Ming-ah-lah-bah, Myanmar

The first day in the port of Myanmar was a wonderful one for a variety of reasons.

1. Me, Frances, and Greg had our first “IHOP” on deck 5 of the MV. We prayed over the country, it’s people, and all of the passengers of our ship that would all be going their separate ways for the week. We had a pretty great turnout, and it’s so awesome to hear my friends praying for one another and even folks they’ve never met, perhaps never seen.

2. I didn’t have a set plan, and had an amazing time. Me, Tricia, Ivette, Danielle, Yarden, and Sydney took an hour and a half long bus ride to the City Hall, and just went. We spent a couple of hours at a market- we looked at all they had to offer, bought some longyis (commonly worn tie-skirts), but most of that time was spent in a music store. We (I) wanted to find a new ukulele (mine is currently being held stable by some craft glue I found in the activity room) and/or find an instrument to take home that would remind me of Myanmar.

The first music store I went into, the instruments were super overpriced and was disheartened, fearing I wouldn’t find another. But after a bit of walking around, I found another! There, I spoke with the shop owner (who spoke fair English) who called his son to the front of the store who spoke even better English. His son appeared with a guitar strapped to him and struck up conversation with me. By “struck up a conversation,” I do of course mean he sang/played the English songs he knew and asked if I was familiar with them.

Why, yes, I am familiar with Green Day and Hinder.

I couldn’t just let him ask me if I knew songs…

We laughed and had a grand ‘ole time. It was time to leave (after buying a gong and guitar capo), but I couldn’t go without knowing what his name was.

His chosen English name is Mark—go figure.  

We finally left the music store (even thought it broke my heart to do so) so that we could go to the Shwedagon Pagoda (the Golden Pagoda…topped with a 76 carat diamond) which is noted as the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar. You know, we have to do the cultural activities besides shopping and browsing.

It was beautiful, despite being under construction.

While on the lookout for the best place to watch, we stumbled across this big gong. Made me a little self-conscious about the size of my gong..

After we left the pagoda, we found a (notably strange) restaurant. It was some sort of mix between waiter/self serve/buffet. It gave all of us a little bit of anxiety (you don’t want to do the wrong thing and offend others/look like a fool, you know?). We made it through the meal unscathed, and took a cab to get on the bus, to get back to the ship to get some shut eye. I had a 03:30 meeting time the following day.

I woke up at 02:47 and hit snooze. I promptly received a call from Tricia to see if I was going to breakfast. How lucky am I to have found friends to check that I am on time? Anyway, I brushed my teeth, put on culturally appropriate clothes (legs covered, no matter how much you feel like you are going to die of heat stroke), grabbed my bags and left the 408 for the week.

We took an hour long bus ride (are you sensing a trend?) and I tried my hardest to sleep- but folks on my trip are early EARLY birds. I hear they catch the worm, but I’m thinking they just irritate other passengers. From the bus, we pretty much got straight on the plane. I liked their boarding procedures- they didn’t check your identification a billion times- they just put a sticker on you and it was up to you to be certain you were getting on the correct flight.

From there, we:

1.   Browsed at a silk shop (I refrained from buying all of the scarves)

2.   Walked on the U Bein (across the Taungthaman Lake); the longest wooden bridge in the world

3.   Visited the Golden Palace Monastery. No pictures allowed, which is a shame- because I had a rad, bright orange head covering on.
4. Went to the Kuthodaw Pagoda, which contains the "world's largest book." They told us to holla when we found it. I was on the lookout for a massive, leather bound something or another, but I was actually taking pictures in front of it. Walking in between the pages. Each of the 729 pagodas contains a marble slab that has one page of the Tipitaka inscribed on the front and back.

----I don’t think I’ve slept so hard in my entire life.

That is, until my alarm went off at 05:00.

OH. And did I mention I woke up at 03:00 to Mark face timing me? In a sleepy haze, I hit whatever button I could get my hands on to make it stop vibrating. Then it happened again, and I ignored it…again.

When the third time came around, I figured it was important because he knew the time difference. SO, I grabbed my phone and went into the bathroom (so my roommate for the week wouldn’t kill me) and do you know what he said?

“Sorry Sam, I can’t talk- I’m at track practice”

THEN WHY DID YOU CALL ME.

He said that I called him. Which I definitely did not do. I suppose even our phones missed being in contact with each other. HOWEVER, for me, it was too early. So we talked a couple hours later before my day really started.

Today we:

Got on a boat (surprise, surprise) to go from Mandalay to Bagan. An all day boat ride. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a single thing (except for some food I ate- but we’ll get to that in a minute)- but I don’t know why past me chose to go on an excursion which would put me on a boat for a day longer than I needed to be.

But we kept ourselves entertained despite not being on the MV. We had some drinks, played cards, relaxed, and read for class. On top of that, I got to know some knew people, spend time with two very sweet “ship kids,” and play a bit of ukulele.

As the day came to an end (and we became restless as the night fell), one professor began to tell silly stories from his childhood to pass the time.

