Wednesday, January 23, 2013

To late for Myanmar?


I can remember when David read the first article about Myanmar. The country, which was closed for foreigners for quite a long time was slowly opening to tourism. The first reports were overwhelming. “A hidden treasure”, “untouched and authentic”, “the most beautiful and authentic country in the region”. We wanted to see it! As soon as we knew the second part of our journey would take us to Southeast Asia it was obvious, we would go to Myanmar too. Moreover, we decided to make it our first destination, just because we could hardly wait to go there.

There are still some restrictions you have to live with if you want to visit Myanmar. Although we were already in Bangkok, we couldn't take a bus or a train, but needed to fly into the country instead, which is not the most (eco)logical thing to do. But we booked some Air Asia tickets to Yangon and decided to spend the first few days in Bangkok, trying to get the mandatory Myanmar visa. I have to admit we did worry a bit, because we have already gathered some bad visa experiences and felt a bit uneasy buying the tickets without having the necessary documents ready. Fortunately, it was one of the easiest visa procedure we have seen so far. The queue was huge, but it all went much faster than expected and since we already bought the tickets we had the right to ask for a same day visa, which we received without any problems. We were ready to go in no time.

Traveling through Central Asia with Karossi, we have never really bothered to book a hotel room. We only needed one from time to time anyway and the hotels were hardly ever full. But since we were backpackers now and our plane was landing in the evening, we decided to go for a safe option. I tried making an on-line reservation somewhere in Yangon, but I never really got an answer to any of my emails, so we decided to make a few phone calls. We soon found out booking a hotel room in the former capital of Myanmar is quite a challenge. The entire town seemed to be fully booked! For weeks in advance! When we have finally reached the Cherry Guesthouse the owner himself seemed surprised when he told us he actually still had one more room to offer, since someone just canceled the reservation. We took it without thinking, even though 38 USD seemed expensive compared to what our guidebook suggested. But the room was really nice and the breakfast good, so we didn't worry about it much.

We were ignorant enough to expect Myanmar to be similar to Thailand, but it was a different world. It was extraordinary green. Even though Yangon is a big industrial city, you could see trees and plants on every corner. The temperatures were a bit lower too. But the most extraordinary thing about Myanmar were the people. No matter if men, running around in longyis (men-skirts) or women with funny yellow spots on their faces to protect them from the sun, they were all smiling and weaving, being as friendly as one could possibly imagine. Children were running out of their houses just to say hello to us. It was absolutely amazing.


We were a bit surprised to see the number of foreign tourists when we reached the Shwedagon Pagoda, but then again, we were at the most famous tourist attraction in the biggest city of the country, so we could not really hope to have it all to ourselves. And we liked the place anyway. It was not exactly pretty, not unless you like tones of gold and Buddhas with bright neon lights around their heads, but it was definitely interesting and worth visiting. And it gave us a chance to find out that we were both born on Monday, which was apparently a very good sign for our future.


Unfortunately times when Myanmar was not touristic at all seem to be long gone. Now English signs are spread all over the city and an entry fee was being collected in every possible place, including parks, even the smallest ones, so that we soon found ourselves avoiding every green spot on the map. We didn't want to support the local government if we could avoid it. We thought the problem only concerned Yangon, which is a big, pretty international city and can therefore be a bit expensive and overcrowded. Back then we didn't know it will turn out to be the cheapest city we would visit in Myanmar.


We have booked a bus to Inle Lake, to see a bit of a countryside. The 20 USD tickets didn't really seem cheap, considering the fact, that we were driving an old bus with no toilet and although we took our warmest clothes, the air conditioning quickly turned it in into a moving fridge. Moreover, the bus made only one single stop during 14 long hours. Trust me when I say it (as I do have some considerable bus experience) it was not the most pleasant drive. And if it wasn't enough we ended up coming at 4 o'clock in the morning only to find out all the hotels and restaurants were closed, so that we had nothing else to do but to walk around waiting for the sunrise. It was actually a very nice experience to see the entire village waking up to life and the sunrise itself was worth staying awake too.


