchange rate) and putting them between pages of your guide book to keep them crisp and crease free. US banks and financial institutions will not allow you to sign onto their sites or apps from this country (sanctioned) so take care of that stuff prior to leaving home.

This was my first time being abroad for my birthday..thanks to my family and friends for the abundant virtual wishes via facebook, texts and emails! Lastly, thank you Noreen (she's a New Yorker and we met in Hoi An, Vietnam last March) for sharing this adventure with me! I've traveled solo for the last ten years and your company definitely added to the laughter and sharing of memories! I still think your $2 knock off Chanel pants are flammable! It might take me a little longer this time to transition from my harem pants wanderlust cameo back to skinny jeans reality. I'm often walking a fine line balancing between living in the moment and thinking about what's next...?

Where's The Town In Ngapali Beach?

I've been looking out at the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal for almost three days now and this beach paradise portion of the trip couldn't have come at a better time. Let's back track to pre-arrival..As I had mentioned before, airports in Myanmar are a bit confusing, even for this experienced traveler. Upon check in, they give you a color coded sticker (each airline has their specific ones), you don't exactly know what it means and you're ushered into a waiting room of chaos. Airport workers are yelling words that you don't understand and often they're scanning the room looking for someone yet can't find the one they're looking for. Flying to Thandwe from Heho, I had a gut feeling that I should get up and start looking for my flight boarding section. Noreen and I are on different flights and I told her if I don't come back, it means I'm on a plane. I see an Aussie woman that had the same sticker as me and I asked, "flight 243?" She responded, "the beach?" I nodded. Us yellow Air KBZ stickers have to stick together!

Paradise at last and it did not disappoint! If you don't arrive to this yet to be fully developed strip of soft sand and warm waters with cash and sunscreen, you're kind of SOL. I've only seen one cash exchange place and that's at the airport. ATMs have yet to be found and there isn't much of a town (which seems to be a popular question around here.."where's the town?" This is it. We walked an hour our first day here for confirmation.)...just a large strip of sand, a sprinkle of resorts, a guesthouse or two, some restaurants, two small local villages (comprised of a compound of huts), a fish market, an abundant amount of palm trees and a handful of shopping boutiques selling the same type of stuff. No harem pants -- I can usually gauge how touristy a SE Asia place is by the amount of harem pants offered.

 Checked in at the Yoma Cherry Lodge on the quieter north end... beach front rooms on a private beach for $105/night with furnishings that would rival the St Regis Princeville. I scored us a room about twelve steps to the beach and equally the amount of steps to breakfast. The masseuse here gives a mighty traditional massage for $15/hour. Seafood dinners for under $5.00.. just an organic simple fisherman town. We're here during it's high season yet feels practically empty.

There isn't much to do here but a whole lot to take in. Next to the lodge is one of the villages, Lintha Village, locals come out and play their beach soccer (if they're not out fishing), often with a token westerner traveler and kids in their cliques run wild along the beach with a bunch of dogs thrown in the mix. In the morning, they run out screaming for excitement. If you've watched "Beasts Of The Southern Wild", imagine scene where Hush People and her little peoples scream and charge the waters to find her mother. This is what makes this Myanmar slice of paradise ...it's authentic.

Construction is booming here! Ngapali Beach will inevitably grow and this place won't be the same a few years from now. These villages, that are shacks living on land that isn't theirs will have to move once that strip of beachfront land is sold. How nice the government will be about it? Who knows. I found all this out from Sue, the manager of the Lodge, at breakfast one morning. I was so curious/concern about what will happen to the villages. Hopefully, this place can keep it's charm, authenticity and keep out the seediness that can come with a place like this (reference Thai beaches).

My second full day on the beach, a girl, Johima (4yrs) from the village came over to me with her younger brother. I was reading Noreen's Maxim magazine (don't ask) at the time, an article on Mark Cuban, when the little brother pointed at the cover. Awesome, I AM the one that's corrupting the young here! Minutes later, I thought it'd be more appropriate to build sand castles. Yoma Cherry Lodge, if you end up losing a few glasses, sorry! When Johima had enough of the sand, she took my hand and led me to a religious statue on the side of the lodge and showed me how she prayed. Her brother followed suit. Johima's dad was going to his boat and must have urged them to leave me alone. She left but came back later with a posse of 4 others and her 1yr old sister. Imagine a 4 yr old shuffling down the beach with a 1 yr old in her arms. I was reading my People Stylewatch at the time. They flipped through the pages pointing things out if they thought it was beautiful. After awhile, the oldest of the girls said something in Burmese and they all waved bye. That's the life of these kids. They have no technology, haven't seen any toys but they have the village and a pecking order so it seems.

It's 6:18am now and as I'm writing this, I'm waiting to see when the village fishermen that went out yesterday around 5:00pm will come back..maybe they already have? Watching the village men march out in organized posses wearing their longyis (think sarong) was an interesting sight to see. Those who arrive early get in a quick game of soccer... penalty kicks and all. Meanwhile, the women get the fish drying field ready. Ngapali Beach, I will miss you dearly!

Still in search for a Myanmar patch for my backpack- my quintessential souvenir from countries I've traveled to.

