Month: February 2018

We took the train from Pyin Oo Lin to Hsipaw (the H is silent), partly so we could go over the famous bridge built in 1899 by an American company. It was the largest railroad trestle in the world at the time. We went across it VERY slowly.

But the main reason I went to Hsipaw was to do a 3 day trek. I did a fantastic jungle trek with Mr Bike’s trekking company. There were 12 people the 1st day, where we hiked 15km up to the top of a mountain and stayed in tree houses. On day 2, 5 of us went on to stay in bungalows by the river, hiking another 17km, and the other 7 folks hiked back. I felt good during the trek, but my legs were quite sore afterwards for 3 days. Its been a long time since I did 2 long back to back hikes like that.

It was very cold on night 2, but there were more than enough blankets to stay warm. The final day was a tubing on a beautiful river. Unfortunately the Chinese are building a new dam on the river, so who knows how nice it will be in the future. I was told 90% of the electricity would go to China, and 10% to Myanmar.

I met a lot of really interesting folks on the trek. There were folks from England, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark in the group. Most were in their 20s, a couple folks in their 30s, and a Danish guy who is a bit older than I, and had also travelled around SE Asia in the late 80s just after I was here.

For some unexplained reason, almost every business in Hsipaw that caters to tourists seems to be named Mr this or Mrs that. My trekking company was “Mr Bike”, and my guide was “Mr Forest” (he worked for the Myanmar forest service for 30 years). Other businesses in town included: Mrs Popcorn, Mr Shake, Mr Wok restaurant, Mr Charles Hotel, Mr Book Bookshop, etc.

Christine and I also walked over to Hsipaw Palace, featured in the book I just finished reading: “Twilight in Burma”. We met the nephew of the prince featured in the book. He was surprisingly positive about the future considering what his family went thru. The book was banned until 2015, but now it seems it’s quite popular in this part of Myanmar. An Austrian company made a movie from the book in 2015, but the movie is banned “because they are worried it might lead to a return to fighting between the Shan state people and the Burmese army”.

Photos of the train ride to Hsipaw and the town of Hsipaw are here, and the trek photos are here.

Myanmar or Burma?

Several people are confused by the terms “Burma” vs “Myanmar”. I asked about this, and got this explanation: Myanmar is composed of many ethnic groups and many languages. The largest ethnic group are called “Burmese”, and the official language is “Burmese”. Myanmar is the name of the country that includes everyone. Internally the name Myanmar came about in 1962, but the rest of the world did not really start using it until the 1990s.

Food in Myanmar

Now that we’ve been here a couple weeks, I wanted to write up a summary of food in Myanmar. There is fantastic Indian food, pretty good Chinese food, and a variety of Myanmar food. Common is a Burmese Curry restaurant: You pick 1 of 4 types of curry: Chicken, Pork, Beef, or Fish for around $2.50. Then you get 6-9 side dishes “for free”. These include: soup, tea leaf salad, rice, pickles, chili sauce, 1-3 cooked vegetable side dishes, raw veggies, and fresh fruit for dessert. Green tea is free at all restaurants in Myanmar, and the standard price for a large bottle of beer is $1.50. See the photo below of a typical meal.

Train Bridge

Tree house that I stayed in on the trek

Burmese Curry meal

Unfortunately we both seem to have got some sort of food poisoning in Mandalay, and were pretty sick by the time we got to Inle lake, so the first few days were spent mostly in bed. Thank goodness for Cipro, which our doctor recommended bring along, but in fact is very easy to get here. After taking Cipro for 3 days we were feeling good again.

Inle is very picturesque, the villages around the lake that are all built on the water are really interesting, and the market the rotates between 5 lakeside villages is really good. You can hire a boat for a full day to take you around the lake for about $15.

Unfortunately February is the month they burn the fields after harvest (mostly sugar cane and corn), so the air is thick with smoke, which you’ll see in many of the photos. We were told that December and January is the best time to visit.

Photos from Inle Lake are here.

Then on to Pindaya, a small town about 1.5 hours away, and famous for its Buddha Cave, which was very interesting, but the spider was pretty silly. Check out the photos.

We stayed in a nice hotel that was completely empty the first night besides us. The hotel staff was super helpful and friendly, and they even had free mountain bikes and free laundry service. Hotels in Myanmar are a bit nicer than other places in SE Asia. Small guest houses are less common, and medium size hotels (20-30 rooms) are the norm. They are a step up from similarly priced (around $25/night) places in Thailand or Cambodia: e.g.: each bed has 2-3 pillows, and there is central hot water rather than tiny on-demand units. However the wifi is pretty awful in Myanmar compared to most other places in SE Asia.

I also went to the nearby town of Kalaw for a 1 day bicycle trek (31 miles, 4100ft of hill climbing), which was good to help me get back in shape after being sick. Kalaw also has a pretty cool Buddha cave, but not as good as Pindaya.

Photos from Pindaya are here and Kalaw here.

We finally made it to Myanmar. Minnesota may have 10,000 lakes, but Myanmar must have well over 100,000 pagodas. We started our month in Myanmar with 3 days in Mandalay. The weather in February is perfect. High 80, low 60, and low humidity. It feels really nice to not be sweaty for a change.

After reading that Myanmar was selected as a top travel destination in 2016, I expected way more tourists, especially since we are here what is supposed to be the high season. But we hear that tourism is down about 50% this year, mostly due to bad press over the Rohingya troubles.

I first visited Myanmar in May, 1987, back when it was still called Burma. It was, by far, the most broken country I had never seen. There was basically no manufacturing, and no imported goods. Tourists could only visit 4 cities then on a 1 week visa. There were almost no cars, only bicycles and some really sad buses. I was very curious to see how things have changed. And it has changed a lot!

There are many new roads, new airports, new hotels/restaurants, and you can now buy most everything. There are some peculiarities tho, such as they drive on right, using mostly cars with steering wheel on the right too. In Mandalay there are surprisingly few taxis, so its a bit tricky getting around town. You pretty much need to just hire a driver for the day (only about $35 for a full day).

We did an excellent street food tour (which might have made us sick), and went to most of the major pagodas in the area. My favorite Burmese food so far is Mohinga, a fish-based noodle soup. Overall I like the food, but it can often be too greasy and/or salty. The combination of smoke, haze and pollution made visibility bad, but the sites were still impressive. A surprising number of the temples are quite new, or recently rebuilt.

I went on a Burmese history kick, and read a bunch of historical fiction to try to better understand this country, whose history is both fascinating and fucked up. I particularly enjoyed “Twilight over Burma”, “The Glass Palace”, and “The Trouser People”. I also watched several episodes of the show ‘101 East‘ that focused on Myanmar.

We stayed in the house of a young couple who both got scholarships to universities in Virginia, and returned to Myanmar to work in Dad’s businesses (a water bottling company and a noodle restaurant). They were very interesting to chat with about Myanmar’s history and politics.

Mandalay photos are here.