back from Myanmar!

Wow, haven’t blogged in a while. Too many things going on at work for the past month, not to mention I just came back from a six-day trip to Myanmar!

I won’t write a detailed travel post about our trip anymore, since I’ll be posting a travel video (hopefully within this month) just like what I did with Siem Reap and Seoul. Besides, my travel companion also posted two awesome posts (so far?) that encapsulated our experience. But here are just a few thoughts about the trip before other back-to-reality stuff gets in the way and I forget to make a post altogether.

This trip definitely squashed my regrets for not pushing through with Sri Lanka. We opted to go to Myanmar since we have already booked our connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur before Air Asia cancelled its KL-CMB route and it seems such a waste not to use the tickets (plus, I have no other trips planned for the first half of the year!) Let’s just say that setting low expectations for a trip will give you a lot of leeway to be amazed. Not that Myanmar isn’t amazing but itself, but this trip did lend itself to a lot of surprises (good ones) considering our half-baked itinerary.

Bagan was definitely a sight to behold, its rustic beauty just hits you point blank when you see the vast plain dotted with a lot of temples, pagodas, and stupas all within a few feet from each other. We went there in the thick of summer, and while it was blazing hot (thank ye gods for the swimming pool!) , the colors were just astounding. Most of them have that brown-red look to them because of the sand/clay/brick composition of most of the structures. This “look” is also what attracted me to Pre Rup, my favourite temple in Siem Reap. The current state of the temples give you that feeling that you’re one of its early discoverers. The 2-day trip from Manila to Bagan (no beds, overnight bus included), and going straight from the bus terminal to climb one of the temples to see the sunrise is one of the most rewarding moments I had in my travels.

Our rather sedate pace was actually perfect given the weather and the amount of energy and time we devoted to the trip, ending the three-day stay in the province biking around Old Bagan. We went back to Yangon, Myanmar’s capital, travel-weary but managed to squeeze in some time to go to Sule Pagoda, Bogyoke Market, and of course the Shwedagon Pagoda. One of the best things about the country was how open and accommodating the locals are – from our Yangon B&B who let us take a shower even if we’re not scheduled to check-in yet (twice!), to the Bagan “salespeople” especially the lady who applied thanaka to our faces, and our Swedagon taxi driver who did a side trip to the National League of Democracy office even if we didn’t ask him to (if that’s not a display of national pride, I don’t know what is).

I still think I’m in a Myanmar hangover until now because I know that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll go back again – unless there’s a direct flight from Manila to Bagan (fat chance of that happening) – especially since I have other places I would also like to visit. Nevertheless, I’m glad I got to travel to this country at least once in my life.