Bagan

OK well it worked that we hooked up with a bus to Bagan but we soon have learned that getting around Burma is the hardest part about it and pretty much the most expensive. The bus back to Yangon was the very same bus we caught there so you can read the previous blog about that. The the bus to Bagan left from a different bus terminal so we had to catch a cab for the 30min ride over to that one. We secured 2 seats on the overnight bus to Bagan, got some food, snacks and water and were pretty much on our way. Well the ride went quite smoothly for the first bit, although the dinner stop was rather quick. But then at the time that everyone would normaly get to sleep, the road got pretty bad. I think that i slept maybe 5 mins the whole time. I would look up to see what the driver is seeing and it sure doesn't look like a road to me. There are trees that nearly cover it on both sides, and the road is barely large enough for our one bus, let alone the traffic coming the other way. And the road is very full of hole, maybe more holes than smoothness. Well 14 hours later we were sleepily in Bagan at 6:30am. We secured a room and went to sleep. By the time we woke up it was time to go check out the place a bit.

We got some food (breakfast, lunch, linner, whatever you want to call it) and then walked to other way to the restaurant district to get some info about leaving Bagan and such. We visited a mans painting shop where he sold many sand paintings that were really good and so we keep some of them in our mind as we were about to see many many more. The next day we awoke at a very reasonable hour, 7:30 i think, had out breakfast and was ready to get out horse cart ride to check out all the temples. So Bagan is not exactly a place but more a valley that is filled with thousands and thousands or temples. There was said to have 4400 built but maybe 2200 remain today. The time of Bagan was only a mere 120 years or so before that was ended by the invasion of the Mongols and Kublai Khan but in that time they were sure busy with thir temple building. It was trully remarkable to see the place that would take a week to explore in full but we did our best to see as much as we could. The first day we hired an horse-cart for the day to take us around the major sites and wherever he decided to take us. We soon named our horse Yukon, well Yukom in Burmese as they havce trouble with the n sound, much to the delight to our driver who began to use it extensively. We visited many beautifull temples, some small some big but all unique in their own way and interesting. I don't really get tired of them too much. I mean so many people say they are all the same and in many ways this is true with the buddhas and much of the architecture but after that, each temple has it's different feel to me. So i always am interested in seeing more because i like to find out how they are different as supposed to how they are similar. In some of them the paintings on the wall were still very preserved and in most the buddha statues were all restored to their previous glory. One even had pretty much the biggest buddha i have ever seen. And the views from tops of the largest ones were quite spectacular. We stoped for lunch at this place that was a friend of our divers and were treated so nice by the cute family there. The boy that served us knew his english pretty well and they just would serve us more dishes without us asking, just for free. So we gave them a balloon and a pencil for the kid. The little baby that was brought out as well who was just so cute and mesmorized by the balloon. The ladies even brought out the Tanaka, sort of a sunscreen/face lotion that all the women wear here that makes them so beautiful. Afterwards everywhere we went people commented on how beautiful Justina was and how lucky i was to be with her. I guess the stuff really does work. It was interesting that at most of the temples and especially the big ones, there were many of the same things, especially the sand paintings. And of course we always get the same deal. "This is a sand painting, see no problem rolling up." Thanks, about maybe the 150th sand painting i have seen today you really opened a door of understanding for me. But they are just using the english that they know that's all. That night after we viewed the sunset we returned to our room to rest and then went out for some Indian food that was actually quite good, i mean all you eat chappathis, can't go wrong with that.

The next morning was a little slower but this day were planned to take out some bikes and ride to the ones a little father out where none of the large tour comapnies go. Another thing that is quite strange here is the lack of we seem simple technology. I mean gears on bikes? how hard is that really? I know in India it was the same and it was the most painful when you would watch the cycle rickshaw guys struggle so much that with gears would be so easy and we felt a little bit of our pain that day with our no gear bikes. Oh yeah and Justinas didn't really have breaks either. But we managed as best we could and actually got to see some really neat temples including my favorite that a keymaster had to come and unlock for us. But the inside was all open and there were a large buddha on each of the four walls that made up the center. And the paintings inside were still in very good condition as well. There were stairs to the top which had a really good view of the entire valley and of course there was nobody around. We had the whole place to ourselves. That day was nice as that was the case in most of the temples and there wasn't even many vendors as they are never visited by the large tour buses. We had some trouble on the sand tracks that crissed crossed the the valley, to which gears and of course tread on our tires would have helped, but we perservered. At about 4:30pm we called it quits as we hadn't eaten lunch and weren't that interested in doing much more biking. so after stopping for some food, we continued back to our hotel. After giving another balloon to some kids beside the road we have decided on a few rules about giving out stuff now. First of all we only give out things to kids that don't ask for it and second of all we will blow up the balloong and demonstrate how to play with it by sharing. No more instant fighting that has been the norm. We then sat in the comfortable chairs back at the hotel and read a bit. I tried to talk some more to this couple from Quebec who were quite interesting (the dude hadn't spent a whole winter in Canada in 8 years) but when my french began to slur as my brain got tired, i went to take a shower and head to dinner.

