Myanmar (In one, long, post)

Myanmar is a dream, unique. I'll start with some background. Myanmar used to be called Burma. Almost the whole country is Buddhist. It was closed for a while, and some places still are, and was run by a ruthless militant government. About 3 months ago most of the military left, and the county is opening up. It's right at the beginning of a huge change. I feel extremely lucky to have seen myanmar at the time I did. In a year ot 2 it wont be the same. More tourists are hearing about it and are wanting to go, and the more western influence is going to really change it. Right now, unlike Thailand, Burmese people don't see you as money, but as weird people from somewhere really far away. They are just now getting Internet, and still a lot of websites are not allowed (blogger for example, thats why I have updated in a month.) And it's really rare to see a cellphone, (Sim cards are $700!!) So the government really cut the people off from the rest of the world. But again there in a transition into a more open country. There are big elections coming up in a few months that could potentially change Myanmar for good. But from talking to a lot of Burmese people about it, most said they wont vote because they are to scared. (The government knows who votes for who and can do a lot of wrong to those who don't vote for them). The woman who won the last election, who would have made a great leader for Myanmar, was thrown in prison by the opposition and they stayed in power. (She's running again this year, hopefully it will turn out better this time) So that's what was happening while I was over there, the country opening up, but only a handful of travelers were there. Through the stories I'm about to tell, hopefully you'll learn a little about what myanmar is like, and how the last few weeks have felt like I was dreaming.
From the moment the plane landed, I was filled to the brim with pure joy. We landed as the sun was setting, and were thrown into a world of mystery. The roads are broken, dusty, and bumpy. They drive on the right side, but all their cars are mostly rejects from other countries. So say a car in Thailand is to old, or doesn't work to well enough to be allowed to drive, they'll sell it to Myanmar and even though they drive on the left side in thailand (so the steering wheel is on the right) they'll still use it in Myanmar. There are close to no new cars in the whole country. We got a bus that was closer to an old tin can, and was greeted at our guest house by a really funny, young staff, and could already tell how sweet the burmese people are.

Change Money
When you enter Myanmar, you have to enter with all the money you're going to need in cash. There are no ATMs in the entire country. I brought $450 for 3 weeks. You have to save some of your money in US dollars, they use a mixture of $ and Kyats. US Dollars for accommodation and for transport, and kyats for everything else. It's sort of complicated, but not to bad. Changing dollars to kyats was one the best experiences I've had. The government is so bad people don't want to support it. All of the banks are government owned, so we went to the streets. If you walk down some street markets, people will ask "Change money!? Change money!?"and so we said Yes! We asked for the rate, and they said 800 kyats for $1. The bank at the time was 786. They pulled out HUGE wads of money and started to talk really fast and 2 more guys joined. After a few minuets of establishing what we needed, they said ""come come!"and lead us deep into the burmese market down ally and streets. Haha it was just about the shadiest thing I've done. We sat down in some street vendors restaurant on some crates and continued. I changed $300 for 240,000 Kyats. It was insane! I had heard that the US bill had to be crisp and perfect. But I had no idea how serious they took it. They refused one because it had a really slight smudge on the face. I was tiny. What a weird life. It was crazy giving 3, $100 bills and getting 240 1000 kyat bills. A massively huge pile of money. After counting 240 twice, I gave them $300 and put the stack in my bag. Catherine and I left laughing.

Traveling is all About being comfortable in uncomfortable situations
A really nice thing about myanmar is no one tries to cheat you. Normally in other countries if you want a bus ticket, you should buy it from the bus station, and not you accommodation where they double the price. In myanmar it's the same price everywhere, they don't bump up the price because they can make some extra money. Catherine and I got a bus from Yangoon to Bagan. It was nuts. For one thing the bus station was just a busty pile of buses in a maze of shacks. We some how found our bus, and got on. The ride was unendingly funny, and really uncomfortable. In all countries in southeast asia, they excessively overdue the air conditioning in their busses, and myanmar is no exception. Sitting on barely cushioned seats, in what felt like sub arctic temperature, we were ready to the 11 hour bus ride. From 5pm till 3am they played unfathomably loud bumese music, and the road was bad enough to brake a small car. Cold, loud, bumpy, and uncomfortable, I couldn't control my laughter. I loved every painful minuet, of every sleepless hour, and am still humming terrible burmese pop songs.

