Tag: sights

Myanmar/Burma: a day on the lake

K20,000/$20 for the boat (seats 5) for the day (without Inn Dein it would be cheaper, but that add on is worth it).  The boats seem to follow a similar route, with the workshops and restaurants varying by driver.

Left at 7:00, when the sun was behind the mountains, my thermometer showed 16C and I could see my breath.

Actually there was mist and smoke and clouds for the first hour, where other boats appeared suddenly out of nowhere in an otherworldly scene, and the sun wouldn’t really comes out for another hour (this doesn’t happen every day).

The boats have 5 chairs set single file, each with a cushion and a life jacket as the seat back cushion. I also received a blanket to use, which I used despite wearing long pants, socks, a T-shirt, light sweater, jungle shirt, hat and buff around my neck. The lake water is cold, and so is the air above it.

It takes a good 20 minutes down the river from town to even reach the open lake, which has a very wide “shoreline” of floating vegetation.

In a nutshell I saw:
1. Slow drive past local fishermen, famous for their leg rowing technique, who hammed it up for me with poses holding their large conical firm nets

2. Ywama (pronounced je-wama) – which no longer has a floating market for which it was famous (it was too crowded, so no it’s on land). It also has teal houses, which reminded me of the old west.
Today happened to be its turn for the rotating 5 day market, so it was busier than usual.
There were tribeswomen there with elongated necks (with the metal rings).

3. Inn Dein – 15 minutes up a river from Ywama, it has interesting ruined stupas on the edge of town, and a pagoda up the hill (easy walk up a covered trinket-stand lined walkway) which has some views and over a 1000 stupas. Yes a thousand. I could UK need them to be sure they weren’t exaggerating :-)

4. Silversmith shop. Brief English tour, not a must see.

5. Phaung Daw Oo Paya – island pagoda that is the holiest site on Shan state.
It has 5 little buddha statues that are now golden blobs as people keep adding a teeny bit of gold leaf (conveniently for sale) one person at a time.

6. Nan Pan – a winding drive through a fishing village on stilts. Not too many people around, the fishermen being out on the water, the kids in school, the women?

7. Lunch stop… In my case at Royal Palace, one of many restos on stilts, with slightly inflated tourist prices.
I enjoyed a nicely seasoned grilled whole fish Shan style (turned out to be tilapia) K4,500 + rice K500 + mixed fruit shake K1,500, and then I needed a can of Myanmar beer K1,500 – total K8,000/$8.

8. In Phaw Khone – weaving and loom workshop. Little explanatory tour was informative, the looms are interesting (klackity klack) but new to me was lotus plant fibre, more expensive than silk (a little coarser though).

9. Blacksmith workshop – mildly interesting, this one seemed to specialize in swords (no explanations)

I skipped the tobacco workshop…

10. Floating Gardens – there must be several square km of gardens set on dirt atop floating vegetation. The drive through is interesting, though colorful it was not – mostly green. Green tomatoes (the most common one, rows upon rows of staked tomatoes), green beans, green squash…

11. Nga Hpe Kyaung – island monastery with a huge wooden hall and old Buddha images from various forms of Buddhism), though it no longer has jumping cats (the monk who trained them to jump through hoops passed away last year).

By mid afternoon I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt (zip pants to the rescue!)

Returned a little before 16:00

Will repost next week with more photos!

Myanmar/Burma: train part 2 – over the mountains

This smaller milk run train from Thazi to Shwenyaung, over the mountains from 800′ above sea level to almost 4,000′. It took 10 hours, and arrived only 15 minutes late.

Live chickens – check (not by my seat though – I think it was in lower class).

Once out of the plains, the beautiful scenery changed from jungle to alpine forest (yes, pine trees!) before descending into the large valley.

Most stops in little villages were very brief but a few were 5-10 minutes long, giving time for a little stretch of one’s legs on the platform. The conductor kept an eye out for us 3 westerners to make sure we were back on the train, as did a local man who sat in my section of the train, with whom I shared some enjoyment of oddities.

Two hill towns in particular were no wider than one house next to the train platform before the hills dropped downwards, and the train had to backtrack a few hundred meters before continuing the journey as the station was on a short dead end side track.

