Goodbyes Again

When we got back from Bagan we had to say goodbye to Andre and Heidi.  We say goodbye in style here in Myanmar.  We had a goodbye trip (that was to Bagan, and they went on to another place when we went back to Yangon).  We had a goodbye tea-break.  We don't skimp on snacks either!

Egg-rolls and sticky rice too!  The egg-rolls I like.  The sticky rice, well, I am trying to like it.  I want to like it.  But I am not there yet.  The tea-break was also for Kyaw Min who has been on construction since the beginning but who moved to another assignment in Bethel.  We miss him on site!

Kyaw Min, Morris and John our overseer.

That evening Andre and Heidi had organized an auction for their surplus things they didn't want to pack back to Australia with them.  Brian played the auctioneer and the rule was, whoever had their hand up first wins the item.  Some items were very popular.  Like this one:

Yup, that's a J.Lo CD.  And who wants it?  The boys.  They love them some J.Lo songs.  Laughs all around!  Other items were so popular that they inspired competitions!  I mean, demonstrations of strength.  The french press for instance.  It was so popular that the sisters did push-ups for it.  I could have beaten them all but didn't want to run out of steam and embarrass myself.  Later that night I checked to see if I could have and I did.  Rats.  Next time, confidence and go for it!  You wouldn't think that re-fried beans would be worth arm-wrestling for but as this picture shows:

They are!  Morris won after a championship round.  No party would be complete without some live music:

In case you were wondering I won a packet of chili powder.  I had my eye on that can of coconut milk but Sandar beat me to it.  Grr!

Thought you would like to see a picture of the progress.  It's different now but as we are proceeding in order..

We were awoken earlier that week by a massive rustling sound and boom.  Turns out a tree had fallen over in the neighbors yard.

We are in the white house.  Picture taken from roof of new building.

I was excited at first since it meant the stupid birds weren't right outside our window in the early morning.  Then the sawing started. To cut up the tree. It lasted a month and a half.  Then they started rebuilding.  Still no sleeping in.

Wednesday after meeting we went out with some from the congregation for the final goodbye!  Here are the girls:

 Well, it was almost the final goodbye because then we said actual goodbyes the next morning.  No pictures of that.  It is hard to say goodbye to people you have become so close with and have worked and lived with for months.  I don't even want to think about when we will leave.  Nope.  Too hard.

They made it home safely and hopefully we will see them again on a later project!  One thing about it, you always run into people again sooner or later!

Bagan, Day 2

Well, Day 2 in Bagan was much tamer than Day 1.  We had a little bit of a lazy morning.   Took some pictures of our view.  Now, remember how I said that the people live and work among the ancient ruins?  This is just an example.  Also, this is still our view from our ROOM!  Now, all of you know I don't like to brag, but this picture is pretty good. At least, I think so.  I am just waiting for the offers from the major magazines and travel books to pour in.......Crickets.....Huh.  Maybe not.  Oh well!

Then after breakfast we hired a horse drawn carriage. Oh yes we did.  For the day.  It was SO COOL!   We clippety clopped around and were passed by this clickety clackety tractor.  He was so happy to be passing somebody.

We went back to the Golden Cuckoo Laquerware shop since one of our friends had missed it the day before and like I said, you don't want to miss it.  It was great though because we learned more this time around.  This picture is the progress the same girl had made since the previous day, as shown in my previous post.  So intricate!  She may have worked on other pieces in the meantime, I don't know but it certainly would require such patience, concentration and good eyesight!

One other bonus about returning again was I got a second souvenir!  One for each visit dontchaknow!  This time I got a bracelet from the special shop in the back.  It was the cheapest  thing in the pricy section and all I could afford anyways.  Matt got the hint after I kept aimlessly sorting through the bracelet bowl and trying on this and that and asking his opinion.  Then I'd wander away, and somehow drift back.  Ahem..  I do love my bracelet though!  The way they make it laquerware is so detailed, I have tons of pictures and I would love to show them on request but I don't have time to get into it all now.  So if you want to know, feel free to ask!  After not one but 2 visits to the Golden Cuckoo we are pretty  much experts.  Almost.  Minus the artistic creative genius bit.

This is the front of the shop.  Check out the cow cruising through!

I just realized I got excited over a cow.  Must have been away from Wyoming too long!  Around the time we left and saw the cow it started to rain.  So we sought shelter and food.  Our poor driver tried to find shelter too but he got soaked.  I felt terrible for him.  But he kept smiling!  He was a great driver, we had such a nice day.

We checked out the view from one more place before we headed back to the hotel.  I found a bird to take a picture of for my dad.