Boated Out In Inle Lake

First off, thanks to Aljazeera TV, I got my Super Bowl fix and am very happy with the New England win!

Back to Myanmar...since we skipped the trek, we decided to get into Inle Lake a day ealier. The same taxi guy that took us to the elephant camp in Kalaw drove us to Nyaung Shwe (1.5 hours), the main town accessing Inle Lake. We really didn't know what to expect for this area so we didn't have too much of an agenda, if any at all. Noreen has been really good about pre-reading the places on our list. I have the habit of not reading about places until I've arrived. As I sit here at the French Touch Cafe on a quiet side street in Nyaung Shwe, I'm reflecting back on the last four days here in this area.

Many travelers that come to this area hop on boats to see the lake. We decided to hop on bikes first for a morning ride out to the hot springs. The ride out was one of the most enjoying time I've had on a bike - so much to take in! My night riding in Paris still holds the #1 spot. While trying to find the hot springs, I stopped at a snack stall to wait for Noreen and had an interesting encounter with a local wearing a Chicago Bulls #45 jacket. We had overshot the hot springs location so was back tracking, I asked the jacket guy, "Hot springs?" He gestures to go straight. I said, "Nice jacket! You like basketball?" He responded with, "I like volleyball!" while tugging on his Chicago Bulls jacket. I said, "Your jacket...NBA basketball... Chicago Bulls #45 Michael Jordan!" (MJ was #23 then retired after his dad was murdered in his Lexus from a carjacking incident then came out of retirement as #45 before becoming #23 again.) "I like volleyball!" He says tugging on his jacket. Ok fine...I've got a hot springs to find! We found the hot springs which had a special section for foreigners (co-ed)..played for about an hour and then moved on.

Moving on from the hot springs, our next adventure was trying to get across the lake to a winery Noreen had wanted to go to. We rode to the boat dock and this guy who looked very much like the Chicago Bulls guy but with a leather jacket asked, "you need a boat?" I answered, "yes, how much?" He responded with, "two people, two bikes, today is festival, no boats, so k6000 each." I offered k5000 and he said no reverting back to the festival reasoning so we said fine. We asked him to confirm where he was taking us and after his description, Noreen was convinced he would bring us back to Nyaung Shwe. I was a bit skeptical thinking we are on our own once we get to the other side. He led us to "his" boat, loaded our bikes, then us, filled the boat tank with gasoline then said he would be right back. He was gone long enough for me to ask out loud..is he coming back? I was a bit skeptical that this was "his" boat and that he was a boat operator because we haven't see anyone operate a boat with skinny jeans and a leather jacket. He eventually comes back and navigates us to the other side of the lake...with the most concerned look of facial expressions. He docked our bikes, helped us out the boat, took our money then peaced out. I guess we're finding our own way back to Nyaung Shwe!

After our bike adventure for the day, we had a legit boat fellow waiting to take us out on the lake for the sunset. The day before, we negotiated with a fellow named Minzawoo for a sunset boat trip for k8000 vs previous quoted rates of k12000 from others. We ended up paying k10000 for the boat as we were joined by a French couple who asked if we would share the boat and cost. I wasn't thrilled with Minzawoo at first because he was late but he delivered for the sunset making it one of the most spectacular sunset visions I had ever witnessed with legit fishermen finishing their evening on the lake (fake fishermen hang out in the AM for throngs of camera happy tourists). Inle Lake is probably the only place where I've seen the sun setting on the west and the moon rising from the east at the same time.

Our third day here, we finally did what others come here to do. A full day boat cruise on the lake guided by a local man who I will refer to as a Myanmar gentle giant (MGG). He is an average man by my standards but larger by Myanmar standards. MGG's first stop for us was the Nam Pan market an hour away. Getting off the boat, I was overwhelmed by the amount of vendors trying to sell us and the amount of boats. Noreen asked, "how will we find our boat?" I responded with, "I think our boat finds us." The market did not disappoint in tourist price gauging or visual stimulation. A huge pig walking through crowds was probably the most random. An example of price gauging: I wanted a  particular necklace and was given starting price quotes of k26000. At that starting price, I wouldn't even entertain them with a counter. I ended up buying that particular necklace and two bracelets for k21000 from a lady that Noreen said I should buy from cause she was holding a religious book. Her first quote was a respectable k16000. While exiting the market, our MGG did indeed find us as he did the remainder of the day as he brought us to boat makers, iron makers, silk workshops, you name it, we've seen it on Inle Lake. Once our boat docks at a destination, we are greeted by the shop owners telling us about their product and trying to sell us in the process. I tend to tune out pretty quickly, most apparent at the boat making hut. I had meandered to another stall other than the one we are being told about, Noreen prompts, "you're visiting another person's stall." "I'm an equal opportunity deal maker!" I responded. By mid trip, we made it to the iron workshop. MGG sat us down and gave us each a rice cracker twice the size of my head. He then opened up a jar of maple sugar bars and ushered us to have some. "That's how my teeth was so screwed up as a kid!" I said to Noreen. One of my youngest memories as a child is my dad sitting down with me in the kitchen with a jar of sugar cubes.

