Bagan Myanmar

This post is a continuation of a previous post:
Yangon Myanmar. (Part 1)

We took a night bus, about 2200hr,  out of Yangon to Bagan because the journey is about 8 hours. So we spent the night sleeping on the bus, saving on a night's accommodation. I forgot to mention, the accommodation in Myanmar isn't really cheap. You will know the price when you try to book for the hotel.

Interior of the coach

This is the bus interior. It is not too shabby and quite comfortable. Of course, we can't compare this with the coach that we can take from Singapore to  Malaysia. This one has lesser leg space and the chair cannot be inclined for sleeping. This bus belongs to JJ Express, if you are curious what bus service we took. JJ Express does not have different pricing for locals and foreigners.

Along the way, there were a few stops for quick toilet breaks and one long stop to get some food. I don't know where exactly we stopped at but there are 2 eating places.

Feel Express Restaurant

One of them is Feel Express. Feel is a well known in Myanmar for many franchise outlets and their food is rather standardized throughout all the outlets, so you can get similar quality no matter which outlet you go to.

This is the other restaurant but I don't know how to read the Burmese name of the restaurant. The name doesn't really matter because I still decided to eat here instead of Feel Express.

The reason why I ate here is because of the naan they had there.

Naan with Milk Curd

Their way of eating is different from Singapore. They eat naan together with milk curd and some sugar. I definitely prefer this way of eating because it is sweet! It taste really good.

After filling my tummy, I am good to go back to the coach and continue my sleep all the way to Bagan. As I head back to the coach, I was surprised that they were actually issuing snack boxes for the passengers.

Snack Box by Feel

Since when do you get a snack box when you are on a bus ride? So it was a nice gesture by JJ Express. The snack box contain some biscuits, sandwich and dim sum, they were pretty decent snacks.

Day 5

I was woken up around 0400hr when the bus reached Bagan, Nyaung-U. So we alighted and unloaded our luggage. Something caught me off guard again. JJ Express actually had a mini bus waiting for us at the bus terminal! Although the hotel is not far away from the bus terminal, it is really nice of them send us to the hotels at such wee hours. The place that we stayed in was Prince Guest House. It was still very early in the morning, so we checked into our room first to get some quality rest first before heading out.

When morning arrived, we booked a taxi for the whole day just like what we did at Yangon so that we do not need to worry about the transport. First thing that caught my attention when I was in Bagan was the sand painting.

Sand Painting

I find it very intricate. The painting is done using coloured sand. I saw a painter doing his painting, he was doing it like one sand at a time. I would have lost my patience if I were the painter. Salute to these artists. Some information on the sand painting: they are water-proof and does not come off even when you fold it. Also, you can only get sand painting in Bagan, so this is a very good item as a souvenir.

Some story telling about Bagan first before talking about my trip there

Bagan was known to be the founding place for Myanmar. The first kingdom was in Bagan and later unify the regions which constitute the modern Myanmar. It was also the same time that Buddhism flourished in Myanmar, so when we were in Bagan, there is nothing but many many Pagodas. From my understanding, each pagodas has their own story to tell, so if you are interested, you can come here and visit each pagoda and learn about their stories. I am not talking about hundreds of pagodas, it is thousands of them!

Because there are so many pagodas, I only can visit a few. The reason why I chose these few is because they are the more popular ones and some were just random picks. By the way for this section, I only have pictures of the pagodas' exterior. The interior were usually too dark for me to capture any good image since I was using a compact camera for convenience.

First stop was ShweZigon Pagoda.

ShweZigon Pagoda

This is one of the more popular pagoda because it is grand and there is this pool of water where we can see the reflections of the diamonds at the tip of the pagoda

Lawkananda Pagoda

Next was the Lawkananda Pagoda.

Breaking away from the routine, we visited U Ba Nyein Lacquerware Workshop.

U Ba Nyein Lacquerware Workshop

The lacquerware is not stranger to me because it is similar to those of Chinese. Their method of production here is still very traditional though.

