Myanmar--Seeing the Sights

Don’t know about you folks, but we feel like scaffold magnets. It seems like every castle, every cathedral, every building of interest we see is covered in scaffolding. The Shwedagon Pagoda was no exception—it was covered in scaffolding.

The Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar. Sometime around 600 BC, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment and traveled in 7 directions. Two local merchants met him and offered him food. In thanks he gave them 8 strands of his hair. Returning to Yangon, the king determined that the hairs should be enshrined with the relics of 3 Buddhas who attained enlightenment before this Buddha: the staff of Kakusanda Buddha, the water filter of Kawnagaman Buddha and a robe from Kassapa Buddha. The shrine was named Shwedagon, which means The Reliquary of Four.  It has been rebuilt multiple times and now reaches a few inches short of 100 meters. As picture 1 shows, it is a large pagoda, surrounded by many smaller stuppas and temples containing Buddha images. Our guide told us no additional structures can be added because the hill can no longer support the additional weight.

Picture 2 shows a closer view of the scaffolding. Working from top to bottom they are re-plating the pagoda with 24-carat gold plates, weighing a total of 60 tons. On the top, the new plates are pretty much in place and the scaffolding is starting to come down. On the bottom, cloth covers the scaffolding. The plates are first affixed with glue and then screwed in place. Direct sunlight negatively affects the glue, thus the covering. Individuals donate the gold plates, they are loaded into the cart shown in Picture 3 and lifted up to the pagoda via pulley system.

Picture 4 shows workers on scaffolding finishing the top and Picture 5 shows workers bringing down the bamboo poles as the scaffolding is dismantled. The scaffolding is entirely made up of pieces of bamboo tied together with rope.

We’ve always viewed Buddhist as peaceful people, who give up their worldly goods to help others. It’s not quite as altruistic as we thought. Picture 6 shows the umbrella and vane at the top of the pagoda. In 1999, people brought their jewelry to donate to the temple. It was sent to the top in carts. The vane is encrusted with precious gems and the remaining jewelry (83,850 items, including a 76-carat diamond) is stored under the umbrella. When questioned about why they just store the jewelry instead of using it to help the poor, our guide replied that people donate the jewelry to the pagoda in hopes it will give them a better life when they are re-incarnated. Her reply implied that it’s important to give to the poor, but more important to give to the pagoda. Hmmm….

The buildings surrounding the Pagoda are beautiful in their own right. Picture 7 shows some gorgeous woodcarving. The darker wood is teak, while the gold carving is made from other woods and covered in gold leaf. Picture 8 shows their jade Buddha. In Thailand, their jade Buddha is really jasper—this one is carved from a single piece of jade. And if they don’t have the real thing, as Picture 9 shows, they create replicas and put them in their own temple.

At sundown candles are lit surrounding the Pagoda. Picture 10 shows Rick lighting one candle of the hundreds there. You’ll notice that the Buddha image in the background is surrounded by bright blinking lights. The Chinese sold Myanmar cheap laser lights and they’re now everywhere.

The Shwedagon Pagoda is breathtakingly beautiful, but certainly raises the question: can the money be better spent?

The next day we headed to Bago, northeast of Yangon. On our way we stopped at the Taukkyan War Memorial and cemetery with 27,000 graves of British Commonwealth soldiers, who served in Myanmar (Burma at that time), defeating the Japanese in WWII. Picture 11 shows the view from the entrance.

Our next stop was Kyakhatwaing Monastery, which houses up to 500 Buddhist monks. Each day at approximately 11:00, the monks (300ish on the day we were there) form a procession, each carrying their vessel for collecting money and food donations. Picture 12 shows a small section of the procession. Picture 13 shows a man donating a cooked ear of corn to one monk. After processing through the faithful (and tourists), they collect their bowl of rice from the huge pot shown in Picture 14. They then proceed to the dining room (Picture 15) and, seated on the floor around low tables, they begin chanting in preparation for the meal. It was  quite a sight.

Does Picture 16 look familiar? The Shwemawdaw Pagoda is actually taller than the Shwedagon at 114 meters, but is covered only in gold leaf and paint, rather than gold plates. There are also fewer and less elaborate stupas and temples around the base.

Finally, our last stop was at the Shwethalyaung Reclining Buddha. It is 180 feet long and 55 feet high. Hidden in the jungles for hundreds of years (it was built in the 10^th century), it was discovered, reclaimed and housed in a new building. To get some idea of the size, Rick is standing in front of it in Picture17. To further emphasize its size, Picture 18, frames it with the ornate staircase railing.

Myanmar was a treat. We’d like to come back and go to the northern regions to see Mandalay and Bagan.

