Once a year go some place you’ve never been before.
I came across Terry (Htet Paing Soe) when I was doing my research for our 7-day Myanmar trip. I noticed that he was active in answering people’s queries about Myanmar. I tried my luck to send him a personal message. Helpful and friendly enough, he provided me all the answers to my questions and even asked me whether he can help me book the required tickets.
Originally, we planned to do a DIY trip to save costs. This time, we decided to get help from Terry for us to enjoy and learn about the culture and history of Myanmar. With his help, guidance, and recommendations, it was like everything was done through a travel agent, minus the cost, and the best part was I have the flexibility of doing whatever I want based on what I planned.
On our first day, we flew from Singapore to Yangon International Airport where Terry picked us up.
Yangon
Mingalabar! 👋
We were then sent to 30th Corner Boutique Hostel — a one-star hostel, cozy but decent, very accessible within Yangon city area. We decided to get a cheap option since we’re only staying to spend a night for transfer purposes.
Yangon is (sorry for the word) an unkempt city to stroll. There were a lot of spit everywhere – very visible due to its red color. Betel chewing remains wildly popular in Myanmar. I remember old people in the Philippines used to do this too.
We only managed to visit Shwedagon Pagoda and 19th Street on our first night.
Shwedagon Pagoda
Twenty-four karat magic in the air ✨
There are a lot of other structures or relics inside the complex.
After this, we went to 19th Street which is a street food shop on the roadside of Chinatown — the most famous barbecue and drinking place in downtown Yangon. If you are familiar with Lau Pa Sat in Singapore, it is very similar to that.
The next day, we quickly went to visit a Catholic church – this is also one of our promises; a promise that whenever we’re in a new place, we will visit a local church. We visited St Mary’s Cathedral in Bo Aung Kyaw Street.
Near the church is the Bogyoke Aung San Market where one may also buy souvenirs. It was also the only place where we found a mall and a fast-food restaurant.
On that same day, we took the VIP night bus from Aung Mingalar Highway Bus to Inle Lake. It cost us about US$20 for the one-way trip. Tickets include the fare, water, and some snacks. It was roughly a 12-hour bus ride with at least two stop-overs.
Life is a Highway 🚌
Inle Lake
Inle Lake is a freshwater lake where local farmers are famous for one-legged fishing (didn’t capture on photo) and home to the Kayan tribe.
A symbol of elegance and beauty 🙇♀️
Aside from these, Inle Lake also showcases their livelihood above the water – there are silk/ cotton/ lotus weaving, silversmith or goldsmith, sweet and flavored tobacco, and other temples in the floating villages.
The next day, we took our time to spend in the hotel and rest for a bit before we took another long bus ride. It was about 6-8 hours of land transfer from the Inle Lake bus station to Mandalay. It cost us about US$15 for the one-way trip.
Mandalay
It was a jam-packed day for us.
The Royal Palace
We first visited The Royal Palace which is the last royal palace of the last Burmese monarchy.
My royal highness 👑
Shwenandaw Monastery
Kuthodaw Pagoda
Exploring the world with (invisible) camera in one hand, the other hand holding you close #cheesy
Bagan
Bagan is one of my highly anticipated places to visit. I planned to climb and go inside the temples, see the beautiful sunset dotted with the colorful flying hot air balloons, and of course, get to ride on a balloon. But before this, there was an earthquake that destroyed a lot of pagodas. It shattered my dreams and I thought I lost my chance. The good thing was that they didn’t close the archeological zone. They re-built it and closed the temples for visits for the safety of the tourists.
So yeah… we went. Bagan is dusty due to the dry season. The entire region does not have much concrete roads.
We arrived there after lunchtime. We then went to Bagan Princess Hotel to unpack and to freshen up. We stayed the night in the hotel swimming and resting before we head to the next day.
The next day, we rented an e-scooter for us to explore the archeological zone. We woke up early, planning to see the hot air balloons on sunrise. On our way to the zone, something unexpected happened… it rained!
Since we’re halfway through, we braved the rain. We planned to continue to go and just wait there for it to stop. But rain started pouring to the point we can no longer see the road. We then decided to head back to the hotel.
I was so worried that it will affect our next days’ activities. I called up Terry – he said that we’re lucky! It rarely rains in Myanmar. Some years have zero rain days. Imagine the heat!
When the rain stopped early afternoon, we continued what we have planned for the day. We took the e-scooter back to the archeological zone to explore by ourselves.
Bagan Archeological Zone
I was so hopeful until a van pulled over. I was so excited, I was looking outside the glass window to see who pulled over. This is no joke – when I saw the guy alight from the vehicle, the sky cried with a loud thunder!
I cried too. It was my birthday.
The guys went up to us and just said sorry. I cried even more. Iking was hugging me – he knows how broken-hearted I was. We went to the hotel room and I just ugly cried. It was supposed to be my day! But then Iking reminded me that God has better plans for me. (Thank You, Lord, for this human being ❤️)
I went back to sleep and hoped that there are better things to come. For that day, we just decided to hire a tour guide to bring us around and tell stories of the temples.
God’s greatest gift to me 🥰
There are specific pagodas that can be climbed. Our very friendly tour guide made sure that we were able to go in and enjoy the beauty of Bagan.
Happy birthday to me 🥳
Dusty but magical 💫
For our return to Yangon, we decided to experience the train. It is a lot longer journey but we had a day to spare, so we opted for this ride. Our plan is just to arrive back in Yangon to be in time for our flight to Singapore.
All good things must come to an end.
The only thing that made us endure the ride when we saw a rainbow.
Rainbow is a sign of God’s promise.☝️
I think this was a reminder for us. There’s definitely a rainbow after the rain.
Thank you, Myanmar! It was a bitter-sweet journey with you!
See you on our next destination 👋😎
Duplicate post on paulajogalix.wordpress.com.
Jo Alix
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Wow your picture with the long-neck lady is amazing! How does she have a long neck when I barely have one? 😂😅
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Did you asked that lady if it wasn't jard and why they're doing it? Some tradition, maybe?
It caught my eyes of that boat, you said farmer but they're fishing?
Hahahahahahahah! Dami mo talagang alam Mr! Hahahahah!