Education:
They attend Primary School Kindergarten – fourth grade, Secondary School is fifth – eight grade and then High School is ninth and tenth. All of this is free in public schools. At the end of this, based on their achievement, they can go on to University. They pay for this and certain professions have to giveback service for three to five years. The lawyer, doctors, nurses, and teachers all need to give back. They still pay for the education.

Health care:
The doctors, nurses are free but the medicines are not readily available. The care is not the best so if they can afford it they take the family member somewhere else. Daniel took his mother to Thailand for medical care. I think they can purchase medicines privately.

Religion:
Buddhism is the major religion but all faiths are practiced in Myanmar. In all of the towns there are Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Muslim mosques. They have not mentioned Jewish and Hindu faiths. With most being Buddhist the country feels very safe in all the areas we were in. Our guide is very comfortable leaving his bag with lots of money on a chair and walking away, something we would not do in the US.

There are five tenants that they practice in their Buddhist faith:
Do not lie, steal, kill, damage the family or drink alcohol to excess.
They believe they should do good things to receive “merits”. These will help them to have a better life in their next life. They believe that their soul lives on, they return for another life and they carry their merits with them. They do both cremation and burial because the soul has already left the body. At the temple they will ring a bell to announce a “merit”.

Old age:
I think one of the guides said the average life span was mid 60’s. As is true of many Asian countries the family lives together so the children are caring for their parents. There is no such thing as Social Security so Daniel said it is important to save up as you go.

Agriculture:
There is a lot of agriculture in Myanmar. They grow a lot of things including peanuts, soy, mangos, watermelons, honeydews, lentils andsaffron. We have had cooked vegetables at every meal and it has all been very tasty.

Marriage:

Fifty percent are arranged marriages, for all others the parents must agree or they can not get married. If the parents do not agree they just wait. Later the parents may agree to it because she is getting too old. Girls live with their parents until marriage and they cannot be out later than eight in the evening. Daniel says there are not many bars, disco’s so not a lot of evening activity. There is no sex until marriage so if a woman is widowed or divorced it is difficult for her to remarry. The divorce rate is only 2% and only if the woman is being beaten or the parents agree; probably the grandkids would be affected. The groom’s family pays for weddings.

The people are very respectful of each other, they take care of where the live as best they can and the children and well cared for. We all felt very safe being out in the evening or any place on our own. There are135 ethnic groups in Myanmar so a wide variety of people and cultures.

Toilettes
They have been very clean, western style seats available and usually free. I went yesterday to a public toilette that I paid $0.30 for and it was still clean. Being on at OAT tour they of course take us to the better toilettes but yesterday’s was not. In the bathrooms they have a faucet that has what we have as a kitchen sprayer. One of my fellow travelers says you rinse off with it. It does work nicely.

Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar. It is connected to Yangon and the Indian Ocean by the Irrawaddy River. It has a rich history but today we focused on the period in the second half of the 1800s when the last Myanmar dynasty fell to the British.

King Mindon built the royal palace between 1857 and 1859. It is a walled fortress measuring two kilometers on each side and is protected by a moat. King Mindon died and one of his sons, Thibaw, became the new (and last) king of Myanmar.

But it wasn’t that easy. By rights, the new king should have been the first son of the King Mindon’s chief concubine. Thibaw was a considerable way down the line. But his wife, who happened to be his half sister (King Mindon was their common parent) and his mother-in-law schemed to bring him up the ladder to the top rung. They didn’t just use everyday palace intrigue, bribes and whatnot. Instead they invited all the more senior sons (who were also the brothers of both Thibaw and his wife) to a party at which most of them were executed.

King Thibaw won the battle but lost the war. He took over in 1878 but in 1885 the British decided to complete their conquest of Burma and marched 11,000 troops to Mandalay. They marched straight into the palace, arrested Thibow, sent him first to Yangon and then to India where he died 30 or so years later.

One thing King Thibow did, almost immediately upon ascending to the throne, was to move his father’s personal residence building from within the palace grounds to a location outside the palace walls and moat. He then gave the building to a Buddhist monk to serve as a monastery.

