Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Bagan day 2
Bagan was worthy of 2 blogs. After visiting the market and temples on day one we headed out to the country side to see Mt. Popa that was about a couple hour drive. The best part is what you see on the way.
Public transportation and ride sharing takes on a whole new meaning in this country.
Not too far out of Bagan one runs into the farmers and getting glimpse of their way of life.
Just about every small farm we passed on the road had this arrangement for grinding peanuts to extract the oil.
Most farms had palm trees and most of those trees had the buckets at the top to collect palm oil.
This woman had boiled down the palm oil to get this solidified mixture to make individual candies.
You see these candies at all the markets.
More farmers along the way to Mt. Popa.
Some girls selling some crystallized rocks at this spot where people stop to get good view of Mt. Popa 4,980 ft high and Taung Kalat 2,400 ft.
Taung Kalat (pedestal hill)is a short ways from Mt. Popa and is a Buddhist monastery built on top of this volcanic outcrop. 777 steps takes you to the top.
You pass a bunch of monkeys along the way to the top. And being a religious building you have to leave your shoes before you head up. Needless to say we washed our feet a couple of times that night. We also opted not to go to the top - we had great views from the restaurant where we stopped to eat.
When we got back to Bagan we were reluctant to go to the lacquer ware workshop but so glad we did. This town has three such workshops and known for the amazing bamboo crafted bowls, plates, jewelry etc. and all the stunning artwork that adorns these pieces.
And none of these artists where glasses - just an observation.
One more temple before the sunset that night.
Public transportation and ride sharing takes on a whole new meaning in this country.
Not too far out of Bagan one runs into the farmers and getting glimpse of their way of life.
Just about every small farm we passed on the road had this arrangement for grinding peanuts to extract the oil.
Most farms had palm trees and most of those trees had the buckets at the top to collect palm oil.
This woman had boiled down the palm oil to get this solidified mixture to make individual candies.
You see these candies at all the markets.
More farmers along the way to Mt. Popa.
Some girls selling some crystallized rocks at this spot where people stop to get good view of Mt. Popa 4,980 ft high and Taung Kalat 2,400 ft.
Taung Kalat (pedestal hill)is a short ways from Mt. Popa and is a Buddhist monastery built on top of this volcanic outcrop. 777 steps takes you to the top.
You pass a bunch of monkeys along the way to the top. And being a religious building you have to leave your shoes before you head up. Needless to say we washed our feet a couple of times that night. We also opted not to go to the top - we had great views from the restaurant where we stopped to eat.
When we got back to Bagan we were reluctant to go to the lacquer ware workshop but so glad we did. This town has three such workshops and known for the amazing bamboo crafted bowls, plates, jewelry etc. and all the stunning artwork that adorns these pieces.
And none of these artists where glasses - just an observation.
One more temple before the sunset that night.
Location:Bagan, Myanmar
Bagan and "how was the goat?"
We took an early morning 1.5 hr flight to Bagan that allowed us a full day of site seeing in this historic town of over 2,200 temples & stupas. And that is in an area of only 16 square miles. And those 2,200 temples are what remain of the over 4,000 temples that were once dotting this countryside. There are only a couple of paved roads in this area even though there are about 40,000 people. Bagan is located in the dry central plains of the country and it was the capital of the ancient Burma Kingdom back in the 10th century. It is hard to believe that in all those centuries they wouldn't have a more developed infrastructure. But it so beautiful in that it is so unspoiled.
It would appear that women do a great deal of the schlepping and that would be in most places we went to.
And as in most of town and cities we went to here we are at another market. The nice thing about a market in a remote area like Bagan is that the products are for the locals and not tourists.
We saw many women and children with this traditional makeup called thanaka. They make it by grinding the bark of native trees on a stone and then just applying the cosmetic cream directly to their faces.
Annie thought.. Why not. It might help her blend into the crowd better!
Many of the 11th-13th century temples have been maintained with gold-leaf covering so much of them.
So we are at one of these 2,200 temples walking around when we pass these kids. As we pass them the girl says to me "so how was the goat?" and I say "were you in that restaurant yesterday in Yangon?" yes they were and get this...they all go to Kellogg Business School in Chicago and of course know Anne's nephew (their class president) very well. The world is smaller than I thought.
They were all in Myanmar taking a little trip from their term abroad program in Bangkok. Wild!!!
We bought some art from Saan's friend's wife. Turns out that Saan's friend was the artist and also a tour guide. We met him later on our trip in Mandalay and then again in Inle Lake.
The food was incredibly delicious. So many flavors - they just keep bringing out food...
More temples later on that day.
Here are the women again doing all the heavy lifting. They mixed the concrete, carried it and the bricks to the men who would lay the brick.
