Slithering Snakes

July 13

A while ago we were introduced to a family that was eager to have us teach English to their one and only daughter. Though we insisted that this was impossible, they tried to win us over by taking us on a few excursions around Mandalay.

The first excursion was to the famous Hmwe Paya (Snake Pagoda) in Paleik as small town about 45 minutes outside of Mandalay. It is named for the 3 large pythons that are on display around the central Buddha image inside the pagoda. When we were there, they were nestled amongst the concrete and one had made his bed on the Buddha’s head. We arrived early in the morning and so we missed the daily feeding. But, we were informed that each day, the snakes are feed chicken eggs and milk in front of hordes of tourists. They are also given a bath in a special pool built just for them. During this time, it is also possible to get one’s picture taken with one of the famous pythons. And many people do. On the walls of the pagoda is a long line of framed photographs of famous Myanmar movie stars and generals posing with the great constrictors.

Monastic Schooling

The principal and head monk of the monastic school where we volunteered said that he began the school in order to bring modern education to the poor of Myanmar. He has done a significant job. There are over 7000 children attending the school, which does not charge any fees for attendance. In order to control the unruly students, the staff consists of 150-170 teachers and there is generally 2 teachers per class. This is probably a good thing, considering most classes have between 50-60 students and there are rumors that up to 100 students may attend one class. There are so many children attending the school that they must attend in shifts (similar to the way it worked in the town I lived in in the Philippines). About half of the students attend school in the morning and the other half begin after lunch.

We were not privileged to teach a class of 50-100 students, but instead taught the “special classes.” These classes consist of 20-30 students who were identified in preschool as having a higher potential than their classmates. These students are very lucky because they still receive 2 teachers for every class and they attend classes all day.

The school is fairly well known and so foreign volunteers are a common sight. They only teach the special classes, which may or may not give these students an edge over the others in the English language.

We taught at this school for 5 weeks before we decided it was best for us and for the students if we left the teaching to the teachers. Upon agreeing to volunteer, we had only had experience teaching young adults with a basic knowledge of English. We had not expected to teach young students who were still learning their colors. Aside from this, we realized that the Myanmar teachers are very adept in their English and could command the class much better than we could Also, it appears that they are receiving training in student centered learning and activity based learning methods meaning they are now incorporating different methods into their classroom. Therefore, it seemed to us that they were much better equipped to teach English to the students than we were.

Overall, I think that it would be more beneficial if the volunteer teachers taught English to the Myanmar teachers. This way, they could teach all teachers, not just the special class teachers and thus potentially have a larger impact than direct teaching has. Another benefit is that then foreigners are not coming and going every day, week or month, which can be very disruptive to the class.

Pagodas Everywhere

Bagan, June 6-9

Background

Bagan is roughly a 42 square kilometer area filled with over 3000 temples and pagoda ruins. All that remains now are some larger, brick temples with some stuccoed patches with some faded frescoes on the inside. There are also many crumbling structures and piles of brick. Oddly enough, Bagan is also home to a growing number of new pagodas built in the same style of old time Bagan but without the stucco or the murals.

The frenzied pagoda building began when a Burmese king took over the area in 1044, at a time when Burma was transitioning into its current religion. During this time, over 4400 temples and pagodas were built in reverence to the Buddha and his teachings. It is said that the end of Bagan arrived with the arrival of Kublai Khan and his Mongol army at the end of the 13^th century.

It is hard to image what Bagan would have looked like in the prime of its life. There are recorded accounts claiming it to be “one of the finest sights in the world” and covered in gold. It’s also hard to image what kind of work force was needed to build such amazing structures. Where would such a work force have lived? Who else would have lived among the ruins? It couldn’t possibly have been a 42 square kilometer area solely for religious buildings. One day I may scrounge up enough energy to search for answers to my questions, but for now I’m content just to wonder and create my own scenarios in my head.

Bagan Legends

According to some of our students there are two legends that explain how Bagan came to be.

The first legend simply states that at one time it rained silver and gold and thus the empire because rich enough to afford all of the manual labor required to build so many pagodas and temples.