Here is the view:

As we left the last site I almost got attacked by a vicious dog.  Fortunately I was able to get away unscathed, thanks to my amazing reflexes and the aid of an obliging local.  We crowded in the back of a little truck for the ride back to the bus and off we went.  9 more hours on the bus.  2 toilet stops.  One of which was very questionable.  I don't want to talk about it. 2 persistent snorers, very persistent.   Arrived at "ridiculous o'clock" in the morning.  Taxi drivers tried to rip us off again, reasoning with us that they had been waiting since eleven at night for the bus.  So naturally we should pay you more, because you don't have the sense to come for the bus when you know it will be there rather than 5 hours ahead.  Anyways.  Rant over.  We got home and were able to sleep a bit:).  That concludes the Bagan adventure! If you come to Myanmar, you might not want to miss making your own  trek to Bagan! ( Although if you have the cash, you could consider flying.  The bus is totally fine, and I recommend it to all who are interested in saving some money and don't mind the adventure of it.  But if you have the money..... )  We had a great time and would go again, given the chance.  It was great to see how normal people live here, outside of the city that is.

Til next time!

Golden Cuckoo to the Golden Sunset

After very nice conversation over a yummy lunch of Thai Green Curry we headed out for more sightseeing.

 

By the way it is pronounced Bah-GAHN.  Just in case you were wondering.

Our first stop was a laquerware  workshop, of which there are many in Bagan.  Traditional Myanmar laquerwear is an amazing process that take months to produce one piece.  It's very intricate and delicate work.

 Each detail is carved carefully by hand.

 The artistry is amazing.

 I will not go into all the details, I would like to but I am afraid we have been a little short on time lately and so I will share the highlights as I can.  However, if you ever visit Bagan, drop in at the Golden Cuckoo Laquerware Workshop.  It's well worth your time!

Bagan is set in a plain that is littered with hundreds of stupas, pagodas and temples that are centuries old.  It is absolutely unlike any other place I have ever been.  It felt like being in an Indiana Jones movie!  In fact, It would make a great place to set a film!  I will share just a few pics with you.  This is Ananda Paya.  It is almost one thousand years old. 

 

Notice the excellent droolage on this ancient statue:

 

 The temples are scattered everywhere and the people live and work among them.

 After seeing a few of the more important structures we raced to the Sunset Pagoda to see the...you guessed it....The Sunset.  The name kind of gave it away.

And it was a beautiful sunset!

 Recognize these two adventurers?

 Told ya it's like an Indiana Jones movie.

Well, that was the end of, ONE day.  Yes, all the adventures from the bus to the sunset took place in 25 hours. Ok, one day and one hour.   Phew.  We were a little tired.  I lie.  We were totally wiped out!  So we went to bed (after a nice meal with a puppet show)  and the next day came bright and early!

Mt. Popa and the Monkeys Who Live There

We drove up to Mt. Popa to see the view over the valley.  We didn't get to the exact spot we wanted (we figured that out later, oh well!) but we still had some nice views.

 

 We went into the village area at the base of the large rock you see above and saw the local wildlife.

 That's right, free range monkeys. The place was absolutely crawling with monkeys. At first we were all thrilled and snapping pictures right and left of the monkeys.  As you can see we got some good pictures.  Then we realized that they are pests and annoying.  Fun to look at on the one hand but seriously gross on the other.  They look cuter in the right setting.  On the plus side, it was the first time for us to see monkeys in the wild!

We took in the view that we did have and did a little shopping in the town.

 

Then we headed back down the mountain for lunch and more touring.  Oh ok.  One more monkey picture. 

 Patti, we thought of you the whole time we were hanging with the monkeys.  We know how much you love them.  Wish you were there with us;D

Hotel and Palm Products

We started Day 1 in Bagan with a nice breakfast at our hotel.  It was nice to see the hotel in the daylight, it was very pretty.

We hadn't brought our swimsuits so we didn't get to make use of the pool, but it was still worth taking pictures of.

See how it's all surrounded by little temples?  So exotic.

Then we made arrangements to have a driver for the day.  Which was a pretty nice arrangement, he took us everywhere we wanted to go for 70 dollars.  There were 6  of us so it's a good deal!

The first stop is a toddy and jaggery (palm sugar) shop.

When we first got out of the car we saw peanut oil being made.

We got to hop on and watch from the inside too!  As the animal walks the mortar rotates and presses the oil out of the peanuts and it comes out of a little spout in the bottom.

A local family lives and works at the shop.  Here is one of the little ones with her Mama playing with a piece of palm frond.

They both have Thanaka on their faces.  Isn't she so CUTE?

To get the sap from the trees they have long ladders they attach to the trees and climb up, then they hack off a frond and place a clay pot under it to collect it as it drips out.  They switch the pots out twice a day at certain times or it is not any good.