The Valley of Temples
Bagan, the valley of temples. Bagan is a place you read about in adventure stories, or see in a movie, or where you dream about wild exploration. A lush vibrant green valley where 2000 (2000!) temples lay waiting to be explored. Non of them are fenced, or closed, and there are no signs saying "No food or drink" I honestly have no idea how I never knew a place like this existed on earth. We all hear about the pyramids and Angkor Wat, but Bagan can rival both. We rented rickety old bicycles, and set off down the road filled with cattle, tractor/car hybrids, trucks with at least 25 people in the bed, 15 on the roof, and a few hanging on the side all with produce and bags in between them. 2000 old, mossy, broken, inexplicably beautiful temples to see. You could go from temple to temple to temple and no see a single soul. And after looking through a few, I discovered that if you look along the wall behind the buddah statue, sometimes there's hidden stairs, dark and small, that lead up and outside to the top. Ahh it was like Indiana jones, looking for ancient hidden passages in old temples.

Thimble full of Milky Moon
After a day of running around temples, I went out alone for the first sunset there. Tucking myself into a nook on the top of a temple. I watched the last sliver of sun fold itself behind the mountain leaving 2000 misty, torn temples around me. Simultaneously, 180 degrees behind me the full moon was rising at exactly the same moment the sun set. The most perfect transition into night. A nice trade of a violent red sun for a milky yellow moon over a sea of green and temple tops. It wasn't until later onthe terrace of the guest house, that I learned it was a lunar eclipse, on a full moon as well. What a crazy life. The most beautiful moon I've ever seen. And a perfectly placed shooting star right over the moon. Poetry in the sky.

The Sun Also Rises
This day was perfect. The day before we climbed a mountain called mount Popa, and met a danish couple. Martin and Helle. The day after we climbed, was Martin's birthday. We woke up at 4:30am, martin, helle, chris from belgum, and myself rode our bicycles through the dakr morning past ominous temples to one temple to watch the sun rise, the most beautiful sunrise I've seen. I'm just going to let the photographs at the end say everything. Mmm. After the sun was in the sky, we returned to our guests house to eat breakfast, ah and what a breakfast it was. After Catherine woke up, laying around for a while, and spending some nice time on the river front, we set out for sunset. Martin had his guitar, and I my melodica. While ridding to a temple we were going to, a burmese man tried to get us to follow him on his motor bike to a good temple for sunset, but we already had one in mind. He saw the guitar, and melodica, and decided to follow us instead. We scaled the temple, and found a room near the top that had great acoustics and had a really fun blues jam, (Soon to become the Bagan Blues, played by Marntin and my band called "Hot and Squid", a name that came from a food menu.) What a nice setting for music, on top of a thousand year old temple. The sun set as we played and our new Burmese frind, chit chit, who originally wanted to sell us stuff, was a music lover, and invited us to his home for dinner, and then to a burmese festival with him. And so we did. It was the first time I had seen how real people in poverty lived. He showed us to his village and to his hut where his mother, father, and brother lived. All bamboo, helmets and miscellaneous things hung on the walls. They were extatic to have us there. We ate some Delicious burmese food with out hands, laughed, and tried to communicate despite no one in the familey speaking any English. But laughter is good enough to get a point across. Chit Chit showed us his paintings, he was a painter, and thats what he originally wanted to sell us. I have a completely different view of what i originally saw as just some one trying to get money from you, not that I'll buy anything, but I respect what people do to feed themselves and their family, even if it seems slimy and intrusive from the outside. Martin and I played some music for them to say thank you. Days progressed as equally as exciting as chit chit showed us to another small village. Winding through temples and down dusty trails to his sisters house. People from all around the village came se say hello. Really old smiley men, sweet wrinkled old women. Haha it was the best. They made us food and we talked, and laughed, and played music, and danced until we took a nap in their loft to wait for sun set. What a magical place.

