I read some worrying reviews of domestic Myanmar flights, airlines and airports prior to our trip, so I thought I’d recap our experiences. During our time in Myanmar, we flew from Yangon to Mandalay, from Bagan to Heho (Inle Lake), and from Heho to Yangon. We flew Golden Myanmar Airlines all three times and our experiences were generally good. We had some delays, but nothing major and nothing that’s not common in the U.S. or Europe. The airplanes were clean, service good, flights smooth. Seats are a bit tight, but manageable especially considering the short flying times for domestic flights. Everything I read convinced me flying was the only way to go, given the state (or lack) of roads and railroads in Myanmar and the distances involved.
Legroom is a little tight for taller passengers on this Golden Myanmar flight from Bagan to Heho.
The options I found online for Myanmar flights were usually Golden Myanmar, Myanmar Airlines and Air KBZ. Mann Yadanarpon Airlines also showed up sometimes. The prices were usually fairly close, but Golden Myanmar won out on all three flights for me, both on a small price advantage, but also on convenient times and an easy-to-use website. (I also looked for multiple flights a day, so that a canceled flight wouldn’t leave us with no options to continue our journey later.) Prices ran around $70-95pp one-way, including tax.
Airports: Yangon International Airport (RGN) is modern and very nice. The domestic terminal is new, cavernous and mostly empty. It had plenty of seats for waiting travelers, good air conditioning, places to eat and shop, and modern bathrooms. Our flight from Yangon to Mandalay was an hour late. Not a huge deal, but the flight itself is only about 1h20. We rode a bus from the terminal to the plane. A small meal of water and a bun stuffed with shredded meat was served.
Yangon domestic terminal departures waiting hall
Mandalay International Airport (MDL) is smaller than Yangon International Airport, but still modern and spacious. We walked from the airplane to a baggage claim area with several carousels and a few shops at one end. We also had the interesting experience of sitting across the aisle from a local celebrity, who looked every bit the aging rock star he sort of turned out to be. We first noticed him and his wife since they were rather interestingly dressed and each took a surprisingly hefty handful of the wrapped hard candies offered by attendants at the end of the flight. Saleswomen from the shops flooded out to ask for photos when they spotted him and his wife waiting for luggage at the carousel. The celebrity couple readily obliged. I snapped the pic below of the girls getting photos with the singer and his wife. When I showed it to Yan, our steamboat guide, he instantly recognized the celebrity as Thein Tan a/k/a Myanmar Pyi. I gather he’s something like the Johnny Hallyday of Myanmar, although the music I’ve found on YouTube is very Burmese and not at all rock.
Local celebrity Thein Tan a/k/a Myanmar Pyi posing with fans in the Mandalay Airport arrivals and baggage claim hall
The airport serving Bagan is actually in Nyaung U. The airport is small with two sequential waiting areas, the main area with some shops and a second area past security entered only after your flight is called. We arrived way too early thanks to a taxi called by the Vietnamese agency through which I booked our Irrawaddy steamer cruise. Bagan is small with no real traffic issues, the airport not that far away, and there’s absolutely no need to arrive two hours early despite what the airline information page says. We would have had plenty of time to enjoy the ample buffet at our lovely hotel if we’d only asked the hotel desk staff when to leave for the airport.
Nyaung U Airport (Bagan) main hall, the first waiting area. (Empty because we were the first passengers there that morning.) The second waiting room is past security through doors to the right in the photo. Passengers enter there only after their flight is called.
Heho Airport is the smallest of the Myanmar airports we flew in and out of. Upon arrival, luggage is handed through an opening to the tarmac. There are no carousels. The Heho airport is 45-50 minutes from Nyaung Shwe, the town nearest to Inle Lake. Departure from the Heho airport meant a wait for someone to appear at the one-man Golden Myanmar counter, then another two-stage waiting room process before boarding. For domestic Myanmar flights, we walked out onto the tarmac to board and exit the airplanes. Only Yangon had a bus to get us closer to the plane.