The British occupied the palace as a military base. During World War II the Japanese drove out the British and occupied the palace for three years. The British, not being ones to take such action lightly, bombed the palace grounds into smoldering ashes.

Today we visited the monastery. Actually it’s no longer a monastery. The government took it back recently to preserve the last structure from the final Myanmar dynasty. They gave money to the Buddhists to create a new monastery elsewhere.

The monastery is made of teak wood, intricately carved with images from Buddhist mythology. Some of the characters portrayed in last night’s puppet show were represented in the carvings. Today the building is dark from exposure to the elements. Back in the day it was covered with gold leaf inside and out.

In the 19th century small villages surrounded the palace walls, each specializing in a particular craft. We visited areas on Mandalay that still specializes in marble carving (we bought a carved marble Buddha).

We visited the Mahamuni Buddha, the most sacred shrine in upper Burma. This golden Buddha is said to still contain the living Buddha. To pay homage, men (no women allowed) affix pieces of gold leaf to the Buddha. Over the years it has caused the Buddha to assume an overgrown image. Once a day(at 4:00AM) a monk washes the Buddha’s face and brushes his teeth.

We stopped at a shop that makes the gold leaf, pounding into thin wafers – incredible manual labor taking hours to beat the gold leaf with heavy mallets. The work pays well, apparently, but the workmen go deaf from a career banging away on the gold leaf day after day. The workers view their labor as sacred, increasing their karma.

After lunch and a brief rest stop we visited the Kuthodaw Pagoda, home to the world’s largest book. The book is actually a series of small 729 pagodas, each containing a marble slab. Monks have engraved both sides of the slabs with the text that defines Theravada Buddhism.

Sunset time, so off we go to the top of Mandalay Hill (the only hill in the region). The sunset was OK but the real thrill was riding in a Mandalay taxi, a truck bed in which bench seats run down either side. People sit on the benches, the floor between the benches, on top of the roof or hang out the back. Michael, Daniel and I hung out the back, much to Nana’s displeasure and concern. It was a fun, thrilling ride up a steep, bumpy, hairpin-turn road.

Daniel turned us loose for “dinner on your own”. Nan and Ron, Judy and I walked 10 minutes from our hotel and had a nice meal of Chinese and Indian food. We were ready for a break from Burmese fare.

But before letting us go, Daniel had one more cultural experience for us: fried crickets. I mean really good-sized crickets roasted to a crunchy, garlicky brown. It turns out we’re in the peak of cricket season – at the end of the rainy season. They’re caught in rice paddies near Mandalay and brought to town to sell on street corners. Females, with their eggs taste best.

The taste isn’t that bad, if you get over the cricket idea.

Fair warning: Things are going from bad to worse. Here’s my picture count since coming to Myanmar:
11/15 130 pictures
11/16 175 pictures
11/17 345 pictures
11/18 570 pictures
See the problem? Get the picture?

We did it. We ascended the heavens, looked down on the temples in the dawn’s early light (to mix a metaphor or two) and landed with only the slightest bump and raised a glass of Champaign in celebration. All by 8:30 in the morning.

It was quite an operation. I’ll try to post pictures if the Internet gods permit (last night’s posting was a struggle). It took a 12-man ground crew to fill the balloon with air so that our pilot, Javier, could give it a blast of hot air to bring it upright. That brought the gondola into an upright position so that we could climb over its four-foot sides and tumble aboard. The gondola was divided into four sections holding four people each. Javier was in the middle at the controls.

Our initial cruise was at 2,000 feet while other balloons in the fleet (I counted 18 in all) were lower. Javier explained that by staying high we would catch winds that would bring us over a more interesting part of the temple area. And what a view! Side lighting from the rising sun made for a dramatic picture with the Irrawaddy River in the background. The trip lasted about an hour and covered 4 miles. Javier was able to keep the balloon rotating at a steady pace so everyone enjoyed the view from all vantage points.

This is a big operation; last season (six months) this company carried 23,000 people. Today they must have done more than 300. Javier is a hired pilot from Madrid. He comes here for the winter and in the summer runs his own balloon operation over Segovia, Spain.

