Day 57

Keeping my promise to wrap up the blog, I'm doing this awkwardly from the PC, since the ipad app seems to have quit functioning normally. We have been back about three weeks and I have been occupied with editing several thousand pics and videos, scattered through several storage points, including icloud, as well as immersing in early spring yardwork.

One last pic from Myanmar, of a clock tower in a huge Buddhist university complex near the Great Feel Hotel.

We walked here the morning of our departure.  The flights were uneventful, except for a very rushed transfer in Taipei.

To illustrate my transition back to my cherished life here, I've included some images of the early spring blooming in our yard.   First, an array of some of my favorites...

clockwise (sort of a spiral to the center) from the upper left, and in their natural habitats...

1. ????? can anyone ID this? I lost the info on it...

2.Starlet forsythia

3. Camellia "April Remembered"

4. Daphne o.'aurea marginata (I think)

5. Camellia 'April tryst'

6. Magnolia Ann

 

Day 56 - A Little More R&R, A Museum Adventure, and a Farewell

Woke up feeling punk again, and with the onset of some Burma Belly tried Loperomide, and when that didn't work, went for the antibiotic. That did work, and so a bug may have been the problem all along.

Leaving me with only enough money for cab fare, Dana went to the tourist market in downtown Yangon in the am, with the plan being for me to join her at 1:30 at the National Museum. Following the hotel clerk's advice, I got in a cab at 1:20, believing that the way would be pretty quick between rush hours, and anyway it was going toward the city center, and in the afternoon, and so the traffic should be light, right?

Uh uh. With a driver who seemed to be somewhat inexperienced, we pulled into the National Museum driveway at about 2:10. Dana was not there, and a helpful guard, who greeted me as "Mr. Roger", told me she had already sold my ticket and left the museum. That was astonishing, but he was insistent.

After wracking my brain for a few minutes, trying to get a grip, I went through my pockets as a last resort, and found some kyat that would be enough to get me into the museum and back to the hotel, so I bought a ticket. However, just as I entered the first gallery, the power went off.

That apparently not being unusual, the staff started opening curtains so that the outer galleries had some light, and I continued through the first ones, when Dana suddenly came walking along, looking for me. Turns out she had not left - she'd only gone into the museum. The guard presumably thought she'd left when she walked out to the street to be sure I was not coming.

Since neither of us had had lunch, we went out to get a bite, while they were trying to get the power back on. We walked out and past a couple of embassies to some street stands and had bbq chicken sticks, and when we got back to the museum the power had indeed returned.

We only had an hour before it closed and so we hit the highlights, the best one being a large room full of traditional (even ancient) musical instruments, the ancestors of those being used today. Some - especially a court orchestra display - were quite photogenic, but cameras were not allowed. My favorites were the circles of drums and/or gongs of different tones that the musician would stand inside of, and the saung, the Myanmar national instrument, the earliest versions of which are seen in Pyu carvings from the 9th century.





(Pics from the web)

We managed to see quite a bit before the museum closed, and then we got a cab to the place (University Yacht Club) where we were to meet Mr. Soe and his wife and daughter for dinner. He had chosen the place and the local knowledge paid off. We were quite early for our 7:00 reserve' but figured there might be a nice place to wait, and we were right. It was on the edge of Inya Lake in a very quiet setting, and arriving early, we got a table with a great view of the rising, nearly full, moon.


and the city buildings.

We lingered over excellent yogurt fruity drinks until our guests arrived, and we wisely asked Mr. Soe to choose the menu. The dinner was excellent, and we enjoyed Mr. Soe's company again, and that of his beautiful, somewhat mesmerizing, daughter, and his wife, who did not speak much English, but who had the warmest smile I've ever seen.


This is probably the last post from Myanmar. I'll do a final wrap up from Portland.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 55: Yangon Again, the Shwedagon Paya Festival

I felt a little better in the am, and so I showered and had some breakfast, before returning to the blog, interrupted only by a procession outside of our hotel, this one appearing to be Hindu.



Pretty much a recuperative day, resting, getting caught up with the blog (with a break for lunch), and then taxiing down to the Shwedagon Paya for its full moon festival.

Thousands of people were streaming in, filling the courtyards.



My fellow Friday-born folks were at our station.



As the sun set and the moon rose, the crowd swelled...







The wondrous thing was how personal the experience seemed to be for each person (there were no preachers), even as it was abundantly clear that having the experience in the company of others was the whole point of the festival.



As we left, people were still streaming in by the thousands.

On a slightly negative note, Caucasians looked terribly out of place in the setting, even the ones in longyis - no, especially the ones in longyis.

On a more positive note, I was able to capture three different colors the jewels at the top of the pagoda display from three slightly different positions:

Blue (sort of)





Red





and green.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 54 - Back to Yangon

Bit of a tough night for me, with a dehydration episode, and still rocky in the am, so I missed the last buffet breakfast. But I was able to haul out and make it onto the hotel shuttle and to the airport, with the help of a really cool young woman from reception who went through checkin with us and, get this, processed us through immigration herself (including stamping our passports - that apparently is necessary in some of the Myanmar states) after she discovered that the immigration guys were lagging a bit. Didn't know that was possible, but I had the feeling she may have often done "impossible" things, without any fanfare whatsoever. She went on to process a few others as well.

The flight to Yangon was brief, but of course, we did get a meal. Goliath was waiting for us, and he took us directly to the Great Feel, where I immediately crashed for a couple of hours, getting up only to drink the hydration salts D got for me.