The second legend is a little more interesting. It states that there once was a monk who was an alchemist. Unfortunately for him, he was not very good at is job of making the king rich. This made the king unhappy and to show his feelings he gouged out the alchemist-monk's eyes. The now-blind monk was so angry he threw the lead in the toilet (they had toilets in ancient Bagan?) and thus gold was produced. This act of spontaneous riches turned the king's heart and he thus order the monk to be brought back into the world of sight. Eyes were searched for high and low and eventually someone brought back one from a cow and another from a goat. Apparently no one had died recently to furnish human eyes and no one cared enough to give him eyes from the same animal. But, most importantly, he could see again and he turned lots and lots of lead into gold and silver. All of these riches spurred the king into building massive monuments to the Buddha and thus was the beginning of Bagan's pagoda frenzy.


Getting There
We arrived on the overnight 6500 Kyat per person from Mandalay. It was quite expensive for what it was - one of the small buses with seats that do not quite fit 2 Westerners and overstuffed with cargo so that you cannot stretch your legs under the seat in front of you.

By quite expensive, I am also comparing it to other prices in Myanmar. Of course, this transportation is quite cheap when comparing it to other SE Asia bus trips we've taken (ie the 17 hour Dimple Star Ro-Ro bus trip on equally horrible seats from San Jose, Antique to Manila).

There were four Brits behind us who got a big kick out of the whole situation and spent the first hour discussing how awful the ride was. Was great to hear them complain. Luckily, we were in the front, which was nice because I could stretch my feet out, kinda.

We arrived at 3 am and made our way to the Inn Wa Guesthouse where we got a room for $7/night with a fan and in room bathroom (in Mandalay we pay $6 for a fan and a shared bathroom outside). It was clean and the staff was very friendly and I would definitely recommend this guesthouse. They didn't even charge us for Friday night even though we arrived very early morning.

Day 1
We got up early to see the ruins by bicycle. We figured the best time for birds and heat would be just after sunrise. Though we didn't get out quite this early, we did manage to make it up before most people.

Not so soon after we began biking a young man also on a bicycle came up to us and started talking. He proceeded to follow us to the first few pagodas we visited and then offered to take us near the river so we could do some birding. We thought for sure he was trying to be our guide and so we asked him (as politely as possible) what his motives were. He explained that he is a long distance university student who wants to practice his English and would like to show us around Bagan for free in order to practice his English and to practice tour guiding.

We let him show us around and in general had a good time. He took us to some of the famous pagodas and temples and even hung around while we tried to do some birding in the morning. He usually warded off vendors, but at one temple he let a girl follow us around. It ended up that she was his cousin and he was interested in helping her make a sale (which he did, as I bought a few lacquer ware items from her). The whole day he carried around painting he said he made.

In the afternoon he showed us his painting, which we both felt obligated to buy, though I'm not sure why. I wasn't a fan of any of them and said so, but we still felt obligated (he showed us around, didn't he?) and so I finally said which painting I liked the best (although I didn't like it well enough to hang it on my wall). Unfortunately for us, this was the most expensive painting.

We were in a pickle. I really didn't want to buy any of the paintings, but we felt pressured. So, do you buy a painting you would NEVER put on display because it's cheaper or buy the more expensive painting that you MIGHT hang up, maybe someday. We went with the "maybe" painting and then discovered that neither option is the correct one. The best option would have been to FORGET THE SALE and buy nothing because we didn't find any of the paintings appealing.

After the sale I felt cheated, especially upon discovering that he overcharged us big time and even lied about his name. This discovered happened when we came across another painter with the same name as ours who was selling painting for at least half the price as our guy. Grrrrr...

Let's just say I learned a very big lesson that day: don't trust the local who comes up to you to talk. The nice ones are always the shy ones.

Day 2
This day we decided to do solo on our bicycles. Originally, we had planned to visit Mt. Popa instead of the ruins, but when we inquired about the boat trip to Mandalay, we were informed that it was a day earlier than expected. This didn't leave us with much time, so we decided to stay in Bagan for our last day.

We stopped by 5 ancient pagodas throughout the day. Our first stop was Ananda, which is very famous and thus very touristy though I didn't find it very impressive except for these very large standing Buddhas that face in each of the four directions.