Life In Myanmar

Myanmar is a country lost in the 20^th century somewhere. Under military rule for 50 years, with no visits from outsiders, Myanmar emerged as a “democracy” just 5 years ago—even thought the military is still elected to the main offices. It’s fascinating, the people are fun and the roads are few and horrendous. They don’t trouble to build a good roadbed, so roads—even new ones—are very bumpy.

Our young adult woman guide picked us up in traditional dress and we assumed it was just to show us what that was. Not so! The majority of people still wear the longyi—a skirt formed by tying a tube of fabric around your waist. If men want to play sports, they bring the front fabric through the legs and hook to the waist in back. In rural areas where there’s no indoor plumbing, there’s a communal washing area and women will pull the longyi up to their armpits and somehow wash underneath. Our guide said that she wears them all the time, except when she goes to a nightclub with friends. Then she wears a mini-skirt and make-up because they would call her an “old lady” in her longyi. Picture 1 shows other young adults dressed in their longyi.

Picture 2 shows lunchtime at the market.  There are 2 interesting things to discuss here. First of all, SE Asia could not survive without plastic chairs—all casual restaurants have them and they’re shipped cheaply from China. Secondly, if you look closely at the woman walking on the left side, you’ll notice that she has large yellow spots on her cheek. Virtually all women and some young girls wear this. One male guide told us he doesn’t wear it in public, but sleeps in it at night. You take the roots, branches or bark of the thanaka tree, grind it and mix with water to form a paste. It’s good for wrinkles and acne, serves a sunscreen and is cool and refreshing. They also think it makes a woman beautiful.

Picture 3 is a “taxi” for locals, who can’t afford the regular taxis. They’re cheap and abundant.

You will find Buddhist monks and nuns everywhere. While in other parts of the world, monks wear saffron robes, in Myanmar, the monks wear burgundy-colored robes and the nuns wear pink. Picture 4 shows a group of nuns looking for donations of food and money in the market.  It used to be that monks did not want their picture taken and would put up their hands. Not so today. Picture 5 shows a young monk taking a Selfie. We even saw them posing for pictures for tourists. Finally, monks start early. Picture 6 shows a group of young monks at a school they attend each day, away from the monastery. Buddhists are supposed to spend at least a week as a monk or num (with head shaven). Children may start as long as they are old enough to repeat and learn the chants from the older monks—some as young as 4 or 5.

Can’t resist the kids. Picture 7 shows a group at the school and Picture 8 shows a group of girls walking to school. Green is the color kids wear to school—not uniform, but generally present in their outfits.

 

Many people have small businesses in their homes. We visited some weavers with hand-operated looms. We also found the woman in picture 9, who was rolling cigars and selling them for $1.

One thing that is still practiced heavily in Myanmar, as in other parts of SE Asia is the chewing of betel nuts. It gives you a buzz and makes your mouth bright red. Picture10 shows betel nuts in the background and betel leaves in the foreground. The way they’re served is shown in Picture11. You spread a betel leaf with a yogurt concoction, lay the betel nut on top, sprinkle herbs and spices on top, roll it up and chew.

The last 4 pictures show rural village life. Picture 12 shows some of the transportation you see: bicycles, motorbikes, horse drawn carts and bicycles with a sidecar.  We stopped in a teashop in a small village that was open air with a lot of plastic chairs. Their cooking is still done over charcoal, as you can see in Picture 13.  Picture 14 is a shot of a street in a small village, with dirt roads and simple buildings. Finally, Picture 15 shows that they do try to cater to tourists. The toilets were pretty cheap!

Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We’re spending quite a bit of time on mainland Malaysia this trip (we’ll get to Borneo Malaysia later). From Port Klang, you can visit Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia, and Kuala Lumpur, the regular capital of Malaysia. Rick saw Putrajaya on his own, while Betsy enjoyed a mild case of something, and then both got to see Kuala Lumpur.  (Note: Rick earlier had the honor of being the ship’s first case of the flu and was in quarantine for a day and a half and Betsy took Tamiflu. So this illness of Betsy’s was indeed minor.)

Putrajaya was built largely between 1995 and 1999 and looks clean and new. It’s one gorgeous building after another (Picture 1) and 7 lovely bridges (Picture 2). While a natural river ran through the location, it has been widened and modified to create a garden-like setting throughout the city.

Picture 3 shows the Putra Mosque and, to the right, the Prime Minister’s Offices. The main hall of the mosque (Picture 4) holds 15,000 worshipers. An additional 20,000 can worship in the courtyard. Picture 5 shows the dome of the mosque and some of the beautiful geometric Islamic architecture.

On our second day we first visited the Batu Caves. This is a series of caves that hold a Hindu temple. The day before our arrival, the Thaipusam festival (Hindu day of atonement) was held, which drew somewhere around 1 million people. When we arrived, the hundreds of vendors who had set up were taking down their stalls and there was garbage everywhere, although the clean-up process had begun.