I felt a bit better then, and so set about catching up on the blogging until retiring for the night.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 53 - Ngapali Beach Day 4

Wifi down again, so we had an early breakfast with a few more fruits - the cantaloupe and papaya were particularly good...



and hash browns, and a new omelet guy...


We again stuffed ourselves.

Our plan for the day was to bike to the farther fishing village, Lontha, and so we got a bike for Dana and headed out. The road was paved, and flat, and the weather was perfect, so the ride was quite pleasant. We rode to and through Lontha to the end of their jetty, where they were unloading a night's catch.



We wanted to get up to see the Buddha that overlooks the bay, and so we inquired our way to the beach, parked the bikes and set out on foot. Lotta things to see, hear and smell in a fishing village in the morning.



These friendly ladies appeared to be cleaning nets.



The beach had a muddy feel, but the walking was fine and the shells were plentiful and beautiful, in fact, we believe we found our best shell ever, and I did a video of it, in case we can't get it back home intact.



We managed to find our way up to the Buddha statue...


which had some nice animal figures, like these two crocs...



in front of two dragons, who lined the stairway and snaked across part of it.


On the way back down the hill these little novice guys gave us a gratuitous display of their grasp of English.



Back on the beach I led Dana to my sketching spot,...


aptly named "Pleasant View", where we enjoyed yet another tropical fruit juice.



We spent the afternoon lazing on the beach and swimming a bit. I tried a little body surfing, but mainly only managed to get a touch of dehydration, that I began to feel after we biked to a restaurant, called "The Best One" (recommended to us by a hotel receptionist when we asked which restaurant was the best one - ya gotta love the literality of the namings) which really was quite good.




Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 52 - Ngapali Beach Day 3

Dana woke up feeling fine - hallelujah! - so she called Mr. Bean (name of the guy who,has the snorkel trip business - it's on his card - and he actually looks a bit like Rowen Atkinson), and we arranged for a pickup.

The buffet was particularly good, again with the backdrop of a calm morning sea...



and in addition to two guys doing omelets, they had a guy doing yogurt and muesli, as well as some new pastries, so...I had a multi-course breakfast, starting with fresh watermelon and papaya, and including really good coffee. It was all included in the hotel rate, and this is one of the cheapest places on the beach.

We got our stuff together and waited on the beach until Mr. Bean's guys picked us up in a covered boat, and we went south along the beach a bit to pick up two Finnish guys, then headed toward Pearl Island.



We first dropped in on the shore side of the island. The snorkeling was surprisingly good. The water was calm and clear, there was a lot of mounding and other kinds of coral (contrary to the LP's commentary), and there were many varieties of tropical fish, several of which I don't think I've seen before. Our favorite was one spotted like a leopard, although there also were some very nice angelfish and parrotfish. Sorry, no underwater camera.

We snorkeled there for over an hour and then moved around the island to the seaward side, where, surprisingly, the water was also calm and clear. We were in one of several bays formed naturally by rocky promontories that were like jetties.

We snorkeled there for another 45 minutes and then they took us for drive-bys of the two fishing villages, including the one I'd gone to yesterday. When we got back we were still full from breakfast and so snacked in the afternoon and lazed on the recliner cots while reading and gaming on the pads.

Never has the phrase "another lovely day in paradise" been more apt for me - even without the wifi. Come to think of it, devices don't really belong in paradise, if there is one.

We had a drink on the veranda of the restaurant while watching the sunset...


until the lights of the fishing boats filled the horizon, and then had an early dinner, escaping the puppet show, which, we discovered, is the same every night.



As we headed back to our room, we discovered that the wifi in the lobby was working well, so I actually managed to complete a day and post it, before things returned to the normal malfunctioning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 51 - Ngapali Beach Day 2

Early rise to try the wifi before everyone else, but no luck, other than receiving a few emails on the iPhone. Dana spent a rough night with some gastrointestinal issues and so she cancelled that the snorkel trip she had arranged. I decided to try to find a place for a sketch, and started down the beach toward a fishing village (Geik Taw). But it was already getting warm, and a guy told me the village was an hour away, so I went back to the hotel and rented a bike.

That turned out to be a good idea. I rode south for 15 minutes, found the village, and a rode in to its waterfront, where drying fish occupied the best beachfront property...



and the bay was filled with fishing boats, likely many of the ones we'd seen on the horizon at sunset.



Women were sifting...


and raking dried fish.



Yes, it reeked, but not as much as the Sittwe fish market, residue of which had clung to our sandals until we shampooed them.

The town had its own mermaid...


and a neat restaurant on a rock outcrop that was accessed by a breakwater, from where I was able to start a sketch of the bay and beach, and had a fine strawberry/banana/yogurt smoothie, and later a very good crispy fresh local fish in coconut sauce lunch for lunch.



On the way back I took a dirt road in to a pagoda that proved to be underwhelming, but the ride in and out took me through neighborhoods of friendly fishing families where the kids were coming home from school. I snapped one photo of someone's crab pots, but refrained from photos of the folks because it felt like an intrusion.


D had still not recovered by dinner time, and so I went on my own. I had a really fine red snapper with a mashed potato like pasta made of rice, I believe, and 5 or 6 kinds of roasted vegetables. Did I mention the amazing variety and quality of veggies in this country? We have been eating better on this trip than any other I can remember.

The puppeteers did the marionettes again, which in one way was disappointing, and in another not, because they did the cane ball thing all the way through this time, without any backstage drama.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad