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2/04/2013

Moulmein (Mawlamyne)

Day 25: Back in business

It was a 3,5 hour drive in a wobbly bus that was packed with mostly locals. They have this wicked middle row system, to make sure 5 people fit in one row. I could hardly move my legs. I am not the bus type at all. Half ways we had a stop in a shocking dirty place were a few vendor ladies tried to sell us their stuff. Like in Kinpun, the people here at Thanton are not friendly and of a totally different kind then all the other people we've seen during our travelling through Myanmar. Everything was covered with mud and the garbage was laying everywhere. For us, it is totally shocking to see that everybody just throws their litter in the streets and obviously don't care at all.



Some bitching vendor ladies:




We were so glad the bus stopped and dropped us off at the bus station of Moulmein. Nightmare ride was over. We took a tuktuk that brought us the the Sandelwood (1.000K each). We called them this morning to make a reservation because our reserved hotel for the next two days, the Cinderella, is full today. The Sandelwood is okay, not really charming, but spotless and the room is very well equipped, a drying rack..wow! I love that, the first I've seen in Myanmar.






We took a long hot shower to wash off all the dirt and negative vibes we collected in Kinpun and in the bus. Because the wifi works really good here, I took a look on Tripadvisor for food suggestions. Not many. When we went downstairs to go out, we met a Dutch guy Gerrit who gave us many tips for exploring town and her surroundings. He rented a scooter, which he thought was totally safe here, and showed us the place where we immediately booked one for the next two days.

We had a lovely dinner at Ykko a very modern and clean place next to the river. They have an extensive menu, also one for coffee. So this is the place where I hang out for some decent cappuccino tomorrow,..yeahhhh!
The food was delicious. We both liked it a lot. It's not Myanmar style (I am a bit done with Myanmar food), more Japanese. Truly a highly recommended restaurant and very affordable, slightly more expensive then the other places we've been to (between 2.000-4.500K per dish).

We went to bed early. Both exhausted from the hell journey and the awful place called Kinpun. If I had known all this....well what we say in Holland: Looking back, you look a cow in it's ass hole. What a ridiculous phrase,... now I think of it, hahahaa.


Day 26: You are so nice Moumein!


We had a quick breakfast (don't bother....the usual tasteless bread, eggs and fake orange juice). Why do they feed us this? We pay 40$ a night, I guess a proper breakfast with a little more choice must be possible for this amount of money? I can't stand eggs anymore.
We checked out and went to the Cinderella. It was still raining, what a bummer!



Our room wasn't ready yet so we killed some time in the lobby using their wifi, which is super fast at the Cinderella.





When they showed us our room, 45 minutes later, we were indeed very pleasantly surprised. It comes with a laptop, an iron, 2 bath robes, a fridge full of drinks (and Heineken beer), wet cold refreshing towels (all cheaper then outside), complimentary fresh fruit (every day) as well as fruit juice. Really amazing, what a service. The beds are also very comfortable and for the first time in Myanmar we had a real duvet instead of a sheet and a blanket. What a treat! No more nightly hassles.

TO ALL HOTEL OWNERS IN MYANMAR:
I like to say to all the Myanmar hotel owners, take the Cinderella hotel as an example how well quality/service versus price level can be achieved. Why is the Cinderella able to provide a fantastic service for such a decent price (35$ for a room, the cheapest rate we had in Myanmar) and all you (greedy) hotel owners are not able to provide at least half of this service and comfort but you charge so much more. This kind of misplaced greediness works now, because there are not enough hotels, but eventually will turn against you (at least that is what I hope).


We quickly unpacked and jumped on our scooter.


First stop, the train station for our train tickets back to Yangon. The place looks totally deserted (trains are the worst way of transportation in Myanmar, but we thought to give it a try anyway).





This is how it works:




After this old skool train ticket adventure, we hit the road for the second destination of the day: the declining buddha. Half ways we saw a Thai restaurant were we had a (same same but different) Myanmar style pad thai with a real Singha. When we arrived at Yadana Taung we were pretty shocked...this buddha, wow this is buddha is really biggggggggg! If you thought you'd seen some big old buddhas, just wait till you get a load of this one (quote from the bible). Draped across a couple of green hillsides at Yadana Taung, and surrounded by a forest of other pagoda's and shrines, it's recently constructed 560ft-long reclining buddha is easily one of the largest in the world. Many other stupas and standing buddhas dot the area , including 500 (!!) statues lining the road to the Win Sein Taw Ya.



