A Salay colonial relic: Beyond “faded” and all the way to “derelict”
The final stop on our Irrawaddy flotilla steamer cruise before Bagan was the former colonial outpost of Salay. We unfortunately arrived in the heat of the afternoon, maybe because our schedule had been off for the last couple of days due to a 3-hour delay when we ran aground on one of the Irrawaddy’s many sandbars. We’d been warned in advance to expect such minor mishaps and to be flexible, and the delay had been a non-issue for the most part (and actually kind of interesting to watch the maneuvers involved in extricating the boat from its predicament).
Anyway, for whatever reason, we trooped up to Salay in the heat of the afternoon, past small groups of locals resting in the shade and no doubt wondering what we were doing out and about at that inhospitable time of day. We wandered through an extensive group of monasteries and temples, to visit a small temple housing the Mann Paya Buddha, the largest lacquered Buddha in Myanmar. The Mann Paya is a hollow wooden statue said to date back to 1300AD that was found in 1888 bobbing in the Irrawaddy after a flood. Locals fished it out of the river, covered it with gold leaf and lacquered it. Yen speculated that it had come from a temple that had fallen into the river, a victim erosion.
Yoke Sone Kyaung monastery
Our next stop was a lovely old teak monastery, Yoke Sone Kyaung, built just prior to the British colonization of Burma. It housed many carved statues and wooden trunks and was decorated extensively with carvings inside and out. We laughed at one bas relief carving outside entitled “Passion for sensual pleasures (or) sensual bondage.” Hmm.
Something’s lost in translation with this carving outside Yoke Sone Kyaung monastery. I think it’s supposed to be about freeing oneself from earthly attachments.
Despite the scattered temples, stupas and monastery buildings, Salay derives its uniqueness from the once-elegant colonial buildings that line many of its main streets. These are remnants of the presence of British military and the Burma Oil Company which housed rig workers in the area starting in 1886. The owners have mostly abandoned the stately buildings to their fate and moved away, and we saw only one newly restored building, its bright pink paint standing out from the faded, peeling glory of its neighbors.
We wandered the streets as the afternoon cooled to evening, arriving at Salay House, another (the only other?) restored building dating back to 1906 that is now an inn and restaurant. It’s the only business of its type in tiny Salay and does boast a pretty garden and a nice river view (although I can’t imagine what I’d do in Salay on an overnight stay, much less for longer). There’s also a shop up front with a museum-style second floor that recreates rooms from the era. It was nice, but felt too touristy to us so we skipped the over-priced sunset drinks and headed back to the ship with a group of like-minded shipmates for our much-loved cocktail hour onboard.
Main stupa at Tant Kyi Tuang Pagoda (Can you spot the little bird with nesting material in its beak in the metal “flower tree?”)
Although Bagan and its 2000 stupas was the ultimate destination of our river cruise on an Irrawaddy Flotilla Steamer, the first time we saw the city was from across a wide spot in the river and only a few days into our week aboard the steamer. We stopped overnight at Tant Kyi village, so we could visit the hilltop Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda with its sweeping view of the Irrawaddy and Bagan in the distance. Also, being there in the morning allowed us to see the many boats full of locals arrive at sunrise to visit Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda before heading back across the river to Bagan. The point of this early pilgrimage was to try to visit four special pagodas in one day, Tant Kyi Taung and three in Bagan. Yen explained that doing this is said to bring about the granting of a prayer, but the only way to visit all three is to begin in at dawn.
Boatfuls of Burmese arrive at dawn at Tant Kyi to begin their four-pagoda pilgrimage
Sure enough, we heard the loud roar of local boats starting before sunrise. (It’s a miracle everyone in this country isn’t deaf by thirty given the onslaught of loud noises in so many places: engines, pounding hammers, slamming looms, blaring music… and no ear protection in sight. Thank God things quiet down fairly early in the evenings!) Boat after boat moored along the dirt bank as crowds of locals streamed ashore. In the distance, as the sun came up, we watched the first hot air balloon launch over Bagan, soon followed by more.
Sunrise over Bagan and the first hot air balloon is up (to the right of the sun). Meanwhile, boats of pilgrims still stream towards Tant Kyi.
Although visiting the Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda was on our agenda, too, we had no intention of trying to do the holy four so were able to get a more leisurely start to our day. Vans drove us through the village into the countryside and dropped us off at the base of a hill. We followed yen up what was nothing more than a forest path, past an ancient man-made reservoir with a naga-sheltered Buddha overlooking the quiet spot.
Buddha watching over an ancient reservoir on the path to Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda
Further up the hill, we reached steps that took us into the shops and monasteries surrounding the steps and tall, free-standing elevator up to the main stupa of the pagoda. This might be a good place to explain the terms “pagoda,” “stupa,” and “temple” as used in Myanmar. In Myanmar, “pagoda” refers to a whole religious complex and may contain many stupas and temples. A stupa is a solid religious structure, often but not always, bell-shaped and frequently gilded. A “temple” is a hollow religious structure that may be entered and/or that houses a Buddha. At least, these are the definitions I’ve been given and how I’ll use them here.
Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda centers around a large golden stupa (see top photo). Several smaller temples surround it, including one with a tall golden Buddha pointing east towards Bagan across the river. The view from the terrace surrounding the main stupa is, pardon the pun, stupendous.
View from Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda
After visiting Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda, we stopped at Ayardaw Clinic, one of eight in the area supported by Pandaw, the company that owns the fleet to which our riverboat steamer belongs. The clinic has an indoor waiting area, one small examining room, and outdoor seating on a porch overlooking the river. A sign informed us that 76,804 patients had been seen since 2011 at a cost of pennies/patient. Most received simple care, while some 543 had received “treatment” or more complicated procedures. The clinics are open two days a week and doctors travel a circuit to man them.
Elephant dance acrobatics. I loved watching the children, especially the boy holding his little sister (whose face is fully covered with thanaka). We saw lots of older siblings cheerfully caring for the younger ones.
Our last stop for the day was an “elephant dance” set up on the river bank near our boat, something that turned out to be charming and much more fun than we expected. Two men danced inside an ornate elephant costume to the music of a live band while local children and adults joined us to laugh and clap.
The men manipulated the heavy costume in head-wagging, trunk-swinging moves, then climbed atop a table or stairs to a small disc to continue their dance on the precarious perch. At times, one man would hold the other so that the elephant stood on its front or hind legs. Impressive!
My Pakokku friend with her pretty longyis and scarves
Another fun stop on our river steamer cruise down the Irrawaddy was at the large town of Pakkoku (population of about 100,000). As always, we moored at a rough bank of the river, no pier in sight. This time, we hiked up a steep flight of narrow stairs to find ourselves at a single-file footpath along the side of a field. As soon as we made the top of the river bank, we found women waiting to sell us the ubiquitous souvenirs: longyi (the local tube skirts worn by nearly everyone), jewelry, scarves and the like. One woman latched onto me immediately and we went through the now-familiar “you like?/maybe later?” routine. Although they can be persistent, we’ve found the Burmese to be much less pushy than other Asian vendors. Burmese are generally a friendly, cheerful group; the people on the street tend not to make overtures to us first, but they beam back when we smile at them and wave, or greet us with a bright “Mingalaba!,” the local greeting that is sort of a combination of “hello” and “auspiciousness to you.” Vendors do approach or call to us, of course, but they’re not overly aggressive, just hopeful. There was something particularly charming about my new friend, and I found myself considering that “maybe later” as she followed along the footpath with me. At the far end of the field, three larger, truck-style tuk tuks awaited our group. Climbing aboard, we were off on a dirt road through fields and past ox carts until we came to the intersection with a major paved road.
Our tuk tuk passes an oxcart on the road from our riverbank mooring to the main road to Pakokku.
We followed the paved road into town and our first destination, a large food market. Here, the boat organized something clever and fun: We were each given a scrap of paper with the phonetic spelling of the Burmese word for a vegetable and sent us off with 1000 kyat (about 66 cents) to try to buy the indicated item. We quickly realized the vendors nearest the road couldn’t hear us over the traffic noise much less understand our poor attempts at Burmese, so we headed toward the interior stalls, but found the vendors there just grabbed our scraps of paper and tried to sound out the word themselves using their school-learned knowledge of English. (We’ve found all over that a fair number of Burmese know some English, but, in general, their pronunciation is extremely difficult to understand, they often don’t comprehend what we’re saying, and there is a lot of confusion on both sides before some level of understanding is worked out.) The first stall I asked, took my paper, then pointed me to another stall, calling to the woman there the name of the vegetable I was to buy. That woman gave me a light green vegetable looking a lot like chayote squash…and handed me back 700 kyat. Hmm. Asking others in our group, I decided to go back and buy another two of the things, leaving me with 100 kyat in change. Alrighty, I was feeling like a success. Our guide, Yen, quickly popped my bubble when we got back on the boat and I showed him my purchase and my slip of paper. Apparently, I was supposed to get some sort of chilies. I wasn’t alone in my failed vegetable search, but we had fun listening to Yen explain what the unknown items were, how to cut and prepare them, and the dishes they were popularly used in.
In the Pakokku vegetable market
After the market, we made a stop at a school supply store to let us buy some items for a local “orphanage.” Although the home for children is labeled an orphanage, the children have parents who’ve sent them away to be raised and schooled as monks/nuns. The children ranged in age from 6 or so to a few older teenagers. Boys dressed in orange robes, girls in pink, all had their heads shaved. We noticed several with bald patches on their scalps, skin disease which Yen said resulted from sharing razors. We glimpsed the girls’ dormitory, a jumble of plywood beds, pink robes…and a favored teddy bear.
