48 hours in Yangon

We didn’t quite know what to expect upon landing in Yangon, we were just happy to have made the flight after collecting our visas that morning. Any notions I had of a ramshackle arrivals hall were laid to rest as we entered the brand new glass structure with “Welcome to Myanmar” signs everyone. The border was well and truly open and tourists were flocking in.

Our first job upon arrival was to exchange some of the dollars we purchased in Thailand for Myanmar Kyats. All the guidebooks say that there are no ATMs in Myanmar and the only accepted currency at the exchange desks are brand new, crisp US dollar bills. We had quite a job in Thailand running around all the banks snapping up their plush dollars, trying to plan out how much we’d need for our two and a bit week trip. With our newly acquired Kyats in hand we exited and were met by a free pickup from our hotel.

 The first thing I noticed was the traditional dress code that all the men around were adhering too. Men and women both wear a traditional skirt call a “Longhi” which is wrapped around the body differently depending on the sex. The male versions are plain enough and in various degrees of tattered. The female version is brightly coloured and usually teamed with a matching tunic.

 After checking in at our basic hotel we headed straight for downtown and the Chinese quarter. The short taxi ride took us past old crumbling colonial buildings, hinting at Yangon’s former glory. The streets were dark, no doubt because of yet another blackout (electricity is painfully unreliable most of the time). The main business end of the Chinese quarter consists of a few bars and streetfood stalls nestled down a small crowed lane. It was late and midweek but that didn’t stop the locals from enjoying some meat skewers cooked on the BBQ, washed down with a few glasses of cheap Myanmar beer.

Not wanting to look out of place, although that was pretty impossible, we helped ourselves to some nice food and a few glasses after a long day of travelling. It was only after visiting the bathroom that I glimpsed where our food was prepared, in a filthy alleyway at the back of the restaurant. No health and safety standards in this part of the world! Ah well!

The following day we set out to explore on foot. The heat in Yangon was unbearable, and that’s saying something after coming from Bangkok! But what better way to beat the heat than a cup of tea. Tea, or more so the drinking of tea, is a big part of life in Myanmar and it’s hard to walk more than a couple of minutes without passing a tea house. They are easily identifiable by the small plastic tables and chairs set out in neat rows complete with kettle. There’s only one way to drink tea, and that’s strong, white and sweet. The sweetness comes from the condensed milk that they lob in, not a drop of the fresh stuff in sight.

Yangon is the biggest city in Myanmar and was the capital until 2005 when the military government (who are a superstitious bunch) moved it to a remote town in the east after receiving some advice from a fortune teller. We spent the whole day walking around the downtown area, lapping up the sights. It’s hard to describe the smell, but it immediately reminded me of India. It’s kind of a mixture between spices, chewed tobacco, street food and plain old dirt and grime and really not as bad as it sounds.

We visited the small Sule pagoda, where a helpful monk showed us how to pray to our individual god. There are eight gods, one for each day of the week depending on what day you were born. Wednesday had two for some reason depending on whether you were born during the day or at night. Not knowing what day of the week we were born on and subsequently which god we should be praying to, the helpful monk produced a small booklet containing all the calendars for the last 50 years. With that, Cora then blessed her Wednesday elephant god and I blessed my Tuesday Lion.

The most famous religious sight in Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda, a gigantic golden stupa set high above the city on a hill surrounded by numerous temples and offering altars. The entrance to the Pagoda is guarded by two enormous golden lions, just in case you were unsure of the scale of the stupa itself.

The atmosphere at the top was peaceful with plenty of people around, praying, meditating, making offerings, chanting or just enjoying an evening stroll. It was a great place to just sit down and people watch. Women in traditional dress and the bright tanakha brushed on their cheeks (used as a form of sunscreen, but also for decoration), waves of monks and nuns in equal measure, and a few tourists who also spotted a good photo op.

 Two days in the near 40 degree heat of Yangon was enough for me, so we booked a night bus after a couple of days to the highlands in the centre of Myanmar. With the promise of cooler weather and ample hiking possibilities we set off to continue our Burmese adventure.

Elephants and visas in Thailand!