One of my favorite temples was Dhammayangi Pahto and is said to be the largest in Bagan. It has a very mysterious story behind it. The temple is built like Ananda with an inner and an outer corridor both running parallel to the walls. Unlike Ananda, Dhammayangi's inner corridor has been sealed up with brick at each of the four entrances. No one really knows why the inner section of the temple was covered up and it has never fully been excavated. There are legends surrounding the temple as one of the teenage vendors related to us. She explained that the monarch at the time was very strict and insisted on the best work for this temple. This meant that the mortar between the bricks should not be thicker than a pin. If a pin could be placed between two bricks, then the brick layer's hand would be chopped off. Because of the king's strict ways, the people may have revolted by sealing up the inside chamber.

Many of the temples housed intricate murals, most dealing with the life of the Buddha (of course). Some of these murals were incredibly faded while others were magnificently restored. I found the murals of Sulamani Pahto to be a bit unusual. To me it was as if someone had graffitied the old murals by poorly painting large Buddhas on top of the old murals. I thought this had to be a new job, but soon learned that between 1780-1820 someone decided to white wash parts of the walls and repaint. The strange thing is, the old murals faintly protrude through the new paintings.

After biking around temples all day, we decided to head to the docks for an evening river cruise. When we arrived, we were attacked by two different boat men offering their services. Without saying a word, Casey watched as they slowly out bid each other, starting at 6000 Kyat and ending at 4000 Kyat for a half hour ride. Casey decided to pick the boatman by the fairest way conceivable - flipping a coin. Only, in Burma there is no coinage and so our room key substituted. Surprisingly, both boatmen went along with it and the loser accepted the results with relative ease (much to my amazement).

The river cruise was nice, though the boatman had informed us that we would travel farther than we did. They did this little trick where about halfway up the route they pulled out into the middle of the river and turned off their engines and just sat there for a good 10-15 minutes while we wondered what the hell was going on. They only resumed the tour once questioned about their actions. On the ride home, we ran into another tourist boat that had ceased to operate in the middle of the water. Our industrious boatmen secured our anchor line to their boat and straddled the two boats to ensure that they would stay side by side as we jetted back to the bank.

For dinner that night, we decided to treat ourselves with a little tourist fare. We had heard about Aroma II from the LP and though we had generally decided that LP restaurant guide is not to be trusted, we decided to have a go. We were both so glad that we did. It was delicious Indian cuisine! Unfortunately, the pizza we tried the previous night that LP raved about was not up to par and thus we decided to once again be wary of Lonely Planet.

Day 3

When we went back to our hotel we discovered that the boat back to Mandalay was actually the day we had heard about and therefore we had one more day to roam around Bagan. We decided it take it easy this day, well, sort of. We rode to New Bagan to a garden KC had heard about a nice place for birding. We didn't see much there except hoards of Baya Weavers which were all nesting in crazy hanging nests that filled the bushes and trees. We also saw an owl flying, possibly being chased by the hundreds of weavers.

Then we met a nice old man who insisted (through broken English and hand motions) that we look at his paya. It was a nice little place with wonderful views and some interesting stucco. We couldn't find it on any map, but it was clear that the man prepared torch lit outdoor dining experiences for tourists right in front of the paya.

We took a round-about way back to our hotel along a dirt road. Though there were tourists, they were in far fewer number than along the main road. Even better, the vendors along this path seemed lazy to sell their wares and thus didn't hound us as we passed. One temple was even full of napping locals while the children played with fruit on the front stoop! My favorite was Payathanzu, which housed more beautifully detailed frescoes.

Day 4: Trip up the Ayeyarwaddy to Mandalay

We took the fast boat from Bagan to Mandalay, as we were short on time. Apparently, everyone takes the boat from Mandalay to Bagan, which was fortunate for us since it meant that there were only 2 others on the boat and it was $10 cheaper (though about 1 hour longer since the ride was upriver).

The river trip was nice and relaxing. Some of the scenery was amazing, but it soon turned monotonous with all of the plains. The views of Bagan's pagodas was beautiful, as were the hills of Sagaing as we neared Mandalay.

All in all, the trip was very rewarding, though a bit stressful at times.