The next morning we were cathching the boat to Mandalay as we had heard that the road to Mandalay was worse that the one from Yangon. But of course the boat still left at 5:30am so we awoke at 4:30am to get our horse cart to the jetty. But wow, how different that trip was. It was like night and day between the bus and the boat. We could walk around, they had really comfy chairs, the boat was empty as nearly everyone goes the other way (Mandalay-Bagan) and we just enjoyed to the river scenery and the sunshine. Oh yeah and we could drink ice cold beers too. It's amazing what that does to you when you arrive at your destination. You get there refreshed and in a good mood. The ride into Mandalay passed the town of Sagaing, which had a number of remarkable stupas atop many of the hills. Well, got some more no gear cycle rickshaw dudes to get us to a hotel, secured a room, and went out for dinner. Got back to some Friends on TV (on the chinese channel with chinese subtitles), and went to sleep. We awoke to have breakfast and have found internet that is actually decently speedy and able to upload photos at a decent rate as well. Amazing isn't it? So there ya go you are now pretty much up to date. We will be hanging out here for a few days before continuing on to either Hsipaw or Kalaw, yet to be decided. Hope all is well in the free world!

Yangon-Ngwe Saung

Ok well it has been a while since entering on the blog, and well that may have something to do with the severe lack of internet and the firm iron grip that the government has on its people. Well there is just the trouble that you can't access any web based email (pretty much all email) unless you go through this kind of hacker email site. It's not easy. But i will try to bring you up to speed. Oh and also pictures are very slow, if you didn't assume that already.

Well we spent a few days in Yangon checking out the scene and figuring out just where we can go in this country and what is possible and in which routes that the government can be avoided as much as possible. It It was and interesting process where we just brought out a map of Burma and got the lady to put barriers and big X's where we couldn't go. It seems to be not that bad as the govt is concentrating on the high end tourist business where the people come on really expensive tours, fly everywhere and stay in really expensive places. And since we are not into any of those things, it's not hard to avoid the junta. We just won't be travelling overland to thailand unfortunately and so we must catch a flight from Yangon to Bangkok instead and go from there. We visited the paya that was in the center of the city and to which all the roads are organised from. Justina was caught by the cage of cute birdies out front and we paid the $1 to set one of them free for good luck. I sometimes just feel like saying, how much for the whole set? We founf one place with internet that was in i believe one of the government malls, you can tell them because they are all a/c and super nice inside with flower shops and guards and such but of course totaly empty of people. we found another internet place across the road which was cheaper and locally owned. We tried to go to a travel agent but since we rarely know what day it is, we doon found out that it's sunday and the travel agent is closed. ok then. We walked over to this large market area where tere was no shortage of fabrics and jewelery and bamboo frogs and souvenir tshirts. But it was just so nice to walk around a market and 1) not have everyone stare at you and 2) not have everyone yelling at you to buy their stuff. We were staying in a place for the first few nights with no windows but a/c (although the power was very inconsistent so we really could have used some windows) and then swtiched to a place that was much more affordable and practical for us. The first place claimed to have the best breakfast in the world and i could maybe argue otherwise but i let them have their small glory. I'm glad we didn't escape all of India or I would miss it too much so I was glad to see that the entire back alley was fully of trash. I also got a feel of India as we went to see a Bollywood movie that was playing at the English theatre, so yes, there was English subtitles and you could actually tell what was going on. And yes we actually got to see some Bollywood dancing and singing but there could have been more, always could have been more. It still had all the ridiculous aspects of a Bollywood movie, the 3+ hours long, the totally crazy fill in story parts that include aliens and computers that can see the future and ohh the romance with it's so close to kissing but not quite. After another day in Yangon we tried to book a bus ticket to Changtha beach was learned that it was full so instead we got a ticket to Ngwe Saung beach which wasn't as big but supposedly much nicer. Well the beach turned out to be very nice indeed but the bus ride there, well that's another story.

