Myanmar Day 5: The Utopia Tower, Inya Lake & Kandawgyi Lake

In Myanmar, I stayed at Chatrium Royal Lake Hotel.(http://www.chatrium.com/chatrium_hotel_yangon/). I was lucky to get a good view overlooking Schwedagon Paya Temple on the right side and lake with a park in the right side of my room window. The temple reflecting the light becomes a center point in the night. While on the day, the swan shape boat house in the lake was just too tempting to visit. As this is the last day we are in Yangon, we decided to just stroll around visiting the lake.

Inya Lake from my window

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Myanmar Day 4 - The Majesty Schwedagon Paya

Visiting Myanmar without seeing pagodas is like cooking without salt. You don't get the basic experience. As a buddhist country, pagoda is everywhere in the corner. The biggest one we must visit is Schwedagon Paya. Based on Mr. Krishna advise, we prefer to go in the evening so that we can see the shiny gold under the light. And it was very good decision!.

It's not difficult to get to Schwedagon Paya. This is main symbol of Myanmar national identity. The difficult part is we have to walk on hundreds stairs to get there. hehehe. 

From the entrance, i could already feel the grande aura of the building. It's pretty contrast with the surrounding. After bare street and humble wet market, Schwedagon welcomed us with tiled floor. We had to take of our shoes and walked bare feet into 166 stairs before arrived at East Gate of Schwedagon. To enter we must pay US$ 5. No charge for camera. 

Legend has it that Schwedagon pagoda is 2,500 years old though archeologist predicted it's older than that. History started with Queen Shinsawbu provided her own weight in gold. Lucky her, she was lightweight at 40 kg. 

We got in and amazed in the the graciousness of the building. Giant gold stupa made in solid gold. The upper part is studded with diamonds, totaling over 2,000 carrats. Amazing!!

We walked clockwise (following Buddhist rule) around the complex that is made up from hundreds little pagoda. Along the path are groups of people sitting stunned by the gorgeousness of the building, praying and make their devotion.

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Myanmar Day 3 - Dala, the village across the river

Finally we arrived at the river port. Busy and hot. Good thing is the ferry cross the river every 30 minutes.  Ticket is different between foreigner and local. We had to pay US$ 1 per person.

Being the only obvious tourist group is both fun and annoying :p. First is the rickshaw drivers and beggars. They flocked and followed us all the time. We sort of ignored them and my ourself look busy. The fun part, as always, people likes to take picture with us. There was group of monks in holiday and they asked us to join in the picture. It makes nice picture with mixture of culture: monk, asian, indian, caucasian :D.

After waiting for 30 mins, our boat finally boarding. I thought it was gonna be 30 mins - 1 hour trip. Turns out, Dala is just across the river. we arrived there just less than 10 mins. hahaha.

Down the boat, group of rickshaw drivers flocking again. We said no, thinking to just walk and see the village ourselves. Until one driver offered us good price. Going around Dala for 2000 kyat. I thought it's cheap, but now as I'm reading http://www.yangonow.com/, I should've paid just 200 kyats.

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Myanmar Day 3 - Pictures of Yangoon

Our next destination is getting around the city and find out ferry to Dala. Fell in love already with the smell of the market here, we decided to just walk following map direction to main river that connects Yangoon to Dala. 

Small streets with old buildings

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Myanmar Day 2 - Going around Bogyoke Aung San Market

Exploring Yangoon, it likes we jump into time machine when modernity comes in a minimum way. People can wear their tradition and root without looking odd or out of place. And the best part is when fresh fruit and fresh flower is just around the corner.  There's no mall yet in Yangoon. Traditional Market is still the melting pot for people to meet and have daily transaction.

So, we decided that market becomes our first destination on the first day in Yangoon. We started the journey from Bogyoke Aung San Market. The one that was built from 1926, is also known as Scott Market for unknown reason. From the hotel, we bargained for taxi. So glad Mr. Krishna join. He speaks Burmese as he's originally a Burmese, only he had immigrated for years to Bangkok.
For sure he is such a big help as we hardly understand their English accent. In here no taxi use meter. It's really exciting cuz it means we can practise with our bargaining skill. After checking with several taxi, we decided  2000 kyat is the right price to get around.