We had a reservation in Teakwood Guesthouse, which remained the only accommodation in Myanmar I have managed to book through an email. It seemed quite expensive too, but since we were coming early in the morning, we decided we would have some time to check the situation and change a hotel if we manage to find something better. We didn't. We met some people who had no reservations yet and they spent quite some time looking for an available room, ending up paying over 40 USD for places that were not even worth a quarter of this price. We were really glad we did the booking, especially that Teakwood turned out to be a really lovely place run by an extremely friendly family, who made us feel at home from the very first day of our stay.

It turns out, that even though our guidebook was published in 2012 the prices included in it are no longer up to date. They actually doubled or in some cases even tripled over the last twelve months. One lady actually offered us a tiny wooden cupboard in the middle of a garage, with nothing but a wooden bench in it and expected to get 45 USD for it. We didn't know if we should laugh or cry. More and more tourists are coming to the country and since there are simply not enough places to stay, the hotels can rise their prices to a ridiculous level and still get fully booked. At least so far, as I'm pretty sure this strategy will not work well in long term. We were not the only ones shocked by the local price level. How can it be that in a country where a teacher is supposed to earn around 70 USD a month I am asked to pay 40-60 USD for a night in a shabby room and should then pay another 10 USD for a taxi to the nearby bus station? It just doesn't seem right. And it gets only worse when you think what kind of standard you could get for this price in the neighboring Thailand.

All in all Inle Lake turned out to be the biggest disappointment of our trip for many different reasons. We were hoping to get some rest in a nice countryside, but ended up in the middle of in the touristic capital of the region. The locals were totally outnumbered! Every second building was a hotel and the rest was divided between restaurants and tourist agencies, all offering the same expensive boat trips. It was a nightmare. In our last attempt to escape this nasty place we decided to rent a bike and get off the bitten track. I do not know if local bikes were simply not made for people of our size or if we were just too late and all the good bikes were gone, but we ended up riding over 30 km on bikes, that were half the necessary size. It was a nice experience, though a little painful one. But it did not really allow us to see much of the countryside neither. Even when we left the village, the road was still full of Coca Cola stands and souvenir shops. Only the guesthouses disappeared to make place for Spa & Welness Resorts. But the people we met on the way were as friendly as ever. Even though they had all the right to be fed up with tourist, they were still smiling and waving, as if we were the first foreigners they have seen in weeks.


I do believe we simply came a bit too late. We met people who visited Myanmar 2 or 3 years before and could not recognize it. They came back to see the “hidden treasure” but ended up shortening their trip not to ruin their budget and previous impressions of the country. Some also claimed we came too early. The place is only opening now and the tourist industry is simply not ready yet to handle all the people wanting to come here. But that is definitely going to change. The only question is, will it really do Myanmar good? Well, the time will show, but I'm afraid the “hidden treasure”, the way people could see it few years ago, is irrevocably lost.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The city that never sleeps

Coming home for Christmas was definitely a good idea. We finally had some time for our families, but also for ourselves, a few days in an environment that was well known and safe, without huge adventures, but with lots of fun and extra tasty (and familiar!) food. A moment to cool down and sort out the memories and impressions crowding inside our heads. It felt good to be home. Writing the blog turned out to be a great idea too! I was surprised how many people actually did read it regularly. Thanks to that we didn't have to try to sum up the whole story and repeat it over and over again, but could focus on particular questions or details, that our friends were interested in. And it proved to me, that I am not wasting my time completely, writing it all down :)

But all good things come to an end, to make place for new adventures. We have made a general plan, found flight tickets that would not ruin our budget completely and decided to spend the next 10 weeks traveling through Southeast Asia, trying to see as much as we can without making it all too stressful. Since the flight to Bangkok was the cheapest one, we decided to begin our journey in Thailand, hoping for an easy start.