At each station, a cadre of hawkers sold food and drinks, for much cheaper than in Yangon. For K100/$0.10 each at various stops I was able to purchase the following:
– small bag of yucca chips (plain or spicy)
– 2 avocados
– freshly made snack

This train only had 3 passenger cars and one cargo car: 2 of the cars were “upper class” which were padded Bechtel seating, 2 persons per side, with each pair of benches facing each other. “Lower class” was similar but unleaded and with people and more stuff in the aisles.

The rattling was much less severe, likely due to the slower speeds.

Tips:
– get a forward facing seat
– get a seat on the left side of train is better (going east as described above)

21 hours in Nagasaki, or, How I learned to stop worrying and love wearing the same clothes

Part 1: After a scenic train ride that brought me to Nagasaki after dark on Saturday, I settled in to my hostel and discovered a voicemail from ANA saying that my bags would arrive in Tokyo that night and be delivered the next day. To me in Hiroshima. Sigh, though admittedly I was expecting that due to the effectively once a day flight between continents.

Side note: Nagasaki train station has a very visible Seattle’s B*st Coffee, plus less visible Starb*cks and T*lly’s, a veritable trifecta. Not to mention Dunkin D*nuts (no thanks). Or a hotel, supermarket, food court etc.

Amazingly, even though it’s Saturday, the town closes up at 8pm, except for Shianbashi, the bar and entertainment district.

Now I had done my planning and preparation on the train, so I had a good idea of what to see and when… and I had decided to forego the slightly out of the way Inasayama tram and lookout (later to learn it was voted one of the top 3 night city views in the world, or maybe just in Japan) to check out Glover Garden with its views of the city and harbour. It was also close to a restaurant I wanted to go to for dinner. Unfortunately the garden was closed at 6pm (it’s only open later during certain periods, like Xmas), so I did not see it or its views or the Madam Butterfly statue (the opera was set in Nagasaki). However, I did get into Shikaisō restaurant (just in time for last order shortly before 8pm – on a Saturday!) to try their champon which is like a curry with rice and noodles and topped with squid and octopus (or at least little bits of them). It cost ¥900/$8 – and that includes tax (no tipping in Japan except for exceptional service).

Then I took the cute streetcar back towards the old town, walking though Shinchi Chinatown (the 3rd largest in Japan, yet tiny compared to the ones in Toronto or San Francisco) to Hamano-Machi which has covered shopping arcades – also mostly closed-for-the-night shops. Wow (at 20:30 on a Saturday). I walked around the bar district a bit, which was full of izakaya, little restaurants, karaoke bars, drunk salarymen in suits and seedy massage offers. I didn’t even feel like getting a drink anywhere, so I headed back through semi-deserted Hamano-Machi and from there it was an easy walk back to the hostel, veering off to walk along the river with its stone bridges, including the Megane-bashi (Spectacle Bridge), so called because the shape of the bridge, combined with its reflection in the water, looks like glasses from an earlier era.

Side note: recall that bashi means bridge… and now learn as I did that machi means town, though it seems that neighbourhood would be more a propos.

Chinatown gate at night:

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Guyana: no Kaieteur Falls for you!

Went to the local Ogle Airport wth the tour company, but the last 3 passengers arrived 5 minutes after the cutoff (island time!). The trip would have cost US$170 for a one hour flight each way including 2 flybys of the falls, and 2 hours on the ground with lunch (apparently there is not much jungle canopy there).

At this open air airport, small planes (13 pax) fly sightseeing tours, and supply runs into the jungle. And yes, they do weigh passengers in addition to cargo.

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Got a little free car tour out of it – there were some nice new houses near that airport!

I don’t feel like this miss will touch my pantheon of travel misses/skips: Taj Mahal, Abu Simbel and hot air balloon over the Serengeti.

Don’t know just what to do with myself… And it feels like I’m waiting… waiting for Godot.

Lunch I guess… tasty Crab and calaloo soup and an iced latte (G$1500/US$7.50 for both).

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And yes, Oasis Cafe is now fixing their A/C (it didn’t stop other people this morning as the joint was hopping) and Wi-Fi did connect this time.