Hey All,
I love the questions: As far as the mud on the faces of the women and children, well, its made from this tree bark and pounded down with just a dab of water until it makes a heavy cream consistency. They rub it on their cheeks and face to protect it from the sun. Its natures coppertone. You see it everywhere, even in the big city. Mostly women and children and teenagers, but hardly ever on men. They have been doing this for years, but never seen it outside of Myanmar.
Todays shout out goes to my "New York" and "LA" friends, Theresa, Steven, Laurie, James, Susan, John, Angela, John, Lisa and Ed. I love yoose guys! I was thinking bout you when this hotel in Mrauk U had a beacon shining in my face all night.
I was walking to eat last night and there was a jeep type of vehicle parked with the back end open and facing the street. The back was closed in like a Kennell for a dog. As I walked by there was an old gentleman sitting in there like a Buddha on a carpet. There was a plastic stool right there and I then noticed a bunch of signs around the car that made me think he was a fortune teller. I am still trying to figure out how he got in there.
Once again fate is shining down on me, and I did not need a fortune teller to tell me that. Before I left for dinner I had the front desk call "Win" the driver who is going to pick me up at the train station. Turns out he had driven someone to Yangon and arrived about 30 minutes earlier. I tried to talk to him but he was hard to understand so the lady at the desk talked to him in Burmese. He offered to pick me up as he was driving back anyway for just a bit more than the bus would have cost. WOOO HOOO. He said he would pick me up at 0830.
He arrived at 0830 sharp and he is a round jolly man with a mouth full of Bettlenut. He laughed and greeted me and I could tell we would hit it off. I think the reason I was not understanding him is he was talking while chewing the beetlenut. He has a nice car too. We left and the decision to stay out by the airport paid off as the traffic was really good. He told me the train is hot, uncomfortable, very rough and it derails all the time, in fact just happened last week. It was a novel idea, but common sense wins out sometimes, well that and an air conditioned car.
We stopped outside of Yangon at the WWII Allied Cemetary, and it was such a humbling place. There are thousands and thousands of grave sites there and many just marked as unknown. The people of Myanmar keep up the cemetary and they do a fantastic job as its pristine. I walked about reading the markers and it makes you realize what a sacrafice so many people gave so far from home. Most all are British and Australian, but there are several hundred Americans buried there, many were prisoners of war.
We then set about the drive to Pyay (pronounced "pea"). The raod was decent but narrow and very busy. I cannot even beging to tell you all the different forms of transportation I saw today on that road. If it had wheels I saw it: Oxcart, bicycle, Motorbike, Truck, Trishaw, Pushcart, Car, tractor, I could go on and on. Win was a master at weaving in and out and avoiding the slow traffice which was numerous. Each person feeled they owned the raod no matter how slow they were going. We passed through town and contryside, all fun to observe. When we hit our first toll booth, I had to laugh. OK, for some reason you drive on the right, but all the cars have stearing wheels on the right. When we pulled up to the booth, the person was on the left like it would be here in the US. The person sits in the booth and cannot reach the driver on the other side of the car. Why you ask? I have no clue for this one. I asked Win and he just laughed and said the Govt does not think sometimes.
I cannot even count how many Gold Pagodas we passed and I remember someone telling me that its known as "The Land of 10,000 Golden Pagodas", I really believe it. Quite often we would pass this booth on the side of the road playing really loud music and there would be girls on each side of the road with metal bowls shaking them. Win said that from now until the full moon which is around Nov. 10th, this is the time of year that everyone makes donaations to the monestaries and temples. I bet I counted 50 such booths on the 4 hour journey. There was even a large caravan with all the cars decorated and people piled in the back of trucks yelling and singing that lasted for 20 cars or more with the lead car having the giant speakers playing music. Some of the cars were decorated up like floats in a parade. It was awesome.
I must admit I had such fun taking it all in. About an hour outside of Pyay, we stopped at what I thought was the coolest looking Buddha statue I have ever seen. He is wearing giant glasses. He looks like a tribute to John Lennon. I could not believe it and Win said its the only one of its kind anywhere. They original Iron glasses are in a display case, cause now his glasses are made of gold. He looks like a rock star. Loved it. Now this is the reason for not taking the bus or train, you would fly past these places on your way to your final destination.
We stopped for a late lunch just in Pyay at this riverside place. It was on the banks of the Irrawadde River. This is a famous river that dissects the whole country. I will be following it from Pyay, to Bagan and then to Mandalay.
In Pyay he took me too some very old Pagodas that date back to the 3-6th Century. They were amazing. One was in town and the other was down this narrow dirt road that took a ways to get too. We ended the day at the main Pagoda in Pyay. Its very big like at Shwedagon in Yangon with all kinds of buildings holding different Buddha statues and such. Its a really cool place and if you head to the back you can see this huge, and I mean 10 stories tall huge Buddha statue. Its just amazing. I could not get over how big that thing was and it just looms over the city. Win told me this Pagoda also contains a hair from the Buddha. Thats the 3rd place I have been to that makes that claim. They must have parted that dude out pretty good. But Win told me that some men from the area that is now Myanmar went to see the Buddha when he was alive and the Buddha gave them 8 of his hairs. The man gave them to the King who build these places to store the hairs, at least thats the story I am getting. I will have to do some research on this later. I heard there is a tooth somehwere, will have to look into that also.