Many of these temples were massive with walls 10 feet thick. I could just picture Saan's relatives a thousand years ago either making, carrying or laying bricks. It is all they must have done for a couple of hundred years.
So beautiful... And so were the temples!
It would appear that women do a great deal of the schlepping and that would be in most places we went to.
And as in most of town and cities we went to here we are at another market. The nice thing about a market in a remote area like Bagan is that the products are for the locals and not tourists.
We saw many women and children with this traditional makeup called thanaka. They make it by grinding the bark of native trees on a stone and then just applying the cosmetic cream directly to their faces.
Annie thought.. Why not. It might help her blend into the crowd better!
Many of the 11th-13th century temples have been maintained with gold-leaf covering so much of them.
So we are at one of these 2,200 temples walking around when we pass these kids. As we pass them the girl says to me "so how was the goat?" and I say "were you in that restaurant yesterday in Yangon?" yes they were and get this...they all go to Kellogg Business School in Chicago and of course know Anne's nephew (their class president) very well. The world is smaller than I thought.
They were all in Myanmar taking a little trip from their term abroad program in Bangkok. Wild!!!
We bought some art from Saan's friend's wife. Turns out that Saan's friend was the artist and also a tour guide. We met him later on our trip in Mandalay and then again in Inle Lake.
The food was incredibly delicious. So many flavors - they just keep bringing out food...
More temples later on that day.
Here are the women again doing all the heavy lifting. They mixed the concrete, carried it and the bricks to the men who would lay the brick.
Many of these temples were massive with walls 10 feet thick. I could just picture Saan's relatives a thousand years ago either making, carrying or laying bricks. It is all they must have done for a couple of hundred years.
So beautiful... And so were the temples!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Myanmar (Burma)
We arrived in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, on February 3rd at about 6:30pm and we were greeted by our guide Saan. Saan will be with us for the entire eight days that we are in Myanmar. We were so fortunate that we had such an incredibly knowledgeable, thoughtful and soulful person for a guide and oh yeah he got his masters degree in English and German.
The military government moved the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2006. Evidently the reason being is that they felt the new buildings and infrastructure would make for a safer location. The country has been relatively untouched by tourists, especially Americans, up until recently because of US sanctions against Myanmar.
We arrived at our hotel in the "golden valley" section of Yangon as it was starting to get dark. Our driver and guide had not been to this particular hotel and had trouble finding it. Needless to say it made us a bit uncomfortable and it was not the location we had expected. We were picturing a cool center city location so we could walk to a funky bar and restaurant that night and a trendy coffee place in the morning. We were in the middle of a neighborhood that looked like Palm Beach. As it turned out the city center is no place one wants to stay and the few hotels nearer town had been booked for a long time and were incredibly pricey. The country had not been prepared for the amount of people wanting to come. Too many visitors and not enough hotels. We ended up appreciating our eight room guest house and the quiet location.
It turns out to be good luck to see a snake and we saw one right after Saan picked us up the next morning.
They say this snake just ate something fairly large and was in the process do digesting. Good thing it wasn't interested in this guy's hand.
There are approximately 60 million people in the county and 80 percent are Buddhist. The Myanmar Buddhist are primarily Theravada Buddhists and take their religion very seriously. There are stupas, temples, pagodas and images and sculptures of Buddha everywhere.
This was one of monasteries that we visited.
The Shwedagon Pagoda was built 2,600 years ago and is considered the holiest of the country's Buddhist shrines. Our guide tells us there is estimated three tons of gold & gold leaf on this temple and the surrounding buildings and
Here is a young couple putting prayer cards on the penis of this sculpture because they say that it will help with conceiving a son. Why not...
We went in the late afternoon because you have to be barefoot when entering any of the Buddhist temples and the pavers are unbearably hot during the midday and early afternoon.
Traveling in Myanmar is challenging. Saan said that trains were pretty crowded, bumpy and slow. We didn't have to go on any luckily.
This reclining Buddha is 240 meters long. It is hard to appreciate the size of this but just look at the foot compared to the guy in front.
Lunch at one of Saan's favorite restaurants enabled us to try our first taste of goat.
My 61st birthday dinner was indeed memorable. Sonny, the owner of this great 350 seat restaurant made me feel like a long lost friend. Just a month earlier he had John McCain as one of his patrons.
I was Mr. Bob at the hotel in Phenom Penh now I became Mr. Robert.
The military government moved the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2006. Evidently the reason being is that they felt the new buildings and infrastructure would make for a safer location. The country has been relatively untouched by tourists, especially Americans, up until recently because of US sanctions against Myanmar.