The whole place looks a bit, well how shall I put it, like Monks Disneyland? We walked all the way inside this big guy, while Klaas noticed that the construction is poorly done and that soon the whole thing probably will collapse because of rotten concrete. We thought it was a strange 'building'. Inside there were many sculptures of people representing daily life back in the days? It looked rather like a deserted prison. Not really something to spent a lot of time. We took the scooter again and went all the way up the opposite mountain for some good snapshots of this large (almost to collapse) buddha.






Back in town we explored lovely Moulmein. The town has several monasteries with beautiful pagoda's. The first one was lovely (it inspired the English writer George Orwell who lived in Moulmein for a while). It was covered with mirrors, rubies and diamonds named 'Mahamuni Paya'.
The second one we visited, 'the Kyaikthanlan Paya', was taking our breath away. We didn't expect this place to be so cool.




The view from this pagoda was breathtaking. The pagoda itself is so well maintained, we were very impressed.
We went back to the Cinderella and took the bottle of wine, we bought at the beach, and headed for the viewpoint, the place for sunset. I read in some reports that this sunset is the best of Myanmar and I agree!





Of all the sunsets I saw, this is definitely the most authentic one. And there we sat, on a concrete bench, with a chilled bottle of white wine enjoying the view. It was a fun place to hang around because the local youth eats their food here (there is a vendor who was so smart to start a small BBQ stall). We are still some kind of attraction. Everybody stares at us (secretly) and giggles nervously when we try to start a conversation.




When the sun disappeared we were already quit tipsy.


The BBQ stall made us hungry so we decided to go to the beer garden 2, a BBQ place, according to the bible the place with truly talented grillers and indeed: truly talented! BUT, the place looks dreadful. A big concrete garden with plastic chairs and along the sides big see through refrigerators stuffed with all kinds of vegetables, meat and fish. You just point out what you want them to grill.




We took some squid, chicken, cornflower, small eggs, which all comes wit a separate delicious spicy sauce. Klaas is a BBQ lover so he had the time of his life. I am more sensitive for the way things look, so I wasn't really impressed, though the grilled items were very tasteful. It wasn't dirt cheap though. We paid 16.000K which I think was a bit too expensive for what we had.
Social life in Myanmar stops around 8/9pm, so we went to bed early and read for some time in our e-books. Still so happy with the 400 books I brought with me :-)

Day 27: OOOH NO! NOT AGAIN...!


And there we are, climbing a huge mo.. fuc.. mountain: 4 hours up, 2 hours down, counted in Dutch tempo. Outside temperature: at least 40 degrees. After we had breakfast, slightly better then what Sandelwood offers (extra: papaya and chicken soup) we jumped on the scooter and headed for the other direction, 'The Nwa la bo Pagoda'. In the jungle-cloaked hill to the north of Moulmein the Tolkienesque side of the country comes to life in an extraordinary fashion at the Nwa la bo Pagoda, a local pilgrimage side. Very few foreigners make it out here, which is surprising because the pagoda is a smaller but, geologically at least, far more astonishing version of the Golden Rock in Kinpun (quote from the bible). Since we missed the real Golden Rock for all the wrong reasons, I was convinced never to visit any other Golden Rock in the whole wide world, but while we are here and still feel a bit tricked, we decided to hike all the way up to the second best Golden Rock Myanmar has to offer.


We scootered 12 miles north (lovely to drive across the bridge out of town) and parked our scooter around 10am near the entrance of the path that leads to the golden boulder. The first truck to the summit of the mountain didn't leave before 11am so we decided to start walking. One of the vendors told us: 'Two hour up and two hours down'. Okay we thought, we can do this with two fingers in our nose. Water: check. Biscuits: check. Sneakers: check. Camera: check. Suncream: check.

Off we go. After 45 minutes we were already totally out of breath (read: death). The path was so so steep, hallelujah. We stopped for a while to take some pics of women carrying big bundles of grass on their heads. While we gave them some Dutch souvenirs (they all love the lanyards from my former employer) a 4-wheel drive passed us. They stopped asking us if we wanted a lift. Oooh yes...we want a lift! So the both of us were squeezed in the back of the vehicle with some peasants, their tools and a tourist. We drove at least 20 minutes (fast tempo) to the summit.

Want to join our ride?



Can you imagine how long this would have taken us by foot?? Yes we can too..this would have taken us ages!! My god, this vendor lady almost killed us with her 'only two hours to the summit' story. Our bum was totally fractured after the bumpy ride, but we made it. The other tourist, a French lady wasn't feeling well. She suffered from food poisoning and run straight to the bushes to take a .. When she returned she was white as a sheet! When we asked her if she was okay, she rushed to the bushes again where she couldn't stop vomiting. Poor poor woman!
We left her (her own wish) and climbed a few stairs that lead to the Golden boulder. And this is what we saw:




Another Golden Rock under renovation.

