Bagan - Traveling Thru History

Myanmar Travel Guide

Erin — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:58:39 +0000

Years ago, people would have hardly ever considered Myanmar when listing off dream destinations, but since the country has opened itself up to the world, it has become more and more popular as a tourist destination. We really didn’t know what to expect when we went there, so I decided to share what I’ve learned to help other people prepare for their trip. Overall, Myanmar is a really great country. It’s not as developed as the Western world, but it’s still such a fantastic place to visit. As long as you’re prepared for some of the nuances of a less-developed country with a vastly different culture, you will have a wonderful time there. BEFORE YOU GO VISA – You will need a visa to get into Myanmar. A standard single-entry tourist visa costs USD $50, is valid for 90 days and allows a trip length of 28 days. Business visas cost USD $70, are valid for 90 days and allow a trip length of 70 days. Recently Myanmar began accepting online applications for evisas. The evisa application and list of countries who are allowed to apply online can be found here. BRING EXTRA OF ANY NECESSITIES – whether it be something you NEED or something you just prefer, bring extra because finding medical items or comfort/convenience items is not always easy and will sometimes be impossible. If there is an item you MUST have or something you just won’t be happy without, bring a spare just in case. MONEY CURRENCY – The local currency is called kyat (pronounced similar to ‘chat’) and since 2012, the government is pushing for that to be used more than USD. Even so, you will still find places that will accept USD. ATMS & CREDIT CARDS – Myanmar is slowly starting to accept credit cards, but it is not widespread. ATMs are plentiful and some larger business are starting to take credit cards, but still be prepared to pay cash since most smaller shops and street vendors won’t take credit cards. MAKE SURE USD IS PRISTINE – The government won’t allow shopkeepers to trade bills with tears, smudges, creases or any type of imperfection, so the vendors will, in turn, not accept anything except a bill in perfect condition. I took all of our USD and ironed them before going on the trip and that took care of the creases and folds. Also, make sure none of your bills are older than 2006. BRING HARD CASE FOR MONEY – In order to keep your bills in mint condition, be sure to bring a flat wallet or hard case to keep the bills flat and unbent. BILL DENOMINATIONS – For exchanging at local exchange shops, you’ll want larger bills. Those get the best exchange rates. Still bring smaller bills, though, to use for tips and purchases at small shops or eateries. WHILE YOU ARE THERE DON’T DRINK THE WATER! – The water in Myanmar is not suitable for drinking. Water bottles are roughly USD .20, so it’s not too bad to have to buy water. Plus, the three hotels we stayed in were really good about giving us extra water when we left for the day, so be sure to ask your hotel for a bottle or two before heading out. LIMITED INTERNET AND CELL SERVICE – There is no public wifi in Myanmar, so if you need cell or internet service, pick up a SIM card. SIM cards are available at the airport and train stations. If you go to Bagan, you won’t have service even if you buy a local SIM card. The infrastructure of the country is still developing, so only the major cities have semi-reliable cell service. We survived 5 days only having insanely slow wifi in hotel lobbies and not having cell service at all when we were in Bagan, so it’s not hard to get by without it. REMOVE SHOES (AND SOMETIMES SOCKS) AT RELIGIOUS SITES – This is just how it is, no way around it. If you try to wear your shoes, you will be asked to either leave or go back and take your shoes off. This is a pretty big one and some people will get quite offended if you don’t respect their culture and remove your shoes before entering temples and shrines. HAGGLING IS EXPECTED – Unless you are in an actual store with posted prices, the vendors will negotiate with you. Some will drop the price quite a bit and others will only drop it a little. The higher a quantity you buy, the bigger the discount will be. Also, the more friendly and companionable you are, the more willing most of the vendors will be to lower the price. If you’re at a tourist spot and the vendor won’t negotiate, there’s most likely another vendor with similar items nearby. POWER GOES OUT PERIODICALLY – This happened to us every day we were there. Sometimes it was in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening. It was a little disconcerting to have the power go off while I was taking a shower. You may want to bring a flashlight. Sometimes the power only went off for less than a minute and sometimes it was close to 10 minutes. INSIST ON RECEIVING CHANGE IN THE SAME CURRENCY YOU PAID WITH – Since the government is pushing for the exclusive use of kyat, this may not be an issue for much longer, but it still is at the moment. If you pay in USD, make sure you are given USD in change. If they give you kyat instead of USD, you will end up being shorted. US POWER PLUGS – Every hotel we stayed at in Myanmar had US power outlets, so if you are from the US, you don’t need an adapter. If you are not from the US, bring a US-type power adapter. RELIGIOUS SITE DRESS CODE – when you visit any of the temples or religious sites, you will need to wear a shirt