After the most novel border crossing yet (a quick boat ride across the Mekong) we were in Thailand again and bound for Chang Mai, the largest city in the north of the country. It’s a big bustling place, filled to the brim with temples whose elaborate gold roofs catch the bright sunlight and seem to glow all day. We had a fairly lazy itinerary for Chiang Mai but we did take a day to go and visit some elephants in a park outside the city.

Thailand outlawed logging in the 80s and in the forest carpeted north this meant a huge number of domesticated logging elephants became unemployed and homeless overnight. Many of these giants ended up in the tourist industry all over Thailand, putting on shows and giving rides. In the recent past it even was common to see them in the city streets at night doing tricks and begging, but mercifully this seems to have stopped. Nonetheless we weren’t really enthused by a ride and show so we opted to visit a retreat, which cares for old, injured and unwanted elephants and gives them care and attention in a beautiful park set in the mountains.

Our first job on arrival was to feed the elephants from a big platform with baskets full of fruit and vegetables. They were some hungry beasts! You could notice which ones were blind as their eyes were cloudy and colourless and there were several with limps and dodgy legs. It was great fun wedging the hunks of food into their trunks and watching them elegantly swing the parcels up to their big gobs. There was plenty of spit and snot to get smeared in, lovely!

After breakfast we went for a little walk to see some of the herds that were grazing in the large open plains in the park. The elephants form their own social groups and stick with them for life. These groups are then fed and washed together. A lone female wondered by herself and the park ranger explained that her only friend had died a few years ago and she hadn’t bonded with another group. (I could see the tears in Damien’s eyes!)

The highlight of the morning was getting to meet a six week old baby who was bounding around her pen, full of life and fun as her mum lazily watched her. At one stage mum did a monstrous pee and baby immediately leapt in for an impromptu shower. Gross!!

Each elephant has a mahout assigned to them. These are men trained in elephant care and they stay with the elephants all day looking after them. The men are from ethnic tribes in the north of Thailand or refugees from neighbouring Myanmar (where there are huge illegal logging problems). They clearly had a strong bond with their charges and could calm or subdue them with one word.

The humans got fed next and then it was bathtime. We had the pleasure of bathing Lucky, an elephant who had been rescued from a circus. She stood contentedly as we flung water all over her (and all over ourselves) in the baking sun, enjoying the feeling of being so close to such a powerful, gentle and mysterious animal.

There was more feeding and at the end of the day we got to meet Lek, the founder of the park. This tiny pint sized woman was sitting cross legged in between the legs of one of her elephants, calm as anything. The connection between her and the elephants was amazing, they got jealous when she took pictures with some children and clamoured to be as close as possible to her. Lek is the daughter of a shaman and has been rescuing elephants all her life. There is a brutal process that Thai tribes have traditionally used to domesticate an elephant which involves about a week of torture, designed to break the spirit of the elephant. With education and support Lek hopes to stamp this out and explore more humane ways of domesticating elephants.

After spending a day with the elephants I really felt elated and as usual privileged and grateful to have experienced something so special and heart warming. Elephants may be my number one top animal ever! (Monkeys are a close second.)

We did another cooking course in Chiang Mai (human domestication) and can now add thai curries and pad thai to our repertoire! It was a bit more professional than Shashi’s tiny kitchen in India, but still a lot of fun…

Next stop was Bangkok… and the beginning of the "Myanmar visa emergency".

We had it planned perfectly, we had a hostel right beside the embassy, we could start queuing at 7am and get our visa applications in and then it would be easy to pick them up in the evening as required, stay another night and catch our flight the next day. No hay problema! But there was. The embassy was closed at 7am. There had been an unexpected visit from the Burmese prime minister that day. Bollocks!

After several stressful hours of trying to rearrange flights and figure out our options, we decided in an unusually laissez faire moment to just rock up to the embassy the next day and plead and beg and try to bribe them to get the visas done for us in a couple of hours.

7am arrived and we joined the sleepy queue in the street beside the imposing embassy wall. We were admitted promptly at 9am and got to the desk fairly quickly, where with the most brilliant smiles we could muster we asked would it be possible to please if you don’t mind please, get our visas done in a couple of hours?

She passed us onto the next desk where incredibly, amazingly, the little lady said she’d try, and for us to come back at twelve.