So first of all the bus terminal for Yangon is freaking far away (about 15km out of town) and it's costs $6 by taxi just to go there. And of course all the buses here leave so freaking early (6am) so we end us catching the taxi at 4:30am. And then we are paying $9 for our bus ticket to the "Beach resort". Well ask about the bus and they point us to the yellow bus (which actually had a mustard orange stripe on it, not yellow, but it was much too early to argue about such details ). And this bus is really just a local bus but of course we are paying the tourist price for a bus that would be $1 india, maybe 2. So me being nearly the tallest person on the bus gets the seat right at the back wheel with my legs to my chest. Mmm, 6 hour ride. Well by the end i couldn't feel much from the waist down and was for sure ready for the beach. This one guy from a hotel told us to come check out his place so we did and when we got there we learn that the place is actually full (thanks, could've used a little communication skills there). We return to another place where they have a wonderful little bungalo for us right on the beach so we took it without another word. We sent the next 5 nights and 5 days relaxing and just enjoying the beach life. I could have easily stayed another week but we decided that we should probably see some more of this country and save the next beach session for thailand. But the days passed by very fast, swimming, eating food, reading, swimming, napping, hammoking and eating food. I went for a run along the 9 mile stretch of the beach (of course i went to far and ended up being sore for the next 3 days but i passed resort after resort, most of which are inteh $50-$150 a night range. Almost all of them were totally empty, it was that bad. But i can totally understand it. I mean the government wants to develop this place (they ordered the entire village that was there moved 100m) but they of course go it all the wrong way as most military dictatoships go. They put all these really expensive hotels there, man of which they own themselves and yet don't develop the route there. So there is only a local bus that connects to the place unless you hire your own taxi for the 6 hour drive. So the room is $140 a night but you have to get on a 6 hour bus that is packed, hot, dusty, with people barfing and no leg room to get there. Mmm, just doesn't fit together. Anyways, at our place we had these three very cute ladies who worked there and got maybe 6 hours sleep everyday and yet had more energy than i have seen in a person in a while. This one girl would run everywhere and up to greet you when you came for breakfast or got in from dinner in the village. So after I would just run up to her as well jsut so that she wouldn't have to run as far. The last night, we had a bit of a bonfire with the rest of the people at the resort and the girls did some dancing for us and we did a little dancing for them. And boy, we partied hard, all the way until 11pm!! I know, crazy. Well we eventually decided to go and caught the 6am bus back to Yangon hoping to hook up with another bus to Bagan that same day so we wouldn't have to stay in Yangon or go to and from the bus terminal twice.

Kolkata-Yangon

Ok so we arrived in Yangon last night from Kolkata after 4 fairly frustrating days that make you wonder why you go to India in the first place and even more why you plan to return. Anyways, Kolkata was a big city with lots of big city stuff and doing things in India, let alone a big city, doing anything at all just takes soooo long. We of course didn't help ourselves by sleeping in until 10 in the morning and one night staying up late partying the night before our last day in town but still it could have been easier. So we went back to the consulate in the morning with 4 photos and got that done. fine. we then returned to get food and rest a bit in the hostel before starting to walk out and do things. pass the many pee walls, sweet, and off to find the tourist office. got a map and found out that they don't have the nightlife brosure anymore but we sit inside for a bit and enjoy the a/c. Then we keep going and begin the search for Cail's sitar. There are a bunch of shops along this one road so we go into many of them to see what they all got going on. get a wide range of prices on sitars that look the same from far but when you look closely they are quite different. ok this one was a quicky, that one too a long time etc... decided on one that gave us tha package deal but they don't accept credit cards. so off to find a bank machine that my card works at. ok return and the process begins with the purchase. someone is sent to get the case, chai is served, they have to pack it all up and such. fine, sweet, got that done. Now we got to ship this thing. so i haul it on my head like any Indian would do, got so many looks and eventually arrived at the post office, just another amazing colonial building that is now some slow Indian system. Ok so this thing cannot be shipped by boat as it is too long. great, so it had to be shipped by express mail. fine, oh but wait, as with all other Indian post, it needs to have some sort of custom made cloth diapers to be made to cover the whole thing. So gotta pay that guy to make this crazy cover, slightly misshapen of course so that took a while. He even put a little patch over this tiny space. oh well shipped, done, sweet. back home, rest before out to dinner. we went out to a nice place but unfortuanetly were shuffled into the back cafeteria style area so it kinda lost a bit of feel to it. but it was a nice dinner with cocktails even.