After the hotel breakfast buffet we walked down the hill from our hotel and mounted horse-drawn carriages, two people per carriage, one facing forward (me) and one facing backward (Judy). We traveled about 45 minutes over dirt roads passing a continual series of temples, pagodas and stupas.

The horse carriages brought us to the Shwe Sandaw temple that features mosaic drawings on its inside walls that depict the life of Buddha, of course, but also scenes from everyday life as it was 250 years ago. The temple has the standard four Buddha statues at each entrance.

Outside the temple a group of tourists and a bunch of kids were milling around after touring the temple as part of a school field trip. It turns out that here, as in other Asian countries light-skinned people like us are an oddity. They politely asked, and Daniel facilitated, a number of group photo and selfie sessions. Much fun was had by all.

It’s not lunchtime yet; off to the Ever Stand Lacquerware workshop. We saw the entire process, starting with bamboo woven into the desired shape, then covered with lacquer and dried, layer-by-layer, for up to six months. The next step is to optionally etch and color the item by hand before it finds its way to the gift shop.

Did we buy something? You betcha: two very nice cups for our tea, and two bracelets.

The founder and owner told us that he uses the same process that has been handed down since the 11th Century and the etched designs come from the frescos we saw earlier in the temple.

I talked to him about the future of his company. He has eight kids and four grandkids and he is certain that they will continue the business. But if I understood him correctly only his daughter lives nearby and is active in the business. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that his karma will lead to successful continuation of this enterprise.

Lunchtime. Options: hotel chow or lunch with Daniel in a family-style restaurant in downtown Old Bagan, a local favorite. Yep, we went with Daniel. Good move, too. The set meal consists of maybe 15 small dishes with fish, chicken and pork, veggies of every description (stir fried and pickled) . . . I can’t begin to list them all. And of course a big dollop of white rice (skinny Daniel had three dollops). Desert included a three-ingredient concoction starting with a pinch of green tea leaves, then a pinch of ginger and a few crunchy nuts. Sorry, it defies description but it was really different and good.

Oh, the price of that spread? About four bucks per person for us four gringos including Daniel’s share.

We’re back at the hotel. Guess who’s nappin’ and whose typin’? Right again. At three PM we’re off for the optional “Life Beyond Bagan’s Ancient Pagodas.

Life beyond Bagan lived up to its name. We got the best view of what life’s like for lower- to middleclass citizens of this fair city.

Stop 1: A business that manufactures and sells a lentil bean spread that’s somewhat the same consistency of peanut butter, packaged in a bright package for sale in the local market. The process is to boil up the lentils, add some salt and let it sit for a day so it will congeal into a paste. Then it’s packaged up in various size bags and wrappers.

Men do the boiling to make the paste; women package the product. When we arrived the men had knocked off for the day and the ladies were still hard at work packaging. Is this a pattern? Ladies carry the water, ladies work the overtime? I will say the ladies seemed to make the best of their jobs, sitting cross-legged in a communal room, chatting while performing their repetitive tasks.

The reason for the OT is the festival that’s opening up in town this weekend and will run for several weeks. It’s a celebration of the end of harvest and beginning of the dry season. All the area merchants have closed down and set up booths at the festival. Farmers from the area will come to town to see the latest goods. Kind of sounds like the Hillsdale County Fair, doesn’t it?

I asked Daniel, “What if the owners of this business decide they want to expand their market, build a bigger factory, hire more people, expand their marketing and distribution? Could they?” His answer: no for two reasons. Under the socialist system that prevailed in Myanmar for 50 years there has been no financial and banking system to lend money. And the socialist system produced several generations of citizens that don’t understand business creation and management nor have the vision to build a business.

Across the street from the bean spread factory were two other mom-and-pop-and-the-kids operations. The first made fans. You know, the kind they used to hand out at funeral homes to wave back and forth to keep you cool? Here they’re sold for funerals and other life events such as weddings and investitures.

A boy (12 ish) is invested after which he is considered a man and then becomes a novice at a monastery like the one we visited in Yangon the other day. Daniel has been a novice three times before reaching the age 21 for periods of one to five weeks. He’s been a monk one time since turning 21 for a period of a few weeks. He’d enjoy doing it again if his schedule would ever permit.

