Currently Listening to: “For Once In My Life” by Stevie Wonder
I landed in Yangon an hour late, but found Tom as soon as my passport was stamped. (Tom and I met in the Ho Chi Minh City while on a Mekong Delta trip. We were hanging out with a funny Parisienne who had visited Myanmar and convinced us to go. She also recommended going with someone you know as it isn’t a well traveled country and hostels are far few between. Tom and I were both traveling alone, we got along, and it just seemed like the right thing to do). Anywho… Back to my arrival in Yangon… This was the first time I’ve ever encountered a polite, and dare I say, welcoming greeting when passing through customs. I was already experiencing the amazing hospitality that so many of the Burmese have shown over the past week or so. I immediately took care of logistics: SIM card, money etc. and we quickly got in a taxi and rode into the city for about 45 minutes. The traffic in Yangon is crazy. No one drives a motorbike or scooter so it’s just cars everywhere.
In front of the Botataung Paya
A village along Inle Lake
We checked into our hostel and headed straight out to 19th Street for some beers and dinner. 19th Street is known for street foods and places to get a cheap cold beer. We picked a restaurant with outdoor seating and the most locals. To our surprise, it was an even more colorful experience than we had expected. Just after getting our beers, I felt something walk across my right foot and onto my left foot. I looked down and it was a massive cockroach. Tom was shocked I didn’t scream. I actually laughed. I figure that one has to expect to see things like that in Burma. Just after the cockroach walked over me, we saw a huge rat. I named him Gus-Gus after the fat mouse in Cinderella. All rats that have been seen (both dead and alive) are now named Gus-Gus.
Dinner was a simple pork curry and a spicy Thai style chicken curry. We were served by several young boys and it looked as though the grandmother was in charge of the business. She sat outside near our table and the minute we finished our beers, she ordered one of the boys to quickly bring us another one. After a day of travel, we weren’t up for much nighttime exploration and walked a bit before heading back to the hostel for bed.
Saturday morning we awoke at about 6am to horns blaring and so much noise. Yangon, like many Southeast Asian cities, is a city that gets going early. The heat can be unbearable during the day, so people start early to take advantage of the cooler temperatures. While we understand that, it was also not the greatest way to wake up. We eventually switched rooms to one with better windows that was a bit quieter in the mornings.
Saturday was a day for walking. Tom and I walked all over the place. We walked to the river and stopped to have coffee at the Strand Hotel, the oldest and most famous hotel in Myanmar. It was built in 1901. From there we found the street with all of the book vendors. It’s a street with table after table of used books. Most are in Burmese, but every few tables or so we would find a table of old books in English. We continued walking and found a large market and an arcade. We decided to take advantage of the air conditioning in the arcade and play some games for a bit.
That evening we went to Shwedagon Paya, the holiest of the payas in Myanmar. There we split the cost of a guide with an American couple. The guide was wonderful. He knew where to take the best pictures, was able to answer many of our questions, and even knew the exact spot to stand in the vast pagoda to see the twinkle of the diamonds and rubies at the top of it.
We went to dinner with the American couple and tried 999 Shan Noodle. It is a small restaurant behind the Yangon’s city hall on a dark street. The noodle soups were delicious. I thought after having so much pho in Vietnam that I wouldn’t be too impressed by more noodle soup, but I was wrong. Rather than a light and fresh soup, the Shan Noodle Soups were packed with so much flavor.
Sunday we spent more time wandering and got caught in the rain. It was gloomy all afternoon and we used it to figure out our next move within the country. Eventually, we decided to just embrace the rain and wander through the park to see a massive man made lake made by the British. We also decided to have 999 Shan Noodle again for dinner. Having figured out that we had nothing to do on Monday until our night bus, we decided it was the perfect night to get drinks on 19th Street. We found a bar/restaurant that was selling $0.75 mojitos and gin and tonics!
Monday went back to the street with the old books. I found the Orient Edition of “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw from 1957, as well as a copy of David Copperfield also published in 1957. Tom found an old and funny mechanical engineering how to book, a book on the British Empire and an old copy of “Jack the Ripper”. Happy with our success we wandered back to the hostel and eventually boarded a bus headed to Inle Lake. 
(Book stalls on the sidewalk)
The bus took 12 hours to get to Inle Lake. The roads were awful at times and the turns made me nervous. I think over the course of the 12 hours, I slept maybe 4-5. Tom slept about that much as well. At about 5:30am the bus stopped and someone boarded the bus saying we had to pay an entrance fee to get into the lake region. That’s a common thing in Myanmar. Despite the low tourism compared to other Southeast Asian countries, the Burmese government was quick on the uptake and found ways to make money. The cost to enter different regions is not the same across the board and has gone up quickly over the years. We paid about $10 just to get into the Inle Lake region.
A few more minutes of driving and a short Tuk Tuk ride later and we were at our hotel. The owner checked us right in and sent us to bed. 6 hours later we awoke at 12:30pm and we were both starving. Lucky for us we found a great restaurant that serves a delicious set menu of curry, rice, soup, and tomato salad. The portions were large and the meal was hearty. That was the day we fell in love with Burmese tomato salad.
The Inle Lake region was cooler than expected and it was raining the first day, so as we made plans to see the lake the next day our fingers were crossed that the weather would improve. Guess what… It didn’t and we got on a boat at 7am and each huddled under an umbrella for the hour ride to the first village.
Tom and I were lucky; we somehow made it to Inle Lake in time to see the first day of a Buddhist procession. We were never really told what the procession was celebrating exactly, but we do know that it moves through the different villages of Inle Lake. It was interesting to see the village full of people and the young monks running around trying to get a view of the procession of boats in the river.
(The villagers gathering to see the boats in the river)
From the village, we worked our way through other areas of the lake visiting a boat making shop, a linen factory, a cigar factory, and of course, a few pagodas. We had lunch in the lake in a real wood building on stilts and as the day wore on the sun came out and became stronger and stronger. By the end of the day, Tom and I were using our umbrellas to block the sun from our faces. It looked silly but was absolutely necessary.
The next day we rode push bikes out to the country side. We passed more villages and saw water buffalo and cows on the side of the road. We also past a few construction sites. Quite a few western style resorts are being built along the lake and it seemed so odd to pass a small village of teak buildings and then find a massive resort. That night we boarded another night bus and this time, we were off to Bagan, an area of Myanmar that has over 3,000 temples.
Strange Trails 