We arrived at our hotel in the "golden valley" section of Yangon as it was starting to get dark. Our driver and guide had not been to this particular hotel and had trouble finding it. Needless to say it made us a bit uncomfortable and it was not the location we had expected. We were picturing a cool center city location so we could walk to a funky bar and restaurant that night and a trendy coffee place in the morning. We were in the middle of a neighborhood that looked like Palm Beach. As it turned out the city center is no place one wants to stay and the few hotels nearer town had been booked for a long time and were incredibly pricey. The country had not been prepared for the amount of people wanting to come. Too many visitors and not enough hotels. We ended up appreciating our eight room guest house and the quiet location.
It turns out to be good luck to see a snake and we saw one right after Saan picked us up the next morning.
They say this snake just ate something fairly large and was in the process do digesting. Good thing it wasn't interested in this guy's hand.
There are approximately 60 million people in the county and 80 percent are Buddhist. The Myanmar Buddhist are primarily Theravada Buddhists and take their religion very seriously. There are stupas, temples, pagodas and images and sculptures of Buddha everywhere.
This was one of monasteries that we visited.
The Shwedagon Pagoda was built 2,600 years ago and is considered the holiest of the country's Buddhist shrines. Our guide tells us there is estimated three tons of gold & gold leaf on this temple and the surrounding buildings and
Here is a young couple putting prayer cards on the penis of this sculpture because they say that it will help with conceiving a son. Why not...
We went in the late afternoon because you have to be barefoot when entering any of the Buddhist temples and the pavers are unbearably hot during the midday and early afternoon.
Traveling in Myanmar is challenging. Saan said that trains were pretty crowded, bumpy and slow. We didn't have to go on any luckily.
This reclining Buddha is 240 meters long. It is hard to appreciate the size of this but just look at the foot compared to the guy in front.
Lunch at one of Saan's favorite restaurants enabled us to try our first taste of goat.
My 61st birthday dinner was indeed memorable. Sonny, the owner of this great 350 seat restaurant made me feel like a long lost friend. Just a month earlier he had John McCain as one of his patrons.
I was Mr. Bob at the hotel in Phenom Penh now I became Mr. Robert.
Location:Yangon (Rangoon)
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Last lunch in Vietnam
The day we left Hanoi for Yangon we decided we wanted to go back to our favorite local restaurant for one more bowl of bun bo. This was our guide Tiger's recommendation for lunch the day before and Kim, Eric, Anne and I all agreed it was fabulous. Basically it is the same as pho. Bun bo and pho are bowls of rice noodles with some great spices. Bun is like a style of pho and bo means beef. So this place has got it down and the place was packed. For 20,000 dong the same as $1.00 you get this amazing bowl of delicious combination of noodles, meat and spices.
This was the hotel we stayed at about three blocks from the restaurant.
This was the unassuming front of the restaurant.
All you do is walk in the they ask you how many bowls and point you to where there might be some open seats.
Bean sprouts, rice noodles, cooked lettuce, peanuts, green onion, ginger, garlic and bunch of other great spices.
The first floor of the restaurant was totally full so they said to go upstairs and they would bring up the bun bo.
There was a railing upstairs where we could look down at the operation. They served one dish and that was the only choice.
And it was absolutely delicious and what I particularly like is that it was great value.
The height of the ceiling on the second floor was about 5'-8". Our fire marshall would have a problem.
On the way downstairs we noticed where they do all the dish washing.
Some how we made our way across the streets that had no breaks in traffic. We learned to just find a local and walk with them - just slowly walk and don't hesitate. The cars and motor bikes will avoid you and you'll get to the other side. Can't say that I am going to miss that part of Hanoi. Next blogs will be about our time in Myanmar - but that lunch was memorable.
This was the hotel we stayed at about three blocks from the restaurant.
This was the unassuming front of the restaurant.
All you do is walk in the they ask you how many bowls and point you to where there might be some open seats.
Bean sprouts, rice noodles, cooked lettuce, peanuts, green onion, ginger, garlic and bunch of other great spices.
The first floor of the restaurant was totally full so they said to go upstairs and they would bring up the bun bo.
There was a railing upstairs where we could look down at the operation. They served one dish and that was the only choice.
And it was absolutely delicious and what I particularly like is that it was great value.
The height of the ceiling on the second floor was about 5'-8". Our fire marshall would have a problem.
On the way downstairs we noticed where they do all the dish washing.
Some how we made our way across the streets that had no breaks in traffic. We learned to just find a local and walk with them - just slowly walk and don't hesitate. The cars and motor bikes will avoid you and you'll get to the other side. Can't say that I am going to miss that part of Hanoi. Next blogs will be about our time in Myanmar - but that lunch was memorable.
Location:Hanoi
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