One Sunday Afternoon

'phew' moment on Sunday avro

 A dandelions spot at the neighborhood. On the way back to home on one Sunday afternoon.

Spring is not that far???

Town of Kalaw

Town of Kalaw from the top of mountain. Winding mountain path that we came through.

This is the parolama view of Kalaw town.  It takes 1.5 hours to get the top of the mountain. You can talk to the monks at the temple behind us (behind the scenery), but there was no monks around when we got there. You also can oversee the small villages scattered across the mountains. If you want to have a practice run (trekking) before 3 day trekking, this route is the best and pretties one that I recommend!

Small village across the mountains

Pao lady that we came across while she was working at the veg garden

We were on the clay-muddy road on the trekking road.  On such road conditions, you tend to walk with your head down all the time, thinking where you put forward your next step to. But this does not apply to the trekking guide, Robin, who walks 3 day trekking routes twice in the week.  Walking way ahead of us most of the time, he found another Pao locals to talk to, who were working on the vegetable patches.

As I said in the previous post, they were very shy first, but once the camera is set to photograph them (with permission), they turn into like a model. 

The girl on the above, she quickly fixed and adjusted the Pao traditional scarf on the head, and gave a artistic pose to a camera! Gosh, she knows what she is doing!  

During/after the photo shoot, her mother asked us all if we were partnered or single. I was only single male person, and quickly she displayed great deal of interests in me!  

 Hope they had a fun moment with us anyway!

Pao ladies working on the veg garden

Pao kids (look at the girl's pants at the back! it's Pao design) at one of the small villages on the way of trekking

We passed through numerous small villages while trekking. As all villages disperse over a wide area of the mountains, they are not accessible to 'city electricity', 'city water' nor 'city gas'. Plastic items in the area, therefore, very valuable for them to re-use as reliable containers for rain water etc.

You can see the girl waving at us in the picture. They often don't say 'hello' to us, just say 'bye bye'. The narrow dry soiled main road of the village must be a busy trekking path and they see many tourists passing through every day and remember the English greeting. Most occasions, we end up having a short conversation with these kids like this:

us: hello.
kids; bye bye :) bye bye :)

Scenery 10 mins walk from the village above

Kalaw girls + A shy boy

Kalaw girls at Thu Maung Restaurant (on Union Hwy)

On the same day we arrived at Kalaw at 4AM, we went to the Burmese restaurant that Lonely Planet says 'the best Burmese restaurant in town', Thu Maung Restaurant.

We ordered a tomato salad (a dishful of sliced tomato tossed with sesame sauce- and other stuff,, cant remember), and some fried rice, with wiping sleepy red eyes. In the open restaurant next to the busy roads (where you walk up stirs towards mountain side for a good view of Kalaw town), there are 5-6 young girls working with the middle aged mistress and her 1 year old son.  There is only one boy working then at as a waiting staff - mainly sweeping floor and stuff and he was extremely shy (as you can tell from the photo!).

These three girls made us realise that Burmese very much LOVE being taken a photo IN PUBLIC. Girls who were running away from my camera first came to me minutes later as if they looked like 'ready now'. We took a picture and we thought that was such a best shot ever!, then the girl in the middle screamed when looking at it. I asked "what" in gesture, and she was pointing to the black dot on her forehead - a fly!! I took a data to the town's photo shops, and developed this pic and gave it to them because this was the best shot of all without a fly...

Accomodations at Kalaw - Golden Lily

There is strange trend in Myanmar in relation to the cost of accommodation. Accoms in smaller cities/towns can be more expensive than those of cities with lower standard (dirtier sometimes, the accomo itself usually quite old).

In Kalaw, we stayed this guest house - Golden Lily. Old but CHEAP (thus GREAT!)!! Twin room is $12/night with own bathroom.  The single with shared bathroom is $6. Very basic but quite clean. Inside of the rooms both singles and twins are quite spacious and wooden floor. No air-con as it is much cooler in Kalaw. Happy Brekky included.

We stayed the twin room on the 1st level (there is no rooms on the ground level). There are other rooms on the 2nd level as well, which gives you a better panorama view of the Kalaw town.Oh Kalaw... it is a lovely small town with hundreds bike taxis (as there are numerous small villages in / around the mountains). There are three couples including us checked in on the same morning (we arrived here 4AM by bus from Yangon), and we kept bumping into each other in town (and became friend!)!!

You can relax in the area. When rained, the scenery from here was so therapeutic

Public bus with no hint where to go!

A public bus

First impression of Burmese language - they look curly, cute and look like many different shape of holes on cheese!

Troublesome for tourists is ......... all route numbers on bus is Burmese. So, to be able to travel around the city of Yangon by public transport, you need to be at least 'Burmese number literate'. OR just be brave to speak to the bus conductor who always 'hang out' half of the body from the front door of the bus. 