Road to Mandalay
We took the cheapest way from Bagan to Mandalay. A slow boast for $10 up river. It took 36 hours, and was really nothing more than a wooden deck. But wow, what a good time, it was seriously my favorite part of my trip. We boarded the ship at 5:30am and it was just us and a few other burmese (Soon to change to be being packed side to side) They all thought that it was really funny that tourists would take the slow boat, normally they take the normal boat, 9 hours. We picked a spot on deck, borrowed a blanket from someone, and went back to sleep. We woke up to a beautiful river sunrise, and were filled with the excitement of adventure. The boat was a small river transport ship, so we stopped often to load up with coal or bags of who knows what. At one point, at night, we stopped and they threw out the usually rickety planks for a bridge to land, but started to really tie it together and make sure it was secure, we weren't sure what they where doing. It ended up being about a four foot wide, someone secure bridge. All of a sudden everyone started to move really fast and grabbed ropes and thing and we saw what they were trying to do. They were trying to get a bull and a cow on board. Waa! Crazy! They pushed from behind and pulled from in front and forced a full gown bull across a 4 foot wide plant onto a ship. Unreal. It was a far drop into fast water bellow. Luckily they where successful and we shipped off to two, mooing passengers. At another stop, martin and I couldn't just stand around and watch them work, so went to help. At first they tried to stop us by saying it was to difficult and too dangerous. But after caring the first few bags of coal, they found it really really funny. Just from working a bit I became really black and really dirty, and seeing where they worked with the coal bellow deck was intense. They all wanted to trade shoes with me, or wanted my shirt. The boat pushed on and became more and more inspiring. Being the only foreigners on board we were an attraction for to the kids. We played music, and made silly tricks for them, and had really one of the most heart warming experiences of my life. Endless stories can come from that boat, and by the end of the 36 hours, none of us wanted to get off.

Mandalay
Mandalay is a city similar to yangon Martin, helle, catherine and I found a room for 3 people, and fit 4 (I slept on the floor) for cheap, and explored mandalay. (For any starwars fans who played KOTOR I was thinking of Mandalor and the mandalorians the whole time) But I'm just going to talk about Sagaing. Sagaing is a town outside of Mandalay thats more of a collections of monasteries and monks. A lot of monks have become enlightened there. We rented bicycles and rode out there. We dropped our bikes and climbed up the steps of Sagaing hill. We met a monk half way up who was reading. His name was Indicara. We talked for a while and he joined us in going to the top. He wanted to show us his monastery and did. We ate lunch made by his grandmother in the monetary. The whole place was quiet, peaceful, and bamboo. He took us to a monk school, and a nun school, I couldn't even say how beautiful it all was.