One of their lacquerware

Next, we headed to the Bagan Archaeological Museum.

Bagan  Archarological Museum

To understand Bagan, this is where you should be going. They tell you everything that you need to know about Bagan. However, I feel this place kind of cheated my money. Foreigners need to pay additional, compared to the locals, to enter the place. After entering, I had to pay camera fee to take pictures. As I was entering the building, the security told me that I am not allowed to bring cameras in. The camera fee only allowed me to take pictures within the compound but not inside the building and I felt cheated having to pay for the camera fee even though it wasn't expensive.

Ananda Pagoda

Up next was Ananda Pagoda, followed by Thatbyinnyu Pagoda.

Thatbyinnyu Pagoda

I was told that Ananda Pagoda was the most graceful in terms of artistic decorations and Thatbyinnyu Pagoda was the tallest pagoda.

Bu Pagoda

We went to Bu Pagoda next before heading to Shwesandaw Pagoda to watch sunset.

Shwesandaw Pagoda

Shwesandaw Pagoda is one of the few popular sites where people gather to watch sunset. However, it was quite a dangerous task to go up the pagoda because of the steep steps.

Steep steps of the Shwesandaw Pagoda

But it is a risk to take in order to see the sunset I guess.

Sunset from Shwesandaw Pagoda

Sunset would be nicer if there wasn't so much clouds that day. But the sky was pretty that day.

Horse Carriage

I forgot to mention here that horse carriages are available for hire. You can choose to take them instead of taxi like us. Of course it will be a better experience but it comes with higher cost and longer travelling time as well. So you have to decide what is more important to you.

View from Shwesandaw Pagoda

So overall in Bagan, the whole place is filled with pagodas, it might be boring for me after a while, but it is a great site that attracted archaeologists from all over the world. There are chances of finding new pagodas there, and who knows you might be the one who stumbles upon it.

Last but not least, before we rest for the day, we visited the last pagoda, Htilominlo Pagoda.

Htilominlo Pagoda

After so many pagodas in the day, this pagoda doesn't interest me anymore, but apparently this pagoda has some interesting story to tell regarding King Nantaungmya. You can research (via Google maybe?) it if you are interested.

For dinner, we ate in a restaurant called A Little Bit Of Bagan Restaurant and Bar. I didn't get any picture here because my camera went flat from all the photo taking of pagodas. This place was featured in the Lonely Planet Guide Book. Their food is pretty decent.

We only stayed in Bagan for a day. We moved on to Mandalay the next day. Stay tune...

Continuation of the post:
Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin and Back to Yangon Myanmar (Part 3)

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Yangon Myanmar

Well, I know this is a post that I suppose to blog long long time ago, but I don't have the time until recently.

I went to Myanmar last December, right after my Bangkok trip. The reason that I went to Myanmar is because the SEAgames were held there too, so I thought I could go catch the opening ceremony and some games while I was there.

While in Singapore
Before flying to Myanmar, I need to get to a tourist visa from the Myanmar Embassy in Singapore.
This is the procedure to get the visa:

1. Go to their website to get a appointment reservation. Follow through the steps and you will receive a queue number for the day you made your reservation.
2. Prepare all the documents as stated on the website
3. Prepare SGD35.00 for the tourist visa and additional SGD10.00 for their service charge. This is the first time I have to pay for service charge at an embassy. I would rather them tell me that that visa cost SGD45.00. I wasn't aware of the service charge until I am making the payment at the embassy because they didn't mention it online, so please take note.
4. On the day of appointment, you can go down at anytime between 0930hr to 1200hr regardless your queue number. When I was there, it doesn't matter what queue number you have, everybody just cut queue. The trick is be there late and NOT early. If you have a queue number that is earlier than the number shown on the counter you can just cut queue to be the next one in line because your number is way in ahead. That's how they work.
5. After the application, the visa could be collected in the afternoon on the day itself from 1630hr to 1730hr.
6. For anymore information on visa application, you can visit their website.
7. Don't bother finding money changer to change your money to Kyat (Myanmar currency) because there isn't many money changer that has Kyat for exchange. Simply exchange for USD and convert to Kyat while you were at Myanmar. Most tourist places in Myanmar accept USD as well. You can conveniently take exchange rate to be USD1.00=1000Kyat for easy calculation