Myanmar Motor Musings

Millions of Motors
More people ride bikes (both motorized and non-motorized) here than anywhere else we've been. Every morning we bike around the busy palace walls along with hordes of people on their way to work, school, etc. The main roads of Mandalay have bike lanes, but these can be hectic as they are also lanes for parking, turning left and going slow as well as riding the wrong way should someone feel the urge.


Side Saddle
Many women, men and children ride on the bike of bikes. It is most precarious for women, especially if they are carrying children on their lap as they are usually wearing ta mien (a full length skirt made of a loop of fabric and wrapped around the waste like a towel. Similar to sarongs in Indonesia/Malaysia and malongs in the Philippines). As a result of the ta mien the women choose to sit side saddle. It is quite apparent that this throws off the balance of the bicycles since most cyclists with passengers swerve often and pedal slowly. Men often wear longgyis and as a result they too are often riding side saddle.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of side saddle riding is the starting from a complete stop process. It appears that it is quite difficult to start peddaling with a side saddled passenger on the back. Thus, the pedaler begins riding the bike and the passenger runs behind and then jumps on the bike. Try doing this while wearing a full length skirt and carrying and infant.


Gasoline
One thing odd about Myanmar is the lack of gas stations. It took me a while to notice this, but once I did, it made me wonder. Where does everyone get their gas?

As it turns out, the government rations gasoline to motorcycle and car owners. There are a few government run gas stations, which often have lines of people waiting for their share. People wait in line, as the price of gas is relatively cheap at approximately 1500 Kyat per gallon (a little under $1). As it was explained to me, the amount of gas rationed depends on your vehicle.

For motorcycles, one receives 8 gallons of petrol per month and no more than 1 gallon per fill up. Cars receive 30 gallons per month and no more than 8 gallons per day.

All vehicle owners carry around a logbook stating how much fuel they bought and when. If you want more than your allotted amount, then you head to the black market, located just down the street. Along many highways (such as the highway between Pyin Oo Lwin and Mandalay) there are many shops selling gasoline out of large drums using makeshift pumps. The black market price is more than double the price of the government gas, but as long as one can afford it one can buy as many gallons as one wishes!

The Name Game

Just to help mitigate the confusion, here is a little something we found out about the naming of this country and its people.

Myanmar has always been the written name for the country where the Bamar people live. When the British showed up, they bastardized the name Bamar to Burma and added a whole bunch of once independent kingdoms of different ethnicities to the country (many of whom disliked the Bamar) and thus Burma was born. Then all of the different ethnicities were all considered Burmese.

Bama has always been a verbal term for the country and its people (the ethnic Burmese).

After independence when the government changed again to the current government they changed the name Burma to Myanmar and changed the name of the people and the language from Burmese to Myanmar. However, colloquially one can still say Bama when speaking of the language and its people or one can say Myanma.

In general, the whole of the people of Myanmar, including the ethnic groups are considered Myanmar or Burmese and the ethnic Burmese are considered Bamar. However, I have heard disdain from some ethnicities claiming they they are not Burmese that only the ethnic Burmese are Burmese.

To make for some more confusion the different ethnicities often consider themselves different nationalities (ie Shan nationals, Pa-O nationals, Mon nationals, Bamar nationals, etc).

Gastronomically Great!

Burmese food is generally not something you hear people rave about. And i wonder why! More people in the Western world should be tasting this marvelous food. My father sadly informed me that he has not been able to find a single Burmese restaurant in Phoenix and that's the 5th largest city in the US. This is sad.

Admittedly, we don't eat much ethnic Bamar food since we get fed all of the time by the people we teach for. This food is nice also, but here I would like to explain the ethnic Bamar food we have enjoyed.

FOOD - WHAT'S IN IT?
Generally if you approach a Bamar restaurant you will notice large pots of curries. Some of the curries consist largely (if not completely) of meat. Some of these choices include: fried chicken, fish curry, hard-boiled egg curry, goat meat-balls, and pork curry. Much of the time, the meat is covered in a red sauce made of tomatoes, onions and other goodies. It's mighty delicious.

Other pots of curry are vegetarian. Generally there is a bean curry (similar to an Indian dahl). There can also be sauteed greens, fermented bean paste, curried or pickled bamboo, potato curry and the like. My personal favorite is a black colored fermented bean paste called Pongyegyi. It is often mixed with onion, garlic and sometimes tomato and cilantro. A little on the rice goes a long way, but it is delicious!

