Summer 2012 - 1st Stop: Ho Chi Minh City

Here we go again, 10 more weeks of travelling! This time around we’ll be in Vietnam, Laos, China and Japan, so three new countries for us there, a serious haul, and our first new country since The Philippines at Christmas (a whole six months ago, poor us, I know…). We were working in HK right up to the last minute and on top of that, we've just moved out of our apartment, so it was a very hectic few days, getting everything moved out, packing our things and finalising everything for the holiday itself, but we’re here now, at our first destination, Ho Chi Minh City.

GOOOOD MOOORNING VIET--- nah, I can’t do it... 

So, here we are in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. We flew out from HK to HCMC, via KL, on the morning of June 19th (a ridiculous number of initialisms in that sentence!). We changed our money at the airport into a mixture of US Dollars (which seem to be a secondary currency in most countries around here) and Vietnamese Dong. But seeing as €1 gets you 25,000 Dong, we were left with a serious wad of cash, I could barely fit it all in my wallet. First world problem, I know.

It made me quite self-conscious though, my Dong was making a serious bulge in my pants!

On the flight over, we met a lovely local who gave us some tips for our stay. He also told us that we’d really like Laos because the people are lovely, but the Vietnamese, not so much… I don’t know if he was being modest or honest, although a few other local people so far have told us the same thing. As of now, we’ve no complaints, they’ve all been very nice and friendly to us, but I suppose like any country in the world, you’ve still got to keep your wits about you.

We arrived at our hostel late that evening, so it was straight to bed and then up the next morning for a leisurely walk around the city, as recommended by the Lonely Planet. Our first stop was Ben Thanh Market, which we just walked straight in and out of - once you've seen one traditional market over here, (unless you're looking for something in particular) you've pretty much seen them all. Next, a couple of nice buildings, the Hotel de Ville and the Municipal Theatre, and onto the 70's styled Reunification Palace.

It was a nice enough place, a couple of tanks outside, a few important looking meeting rooms but that seemed to be all. We had read that the basement was the most interesting part but when we went down there, it just seemed to be a set of eerie corridors that led to nowhere. We thought we must've been in the wrong place but as we delved a little deeper the eeriness became all the more eerier (I don't know if either of those are real words...). The corridors became scattered with doorways that led to random, Kafka-esque rooms, with maybe a single desk and a telephone or a machine that looked like it did something really important but impossible to tell what.

This one had TWO telephones!

We finally made our way out of the underground passages, stopped for a milkshake, and then headed to the War Remnants Museum, formerly (and more accurately) known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. It was one of the most interesting museums I've been to, but not one for the faint-hearted, or if you're a proud American.

It basically documents some of the atrocities of the Vietnam War, and drives the point home with pictures of mutilated bodies, bombed towns and, probably the most horrific of all - the survivors, many of them maimed or disfigured, or the children born with deformities from chemical weapons. I won't put up pictures from here. As I said, not one for patriotic Americans, unless you take pride in seeing pictures of an American GI posing with the corpse of the child he just shot dead. A really interesting museum though, a must-see if you're in the city.

We finished off our tour with, the thoroughly out-of-place, Notre Dame Cathedral (as seen below), and the thoroughly disappointing and hard to find, Jade Emperor Pagoda (as never to be seen again).

The next day, we went on a little day trip to the surrounding areas of HCMC to see the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh, and the Cu Chi Tunnels. One thing we've learned over the course of our travels is that you never really see much of note in the big cities, it's always in the small towns or in the countryside where you find the real gems, and today was no different, with two very different, but very enjoyable excursions.

First to the town of Tay Ninh, which is kind of the Vatican City of the Cao Dai faith - a 20th century religion which takes elements from the teachings of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, pretty standard stuff. They also have a few saints, you know the usual suspects, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed... Shakespeare... Napoleon... Joan of Arc... as well as around 70 other "Holy Spirits" such as Winston Churchill, Lenin and Louis Pasteur! Well, if you're going to make up a new religion, then why not bring in the big guns?!