NO NO... NOT AGAIN!


I just couldn't stop laughing. This is Myanmar playing with us! But why? We behaved ourselves, we were good travellers? Weren't we?
Anyway, we pulled ourselves together and started the hike back. We calculated a 2 hour walk. And it was.




I was worn out. Death. Not able to speak anymore! My legs were shaking and I already suffer from major muscular pains. But I did it. (Klaas had no problems what so ever, grrrrr). We had a coca cola, which gave me some of my strength back so I could sit on the scooter again. We went back to Moulmein and had a quick lunch at the Mothers & Fathers help restaurant. Nice view but incredibly dirty and smelly place. The rest of the afternoon we stayed in our air conditioned room just doing nothing.
For diner we went back to Ykko and ordered many small dishes. Again delicious food and the view from our seats was also really good.




Day 28: The train....never ever ever again!

So here we are, for the last bit of my travel journal. I am sitting in a fantastic place in Bangkok, called 'The Legacy Suites' writing an end to my Myanmar confessions, and specially about our last day in Myanmar. And that day was...well how shall I describe it, kind of special. I wish now, that this day wasn't going to be our last travel experience in Myanmar, but it was, so I tell you all about it. Before you start reading, I really can't think of anything good of this particular day, so be prepared: this is going to be a dreadful story about a train journey. Great book title by the way :-)

The morning of our departure by train to Yangon, a tuktuk brought us to the train station. So far so good. When we arrived at the station a guy hand pointed at us to follow him. While I was walking a saw two Dutch blokes (you can see it from miles distance). I knew one of the guys so I told him: 'Hey I know you, but I can't remember from when or where!'. The other one said: 'Maybe from AT5 Television?' 'That might be true', I replied, 'I work also often for television companies'. Six hours later I figured out he was one of the anchor man of that broadcast company... that's why he looked so familiar. Stupid me!
Anyway, we arrived at our carriage and I just could not believe my eyes....is this an upper class carriage? Seriously? Yes seriously.



I just could not believe that we were about to sit in this dump for at least 8 hours (this is what they told us at the train station, but you know Myanmar people by now...). The chairs were all loose and wobbly, not to mention the (lack of) hygiene of the cushions. Disgusting. How many people vomited on my chair or worse, did other things I just don't want to know....I wasn't feeling very well that morning and entering this train didn't make it any better.

We shared the compartment with 14 other white (French) travellers, the rest was all Indian or from Myanmar.
When the train departed it went verrrrrryyyyyy sloooooowwwwwwwww and it made a hell of a lot of noise....hoooooooooonkkkkkkk hoooooooonkkkkkkkkkkk. We thought that this was because of start up problems but I can tell you now, the speed of a Myanmar train will not go higher then 20 km an hour. Seriously? Yes seriously! 

So after 1 hour we found out that:
*The train driver basically honks all the time (and this is a really horrific loud sound which sets your teeth on edge);
*that the train doesn't go fast;
*stops every minute or so;
*millions of vendors walk up and down the carriage to sell their stuff CONSTANTLY! (And other strange species...)

Like this holy ghost:



All these kind of annoying things were still pretty 'do-able' but what wasn't, was this guy, our neighbour:



He was constantly (!) rasping & spitting, making a hash sound so loud and filthy, all the non-Myanmar people in our carriage were disgusted by him. When he was done, the lump of spit went out of the window. I think there are at least a thousand lumps of spit along the Moulmein-Yangon route. I wanted to say something about his viscous manners, but Klaas made me promise to shut the f...up. The French people already made annoyed face gestures to him, but this guy just didn't give a shit. He's what I believe the embodiment of a true governmental ass hole. I think they all look like him, the people who oppressed the inhabitants of Burma for such a long time, just because they were in power and thought they deserved it to be greedy and selfish at the expensive of the majority of the Burmese population. I might be painfully wrong, (my apologies) but I doubt it.

Klaas and I weren't feeling 100% fit (understatement). I suffered from diarrhoea along with many cramps and I felt sick the whole time. Klaas felt awkward too. We couldn't eat and when we saw the toilet, we decided to stop drinking as well.

There is one positive thing to tell, and that are the views from the train. You see so many kids waving at the train. Very cute, but their living circumstances are far from good. We've seen so much poorness, brrrrrrr. So I threw all the amenities I collected from the hotels we stayed in, like brushes, shaving kits, toothpaste, shampoo etc., out of the window. No idea if this is a wise thing to do?


But we also saw incredible amounts of litter, everywhere you look you see garbage and litter!