Always on offer is a plate of lightly steamed or raw vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage, tamarind leaves and sometimes even young lime leaves. At every table there is also a bowl of chili and fish sauce.

ORDERING
It is said that one pays for the meat curry and the other "condiments" come free. I have asked numerous times if its possible to just order the vegetarian curries, but the overwhelming response seems to be no. We usually pick our meat curry the Filipino way: we point to the pot and nod our heads. This is not necessary if one speaks Burmese and therefore knows the names of each curry offered.

TABLE DISPLAY
At the table every diner receives his own plate of rice, bowl of soup and a small bowl of meat curry. When I say small, I mean small. The portions here are NOTHING like those found in America although many Americans would be surprised at the amount of rice served. In the middle of the table is places small bowls of the many different kinds of vegetable curries. Depending on the restaurant the number of veggie curries ranges from 2 to 8, possibly more. The bowl of raw veggies is also shared amongst the diners and it is kosher to dip the veggies into the hot sauce before popping it into your mouth.

The meal is also served with unlimited hot green tea.

Should you require more soup, or rice, the restaurant will happily provide it free of charge.

At some places, the meal is followed by a dish of fresh fruit and sweets made of palm sugar. These after dinner refreshment are supposed to aid in digestion. I think this may be true since I often feel more refreshed after eating the dessert than I did after I stuffed my face with rice and curry.

THE PRICE
We have been amazed at the prices of some Bamar restaurants. They range in price from 500 Kyat per person to 2000-3000 Kyat a person. Now one would expect that the portions for a 500 Kyat (<$0.50) meal would be ridiculously small, but this is no where near the case. It is true that the 500 Kyat meals sometimes only have 2 veggie curries to eat, but you still can eat as much rice as you want and you can still go away will a full belly!

When comparing prices of cheap meals in the countries we've been in, Myanmar by far has the best value for the price. In the Philippines, a plate of rice at a cheap eatery tends to be a small cup and after spending a dollar on a meal one could easily go away a little hungry. Noodles in Thailand, which are often considered only a snack, are just as expensive as a complete meal in Myanmar.

The best thing about the hole in the wall eateries is that their food is delicious! I never hesitate to walk into one (which was definitely not the case in the Philippines or even in Indonesia at times).

BOTTOM LINE
If you discover a Bamar food restaurant near you home, or even if it's a bit far you should visit it! You will not be disappointed!

Mountain Get-away

June 30 - July 2

To escape the heat we decided to head to the hills so we took an overnight trip to Pyin Oo Lwin a former British hill station. It's only about 45 miles away from Mandalay but it takes 4 hours to get to (by public transportation). This is generally because the public transportation are old, overloaded pick up trucks that need to stop every hour to cool off because they don't handle the incline well.

We didn't have much in mind for this town and so for the first afternoon we just wandered around.

One doesn't tend to notice the heat quite so much until one is away from it and then one begins to realize just how oppressive the heat can be and how much nicer it is to be a little cool. This is how it felt in Pyin Oo Lwin. It was great being able to walk about without sweat pouring down your face and back. And the evenings were downright chilly! We actually used the blankets offered by our hotel!

The next day, we planned to rent bicycles from one of the hotel employees in order to bike to a nearby waterfall. We made the terrible mistake of actually trying to discuss with him plans other than renting his bicycle (which of course, he made them sound like terrible plans), so somehow we were talked into renting his bikes for the day.

We set off early in the morning in hopes of getting some bird watching done along the waterfall trail. We left before our "free" and terrible "Western-style" breakfast that every hotel offers to foreigners and so we stopped at a hopping tea-shop to have a bite before heading out. After breakfast, we decided to split up to accomplish some errands faster to leave more time for birding.

At a store, KC quickly discovered that he didn't have his bag, which contained his money and worse, his passport. Naturally, this freaked KC out a little and he frantically hoped back on his bike to search the tea-shop for his goods. Alas, the tea-shop employees claimed they had not seen the bag, so KC hurried back on his bike to search for Lora.