I have to say I don't really like flying and try to avoid it whenever I can. Every time I have to go to Poland I am deliberately choosing a 20 hours bus ride instead of a plane. It's not that I would be afraid, I just don't like it and since it's not really very ecological, I have a good excuse not to do it unless it's really unavoidable. This time it was. The flight was few times longer than anything I have done so far, making me feel a bit uneasy, especially after choosing Eastern China Airlines, which we never even heard of before. Fortunately, we had no reason to worry or complain. The service was perfect and the plane was so nice and clean, that it felt like a high standard hotel. Even the food was good. It wasn't full either, so we had enough space to sleep, but we have never really made it that far, since we were too busy watching movies on demand, checking all the titles we have missed the last 6 months. And the food was pretty good too. Ten hours went by before I even noticed.

The only problem was, we had a small delay. We have managed to catch the connecting flight in Shanghai, but our bags were not as lucky, which left us standing at the Bangkok airport with empty hands, wearing our winter clothes, which we needed in Europe before. The good news was, the bags were not lost, simply delayed. The bad one, they reached Bangkok a day latter then we did. Well, I had to do my first shopping in Thailand a bit earlier than planned.

I believe that whether you like Bangkok or not, strongly depends on what you've seen before coming here. I'm quite sure I would have hated it a year ago. I would probably think it's a total mess and one huge chaos. But the last 6 months changed my point of view completely. Compared to the capital of Mongolia most cities seem clean and well organized. And so did Bangkok. A perfectly synchronized machine, making a constant pleasant noise. And compared to Iranian drivers, the ones in Bangkok are civilized and extremely careful. All in all I liked it a lot.  



The real shock was waiting for us in the touristic center of the city, where we went to look for a hotel. Don't get me wrong, we were not expecting to be alone there, but still, the number of tourists took our breath away. The whole area was full with European people, that were by far outnumbering the locals. I thought I have seen touristic places before, but I guess they were not even close to what we experienced here. But it was not really the quantity that was worrying us. Quality seemed to be a bigger problem. I try to avoid generalization and I know for sure there are quite a few cool people traveling through the region, but it doesn't change the fact that a huge group of tourist seems to come here only to get drunk or stoned until they most probably don't even know where they are anymore. You hear them screaming and fighting every evening, you see them lying lifeless at the breakfast tables a day after and you quickly understand why local people do not seem to be too happy about working in tourism industry. It was honestly disgusting. Fortunately most of those people hardly ever moved more than 500 meters away from their hotel or favorite bar, so we could visit the rest of the city without having to face them too often.



Moving around Bangkok is a tricky thing, as public transport is poorly developed and traffic is huge. That is why we tried to do most sightseeing by foot or taking the public boat for longer distances (ticket costs less than 50 cent). It was a great idea, as in this way we were able to get to the parts of the city not many tourists visit. We even managed to have a whole temple to ourselves once, which I would never consider possible, taking under account how many tourist come here in high season. I guess we were really lucky. We took a public boat early in the morning to see the sunrise on the river. We got out at the Wat Arun to make a few pictures, though we knew that the place didn't open for the next two hours or so. There was even a big sign with official opening hours, so we didn't bother to ask. But suddenly a guy holding a bunch of keys appeared next to us, opened the door and pointed us to the ticket office. A minute later we were climbing endless and really steep steps to get to the top of the temple, all alone in one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. It was amazing! And I was really glad there was no one around, cause climbing those huge steps was one thing, but getting down again, was the harder part of the task. I managed to keep my vertigo under control, but it took some time and would certainly be much more difficult with hundreds of other people jumping around. But the view from the top was certainly worth the trouble.



Bangkok seems to be busy at any time of a day and the city really has an unique atmosphere, which even thousands of tourist didn't manage to destroy yet. And it is so totally different than anything we have seen on our journey so far. The culture, architecture, even the food, it's a different world, a world full of shiny gold temples and intensive smells, where colorful tuk-tuks are fighting their way through the streets. If the rest of Thailand is equally fascinating, I can hardly wait to explore it! But we have to postpone it a bit. Two weeks exactly, as we already booked plane tickets for Myanmar, a country we wanted to visit for quite some time now.