Picture 6 shows how you get to the caves. After passing some of the vendors and the statue of Shiva, you climb 272 very steep steps to get to the entrance (Picture 7)—devotees on their knees or carrying a pole with two jugs of milk across their shoulders—then you go down some more steps and back up again to get to the main temple (Picture 8). As you climb the stairs you get to visit with the local monkeys (Picture 9). Picture 10 attests to the fact that Rick made the climb. Betsy’s knees said no—besides, she did it 17 or 18 years ago. When she did it there were no vendors, no statues and there was a simple set of concrete stairs. How times have changed.

Then we did a tour of the city. Picture 11 shows the National Monument. This commemorates the lives lost in WWI, WWII and the Communist Insurgency (1948-1960). The statue in the center commemorates that Insurgency, where communists (Chinese) tried to take over the country. Does the statue look familiar? It was designed by Felix de Weldon, who also designed the Iwo Jima statue in Washington DC.

The green area in Picture 12 is Independence Square, where significant national events occur. The building shown was the British government building used prior to independence from the Brits. The green area is actually the old cricket field from the Royal Selangor Club—the equivalent of the British Officers’ Club.

Picture 13 shows the KL Tower, the 4^th highest communications tower in the world at 1381 feet. Picture 14 is the view of the Petronas Towers from the KL Tower.

Picture 15 is a picture of the Petronas Towers from street level. The Malaysians built these between 1995 and 1999, wanting to have something that they could claim for their greatest accomplishment (biggest, tallest, fastest, etc.). Unfortunately, shortly after they were built, someone else built something taller. There goes their claim to fame.

We did a quick double take when we saw the sign in Picture 16. Our guide quickly explained that ISIS is their intelligence agency and government training center and was open long before the other ISIS was known. If only the other ISIS was that easy to find….

Finally, Betsy’s sunset picture (Picture 17).

Phuket, Thailand

We decided Phuket deserved it’s own blog entry because the Hubers did different things! Betsy went to cooking school. Rick’s not crazy about Thai food and definitely not crazy about cooking, so he opted to see the sites around Phuket City.

Cooking class was held at the Blue Elephant Restaurant and cooking school (Picture 1). It’s housed in a mansion that was built in 1903 and was used as a governor residence in the past. The restaurant/school started here, but has grown and is now found in many large European and Asian cities.  Our first job was to visit the market. Picture 2 shows just one of many sellers—this one selling dried fish and shrimp. There were dried and fresh betel nuts, chickens with head and feet, curry paste, shrimp paste and lots of very interesting fruits and vegetables.

We cooked 4 dishes. They were first demonstrated by the chef and tasted by us, then it was off to our individual cooking stations, where we created the dishes by ourselves. Picture 3 shows Betsy hard at work making her soup. While others used only part of one chili, Betsy would use 3 or 4. Thank heavens for Sinha Beer to cool things down! She’s not a bad Thai chef!!!

Finally, we all sat down and enjoyed eating the food we cooked. Picture 4 shows the 4 dishes. On the plate is a bowl of the soup: Tom Kha Kai Sai Mapraow Orn, or Coconut Milk Soup with Chicken and Young Coconut Flesh. Starting at the left side of the plate there’s Kai Phad Prik Tua Fak Yao, or Stir-fried Chicken with Red Curry & Long Beans. In the center behind the plate was her favorite: Toong Tong Keaw Waan, or Crispy Golden Bag stuffed with Green Curry Prawn and Chicken. On the right is Yum Ma-Muang Plaa Krob, or Spicy Green Mango Salad with Crispy Fish. Shall she try these with the Aycocks when she gets home??????

Rick’s Turn.

Located on Promthep Cape, a headland with stunning vistas, Picture 5 shows a site of Buddhist offerings. In this case, most offerings made are elephants and represent something wonderful that happened in their lives.

Next stop was at Big Buddha Phuket, shown in picture 6 (Note at the lower left of the picture, the actual name is “Big Buddha”!). It’s on the top of one of the mountains, providing gorgeous views from the base of the statue. Big Buddha is 75 meters tall, covered in white marble and hollow, with only structural supports, inside.

As you’ve probably noticed, these 2 stops offered great vistas and yet there are no vista pictures. It was a very hazy day and the pictures weren’t noteworthy.

Finally, I visited Chalong Temple (Picture 7), which was filled with golden Buddhas. Outside there was a large oven where worshipers placed boxes of bullets/firecrackers and made a wish for something they wanted. I watched one couple place a large box of bullets ($20/1500 bullets) In the fireplace and covered my ears. It was amazing.  This couple was  on our ship, and hoping to find a new house when they get home, so they were covering their bases.

To top off the day, I got my first decent sunset picture of the trip (Picture 8).