Jeze Bu!
After a few more days in mandalay, we took and equally as cramped, cold, loud, bumpy, and unendingly funny bus ride to Kalow. A really nice mountain town that was our kick off point for for a 3 day trek. After spending time in the sweetest street market, we were deciding if we wanted to get a guide or not for the trek. We weren't totally sure on the route, and the possibility of military rebels, but decided to maybe do it our selves. You can't buy a map, so we went into a guides office, and while one of us distracted them, the other took a photo of the map on the wall. But after talking to the, we decided that for $10 a day, for a guide, food, and accommodation, it was a good deal. So we took a guide. And what a good choice. His name was Laso and was a seriously fun guy to hangout with for 3 days. We treked through hills and villages and stayed in peoples homes who cooked for us, and in a Buddhist monastery. In all 3 weeks in myanmar I never slept in. There was always something waking you up, be it monks chanting at 5:30, or a chain of dogs howling, or silly strange sounds from who knows what. But when we where in the monastery, there was a point that really made me realized how special it was that I got to be where I was. At 5:00am a group of kid monks began to chant, unintentionally waking us up, before the sun even rose, laying in a monastery in the mountains of Burma listing to the echoing chants of young monks, I realized that very few people see this, and will ever get to. Soon as more tourists some, like thailand, traditions like this will either fade, or become gimmicky. It was a special moment of realization on how special this time in myanmar is, and how fast it's going to change. We reached Inle Lake and took a really exiting long boat ride through rivers and marshes and the open lake, to Nuang Shwe where we arrived on Christmas eve. Martin, Helle, Chathring, Remco (A guy from the netherlands who joined us on out trek), James (an englishmen who looked, acted, and sounded like James Bond), and myself  had a really strange and fun Christmas eve full of the funniest, grossest desserts, and musical jams on the dock. Merry Christmas. More oddity, silliness, and dreamlike adventure ensued on Christmas day, but for another time, I can't spoil everything at once. Catherine got really really sick and was in bed for 4 days. one of which, we had to travel to yangon. A cold, long, bumpy bus ride full of barf and taking care of friends. Our last day in myanmar was topped off with unspeakably good ice cream from the smallest shop.

In Conclusion
I'm sorry this post seems rushed, it was. There's a plethora of people I met, stories to tell, and things I learned that i want to share, but in person, and I can give more detail. These were just glimpses of my last month. Myanmar is a place that dreams try to mimic. It changed my life, as did the people I met there. Open yourself up 100% to the world and travel with no fear and no inhibitions, it's the best thing I've ever done. Nothing is better than having a dream to do something, and no matter what kind of adversity and lack of security you may face, doing it to its full extent. Life's as good as you make it, and it can be the best thing you do.

Now I'm back in Thailand. Catherine and I have gone our separate ways, she north and I south. Martin and Helle stayed with me though and came to Tonsai, where I am now. The best way to describe Tonsai is that it looks like Neverland. It's a perfect beach surrounded by incredible limestone cliffs falling into the ocean and jungle. It's also a climbers mecca. It's on a penensulla where you have to take a long tail boat to reach. There's only a few climbing shops, some bars and some restaurants and places to stay. One walking street. No cars or bikes. Almost everyone here is a climber. Theres 700 climbs! It has a really nice laid back atmospheel. Days climbing, days slack lining and spinning fire, days swimming in ocean lagoons. Martin, Helle and I found a bed to share for really really cheap. It's directly next to the receptions desk, and is just a bed and a mosquito net. The tree of us fit on it. No privacy, but really cheap and fun haha. It's nice to sleep to the sounds of the jungle and wake up to the gibbons calling. It's crazy hearing an endangered monkey call next to your bed. Ahh I really just love monkeys. I climbed with Kim Jacobs a few days ago. I've known her for a really long time from Idaho. It was nice to have someone from the past around to make sure this wasn't all just a colossal illusion. Martin and Helle left yesterday for Kolak to dive, and then back to Denmark. I miss them already. I couldn't have asked for more inspiring and fun people to travel with. But I'll see them in Denmark. Now I think I'm going to spend a long time in Tonsai climbing, and playing, and being in the ocean. Until I feel ready to move on. What counts is how we live out daily lives. Keep Smiling.

(PHOTOGRAPHS WOO!)
They'll be pushed to the next page also, you can get there at the bottom

Yangon

Food for the bus

 Bagan

Sleep

Music on top of a Temple

Sunset

Lunar Eclipse

Misty Bagan

Sun Rise

Sunrise jump

Village

Slow Boat

Morning on the Boat

Getting the cow on board 

Helping carry coal

Indecara

Outside Mandalay

Nap

Start of the trek

Laso!

Good morning

Inle Lake

James

Back to Thailand

Tonsai, Thailand

Love you all!
NOAH!