A Burma Birthday Blast

Min ga lar bar (That’s hello/good day in Burmese)… This is a long blog so get a cup of coffee and relax.
We are currently in the process of floating back down the river and leaving this wonderful country. We docked in the Thilawa port, about forty-five minutes from Yangon, on Thursday night but had to stay on the ship until the next morning. The faculty and staff threw a party to celebrate St. Patty/Kelly and Jason’s birthdays that night. It was a lot of fun and we even had green beer (thanks to my buddy and former RA Tom who sent me with a box of JRB food coloring).
Kelly and I got a little bit of a late start on Friday afternoon when we set out to find a place to stay in downtown Yangon, to avoid the forty-five minute shuttle ride. We didn’t leave until around two but it was good because it gave me the chance to call home and talk to Mom and say thanks for the whole giving life to me thing. I didn’t think I would get to talk to her but Marcia came through and bought me a phone card as a b-day present. A BIG THANK YOU to her for that. Non-masters all the way. Oh and hello to Marcia’s mom who is reading my blog apparently. Actually my mom is reading Marcia’s blog too. I think that’s hilarious.
Anyway, when we got into town we walk around for about an hour searching for a guest house that was listed in the Lonely Planet guide book I have. We ended up asking a few locals and eventually finding the May Shan Guest House, which was listed under the “splurge” section because it was a whole $20 a night for a double room. Our place was sweet, a big double bed, a bathroom/shower which was odd because there was no differentiating between the two due to the lack of a shower curtain, and most importantly Air Conditioning. It was hot as hell here and I was pouring sweat every day. So after we secured our room, we went out to get something to eat and try and find the Trader Hotel, which was where the shuttle left us off and was serving as the SAS hub of operations. It turns out that for all that walking and wondering around we did we ended up a block and a half down from the Traders on the same street. Don’t ask it just happened. Okay so we walked up the street to Traders to exchange some dollars into Kyat (sound like chat) and find out where the Irish bar was so we could meet up with some other SASers to celebrate St. Patty’s day. Here is an interesting side note: the official exchange rate is $1=6 kyat but the hotel and anyone on the street use the conversation of $1=1050 kyat. Welcome to Burma, I mean Myanmar. It’s a good thing nobody uses the official rate or a beer would cost about $60 instead of about $2.
Kelly and I ended up eating at the Mandarin Restaurant, a little Cantonese place with great food that cost a whole five dollars for our meal and a few Myanmar and Tiger beers. Tiger is far superior to Myanmar as far as the beverage quality. A group of students ended up coming in while we were there and they sang Happy Birthday to me and the little old man who worked there brought over a candle that he light and had me blow out. When we finished dinner we caught a taxi up to the Sedona Hotel where the Irish bar was located. The bar was great, they had the place all decorated for St. Pat’s, green beer and a live band that was from the Philippines but played American music. The band had two girl singers, who each had kilts on, a great guitarist who rocked out “Hotel California” and another guy playing drums. At one point during the night I had to take in the fact that I was in Burma at an Irish bar listening to a Philippines band play American rock and roll. I love crazy international travel! When the night was through we took a taxi back to our place only to find that a giant locked gate was blocking the entrance to our hotel. At this point Kelly and I both just began laughing because we really didn’t know what to do. I don’t know how but I somehow managed to spot a button to ring the bell and this sleepy Chinese woman came and let us in through the gate. Apparently the gate goes up every night at midnight and you just have to ring the bell to get in after that. By the way that Chinese woman looked sleepy every time we saw her including during the afternoon.