Girls’ dormitory at the Pakokku “orphanage”
We watched the children begin their lunch with a chanted prayer as they sat cross-legged at long tables. This mid-day meal would be their last of the day, and they ate breakfast at 4:30am.
I tried to picture my boys on such a restricted diet at the ages of these children. Growing like weeds, my children were ever-hungry at those ages. I remembered, too, all the hugs, love and attention I lavished on them and all the love I received in return. It saddened me to think of the circumstances that would make this poor orphanage seem like a better option for my child than home.
Lunchtime prayers at the Pakokku orphanage.
My friend from the first moments off the boat had preceded us to both the vegetable market and the orphanage, she and a friend speeding ahead on motorbikes. She’d greeted me at both places, making sure I didn’t forget her and that “maybe later.” We posed together for photos at the market as she’d asked when we first met, wanting a photo to show her children she said. (Of her with one of those strange-looking foreigners, I guess.) Now, back at the footpath through the field, I gave in, haggling with her a little to buy a pretty, tourist-style longyi (which have waist ties, unlike the tube skirts worn by the natives which they simply fold and tuck). Just as we were parting, she told me she’d sold a longyi to another woman in our group for more than she’d sold me mine and asked me not to tell the other woman. I thought it was sweet that she didn’t want the other woman to feel bad…but had to wonder if maybe she’d sold me mine for more and didn’t want me to know. Oh well, the difference couldn’t be much as the price was not expensive in any event. Later, a friend on the boat who saw I’d bought the same longyi as her in a different color asked me what I’d paid. I wouldn’t have said anything if she hadn’t asked me directly, but I couldn’t see not answering her since neither of us would ever see my Pakokku friend again. Anyway, it turns out I did get the cheaper price.
One of my favorite stops on our Irrawaddy riverboat cruise was Yandabo, a village known for pottery production. Yandabo is cleaner and more prosperous looking than many of the villages along the Irrawaddy. The government is assisting with funds to build a river wall (erosion being a big problem along the Irrawaddy) and the locals organized to clean up trash (another big problem along the river and in the villages). We were impressed to learn that the entire family of potters we visited had university degrees. Sadly, though, they could earn more making terracotta pots.
Corn cobs and husks are used in pottery making. Corn husks are also used to roll cigars. The kernels are exported, mostly to China.
The pottery-making process was interesting and impressive, in part because the methods and equipment are so primitive and labor-intensive. The potter’s wheel is powered with the help of an assistant manning foot pedals. Pots are shaped and stamped by hand, each decorative pattern indicative of the family who made the pot. We see the distinctive-shaped pots everywhere on the many water stands provided free to all by families who establish these stations as a way of obtaining good karma. Clay pots are also the preferred cooking vessel in Myanmar, metal said to give certain curry dishes a dark color.
Stamping the family design onto a pot (This lady has a degree in history.)
As always, we found the locals to be exceedingly friendly and welcoming. A boy of twelve or so gave me a tiny clay dog figurine. Unsure if I was expected to pay, I asked our guide, but he assured me it was a gift and nothing was expected in return. Later, after demonstrating the making and decorating of pot (and also how to carry three at a time, one on each arm and one on the head, see the top photo), our main hostess did offer small pottery souvenirs for sale, but there was absolutely no pressure to buy.
In Yandabo, we lucked into arriving while the village was preparing for the sticky rice celebration. These celebrations were taking place all over Myanmar because of the full moon. We’d gotten a kick out of joining a sticky rice street party in Mandalay where a mob of young boys danced to blaring music around big paella-style skillets of cooking sticky rice, but this was different. Unlike sticky rice in the city which is made by machine in factories, the village makes its communal sticky rice with a large pounding mallet-like contraption requiring the efforts of five people.
Preparing for the sticky rice “festival.” The celebrations take place on the full moon. Once the rice is poured into the stone bowl (which serves as a sort of mortar), the girls to the right will provide the pounding action while the young man reaches in between beats to pull and turn the glob of rice. The women to the left are making the sticky rice into balls.
We found the process as interesting as the scheduled pot-making. I couldn’t help but snap several photos of a beautiful little girl dressed in emerald green finery for the celebration. Looking no more than three or four, she was pensive with expressive little hands as she crouched or stood by her mother who was one of a small group of women rolling balls of sticky rice as it came from the mallet-machine. She wore a gorgeous emerald green blouse and longyi, her face made up with ever-popular thanaka. This little beauty is the focus of some of my favorite photos of the trip so far.
Although everyone around her was laughing and chattering, this little one remained serious and quiet.