with sleeves (cap sleeves are fine) and longer shorts. It is offensive for you to go to their religious sites or enter their temples wearing anything that shows your shoulders or knees (men and women). Some places have cover-ups that you can purchase that are lightweight and have very pretty designs or you could bring something lightweight to throw on before going inside. SUPER DUSTY AND SMOKY – No matter where we went, it was either dusty or smoky. Or both. The locals burn weeds and other things, so you’ll smell a lot of smoke along with all the dust from it being so dry there. The rural areas are the worse, though you’ll still find the smoke and dust in the cities sometimes. If you have asthma or a breathing condition, bring an extra inhaler and/or whatever else you need to manage your condition. Face masks are a good idea, too. We wore ours several times when the dust got really bad. WEATHER – Myanmar has three seasons: hot, not too hot and hot & rainy. The best times to visit are between November and February. Those are the coolest months. We were there at the end of January and it was hot, but not too bad. Rainy season goes from May to October and the super hot time of year is March through May. COSTS FOOD – Food is so cheap there. Tourist hotspots will cost you a several dollars for a meal, but if you go to the smaller restaurants or street vendors, you can get a meal for $1-2. Bottled water is about .20 per bottle. HOTELS – Hotels vary. We got a cheap hotel in Yangon for $25 and it was okay, but the entire place reeked of cigarette smoke. We looked around town and found a place for $40 a night that was really nice and didn’t smell bad at all. In Bagan, we paid $25 a night and were happy with our hotel. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was comfortable and the staff was really nice. TAXIS – Taxis are pretty cheap. Some use meters and some don’t, but it shouldn’t cost more than $3 to cross the entire town. If the taxi doesn’t want to use a meter, don’t agree to pay more than $3 or 3700 kyat. SOUVENIRS – It depends on the site and the vendor. Some will charge less than $1 for some items while another vendor will charge $1-2 for the same item. Sand paintings are really cool (factory-made) and cost anywhere from $8-16, though if you buy several they’ll give you a discount. BUSES – You can ask your hotel to book a bus for you and arrange for you to be picked up from the hotel or somewhere nearby. Buses that the locals ride are adequate for short distances, but for the longer-distance trips, you’ll want to splurge for the ‘VIP’ bus. That can vary from $15-20 for a 12-hour trip, but it’s worth it. The ‘VIP’ bus comes with reclining seats, televisions, blankets, AC and complimentary meals. FYI MOST SOUVENIR PAINTINGS ARE FACTORY-MADE, NOT HANDMADE – Vendors like to tell people all the paintings are hand-made, but you will find the same ones at every temple. The ones that really are hand-made will be the ones that are unique and the ones where you can see the artists painting them. PAY FOR PICTURES – One of the things we found in Myanmar was that many people who you photograph will ask for money afterwards, even if you ask for permission before. We didn’t understand this at first and a lady yelled at us when we started walking away. Once we figured out what she was upset about, we gave her some money and she was happy. Not everyone will ask for money after you take a photo, but it does happen, especially in more touristy areas. SOMEONE WATCHES YOUR SHOES, THEY EXPECT YOU TO BUY SOMETHING – When visiting temples, it is required for you to take your shoes off. Sometimes vendors will offer to watch your shoes and when you come back, they’ll insist you purchase something since they watched your shoes and kept them safe. SOMEONE GUIDES YOU SOMEWHERE, THEY WILL EXPECT YOU TO BUY/PAY/DONATE – Periodically, someone will offer to show you something ‘really cool’ at whatever tourist place you are currently at and then take you to see it. Vendors want you to purchase something from them. Kids or teens will then try to get you to donate for their schooling or some ‘official’ charity thing that they have a form for. Random adults just want you to pay them for their service. If you have money to spare, go for it. If you are on a tighter budget, it’s best to just decline their offer and say you want to look around on your own. NO NON-SMOKING ROOMS IN THE CHEAP HOTELS – Myanmar doesn’t quite have the same bad view of smoking as the US does. Even though we reserved a non-smoking room in Yangon, we ended up with a heavily smoked in room and the front desk said all their rooms smelled like that when we went to inquire about changing rooms. We found the same response at all the cheaper hotels we contacted. It wasn’t until we contacted some of the mid-range hotels that we were able to find a true non-smoking room. If you absolutely require a non-smoking room, be sure to verify with the hotel that they do indeed have non-smoking rooms. TIPS BRING WET WIPES – the floors in public buildings can be quite dirty, so if you’re in a place where you have to also take your socks off, you will probably want to wipe your feet off before putting your socks and shoes back on. Plus, it’s really hot and dusty there and the wet wipes can be a periodic refresher during the day. WEAR EASILY REMOVED SHOES OR STURDY SANDALS – Pretty much every temple you go to will require you to remove your shoes before entering, so if you plan on going...

