Learning about Myanmar

January 25, 2014
Day 1

I was so excited for the trip that day. It was the start of a 9 day holiday.

So off to the airport at 1 pm then boarded the plane at exactly 40 minutes before the flight and the plane took off without much delay and waiting. It was as said by a fellow passenger the fastest boarding time in our history of flights.

Once we arrived, we took our time to walk at the right pace to enjoy our first time in Myanmar. Everything looks new and clean but there were a lot of mosquitoes at the airport. When we arrived at the immigration control, the women had this white patches on their cheeks  called Thanaka which I've learned later on that it is used as a cosmetic, for cooling and to prevent sunburn. We were given a 14 day tourist visa without paying anything upon arrival. I read that it was a new rule that just took effect on January 4, 2014.

Upon picking up our luggage, we went off to change money from USD to Kyat (pronounced as chats) our 100 USD was equivalent to 98,900. We we're amused to see this Caucasian couple took out their money from an empty box of tea. Talk of concealing your money from thieves. Not a bad idea. We then proceeded to look for taxi and we got one for 8 thousand kyats going to the hotel. Going out from the airport, we compared how it looked at bit like Bali and it was also warm. The streets were clean and obviously new but it was such a contrast with all the old buses and cars. I even saw full packed buses running fast tilting side to side. In a way, it reminds me of Manila buses.

Here's a pic of a taxi like the one we've taken on our first day.

So basically, all taxis are called city taxi and they don't used the meter system so you just have to show your destination and they will tell you the price and you can bargain for a lower price but as compared to Hanoi. I find it almost the same but of course sometimes a bit overpriced if you don't ask for a discount. Another thing is the fact that they don't use air conditioners even if it's the middle of the day and it's hot but since we didn't ask. I am not really sure. The price is way much better than the 1000 Baht that I paid when I first went to Bangkok. I was really ripped off at that time since I discovered that you only have to pay 250 baht from the airport. 

when we arrived at the hotel that I reserved through Agoda, I was surprised that the lights weren't on. We were then informed by the staff that there's a problem with electricity and so they got as to another hotel which took us another 30 minutes before arriving. The hotel was basic but the toilet is inside the room which is only separated by a glass. Some guests complained that it's like a jail which I agree but then just 1 night won't do any harm. Anyway, we asked the front desk staff and one guy agreed to help us buy a ticket early in the morning for our next destination. So off we went for our first dinner in Myanmar.

The food was very delicious partly because we were hungry and it is similar to Filipino food with all the oil...which I've missed since living in Hanoi but of course I also love the fact that they have vegetables (fresh and raw) which I love (something I came to learn to love to eat living in Hanoi) and because they also have a lot of fishes in their menu. It's something I missed too since I just don't like the river fish that is common in Hanoi. It has a smell and I don't really like how they cook it. They also had this circular in shape raw veggie that I tried. It was okay. It was served together with some boiled veggies (eggplant, radish etc.). It was also a bit strange to see a receipt in different writing. But the amount was there so it wasn't bad and yeah, some of the staff in the restaurant can speak good English so it was easy ordering food and paying. No hand movements for communication at all. 

After two years

The tourist is back in Hanoi...longer this time

This time the city has changed so much....new shopping malls.....the fly overs.....traffic lights are actually working and there are actually overpass for pedestrians to save us from the horror of crossing streets fearing for our lives. And (wistful) my side of the city has actually became much busier. The abundance of eating places to choose from is very good but  hearing so much noise from the traffic and of course the traffic jam during rush hours is not comforting though.

And of course the tour guide again.... in between Westlake and Truc Bach Lake going to Sofitel Plaza

The newest mall in the city and the favorite hangout for both new and old timers in the city at the moment

Visiting the Den Quan Thanh temple

and of course a beautiful view of the lake and the road....

And the sunset

And Hanoi Cathedral...It was actually my first time to visit the church too...

orimaneyo....

It' s been awhile.....Need to activate the mood again...
So busy nowadays...
More work and more extra work...
I need to work hard for that Samsung S4 I'm craving for...

Day 4- Ton Le Sap lake

By the time we finished admiring all the animals in the zoo, it was already time for lunch. We were looking for a place to eat but our guide brought us to a temple instead. It was our first temple visit in Cambodia but we were not excited to explore since it was midday and warm. Besides we were also hungry. They told us some introduction about the temple but I wasn't really paying much attention then because of the hunger pangs I was feeling. The temple was small and if you are going to visit Angkor Wat then it is better to remove it from the itinerary when exploring Cambodia. Anyways, we took some good pictures before we proceeded to our next destination.

