Visiting Burma (Myanmar) in the Rainy Season – Part 2

Near Yangon is the city of Bago, which is known for another of the famous Buddha statues. It’s a reclining Buddha, which is 55 meters long and 16 meters high. When we stood next to the statue, we were like ants compared to it. This reclining Buddha called Shwethalyaung is as much as 9 meters longer than the famous Buddha statue in at Wat Pho in Bangkok.

We also wanted to see the country’s interior and started at the beautiful Inle Lake. This time we chose to travel by train from Yangon. I don’t think I’ve ridden a slower train than that one (if anyone wanted to get off the train during the ride, I think they could do it without a hitch). Food vendors walked up and down the train all the time. Lunch (rice wrapped in a large green leaf) was usually offered right through the window, if the train stopped at a station.

Lake Inle with its floating vegetable gardens

Lake Inle is 22 km long and 11 km wide and lies at an altitude of 876 m. Tourists are usually offered a two-hour canoe ride on the lake and, of course, we immediately went on the "trip". The way locals canoed was interesting. They stood on the flat back part of the boat and paddled with their right foot, next to which was a long rod reaching into the water.

Small floating islets can be seen on Inle Lake, and tomatoes and other vegetable are grown on them. There are canals between these tomato gardens, so that sailing here is possible only with canoes, but not with fast motorboats. Residents tie hyacinths and mud together to the islands, attaching them to the bottom of the lake with sticks. The lake provides the inhabitants with everything they need to live. They wash themselves there, do their laundry and cook with the lake water. We, too, left our laundry with a local housewife to be washed, though our “clean laundry” the next day was lightly dyed brown.

Bright-green colored rice fields and nasty leeches

The next day was followed by a trek between mountain villages and rice fields, the path taking us up a little and then down again. In the countryside, Burmese live a very modest life. They live in small wooden houses, where they both cook and sleep in the same room. They eat exclusively what grows in their field and rice is one of the most important nourishments as they eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Rice is similar in appearance to millet and grows from 70 to 120 cm high. It needs water mainly during the growing season. Most of the work in the rice fields is still done by hand. Myanmar is the seventh largest rice producer in the world. It’s said to produce 33 million tons a year.

Walking among the rice fields sometimes required us to wade through the water in which the rice is sown. Soon we noticed small black blighters on the bottom of our pants, and these were tiny leeches that sucked on us along the way.

Mandalay with the longest wooden bridge in the world, U-bein bridge

Protests are also taking place in the city of Mandalay, which is also an interesting city. It’s located not far from Lake Inle, somewhere in the middle of the country and is the second largest city in Burma. I remember coming to the city in the time of floods, which were happening all around the city, so our bus had to drive through the water, which reached maybe about ten centimeters high. They say that some houses that are built of wood and stand right next to the roads are swept away by such floods, so people who are already on the edge of poverty are left without a roof over their heads.

The most beautiful attractions that attract crowds of tourists near Mandalay city, is the U Bein Bridge in the village of Amarapura, known as the longest teak bridge in the world. It’s 1,200 meters long and leads from Amarapura to the village of Taungthaman. During the monsoon rain, the area between the two villages is flooded, so that the bridge, several meters high, serves as an access between the two places. What is also interesting is that the bell in the village of Mingun is known as the second largest in the world. It weighs as much as 90 tons and is the largest undamaged bell in the world (the largest bell is in Moscow, but it’s said to be damaged).

Bagan, a place where the traveler forgets about time

The most beautiful part of Burma, however, came at the end. I’m talking about the city of Bagan, in which we arrived after a half-day journey by boat along the Irrawaddy River, an extremely wide river that is the largest in Burma. Bagan amazes anyone who comes here. It’s a historic royal city with over 2,000 preserved shrines and brick pagodas. It’s ranked among the most important places in Southeast Asia, even being compared to the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia. Bagan developed into an important economic and ruling center in the 9th century, ruled by King Anawrahta and his son. The city grew larger and spread over more than 40 square kilometers. The king built a huge number of pagodas and shrines. In 1287, Bagan was occupied by the Mongol ruler, and at that time the kingdom disintegrated. In 1975, an earthquake destroyed much of Bagan. Some buildings were severely damaged or even demolished, yet many of them have survived.

We were discovering the temples by bike for three days. It rained regularly while we were cycling, but we always snuck into one of the temples or stopped at a nearby local inn for some coffee or tea. The title of the most beautiful shrine in Bagan is attributed to the Ananda shrine, which was damaged in the earthquake and had to be completely restored. The sanctuary is known for having four large Buddha statues in it. The most famous pagoda of Bagan is the Shwezigon pagoda because it has a golden stupa on the top and is very visible from afar. All the shrines were built between the 11th and 13th centuries. King Anawrahta failed to complete them, and his son took over the work, finishing the construction. We enjoyed cycling through countless temples, we enjoyed the sun and sometimes rain (Bagan is extremely sunny unlike other cities), and the most beautiful thing in Bagan was when we sat down at a local bar in the evening and knocked back a couple of cocktails for less than a dollar. Traveling around Burma is, after all, relatively inexpensive. At least it was then.

Burma was one of my longest trips in Asia. And to be fair, it offers so much that a traveller cannot stop exploring and discovering new corners and places. I hope that the situation in Burma calms down soon, so that the already poor country can reopen its doors to tourism.