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She Myet Hna

Erin — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 20:43:46 +0000

She Myet Hna is one of the 2,200 Buddhist temples, stupas, payas and pagodas that still remain of the 10,000+ that were built in Bagan, Myanmar. While most have are in ruins or disrepair, this one has been preserved and restored. We actually found this temple by accident. One of the modes of transportation in Bagan is the bicycle. We rented our bikes from our hotel, Thante Nyaung U, and rode off in search of some of the temples. As you can see, our hotel wasn’t too far from Old Bagan. Old Bagan is the section inside the blue lines on the left side of the picture. It took us maybe 20-30 minutes to bike back to the hotel once we were done for the day. When we took off from the hotel we were actually looking for Shwezigone Temple, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and when we rounded the corner we found this one. There are a lot of streets not marked on maps and we got lost several times. It wasn’t too bad, though, because getting lost in Bagan just means you find more temples you weren’t expecting. Being that She Myet Hna was the first temple we saw I figured that it should have the honor of being the first Bagan temple I wrote about. Not much is known about She Myet Hna. The locals say it has been there as long as they can remember, but nobody knows how old it is, what prompted it to be built or if She Myet Hna is its original name. The history of it isn’t important to them, they just know it was built as a place of worship and reflection. To them, it’s just another one of the religious sites that cover the land. Another face in a crowded room that showed up one day and nobody knows why. Maybe someday someone will unearth a hidden text that names all the temples and explains what their purpose was. Maybe one day we will know why so many religious structures were built in the same area. Maybe one day we will truly understand what Bagan really means. We did find a placard with writing on it, but haven’t been able to find someone who can translate it. Does this tell the history of this temple? Does this explain more about Bagan? Perhaps it does. It’s actually driving me a little crazy to not know what this says. Perhaps it just explains a bit about Buddhism or maybe it just talks about the restoration of the temple. I really wish someone could tell me. This is a dvarapala. They are guardians set to protect the holy place inside the temple. Since She Myet Hna is small and has no real interior, prayers are done from the individual doorways and this dvarapala protects from outside the temple. One of the nice things about Bagan is that there are many places to get water. These are communal drinking basins. You just take the plate off the top, get yourself a cup of water and then place the cup upside down on the plate over the top of the ceramic basin. While it’s nice for locals, I wouldn’t recommend drinking the water from places like this. This water is usually from nearby lakes or streams and isn’t filtered or treated. Modern day Buddhist graffiti. It’s sad that someone would deface the temple, but I do have to admit it’s a pretty good drawing. These figure are known as deva statues. When King Anawratha was crowned in 1044 AD he began unifying the kingdom of Burma and instituted Theravada Buddhism as the national religion. In order to appease local cults and ensure peace, King Anawrath adopted nats and devas into the Buddhist culture. Buddhism revolves around the concept of reincarnation, but offshoot branches believe that violent deaths prevent a person from being reincarnated, thus their spirit roams and becomes dangerous to the living. Burmese Buddhism believes that these statues are a place where those spirits can dwell and be somewhat at peace. These guys are known as leogryphs or chinthe. Chinthe are almost always depicted in pairs and serve to protect the pagoda. They typically appear as animals, but are sometimes found with human faces. Why do chinthe guard temples and pagodas? Well, according to legend, a princess and a lion fell in love and were married. They had a son, but the princess eventually abandoned the lion who became enraged and began terrorizing the lands. When the princess’s son grew up, he sought out and killed the lion in an effort to protect the people. It was only after the prince returned and told his mother what he’d done that he found out he had killed his own father. To atone for his sin, the prince constructed a statue of a lion to stand as guardian of the local temple and thus the tradition began. The chinthe is revered and loved by the Burmese people and is used symbolically on the royal thrones of Burma. Predating the use of coins for money, brass weights cast in the shape of mythical beasts like the chinthe were commonly used to measure standard quantities of staple items. And ever since the creation of modern currency in Myanmar there have been chinthe on the bills and the coins.

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Photo Essay: Sunset From A Forgotten Monastery

