in a room
more specifically, the room of my hotel manager's son. he's a bit of a computer geek and is letting me use his stuff, as well as loitering in the background to fix things when the mandatory 'access denied' sign pops up. legend (though maybe not one for banter down the pub bless, and he seems to be hooked up to some chat network that means i'm constantly being inundated by dirty old oriental men. happy days).
still not that impressed by mandalay. it's like an indian city, crammed, dusty, and full of annoying touts: the ancient fort should be its heart, but it's so dominated by smog and roads that it fails miserably. instead, all the major organs are charmless, squat grey buildings, devoid of personality and history. i had a respite today when i rented a bike and went to a couple of the surrounding ancient cities. cycling in the centre of town is an experience: it's like going on an obstacle course while smoking twenty cigarettes where the consequences of error are death. i did work out why most burmese cycle so interminably slowly though, having realised the error of building up any speed by smacking into the back of a pick up. it was gentle amble with regular, but controllable, swerving after that one. still, once out of the centre the ride was very nice, as i maintained the cycling equivalent of a stroll on a reasonable road alongside the arewaddy river. both the cities were pleasant enough, although i have to say that i may finally be stupaed out. they are everywhere, so to be impressed it has to be an absolute stunner. and i got chased by another dog. after having climbed up about a hundred steps. bastard. anyway, it was a 50km+ round trip, so needless to say i was an absolute dripping wreck when i returned, and have resolved to take it easy for a while. off to the night market now to try and find some chinese chocolate, a meander round the back streets tomorrow will hopefully allow this place to redeem itself.
inle lake
8 hours of hell. the timimg of the 5am local bus from bagan to inle would have been painful enough even if i hadn't been dumped in the window seat that sacrificed its leg room to one of the wheel arches. add to that a tiny space packed to the rafters (and beyond... the old visual stereotype of grinning natives capering about on the roof was shamelessly reinforced here) with people, produce, and sunshine and you can see why i was pretty weary when i stumbled out into nwaung she in the late afternoon. still, life became a lot sweeter once i checked into the queen inn. despite the fact that this place isn't in the lp (and most travellers follow the bible pretty blindly), the guesthouse had been recommended to me by almost every traveller that had been to inle. i'll be spreading the love too over the next few days because the people were amazingly friendly and the food was stunning. add to that riverside views over a cracking little dinner table designed for adda with other travellers and you can see why there were many happy bunnies in residence.
inle lake is a large expanse of clear water filled with houses on stilts and various other curiousities to gape at. 5 of us hired a boat and left at 6am to avoid paying the entrance fee: an added bonus was sunrise over the lake, which was real postcard stuff. the boat tour was actually very chilled. we got taken to endless workshops (silversmiths, cheroot makers, silk makers), drank copious amounts of free tea, and blushingly avoided buying a single thing. i know it's all relative, but we're poor goddamn it! just journeying on the lake was a pleasure: cruising around in a boat in the sunshine beats the smog filled roads that infest the rest of south east asia by a fair distance. the culmination of the trip was a visit to the jumping cat monastery: this is basically a normal monastery where the monks, or rather one monk, has taught a bunch of cats to jump through hoops. that's it. the rest of the time the cats just laze around the monastery floor. the monk in charge of the cats was a bit of a legend (burmese monks rule!) with some great banter and a worrying love for manchester united (closer than most fans i suppose).
myanmar continues to throw up other interesting travellers. special shout to tal who cancelled his one year open ticket and is now in his 15th month (trekking from manali to leh in 22 days, over all the passes, first marked him out for good lad status. the fact that he only has two t shirts with him for the whole trip consolidated it). the burmese people themselves are also incredibly friendly once you get them on their own (more on this once i've left maybe).
anyway, after a couple of days i left for mandalay. the seven hour trip took thirteen, because a blockage up one of the hills meant a three hour wait followed by a couple of hours trying to clear the two way backlog on a single track road. finally made it, checked in and am going to take it very easy today, before going for a super cycle to some of the ancient cities around mandalay tomorrow. first impressions of the city are pretty poor, polluted and full of people hassling you which, whilst consistent with asia in general, is certainly the exception in myanmar. let's hope it can redeem itself.
bagan
the bus journey wasn't too painful at all: the ten hours of burmese karaoke were actually a lot more hazardous than the numerous bumps in the road. i arrived in nyaung u, about 10km east of bagan, at about 5am, headed straight to a guesthouse, and passed out in blissful silence.
after coming too i realised that the warnings i'd gotten about the heat in this area were not exaggerations. it's absolutely searing, and you pretty much have to write off the middle of the day. given the telling off i already got from my gran in cal for having got darker this is particularly essential for me if i want to avoid another ear bending next month. still, in the late afternoon i got up and went for a bit of a wander and saw a few of the stupas close to the village (as well as getting chased by a dog trying to protect his pregnant special lady friend: not one of my most dignified scrambles!) i also had to duck into one of the monasteries for a while to escape a sudden downpour and had another run in with some burmese monks, who were again remarkably cheery. i spent the evening chatting to another traveller (yo katie) and the bloke who ran the indian restaurant we were eating at (he has a remarkably sad story which i may recant if i remember too at some juncture where my entries aren't so open to scrutiny. actually there's a few things i'd like to say that i can't, so i'll make a catch all summary of my disquiet towards the way things are run here when in mumbai).
i'm not a great one for early mornings, so getting up at 4.30am the next day was a struggle. i jumped on the bike i'd rented, a sturdy indian hero, that, whilst very functional, has the same effect on your posterior as a few weeks at prep school: sore bums all round. bagan consists of a huge number of stupas, of varying shapes and sizes, dotted across a plain by the irrawaddy river. if you cycle along from nyaung u under the stars, various buildings loom out of the darkness from the side of the road. it's quite an eery sensation, as limited visibility means you don't see these large structures until they're right in your face. the first couple almost made me fall over with shock. at about 5am i reached sheshandaw paya, the highest temple you're allowed to climb, scrambled up the unneccesarily steep stairs (crazy buddhists!) in the dark , and sat myself down. getting up early has never been so worth it. as the sun inched up in the east, turning the clouds on the horizon a furious red, the plains of bagan revealed themselves in their true glory. as it got lighter and lighter, more and more temples (there are over 3,000 in all) became visible, dotted all over the vista. anytime you looked up the sun was continuing its natural firework show, slowly transforming from a crimson glow to a fuller yellow. i was completely alone on the terrace, surrounded by the singing of the waking birds and a truly spectacular view.
eventually a couple of japanese tourists arrived, so i hopped back on my bike and, pausing only to check out a few of the stupas, i headed back for breakfast and a nap. in the afternoon, i wandered into the archaeolgical zone to further explore some of the individual temples. at bagan, it really is more about quantity than quality. whilst the view across the plain is truly stunning, even the big draw stupas aren't that impressive in their own right. furthermore, as it's low season, i was often the only foreigner around, which meant i was the focal point for all the touts and crap sellers (all of whom seemed to be obssessed with my live strong band, and are constantly trying to swap it for paintings and the like).
sunset at sheshandaw was an altogther more depressing affair, as the top of the terrace was packed with noisy tourists. i closed myself off into a little bubble, and the sun dipping into the irrawaddy was beautiful enough, but all i could think about was the blissful solitude of twelve hours ago.
myanmar's quite a small place and, partly thanks to government restrictions, has a fairly well mapped out tourist circuit. it also consistently throws up more interesting fellow travellers, and less dross, then most other places i've been. special note goes to mark, a frenchman who hates the french (don't we all!) and is thus moving to yangon for good to teach at l'alliance francaise, katie, a very safe english grad from ucla, and uri/ dan/ stu, good lads to have a quiet beer myanmar with at any time. waiting for it to get a bit cooler, then heading off into the less well known southern plain to check out some of the less visited temples. it's another 4.30am start tomorrow, but this time to get the bus to inle lake (why so early? bastards!)