Poeple wears traditional dress in here

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Myanmar Day 1: Minglabar, Yangoon!

I owe my self to blog about all of my travellings. I will star doing it from now on before I make another new trip. And today's a good time. I planned to meet my dermatologist today, but she's still on holiday. Some free time now to post about Myanmar, especially since I wrote the draft here and there since half a year ago.

I took the trip together with some international friends: Davide, Mr. Robin and his loyal personal assistant. Was really an exciting trip. It made light butterfly on my stomach. I really like the idea of having a real adventure and take me out of comfort zone. No doubt, Myanmar would give it. I googled a bit about the country and I was flooded with news about how awful it is. Military rules, unsafe place for tourist, kidnapping and random gun shooting. Sounds like country in a war. A bit scary. But.. it's media role to create a big drama and exaggeration, isnt it? After all, finding it out ourselves gonna be more interesting.

This where Burma/Myanmar is. Don't get mixed up with Cambodia as many people does.
Th country is uniquely share border with India, China, Thailand and Laos.. so imagine how rich the culture is

To enter Myanmar, we have to get visa on arrival. The good thing is we can submit it online at : http://www.myanmarvisa.com/. It's pretty quick and easy. I just needed to fill in the form about my passport number, flight information and pay US$70. Actually visa could be ready in 10 days. But I submitted in the wrong date, in coincidence with Myanmar's public holiday on Vesak time. They've got 2 weeks holiday!!! wohoo.  So for me, I had to wait a month till I got the paper.

I flew with Air Asia, which took me to long journey:  2 hours of Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur, 2 hours of in-transit waiting, 2 hours 40 mins Kuala Lumpur-Yangoon. Pretty tiring, ya ^_^. I didn't really feel it cuz I slept all the time ( those who know me, I'm a big sleepy head). I arrived at Yangoon at 6.20pm. Went straight to the visa control and got my visa sticker tapped on my passport. Outside the passport control gate, I was surprised there's a lady in traditional dress with sign board of my name. I wondered if anyone requested a pick up from hotel. Nobody did!

The lady introduced herself from Tourism Myanmar Cooperative. She checked if we got the visa properly and gave short orientation about Yangoon. First, phone doesn't work. If we want mobile phone, we can rent with deposit US$ 500 and rental US$20/day. Uffff :p. Bye bye Blackberry messanger, Twitter and Facebook update. Second, there are only 5 areas that tourist can visit: Yangoon, Mandalay, Inla Lake, Bagan and Mrauk U.  Later on I knew that it wasn't because of the political restriction. It's more about the road condition as in Myanmar it's quite difficult to find reliable car as well. Third, about the money and currency. There's no ATM and very very very limited place can accept credit card (and it comes with 7% surcharge!). Myanmar, however US Dollar is widely available. Better to exchange the money in the official money changer down the street than in the hotel. US$ 1 equals to 820-840 kyats ( pronounce: chaatd).

The lady lead us to taxi stand. Cost to get to downtown is US$ 10 and we got a pretty basic wagon with air conditioner. Time to rest our legs and say.. Minglabar, Yangoon!

Swedagon Paya - the shiny golden pagoda said hello :). Minglabar!

*Minglabar = hello

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Simeulue Day 5 : Deserted Island of Sindamaha

“What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

Yes. It was my favourite day too as we finally go to Sindamaha Island. As wrote in the previous post, it wasn't an easy arrangement. Today we made really really really sure that we'll get the boat. Yes, it was confirmed. They said the boat was waiting. We went to the port. Waited for 1.5 hours. No boat coming. They said  they were filling up the engine oil. We waited again. Till we lose patience as we spent 2.5 hours waiting with no news if the boat would really come.

We took initiative to have a look at the boat place. So stressing as we found out the guy were still working on the boat engine. They said it was flooded last nite and the engine died. Heh! We gave them pressure with bitchy angry look to get it done as soon as possible. It worked rather well. After 30 mins, finally the boat was ready. A shocking news was there were some uninvited passenger. Really bothering. The boatman wife invited 2 of her friends and their kids to join the boat trip. And  we also had to pick up Nanik's in law as they're joint too. Without notification, of course. I started complain it was too many people on the boat. But they pretended not listen. Arrrghhhh. So we thought of a strategy. We showed them we're unhappy and annoyed. Sour face :p. It worked. Hehehe.  

They decided to stop by at the other island. Fiuuuu… I really wanted a quite time and freedom to enjoy the beach. Free from the kids and free from people looking at us.

30 mins boat trip, it was indeed a nice one. We saw some baby islands on the way, school fish and a group of small fish jumping in and out from the water. So nice!! Finally we came to enjoy the deserted island. It's a small island with probably  1 km2. Very small. No people lives here. Some part has soft white sand, however most of part of the beach covered with small stones and dead corals. I put on snorkelling gear and started strolling around the beach. A lot of coral, Napoleon fish, HipoTang, Anthias, Goby and Star Fish.

As the weather heating up. I moved to the shade and built my nest. Enjoying the best thing about private island. Tranquility, ocean breeze and natural sound of wave. Awesomeness.

Almost Rain

After the rain

Sunbathing and fishing

TIPS TO GET HERE:

• Boat rent IDR 200k for the whole day.
• Once the price agreed, make sure to the boatman that they will not change the price in the middle of the trip.  They do it almost every time. Just be firm.
• Boat have no roof. Prepare big hat and generous sunblock with high SPF.
• No one in the island. Bring enough food and drink.

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Simeulue Day 4: Waterfall in the Jungle

People said about the waterfall inside the jungle. But not many people going there yet. Simply because the track is quite rough. No developed path. Learning from the last time trapped in the mud and I almost lost my flip flop, I clearly needed a pair of sport shoes. Thanks to Nanik who borrowed me her shoes and it was perfectly fit. Other problem was I didn't bring trouser that cover up my legs. Well, show must go on. So short could still do.

Together with us were Scott - an American guy who lives in Simeulue for few years, some locals who get used to with the track and a little boy who's just got very excited to join. The track is 3km distance. Number is of course shorter than marathon 10K. But difficulties level… ahmmm. It's a real jungle, babe. At the beginning the track was pretty nice. Savana with some muddy spots. Remind me about mine sweeper game. We needed to guess which spot is hard enough to step on to or we get trapped in the mud. After savana, then river with bamboo bridge. Don't think of well-built bamboo bridge. It was only 3 bamboo's lined up together, but the other two seems fragile. So practically it's only 1 bamboo to cross the river. A real balance game. I like it ;). Cuz I'm quite good at balancing and stability challenge. Thanks to my yoga class!

The jungle is typically tropical rain forrest with canopy trees and lianas. We had to be very careful as there were a lot of trees with spikes, while the path was a bit slippery. If we got slipped we might accidentally touch them and gonna be very ouuuchhh--hurt!! Few times, there was no path yet. The local helped us cut the bush and trees and build a new path. After we walked for nearly 1.5 hours, then we decided to just follow the creek as we're pretty sure it'll lead to the waterfall. It was only 30cm deep. But sometimes we have to cross the one with 60cm deep. Wet all over then. Though it's also fun as we saw water lizard, dragonfly with interesting colour. Golden green -- not light green that I used to see. Another 1 hour river trekking before we finally arrived to the waterfall. yeayy!!! Couldn't wait to jump to the water and it was brrrrr… hahaha. pretty cold :D. Water fall is 30 meters high. I really want to jump from above. Just too bad, it's very stoney and the path's quite slippery.

It was sooo refreshing to soak in the cold water after tiring trekking. I even forgot that i had runny nose.

Just swim swim swim.

It's really good to have Scott with us as he has been here before. He knew what to prepare. Which is…yummy lunch!!! Home made fried chicken and rice. Complete with the sambal. Ah, purrrrrfect! We don't have plate, so we pushed the time machine and back to Flinstone era. Make use of leave to become our plate and tree branch to become our spoon. Naaaiiicccee!

We couldn't stay long as the sky got so dark. We had to leave before the rainfall. But then it was too late. Rain fell not long after we leave the waterfall. I was really worried about my camera and phone since my backpack isn't the waterproof one. Lesson learnt for next time. I think it's better to have a dry bag for my love of outdoor world. We made natural umbrella from leaves. But yeas.. we still got wet after all. Another worry was the water level increasing and the current became stronger. Pretty scary for me! I didn't bother to think about dirt, mud or anything else. As long as I could arrive to the other side of the river safely. Wet but safe. It was such a big relieve when we finally reach the village. 

Time for a warm up. We took a short break. I was craving for hot tea as I shivered from the cold. Mike told me there's a nice cafe up in the hill with wonderful view overlooking the ocean. We drove there. And he was right. It felt like a big reward to have hot tea and boiled chicken noodle. I ate a lot. hahaha. noodle, cake, bean cake. A little greedy monkey for this time. I deserved this  though, didn't I?

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Simuelue Day 3: Keep Calm and Teaching Kids

Need to say that many time to ourselves.

It isn't easy to arrange things in here. Plan for day 3 is island hopping. Mike had made a boat arrangement through Nanik's grandparent a day before. We had the boat confirmed this morning. So we were very excited. I prepared my snorkling gear, load my backpack with foods, camera, swimming suit, sunblock. On the way, we bought more bottled drink. Yet, when we arrived at Nanik's grandpa place, he said there was no boat. The boat has gone fishing and will come back at 5pm. So it's pretty upsetting as we don't have much time in Simeulue  and we want to explore as much as possible.

So then we just drove around and see if any interesting beach. We saw once from the uphill road. A blue clear water. Then we tried to come closer. But the track was pretty tough. It was unfinished road. We couldn't take our motorbike. So we walked in and tried to follow the buffalo path. We ended up trapped in the mud and it was jungle at the end. It wasn't the shortcut to the beach :(.

We got back to our motorbike and drove again till we got really hungry. It's also not easy to find place to eat.  Seems people here are self sufficient. Even if we find one, it's only either indomie goreng or Indomie rebus. But this day we're lucky to find warung sold rice and home cooked food. Though it was just fish and sambal. As usual people are curious and flocking around just to see Mike. But then I had to be the one get busy answering their regular question what's your religion thingy. More kids coming in and we entertained them with english speaking practice as some of them just entered Junior High School and learn English. I asked them to show me their english lesson book. I'm pretty shocked they had to learn 2 foreign language at the same time: English and Arabic. Something wrong with this country education, kids are given to much things to absorb. When is the time to have fun and explore what they're passionate about? After all 80% what they learnt at school will just stay in their school bag.

Anyway, we tried to have fun with this english lesson practice. It was nice except that at the end of the lunch the warung owner charged 1DR 50k for just eating rice, a piece of fish, 3 Teh Botol and nothing else. Oh ha.. Keep calm & stay cool. This is Simeulue.

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Simeulue Day Two: What does Haram Mean?

Rain was very bad on my 2nd day in Simeulue. It had been for day and night. Initial plan was to go for jungle trekking and waterfall. But, for sure it's a-can't-do. The track would be too slippery and not to mention about flood. So we just relax at the porch. I looked at beach in the front and the greeneries at its surroundings. My mind flew back to last year, the same time I did overland trip in Flores and passing Riung - a very poor and dry area. I could understand the hard life in that place since water is almost as rare as gold. But poverty in Simuelue, I just couldn't believe it. The island has it all. Beautiful beach for tourism, fertile land for plantation, open ocean for fisheries. It just need a good hand to start scratching. But it also need a mindset change to let it tickle since this place definitely needs outsider's help.

And I heard Nanik, the lodge owner, share stories about her struggle educating local people about welcoming tourist. Local chased western tourist with knife, stole their bikini and called Nanik a whore for hosting tourist. In general, local sees tourist as a threat. They will ruin the culture and spread the disease. Well, not all local. Cuz the real local we met  are mostly all nice, relax and friendly. It just there is system and few people who provoke them to be cautious and being a close-minded one. 

Simeulue people is this friendly when there's no religion push. Very welcoming and loves to blend.

A funny thing, when we dropped by to warung or local eateries, people looked at me head to toe and the first question they asked is "what is your religion?" When adult threw me that question, I lied about my religion as I don't want to deal with the next question or any preach for not wearing headscarf and wearing short. 

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Simeulue Day One - With motorbike we find it all

Yes.. no need to hurry. Since Simeulue is not that big and it surprisingly has very good road infrastructure. A smoothly asphalted one. Way better compare to Jakarta. With a plus, nearly zero traffic. We need only to be careful not to hit goat or water buffalo that passing by sometimes.

I was pretty anxious before departure. Mostly it because of all the first-time-thingy. Flying with a really small plane. Visiting a strict muslim district. Travelling without much plan and information. But all the anxiety start fading away as go through moment by moment. 

The Susi Air flight wasn't as scary as I thought. The flight time from Medan-Simeulue is only 70 mins. The plane flew low that I could follow its shadow crossing Sumatera Island, Pacific Ocean and then entered the Island of Simeulue. At that time my anxiety started turning into excitement. I can never resist the picture of white sandy beach  and blue water. I do think that I was a mermaid back in my past time!

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Simeulue : Pre-Trip

Menjadi tantangan sendiri untuk travelling ke tempat yang masih jarang di kunjungi turis. Terutama dalam urusan packing karena saya nggak tahu pasti di sana ada apa saja. Sedikit khawatir karena Pulau Simeulue yang akan saya kunjungi ini termasuk dalam wilayah propinsi Aceh. Saya kurang tahu, apakah mereka juga menjalankan hukum syaria dan menerapkan batas-batas khusus berpakaian. Dan saya pun sibuk googling dan telpon Mike berkali-kali untuk meyakinkan celana pendek atau bermuda tidak dilarang disana. Buat lebih amannya, akhirnya saya memasukkan juga rok agak panjang dan kaos lengan panjang ke dalam koper.

picture courtesy of YouQueen.com

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The Time Traveller's Wife

It took me a year till I finally found the book. This is amongst the few book that I read by words and read it till the last page. And sometimes I skimmed it just to find again some of my favourite chapters. I like love stories. Especially those that involve travelling as part of the story. This book has what I like. Even more interesting as the main character not only travel through space, but also time.

The main character is Henry de Tamble, a handsome guy who can travel back and forth to the past, the present and the future. I know you'll think it's awesome. But not for Henry as he can't control when he suddenly travel through time, disappearing from the view, leaving behind his clothes and stuff. He'll arrive naked in the other time and another place. For most the part, this is a curse. Henry often has to turn to petty crimes to find food or clothes because of this, make him sometimes has to run from people, thug or police. Eventually, Henry returns to his present time, bringing only some injuries he's suffered back with him. On of the places he travels often is the meadow behind Clare's house, a  6 years old who's actually his future wife.

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Girl's Guide to Make A Good Tea: Indonesia Tea Diegesis

You may say.. are you kidding me?? Who cannot make tea? Yes, everyone can make tea. But, don't you know a little bit of art can make a big difference. I got the knowledge from last week end event Indonesia Tea Digiesis, arranged by Azanaya. We had 2 tea expert teaching us some basic understanding about tea : Pak Bambang from Kedai Lare Solo (http://kedai-teh-laresolo.blogspot.com) and Oza from Oza Premium  Tea ( http://ozapremiumtea.com)

Pak Bambang shared his knowledge about the process of making tea and how its process impact the flavour hence different way of serving it. This is important, ladies. Since normally we take it for granted to just pour hot water into the tea and as long as it is thickly brown then we call it tea. We can do better than that ;). First rule is keep the tea in the water for no longer than 3 minutes. Try to be as precise as possible so you get the right amount of tannin to avoid excessive bitterness. Second rule, know the type of tea you have and how hot the water you need.

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