The next morning we woke up and went downstairs for our continental breakfast which ended up being the same each morning, an egg, two pieces of toast, some bananas and watermelon and some coffee. I became hooked on the pineapple jam that they had for the toast. After breakfast we began planning our day and how we would celebrate Kelly’s 25th birthday. We ended up walking around the market for much of the day. I bought a longyis, which is basically a giant full length man skirt. It’s the traditional dress for Burmese men so I had to rock one. I had to have different people on the street help me tie it a few times and the people here seemed to get a kick out of seeing a crazy white boy wearing their clothing. Overall the people here were the nicest of all the countries we have visited. They are very peaceful and laid back due to the Buddhist influence. Even the beggars here were nice and polite. I’ve never felt as safe as I did here. They also rarely see white westerners so we ended up being a walking attraction.
So back to Saturday, Kelly and I decided to go to the Shwedagon Pagoda for sunset. The Shwedagon is a Buddhist shrine which is over 2500 years old and it is regarded as the most sacred of all Buddhist sites in the country. In the late evening the slanting sunlight enlivens the gilding and creates a glow from the 98 meter spire. I can’t even describe the beauty of it. While we walked around we talked to a few Buddhist monks including one who told me I looked very peaceful. You could feel the holiness of the shrine including the hundreds of Buddha statues that filled the pagoda. I’ve got lots of pictures. We ended up staying there for a few hours and we went to dinner at the Sakura Tower which had a great 360 view of the city. It was about 20 stories above the city and the meal was great and ended up costing about $10! Things here are so inexpensive at most place. To cap the evening off we decided to go to our first movie. We wanted to see King Kong but the theater didn’t have it (actually it was just down the street but we didn’t know that) so we went to see The Cave. I guess this cheesy, horror/thriller came out a few months back in the States and I can understand why I had never heard of it. The movie wasn’t that good but the experience was great. Did you know they play their national anthem before the start of movies here?
Sunday was another great day of sightseeing. We walked around and ended up going to the zoo. It was cool to see the different animals they have here and how close you can get to them. Kids were feeding the caged monkeys by handing them the food through the bars. I actually saw one guy reach down and pat a hippo on the head. It was crazy. After lunch we walked a ways to see the giant reclining Buddha in repose. We had heard it was big but I was blown away by how enormous this statue was. Best of all I was even able to find a patch on the walk there. We also found a store that sold hair dye and I am now a blonde again. Well sort of, it’s actually a bit yellow. The dye was from Thailand and had no English instructions. Best of all, Kelly dyed her hair too and now we are the cutest blonde couple ever.
Sunday night we met up with Jay and went out to a bar called ABC country pub. Once again I found myself in a bar listening to American music being played by a Philippines band. This time the singer looked like Troy Palumalu. His name was Skid and he was one cool cat. We talked to him for a while after they finished playing. The band also had a female singer come up for a few songs and she would sing old American songs from the 60s only in Burmese.
On Monday we checked out of our little guest house to much sadness. I loved that place. Kelly and I didn’t do too much except go see King Kong in the afternoon to escape the heat for a while. We were back to the ship by eight even with our shuttle bus breaking down just outside the gate. I had some RD work to get done for today and I had to get to bed early for my trip this morning. Today I lead a small group to a Buddhist monastery where we saw a performance of the traditional elephant dance (two people in a costume) and the game of cane ball. Basically it was hackysack with a whicker ball and actually it was quite hard to do. They had us try it out and we also had a tug of war contest with some of the locals. Actually all the people from the surrounding village came out to see us and there were a few hundred kids running around. The monastery actually teaches the poorer kids who can’t afford to go to government schools. I took my Ipod and let some of the kids listen to it. The look on their faces was great when I showed them it. They seem to like Bob Marley too. It was a great experience.
We had to be back on the ship by 11:30 this morning because we had to get out of the port by 12:30 because of the tides. Although right now we are anchored just off shore waiting for the river to get high enough to pass through. Right now it’s almost four in the afternoon (so it’s about 3 am back home) and I’m beginning to wonder if I could just jump off and stay here.
All in all Burma was my favorite port by far. The country was beautiful and the people were incredible. I was fortunate to have a great travel companion and she helped me have some of the best days of my life. If this is any indication to how 27 goes, I’m in for a great year.