The other business was another lacquer operation but much smaller in scale, being operated out of the family’s home. The quality was perhaps a notch lower than this morning’s operation but the prices were two notches lower so we bought a very nice plate.

Someone, probably an Army general, had the bright idea of building a tower so tourists can climb up and see some temples from an elevated position. I wanted to climb up but the gate was locked and so Michael and I had to retreat and join the other slackers and use the lift. Nice views especially for those in the group who missed the morning balloon ride.

Then we were off to a small village outside the Bagan city limits. We wandered from house to house, playing around with the little kids, dodging the Brahman bulls that roam the streets after a hard day out in the pasture and learning about the small enterprises they run. One home had another even smaller lacquer operation (somehow we resisted this time). Several were processing the recently harvested peanut crop. Four guys were playing chinlin bouncing a wicker ball back and forth using feet, knees and head soccer style. The houses were humble but the neighborhood had a pleasant vibe to it. They’d received electrical power service for the first time last year.

By now it’s 6 PM and time for a quick dinner and off to the hotel to get ready for tomorrow’s departure to Mandalay. (I hope I can resist the temptation to ask someone tomorrow, “Do you know the way to Mandalay?”Sorry, bad grand-dad joke.) But it turned out to be a second traditional Burmese dinner: beef, fish, veggies, salad surrounding a bowl full of rice. More elegant than this noon’s but only equally tasty than the $4 spread.

What made this evening’s dinner special was the traditional marionette puppet show put on in front of our table. The show consisted of a series of folk stories that are enacted by the puppets, accompanied by a traditional (i.e., non-Western) music performed by an orchestra and singers playing traditional instruments. It used to be a popular form of entertainment from the 15th century until the Brits arrived in the late 19th century. The government has attempted a revival and while these performers seemed quite skilled and talented it hasn’t achieved the popularity with the Burmese people that it did during the heyday (i.e., before televised football).

Now you can see why I took so many blamed pictures today.

6:30 AM
• Starboard engine start
• Port engine start
• Both engines shut down
• Starboard engine start
• Starboard engine shut down
• First officer exits aircraft, kicks nose gear
Now this is a twin-engine turbo prop, maybe 60 passengers and I’m no expert but I don’t think this is standard operating procedure even for a small airline in a third-world country.

Sure enough, it’s now 7 AM and we’re back in the terminal awaiting developments. The lady on the PA speaks both Burmese and English but only “Your attention please” and “Is now departing” are the only intelligible words.

Cultural factoid: the featured watch in the terminal Cherry OO Premium Watch Gallery is Casio. You’d never catch anyone in Hong Kong sporting a Casio. It’s Rolex or better, baby.

9:00 AM
Wheels up on a new aircraft.

We’re cruising at 16,000 feet headed generally north and a little bit east. The Irrawaddy River is just to the left and we’ll follow it to Bagan and then in a few days we’ll follow it to Mandalay. Nothing but farmland with an occasional village.

9:30 AM
Caloric intake so far:
• Box breakfast before leaving the hotel
• Cookies purchased by Michael and Nan while waiting
• Box snack and coffee provided by Yadanarpon Airline while waiting
• Lunch (sandwich, chocolate rolls and flan) in the air.
Danny says that most people in Myanmar are thin. Everyone tries to gain weight to be more attractive. At this rate I’ll have to drive off the girls in Bagan with a stick.

10:15
Wheels down for landing. The terrain is brown. The streams feeding the Irrawaddy are brown with silt I’d guess.

We immediately hit the trail for a country market near Bagan. We’ve seen more markets than temples so far and each one is different and interesting.

This one, for my money, was the most interesting so far. Narrow, earthen pathways through covered stalls with dim light from occasional slits in the roof. The vendors (almost exclusively women) sat on low tables with their goods spread out around them. It is almost exclusively a food market, mostly vegetables, some fish but no meat that I saw. I bought a packet of pepper and one of saffron for about two dollars.

I told our group that Judy and I are going to live in Bagan for a year and cook our way through the market. As if.