After about 7.5 hours, MGG carefully maneuvers and docks his boat at Nyaung Shwe. Noreen still had both her flip flops- it was a successful day! I'm amazed by the amount of life the lake provides for the local people here. They do laundry in the lake, they bathe in the lake, they cook in the lake. Their life is this lake. It was all so interesting to take in. Our experience at Inle has been pretty awesome overall. For a tourist destination, it doesn't feel much like one aside from boat operators. The one thing I need to research more when I get home was why ladies are prohibited from praying at the higher level of the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda where five gold pieces resembling Buddha sat. We did have an incident while on the bike though- a man in a motorcycle ride up to Noreen and brushed her arm before making a hand gesture that I won't describe. Just a little reminder for us to keep our alert guards up! Now if I only had a shirt that said "no more boats" for every local that's tried to approach us offering their boat services today. I'm officially boated out!

We've been at this cafe for 3 hours now and am currently chatting it up with an Aussie and German. The Aussie fellow is telling us about his excitement with the e-bike in Bagan!

Arriving In Kalaw the Local Way

The morning after our love affair with the e-bikes, I took stock of all the bruises it left me. A hefty one on my left thigh, a bunch on the back of my left calve, left ankle, right shin is pretty gnarly and one on my abdomen which fell on the key bending it in the process. I spent some time unbending it to it'll fit in the ignition again. It'll probably be a few more days before I indulge myself with a massage. E-bikes and sand... we laugh every time we think about it..approach with caution!

We arrived in Kalaw two days ago and as I'm writing this, I'm overlooking the mountains in it's early morning light waiting for the sun to ride over the mountains. To get to Kalaw, we flew from Bagan to Heho. Flights in Myanmar are another story. I've learned that in many cases, regardless of what airline your ticket is with, every airline kind of merges which makes boarding and such just a little bit confusing. Other observations we've made in the week we've been in this country is that "fried" on the menu actually means stir fry. WiFi service here is kind of like electricity in sub-Saharan Africa: if it's available, it's available a couple of hours at a time. A majority of travelers that come to Myanmar are with large tourist groups. Noreen and I are in the minority group known as FITs (foreign independent travelers). There are many benefits to traveling as a FIT: more of your money goes to the people of Myanmar, you can choose where to spend your money, you choose your own itinerary and you're not targeted in fee collections. In Bagan, by the time we landed in the afternoon, all the groups must have landed already as there was no one there to collect the $15 archeological fee. Quite frankly, sticking me on a big bus to follow a flag is not my type of travel.

Anyway, back to flights! We landed in Kalaw and put our negotiation hats on for a taxi to get us to Kalaw from Heho which was an hour away. Turns out, it wasn't much of a negotiation at all as the drivers set the price at 30,000k and Maung Po had told us no more than 20,000k. The drivers said we could go for 25,000k but it would be in a pick up truck. Fine by us, let's do this the local way, in the back of a caged pick up truck we went through the windy roads of this region.

We arrived to a town that's very much focused on local life aside from a handful of trek tour agencies. No one has tried to sell us anything. Like everywhere else, we get asked where we are from. I'm known as California. Noreen is known as New York. Our favorite thing to do in this town was hitting the evening street eats. Two samosas, two sweet rice egg rolls and a sweet chapatti will cost you all of 80 cents. We went big one night and hit up a restaurant for clay pot noodles..that set us back $1.20 each. A local habit we've noticed are chewing of tobacco basil leaves. From a vendor stand, locals coat these large basil leaves with a white paste and a couple shakes of tobacco powder that turn their mouths disgustingly blood red. Which now explains all the red  spots that decorate the streets.

I originally put Kalaw on my itinerary as a possible launch point to trek into Inle but after talking to a guide from Lonely Planet's recommendation, Ever Smile, we decided to forego the trek and I personally would not recommend this company between her lack of descriptions and her dog stealing my shoe, I think we might have woken her up from a nap during business hours.

Prior to coming on this trip, I knew I wanted to do something with elephants. I didn't want to do it in Luang Prabang because it seemed like too much of a circus and not enough of an authentic experience. I steer clear away from companies that advertise "elephant riding" as a selling point. It's actually very detrimental to the health of elephants and as we learned, the carts they put on top of elephants for you to ride are so heavy that it takes five adults to carry it. You put that on top of an elephant and a couple of people, well, it just breaks my heart. I googled around and found a company called Green Hill Valley elephant camp here in the hills of Kalaw. Green Valley is a retirement home for elephants. They have seven elephants and with that seven mahouts (elephant caretakers). It was costly at $90US each plus $40US for the driver that accompanies us for the day. Having spent the day there, it was worth every penny knowing it will go to caring for these elephants, up keeping of this amazing camp which also houses the mahouts and their families. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our guide, Pouri who grew up in Kalaw but his origin is Nepalese. We spent the day learning about the Asian elephants, African elephants too for that matter and how the elephants end up here. We fed them, bathed them, we got fed well, planted a teak tree and then we fed and played with the elephants some more after a short post lunch trek. It was a day well spent and will probably end up as one of my favorite days in my years. These gentle giants are a big love of mine. After all, I do have a memory of one!