I met Thai couple travelers later on and it seems like they are more adaptable to be able to identify the Burmese number than the rest of us! They said the two language are completely different, but 'kind of similar' lol 

Cheroot Tasting at Yangon

Cheroot tasting in Yangon, Burma

My face looks very cautious and careful, that's because I am smoking a cigar for the first time (cigarettes - for the first time in almost 2 years).  I was not sure how much of smoke I could inhale at the first time. It is said that a cheroot is made of mixture of tabaco leave and other plants' leaves (so all natural if that does not sound like excuse).  The boy at the back (who looked 10 years old) told me how to unpack it from individual package and light it. I think it cost about K50 (40 cents).

Safety Standard of Taxi in Burma

No Seat belt provided in the taxi and taxi fares in Burma

Taxi that we got on to go the Thiri Mingalar market didnt have a seat belt. You don't have to worry about it too much as they drive slowly on the busy roads (lol). Also often the taxi like this offers cheaper rate in return of your safety :).

There is NO meter taxi exists in Burma even if they said so somewhere on the car. So you need to negotiate every time. 

In Yangon, if it's normal taxi, the fare starts at K1000 up to 1-1.5km. You can add K500 every 1km and this is rough calculation that we used. As an example, see the fares below that we paid.

• Yangon International Airport to Yangon City: $10 (we didnt know much about the standard, but it should be K6000 one way)
• Yangon City to Thiri Minglar Market (not sure how far it is from the CBD) K3500
• Yangon City to Aung Minglar Bus Station: K7500

If you except cheaper fares like locals tell you (locals give you lots of great information from time to time), that's the fare for 'old (normal)' taxi, not 'air-con/new taxi'. You have to pay more for new taxis. Also bike taxi is cheaper, but not recommended for long distance or if you are not lone traveler. City buses/mini buses are quite cheap (very cheap) and the conductors are usually very helpful, but you need to be patient as they go around all little lines in town to pick up as many passengers as possible until you get destinations.

It is ok to ask around several taxi drivers to see who offers best fare for you, rather than you stick to one driver trying to put the price down (When I had to go to the bus station from the city, I was told by the guest house owner that K6000 should be enough from the Yangon City. First taxi, air-con one, I was told K10,000, the second one on the street, K8000, and then the third one was K7500 (run-down taxi with cheerful taxi driver chewing Burmese chewy). Prices on everything has risen up in Yangon, so you also be a realistic negotiator in Burma.

Travel by bus

Inside of the bus - locals love Burmese comedie drama on TV. On the way to Mawlmaine, Burma

Bus companies - Choosing bus company as an individual traveler is quite difficult as there are numerous number of travel agencies out there and you never know which travel agency use which bus company. During the trip, we came across one bus company when we traveled from Inle Lake (Shweyanung) to Mandalay, which was really terrible (not the one above photo). I had nearly 10 long distance bus trips, and that was only one bad experience. So if happens to you, that would be lucky experience!

Another thing on travel on bus is that that most bus companies are private owned. It is said that some of the fees are believed to be paid to the government (under the form of registration fees or license fee), but it seems to be smaller contribution to the government than other forms of transport, such as trains and gov-owned airline MIA.

While the bus trip, we did not encounter any delay, breakdown etc in any routes – buses came on time and left on time although most of times, the bus arrived at the destination in the middle of night or early morning like 3-4 oclock (luckily, guest house receptions usually open 5:30-6:00AM across Burma). We had to sleep out one night because of that!  Buses stops quite frequently for pick up and drop off locals + 30 mins 'dinner' stop.  One of the service stations was huge and people call it 'Burmese version Las Vegas!'.

For your info (at the time that I travelled):

• Yangon - Kalaw: K15,000
• Inle Lake (Shwenyaung) to Mandalay: K10,000
• Mandalay to Bagan: K8000
• Bagan to Yangon: K15,000
• Yangon to Kyiktiyo: K8,000
• Kyitiyo to Mawlamyine: K7,000
• Mawlmyine to Hpa-n: K1,050
• Hpa-n to Yangon: K5,000

Obviously there is 'tourist' prices for bus tickets as well, and usually it is 150% more than the local price. Places like Hpa-n obviously offers a local price, which is quite random to me. You CAN negotiate with the agent or bus ticket sellers, but the most effective way to get tickets at the local price is to get your Burmese friends to buy tickets for you!! 

A View of Yangon from the Accomodation

A view from the accommodation - Chan Myaye Guest House

This is the view from the top floor of the accommodation that we stayed in Yangon - Mahabandoola Garden Street Yangon. You can see the intersection to Anawrahta Rd on the top where traffic gets crazy busy as no traffic lights.

Another view of Bagan, Burma