The temple itself was actually really unique and beautiful though, and we even stayed for the 12 o'clock service. Have a look at 54 seconds of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2VK3cvRbzU&feature=youtu.be

You might as well, seeing as we forgot to make a video diary...

After Tay Ninh, and a stop off for lunch, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels - an intricate, underground tunnel network built by the local Vietnamese and used by the Viet Cong in their fight against American troops. We first watched a documentary and then the tour guide showed us around, telling us of the ingenious ways the locals fought back - from home-made booby traps, to clever little back-to-front sandals, and of course the tunnels themselves.

At some points, as you can see above, the entrances were little bigger than a shoe box, but underground they widened out and were equipped with ventilation, bomb shelters and booby traps for anyone brave enough, or stupid enough, to follow them in. We crawled our way through one section of the cave alright, but that was more than enough to experience how dark and cramped things were down there.

And that was that for our stay in Ho Chi Minh City. We got the bus back from the tunnels, had dinner and then embarked upon a 16 hour train ride up to Hoi An, sharing a 6 berth cabin with 8 other people - fun times ahead!

CNY 2012: Myanmar - Part 2

Five months after we went to Myanmar and two days before we go off on our summer holidays, I'm finally getting around to finishing the blog. I don't know why this always happens...

So, we left Inle Lake on the afternoon of the 25th (January 25th, that is), arriving in Mandalay just before sunset. As Aisling was still recovering from her Mandalay Rum induced sickness, we just took it easy the next morning, only going to see two nearby places. First, Mahamuni Pagoda which, despite being the second holiest pilgrimage site in the country and one of the top recommended places to see in Mandalay, wasn't that good at all... Not at all! It's main draw is a 4m high golden Buddha statue, and maybe that's what's so great about the place, but we didn't even get to see it! Women aren't allowed into the statue room, so Aisling had to wait outside, and when I tried to go in, I was turned away for wearing shorts! A disappointing visit all round.

Our second stop of the day, to Shwe In Bin Monastery, was much more enjoyable. The building itself was nice enough - an old, carved wooden structure - but we had great craic with a couple of monks we met there, certainly the highlight of the day for us!

They said they watch Premiership, La Liga and Bundesliga matches every weekend, so we were chatting away to them about that for a while. Quite a surreal experience, having a chat about Villa with two Burmese monks in a Buddhist monastery in Mandalay. (They weren't too impressed with McLeish and thought we shouldn't have let O'Neill go. They are indeed wise...).

That afternoon, we rested, regrouped and headed out again, this time to see a few more sights around the city - Sandamuni Pagoda, Kuthodaw Pagoda and Shwenandaw Monastery.

Kuthadow and Sandamuni were much the same, but both equally beautiful. In fact, I have photos from each of them but can't tell which is which...

They were both full of energy too, not the solemn, respectful places of worship you'd expect, with a group of young, female monks (monkettes... monkees...?) playing hide and seek in among the hundreds upon hundreds of whitewashed stupas, and a local boy running up and down the paths flying a kite, which he eventually got stuck in a tree, and then impressively retrieved from said tree.

The next morning we got a boat across the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay to the small town of Mingun, and we had a lovely half-day there. The town itself really is tiny and so you can take your time, have a stroll around and see everything very easily on foot in a few hours. No need for a posh taxi or anything!

It could have been quite a famous place though when in 1790, work began on building the world's biggest stupa, which was set to peak at 150m, higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza. Unfortunately though, it was never completed due to an astrologer predicting that the king would die once the temple was finished. Work stopped after the base was constructed, so now it's just home to the world's biggest pile of bricks, a less illustrious title.

Mingun also has the world's second largest bell. It's just a town full of nearlys!

We also visited Hsinbyume Pagoda, a large whitewashed temple in the area. Mingun itself is quite a strange place as, apart from the handful of temples and pagodas (still don't know the difference between the two), there's actually very little else in the town, maybe a couple of shops, a couple of restaurants, and that's about it! I like it though, it makes a change from towns just being turned into tourist traps to squeeze any money they can out of visitors, at the expense of the town itself.

