Myanmar - Yangon and Bagan

After 3 nights in Bangkok, we flew to Yangon in Myanmar. We had booked a hostel here for 12€ per night. The people were super friendly, but unfortunately, there was a strong smell of cleaning products and mold in the room for the next few days and our luggage also smelled the same. The worst smell was coming from Christina's shoes, which had not dried after 3 days in the room and had completely absorbed the mold smell.... So the room wasn't really inviting...

Well, we still explored the city. What we noticed right away was that the people were very friendly, but many of them lived in great poverty. People slept on the street at night, children played in the garbage and washed themselves with wastewater. The houses are partly influenced by colonial style, partly run-down, overall a very ambivalent cityscape.

The most important sight was the Shwedagon Pagoda. Here we had a super interesting 2 1/2 hour guided tour with Ye Min Tun (if anyone wants to travel to Yangon, we have his contact details ;-)). He explained many interesting aspects of the Buddhist faith and the origin of the pagoda. We were fascinated by the strong belief of the people here, who are willing to share and give away their very little possessions to support monks and those in need. However, the belief of our (otherwise very educated) guide went so far as to explain to us that there were people in this country who, thanks to years of meditation, were so enlightened and relieved that they could fly without using an airplane 'believe it or not'. Probably 'not', but we were very interested in the many rituals and beliefs of Buddhism. Overall, there are many unbelievable and superstitious actions here. For example, scooters are banned in Yangon and there is not a single one on the street, because a king was predicted by a fortune teller that he would be killed by a scooter rider....

After a delicious and cheap dinner in our new 'local restaurant', which only became our favorite because all the other restaurants were closed, we visited a park the next day where the different ethnic groups of Myanmar were shown in their traditional clothing and houses. But the actual attraction of this park quickly became us. Being the only Western tourists, we felt 2 heads taller and 5 shades lighter than everyone else. So the children waved to us, followed us, or people took photos of us (as often happened here). On the way back from the park, we were rejected by 3 taxi drivers until our new buddy Soi chased after us (we also have his contact details :D). He was very cheap and friendly and drove us everywhere we needed a taxi. For example, the 1-hour taxi ride to the airport only cost 5€. Christina even had some special conversations with him, as he called at 2 am to confirm the ride to the airport and a few days after our stay to say that he missed a call, which he initially expressed as 'somebody missed a phone'.... English is still a very big challenge here.

We then flew to Bagan, to our shock with a propeller plane. After my initial panic, we had spectacular views of the countryside and cloud formations, as the plane cannot fly very high. When we arrived at the airport, our luggage was simply carried in by 3 men and you had to show your boarding pass to pick it up at the door to the airstrip.

Unfortunately, we 'had to' book a luxury hotel in Bagan for 56€ per night, as all accommodations were fully booked due to a traditional festival, the Thadingyut Festival, taking place at that time. Annoying for our budget, but nice for our well-being, as we enjoyed super comfortable beds, a pool, and delicious food for 3 days. On the first day, we also admired the many candles that were lit by thousands of monks and residents in front of the temples and houses, turning the places into a reddish shimmering sea of lights. But here too, we were often the only Western tourists and unsure if we were even allowed to visit the temples. Unnoticed, we joined a Chinese tourist group and saw beautifully illuminated sites and little monks who had fun setting off small firecrackers behind us and were incredibly happy when we were startled.

The next day held some adventures and only afterwards could we laugh about my mishaps :D We went on a 10-hour e-bike tour through the unique temple complex, which consists of almost 3000 temples, with Thidar (if anyone needs the contact details...). In our world, e-bike means a bicycle with a motor, but in the morning, we panicked when we realized that they were actually electric scooters and neither of us had ever ridden a moped before. The scooter rental guy's statement 'No driver's license needed, no insurance, costs 450€, it's from China' didn't really boost our confidence, but Thidar set off enthusiastically and we embarked on the streets as self-proclaimed Harley Davidson bikers. Luckily, my helmet matched my t-shirt color-wise, which completed the picture.

Thidar was well-informed and we learned many things about the history of the temples. Whole temple complexes belong to one family, and father, mother, and son have temples near each other. Of course, there were also black sheep in the long history of the temples. For example, a king killed his father and older brothers to seize power. To top it off, he also killed his wife from Sri Lanka and was then killed by the king of Sri Lanka. That's what they call karma.

Aside from the education we received thanks to Thidar, one disaster followed another for me. It started with my Asian shorts being too short and constantly sticking to me because it was so hot. Still, I asked Thidar to film a video of us on the mopeds. I set off eagerly, beaming at the camera, Christina drove straight ahead, I turned right towards a wall, suddenly I heard the tearing sound of my sticky shorts, looked down, and crashed with the scooter at about 1 km/h. As a red-colored, unlucky heap, I sat in the sand next to the scooter and everything was on video. Fortunately, nothing happened except for a few scratches. (If anyone wants to see the video, feel free to contact us :D)

We continued the arduous search for new solid-colored pants without elephant patterns, which of course were also too short, and then the next drama happened: I was standing around, following Thidar's explanations when suddenly I felt a piercing pain, got goosebumps, and started crying because a hornet had stung me on the head. The locals brought me ice towels, and while I sat crying on the edge of a temple, a little boy came and showed me compassionately that he had also been stung by a hornet in the arm recently. I just nodded in suffering and thought to myself, 'Dude, maybe my head is affected!!!'

After a short break with delicious (seriously!) tomato salad with peanuts, we continued. And then, the last straw that broke the camel's back: as I had to take off and put on my shoes and socks in front of a temple for the 100th time (annoying!!!!), my second pair of pants also ripped, and my mood was at its lowest point, so Christina didn't dare to speak to me anymore.

With many great impressions, but dirty, injured, and annoyed, we returned to the hotel and of course, we still rented the e-scooters for the next day - we love taking risks :D In the hotel, I took a shower first and heard loud laughter as Christina watched the videos, and in retrospect, I also laugh every time I see the recordings of the mishaps.

The next morning, surprisingly, we got up at 4:30 am because we wanted to see the sunrise with the rising balloons. Our secret hope that it would rain and we couldn't go so early was disappointed, so we set off alone in the dark with our scooters in search of the viewpoint for the sunrise. But we had no luck there either: the wind was too strong and no balloons flew, so we returned disappointed. At least, by now, we were confident bikers and explored the surrounding villages on our own during the day and returned without injuries.

We ended the evening in another local restaurant, where we met a nice German couple with whom we made plans to meet up again in Thailand at a later date.

The next morning, we went back to the airport early in the morning, in the propeller plane, and off to Ngapali - time to enjoy the beach for a while.