Myanmar, Yangon

Day 1

I took Air Asia from Bangkok Don Mueang Airport to Yangon International Airport. To go to Myanmar, it is always good to go with someone who can speak Burmese because many locals there doesn't really speak other languages. Luckily for me, I have CT who can speak Burmese with me, so I felt safe there.

Yangon International Airport

Look at the crowd there at the airport. I was told that because Aung San Suu Kyi is coming back to Myanmar as well about the same time from Australia. So all the supporters were there to welcome her. Luckily for me, I had someone there to pick us up from the airport when we touched down if not we would have been caught in the crowd too. We had the chauffeur for the next for days in Yangon as well. 

When we touched down it was about 1900hr, so we decided to kick start our tour that night by visiting  the famous Shwe Dagon Temple.

This is an iconic place that you must go when you are at Yangon. You need not be a Buddhist to go there, I am not a Buddhist for your information. To enter the temple, tourist need to pay a small sum of money for entrance. The place itself is filled with so many buddha statues that if you were to pray to all of them, I doubt you can do it in 1 day. If you have the free time and wish to know more about the culture and stories, there are freelance tour guides there that you can hire them to bring you around the temple.

Map of Shwe Dagon Temple

There isn't many photos for me to upload here because it was night time and most of my photos were badly taken since I am not using any fantastic camera there.

After the temple, we headed to a restaurant called Pan Swel Taw for dinner. It is located in Ahlone Township.

Pan Swel Taw Restaurant

It was a pretty decent restaurant selling Chinese cuisine. The pricing is decent as well, but it is considered on the expensive side for the locals though.
Here is what I have ate at the restaurant:

Grilled Prawn

Tom Yum Soup

Stir Fried Mix Vegetables

Day 2

In the morning, CT woke me up so that we could go to Ahlone Market for the noodle salad that she craved for.

Noodle Salad

The market is relatively dark in the inside so I have to use flash to take a picture of the dish. When preparing the salad, the lady actually mixed all the ingredient together using her bare hands, so I am not very sure how hygienic it would be but I am lucky that nothing happened to me.

Lady preparing noodle salad with bare hands

That aside, I like the salad. It suits my taste bud very well. I know Peninsula Plaza in Singapore sells this as well. So you could get it without travelling all the way to Myanmar. Of course, the ones in Singapore will be much more hygienic and more costly. you can also find other other food that I had there in Singapore as well.

The salad is just an appetizer, we headed to this place called Lucky Seven for more breakfast.

Pae Palatar (Prata with bean paste)

Chicken Prata

Both dishes that I tried is quite similar to the Roti Prata in Singapore. The difference is the gravy that they go along with. I preferred the chicken prata because the chicken taste very good and goes well with the prata. The pae palatar isn't that bad either, the prata is fried till crispy and the bean paste taste good as well.

Being someone who likes to swim, I went to the Kokine Swim Club for a tour.

This place is actually a club mainly for the expats to swim and gym. So you actually need to have membership to enter. I didn't go there to swim, but I requested them to allow us in for a while to view the place. The people there were nice enough to let us in for a quick peek.

After that, we dropped by the SEAgames Expo since it is along the way to see what they have there. I will not blog much about the SEAgames here as this post is about my trip Myanmar. I will blog about it in another post.

Next stop is another must go place in Yangon, Bogyoke Aung San Market.  It is located in the city center.

Bogyoke Aung San Market

Inside of the market

Here's a little history of the place:

This place is named after Aung San Suu Kyi's Father. "Bogyoke" in Burmese means general. Her father used to be a national hero who fight for the freedom of the country, and this place was named after him.