                                               One of the wall carvings in front of the temple

 The inside of the temple and one rule when visiting temples, guests should be properly covered. No short pants and sleeveless shirts. Well, they were not so strict with these ladies but at least they were decent enough to go inside. And yes there were children following us the whole time.

The temple from the outside. The backpackers taking a commemorative shot.

Then off we went for lunch which we were so glad. By that time, it was already almost 2 in the afternoon. What came to our view was this.

You might be wondering, what are those? Those are huts beside Ton Le Sap lake or better yet over the lake and they are used as dining areas for tourists. We didn't see much Westerners but we don't know if there were other Asians like us. While everyone were fixing things and visiting the toilet, I went to our hut. Boy, It totally reminds me of Hanoi where they have this floating club by the river which you can reach walking through planks of wood joined together and this is even much more scary since it was just one plank of wood with just sticks to grab and steady people walking. I'm sure the water or mud is not deep. I just cannot take the idea of getting myself dirty if I ever fall. Anyway, it was a good balance exercise for someone who's starving.

The plank going to the "VIP room..." Upon reaching the hut, I wasn't comfortable the whole time since I was afraid that it would just disintegrate or it won't be able to carry our combined weights. It wasn't helping also that neighboring hut guests were testosterone filled teenagers out on a picnic and were jumping and playing around. It wasn't my best lunch during that particular holiday.

A part of our lunch menu

Not a part of our menu but one of the delicacies sold around the lake.

 

A boatman with his goods for sale going around the lake.

Much as I liked the entire experience that day, I wouldn't recommend it for other tourists. If you had visited zoo's in other places, it is better to forgo visiting Ta Mao Zoo. The only interesting thing for me were the sun bears aside from that, the other animals can also be seen in other places. As for the temple, if you are visiting Angkor Wat, better skip the temple near the zoo. It is the same as the others besides, there are also temples in Phnom Penh and for the lake, I wouldn't recommend it either. I think we overpaid the lunch. We had one whole chicken, one whole fish, one serving of beef , soda and rice for seven people and we paid 50 dollars which I think is a bit overpriced. Besides that, there was nothing to see in the lake but water. No breathtaking view whatsoever. So, it was just another day to see the sights outside of the city.

Back in the city after the tour, while waiting for Mitchell and Effa visit a temple, we saw this tree with bats. It was almost dusk so I guess they were starting to get ready for the night.

Day 4- The Zoo

That day, we woke early since we will be going somewhere far from the city. Our guide, the helpful Mr. Alex actually arranged a van for us to use to make the trip much more comfortable and faster. I got breakfast from Cafe Fresco with Effa and wow! the breakfast set is 6 USD excluding my cappuccino.. Even so, I still ordered a  healthy breakfast of mixed fruits. With the prices we were paying for meals, we started really feeling at that time that Cambodia is expensive for tourists.

Anyway, everyone piled up on the van and we got to meet another member of Mr. Alex's family, the driver  who happens to be his brother too. He was too talkative for my own liking but I guess he is just fine for the other girls.Halfway through the ride, the girls at the back were sleepy but the mood suddenly turned partyish when we discovered this field of lotus and the driver opened the top of the van. Everyone had a blast shouting and greeting people along the road.

                We got lucky to have a car like this. It was so much fun riding through the countryside.

As we approached the foot of the mountain leading to the zoo, we were surprised to see this long line of people begging. The guide explained about poverty in the countryside which led to people turning beggars to earn a living. Most of them are old people and some children. I think, families also use them to appeal more to tourists since they look so much more pitiful. From being cheerful, the five of us became silent as we passed the stretch of people begging along the road. It was like a kilometer of beggars just a few meters apart.

 

   The long line of beggars. After living in third world countries my entire life, I have never seen such display of  poverty. Even when Baguio was hit by an earthquake in 1990, at least people tried their best to survive and did not turned to begging. It is still a memory that is disturbing to me.

So, we got in Ta Mao Zoo and it is a mountain with cages. I wasn't really expecting something very good but it is obviously new and needs a lot of funding to fully operate better. As someone who saw Taman Safari in Indonesia where animals are left to roam free, I feel it would be better if the animals are also let out of the cages but  I guess it would cost a lot. The impressive thing though about  Ta Mao Zoo is that the animals are all from Cambodia and nothing is taken overseas. We had fun checking out the animals at the zoo and there was this one incident where me, Ritchell and Nikki were checking out the monkeys on one cage. I noticed that one was swinging happily on a tire and I noticed it's shit coming out. With just one scream to the other girls, we were away from the cage in a matter of seconds. Who knows we could be the recipients of a "flying shit" and I don't want to remember Cambodia as somewhere I got hit by a monkey poo.