The next day we awoke, a little too late because i let Justina sleep in. But she looked so cute so i couldn't wake her. we phoned the rents one last time as we didn't know what kind of situation it would be in Yangon and did some emailing before going to pick up our Burma visa. Done, sweet. after that we did some walking around to get a few things, pharmacuticals and the like and then returned to rest as we were plannig on going to the club that night. So on the way to dinner, we stoped at the club to ask them about details. opens at 9pm till 4am and i need to get some shoes if i want to come in. ok then. Had some dinner at this bar/restaurant that had a live band. When the english act started at 9pm, this lady with an outfit that some would deem a little too much in Canada, sang Venga Boys, the song about eating pizza. Lifa, we thought of you. Got back to the hotel, asked the dudes there about shoes but all their feet were obviously too small for me so i went out to search for some. Found some for $5, done sweet. The club was fun, seeing the Indians there do things that most Indians don't even think of was interesting. We tried to invite this group of 3 girls who were dancing on the edge of the dancefloor to come on it but they said that they couldn't because their dad was watching. mmm... i see.

Well the next morning was a little slow but we got out and began the day. More frustrating stuff, went to HSBC bank, an INTERNATIONAL bank and of course, no we don't cash travellers checques. Went to the AMERICAN EXPRESS bank, and no we don't do that either. WOW. Went to the GSI to get some maps and then to the post office to ship some stuff, more diaper packaging. Didn't have enought to pay the packing guy and as we returned to the hotel, it started to pour rain so we dolled out jackets and got soaked. It was amazing to see how much of the place was flooded after 10 minutes of rain, and i can see how in the rainy season, rickshaws are the only way to travel. Went to the money exchange guy who could cash out checques and give us US cash and that was another 45 minute process. Well we arrived back tired but wanted to go check out a movie. So we got in a cab and did the whole meter now thing to get to the shopping mall. Dinner at Subway, pretty much the only thing that went well during our whole Kolkata experience, it was that good. bought tickets to the movies but wasn't until 10:45om so we returned to the hotel. of course the caby on the way back ripped us off by taking us on this huge roundabout way. why can't people just be fair here. 24rps there, 90 back, yeah that makes a lot of sense. Packed up and returned to the theatre. Got through half of the movie, well it was intermission after 1.5 hours, but as it was all in Hindi and there was clearly no Bollywood dancing that was gonna happen we went home. Had to walk as all the cabbies were asking 300rps. Woke the next morning and caught the taxi to the airport. Hotel guys says it takes 1hr, of course it takes 30min. And here is the kicker of India. Just as you are leaving there coutry they are ripping you off. We are still getting out bags out of the cab and we are thrust this coffee in our faces then the guy runs away. Oh that's kinda nice, a free coffee as we are leaving. Nope as we go to walk in, they demand 20rps. Man just makes you want to loose it. Sure doesn't leave a good impression that's for sure. Well we are now in Burma, that was bit of a long one and no pics, that doesn't work here. We have to work out our plan as there are so many places that are either off limits or only accessible by an expenive flight. Ahh, military juntas.

Puri- "It is my wife, she is sick"

hey there, well we are now in Calcutta, well Kolkata now after another lovely train ride. Kolkata is a city of 13.2 million and yet it has one of the worst train stations i have seen, with no system in place. Amazing how you can go sometimes to saying that you will never return to India ever again. It was a very long train ride to Puri and after let's say 15-16 hours, you are ready to get off the train. I had the bunk that had the perfect view of Justina below so that was one less Indian staring at her while she sleeps. We arrived in Puri and began the search for a hotel room. Went to one right on the beach but, mmm dirty and bathroom dirty. Another room, dirty, can do better. And we were sure glad we kept looking. Strolled into this lovely family stay house with such a cute family. They only had 3 rooms in their house that they rented out and the 26 yr old sun ran the "internet cafe" upstairs. We guessed that it was really just his computer but it was never confirmed. We had the room below which was quite large, had a balcony on the front and a clean bathroom. And all for the low low price on 200rps! It was such a steal. So the first day we settled in and had a nap, went out for food then internet then more food and there goes a day right there. The next morning we did another one of those crazy sleep in days and had the beginnings of the many knocking on the door. Granted we had them doing quite a bit for us (getting train tickets, tour tickets, etc...) but the family really liked knocking on our door to make sure that we had everything. And just when you are still sleeping and have to get up to answer the door, all the annoyance just goes away as the door opens. The family is just that cute, especially the mom. So that day we had some late breakfast that was more like lunch and headed down to the beach to chill out. Things kinda went a little bad after this. Justina began to feel not well quite quickly after the food although we thought it was just because we had eaten a lot. Later after dinner, things got a little worse and she had the middle of the night fever going on. So when the alarm rang at 6:30am so we could get on our bus for a 12 hour crazy tour of so much stuff, it was clear that we weren't going to make the bus. And hence the title. In my sleepiness, i actually used those words, and it sounded very much like Borat. So the next few days were spent taking care of Justina who had caught some sort of food poisoning, getting some sort of food she can take in (juice, bread, crackers, etc...)