In the bus Danny gave us an overview of Myanmar’s history. Here’s a quick synopsis:
• Until the 11th century what is now Myanmar was a collection of kingdoms
• In the 11th century the king of Bagan conquered all other kingdoms to create a unified country
• This king became interested in Buddhism and decreed its adoption throughout the country
• During his dynasty 5,000 or so temples, pagodas and stupas were constructed, some large and grand, some small for individual families. Building one was seen as an act of furthering Buddhism and hence increasing the merit (karma) of the builder
• The Mongols showed up in the thirteenth century, ended the dynasty, causing Myanmar to revert back to a collection of kingdom
• A king in Yangon finally reunited the country. His dynasty lasted about 90 years, ending with the invasion of Great Britain in 1850 (give or take)

Today Myanmar is made up of six districts, generally situated along the Irrawaddy River and populated by ethnic Burmese. Seven states, generally situated along the periphery of Myanmar, are populated by distinct ethnic minority groups. Several of these states have been fighting a civil war with the central government since the Brits left in 1948.

By the way, Danny explained the distinction between the various Buddhist structures we’re seeing. A temple has an open area within which Buddhists can pray and worship. A pagoda is a pyramid-shaped structure, solid in the center that contains, buried in the core, a relic from the Buddha (or more precisely one of the four Buddhas, one of whom shows up every 5,000 years). A stupa looks like a pagoda but lacks a relic.

Driving through the countryside we saw one temple/pagoda/stupa after another. About half were destroyed by the Mongols and others were destroyed by earthquakes, the most recent occurring two years ago.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant situated along the banks of the Irrawaddy. Then back to the hotel for a heat-of-the-day rest before the afternoon and evening activities.

Judy napped but I typed for a while and then went walking. Just down the road from our hotel is a field with 10 – 12 temples. At the entrance to the field is a motorbike repair shop under the spreading arms of a huge tree. I decided to explore the structures.

This is not a tourist area; there are no paths and the field is overgrown with waist-high weeds. Some of the weeds, I later learned from Daniel, are fennel plants from which seeds can be harvested. The field was strewn with broken fragments of bricks making walking difficult. It appears that other temples, now gone, once stood on this site. It was great fun for me: finding something new and off the beaten path with great late afternoon light.

On the bus to the Ananda Pahto temple, a gold peaked structure built in 1090 by the king who brought Buddhism to Myanmar. In side are four large statues of the Buddha, each carved from a solid piece of locally grown teak wood.

Next a boat trip on the Irrawaddy River crossing from our point of departure to what appears to be a large sand delta perhaps a half mile away. In the rainy season, which just ended, the delta would be covered by 15 feet of water. Daniel arranged a small table with beer, chips and nuts to enjoy while we watched a very nice sunset.

Finally, dinner at a local restaurant. The meal was somewhat westernized: barbequed skewers of chicken, fish and veggies. The highlight of the meal was a chick pea soup with potatoes, carrots and okra that is a local specialty.

Now it’s to bed. It’s an early morning: 5 AM wakeup, 5:30 bus for a sunrise hot air balloon ride. Never a dull moment!

Our day started in a weird, frustrating and in a way sad manner. Breakfast as usual (this hotel has a better breakfast buffet, is classier and even has better Wifi than Hong Kong). Then 9 AM muster in the lobby to set out for the day’s touring.

One problem: No Sandro.

Ten AM; no Sandro. By 10:30 we decide we need to take action. One group member called Boston, who called the Country Director here in Myanmar. I called our tour guide for the main part of our trip, Jack, in Thailand who said he would contact HQ in Bangkok.

Sandro calls the hotel and leaves us a message: he’ll be there in 30 minutes. Frankie, the country director calls and says he (Frankie) will be there in 30 minutes too and will arrange for a different tour guide for the remainder of our stay in Myanmar. Sandro is out.

Sandro’s excuse was that he overslept. But this is the second time he’s overslept. Yesterday afternoon he was 30 minutes late for our departure. He had fallen asleep in an easy chair in the hotel lobby while we were in our rooms getting ready. One of the group had to wake him.

Question: would he wake up in time to get us on the bus tomorrow AM for our 6:30 AM flight to Bagan?

In the end Frankie assumed tour duties for today and did a great job. He’d been a tour guide then got sent to HQ in Yangon before being promoted to Country Director.

Today’s agenda included a walking tour of the downtown colonial section of Yangon. The Brits, you may recall, showed up in the 1850s and departed in 1948. While built by Britain the architecture and city design were done by Scotsmen. Evidence of that architecture can be seen even though the buildings have been repurposed to Burmese use.

Within the area we walked were a number of places of worship including Buddhist temples, of course, but also an Anglican church, a Catholic church and a Islamic temple. We saw a number of Muslims on the street; ladies with head scarfs and men with long beards. Evidence that the people of Myanmar are totally xenophobic, perhaps.

Frankie took us to the oldest hotel in Yangon, The Strand, where he treated us to a cool drink in air-conditioned comfort. It was sunny and 91 degrees with high humidity today – we needed the break! The Strand is a well-preserved and elegant hotel, harking back to the days of Queen Victoria and Empire.

Next up: a fairly extensive market, mostly jewelry, clothing, arts and crafts; not much food.

Judy found a smallish over-the-shoulder bag and a matching water bottle bag. The sales clerk was a teenage girl. Her mom and dad sat in the background watching. The total price was 1,400 kyat (about $10). I offered 1,000. She countered with 1,300. I said no, 1,000 (who am I to be brow beating a poor, cute young girl about Reagan’s age over a lousy 30 cents?). She went and showed Dad the calculator (displaying the price). He countered with 1,200. I, being the robber baron type from the West, countered 1,100. Done. Sold to the big fat American. Actually we grinned at each other, acknowledging the fun of a little bargaining over a relatively small amount.

But maybe not so small an amount. The average income in Myanmar is about $600 per month.

The market was interesting but one unique feature was that young Buddhist monks (nuns? It’s hard to tell the girls from the boys since they all have shaved heads). These kids were, I’d guess, learning the ropes of seeking alms. Each had an alms bowl. Each would approach one of the stall merchants, make a little chant and almost always receive a token offering. Later in our journeys we’ll see adult monks do the begging for real. It’s a widely accepted practice in many Buddhist countries. Sorta like passing the plate on Sunday, I suppose.

Then back to the hotel. By now it was pushing 3:30, we’d had no lunch, and to make the schedule work we needed to be back on the bus by 4:00. Traffic in Yangon is terrible. Since the country opened its doors to the outside world in 2010 automobile traffic has increased greatly. The roads simply are not up to the traffic and so it crawls even in off-peak hours.

Traffic in Myanmar flows on the right side of the road, just like we do back home in the U.S. However, the cars are all right-hand drive, just like in England, India and other Commonwealth countries. Only in the past two years has it been allowed to import cars with left-hand drive, which over time will become the standard here.

But anyway, back on the bus and off to the banks of the Yangon River near the downtown area we toured earlier in the day. We took the ferry across the river to Dala, a small fishing town on the banks of the river The cost of living in Dala is low so many of the street vendors, manual laborers, etc., live there, of whom there are many. The double-deck boat was packed and it was a mad rush when the gates opened.

In Dala we were all assigned a trishaw – a three-wheel bike with a seat for a single passenger (in China we went three to a bike and up some pretty steep hills; this route was flat). The bikes took us through the village, which is made up of small houses (some pretty basic some more elaborate but all humble). The streets were packed with bicycles, motorbikes and pedestrians, including wives and daughters carrying buckets of water from the community pond to their homes. Kids were everywhere, of course, and all anxious to wave at the silly and strange looking Americans.

Then back to the big town and off to a traditional Bhutanese dinner – coconut rice, beef, chicken curry, tomato salad with peanut oil and all the trimmings.

Our orders are to be in bed by 10 PM. Wake up calls come at 4 AM, bags in the hall by 4:30. Bus pickup at 5:00, flight at 6:30 and then we’re in Bagan. We’ll hit the trail running. Danny, our replacement guide, loves temples; Frankie says we may have to tame him down. Danny was at dinner and seems like a great guy. He’s a close personal friend of Frankie’s and dropped other plans to help us out. We’d all be very happy to have continued with Frankie but this should work out just fine. At the end of the day everyone was very pleased with the way Frankie handled our situation and think OAT is a great company to tour with.