No luggage carrousel at Heho Airport
In sum, we had no problems flying within Myanmar and found Golden Myanmar Airlines to be a fine airline that we’d happily fly again. That said, I’m glad I scheduled an overnight in Yangon prior to our international flight to India via Bangkok.
Inle Lake, in the mountains of central Burma was a highlight of our trip to Myanmar. Inle’s iconic fishermen have a peculiar one-leg rowing style they use while standing at the very bow of their boats, a method that allows them to navigate the weeds and shallow waters of the lake while looking for fish. They also use unique cone-shaped nets to fish, often raising them with a foot as they balance precariously on the other leg.
The nearest airport to Inle Lake is Heho (pronounced “hay hoe”) and it is a good 45-50 minute drive from the airport to the nearest full-sized town to the lake, Nyaung Shwe, which sits a fair distance from the lake down a long canal. Lodging options are split between lake resorts and hotels in Nyang Shwe. I loved the idea of an over-water bungalow on the lake, so was sure I wanted to do that. But, I also liked the idea of staying in town to see what that might offer. So, I decided to do both.
View of front steps of Ann Heritage Lodge and Inle Lake
I chose an over-water bungalow at Ann Heritage Lodge for our first two nights in the area. Reading the details of what it entailed to get from the Heho airport to the hotel made it an easy decision to let the hotel arrange everything, even though at $20 for a taxi to Nyaung Shwe and $10 for a boat fro Nyaung Shwe to the lodge, it was expensive transport by Myanmar standards. On the other hand, it wasn’t expensive for us and it sure was nice to sit back and let them handle what was totally familiar to them and totally unknown to us.
After walking from our plane across the tarmac to the tiny Heho airport, we found a young woman waiting with a sign bearing my name as promised. We joined a clump of our fellow passengers waiting for luggage to be handed through an opening to the tarmac (no luggage carousel here) then followed her to a very nice SUV. The 45-50 minute drive to Nyaung Shwe was a smooth ride along a brand new highway.
Collecting luggage at the Heho Airport. No baggage carousel here
In Nyaung Shwe, our driver stopped canal-side where lots of long, narrow wooden boats were moored. There, he handed us and our luggage off to a boatman who settled us into two free-standing wooden chairs set in the middle of the long boat while he manned the small but incredibly loud outboard motor at the back. In no time, we were sailing down the canal past stilt buildings where people bathed or washed clothes, bird and wildlife preserves, water buffalo and other water traffic.
The canal opened eventually into Inle Lake where we got our first glimpse of the famous fishermen, posing on one leg with their cone nets held aloft. The lake shimmered in the sun, nestled among the mountains and dotted with fishermen who crouched on the bows of their boats, plunging their nets into the water then stabbing into them with long poles…or standing as they rowed with one arm and one leg…or beat the water with oars before moving in in groups of two or three to plant their nets.
Among the fishermen, boats like ours with couples or larger groups of tourists sitting single file motored loudly across the lake, mixing with local family groups going between the villages scattered around the lake. Men also filled small and mid-sized boats with mounds of sea weed from the bottom of the lake. These weeds grow everywhere in the lake, clearly visible below and sometimes reaching the surface to mix with invasive water hyacinth.
About twenty minutes after leaving Nyaung Shwe our driver cut the engine to slip across a bamboo pole floating in front of Ann Heritage Lodge and delineating the watery “front yard” of the hotel. We glided past bungalows with woven walls and perched on stilts in the lake to a stop against wide steps that led from the water to the hotel reception area. (See second photo above.) A young woman waited there to greet us and check us in. It was beautiful!
Pool, spa area (stone) and main building/dining room of Ann Heritage Lodge
The living room area of our bungalow
Our bungalow turned out to be just what I’d hoped. Large, with a sitting area, bedroom and porch, it looked out across “floating gardens” and the lake. A large picture window onto our porch let us enjoy the view from bed, too. We spent lots of time just sitting on our porch with binoculars watching boats on the lake and the locals who sailed by in their boats on a small waterway that ran between the floating gardens and the hotel waters.
