Bagan and Katha, Myanmar

From Kalaw, I tooke the ten hour bus to Bagan. The only hitch was 45 minutes in the bus broke down, and we had to wait 4 hours by the side of the road for them to fix it, so got into Bagan a bit late :-). Bagan is famous for the thousands of ancient temples built there. They are not as impressive, large, or intricate as Angkor in Cambodia, but the sheer number of them in such a small area is staggering. Furthermore, the area is very flat with few tall trees, so if you climb up on a higher temple, the views of the plain are great. I spent two and a half days temple hopping, and one morning making a trip to Mount Poppa, a nearby sacred spot with a temple on the top. It is a shrine to a female Nat (spirit) who wished herself to appear like an Ogre so as not to be observed while praying to the Buddha.



There are also many local tourists who come to Bagan, including this group of monks, who asked ME, (no tht eother way around) to take a picture with them. I fit in well with my red shirt :-).



I wanted to catch a train on a certain day in order to catch a certain ferry, so to save some time, I flew from Bagan to Mandalay. The problem is the taxi ride from the airport into town costs $18. Luckily, a asked a young looking guy if he wanted to split a cab. He said no, he had a driver waiting for me, but they could drop me off at the train station no charge :-). Unfortunately, the train was sold out at the station, so I had to spend the night in Mandalay and take the train the next day. That afternoon, I met another guy from Toronto who also just finished an economics in Ottawa (creepy, no?), and a German brother and sister who were also thinking of going upriver, and I told them my plan and they decided to join me. The plan was to take the train tp Taba, the short busride to Katha, and then the ferry back. We bought our train tickets seperately, however, so I had sitting class, while they had sleeper, and shared their car with a Burmese man who spoke very little English.

After the train, which left two hours late, got moving, I went to join them in their car, where the Burman and his friends had already ordered them all beers, and proceeded to try to get us drink for 8 hours while getting drunk themselves. Due to the heat and fear of dehydration, however, I more or less refrained. The Burmese man loved me, however, because I said hello and no thank you in Bamar. For about twenty minutes, he stated that I spoke Burman, to which I replied only a little, accompanied by showing 'a little' with my fingers. He would then laugh, tell me I was his son, and repeat the staement. When I left to go to sleep in my chair, he told me he would think about me every day and told me his phone number. Back at my seat, I was surprised to find a monk already sleeping in it. What do you do when a monk takes your seat? While I was standing there pondering my dilemma, however, some other people on the car woke up the monk for me and got him to move. I aso learned that, even though trains move, it doesn't mean mice don't live on them. As soon as it got dark, tens of mice ran back and forth along the floor.

We arrrived at Taba around 2:30, hopped on the bus, which broke down for an hour, and arrived in Katha at 4 Am. The only guesthouse with beds was the worst place I have stayed so far. It did not have walls that reached the ceiling or a mattress, never mind a bathroom, AC, or breakfast. What was worse, knowing that he was the only game in town, the owner charged us 7 dollars each, which normally gets you all of the above in Burma. I was furious and walked out to find a place on the beach, but then returned because I didn't want to get any locals in trouble for illegally letting a foreigner stay on their property.

Because I had missed the train the day before, I only spent 12 hours in Katha, but there wasn't much to do, so it wasn't so bad. What was cool was that while in Katha I wa reading 'Burmese Days' by George Orwell, which he wrote while stationed in Katha, and which takes place in the town. I did a short sightseeing tour of the places mentioned in the book.

At four, we got on the two night ferry back to Mandalay, which was one of the highlights of the trip. We bought deck class tickets and plastic mats, so slept on the deck under the stars at night and strung up hammocks to block the son in the afternoon. We basically just read, played carsds, and hung out with the locals. My German friend Daniel said "Its like an all inclusive cruise!! All we're missing is a pool and an actual room."






The locals loved our cameras, juggling shows, card games, music, and post cards, and we had a great time with them. Michael, the Torontonian (to add to the creepiness, my middle name is Michael) had UNO, and some of our new friends figured it out by watching and joined us, which was very entertaining. We were all pretty sad to say goodbye when we got to Mandalay.