By this time the sun was going down and the knee was getting a little sore so we went to the hotel I had picked out. The lady at the front desk last night had called and they stated they would have a room. As I am typing this I hear the train whistle, so I guess it did not derail. I gave Win a little bonus for all the stopping and great driving today. He did not have to do all the extra but he made the trip amazing. He even stopped at the durg store (if you call it that) and got me some balm and a knee brace which he swears will work wonders. I am going to give it a try. Hey, I would rub sweat from Joans brow if I thought it would work. I was going to walk down the street to get supper, but with the late lunch and the knee acting up, I am going to Balm up and call it a night.
Tomorrow we head for Bagan with many stops on the way.
Happy Travels, Don
Day 2
Hey All,
Man, that was one lumpy bed. One thing about Asia, you never know what you are going to get mattress wise. The mattresses are usually hard as a rock, but found here the pillows are too and I really hate that. It takes a bit to get used too.
We hit the road at 8 am this morning as its a long drive to Bagan. This time the roads were really good and not even close to the traffic. The 2 things we most saw today were ox carts which way out in rural area are a plenty. Wow, I mean really a plenty. I thought they were just a novelty when I saw a few yesterday but thats not the case, they are in high demand. I guess the people out in this part of the country are really poor and they make do with what they have, and hey, its worked for hundreds of years, and some of these carts looked that old. It was fun to see.
The other item a plenty today was toll booths, must have gone through 10-12 at least. I think he was only paying about 10-15 cents each time, but there are a bunch. Some are the really nice, govt ones that have the pull up lanes with the sign over the road, but the majority are red and white polls that block the road and a lean too bamboo shed where a guys sits and collects the money. Not sure who gets this money, but I kid you not, we went through one of the nice govt booths and 100 feet later there was one of the red and white polls over the road. I looked at Win and said "you have to be kidding me", he just busted out laughing. Evidently this one belonged to the municipality, but I looked around at miles of farm land and wandered what municipality?
We made good time and around noon hit the town of Magwe where there was a temple I wanted to visit that sits on the shore of the Irriwade River. We get there and make our way in and dang it, it was covered in Bamboo for repairs. Thats twice that has happened, but the view of the river was worth the detour.
While in town we had lunch at this little place. There were some kids working there, guess it was a family, of about 10-15. The 2 youngest were just staring at me like they had never seen a westerner before. I doubt many get though to this place, but he would just smile so big when I waved at him. I took his picture and he had to run over and see it afterwards. I ordered Chicken Fried Rice wanting to play it safe here, lol, and they also brought a bowl of soup. I took a swig of the soup and my mouth almost burst into flames. That really made the kid laugh. It was really good though and I did have about 1/4 of it, but the chilis had me sweating even worse than I was. Thee CFR was really good too. I amy end up being a human flame thrower later.
Down the road a bit Win told me they just finished a new raod that cuts about 30 minutes off the trip. He had never taken it before as it just opened but got kinda lost and we were out in nowhere when we ran across a military checkpoint. The last thing you want your driver to say is "uh oh". They did not approach him, but wanted my passport. They had 3 guys inspecting it and looking around in the car. A 4th guy was talking to Win and after about 5 minutes we backtracked and found the right road. I think I will have no more of those checkpoints, they did not look happy and had weapons aplenty. Needless to say the camera stayed in my bag,
The rest of the drive was nice until about an hour out of Bagan, there was a motorbike accident of some kind and there was an old ambulance backed up to the scene. Just as we passed they were picking a lady up on something that was NOT a gurney. It was a piece of plywood with 4 legs nailed on and handles sticking out for the people to pick it up with. She was talking so that was good and they were about to load her into the ambulance. Would have loved to get a pic but I would say that would be inappropriate, even for me. I hate to think if that lady had been laying on the hot concrete.
Speaking of hot concrete, I have noticed that the monks here dont wear shoes of any kind ( or socks either ANN) and they bebop down the road like its no issue. I am so amazed by that, because I can attest to how hot that pavement is.
The road the last hour got crappy in a hurry. It was narrow, and there were lots of really big dried up washes you had to drive through, ala like back home. When it rains, I guess you cannot get to Bagan. They were also doing construction which brings me to my next observation. The road work here is labor intensive. As we passed several of these the past few days I have the system down. First they set a fire on the side of the road for melting the tar. They have men carry the tar in buckets and pour in the spot they want, then ladies with bamboo baskets they carry on their heads from the rock pile, pour the rock on top of the hot tar. Then after a small stretch is done, they actually do have a machine to drive over it and mash it down flat. There is a constant stream of tar pourers and ladies dumping rock, it just goes on and on. In this heat that is one miserable job. At one site, I actually saw men with sledge hammers taking big rocks and making the small rocks for the road work.
We arrived in Bagan around 5 Sat. evening. He took me to my hotel I had found and its OK. The minute you get into Bagan you are overwhelmed by the number of temples, and you know how much I like old things - lol. That would explain why Joan is still a good friend, but more about that tomorrow.
I wore the knee brace today and used the balm and I have to admit it feels pretty good. He said in about 2-3 days I should really notice a difference.
I just tried the wifi and its not really good. I may try to add a couple of pics, but not sure if I can. If not I will add later if I can get better down the road. I hate that, but it is what it is.
Happy Travels, Don
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