Spring 2015 - Day 48: Myanmar
Since they told us that the ship would be cleared around 10 and passport would be available around noon so Jessi made the plan to get up fairly late because she wanted to have her passport on her in case you needed it to exchange money.
I ended up being woken up by an announcement at 8 saying the ship was cleared. Ok, that was unexpected. Stephanie left at that point but came back a short while later. They were going to get off right away but the first shuttle didn't start running until 9:30 so there wasn't much for them to do right away.
I was pretty much ready by 9 when Jessi called me and told me we were meeting and leaving at 9:30.
Woah, change of plans that I was not ready for. But it was fine.
I finished getting ready and then went up and got a water and some fig newtons from the snack bar. Then I went to Andi and Jen's room.
We got off the ship right in time for the 9:30 shuttle. The ride was about an hour and on the way the tour guide on the bus told us things about Myanmar:
Myanmar is twice the size of Vietnam and has a population of 60 million people. Throughout the country there are 135 different groups who all have their own language and culture.
Myanmar is known as the golden land for both the pagodas and for its raw materials. They have a wealth of petroleum, rubies, and jade.
The country has a very low petty crime rate because over 80% of the population is Buddhist and so believe that if they do good deeds in this life then they will have a good next life.
It took about an hour to get to the city. We were dropped off right in front of city hall. There were a lot of people around when we got off the bus. There were locals selling post cards, tour guides there to give directions and information, and children selling the paste that they use on their face.
Oh yeah, the paste. The tour guide spoke about it on the bus but that was apparently the moment when I decided to space out and I completely missed it. But basically, they make this paste out of the bark from a tree and they put it on their face as protection from the sun. It has evolved to also be a cultural thing. It's yellow and actually is very beautiful. They also somehow make it into a powder and put it into jars to sell to tourists on the street, but we were warned not to buy it because there may be some weird chemicals in it. If we watch them make it right from the tree, then it is alright.
From city hall we decided to we wanted to go to the Swedagon Pagoda. It is the largest stupa in the city and was built right in the center of it. The stupas are used as part of their Buddhism. They are large mounds, you can not enter them, and are said to be filled with Buddhist relics. Since you can not enter them you circumambulate around them in a clockwise direction.
In Myanmar they are mostly Theravada Buddhists, which is Buddhism associated with the monastery. At these pagodas they pray at the base of them. The base is divided into 8 sides and you are supposed to pray at the side associated with the day you were born on. I know, there are 8 sides but only 7 days in the week. Wednesday is broken into morning and evening. Each "day" is associated with a planet and an animal.
Sunday - the sun and the garuda bird
Monday - the moon and the tiger
Tuesday - Mercury and the lion
Wednesday Morning - Venus and the tusked elephant
Wednesday Afternoon - Rahu, a mythical planet, and the elephant without tusks
Thursday - Mars and the mouse
Friday - Jupiter and the guinea pig
Saturday - Saturn and Naga, a snake person
The Swedagon Pagoda is the most sacred pagoda in Myanmar and believed to be filled with 4 relics: the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konāgamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa, and eight strands of hair from the head of Gautama.
According the legend the pagoda was built 2,500 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world.
The Swedagon Pagoda was about a 10 minute cab ride away. A very, very, very hot and sweaty 10 minute cab ride.
We had to remove our shoes before entering the lobby of the pagoda. Once we bought our tickets we had to take an elevator up to the main area of the pagoda. The pagoda was huge. I mean, really, really, huge.
It was not just the giant golden stupa but there were many small things around it and it was actually more of a complex that we could walk around, or circumambulate through. Being barefoot was interesting because the floor was made of marble and was HOT. The green tiles were the really hot ones, the white ones were manageable.
We made our way around the pagoda slowly. There was a voice speaking words in Burmese that repeated over and over again. I wish I knew what they were saying but my assumption is that it was some prayer or prayer equivalent.
Interestingly, the pagoda had wifi, not that it really worked. I also don't know why you would go to a religious site in order to use the internet but apparently it is a courtesy they offer.
Something the pagoda also had was an ATM where we were able to get some Kyat (pronounced chat). The conversion rate is 1000 Kyat = 1 USD. Also, they will take USD all throughout the country but they will only take it if they are really crisp or undamaged bills. We thought this was somewhat of a joke until Annie had a really old, ragged bill that no one would take. We spent all day trying to get rid of it. I believe the reasoning behind it is that when they go to exchange the money they can only exchange nearly perfect bills. And I don't think they get a lot of opportunities to exchange money so they are very careful with the bills they take.
We spent about an hour at the pagoda and then left to find a market. By that time it was around noon. The cab ride to the market was again hot and sweaty, especially because we were jamming 5 people into a cab so we were on top of each other.
The market was pretty cool, and very very cheap. It was extremely similar looking to the market we went to on the last day of Vietnam. Most of it was covered and you wound your way through the different little stations, which were all about 6 to 8 square feet.
We went through a huge section where all they were selling was shoes. There were A LOT of shoes, mostly flip flops, piled all the way up to the ceiling.
At the market I bought a set of hand painted postcards from a little girl. She originally told me 12 USD. I asked her if she would take 8, she said 9 and I agreed. I went to give her a 10 dollar bill and she said that she didn't have change, so I just left her with the 10. It was completely worth it because I got 10 post cards and they were definitely worth 1 dollar a piece. They are pretty and hand painted with different landscapes or people. Now if only there was postage service so I could send them out.
I also bought a piece of art at the market, it is a painting of a few huts and people walking. There was another painting that I should have bought but I decided it was a little too much and now I regret it. It was of a set of stone stairs surrounded by trees with a monk sitting on the stairs reading. It was so beautiful and peaceful. But oh well.
The large group of 9 of us split up while we were at the market. By the time the 5 of us were ready to leave we decided there was no hope of finding the other 4. It was around 1:30pm and all of us were starving. We hadn't really seen any restaurants, there had only been street food, and it was drilled into our brain so intensely that we were all afraid to eat the food. Not only that but we didn't really want to eat it, it looked sketchy. So our plan was to get back to city hall, catch the shuttle to the ship, and eat there, where we knew it was safe.
When we got to city hall there were no busses waiting. After consulting the bus schedule we realized that the shuttles back didn't start until 3pm. We had over an hour to kill.
We picked a street and headed down it in hopes of finding shopping or possibly food. By this point we were all starving, dehydrated and headachy and just wanted to be back on the ship and eating. This made making a decision very difficult because none of us cared what we did. We walked down the street about a half a mile before finding a small restaurant that looked the least sketchy out of everything around it. We ordered 3 plates of french fries, the only thing we felt like eating, and used there wifi.
The water and french fries revived us enough that we became talkative and less crabby. We got back to city hall before 3 to find a small line had formed for the first shuttle back. We boarded and sat on the bus for almost 20 minutes before one of the guides came on and told us that that bus was scheduled to be the 3:30 but. That caused a bit of an uproar because the bus was already full and we had already been waiting. She called her supervisor who apparently gave us permission to leave early because off we went.
Back on the ship we all got deck 7 food and throughly enjoyed it. I got a salad and it was exactly what I needed, that an a huge amount of water, plus a smoothie. Totally worth it.
I spent the rest of the evening watching a movie and packing for our trip tomorrow. We are meeting at 6:30 and headed directly for the beach. I will be riding elephants and visiting a school, I can't wait!! Jessi and I signed up for this trip together as well, but ended up in different sections again, so we won't be together. Mom Shelley is in my section though!!
To the beach!!
