TRAVEL WITH ME TO MYANMAR!
Hello everyone!! I have been to every country in the Southeast Asia region as well as multiple other Asian countries and I can say this with great confidence...
Myanmar is a wonderland. Not only is the country beautiful from North to South, East to West, but is also a genuinely pure and authentic travel experience! It's not like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, etc where their culture takes a backseat in some areas and catering for tourists is a priority.
Wandering around Myanmar gives you a genuine experience of being and EXISTING in a new culture.
The locals are humble, kind, giving, accepting and welcoming! I never once felt in danger or unwanted!
When I was exploring Su Taung Pyae Pagoda on top of Mandalay Hill, 3 locals, 2 girls and a guy all asked to take photos with me! As you can see, this girl is wearing some of the local attire and facepaint/sun screen (Thanaka). They were all so shy and could barely speak English but we had fun taking photos!
Here are some more shots of Su Taung Pyae!
Such incredible design!
This is one of my favourite places in Mandalay!
My itinerary for travelling this country was completely open. I had researched a few top places of interest but my main tactic was to just ask the locals
"Where do you recommend for me to visit?" - This is the best way to travel. Locals always know the best places and usually you can't find them in some Lonely Planet book or blog post!
So this is where I went:
Mandalay
Inwa
Bagan
Inle Lake
Yangon
Kin Pun
MANDALAY
I flew into Mandalay and was immediately sweating! Temperature averaged 38 Degrees Celsius for the 5 days I was there! Madness!
I hired a motorbike and went exploring!
Kuthodaw Pagoda!
There are hundreds of these white pagodas!
A great thing about this place is that it's not only tourists who visit! In fact, I barely saw any western tourists at all! Just locals, sitting around, eating, laughing, it was amazing!
The Mandalay Royal Palace!
This place is absolutely HUGE. you could easily take half a take to explore this area corner to corner. It's stunning!
The complexity of these buildings are astounding!
And especially on a beautiful blue sky day! I was definitely sweating when I was walking around here!
While in Mandalay, I drove down south to the ancient cities of Inn Wa (Inwa) and Sagaing!
It's a long drive on a motorbike but the views along the way are incredible and the ancient cities are out of this world!!
Take a look!
This is a view of Sagaing. Pagodas pop up from everywhere, beautiful!!
A huge golden Buddha standing tall in one of the hundreds of temples!
Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda is one of the highlights for me!
After Mandalay I visited the hugely famous BAGAN!
Probably my most anticipated place to visit at that point because of it's growing popularity on social media at the time!
The main thing to do in Bagan is wake up before sunrise, head to a pagoda and wait for the sun to rise over the rest of the 2,000 pagodas and temples!
that's right... 2000!!
In it's day, Bagan was host to 10,000 pagodas but due to damage from earthquakes, heavy rain and time itself, the majority of the pagodas have become rubble! :( I'm just thankful there are still some left and hope that they stand for many more years!
This was the best sunrise by far! I woke up at 4am to get this shot!
This is the view from the famous Shwesandaw Pagoda. This is the main place where all the tour buses are dropped off so it's get pretty crowded here around sunset! I'd recommend avoiding this place!
This small one was my favourite! It was hard to find which meant most of the time we were alone and away from the other tourists!
This photo is a good example of how the structures have been damaged over time! One of the smaller pagodas is slightly at an angle!
Here's me inside the HUGE Dhammayan Gyi Temple!
The easy way to get around Bagan! Hire an E-bike and zoom around town!
Another way to traverse through Bagan is by horse and cart! Sometimes even by BULL AND CART!
A delicacy in Myanmar... Tea Leaf Salad. It tastes pretty good but leaves you with tea leaves in your teeth!
After Bagan, I travelled to the centre of the country to....
INLE LAKE
ahhhh this is my favourite place in Myanmar! Beautiful scenery in every direction!
As you can probably tell, there's a lake here! But that's not the main attraction.. seeing as the lake itself isn't that great. The attractions, however, are the small villages that are based around the lake! They all offer different and unique things!
For example, you can do to one village and have stunning material woven by women from Long Neck tribes. or have jewellery hand made in front of you from silver.
There's also large Pagodas to stop off at and explore.
Long boats like this travel between villages around the lake, carrying everything from tourists, fruit and veg, materials, etc.
You have to hire a personal boat driver to take you around!
This is a beautiful women from a tribe called the Padaung Tribe (Win Yadanar Kayan). They travel from their nearby village to work on Inle Lake. She didn't speak English, none of them do, but she had a gorgeous smile!
I learned that the women start 'stretching' their bodies with weighted rings from childhood. Take a look!
This is Shwe Inn Dein Pagoda, also just called 'Dein Pagoda'. Your boat driver will drive upstream into a small village at the foot of a hill. Walk up the hill and you will find this temple!
It's brimming with golden pagodas!
This is a view of the Floating Gardens along the West side of Inle Lake. Farmers stay in these huts and farm the land around it!
The best place to eat in Inle Lake is 'Ever Light Indian Cuisine'. The owner, Raj, moved here with his family a few years ago and his food is the best!!
YANGON
After Inle Lake I headed for Yangon! Home of the Shwedagon Pagoda. The tallest pagoda in the world! 101ft tall!
I love this shot! 3 monks standing in front of the pagoda just talking.
To get to the pagoda you have to walk up this walkway, or one of the 3 others situated on each side!
If you want some peace and quiet in the city.. head to Bogyoke Park / Kandawgyi Lake. It's huge and you can walk all the way around it!
Lastly on my trip to Myanmar I visited Kin Pun! ]
Kinpun is a small mountainous in the South East near the Thai border!
There's only one reason to come to this town...
Kyaiktiyo Pagoda or 'Golden Rock'.
This spectacle is at the top of a mountain and you have to get a truck ride up there! You are literally above the clouds are on a clear day it's incredible!
Unfortunately for me it rained the entire time and I just about managed to get this cool shot of the Golden Rock!
Legend has it that this gravity-defying boulder is being held in place by a single strand of Buddha's hair.
Only men are allowed close to it and touch it.
Despite this rock being the only reason to be in this town, I ended up staying 5 days... not by choice... but because I got extremely sick from eating some unclean food! Oops!
So that's it!
I hope you've enjoyed seeing how beautiful Myanmar is!
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Finally, here's a YouTube video I made from this trip!