We got a boat back to Mandalay that afternoon and made our way up the deceptive Mandalay Hill for sunset. I say deceptive as, at least 4 or 5 times, when we were climbing up, we'd reach a point and think 'ok, this must be the top...' only to see another set of steps leading up further. I know it sounds stupid as it should be fairly obvious when you're at the top of a hill or not, but you'd be surprised!

When we finally did reach the top (the real one), we were less than impressed. There are some very nice places around Mandalay and nearby towns, but the city itself isn't that attractive, just an endless maze of identical dusty roads with no real character to the place, so as you can imagine, the view from the top of the hill wasn't really that good. We even left before the sun actually set.

The next day was our most action packed yet, as we got up early to take a day trip to the three small surrounding towns of Amarapura, Inwa and Sagaing. This is apparently quite a popular route to take, so we left it up to our driver to show us the sights, and first on his list was a monastery in Amarapura where you can watch the hundreds of monks have breakfast.

Although I don't know if it can be classed as breakfast, it was about 10:15. Brunch maybe...?

It was actually a really fascinating sight to behold, although the amount of tourists there was horrible. It must be quite annoying for the monks having to put up with this every morning, especially with some ridiculously obnoxious individuals unashamedly shoving cameras in their faces. I did take a few photos too of course... but at a distance! And even then I felt bad about it!

Because of this (and to beat the crowds for the rest of the day), we left early and went to the next town along, Sagaing, and in particular, Sagaing Hill. It was a great decision to leave the monastery early as we had the whole place to ourselves and what a beautiful place it was! Probably the nicest hilltop pagoda we've been to on our travels, shitting all over Mandalay Hill in every respect!

Even the tiled floors were pretty!

We stayed there for a while, enjoying the view, until the crowds started to catch up with us again, so we bolted off to the next town, Inwa, a former Burmese capital. We stopped for lunch before crossing the river and embarking upon a three hour horse and cart ride around the historic circuit.

So, we made our way along the bumpy dirt paths, stopping every so often at temples, monasteries and watch towers. It's hard to believe this place was once an ancient capital, when now it's little more than a village. Well worth a visit though!

Our last stop of the day was where we had started off, Amarapura, this time to see the famous U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world and an iconic symbol here in Myanmar. It was an incredible sight too, I've never taken so many photos of the same thing! We arrived there in good time, so we took a walk to the other side and back (1.2km each way) and then hired a boat to watch the sunset across the water.

A lovely way to end the day, or any day for that matter! Every day should end with a view like this!

And that was our last day in Mandalay. The next morning we flew back to Yangon. We had actually kinda been looking forward to the flight back just for the airplane food. You see, the last time we were in Myanmar, we flew back to Yangon with Yangon Airways and got two slices of cake each. This time, we were with Air Mandalay, and all we got was a crappy cheese sandwich, and that was it! So there's my tip for this entry - don't fly Air Mandalay. Ya, they're safe and efficient and everything, if that's what you want from an airline... but if you want cake, fly Yangon Airways!

On our way into the city from Yangon airport, we shared a taxi with a lovely Indian guy named Roger. We got chatting and he was telling us how he was in town looking to invest and that he had found a 200 acre plot of land on the outskirts of Yangon for $60k, so whatever that is, €45k or something. So anyone looking to invest, Myanmar is the place to be!

On our last day in Yangon and Myanmar, we just took it easy and went for a stroll around the city and up to Kandawgyi Lake, as seen above. We also returned to out tiny, tiny room in Yoma Hotel and made a little video diary. I say little, but it was actually anything but! Our video diaries are usually 4 or 5 minutes max, but for this one, I had to cut down 14 mins of video into something more manageable, so... eh... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQvnKsTY_w4&feature=youtu.be

And that was Myanmar! Our second visit here, and although it was very different from our first time around, it was still a hugely enjoyable trip. We'd love to come back here again someday but who knows when that will be or what state the country will be in...

Anyway, as I said at the top, we're off on our summer adventures in two days so look forward to more blog updates from Vietnam, Laos, China and Japan! Until then, toodle-oo!

CNY 2012: Myanmar - Part 1

Back in Myanmar - the unanimous winner of best everything on our first jaunt around the Orient in November 2010, especially impressive seeing as we actually only spent four days here. An awful lot has changed since then, both for us and the country. It's hard to believe that little more than a year has passed. 