We’ve really been looking forward to our time on a wooden Irrawaddy Flotilla Steamer. Prior to WWI, the largest river flotilla in the world was on the Irrawaddy River in Burma. Most of these classic teak wood boats were destroyed, either by bombs or by scuttling. Pandaw, the river cruise line I’d chosen, salvaged and restored one of these boats, then built others, copying the original 1930’s style, but with modern updates. I’d carefully chosen our intimately-sized boat and even the side of the boat I wanted our cabin on. So, I was worried and disappointed to read an email from my booking agent the day before we boarded in Mandalay saying we’d been changed to a larger riverboat. A little research revealed this new boat, the Pandaw Orient, was 8 years older than the original, Pandaw Kindat; worse, the Orient had 30 cabins vs. 18 on the Kindat.
My agent contact, as always, was quick to respond when I voiced my concerns. She did her own research and found that only 12 of the cabins were booked and the cabins were the same size and layout as the original. I felt much better after her reply and after seeing deck plans that showed we were actually gaining a deck and more common space.
Outside our Upper Deck cabin
Sure enough, on boarding, we found a charming and spacious teak wood riverboat. Teak deck loungers, wicker sofas and potted plants give a wonderfully period feel to the boat. Modern touches like air conditioning, common-area wifi and updated bathrooms make for a luxurious cruise. The crew pampers us so much it’s almost embarrassing. Food has been elegant, fresh and plentiful, exceeding expectations. There’s a nightly happy hour on the sun deck with appetizers. Musicians and dancers from a Mandalay school boarded last night to provide a surprisingly high-quality show to our little group of twenty.
Lots of room on the Sun Deck of the RV Orient
We’re only into our second full day as I type (on a teak lounger, watching river life pass by), but already we’ve had several well-thought-out excursions including a sunset outing where we were rowed out, 4 at a time, in small boats for the perfect view. When our oarsman stopped our boat and positioned us among others to watch the sunset, our guide and crew paddled up to deliver cocktails in champagne glasses. Lovely!
Cocktails on a rowboat near Mandalay
We spent our first day aboard moored at Mandalay. After lunch, we were taken on local excursions, first in large tuk tuk trucks to a hilltop pagoda with sweeping views, then by motor coach through Mandalay to the sunset rowboats. As we drove through Mandalay, we got a surprise treat when our bus came upon a sticky rice street party. When we were all curious, our guide Yen asked our bus driver to stop so we could get out and mingle with a group of young men who were dancing (to music blaring, in typical noise-loving Myanmar fashion, from across the street) around two big paella-style vats of cooking sticky rice. They welcomed us to their bash, most dressed in green polo-type shirts…save for one young man who showed up to great fanfare dressed in women’s clothes.
The next day the ship sailed upstream to the village of Mingut before returning to Mandalay for the night.
A “taxi” at Mingun. Thankfully, we could just walk from where we’d moored.
The approach to Mingun is impressive with the large brick remains of a square stupa looming over the river. At first, I wondered if it was some dramatic natural rock formation, but as we walked up to it, we could see the thousands upon thousands of bricks comprising the structure which was severely damaged over a century ago by a violent earthquake. Huge cracks cut through the stupa threatening to cleave large sections of the building away.
Mingun stupa, severely damaged by earthquake
Two enormous lion statues are also in ruins nearby. The king who ordered the building of the structure hoped to build the world’s largest stupa. Instead, our daily briefing describes the Mingun stupa remains as the world’s largest pile of bricks. You’ve got to love Burmese “bright side” thinking! Along the same lines, they describe the huge nearby bell as the “second largest bell in the world that can be rung.” They admit that the largest bell in the world is in Russia, but say you can’t ring that one. Of course, “ringing” the Mingun bell doesn’t involve an interior clapper, but rather pounding on it with logs on the outside.
So, I think I’ll end here with the focus on the boat and our first days. I’ll post more about the river cruise stops later when and if I get time, internet, and the inclination.
Practical info:
I booked our Pandaw Cruise via Happy Travel Asia. My agent, Ms. Hong Nham, was exceedingly responsive and helpful. I am very happy with her and the agency. Our cruise was a Mandalay – Pagan – 8 day/7 night downstream cruise. The total price for the two of us in what was originally to be a main deck cabin on the Kindat and was upgraded to a upper deck cabin on the Orient was $3,352.00. We paid 30% upon booking in July and the balance in November for a February cruise.
All cabins are identical in layout, cozy at 16m squared, and totally paneled and outfitted in teak wood. (Even our shower has a louvered teak door!) Each cabin has two single beds that can be configured as one large bed. The front is further from the engine, but closer to bridge crew activity and the horn. The stern has crew activity as well.
There is a lot of noise on the Irrawaddy in general and boat traffic starts early. Engine noise on passing boats can be almost absurdly loud; it seems you’d have to try to create a motor that loud. No one navigates the river after dark as it is perilously studded with ever-shifting sand bars. We’ve been stuck once for a few hours. Boats moor for the night and villages are quiet soon after dark as well. Our boat had considerable engine noise at times, depending on the maneuvering. The higher deck must be quieter than lower one simply because it is closer to the engine, but that is simple deduction, not personal experience. Front cabins seem to be quieter than those near the stern, but pulling in and extending the gangplank is said, by those with the bowmost cabins to be extraordinarily loud. Despite the occasional noise, nights are quiet and we sleep well.
