Home Sweet Home

When we arrived back in KL on Jan. 8 after three weeks of travel we had a glorious sunset. The picture was taken from our kitchen window. It is so good to be home. - Nancy

Last Stop Bangkok

We stopped in Bangkok for two nights on are way back to Kuala Lumpur from Myanmar. We played tourist and took the river taxi and viewed some of the major sights - The Grand Palace, the largest reclining Buddha, and even the little visited Royal Barge Museum. - Nancy

The old "Hill Station" at Kalaw

Leaving Inle Lake and the town of Nyaungshwe we again took a pre-arranged taxi to the old British colonial “hill station” of Kalaw at an elevation of a little more than 4000 ft. We’d splurged and booked a boutique hotel (The Amara Resort) @ $90 per night and thoroughly enjoyed the hot baths in a tile tub and the fire in the fireplace every night. (Even here in Southeast Asia there was frost on the ground when we got up in the morning. What a change from KL!) Since we were there three nights we spent our first full day “trekking” with a guide—a venture that turned out to be an 11 mile hike with many ups-and-downs. On our second day we were met by a fascinating Burmese man in his 60’s (right) who heads-up a remarkable organization that provides latrines, piped drinking water, schools and hydroelectric power to remote rural villages—all with the full cooperation of villagers. (The girls pictured below live in an orphanage in Kalaw that RDS sponsors.)- rw

Inle Lake

From Bagan we flew to Heho where a taxi had previously been arranged to take us on the hour’s drive to the town of Nyuangshwe where a long flat-bottomed motorboat was waiting to deliver us far down the Inle Lake to our “hotel” at the Golden Island Cottages. It was a fascinating place to stay and boat tours on the lake took us to a local market, a textile factory, a temple, a silversmith shop,
and the famous “floating gardens” of Inle Lake. One of the amazing things to watch on the lake was the way fishermen used just one hand and a leg to row their longboats. And, since we were at Inle Lake for New Year’s Eve—and a full moon(!)—it was special to share in their New Year’s Eve buffet dinner (all of $7 per person) and the program to follow. Pictured at the bottom is Nancy in her newly-acquired traditional garb. - rw

Bagan, the Pagoda Capital of the World

After Court and Susan left us on Dec. 28th to return home, we flew to Bagan, famous for over 4000 pagodas or stupas that were built in the glory days of Burmese kings (approx. 1050-1175 A.D. We stayed at a nice hotel, the Bagan Thande, @$33 per nite and enjoyed the outdoor dining area by the river, a 4-hour late morning tour of pagodas by horse-cart that included a fascinating visit to a lacquerware factory, and then a late afternoon tour by taxi that took us to the temple (Shwesandaw Paya) that’s the ideal place to climb to an upper level for sunset views of the whole surrounding area. (other pictures on "Christmas in Myanmar" posting)- rw

Mandalay ...

... where the flying fishes play."* - Rudyard Kipling

On Dec. 26th we had to rise early since our Yangon Airways flight to Mandalay left at 6:30 a.m. We, along with Court and Susan, had hotel rooms “on the cheap” @ $20 per night. Unfortunately for us, they had hot water but we didn’t. Tourist sites around Mandalay included the famous Mandalay Hill, the U’Bein’s footbridge (1.2 km long , built 200 years ago and constructed entirely of teak),

shopping for textiles in Amarapura,

and taking a riverboat up the Ayeyarwady to Mingun to see the ruins of what would have been the world’s largest pagoda had construction not stopped at the death of King Bodawpaya in 1819. At the site of the Mingun Pagoda reportedly is the world's largest uncracked bell pictured below.

(Of course the visit would not have been complete without being on Mandalay Hill at sunset!)-rw

* As near as we can tell, the "flying fishes" Kipling was referring to were fresh water dolphins that swim in the Ayeyarwady River. We didn't see them, however, since it would have required several hours on a boat to go upriver!

Yangon (formerly Rangoon)

We arrived in Yangon on the 23rd of December and had the chance to share in a “Christmas Eve Party” at Court & Susan’s house, especially for their neighbors and staff. Ron gave a brief devotional at the event and one of Susan’s assistants, Julia, did a fine job as “MC” for the party. Christmas Day included a combined worship service and a very nice dinner for the four of us at a downtown hotel. Tea Shops in Yangon were delightful, and of course we visited the famous Shwedagon Pagoda (pictured at beginning of "Christmas in Myanmar" posting). To prepare for the rest of our travels we exchanged currency at the rate of $1 to 1000 Kyat (pronounced “jet”), so immediately we had the equivalent of 800 $1 bills to carry around! - rw

