Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and its beauty, magic and mystery are difficult to capture in words - it has to be experienced. India, which I visited before Myanmar, was mostly about vibrant colours and enticing smells; Myanmar was all pagodas, Buddhist statues, floating tomato fields and markets; but even though Myanmar borders on India, the people could not be more different. The Burmese are lovely - in their simplicity and honesty, and they are truly welcoming people, whilst the children I met were all quite enchanting, all waving and wanting to hold my hand.
In many ways, Myanmar is reminiscent of
India, with men wearing traditional longhis made out of cotton, and like Asia,
shoes must be removed before entering any of the temples; on the subject of temples,
I must mention the nuns and the beautiful faded fuchsia / fluorescent pink
coloured robes that they wore, with their shaved heads, a symbol of renounced
femininity. Similarly to the Moroccans,
the Burmese are not big fans of nightclubs and prefer to hang out at teahouses
by night, often outdoors, located on the side of the road, with candles on
miniature tables and matching chairs.
This is also what the Indians do - but they drink spicy chai instead!
In Yangon we saw the Chauk Htat Giji
Pagoda, an enormous reclining Buddha, followed by the Shwedegan Pagoda, which
was one step up and humungous! The
central stupa was surrounded by loads of intricately decorated buildings of
Buddha, dragons and various other creatures.
I have never seen so many buddhas in all of my life.
On a trip along Lake Inle we saw men
fishing and women rowing, with their vessels full of sacks of tomatoes; the
women adopted an interesting rowing technique, immortalised in local postcards,
whereby they would row their boat standing up, with one leg wrapped around the
oar, in order to keep their hands free to clear the tangled weeds on the
lake. There were houses on stilts made
of bamboo with no running electricity, and in the village of Sagar we saw corn
husks out to dry, along with saffron, as well as banana and papaya trees, and
watched peanut oil being extracted from the nuts as an oxen walked around in
circles, activating the device it was attached to, which pounded the nuts. We
watched the sun setting behind Mount Popa, and observed a beautiful sky full of
stars not long after, where it was so crystal clear that you could see the
galaxies in the distance.
In Bagan, we visited a sandalwood forest,
which was also the home of the golden deer.
They sported huge antlers on their head, that seemed out of proportion
with the rest of their bodies, and had a beautiful red coat. An early night followed, as my brother and I had
a 5am start the next morning in time for the balloon ride over Bagan half an
hour later. The take-off was pretty
smooth, but the landing was trickier. We
all had to assume landing positions, knees bent, back facing backwards, hands
on the grips, and the landing was rocky, though it did get my adrenaline
pumping quite nicely, and I also enjoyed watching the balloons being inflated
before take-off.
The temples of Myanmar were truly
spectacular, with well preserved frescoes and murals inside, in wonderful shades
of green, red, yellow and turquoise, but unfortunately photography was
prohibited in them. Towards the end of
our trip I had seen so many temples/pagodas/buddhas that I started to look at
them all in the same light, and they just merged into one - beautiful, but
definitely overkill!
© Copyright Vanessa Sicre
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