Local beer and spirits (gin, rum, vodka and whiskey) are included. Wine and premium (non-Burmese) spirits are extra, but not unreasonably priced.
The makeup of our particular group is all British save for 3 Americans (including us) and two Frenchwomen. We have an English-speaking guide who goes everywhere with us when ashore. We’re as well looked-after ashore by helpers who greet us with icy disposable wipes after each stop where we take off our shoes (every temple and monastery) so we can clean our feet. Very nice.
Some stops require climbing up dirt or sand banks which could be difficult for persons with mobility issues. Crew do stand along the way to lend a hand and help, though, and at least partial steps are dug out to make the going easier. We had no problem at all with any of this.
Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon: The main stupa in the background is 99 meters high and holds relics of four Buddhas.
Yangon was, by necessity, our first stop in Myanmar although I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the city as a destination. Flights to the country are limited and the vast majority of international flights arrive at Yangon International Airport. Due to an airline schedule change, our already brief 3-night stay was whittled to 2-nights. Yangon turned out to be a really pleasant surprise.
After a 36+ hour flight and layover odyssey, the Yangon Airport was a nice, hassle-free experience. Seated in business class, we were one of the first off the plane and one of the first through customs. We handed over the Myanmar visas we’d obtained online and printed at home, posed for a photo and were stamped into the country, all quick and easy. We were lucky as a line quickly grew after we passed through customs.
Our bags were also off the carrousel in no time and we headed out through the “nothing to declare” exit. We found several ATM’s next to an Information desk and had no problems withdrawing cash. Our only slight airport hitch was our inability to find the pre-paid taxi desk I’d see touted online. Instead of the indoor desks pictured in a couple of posts, the woman at Information directed us to a small outdoor booth in the median beyond Gate 6 (marked only on the glass door, not overhead). The “fixed price” was instantly dropped from 13,000 kyat to 12,000 kyat, more than I’d seen online, but still very cheap at about $7.85 for an hour ride. Since we had time, David made one more pass back through the terminal, but saw no sign of the pictured indoor counters and the lady at the Information desk again confirmed the outside booth was the place to go. Oh well.
Riding into the city, we got our first taste of Yangon traffic. Yikes! What a mess, but drivers seemed surprisingly chill about the chaos. Our driver was friendly, and pointed out places of interest along the way in his minimal English. The cab was clean and nicely air conditioned. We arrived at Esperado Lake View Hotel in about an hour.
Although we arrived about 10:45am for a 2pm check-in, the front desk managed to get us in our room fairly quickly. I’d booked a lake view corner room and was so glad I did. The view across a nature park of the nearby Karaweik Palace (a/k/a “the Dragon Boat”) on Royal Lake and the magnificent and massive Shwedagon Pagoda in the distance was sublime.
Our spacious corner lake view room (5008) at Esperado Lakeview Hotel
From the beginning, we really enjoyed our stay at Esperado Lake View Hotel and I’d stay there again in a minute. Pricey, by Yangon standards, it’s still a great bargain compared to upscale western hotels in the city (and who wants those?!)…and the view is incomparable. Even without a view from the room, there’s an open-air rooftop restaurant with spectacular views and excellent food. An included and vast breakfast is served there each morning and there’s 24-hour food and beverage service as well. After our first delicious dinner, we kept coming back. It was too easy, too gorgeous, and too good to pass up.
Although the chef offers western dishes, we wanted Myanmar cuisine and tried all sorts of interesting things, all good, some really excellent. Favorites included pennywort salad, chicken and shrimp curries, and a delicious “pickled mustard” and chicken soup that was fiery hot with loads of chilies. A Thai seafood salad with glass noodles, squid and shrimp was a perfect cold lunch.
View from the rooftop restaurant at Esperado Lakeview Hotel
On our first afternoon, we strolled along the wide boardwalk bordering the lake, admiring views of the exotic “Dragon Boat,” a huge golden structure with twin dragons on the “bow” and multiple pagoda roofs. I’d first thought it was a temple, but it is actually an over-the-top restaurant offering cultural shows. We saw bus-loads of tourists heading into the park where the boat is situated, but it sounded artificial and made-for-foreigners to us, so we passed.
The Dragon Boat. Families of workers rebuilding portions of the lakeside boardwalk seem to be living on site and they were doing laundry under the roofed wooden structure in the foreground.
One of the hotel staff recommended the “Scott Market,” but online research showed a typical Asian market of a kind geared towards tourists so we passed on that, too. Instead, we walked into the park one night to see the local night market that opens up there at 5:30pm. Evidently because it was Valentine’s Day (which got a nod in various local establishments), there seemed to be a real party atmosphere in addition to the bustling food and clothing stands. We followed crowds streaming towards the food market, past a movie screen where lyrics flashed . All along the lake, small groups of family and friends picnicked, many playing guitars and singing. Inside the market, a folk-style band played on a stage while people perched on child-sized plastic chairs and mini tables, eating food bought from the scores of booths. We bought a grilled chicken and sticky rice with mango, perching on the low wall surrounding a tree to eat. We were the only westerners we saw all night, but we felt totally welcome.