View from the porch of our over-water bungalow at Ann Heritage Lodge
The floating gardens are relatively new to Inle, started in the 60’s. Local villagers harvested weeds from the lake, pinned them in place with long bamboo poles, then planted crops on them. The crops thrived in the nutrient-rich environment. Tomatoes are particularly popular and delicious on Inle. Eventually, the floating gardens become attached to the bottom of the shallow lake. The downside to the success of the gardens is a serious encroachment into the lake, some 34% of the lake’s area having been lost to these picturesque gardens laced with small canals.
A highlight and absolute must-do was a day touring around the lake and nearby villages by boat. We chose to book a private boat through our hotel and had the same boatman who’d brought us to the hotel. We paid around $30, a lot by local standards, but very reasonable considering the full day, doorstep drop-off and pick-up and personalized service. Group boats are available in Nyaung Schwe for a pittance according to posters we saw there later. Around $6pp, I think. These small outboard motor boats are everywhere on Inle and they are ridiculously loud. David and I wore earbuds and I wanted to sigh with relief as the “cone of silence” descended when I switched on the noise-canceling function on mine. (Thankfully, boat traffic comes to a near complete stop at nightfall, so noise wasn’t an issue when we wanted to sleep.)
We let our boatman choose most of the itinerary, saying only that we were sure we wanted to visit one of the markets that opens on a rotating (and hard-to-decipher) schedule among various lake-side villages, Nga Hpe Kyaung monastery (the “cat jumping monastery”) and Schwe Indein Pagoda. We saw and did so much more.
Boats parked near the market
We started our day at the market which, while interesting and containing a few stalls for locals, turned out to be largely geared towards tourists. Fun to walk through, but we weren’t in the market for souvenirs.
Souvenirs for sale at the market
Locals examining a fisherman’s wares at the market
We did enjoy a quick duck-in to a local temple, viewing the produce. We passed on a silver jewelry “factory.” Other stops included more manufacturing displays including an extensive and rather high-end weaving factory and shop, a small rustic knife-making shop and a boat “factory,” these last two doing nearly everything by hand or with primitive hand-powered machines and tools.
Spinning lotus fiber for weaving. (The woman has thanaka on her face as is so common in Myanmar.)
Tiring of these tourist-geared stops, we passed on an umbrella-making shop only to realize that was the location with longneck women of the Karen tribe. We’d seen them before, but a woman who glanced out the window at our boat startled us both with the seeming length of her neck. (Modern x-rays demonstrate that the long-necked effect is actually the result of the collar bone and shoulders being deformed downward by the metal hoops the women wear around their necks, adding loop after loop over the years to distort their bodies for beauty’s sake.) We visited several large temples, including Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda with legendary Buddha statues so heavily leafed in gold that they seemed to be a cluster of large gold blobs. Lunch was at a small open-air restaurant with toilets that were surprisingly acceptable.
Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda with Buddha statues gilded to the point of being indistinguishable blobs
The pinnacle of the day for us was Schwe Indein Pagoda, but we nearly missed it entirely due to our boatman’s lack of English. Located far up a tributary of the lake, the “pagoda” is a large temple complex, not the Japanese-style tower we usually associate with the word in English. Our boatman docked our boat in a residential area of Indein village, then pointed vaguely ahead and sent us on our way. We came across a small cluster of old stupas eventually, and wondered if that was what all the fuss was about. Thankfully, we ran into a Frenchwoman and her husband who pointed us in the right direction where we found a long covered walkway lined with vendors’ stalls that mounted a low mountain to deposit us among a veritable forest of stupas. A breeze made chimes on the stupas sing as we wandered among them. Magical!
Covered walkway and stalls leading to Schwe Indein Pagoda
Golden stupas of Schwe Indein Pagoda
Musical chimes on the stupas of Schwe Indein Pagoda
We headed back towards Ann Heritage Lodge through a series of rough wooden “locks” resembling long beaver dams. Our boat shot through low openings in these dams, sometimes waiting to let a passing boat proceed before taking our turn. We turned off this main tributary to snake through floating garden canals just wide enough to accommodate our boat before a last stop at Nga Hpe Kyaung monastery, a place formerly boasting a show of jumping cats. We knew those were gone before we started our tour, but were happy to see one of the cats still in residence.