The Many Modes of Transportation

While killing time waiting for our last Myanmar in-country flight (Heho to Yangon), it occurred to us to make a list of the various kinds of transportation we’ve experienced on this trip, both in Thailand and Myanmar. This is what we came up with:
1. Walking – The longest was an 11-mile trek over “hill & dale” to rural villages outside of Kalaw, but we did lots of walking in Mandalay and Bagan as well.
2. Taxis within all of the cities/towns we visited. This included runs from the airport to our hotels, and costs ranged from $1 to $8 (not too bad!).
3. “Long haul taxis” – These were booked ahead of time and took us from one city (or airport) to an entirely different location—usually involving a trip of at least an hour. The most expensive 1-hour trip was $45.
4. Airplane – both in-country prop-jets with Yangon Airways (4 flights) and Airbus flights with Air Asia (KL-Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai-Bangkok, Bangkok to Yangon, Yangon to Bangkok, Bangkok to KL),
5. River taxi – a short river crossing at night in Bangkok to reach a hotel where we ate dinner,6. Riverboat - a 1-hour trip up the Ayeyarwady from Mandalay to see the temple ruins and other sights in Mingun,
7. Horse cart – very helpful in Bagan to get to pagodas in the immediate vicinity (1/2 day rental: $11), and for getting back to our hotel from a restaurant after dark! ($1)

8. Trishaw (think Rickshaw!) – a bike with 2 wheels in the back that’s propelled by “pedal-power” and has 2 seats—one facing front, the other back—just to the left of the cyclist. Nancy wasn’t thrilled riding in one to our hotel after dark in Mandalay when she noticed the bike had neither headlamp or taillight! ($1.50),
9. WWII vintage jeep – A very interesting 30-mile round trip from Kalaw over dusty and rocky tracks with a local entrepreneur who initiates rural water and hydroelectric projects with foreign funds,
10. Sky-train (rapid transit) in Bangkok,
11. Long flat-bottomed motorboat that took us on a 2-hour round-trip journey down Inle Lake to our “Golden Island Cottage” (2 nights), and then provided transportation for a day-trip to see the floating gardens, a local market and other sights,
12. Long dugout canoe – It was hired for a return trip after we walked 1.2 km. across the famous U-Bein’s teak bridge near Mandalay.
13. Elephant – a 45-minute ride with both of us atop the beast in connection with a day tour out of Chiang Mai, Thailand.,
14. Ox-cart – a 20-minute journey to the place where we changed modes of transportation and mounted the elephant,
15. Bamboo raft for floating down a river near Chiang Mai,
16. A Thai tuk-tuk (small covered & open-sided 3-wheeler powered by a motorcycle engine),
17. Tour van – It took us and several other tourists on the day tour out of Chiang Mai, and
18. A Zoo tram – 2 journeys through a wildlife park north of Chiang Mai, Thailand -- included in the price of admission. - rw

Myanmar for Christmas!

Our trip to Burma (Myanmar) was triggered by a desire to see our good friends, Court Walters and Susan Stewart in Yangon, and spend Christmas with them. However, since this would probably be our only visit to Myanmar, we obviously wanted to include several of the leading tourist sites. We “passed” on the beach resorts since we have plenty of those in Malaysia but did include Mandalay, Bagan (the site of an incredible number of ancient pagodas built in the glory days of the kings of Burma – C.11-13 A.D.), Inle Lake, and the old colonial hill station of Kalaw. Hopefully the following posts will give an overview of our trip, but Nancy’s top five experiences were:

1. Sunset on a flat-bottomed boat on Inle Lake,
2. A 4-hour tour of the pagodas in Bagan on a horse cart,
3. Seeing the floating gardens of Inle Lake
4. The boat trip up the Ayeyarwady River from Mandalay to Mingun, and
5. The delightful hot baths at the hotel in Kalaw when the temperature outside was at or near freezing, and there was no heat in the room except for a fireplace!
Ron’s top five were:

1. Sunset from an upper level of the Shwesandaw Pagoda in Bagan with a host of other tourists as we saw a full moon in the eastern sky, a couple of hot air balloons to the west, and innumerable smaller temples dotting the landscape in every direction,
2. A ride to some rural development projects outside of Kalaw in a vintage WW2 jeep,
3. A canoe return-trip after walking across a famous 1.2 km. teak bridge near Mandalay,
4. The floating gardens at Inle Lake, and
5. Sitting in front of the fireplace—and tending the fire—at our boutique hotel in Kalaw!
Other highlights for both of us were:
• A crowded Christmas Day worship service in Yangon which included four pastors from Chin State singing in English and in 4-part harmony, “There Will be Peace in the Valley,”







• A Christmas Day dinner with Court & Susan at a hotel in Yangon that had a dining room overlooking the whole city, and
• A New Year’s Eve buffet dinner at our Inle Lake hotel that was followed by a program of music and traditional ethnic dances that lasted ‘til midnight (we left early)!

Chiang Mai as Tourists

To begin our Christmas trip we flew Air Asia direct to Chiang Mai, Thailand on December 19th and spent three nights at a very nice hotel which gave us the perfect vantage point for the weekly "Sunday night street market." Mostly in Chiang Mai we played tourist and saw the night market, an elephant show, a village where the long-necked tribal women sold hand woven shawls, an orchid garden and the Chiang Mai wild animal safari at night. -Nancy