Inle Lake

This afternoon we fly from Bagan to Heho, take a bus an hour through the mountainside and board small motorized canoes for an hour's ride to Inle Lake.

Debb is *not* excited about the forthcoming ride, though she does repeat what she said in the Netherlands: that she could swim to the side of the river, if necessary. In fact, after the heat of Yangon and Bagan, the cool mountain breezes were quite welcome!

The Aureum Resort and Spa is gorgeous. Built over the lake on stilts; all the rooms are freestanding huts over the water, and as luxurious as you could find anywhere. This, in rural central Burma!

 

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Want to buy a . . .

The Burmese reminded me of the folks we saw in the streets of Beijing. Very eager to surround tourists with persistent sales pitches. Lots of handcrafted artifacts and umbrellas (it's hot). Debb thinks they might be made in China, though!

 

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Bagan

This morning we fly from Yangon to Bagan, the capital of the ancient Burmese empire ca. 1100 C.E. This civilization built thousands upon thousands of pagodas, or temples, as places of meditation. We visited the Shwe See Gon pagoda, or the Golden Pagoda, which is the most important pagoda in Bagan and houses four enormous golden Buddhas, one of which is shown here.

All along the roadside we saw pagodas everywhere. All over 1000 years old. Beautiful and fascinating.

 

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Shwedagon Pagoda

After sating our shopping jones, we did something a bit more appropriate: visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda, also known as the Golden Pagoda. This pagoda is believed to be 2600 years old, dating to the time of the Buddha, and would thus be the oldest pagoda in the world. It is a lot more than the central towering pagoda, though: it's a bit more like Disneyland, with thousands of people inside and hundreds of Buddhas to see. So much gold and idols numbs me after awhile.

 

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Yangon, Myanmar

We fly from Brunei to Yangon, Myanmar (fka Rangoon, Burma), a port city on the delta of the Irawaddy River. It's a hot, steamy city in a country that was only opened to foreigners a couple of years ago by the ruling military junta. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi lived for years here under house arrest. It's not quite North Korea, but it used to be close.

So what's the first thing we do? Go shopping, of course! We head from the airport straight to Scott's Market, an open-air bazaar in downtown Yangon. Debb finds a white shirt and a brilliantly colored traditional Burmese longyi (wraparound skirt). Below Debb poses, wearing her longyi, with the shopkeeper who sold it to her.

 

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Brunei & the Country Club

This afternoon we enjoyed our luxurious accommodations at the Empire Hotel & Country Club. With all that oil, they can afford to build really swanky resorts, and this is one of the nicest we've ever seen. Debb enjoys a spot of tea in the balcony area of the fifth floor, enjoying the view of the lagoon and the South China Sea.

 

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Brunei

We flew to Brunei late last night. Brunei is a small kingdom on the northwest part of the island of Borneo, nestled between the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. I think it's about the size of Rhode Island. It's also just about the richest country on the globe, per capita, because it sits right on top of a huge deposit of oil discovered in the '60s. Thus the capital city, Bandar Seri Begawan, looks like any major U.S. city: it has freeways, glass and steel buildings downtown, and beautiful landscaping. You'd have thought you were in Dallas.

It also has miles and miles of canals lined by lush vegetation that provide access by boat to the more rural parts of the country. This morning we boarded speedboats to cruise through the canals to the district of Temburong, where we visited an open air marketplace and then visited a family home of the indigenous Iban people who live in "longhouses" that look, frankly, like an apartment building. The family shared with us their method for weaving mats from straw, performed a ceremonial dance for us, and shared homemade curry and cakes. They were incredibly generous to a crowd of tourists.

 

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