At Nga Hpe Kyaung monastery a/k/a the “jumping cat monastery”
Just past the monastery, the canal opened back into the lake where we came upon more traditional fishermen who we stopped to watch before returning to the lodge. What a great day!
Inle Lake boats are great fun…but loud! (I wore noise-canceling earbuds to dampen the sound.)
Practical info:
We really enjoyed our stay at Ann Heritage Lodge. I researched several over-water bungalow-style resorts on Inle and chose Ann Heritage Lodge for value and location. I was pleased with my choice. We paid $231 for 2 nights which included taxes, fees and breakfast. I booked on Agoda and, as usual, I booked through Topcashback for a cash rebate. (I’ll get credit if you use my link, so thanks to anyone who does.) There are cheaper, non-bungalow rooms available. I read about frequent upgrades, but didn’t want to gamble on that. We ate at the hotel restaurant as there isn’t much other alternative. It’s expensive by Myanmar standards, but cheap by western standards. I can’t find the exact costs now, but for example, a bottle of local wine at dinner was on sale for 16,000 kyat or about $10.43US.
I highly recommend staying in an over-water bungalow on Inle Lake, but do your research. Some over-water bungalow resorts are on tributaries rather than the lake itself and that would be a let-down, in my opinion. The lake is beautiful and unique and, as mentioned above, my worries about nighttime noise were groundless as boat traffic stops at dark. (The boats do start up fairly early in the morning, though.) We broke up our stay near Inle Lake into two nights at Ann Heritage Lodge on the lake and two nights in Nyaung Schwe town. If I had to do it again, I’d go for three nights on the lake and skip staying in Nyaung Schwe although we enjoyed it. I’ll write more about that in my next post.
The final destination on our Irrawaddy flotilla steamer cruise was Bagan (sometimes spelled “Pagan,” always with the accent on the last syllable), an ancient city of thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples. Bagan rivals such sites as Angkor Wat in historical value and size. The 26 square miles of plains on the banks of the Irrawaddy River that comprise the Bagan Archeological Site contain over two thousand of these religious testaments to Buddhist belief that to build a temple or stupa is to earn merit. The temples date back to the 11th century and were built during the reign of the Bagan kings until their civilization was destroyed by earthquakes and Kublai Khan’s invading Mogols.
Many of the pagodas, stupas, and temples have been restored, but others crumble amidst the scrub brush, palms and tamarind trees of the plain. Everywhere we looked, we saw stupas and temples. At times, the wild-looking terrain would remind me of the rugged Texas Hill Country back home…except for the stupas. It’s surreal.
Bagan is one of, if not the, most popular destinations in Myamar. Although the country only opened to tourism in 2011, it’s made huge stride from articles I read from the first few years describing almost no visitors and decrying the abysmal state of the tourism, telephone and internet infrastructure. I was a little wistful for those who got to visit Bagan in the early days: It’s now well-served by hotels, souvenir vendors, tourist buses, taxis and horse-drawn coaches. (We’ve been surprised to find our T-Mobile internet service working well nearly everywhere in Myanmar we’ve been, including some of the smaller villages. Bagan service was strong.) Despite the growth of tourism, there’s still something appealingly less-jaded about Bagan and Myanmar in general than other Asian tourist hot spots.
Bagan carriage driver takes a break
Since Bagan is such a major destination with so much to see, our steamer cruise entailed two nights moored there. While I’m not usually a fan of organized tours, this week-long steamer cruise has been a great way to immerse ourselves in divergent slices of Myanmar before we strike out on our own again as we did in Yangon. With Bagan, it was nice to have our guide, Yen, to choose the sites we’d visit out of the huge selection available. We could spend weeks there and never see it all, nor would we want to. With so many smaller brick stupas, not every one merits a visit. With the larger pagodas, it was good to follow Yen’s lead. He clearly had a love of Bagan and chose wildly different places to visit, choosing one time a large cluster of crumbling temples that we had to ourselves saying it was his favorite as it was like Bagan used to be. It was shocking to hear him say that only 15 years ago ox carts were the primary mode of transportation.