One difference that we weren't too pleased about though - the number of tourists around the place. The last time we were here, you could go days without seeing another white face, but now they were everywhere! We know it's good for the local economy and opening the country up to the international community, but part of us couldn't help feeling like 'Hey! This is our country! Go find your own!'. 

Still, even though so much has changed, it was nice to know that some things had stayed the same.

November 2010

January 2012

That's right, as soon as we touched down in Yangon, our old friend Zaw Hein was there to greet us! It was lovely to see him again, and catch up on what had been happening in the country over the past year. The first time we were here, it was the day after democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been released from house arrest, and since then, both she and the country have gone from strength to strength. Zaw had some good news too with the birth of his first child, so it was smiles all round! Rather unlike the first time we landed in Yangon...

Zaw sorted us out as usual that morning; treating us to breakfast, arranging our flights up the country, taking us to get our money changed (which you can now do in banks, instead of dodgy back alleys...) and bringing us to our hotel, the same one we had stayed in first time around! We even got the same tiny, tiny room! It was good to be back.

November 2010

January 2012

After getting all of our business sorted in Yangon that morning (and after a midday power nap), we went to Shwedagon Pagoda - the most famous landmark in Myanmar. I don't really know why we didn't go there last time around...

It was a very beautiful sight, towering over the surrounding area, almost 100m tall and glistening all golden in the sunlight. The whole area was very nice actually, with smooth, tiled floors and local monks walking around in their traditional garb - saying a few prayers and taking some sneaky pics with their digital cameras.

Vow of poverty my ass...!

Even with the large number of tourists in the city, the majority of visitors were locals, there to give praise, and there was no shortage of stupas or Buddha statues for them to kneel in front of. We even found a shrine to C3PO!

She must be a huge Star Wars fan.

We stayed for a couple of hours and as we arrived late in the afternoon, we were able to enjoy a nice, purple sunset there too. A lovely way to spend our first day back in the country.

And the day wasn't over yet! That evening we went out for a nice traditional Burmese dinner with Zaw and his family. We payed of course, it was the least we could do after all the help he had given us.

And that was the end of our brief stay in Yangon. The following day, we flew up to Heho and our next stop - Inle Lake. We'd have another full day in Yangon at the end of our trip, so we had plenty of time to see some more of the city. But for now it was, Heho, let's go!

Just like our last time in the country, we got a free meal on the flight up, despite it being little over an hour long, and as we landed in Heho airport, there was a woman at arrivals holding up Aisling's name. (Those are two things that we always get a great kick out of - free plane food and seeing our names on signs! I hope the novelty never wears off!)

We stayed in the town of Nyaung Shwe, just north of Inle Lake itself, in a lovely place called Aquarius Inn, we were even given fruit, nuts and a cup of green tea as we arrived. As it was quite late in the day at that stage, we just had a walk around the town before retiring for the night. It was a very different way of life to what we were used to in Yangon, primarily as there wasn't the hustle and bustle of traffic, but also because it was frickin' freezing! We weren't expecting that at all!

And the next morning was even worse, we could barely tear ourselves out from under the blankets! Eventually, we got up and active for our day on the lake. We had travelled through floating villages before while in Cambodia last year, but this was just something else. It wasn't so much a floating village, rather a floating city, with some 80,000 inhabitants.

There's two of them anyway...

Our first stop of the day was Nar Baung Market, at the other side of the lake. The vendors were all lined up and ready for us with their souvenir stalls, but it was much more interesting to see the local market, with goods being transported from ox carts to boats, and vice versa - life on the lake really goes from water to land and back again so fluently. It's always nice to get a glimpse at a different way of living.

The most fascinating thing of all though, was just watching people paddle by on their daily routine, whether they were rowing by hand...

...or even by foot!

Leg-rowing is a bit of a tradition here on the lake (although apparently a lot of the locals just turn it on for the tourists). It consists of standing at the back of the boat and, well... rowing with your legs! Needless to say, we didn't give it a go ourselves.

