I had been planning a return trip to Myanmar for some time now
but hadn’t managed to do it earlier due to a number of reasons: the airfare,
timing, instability in the country and particularly the harsh treatment towards
the minority Rohingyas leading to the closure of one site that I wanted to
visit had also deterred me from making a much earlier return. After perusing
the travel fora and looking up the airfares, I finally took the plunge and on
the last day of July 2013, I bought the ticket - after working out how many
days I would potentially need of course and searching the public holidays to
avail of them. After the ticket purchase, I set about trying to find
accommodation and air routes or alternative ground arrangement. Finally the day
arrived.
Friday, 31 January 2014
It was an early start today and I
left shortly after 7. Abah sent me to the Ampang Park LRT station from where I
made my way to KL Sentral. I decided to check in my bag at KL Sentral as I
suspected there would be a long, long queue at KLIA. A wise choice - there was
hardly a queue at KL Sentral but KLIA was full of travellers. The queues were
long everywhere from the check-in counters to the bag drop counters to
immigration and autogate and of course security. I chose to go through the
traditional immigration check and it was so much faster. Technology is fast and
automation helps but ultimately it’s the people who slow down the autogate
process as they struggle to clear it.
Our departure was delayed close to an
hour but finally we were off. We landed at 1215 and after clearing immigration,
I went to collect my bag. I decided to change some money at the airport. The
Ringgit has taken a severe beating against most major currencies including the
greenback. If anything, we performed the worst against the greenback. Now most
moneychangers in Myanmar are fussy fussy fussy and they only want brand new
crisp USD notes. I had obtained some hardly new notes with clear line in the
middle (the moneychanger in KL assured me that they would be accepted in
Myanmar even though I protested and requested for brand new notes). True
enough, the first moneychanger refused my note (we could only change USD100 per
passenger, how strange) but directed me to a bank’s bereau de change.
Thankfully, the bank accepted my note - although it gave me the local currency
in 1,000 notes. So you can imagine the thick wad of cash that I had to carry
with me! I decided to change a further USD100 and went to another moneychanger,
this time asking if he had bigger denominations. He had 5,000 kyat notes. Guess
that was better than 1,000 kyat notes huh.
Money changing business done, I took
my bag and walked to the domestic terminal about 5 minutes away. I had
contemplated taking the bus too but it takes at least 11.5 hours and I would
only arrive at my destination at 3 am or so. Err, no thanks. Myanmar is a huge
huge country and while air travel is not cheap, it’s definitely a much faster
alternative. Besides, I had read that while some destinations are serviced by
buses, foreigners are not allowed to take them. See, the government wants to
restrict the movement of foreigners and they don’t want us to see what we
shouldn’t. You must stick to the government-approved destinations and for some
destinations, the only option available to the foreigner is the plane or boat.
Locals can travel by buses though but you won’t know who to ask and not all
locals can speak English anyway.
I had emailed Air Mandalay asking for
quotations (and another airline which didn’t bother to respond) and had
arranged to collect my tickets at the airline office at the domestic terminal. The
office was quite hidden and I walked past it before asking for directions. I
paid for my tickets in USD and the airport taxes of 1,000 kyat/airport in kyat.
Then I sat down and waited for the check- in counter to open. The counter
opened an hour before departure and after checking-in, I went in to the
boarding area. There were many Caucasians with only a handful Asians there.
We took off slightly later than
scheduled and landed at Heho Airport 70 minutes later. Strangely enough, we all
had to go through the local immigration where the immigration officers took
note of our visa number and particulars. I had arranged for my guesthouse to
provide an airport pick-up (18K kyat). It took us 50 minutes to reach Nyaung
Shwe from Heho Airport but then again, the cabbie wasn’t speeding. I doubt he
ever exceeded 50 km/hour at all. We stopped briefly at a monastery before
continuing on and stopped at the entrance. I had to pay USD10 for the entrance
(or 10K kyat if you want to pay in the local currency, or €10 which I thought
was ridiculous. As expensive as USD is, it's still cheaper than Euro and USD10
is definitely not equivalent to €10!).
We reached the guesthouse at 6 and I
checked in. After performing prayers, I went out to look for dinner. I walked
around getting my bearings and after walking up and down the main street
including a detour to the night market, I had my dinner at a small roadside
stall. I joined a Taiwanese girl who was also travelling alone and we chatted.
After dinner, I went to check out the Aung Puppet Show near Nandawunn Hotel but
the door of the show house was already closed and the show was already
underway. I returned back to the guesthouse to rest. It had been a long day.
Saturday, 1 February 2014
After breakfast, I hurried to the
jetty. The guesthouse manager had advised me to go to the jetty and see if I
could share a boat with someone. I reached the jetty after ten minutes and
waited and waited, looking around but everyone else had already made prior arrangement
and finally I accepted an offer by a chap to take me for 15K kyat. We left at
0815 and after an hour, we reached a village, stopping at a silver factory and
showroom and then the floating market. I spent an hour there walking around the
market. The stalls sell similar items: souvenirs and trinkets, t-shirts,
scarves, jewellery, statues of Buddha, prayer items etc. There were also
sections selling vegetables, fish, local food and stalls selling ready-to-eat
food.
Our next stop was a lotus showroom
where I was shown how fibres of the lotus stalks are turned into scarves. I was
told that lotus-fibre scarves are more expensive than silk scarves and later, I
was surprised to see how expensive it was. $120-$160 for a piece of silk scarf!
Maybe the shop sells them at inflated prices but I had better use for my money,
thank you very much.
We then went to a cigar-making
factory and then a blacksmith before an early lunch. I had rice mashed with
potato and surprisingly, it tasted quite good. After lunch, we went to a temple
but I didn’t feel like taking my shoes off then and so we left. We retraced our
route back across the gigantic Inle Lake and passed the floating garden, where
the locals plant flowers for sale before stopping at Nga Phe Kyaung Monastery
(aka Jumping Cat Monastery). We were already back by 1415 and I walked in the
blazing heat back to my room. It was so hot that my socks were dry within a
couple of hours of laundering!
WiFi was down in the afternoon after
I got up from siesta. After evening prayers, I went to the reception to pay for
my room ($20/night or 18K kyat) then went to arrange a cab to the airport for
the next day (I found one company offering me a cab for 14K kyat) before
walking to the puppet showhouse. I was the only person for the 7 pm show though
and the owner asked if I could come back for the 8:30 pm show instead. I went
to have dinner at the stall I went to the evening before. After dinner, I
returned to my room before walking out again to the puppet showhouse. I joined
a couple making it three in the audience. The owner told me earlier that there
were five in the audience for the 6 pm show. I enjoyed the show but clearly it’s
a dying art. What a shame. The owner told us he’s the fourth generation to
maintain the tradition but support has been on the decline. The locals don’t
care for it and even the number of foreigners has been declining. If you are in
Nyaung Shwe, do check out Aung Puppet Show. The shows are at 6 pm, 7 pm and
8:30 pm. It only costs 3K kyat and you’ll be learning something about the local
culture.
I returned to my room and read a bit
before calling it a day.
To be continued
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