Twelve came and Damien went back into the embassy and emerged… with our two passports, Myanmar visas tucked neatly inside. WOOHOO!!

All credit to the embassy staff, I expected them to be gruff and utterly unhelpful, but they were the exact opposite. This would prove to be a precursor for the wonderful people we were going to meet in Myanmar itself. And with smiles on our faces we hopped in a pink Bangkok taxi and hightailed it off to the airport. Our Burmese days await!

The Gibbon Experience!

Getting away from Luang Namtha proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated. After booking bus tickets to Huay Xai with our guesthouse, we were picked up in good time for the 9am departure. Arriving at the bus station however, it was evident that there was no point in reserving ahead, it was a crazy free for all at the ticket counter and our driver (who didn’t speak a word of English) failed miserably at sorting out the situation. In the end the 9am bus left as soon as it was full and Cora and I were left standing there, still without a ticket. I asked for our money back and after a bit of a queue we were able to buy tickets for the next bus which in Laos style would leave whenever it was full. This took a couple of hours, but finally we set off towards Huay Xai, the start point for the gibbon experience.

Can we go now?

The bus trip was comfortable enough, as we wound along the new highway through green forested national park, every couple of minutes passing through a little village with ramshackle wooden houses on stilts. Huay Xai is not much to write home about, so we found a guesthouse and set off to the gibbon experience office to pay for the 3 day excursion. The trip we decided on was a 3 day trekking/zip lining adventure in the Bokea national park, where you sleep in tree houses perched high up above the forest canopy. The project provides a lot of employment for the indigenous people of the forest, who at one time were poachers and are now guides for the company. The trip was by far the most expensive thing we had done in Laos so far (€230), but with high hopes we paid up and got ready for our early morning departure.

Hearty breakfast

The following morning we turned up at the office and were shown a very short safety video, I made sure to pay attention as we had practically signed away our lives the previous day. We were then herded into a couple of jeeps and forced to listen to cheesy power ballads for nearly 3 hours.. even a bit of Westlife for good measure. I think everyone was glad to reach the village where the trek started! When we arrived we were basically ignored for about a half an hour as various men ran around loading food into bags and chatting. Eventually the guides split us into 2 groups and after a gift of a can of Beer Lao each we set off on our trek to the waterfall. Our group consisted of two couples and ourselves, along with our guide Tai, who seemed friendly if a bit quiet. The trekking terrain was pretty easy going, but the heat made it more difficult. We proceeded through open fields and banana trees, every now and again forced to remove our shoes and wade though a river. It was a welcome respite from the heat. In no time at all we made it to the waterfall, although waterfall was a bit of a stretch and it was more of a trickle. But the opportunity to go for a swim was not passed up.

After cooling off for a while, Tai presented us with our zip lining harnesses that we would use for the next 3 days. It was then that we all wished we could have another look at the safety video! Harnesses on, we trekked for a few more minutes until we reached our first zip line. Now, at the moment of truth, we all assumed our guide would help each of us onto the line and make sure our harness was securely fastened before allowing us to proceed. What actually happened was Tai hooked himself onto the line quickly and with one sentence “I’m sorwee, I don’t speak Ingwish verwee gud”, he was gone! All our faces just dropped!

Cora prepares to zip

After a few moments a shout of “OK” came from far across the valley and the first brave soul hooked himself onto the line and set off. I could tell that Cora was bricking it as I helped her with her harness, but fair play to her she was off in a flash. I was up next and I can honestly say the ride was one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had. We were hundreds of feet up in the air, flying over the valley, catching incredible views either side.

Suddenly all I could think about was “Is this little rope the only thing holding me up?” I immediately became very conscious of my harness and gave it a quick check. In no time at all we all reached the other side of the valley and after 3 more zip lines, each more breathtaking than they last, caught a glimpse of our tree house for the night. But how to get into it? A ladder I thought, or maybe a bridge? No we had to zip line in of course! And in a scene reminiscent of the movie Home Alone, we zip lined into our tree house, careful not to go through the wall.