Erin — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:41:58 +0000

On our first day in Bagan, Myanmar, we spent a lot of time riding our bikes from temple to temple. We thought it was the best experience ever and didn’t think there was anything that could surpass it. But then we were talking to a shop keeper at one of the tourist stalls in front of Ananda Temple and he said that we should come back there at sunset. Well, why?, we asked. We’d already seen the temple in the daylight. Why would we want to come see it in the dark? That’s when he told us that we could get a wonderful view of the sunset from the top of the monastery just beyond the temple. and that it’s a popular tourist activity. We were floored. We had never even considered watching a sunset from one of the temples. But now, now we were determined that nothing was going to stop us from doing so. Being able to watch a sunset from the top the ruins of an ancient monastery is an experience like none other. I’m kinda sad that nobody knows the name of the monastery (and that for some inexplicable reason I have no photos of it), but that didn’t detract from the experience at all. Kind of makes it seem a little mysterious. We got to the temple earlier than the vendor recommended, which ended up being a good thing. There weren’t a ton of people there, but soon after we got there a few buses showed up. While we were waiting for the magic to start, we began talking with the people around us and listening to their stories. It was fun being able to joke with other travelers and hear about their interesting experiences. I really loved how happy and excited everyone was to be there. While we waiting for the sun to go down, we were also taking pictures of the landscape. All those temples and everything around the monastery was just breathtaking. Once the sun started going down, everyone glued themselves to their cameras. Those of you who know me know that I try to get photos of myself and Troy at each of the places we visit. One of our new friends noticed we were setting up to take a selfie and kindly offered to take a photo of us. I think it turned out quite nicely. Once the sunset was over and we made our way back to our bikes, we rode past a grouping of stupas. With the light fading behind them, it appears as though they are guardians of the land and protectors of the Bagan culture. Stay strong, mighty warriors. There’s still a long fight ahead.

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Sunset at Shwe Sandaw Pagoda

Erin — Tue, 26 May 2015 01:00:20 +0000

Shwe Sandaw Pagoda was built in Bagan, Myanmar, in 1057 AD by King Anawrahta. It consists of five levels of red brick and a large stupa that is topped with a golden umbrella. The white color you see on the temple now wasn’t always there. Up until 1957, Shwe Sandaw Pagoda had retained most of its original design, aside from aging, minor repairs and upkeep. But in 1957, the Pagoda Trustees decided to renovate and modernize the temple by adding plaster embellishments and limewash on the upper half of the temple. When full-scale restorations began in the 1990’s, they restored the plaster and limewash finish instead of removing it to make it look as it had originally. It’s sad that the temple was modified so noticeably, but it still has a rugged, ancient feel to it, so it’s not too terribly bad. In some places you can see where the plaster has come off and shows the red brick underneath, so hopefully they will restore it to its original look soon. Like all pagodas, the pagoda on top of Shwe Sandaw has the privilege of being home to sacred Buddhist relics. Inside this pagoda resides a few strands of hair that belonged to Gautama Buddha, the person whom the teachings of Buddhism were founded. These hairs were originally enshrined in the town of Thaton in southern Myanmar, but they were moved to Shwe San Daw just before construction was completed. One of the unique features of this temple is that there are stairs on all four sides. Most temples just have stairs on one side, so it’s quite distinctive that this has them on each side. It’s unclear why this one would be so different, but it definitely makes it a lot easier to get up and down the levels when there are tons of tourists. The only downside, though, is that the stairs are quite steep. But, on the plus side, I did feel like I’d gotten all my squats and lunges in for the day. Or week. We went up and down the stairs a few times. Once you get to the top, though, it’s very worth the effort. The views are just breathtaking. There are four of these image houses around Shwe Sandaw. They used to house Buddha statues made of brick and bronze, but these images have been removed to the National Museum in Yangon and the Archaeological Museum in Bagan. All that are remaining are made of stone. Some of the image houses have frescoes inside, but most have been damaged by time, vandalism and earthquakes. I was surprised when we walked around the side and looked down on our horse cart. Our lonely little horse was stuck with all those dressed up oxen. We found it rather humorous. Partway through our sunset viewing, we noticed a Dragon Lady down by the front of the temple. We’d heard about them, but had yet to see one, so we scurried down to see if the Dragon Ladies were really what people had said. And, she was. It was really interesting to see a Dragon Lady. We’d heard stories about them, but it’s very different to actually see the brass coils around her neck than to hear about it. And I’d had no clue they also put them around their knees. I wanted to ask if it was painful to have them put on, but she didn’t speak any English. I felt a little silly, gawking at her like we were, but that seemed to be the reason she was there. Periodically she would point to a bowl a few feet in front of her and ask for kyat. She wanted us to pay for looking at her. Someone later told us that the money is also a compensation for her pain. We were receiving joy for her pain (not sure I would call it joy as much as curiosity or intrigue) and thus had to pay her for it. Close by her, there was a younger girl who had her own brass rings around her neck. We had fun watching her weave wraps. They’re very beautiful and it was fun seeing how fast she could go. Before heading back up the temple steps again, we wandered around a bit and saw this guy. It’s creepy, yet cool at the same time. After a while we made our way back up the temple and watched as the sun made its way down to the horizon. Most of the sky where the sun was setting was covered in clouds, so we didn’t get the spectacularly colorful sunset we’d been hoping for, but I did get a few nice shots. This one is my favorite. After a while, Troy got bored by the sunset and wanted to leave before the sun was all the way down, so we made our way down to our horse cart. That actually ended up being a really great idea because we got some beautiful shots of Shwe Sandaw against the sky. And then, as we were driving away in our cute little horse cart, the colors came out.

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