We visited the large, elegant Ananda Phaya, circling the cool interior hallways which are ingeniously open to cooling breezes and light via various arched passages. Completed in 1105AD, Ananda Temple is said to be one of the most perfect in Bagan and it is spectacular.
Ananda Phaya
Totally different is the small, pre-11th century Pahtothamya Temple with its serene original Buddha and extensive wall art. It was one of our favorite spots.
Pahtothamya Temple Buddha
Later, we joined a large and growing group of tourists on a small rise to wait for sunset over the sea of stupas. David and I were lucky to nab a front row spot before the final bus-loads of tourists arrived. It was hot and the sun took a long time to set and I’m not sure the whole production was worth it or lived up to its hype. Oh well.
On our second morning, Yen asked if we were interested in visiting a local party, a unique event, not for tourists, but which we were fortunate to be in town for. He’d heard about the event the night before while visiting with locals and assured us we’d be welcome. We pulled up to a brightly lit archway to the sound of astoundingly loud music. Ah, Myanmar and its penchant for noise. We entered the archway to find a courtyard full of milling guests, a stairs to a two-story building to our left, and a covered tent-like area ahead where people picnicked on the ground in front of a stage where the band responsible for all the noise performed. As we walked past a large speaker, the singer hit a particularly strong note, so loud that it physically hurt. I really am beginning to believe everyone is hard of hearing around here!
Little prince and princesses
As we stood behind the picnicking crowd, children began to arrive in elaborate costumes. Yen explained that the party was to celebrate a group of children who would be leaving to monasteries, something most Burmese do, although they are free to leave again if monastic life doesn’t suit. For the send-off party, the children are dressed as princes and princesses. After circling the crowd of family and friends, they took seats on a raised dais where a photographer arranged them for their portrait. The smallest, a little boy, made me laugh as he refused to relinquish the sandals of the “princess” sitting next to him. Not long afterwards, he was in tears and being comforted by his father. I was surprised at how young some of the children were and tried to imagine myself or my sons heading off from home at that age.
On our last day with our ship friends, we visited beautiful Shwezigon Temple, the inspiration for Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon that we loved so much. Built in 1086AD, 400 years before Shwedagon, Shwezigon is smaller but beautiful with its 140 foot golden stupa. It’s also a center of Nat worship, those good spirits of Buddhism that remind me of Christian angels.
Shwezigon Pagoda stupa
Yen’s favorite pagoda, Tha Kya Pone (see top photo), feels like a lost ghost town of brick stupas, still lovely, but isolated and remote in a rugged wilderness of scrub brush. None of the frequent tourist stalls had set up nearby and only one boy followed us. Offering to sell his own postcard-sized artwork, he fell in step with me, calling himself “Picasso.” I’d heard the same pitch at the sunset viewing spot, but it is clever. I had no need or desire for souvenirs, but hated to hear him say he was “not lucky.” He accepted my small gift of his asking price, but the whole thing left me with mixed feelings. He wasn’t begging, but I didn’t want anything and I didn’t want to throw his artwork away.
We saw a lot of Bagan in our days there and there is still so much to see. The heat makes the going necessarily slow if you want to enjoy, not endure, the experience. That said, it was nowhere near as hot and humid as Angkor Wat..
Practical info:
There’s a 25,000 kyat (pronounced, more or less, as “chut”), about $16.70, charge per person to enter the Bagan Archeological Zone which is good for three days. This was included in the price of our steamer cruise although we knew nothing about them until our last day since all entrances were handled for us by Yen. Since we stayed an extra night at a hotel in Bagan after the cruise were given the tickets that had been purchased for us so we could walk around our hotel in Old Bagan without having to pay the fee again.
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.