The tree house was an amazing two storey structure, set a couple of hundred feet above the forest floor, complete with kitchen, toilet and shower with one of the best views ever. I took to calling it the epiphany toilet! After a tasty lunch, we were allowed off to explore the zip lines around our tree house, and with confidence growing we wasted no time. Each line was amazing, traversing the valleys of the national park, and where else could you get such views if not suspended on a thin wire a few hundred feet in the air. We got back to the tree house before sunset and enjoyed a night of dinner and some card games (and some rat spotting unfortunately) by torchlight.

The epiphany toilet

One of our cool tree houses

We awoke early to the sounds of the forest and got up to see if we could spot any gibbons, the small endangered monkey from which the tour gets its name. With no such luck, it was time to pack up our things and set off to another tree house. There are eight in total in the park and we would get to sleep in two of them on our trip. The day started with a few zip lines to another valley, and then we had about four hours walking to do. We passed another group travelling the opposite way, we would be swapping tree houses with them for the second night. After about an hour of steep uphill through very thick forest we made it to a little kitchen hut that would provide the food for the second tree house. This tree house was even better than the one before, perched high on the tallest tree I've ever seen, like something from a cartoon, and again the only way in or out was via the zip line. Even the locals brought all our food in this way, zipping through the forest with big bags on their backs.

We spent the rest of the day travelling around the forest on the extensive zip line network; the views again were breathtaking with some of the zip lines over a kilometre long. That evening while having dinner we heard a huge crashing noise coming from the trees below, so we all jumped up to see if it was the elusive gibbons. It wasn’t, however it was a massive troupe of wild monkeys making (and breaking) their way through the bamboo forest below. There must have been a hundred of them. They sounded like an elephant on a rampage!

What a view!

We pitched our little tents in the tree house and fell asleep to the deafening sound of the jungle. The following morning after breakfast it was time to make our way out of the jungle and thankfully some of the best zip lines were saved until the last day. After a few hours walking and flying we reached a small camp and reluctantly handed back our harnesses. The walk back to the village was quick, through some lovely countryside and the cold can of coke at the end was welcome treat!

Walking back to the village..

Our 3 day gibbon experience was well the spend, although we didn’t see any gibbons, we did have a brilliant time soaring through the forest and living in the incredible tree houses. I don’t think there’s anywhere else you can experience anything like it. Jaded, we drove back to Huay Xai and picked up our bags and said goodbye to the people we’d met. They were all checking straight into their hotels and having a shower! Cora and I, gluttons for punishment that we are, decided that would be too easy for us hardcore travellers! So we decided it best that we throw in a short boat ride, a border crossing into Thailand and a five hour bus trip into an already long day! Ah well, soon we’d be in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and the thought of the home comforts spurred us on!

Off crossing borders again!

Jungle trekking in north Laos

After getting drenched for 4 days in pretty Luang Prabang and still suffering from a nasty stomach inflammation (me), we made our way north to a small town called Luang Namtha, for a trip into the jungle. The bus trip was long, windy and bumpy and we were crammed into the back seat of a tiny sweaty minibus. My friendly neighbour kept lolling asleep on my shoulder no matter how many elbows to the ribs I gave him! Damien maintained he was doing it on purpose. Between that and the relentless puking of a poor young woman in the front of the bus it was a trying journey. When we finally arrived we found Luang Namtha to be a quiet spot with a wide hazy main street and a pace of life that in typical Laos style was so relaxed it was nearly asleep.

Really? Four people in the backseat??

As the new year festivities were still in full swing, our guesthouse owner invited us to sit with him and his friend and drink some local wine type drink, which was a seaweed green colour, fizzy and with an earthy slightly ginger taste – not all together bad. We chewed the fat with them for a while and they shared some food and treats with us.

Local transport with AC!

It was easy to organise a three day hike into the surrounding protected national park with an agency in town, to include one night in a minority village homestay and one in a jungle camp. But when we arrived in the morning ready to go, it transpired that the other three tourists had pulled out! The trip was prohibitively expensive to do just by ourselves, so we signed up for a one night stay in the jungle, a little disappointed to be missing out on the village immersion. 

A healthy brekkie to start the day

Along with a group of three other sociable backpackers, we had an initial stop at the local market. I love Asian markets, there’s so much weird and wonderful stuff in there, totally alien to us westerners. This market had an interesting meat section and around the back some stalls selling bushmeat and jungle roots and herbs!

