Myanmar

Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3PnMBkJjAhQiJ4DT6

Myanmar is probably one of the most pleasant surprises I have ever had while travelling. To be honest, I did not have too high expectations, because outside of Cambodia (which to be fair is my all-time favorite tourist place I have visited), I have found Southeast Asia to be highly overrated in my limited experiences there, especially Thailand. That said, Myanmar was awesome. Went with my little sister, mom, and soon-to-be 78 year old grandma.

We arrived in Yangon on New Year’s Eve, and promptly went to bed by 9 or 10pm because a) my mom and sister were jetlagged and b) we had a 7am flight to Bagan the next morning. That said, it didn’t even register to me that it was New Year’s Eve. And as sacrilegious as it sounds, the fact that it was Christmas while I was in Hampi also didn’t really register with me at all, and I (used to?) loooove Christmas. I think one thing about holidays/occasions is that I almost needed them to escape the drudgery of day to day corporate life (#LateStageCapitalism)…it was almost like a release valve. Sort of like how I would spend every week counting down to the weekend. On a somewhat related note, I have only gotten *very* drunk on three separate occasions since I have left the US (Deepavali party at my uncle and aunt’s, in Pokhara with my trekking buddies my last night there, and in Bangkok with my two friends from Chicago). I don’t really have any desire to get drunk now that I have the freedom to do what I want every day. Really the only things that help me keep track of the days are Eagles games (and that’s not going to happen until next September) and Leeds United games. I’m gonna be in for a super rude awakening once I un-retire in the summer of 2023, but I can worry about that later.

For possibly the first time in forever, I actually felt that I spent too little time at a few places during this trip – this was true for both Bagan and Mandalay.

Bagan

We stayed in this beyond bougie resort in Bagan called Aureum. While Bagan was not as amazing as Cambodia (obviously) or Hampi, it was still a pretty cool area. It’s just a vast field with small Buddhist temples and shrines dotting the landscape – there are over three thousand in like a 6 square kilometer area. We were only here for two days so did not see as much as I would have liked, but it was still enough to get a good flavor. I think a part of it was that I found a lot of the temples to be very repetitive architecturally, while the Hindu temples in Cambodia and Hampi were much more grand and varied. But even besides that, it was definitely a nice area to visit. I also went on a hot-air balloon ride for sunrise with my sister, and while it was nice, I don’t think it was worth the cost at all and honestly feel like it is a mildly overrated activity. The views from up top were amazing, but…I think seeing Cambodia and Hampi in the past month made me not appreciate this as much as I otherwise would have. But I would still highly recommend Bagan!

Mandalay

Mandalay was by far the biggest surprise of the trip. I was expecting a (relatively speaking) “eh” location, but it was incredible. This was partially my fault as I literally did zero research for Myanmar, I guess. The first day, we did a day trip to a town called Ava which had a bunch of cool abandoned temples and stupas, a massive abandoned stone palace, and a really cool, intricately carved old wooden monastery. This abandoned old capital wasn’t objectively as cool as Bagan was, but it was still a nice continuation of my ruined temple tour during this start of my retirement. We were only here for less than half a day but I could have easily spent a full day here. We ended this first day visiting the world’s longest teak-wood bridge, which doubled up as the worlds longest tourist trap.

On the second day, we took a boat ride down the river from downtown Mandalay for an hour to get to the outskirts of the city. Here, we saw this MASSIVE brick structure, which was supposed to be the base of what was going to be the world’s largest stupa. Construction was halted in the 1700s, and an earthquake left massive fissures and cracks running through the incomplete construction. If it weren’t for these cracks, it would have looked like a natural cliff sticking up in the middle of the flat land. Seeing the giant doorways on each side of this gave off a very fantasy-movie (not necessarily LOTR) vibe. Definitely one of the coolest things I have seen during this trip. After this, we saw this giant white stepped temple that kind-of-sort-of looked vaguely like Minas Tirith, or like a wedding cake. And finally, while leaving this area, we walked by the entrance of the unfinished stupa, which had the destroyed remnants (from the same earthquake) of the world’s largest stone lions – since lions are at the entrance of a lot of stupas and Buddhist temples. In Mandalay itself, three highlights were the royal palace area, another very intricately carved wooden monastery, and a temple with rows and rows of small marble white shrines.

Inle Lake

Inle Lake was another pretty cool location. Though in hindsight, I think I would have scrapped this, and added a day to Bagan and a day in Mandalay (for a full day in Ava). That said, still glad that I came here. We stayed in another super bougie place called Pristine Lotus, where we would take a boat directly to the lake to see some of the sites. The coolest part of Inle Lake was seeing the village of Inndein, where there were more abandoned stupas. Sort of like a Bagan-lite. It was also just nice and relaxing to sit back and boat around to go from place to place for a few days.

One thing that I really did not like, was when we went to see a tribe of women with long necks. This basically felt like a human zoo, and reminded me of the “cultural experience” of seeing the Masai perform a dance for us while in Kenya. Very much felt like a human zoo and it left a really sour taste in my mouth. We also did a lot of “cultural” activities, like visiting different types of tailors, a silversmith, etc. Made me realize that I’m not really a fan of these at all, and would rather focus on seeing historical things.

Yangon

The primary highlight in Yangon was the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the world’s largest pagoda. It’s actually an incredibly impressive monument, and we spent a few hours just walking around and taking in the view. While in general I much prefer the architecture and style of what I call mountain buddhism (like in Ladakh) versus what you see in Southeast Asia, but that said, this was still an incredibly impressive place. One of the most visually stunning structures I have seen in the past few months.

Myanmar was definitely one of the better trips I have taken (would place it on par with East China and Rajasthan, and above Nepal and Sri Lanka – which I still obviously enjoyed! But it’s impossible to do what I’m doing and not continuously compare every trip). Really the only negative was the food, but that might be because I was with three vegetarians and the tour we did took us to “safe” tourist restaurants with bland food. Funnily enough, the two best meals of the trip were the two times we went to Indian restaurants. I think that Bagan and Mandalay were the two absolute highlights of the trip, while Yangon is really nice for a day and Inle Lake is nice if you have the time to add it on.

My sister flies out to Dublin for her study abroad in a few days, while my mom is staying back in India until the end of February. My next trip is a Tamil Nadu road trip with my mom for ~10 days to see a bunch of cool temples and the abandoned Chettinad mansions.