They can distill the sap into alcohol:

  Also palm sugar which they make into candy:

They don't waste the palm fronds either, they use them to make useful things, as well as toys and decorations:

Obviously we had to sample the wares:

 The alcohol was very stout and the sugar was very sweet.  We bought a packet of the candies.  On that note Matt tried one when we were in the hotel and after that started telling me we should share with some of the boys.  I thought he was crazy.  Share my exotic sugar candy? Um, I don't think so. Until we got home and I tried one.  Well...forget sharing, give it away completely!!!!  Get it out of the room!  I had to eat 3 Oreos to get the taste out of my mouth.  YUCK!!!! Actually the ones that we tried at the shop were very nice.  However the packet had clearly been sitting out in the sun for too long and had gone off.  Very, very off.  So, I can only recommend trying the ones you buy before you drive off into the sunset.  Figuratively speaking.  That way you can be sure to have something to enjoy and not make your room smell sour and your breath smell worse.

Before we stop, I want to share one more picture.  See these clay pots?

 If you come to Myanmar you will see many of them alongside the road.  They are community water jars.  You know, instead of community fountains.  I think its endearing the way they do things here the old way.  I also would never drink from them, personally.  In Moldova it was safe to drink from the wells because they were clean and the culture was such that the wells were respected.  In Myanmar you really need to know where your water is coming from.  As in, a sealed bottle or filtered tap.  As a visitor that is.  Just saying. 

Ok.  Enough for now. Keep in touch, we are enjoying the emails we have been getting!

Bus to Bagan

Late afternoon on Thursday Sept 6th we got off work early to head to the bus station.  Amply supplied with snacks we, along with 2 other couples, crowded into a taxi and set off.  Our taxi driver had some uptempo music playing so we clipped along at a good pace.  Then a sappy song came on the radio and the miles per hour decreased.  Another gas station later and we made it to our destination. How the taxi driver could have an idea of where he was going in that maze of buses I will never know. 

Blocks and blocks of buses.

 However, we made it.  Our bus "station".

Boarding our bus:

 People take the opportunity to sell snacks, magazines and water to the waiting passengers.  This friendly man was using his portable deep fryer.  It's really clever actually, they have a metal container full of coals and a wok perched on top.  You see people carrying these contraptions everywhere, the oil still merrily bubbling as they walk along.

The problem is, it smells yummy.  However, unless you want to spend some extremely uncomfortable hours on the bus you shouldn't try these goodies unless your stomach is accustomed to it.  And it takes a long time to become accustomed to it.  We have never eaten street food here and have been advised that it wouldn't be a good idea to try it.  We do enjoy watching them make it though!

As the bus pulled away from the station we saw  group of young men playing Chinlone:

This game is a played in a circle with a rattan ball kicked up in the air between players.  It is a favorite past-time here.  If you walk around in the evenings and keep your eyes open down streets and in people's yards you will almost always see a game in progress.

Our bus left at 6 in the evening and we rode through the night in air conditioned comfort.  Actually, the A/C was overzealous and we froze. However, if you had to chose between freezing or humid and smelly we would rather have the A/C on.  Good thing I brought a scarf and sweater!  I would recommend a blanket next time though.  As it was a nine hour bus ride we arrived at 3 am in Bagan.  Or as Jody put it, Silly O'Clock in the Morning.  Why we left at 6 to arrive in the middle of the night will be a mystery to us forever.  However we did and sleepy eyed we piled out of the bus and finally decided to take an overpriced taxi to our hotel and see if we could crash in the lobby.

Piling into the back of our "Taxi

The ride to our hotel in the middle of the night was an adventure.  The air was different in Bagan, not quite as moist so to us it felt like a desert.  We could really smell the dust in the air, something that hasn't happened since we were in Wyoming in June.  As it happened our hotel was very accommodating and let us check into our rooms extremely early. They didn't even charge us extra except for breakfast.  We slept a couple hours before we were ready to begin exploring.

A Very Special Visit

Our time here coincided with the visit of the Project Overseer.  In case you are wondering what a Project Overseer does, I will tell you!  Now, I don't know everything that they do, but I will share what I do know.  They travel to the different construction projects in their region to encourage the team and make sure that everything is running smoothly.    It is similar to a Circuit Overseer, except they travel much further and they focus on construction.  When we were in Moldova we were there for the visit of the P.O. as well.  The visit is a very up-building and exciting time.  It's so nice to get to know them and learn about things going on in other countries.  It makes you see beyond the task that you are doing and feel that you are contributing to a worldwide building effort.  During their visit they give a talk to encourage the team.

Here is our team, ready for the talk to start!

  The team is made up of people both local and from abroad, so it was interpreted into Myanmar.

Brother Banks assisted by a local brother.

 This one was about being up-building.  We were encouraged to stay positive and encourage those around us.  We also learned about some of the construction projects coming up in the region under the direction of the Australian Branch.  Since this is a public blog I will not post details, but you are free to ask me privately if you would like.

After the talk we all visited for awhile and took some pictures before going back to work.

In the afternoon we headed off on another adventure, so that will begin in the next post!