This place is filled with Burmese clothing, jades, and gems now. Anyway, Myanmar is well known for their jades and gems, so if you are intending to get any, this is the place you should go.

Former Myanmar Port Authority

Beside the market stands the former Myanmar Port Authority. There isn't anybody using the building at the moment, so it is empty, but it sure looks nice on the outside.

Raw Lotus Seed

While shopping, we bought the raw lotus seed to bite on. It taste like those peas that we usually eat.

After all the shopping (I didn't get anything from there though), we headed to the famous Shwe Pu Zun Bakery House.

Shwe Pu Zun Bakery house

I was told that this shop used to be just a small bakery, and because of it's delicious breads, they made it to where they were today. They do have a wide variety of bread, cakes and pastry. I cannot take any picture in there because it wasn't allowed. We then headed to the cafe next door (which is also owned by them), to try their popular koolfee.

Strawberry Koolfee

Chocolate Koolfee

Cake Ice Cream

Koolfee is similar to ice cream just that it is done the Indian way. To me, it doesn't taste fantastic but it was a good to have on a hot day that day.

After relaxing in the cafe enjoying the air conditioning for a while, we dropped by another iconic tourist attraction, Karaweik Palace.

Karaweik Palace

This place looks very grand and it is a restaurant with international buffet. The price isn't cheap because it is a tourist attractions. We decided not to eat here partly because of the price and we were not in the mood for buffet as well. I have heard good reviews about the place, so I guess the food is pretty good.

Not having dinner at the Karaweik Palace, we decided to have our dinner at a roadside stall.

Kyay Oh

Kyay Oh Si Chat

Both dishes that we ordered is called Kyay Oh, just that Si Chat means "without soup" in Burmese. This is the Myanmar version of meat ball noodle. Look at their servings of meatball in each bowl, there are more meatballs than the noodle. I love their portion of meat. This was totally awesome, satisfying serving of meat. 

Hanging packed food on the wall

I find this rather interesting. The stall actually used the wall to hang packed food so that the customers can pick it up later. It is quite a brilliant idea that i don't see in Singapore.

Shortly after dinner, I started vomiting and diarrhea. I was admitted into the hospital for the rest of the night. I was suspected to have food poisoning. Thinking back, it might be the ice cream that I ate since it was the only thing that I ate that matches the timing of my vomit and diarrhea. The Kyay Oh was not digested because I vomited them out and the breakfast was too long ago for me to vomit only at night. This is only my guess, it might not have been the ice cream, so don't sue me for any accusation please. 

Day 3

I shall skip the whole part of my hospitalization which was not pleasant and I only got discharge in the afternoon. For the remaining of the day, I was resting and not being able to eat much. I just drank plenty of water.

Day 4
When I woke up in the morning, CT decided that I shouldn't be eating anything oily since I just recover so we went for dim sum.

The style of serving dim sum is different from Singapore as well. In the restaurant that we went, all the dim sum were actually served to the patrons so that they do not need to make any orders. The untouched dim sum were then returned and only those dim sum eaten were counted and paid for.

We went back to the city center again and explore the remaining area that we have not covered. Because I have just recovered, I was still too weak to walk a lot. So we went to the Thiripyitsaya Sky Bistro located at level 20 of Sakura Tower. Unlike Singapore, Myanmar does not have many high rise building. Level 20 is considered high over there and I could see the whole city from there. It was a nice sight.

Club Sandwich

I ordered their club sandwich to eat and it was delicious. The wedges were quite little though, but it's fine since I can't eat much either.

We continued exploring the area after a short rest and we found this temple located in the middle of the road.

Sule Temple

We found it interesting that this temple is actually located in the middle of the road, so we decided to go in and have a look. There was quite a lot of tourist inside as well. For this temple, unlike Shwe Dagon temple, I did not have to pay to enter.

After that I went back to rest as we were travelling out of Yangon later that night.

I will continue my remaining trip in another post.

Continuation of the post:
Bagan Myanmar (Part 2)
Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin and Back to Yangon Myanmar (Part 3)

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