After the market, we went to a couple of temples both on the water and on land. First, the very colourful, Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, pictured below:

And then, the long walk up to the less impressive, Inn Dein. It was still worth going though, again just to see the everyday life, from locals doing their laundry in the river to carrying bundles of sticks on their heads.

Also, on the walk up to Inn Dein, we bought a little carved wall-hanging from one of the infinite number of market stalls. It's funny, we've no problem when it comes to haggling for goods in countries like Thailand or Malaysia or even here in Hong Kong, in fact, we quite enjoy it! But we always feel guilty about doing it in Myanmar. Just because we love the Burmese and want to give them our money! There's also a tradition here in the market stalls of tapping everything in the shop with the money from your first sale, just for good luck. So, we were extra delighted to give this woman her "lucky money" for the day.

After lunch in a lovely lakeside restaurant, we went to see some floating gardens, and then on to Nga Hpe Kyaung or the "Jumping Cat Monastery", which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a monastery where monks spend their days teaching cats how to jump... and that's about it! It was the thing I was most looking forward to seeing that day, I was expecting to see cats flying all over the place, jumping through fiery rings and everything! We were sadly disappointed. I did take a video, but there are probably millions of better cat videos on the internet.

We did get another picture for our 'monks doing modern things' album though. In Yangon, we saw monks with digital cameras, monks on a motorbike, and now we have a monk texting. Who and what he would be texting, we've no idea - "jst made cat jump, lol jk".

The next day we did some more exploring, this time on land as we went for a morning walk through some hillside villages on the outskirts of the lake. It was a pleasant change of scenery from the day before and a hell of a lot warmer! It was nice to be away from the tourist crowd too, back to just us, the countryside and friendly locals by the truckload, literally!

On the way, we passed a cave with an elderly monk at the entrance. It was pitch black inside and we had no torch or anything so he gave us a candle to light the way. He was so lovely, even offering us some tea and biscuits as we came out. It was quite eerie inside though, feeling our way through the cave, with nothing more than candle light. It felt like a horror movie waiting to happen...

But despite that, it was good!

The rest of the day was just more of the same, wandering through the countryside, from village to village, under the hot sun. The locals really took a shine to Aisling during our time here as well - giving her flowers, telling her she was beautiful, one schoolboy even crashed his bike while looking at her, in typical slapstick fashion! I wish I had taken a picture, although I'm sure he was embarrassed enough as it was...

That evening, we continued our tour of the area, this time hiring out a canoe (equipped with a lovely local woman), to paddle us down small streams, and in and out of tiny floating villages. During the trip, I turned around and asked if I could take a picture of her, to which she replied with a really heartfelt "Thank you". It was quite touching, and I still don't know if she was thanking me for wanting to take her picture, or because I asked, instead of just shoving a camera in her face.

We didn't know what to expect from the experience at all, but it was probably our favourite thing we did in Inle Lake. It was just so quiet and tranquil, and you get to see so much more off the beaten path, or rather, off the... paddled stream...?

I've probably said it before, but it's just such a different world here.

We stopped off at an old monastery just before sunset, and had a good chat with an elderly monk there as we watched the sun go down over the hills.

The next morning and our last on the lake, we hired a couple of bikes, just to round off our various modes of transport. We had already seen the place by boat, on foot, by canoe and now we were doing it on wheels! We were flying up to Mandalay that afternoon, so we only had a few hours to cycle around. There wasn't really anything in particular we were setting out for, we just spent the morning cycling up and down dusty, waterside paths, going wherever the road took us and getting lost, in a good way.

It's amazing what you find when you're not actually looking for anything. The temple above is probably one of our favourite sights form the whole trip, and I've haven't seen it mentioned on any maps or guidebooks. At one stage, we even went down a dead end in some small village, only to find a group of monks playing soccer in front of an old temple!

What will they get up to next?!

We cycled back, checked in our bikes and just chilled out in a cafe. I got a nice, cool banana lassi, while Ais ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, even cheaper than water, a glass of Mandalay Rum. It was really horrible. It may have only cost 30c, but she certainly paid for it the next day...

And on that note, we headed to the airport, off on the road to Mandalay! Part two coming soon!