The various bits of waterbuffalo you can buy for the dinner

Or maybe you'd like some jungle rats and squirrels instead?

Next we were bussed into the park area, brought across a river and the hike began. And boy what a hike! Our original itinerary had been a 6/10 in terms of difficulty, but the new one registered at 8/10, and to be honest it was just too much for me (bear in mind I had been sick for the past week!).  

By the time we reached the lunch spot, I was drenched in sweat and my legs were burning. Our guide Danoi pulled out a bag of warm pumpkin curry and we opened up our parcels of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf and dug in. Sticky rice is more common than steamed rice in Laos and is very tasty, of course in Asia everything is eaten with rice! As we ate, some giant butterflies fluttered around the clearing and the sounds of the jungle were a constant soundtrack to our well earned grub.

Papillion

Danoi was a great guy to spend some time with and although initially I thought he was younger than me, it transpired he was 36 and had spent 10 years as a monk! He had zero body fat and darted up the hills like a little lizard.

The next four hours of trekking were also exhausting, exacerbated by several falls on my part. The trails were quite new so in places very narrow and obstructed by clumps of smooth bamboo. In the lower darker parts of the forest, leeches wriggled towards us with alarming speed like squiggling ninjas. Leeches are smaller and more awful than I’d imagined, they are like pointy worms that can squirm through socks and even shoes to latch on to your skin. UGH.

Tree-rrefic!

Finally we made it to our camp for the night, a rickety bamboo hut on stilts located at the confluence of two rivers. This meant a natural and very inviting swimming pool was on our doorstep, so pretty quickly everyone splashed in.  

Throughout the day Danoi had been gathering different roots and herbs in the forest. Now he used them in the rustic kitchen (a three sided hut with an open fire) to prepare a tasty dinner, of surprisingly varied flavours, all served with more sticky rice of course! 

Grubs up

As night came down we lit a bonfire to keep the mozzies at bay and listened to the wall of sound emanating from the jungle, a blend of the earthy croak of frogs, gurgling of the nearby rivers and the chirps of god knows what kind of insects.

Later on in the cabin, Blair Spider Project started as a nasty looking fella crawled in and in the flashes of the torch, Danoi tried to catch it (the options were a bowl or a plastic bag), but only succeeded in pulling off one of its legs and the blasted thing scuttled behind the thatched wall. Holy F**k was all I managed to come out with, which the Austrians liked and noted for future use. Immediately the mosquito nets came down and I retreated inside but had a crap night’s sleep, even after the exhausting day.. and the sleeping pill.

Here we go

But the morning dawned bright and fresh and after breakfast of (you guessed it!) sticky rice and omelette, we took off again, this time in yellow two man kayaks. The river was fairly low and we passed by several little villages with screeching naked children splashing about in the water. After another nice lunch stop we were picked up on the banks and our foray into the jungle was over. Although exhausting, it was totally worth it. In retrospect!

Asian photo!

Having definitely filled the exercise quota for the next month (at least) we chilled in the town for a few days, renting a moped to explore the surrounding areas a little. Just outside the town we were rewarded with beautiful views of golden paddy fields stretching out to reach purple and blue hued mountains rising in the distance like protective giants. Stunning. 

I had come to really love Laos after travelling for a few weeks there and wished we were staying longer. It truly is a special place with a rich countryside where the vast majority of the population live out a simple and peaceful rural life. From several long bus journeys I had observed countless little villages, haphazard yet somehow organised collections of timber houses on stilts with piles of firewood neatly stacked below. Smiling and waving at foreigners seemed to be a national pastime! 

Undoubtedly it is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia but yet I never felt poverty here like that which was so jarring in India. It seems that people don’t have a lot, but they have enough to live a full and happy life. There’s no mass migration from rural areas into the big cities, evidenced by how small and contained the capital is, which is very unusual for a developing country. I wouldn’t be so naive as to assume that everything is ideal, but Laos definitely has a different psyche than you’d expect.

But thankfully we had one Laos experience left... gibbons and ziplines!! Mad or what??