..little did we know that we needed many more stories to pass the time we had left. Our boat got stuck on a sandbar about 40 minutes from shore- that’s right, we could see the lights, just couldn’t quite reach them. So, we had to wait for another boat to come out to us to try and pull us out—when that ship almost got stuck along side us. We wound up abandoning our boat, and walking a plank, quite literally, to the smaller boat. In the dark. It was definitely a movie quality moment.

It was an odd turn, but gave us all something to bond over. The large bowl of noodles for dinner was also a bonding moment. Bonding moment #3: We shared beers, because the bottles were huge and they had no glasses.

Special, huh?

That late night was followed by yet another early morning. 04:30.

Have a mentioned I’m not really a morning person?

But you know what, that morning changed my view.

I chose to get up that early because some folks from our group signed up to go hot air ballooning to watch the sunrise over the temples of Bagan.

We were separated into groups, and my group’s balloon was the last one to be inflated, and the rest of them took off.

The other groups were in large, 12-18 person balloons and were kind of cramped, but on ours- there were only 5 of us (Me, my ship mom, Sienna, Jonathan, and our captain, Matthew)! Which was awesome for a multitude of reasons:

1. We had plenty of space

2. The other balloons landed before us, so we got plenty of pictures without other balloons/ people in them. It felt like it was just us and the temples.

3. Everyone was super great about me having to record part of Somewhere Beyond the Sea. It’s a strange thing that I’m doing, but I’m committed.

4. We got to know our captain, ask him questions about how he and his team wound up in Myanmar and what not. He was also entertained by my video and why I was making it, and even asked if I would sing the whole song again so he could record it! Cool dude.

Upon our landing, Matthew popped a bottle of champagne and also offered us glasses of orange juice. With my parents in mind, I poured them together (after a toast, of course) to make a mimosa. I was then offered the cork if I sang another song (I’m Yours is pretty well known, so I went for that!) But just a little bit of it. Because truth be told, it made me feel awkward.

We went back to the hotel to wait for/collect the rest of our group to go back to the temples for a pony cart ride through them. Which, I have to admit, was really cool to see them up close after seeing them from above. So my friend Tricia and I paired up for the ride!

We ended the ride at another market (where I bought Mark and my dad man-skirts) ((commonly worn in this country)), a lacquer work shop (where I got my mom’s teapot), and then departed for a surprise dinner.

That surprise dinner (though frightening sounding initially) was lovely! We actually went to the temples for a third time for dinner. WHICH, sounded strange, because they were old and surrounded by tons of dirt—but they had beautifully decorated one of the temples, and set up candle lit tables! We were joined by two other SAS groups and given welcome drinks. You had your choice between watermelon juice, pineapple juice, or rum punch. I love this country.

We all laughed, ate, drank, enjoyed watching giant elephant puppets dance, retuned to our respective hotels and went to sleep. What a great night!!

…only to be followed by a horrific morning.

I woke up at 01:00 feeling iffy, went to the restroom, then returned to bed. I got up shortly thereafter feeling the same rumbly in my tumbly… and it turned my peaceful night of sleep into the most violent sickness I’ve ever felt.

Sorry to be graphic, but that’s life abroad. I was just thankful we had already gone on our balloon adventure.

I got about an hour more of sleep, and was awoken by my alarm. I went down to breakfast knowing that I needed to eat something to get an antibiotic in my system- so I forced a bit of a croissant down.

Pure. Torture.

What came next on our agenda was visiting a school, see goats, a pottery shop…essentially walk around in the heat for two hours. Perfect for a person with food poisoning. OH, and our lunch of spicy Thai food was also good.

If you’re not great at picking up sarcasm, that last sentence definitely falls under the facetious category. Even the sight of it made me want to vom- I can’t even get into the smell. And I normally LOVE Thai food. Fortunately, rice has been a big part of all of our meals in Asia. So I ate about ¼ cup of rice until the smell of everything else overwhelmed me and I couldn’t eat anymore.

Remember me talking about the cute ship kids on our trip? The younger sister, Summer, offered me some granola she had packed for the trip when she heard I wasn’t feeling well. Bless her sweet little soul.

I carried that granola with me onto the plane back to Yangon, sat next to the SAS dean, Mark Thomas, and slowly started eating again. He asked if I was feeling alright, and a normal person would just say “yeah, just a bit of an upset stomach” …not me. I told him pretty much every detail right down to the chicken curry that I will never eat ever again.

Other than that, we chatted about school (Tech, too), my boyfriend (one of my favorite topics), and how I’m truly grateful for the pasta and potatoes I knew that I would eat on the ship for dinner.

______

I knew very little about Myanmar/Burma before entering the country- and I’m kind of glad for that. I was continuously surprised by the beauty of my surroundings whether they were old, new, or natural.

I highly recommend visiting Myanmar, but I would partner that with a large amount of granola in your bag.

You never know when you’re going to need it.

Things I love about today:

1. White rice

2. The fact that I’m seemingly overcoming my fear of heights

3. Beautiful sunrises

4. Pasta, potatoes, and bread
5. Our amazing tour guide, Susu