   The sun bears. There were signs not to feed them but sometimes I don't understand people why they just need to do the opposite. They are small bears not as we expect of bears and according to Google, they are the smallest bears. The shape on its chest is really beautiful. It is another work of art by nature.

     It is the smallest kind of monkey in that zoo that I had seen. I was disappointed though because they snubbed the banana that I was giving them. I guess they were so tired of bananas all the time. This one was happier to munch on the sugar cane.

  One of the beavers in the zoo. They were bathing at that time when we passed by their cage. Beside was the tigers cage. Talk about unlikely neighbors.

                               The other tiger was hidden out of view. Chilling under the midday sun.

                        Another kind of monkey. I was giving the banana but it ignored me again.

        It was also fun feeding the elephants. They love the sugar cane. We didn't had anything else anyway.

                 I don't know exactly what is this but it was one of the hundreds of birds in the zoo.

                                   Ah..the lovely parrot...there were probably fifty or more of them.

                 The poor owl had one eye missing. They should probably put an eye patch over the bad eye.

              There were at least monkeys roaming free around the zoo on our way out. There are I think a hundred or more of monkeys in Ta Mao Zoo.

It was really fun having to go to the zoo without having to drag children or children dragging me around. I hope that the zoo will improve the next time if I will ever visit it again.

Day 3- Part 2- Shooting Range and S-21

Of course, we wouldn't pass up a holiday without shooting since we started last year in Laos. It's pretty
exhilarating to do it. So after the Killing fields, we headed to the shooting range. It was well known so there was no problem going there. It was past the airport which I found looking deserted by the way and near a military base. I guess when we arrived, the people over the place were surprised to see  three girls looking for guns to shoot and they keep on suggesting    for me to use the M-16 which I refused since I already used it in Cu Chi Vietnam. I guess the guy wasn't convinced at all looking at me who doesn't look like  I can shoot. So of course I got the same handgun that I used in Vientiane after being told that they don't have the guns that I wanted. And Mitch and ayEffa got their AK 47 and M-16. Well, it was more expensive than Laos and Vietnam but we shot anyway. They even have hand grenades and rocket launchers if you want but no we sticked to our guns.

 My pose and I actually hit one near the middle while the rest landed somewhere else. It was expensive though as I paid 30 dollars for  just 7 bullets.

After blasting away the paper target, we headed off to S-21 or Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The facade looks like my high school and it was actually a school before it was turned into a prison. There were three three floor buildings arranged in a U shaped form with a small building in the middle. The first building housed the offices and the rooms for the VIP prisoners and of course the torture rooms. The VIP prisoners are of course not given special treatment but I think they were the previous government officers and important intellectuals. The rooms were actually  typical classrooms with some desks still preserved which were probably used for the reeducation lectures. They even have chalkboards up until today.

 A prisoners room with the shackles, bed, the can used as latrine probably and a bowl. I guess this is where they torture and keep the VIP prisoners since most of the rooms just have one bed.

                                           One of the writing boards in the classroom prisons.

                                                A translated version of the rules at the prison.

Near the next building are the gallows.

The next building had the classrooms divided into smaller cells to accommodate prisoners. The divisions were actually poorly done and a man can easily break through it. But when you are just given one meal a day with mostly water, I don't think anyone can have the strength to do anything at all.

                                                                One of the single cells.      

                                                        The building where it all happened

And the last building housed the thousands of pictures of all  those who died and there is one common thing. Everyone faced the camera expressionless and with hands bound behind their backs. It also shows pictures of  tortured people dying or dead. You can see pictures with faces, staring eyes open, with froth coming out from the mouth and nose. A bloated body obviously dead for how many days, naked and twisted. And to read the biographies of the people who caused such things. They were all educated overseas in very good universities. Sometimes, we ask what could they be thinking to do the so called cleansing. Killing innocent people, children, common people. Had they ever thought of what good should it come from it. Had they ever thought that it could be possible or impossible in this world. We get a lot of these things in the news and it just leads to  innocent people being involved and losing everything they have without knowing the reason. It is scary to think that brilliant minds can do such horrors too.

Probably, some of the lower rank officers who carried out the orders were just plain ignorant of things. But the question again is "Don't they have any conscience at all?" Probably fear. The questions are endless but I hope nothing like this will happen again because it ended up with neighbors and relatives against each other.

And how ironic it was that a bat landed in front of me at the last building in S-21.