One thing led to another and a minor accident involving KC and his bike and a man on a motorcycle. Now this is even more nerve racking because Lora isn't around, all of KC's money and passport is missing AND the man on the motorcycle is demanding money for damages. Soon, Lora arrives, solving the mystery of the missing backpack, money and passport. Then the fun of extortion begins.

With the help of a local English speaker, we followed the motorcycle to the nearest open bike shop to enquire about the cost of fixing his bike. Now, all that was wrong was that the cover of one of his back lights broke, his foot rest broke and his handlebar got a bit scratched up. While the mechanic was assessing the damage, the translator began casually discussing the fact that the boy's uncle was a policeman and that if we didn't pay him then we "would be the trouble."

These were the words he actually said, "if you don't pay, then you will be the trouble." I felt like I was in a mafia movie with a threat like that.

He commented that if we don't pay a small sum now, then the police would be after us and we'd have to pay a larger sum later. This is because if we didn't pay to get the bike fixed, then the parents of the boy would ask what happened and he'd be forced to tell them that he hit a foreigner on a bicycle. Because of this, the would demand that we pay large sums of money. However, if we pay a little money now, then when the boy's parents ask about the damage, he has the ability to lie.

Well, we weren't sure if this was true, but we didn't exactly want to test out the man's theory (as enfurating as it was) so we paid 7000 Kyat. This may not seem like a lot to other Westerners but it is a good amount of money to most Myanmar.

After this fiasco, we still biked to the waterfall and enjoyed a little birding in the heat of the day. The falls were nice. Larger than expected. Of course, there was a small pagoda planted smack dab in the middle of the best view of the falls.

We managed to lose our way back up the mountain. This means we took the direct - straight-up-the-mountain-with-no-switchbacks route that obviously belonged to locals who collect bamboo and other forest products.

After the verticle but short climb up we were back on our bikes. This was not so easy as the downward trip and Lora had to repeatedly get off her bike on the slightest of inclinations. Soon she realized, however that Casey's bike was much easier to maneuver uphill and all was good again.

We rode our bikes out to the Botanical Gardens that afternoon. These gardens were made by the British, but the government now charges $3/person to enter. We were told that we could see them from our bikes and wouldn't need to pay the entrance. We didn't see much except for a large pond but it was a nice bike ride in the suburbs of POL.

In the 'burbs, the housing of POL is very interesting as many of the houses are left over from the British. There are many, many large brick colonial style mansions. Such a nice difference from the concrete boxes seen in the Philippines. I imagined what this place would be like if it was placed in America. How everyone who could afford it, would have their colonial vacation home set among the cool mountains. I pondered if I'd ever be able to buy such a place...(haha).

The only other thing we saw before it was time to go home was the Chinese temple. This was an interesting mix of Chinese and Burmese styles. We kinda got lost on our way to the temple, but it was a nice walk. If we wanted to go up the tower at the temple, we had to pay some Kyat to the stair keeper, so we decided to give that a miss. We did buy some delicious lychees from a woman who picks them from the grounds and then sells them. Not quite sure why I couldn't just pick them for free either.

The next day we ate breakfast and left. Not much time to explore when one only has the weekends off. How do people work full time and ever have any fun?

The Newest Currency

The other day we went to the local store to buy some toothpaste. We didn't have exact change, so we paid in excess of 50 Kyat. Apparently thinking that there are things better than 50 Kyat the storekeeper brought us back our change in candy.

That's right CANDY.

I wonder if I could pay with candy next time?

Units of Measurement

Just when I thought that the USA was the only country stubborn enough not to switch to the metric system, we came to Burma. Here miles and gallons abound, unfortunately, I've been living in the rest of SE Asia for far to long and now have trouble conceiving what a mile really consists of. What happened to the kilometers?

To make matters more confusing, weight is not in ounces or pounds but rather in a strange unit called a viss. Luckily, we're not buying to much fruit or meat for this to be an issue.

Perhaps the strangest of all is the lek. This is a unit for counting and commonly used for money. It is consistent with 100,000. This leaves me with a multitude of questions such as: What system are they using where 5 zeros constitutes a unit? What are the other units like? Do they break it up into 2.5 zeros, 5 and 10 zeros?

I wonder what other interesting units will present themselves as we delve deeper into the life of Burma.