Bye Burma

After almost one month of Burma I can say that the experience in the country was positive. there were few things which disappointed me, which I actually was aware of before arriving, so let's not talk about it!
What's important is that my first contact with the country was amazing, I think I've never experienced so many smiles per minute before in my life! Also, my last experience in Burma couldn't be any better...
Saturday, Mar 17th, I was having a tea with another brazilian I met in Burma, Thiago, and one Buddhist monks joined us for some tea and chatting. At the end I asked him whether I could go and visit his monastery in Yangon on Sunday, he was very welcoming and arranged it for the day after at 10am.

Around that time I was there, asking for him here and there and people said I as at the wrong monastery, until this lady came to me and told me to wait; suddenly comes Mr Kuvera. He invited me to go upstairs, where he's living provisionally until he goes back to his permanent monastery in another state.
We chatted for around one hour, mainly about religion, their routine, etc. After that we went for lunch, walked to a tea house for a classic burmese tea, then we moved towards shwedagon pagoda, where we made some pictures; finally we headed to the area where I was staying. arriving there I went to print out some photos I wanted to give to him and he went to get a book he wanted to buy for me. Later we met again, exchanged presents and said bye!

Those are the experiences which make my travels worthier! Getting to know locals, walk around with them, learn about their culture, religion, their point of view about the world, my country and their own country.

The area where he lives permanently is close for foreigners at the moment, but hopefully it will be open soon. So he told me to give his contact to whoever goes to visit Burma, it's his hobby meeting and helping people, especially if one is interested in buddhism I would say. So here it goes:

Mr. Kuvera
Sittasukha Monastery
Pridawtha Quarter
Akyab (Sittwe)
Arakan (Rakhine) State
Burma

That's it for now!

Trekking Kalaw to Inle Lake

Trying to avoid the organized tourist packages we gathered 7 people, who were not worried of maybe getting a bit lost on the way, and some information from internet to begin our trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake.

The first day we started early and made it to the village where we had planned to sleep in less time than planned. Thus one of the local families – Da Nu people - hosted and cooked some amazing food for us.

 

           Our first house - Ywa Pu Village; Da Nu people

The morning after we were quite confident and started trekking after having breakfast and chill for a while, it was already 11am. And considering that along the way two of our friends started feeling sick, we ended up making only half of the way; then the adventure became more exciting when we needed to try any kind of communication with local – from the tribal villages known as Pa O people – to arrange accommodation for one night and some food. Due to the communication problem between our group and the locals it was hard to know whether they enjoyed our company, but they were quite helpful letting us sleep over in their bamboo house!

                                                                                      Second host - Paw Kia Village; Pa O people

The third and last day was a bit more demanding as we needed to walk around 10 hours till we reached the final destination, Inle Lake.

                                                                                                  Third day

It was a quite good decision getting on the road without a guide; asking people here and there we were able to always find the way to the villages we wanted to pass through. It also allowed us some more interaction with the locals.

We arranged with a tourist agency in Kalaw to send our luggage directly to Inle, all worked out well!

             

Burma

Before arriving to Burma I have to admit that I had some expectation based on what I read and heard from other people about the country. Now I have to say that after few hours here the country proved being over my expectation, and the people specially make of this place a must in Southeast Asia. It’s a country where the constant changes don’t make anyone’s life easy when it comes to preparing a trip a bit in advance.

Well, this taste for the unknown is actually quite exciting, and mixed with a dose of respect for the country and local culture should be enough to avoid any big mistake. Not being sure about the money situation here at the moment forced myself to exchange all I had into US dollars as few cash machines have just been installed but are not reliable. And indeed US dollars is still the best option here at the moment; guest houses and some other services are quoted in this currency while smaller amounts, such as food, tea and other daily spends, can be paid with the local Kyats (1 USD = 857Kyats).

From the airport I chose not taking the a taxi to get to the center of the city, thus the option was walking to the bus station near the airport (10 miles station) and from there a local bus ride of maybe 30 min to the Sula (center), which costs 200kyats and offer an amazing first contact with locals since I was the only western on the bus.

A walking around the city is a constant smiling in every direction one looks at; such a friendly, happy and welcoming people work as a medicine to our westerner’s hearts. I don’t believe anyone can experience it without being touched by their warmth.

After finding a guest house, what was very easy, I wanted to eat something and ended up with some noodles with chicken, accompanied by a sort of soup, some onion’s pickle and, of course, a lot of dark tea! Everything very tasty! Next step was moving towards a tea stall and taste the classic Burmese tea, prepared with tons of condensed milk. This time I met a Burmese lady who was simply lovely; she told a bit about the country, her family and before leaving didn’t even allowed me to pay for my tea, when I actually wanted to invite her for the tea as a reciprocal gesture. 

Thanks Burma!