The crab at the night market looked good…
…the bugs, not so much!
The highlight of our Yangon stay was a visit to Shwedagon Pagoda (see lead photo), the enormous golden stupa we could see on a hill across the lake from our hotel. The stupa is 99 meters tall and houses the relics of four Buddhas. It is the most holy site in Yangon and looms over the city. At the suggestion of the super helpful Esperado staff, we got to Shwedagon via a Grab app taxi. Grab is a ride hailing/sharing app like Uber, based out of Singapore. Grab actually bought Uber’s SE Asia business, so it’s now the main ride hailing app in the region. We found it easy to use, with English and Burmese provided along with a photo function that let me send an arriving driver a pic of myself and my location. Handy! The Grab taxis were amazingly cheap, rides to and from Shwedagon Pagoda costing 2100-2300 kyat or about $1.64, including tip. A regular taxi back to the airport when we left was only 10,000 kyat ($6.54)
Although only 16 miles from Esperado Lake View Hotel, the ride took us 30 minutes due to the crazy Yangon traffic. Most intersections lack traffic lights and there are almost no crosswalks, so things are, of course, chaotic. It’s interesting, though, drivers honk, but not in the heavy-handed angry way seen other places, but rather more as a warning or request for room to change lanes. Taps, not long blaring honks, are the norm.
Our driver drove us straight to the “Foreigners’ Entrance” of the pagoda. There we handed over our sandals, paid 10,000 kyat each ($6.50) and were each given a bottle of water, a cooling face cloth, and a map. Shoes (and socks) are forbidden and modest dress is required. For those arriving in knee-baring attire, sarongs are provided.
After passing through security, we were directed to an elevator that took us to the South walkway into the pagoda complex. We were blown away by our first glimpse of the place. It was so beautiful, so vast, and so much more than we expected.
The great stupa at Shwedagon Pagoda (undergoing restoration of its golden scales)
Nearly all of the outdoor flooring is white marble, thankfully cool on bare feet. The broad hilltop complex is filled with beautiful temples, stupa, pagodas and more Buddhas than I could count. People mill about, picturesque in their bright-colored sarongs, many holding parasols. Couples, families, monks and tourists stroll, pray, mingle and picnic. It’s a cheerful, happy atmosphere…if increasingly hot as the day wears on.
A sea of pagodas at Shwedagon
We wandered from temple to temple, recalling the teachings of our “sunim” when we stayed at Beomeosa Monastery in South Korea. The detailed map we’d been given provided photographs and explanations of the buildings, Buddha statues, and holy items we saw. We were welcome everywhere to participate or photograph, save for the golden “Elder Brother Pagoda” near the north entrance where a sign requested “No Foreigner Climb.”
The “Elder Brother Pagoda” is off-limits for foreigners.
We watched people bathing small Buddha statues at various stations labeled “Tuesday Corner,” “Wednesday Corner” and so on. We saw a group of women praying and drinking holy water from Buddha’s footprint in one temple. I joined people pulling a cord to fan a giant Buddha with a “punkah” suspended just above his lofty head. Flower vendors sold offerings that worshipers placed around the Buddha of their choice.
Drinking holy water from Buddha’s footprint
Washing Buddha at Wednesday Corner
Children played hide-and-seek among the pillars of one temple, while others, adorable in their small sarongs held the hands of parents or knelt to offer prayers, often a particularly vigorous and funny procedure when performed by small boys.
Playing hide-and-seek
This little guy was adorable (and loved seeing himself on my phone)! The face paint he is wearing is “thanaka” a chalky slurry made from tree bark and seen everywhere in Myanmar. It’s cosmetic, healing, and said to prevent sunburn.
We spent hours exploring Shwedagon Pagoda, only leaving when fatigue, heat and hunger motivated us. After collecting our sandals, we enjoyed one last treat as we descended the holy hill vial the wide, dragon-flanked Eastern Entrance. Shops line both sides of the beautiful structure, each topped with three-dimensional painted artwork depicting religious scenes.
Shopping stalls along the east entrance to Shwedagon Pagoda
At the bottom, we used Grab to hail a ride back to the hotel. Despite his difficulties reaching us due to the ubiquitous traffic, he was as cheerful and friendly as we found all our Yangon drivers to be. Everyone we’ve come across in Myanmar has been exceedingly friendly and helpful. We’ve felt safe and have faced almost none of the unwanted attention, begging, or persistent selling that plague travelers in some parts of the world. The attention we do get has been mostly in the form of curiosity and requests to pose for photos, something we’ve seen before in this part of the world and which we don’t really mind (especially since we’re doing the same thing in reverse!).
Our stay in Yangon was short, but it exceeded our expectations and we had a great time–Just the intro to Myanmar we hoped for. We caught a Golden Myanmar Airlines flight to Mandalay today (an hour late, but that gave me time to write this post, so not a total waste) and are set to begin tomorrow on a week aboard a 1930’s-style riverboat cruising down the Irrawaddy River to Bagan. We’re excited!
Burmese child at the Shwedagon Pagoda complex in Yangon, Myanmar
We’ve had a major change of venue since our Texas roadtrip: We’re back overseas again, this time in Yangon, Myanmar, which we’re really enjoying. We head to northern Myanmar tomorrow where we’ll cruise the Irrawaddy River and visit Inle Lake. We’re kicking off a 3-month odyssey from Myanmar to India (Jaipur, Agra, Delhi and Dharamshala), Nepal, Bhutan, Australia (Melbourne, Tasmania, Ayers Rock/Alice Springs, Port Douglas, Sydney), and then we’ll take a ship from Sydney to Hawaii via Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea before flying home. I’ll blog when I can, but enjoying the trip and slow internet tend to put me behind. As always, I’d love to hear any tips and suggestions for things to see and do (or avoid) while in any of the above.
While not exactly a tourist destination, Sterling City does boast a historic little hotel and that was enough to get it on my radar screen as a half-way stop on our drive from Big Bend National Park back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I was looking for a hotel with character and–as nice as Hotel Settles was on the drive down–I wanted to take a different route home just to vary things up a little. When I found a list of historic Texas hotels online, I pulled up Google Maps and eyed the location of those I wasn’t familiar with. 1910 State Hotel in Sterling City seemed exactly what I was looking for.
While not as posh nor near so big as Hotel Settles, 1910 State Hotel was nonetheless intriguing. When I called for help booking (the hotel website couldn’t book as far in advance as I was looking), I found the lady, Nikki, on the other end to be super friendly and helpful. She promised to make note and book me as soon as their system would allow. I wasn’t really all that worried about it booking up, but as long as I was making plans, I didn’t want to let the final night of our trip slip my mind…and us end up in some boring chain hotel in nowhere Texas.
Nikki was good as her word and we booked a room for the end of our trip. When we arrived, we found Nikki as nice in person as she was on the phone and in email. She showed me all around the former bank/restaurant/doctor’s office. There’s a big commercial kitchen, a game-room area with fireplace, bar (not in use at the time), and game tables. Nikki showed me where to get free coffee in the morning, invited me to help myself to snacks and drinks in the kitchen (just leave payment for things in the fridge). She showed me how we could get in a keypad-equipped back door if she had to step away and lock the front door.
Our room at the 1910 State Hotel
Our room turned out to be downright huge with one large bed and two twin beds. The bathroom was large as well. I was a little worried that street noise might be a problem, but it wasn’t as traffic slowed to almost nothing at night and we slept well. The hotel is popular with people working in the surrounding oilfields and solar- and wind-farms. There’s not a whole lot in the way of restaurants, though, and we drove back to Big Spring for dinner at favorite Lumbre (a trip necessary anyway as I’d left my credit card there on the way down to Big Bend).
Everything at the 1910 State Hotel was friendly, informal and thoughtful. Nikki was a wealth of information about the area, telling me her family had ranched there for 150 years. Her 80+ year old mother still ranched and was the one who decided to buy and renovate the hotel. She gave us a final tip as we left, sending us a few minutes out of town to check out an old bridge over a low water crossing.
Wrapping up our Big Bend road trip at the State 1910 Hotel provided just the right touch of genuine, small town Texas. And a few days after we returned, I got a nice note from Nikki, thanking me for our stay. Now that’s Texan hospitality!
In recent years, Marfa, Texas, has gained a reputation as a funky, artsy destination town. Before that, it was famous as the filming location for the movie, “Giant,” starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. (Dean died in a car crash in 1955 and the movie was released posthumously.) The cast stayed at the Hotel Paisano during filming, a -great old inn steeped in West Texas culture. The hotel plays up its connection to the movie with framed, poster-sized black-and-white photos scattered throughout.
I’d heard about the Paisano and its “James Dean Room” for years. The hotel preserved and restored the room much as it had been when the actor stayed there, with modern amenities, of course. It’s far from the fanciest room in the Paisano–there are spacious, multi-room suites, but it was the James Dean Room or nothing for me. I booked early to be sure we got Hotel Paisano’s most popular room for our stay.
The James Dean Room at the Hotel Paisano
The second-floor James Dean Room is cozy and sits above rooms with outdoor patios and fireplaces that I could see being a potential smoke issue, but we had no one below us during our stay. The bathroom is period and modest, but functioned well.
Entering the James Dean Room. Note the photos of the cast on the set of “Giant.”
The rest of the hotel is a delight with a fun bar with adjacent fireplace-warmed den, a restaurant, swimming pool, ballroom and shops. We enjoyed jalapeño margaritas at happy hour in the bar, striking up a conversation with locals who steered us to the new-as-of-November-2018 mural 5 or so miles west of town on Route 90.
Courtyard of Hotel Paisano with the bar and restaurant behind the wall to the left
The new “Giant” mural outside Marfa near the site of the movie’s filing. Music plays from Rock Hudson’s car. Oversized fun!
Marfa is a small town and we found most things within walking distance. We could see the county courthouse from our hotel room window and walked the block to see the old building and take in the view from its rooftop cupola. As retired lawyers, we like checking out courthouses when we travel and I enjoy striking up a conversation with a Texas Ranger waiting to testify before a Grand Jury.
View of Marfa from the courthouse cupola
We wandered the streets near Hotel Paisano, peering at scattered art studios and coffee shops. We had an intriguing dinner at trendy Stellina. We gave a pass to the Chinati Foundation, having seen enough of its buildings and outside artwork and photos of the inside Modern Art Museum works to know we needed no more of that. To each their own, though; David has a friend who loved it. There’s not much else to do in Marfa, save the one thing I’d heard about since my Texas childhood: Look for the “Marfa Lights.”
Since the 1800’s, people have reported seeing mysterious lights floating above the prairie outside of Marfa. They’ve been attributed to everything from swamp gas to ghosts to UFO’s to reflections. There’s now an official viewing site 10 minutes or so east out of town on Route 90. A cold front had blown in the night before, but that wasn’t about to stop us. We drove out to the site, to find we had it to ourselves that windy, cold night. Pressing against a wall offering the most shelter possible, we gazed into the darkness. Sure enough we saw lights in the distance. At first, we thought it might be cars on a distant road, but then determined that couldn’t be right as the lights appeared and disappeared. Were they the Marfa Lights? I’m not sure, but maybe!
After our stay in a Roosevelt Stone Cottage in Big Bend National Park, the next stop on our week-long roadtrip was Marfa, Texas. We’d originally planned to take US385 north to Marathon. US385 parallels state highway 118 that we’d taken south from Alpine to the park. US385 had the advantage of taking us a longer and different route through Big Bend National Park to exit. The time to drive to Marfa on either highway would be about the same. That original route plan changed when I spotted a longer route that ran along the border and the Rio Grande. When I asked some of the staff at Chisos Mountains Lodge about that road, I was told it was called The River Road and not to miss it if we had the time. It would take us an extra 20 miles and an extra 45-50 minutes. We had the time, and we had a new route to Marfa.
We chose the longer, southern, route to Marfa so we could drive The River Road along the Texas/Mexico border.
The only minor downside of this route, from our point of view, was that we retraced our path back out the same way we’d come into Big Bend National Park and back through Terlingua. Oh well, after that, we’d be in new-to-us territory.
From Lajitas to Presidio (just across the border from Ojinaga, Mexico, in the map above), The River Road runs along the Rio Grande for over 50 miles. The bluffs of the Mexican Parque Nacional Cañon de Santa Elena loomed beyond the river valley to our left while the desert hills of Big Bend Ranch State Park spread out to our right. It’s ruggedly beautiful, mostly empty, country in between the few small towns. (I love the heading on the Big Bend Ranch State Park web site: “Welcome to the Other side of Nowhere!”) The River Road is in excellent shape and snakes through the landscape, rolling, dipping and rising like a roller coaster path. David loved driving it, and it was fun being a passenger, too.
A brisk wind, the aftermath of a cool front that had blown in the night before, buffeted us when we stopped to admire the scenery and take photos.
We scanned a posted map at the (west) terminus to the Rancherias Loop Trail trailhead in Big Bend Ranch State Park, smiling at the helpful note a hiker had left giving the date and location of a nearby running spring. (This point is strictly a hiking terminus and hikers must enter at the east end of the trail, pay and entrance fee and get oriented. The hike has dangers ranging from dehydration to mountain lions, rattlesnakes and bears and should be taken seriously.)
As the topography leveled out near Presidio, we saw small homes and farms on both sides of the border. We headed north towards Marfa at Presidio, not seeing much to slow us down in the flat border town. Not far north of Presidio, I spotted a herd of pronghorn, native “antelope,” just across a roadside fence. We turned around to watch them until they trotted over a rise. All in all, we were very happy with our choice to take the road less traveled.
Pronghorn on the side of the road north of Presidio, Texas
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Practical info:
There’s nowhere to get gasoline (or anything else) between Lajitas and Presidio, so bear that in mind. There is also no cell phone or internet service for most of the drive. We did pick up service from a tower on the Mexico side of the border as we neared Presidio. There’s a pull-out along the way with a few picnic tables under separate faux teepees to provide shade and a little shelter from wind.
