There was a circus band from Battambang staying on the island in tents for one night, they invited us, 3 tourists, to drink with them. The Cambodian drinking is unstoppable. It's impossible to have an empty can with them. Very funny people and very courteous also, even if drunk. The island was rather small, only a couple of hours to walk around the coast, but there's a mountain on the middle, covered with jungle, and it's unexplored and wild. There are also some islands in sight distance from Koh Tonsay, some have little houses, but the whole are is not developed yet. After getting back to mainland I headed to Sihanoukeville, which is a port town further west. Lots of tourists come there, because of great beaches in the town and nearby. The popular ones can get pretty busy and noisy, but still there are several kilometers of white sand with practically no one around. There are motorbikes for rent in town. I spent a nice time in Otres beach, 6km from town, just getting back to eat in the market, which is always cheaper.
My visa ran out on December 22, I took a fast boat, more like a rocket to Koh Kong, on Thai border, and got pretty lucky catching a 7 pm bus from Trat to Bangkok and arriving at midnight. It's good Kao San road is open till late.
My flight to Yangon was at Christmas. Arriving to Myanmar felt so different from Bangkok. With so many Indian faces around, the old English colonial buildings, chai and chapati stalls, men chewing and spitting betel, Yangon felt a lot like some Indian city. But still it was a different story. There were so many new and surprising things. Women and kids wearing a kind of sandalwood makeup, covering their cheeks and sometimes all the faces with a yellow paint, it looks funny on the young ones but reminds of Chinese horror movies in some cases. Most of men wear loungyi, kind of sheet they wrap around their waist and knot in front. There are many Buddhist pagodas, called paya in Burmese and look like huge golden bells. There're many Buddha statues inside, and their worshiping again reminded me of Indian devotees.
Most of the cars on the streets are very old. Unlike in India, in Yangon horn sounds are almost never heard, and there are no motorcycles or bicycles, but this only in Yangon.
The pavements of downtown are full of merchandise, most of it clothes, sunglasses, jewelery and food stuff. After 2 days in the capital I got some feeling of traveling the roads of Myanmar. My first destination was Kalaw, a hill station in Shan state, a 17 hours ride from Yangon. It was very early morning when I arrived there, very cold, and I was lucky to keep some warm stuff from the Himalaya trekking. The town is a starting point for several trekking routes, the most popular and easy to arrange is the one to Inle lake, which takes 2.5 days. Walking isn't strenuous, we were a group of four tourists, and two locals - a cook who fed us with delicious meals 3 times a day and a guide who knew just everything about the area and was willing to talk. The area is all hills covered with pines and bamboo forests, rice, wheat and condiments plantations, cherries and avocados, really beautiful and colorful scenery, especially when looking from above.
The people in the villages we walked through were mostly of Pa-O tribe, and we got a glimpse on their life, staying in one such village for a night.
Seems like farming is their main source of income, although the poppy plantations are not far away, but these are off limit, unfortunately. The second night we spent in a monastery, where the oldest monk was about 20 years old, he was in charge of running a community of more than a hundred kids, who seemed very mature and independent, some of them only 5 years old but working and helping along with others. It's strange to see them, wearing just a piece of red cloth and walking barefoot in the chilly mornings, while we cover ourselves with socks and sweaters. Lots of boys become monks in Myanmar, usually the family sends every boy for a 7-days trial period, and it's completely up to him if he wants to stay or no. Some of them, even really small, make the decision to become a monk independently. We arrived to southwest end of Inle lake on noon of the 3rd day and took a boat to Nyaungshwe village, on the northeastern side, where all the guest houses are located. The lake is long and wide. The area around is inhabited mostly by Intha people who are very much dependent on the lake's natural resources and on tourism. That's why the main tourist attractions are the markets in the villages around. The ride on the lake is quite an experience, I especially liked the local fishermen with their unique work technique. They use their foot to row the oar, which leaves one hand free to handle the net. Others use some kind of conical baskets that they dip in the water, using their foot again. All these things are done by slow smooth motions and it's like watching some kind of ritual performance.
Nyaungshwe was a nice place to stay. We arrived on New Year's eve, and the locals made quite a party, for their standards, staying awake after midnight for singing with guitars and drinking large quantities of beer and whiskey with foreigners. The next day we went for a boat trip around the lake, most of it was quite commercial, but it's understandable that people, who are generally poor in the country, are eager to use the opportunity for getting some money from tourists. Except the markets and the shops, one stop we made was in Nga Phe Kyaung monastery, which is also known as the 'jumping cat' monastery. The monks living there taught some of the numerous cats that hang around to jump through a ring, and this way the place became a really hot attraction for foreigners. Seems like meanwhile the cats got really bored with this lifestyle and we witnessed only one of them jumping reluctantly, and only once, in spite of all the persuasions. After Inle a decided to get back to Kalaw, because I preferred the more quiet atmosphere there. The ride was a lot of fun on the roof of a pick up. In Kalaw, following an advice our trekking guide gave me, I went to get some traditional Pa-O massage, made by a 9-fingers master named Sok Thein. I asked him to make it strong... if he had 10 fingers I thought I wouldn't survive it. But it felt really good afterwards. He was surprised to see a foreigner getting it in the old Pa-O way. He said afterwards that he felt really weak and needed to eat 3 plates to refill the energy.
From Kalaw I got another terrible bus ride, this time to Mandalay. The city was a royal capital before the British rule, and the royal palace, surrounded by a long moat and a wall, is in the center. Foreigners are supposed to use only one entrance, from the east, and walk along only one road towards the palace compound, located in the center. The palace is rather boring, the buildings are empty and there's not much to see there. Going back, I got off the permitted road to take a look on the tomb of King Midon, but an old smiling soldier on a bicycle caught me there and politely but persistently showed me the way back to the road. Mandalay is a religious center for Myanmar Buddhism, the Mandalay Hill is a home to many pagodas with innumerable Buddha statues, and there's also a whole monk district, which is quite pleasant with its quietness after the traffic mess in downtown. There are also many pagodas all over Mandalay, most of them look pretty much the same, like all temples do after seeing quite a lot of them. I didn't really enjoy the time there, so I got back on road, to Bagan this time. Unlike Angkor in Cambodia, Bagan impresses with the quantity and not the quality of its temples, and it's much quieter than Angkor, even in high season. There are thousands of temples, and there are more under construction. Apparently, many of country ruling generals and wealthy people think that they will make a very good karma by ordering a new red-brick structure. The sunrises and sunsets are very nice, when all the plain, covered with forest of temple peaks can be seen under an amazing color show in the sky.
I didn't find much special to see in the interior of the temples, although I didn't see many of them. Some have murals, usually in poor condition. Almost all have big sitting Buddha statues, some have reclining and standing ones. The villagers of the area are of course very much dependent on visiting tourists, producing paintings in the style of the temples' murals, lacqueware and textiles. It doesn't look like there's much of farming, the land in the area seems to be very dry. A nice day to break the temples routine was to ride a pick-up to Mountain Popa, a very holy place for Myanmar Buddhists. Approaching the mountain gives an opportunity for quite a sight. Mt. Popa looks more like a cliff, covered with golden payas, coming out from a slope of a much larger mountain. The view from the top is nice, but the pick-up stays there only for until 1 pm before coming back to Bagan, so I couldn't really appreciate the sunset, when all the Bagan plain is supposed to be seen on the west side. One more day exploring the surrounding area on bicycle, and after getting enough temples (again) I came back to Yangon.
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