The next day she was sufficiently better in the afternoon to wander out to check out the temple and some market stalls. The temple is Hindus only, so we had to climb to the top of the Library to get a peak inside(with a small donation of course). It's too bad as the temple looked like quite the complex. Walking the crazy streets of India followed with the usual fare including cows eating garbage as well as the Hindu god donations that are dumped over the wall. An interesting system in a country that is so poor and starving where they donate all this food and things to the gods that are then dumped in clear view over the wall into a large pile for the cows to eat. It is clearly not reaching the gods. Other street highlights is dead bodies being carried down the street, stall after stall of the same stuff which largely included the temples what seemed to be some sort of mascot more than god characters with large alien like saucer eyes and small pokeman type body. As one Indian guy described it, "the Hindu religion is very complicated", now that's a gross understatement. We also tried to get some key chains made for the family as she had mentioned how she liked the one i had put on to our key and that she had meant to get some but just hasn't yet. So we thought it would be a good gesture. But again India has foiled us. This is what i wrote down on a piece of paper for the key chain man to engrave on the key chain, " Rm 1, Rm 2, Rm 3" And what did we end up getting?
"R. M-1, R. M-2, R. M-3". WOW, that's all i have to say, Wow. Well the next day Justina felt good enough for us to rent a scooter, which was quickly named "Rickety Red". Should have gotten the motorcycle. I mean this scooter had nearly 400000 km on it! How can it still be running. But it got us to the Konark temple and back in one piece so that was nice. The Konark sun temple was quite interesting, built in the mid 13th century and with 2 sister temples a ways away that creates some huge triangle. The whole thing was depicted with the sun in mind and the phases of life coinciding with the rising and falling of the sun. We have the rising sun and birth, the children represented with the animal kingdom at the bottom. The middle sun with sculptures representing the youth, which consisted almost exclusively of kama sutra sculptures positions, which were all described to us in full detail by our grandpa guide, to quote, "this is 69, very interesting position. And here the woman is kissing the man and the second wife is waiting." While pointing, "Lesbians". And so on, you can guess the rest that isn't suitable for the blog. Ahhh. And how old are you sir? It was entertaining to say the least. Then the setting sun is depicted for the old people, the tired man and his horse. The main temple used to be over 220ft or something like that, really big anyways. But when it was found that the many iron clamps holding it together made it into a large magnet that was messing with the Portuguese's navigation instruments, they of course came in colonial fashion and destroyed it. Nice work. We returned to Puri, safely, and had some dinner before boarding our 10:30pm train to Kolkata.

Well this train ride wasn't too bad, only 9 hours, and we arrived in Kolkata at 8:30am. Well what a messed up "system" they have here sometimes, if it can even be called that. For the main train station for a city of 13.2 million i was expecting a little more. "Private car to Sudder st for 300rps?" No thanks, I'll get a 50rps taxi. Go to the prepay taxi stand where there is a large lineup that isn't moving with the guy behind the counter staring into space as the guy at the front of the line is trying to get him to do something. Forget that, go to the meter taxi lineup. In the lineup for a bit and then we agree for a guy to take us for 100rps. He takes us to the taxi and expects us to pay 100rps to share with 3 other people, i don't think so. Return to the meter taxi line. Eventually get in a taxi at the front of the line pretty much by opening the trunk and putting my stuff in. And then the driver even tries to do the meter fake, buddy, common, who do you think we are, amateurs? Get that thing on. Ahh India, how you can make me hate you. Battle some touts, look at a few shitty rooms and settle for one small room that is clean with our own bathroom. Got out Burma visa forms but must return tomorrow as i needed 4 photos, had 3 and all the photo shops are closed because of course its monday, duh. OK well this is a long one and having trouble with the photos but we will be spending the next few days getting everything ready for Burma, shopping and shipping and see Kolkata. Take care.