Anyway, the 8 hours became 9 hours, 10 hours, 11 hours and exactly 12 hours after we left Moulmein we entered Yangon. I have never been so ready to jump out of a train. This was the most ultimate disaster ride in my whole life.




We pre-booked our previous hotel in Yangon 4 weeks ago and did a down payment. From the station to the hotel was only a 15 minutes walk. They didn't raise the price of our room (!) so everything was the same as how we left it: still no working wifi (despite the 150 wifi stickers covering all the walls), no attentive staff, a camphor smelling room, but a comfy bed an air con and a hot shot shower. What more do I need?
I felt really sick and low on energy. The idea to eat something did not appeal to me at all but we figured out that we had to eat something after this hell journey. Around the corner of our hotel we found a lunch room were we ordered some take away sandwiches. Good choice, I managed to eat one and went to bed at 9pm.

Day 29: Bye bye Myanmar!

When I woke up I was a new person. Me happy, back in the land of the living! We packed our bags and decided to have breakfast at the airport of Yangon. We had an appointment with May (Peacehouse Travel) at 10am and waited for her in the lobby. She came with a colleague, both very funky dressed!




May explained to us how bad she felt how things with the aircraft companies are going at this point in time in Myanmar. She thought choosing KBZ was the best option for us since they have the most air planes and so are the most reliable company. A wise thought, but unfortunately that didn't work out for our flight from Thandwe to Yangon. May understands that she can't sell this to her customers, so she called the boss of KBZ. Again, wise thought. He agreed upon a 15$ administration fee instead of 30% of the full ticket price. We were very thankful to May that she managed this. I was also happy that we saw her before we left. She is such a sweet lady and I highly recommend her travel agency Peacehouse Travel.

And that was it. We kissed May goodbye and took a taxi to the airport. The four weeks travelling in Myanmar are over. But a week Bangkok was waiting.

53 comments:

Unknown said...

hey i love your site, i wrote also a blog with some info about myanmar and i wonder if we could share the link...you put it in your site and i do the same. Check it if you like it www.bakpakin.blogspot.com

Snap said...

So glad I found this post on Myanmar. I've been researching it for an upcoming trip. I'll be going over your information with a fine tooth comb...thanks for sharing :)

Whatelles said...

@snap, thank you so much!!!

Anonymous said...

Such an interesting read! Definitely taken note about the Cinderella hotel!

Dawa Tsering said...

Wow. That's really cool. I had been to Burma in April and stayed there for month. Any plan to visit again?
Dawa,
NYC.

Whatelles said...

No Dawa, I've been there now, seen it twice and this was it!

Thanks anyway. Bye Elles@whatelles.nl

Kevin Hayden said...

The negative undertones throughout your blog are a little unfair. You should keep in mind that these people have been living under a murderous regime for decades, they live from hand to mouth yet will walk miles to return your wallet or purse. They have very little or no formal education, yet they are the most resourceful people I know. They recycle much more than us in the so called "land of the living". The Burmese are still human beings, we are human doings. Because of our needs BP caused more pollution in five minutes than the Burmese have in 200 years. Pity the tourists have to step over plastic bags hein. And I am an environmentalist!

Anonymous said...

I am glad to read your post in June. It was my 10 days trip in Burma.

I stayed at Cinderella when travelling to Moulmein. The hotel service was really good. Love beautiful temples and some deserted churches.

I have some photos taken during the trip.
http://gonewithewind.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/myanmar-trip-moulmein2/

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Kevin Hayden to some extent. I feel like quite a few of your posts about Burma have negative undertones that are based on very Western expectations. I've watched your video of the train and honestly, while the guy spitting is pretty gross, it really doesn't look unclean or cramped. I think you might have found it different if you understood/respected Burmese history/culture a bit more as a frame of reference for what you experience out there.

James Evans said...

Wow. Having never met you I could be wrong but you do not come across a a nice person.

Whatelles said...

Hi James Evans,
Thanks for your lovely and inspiring words.

Elles

Whatelles said...

@Kevin Hayden
What a pity that you haven't really read what a wrote (or you haven't been there).
But fair enough, freedom of speech. Anyway happy travels.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Traveller's Board Myanmar said...

Even though I feel bit harsh about this article ( for me, who come from Myanmar), still I like to point out what went wrong for a traveler from the west in Myanmar.
Since I have living in the Netherlands for quite some time, I know how direct they can be and how please you are when you find out it is not personal, it is just someone’s point of view.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am 65 from the uk. I do not wear white socks, stay in upscale hotels and I have been to south east asia 11 times and 12 to india. I have also been to amsterdam twice. I actually knew that all dutch people did not wear clogs as I do not stereotypy people unlike you have in your blog. as soon as I read that I lost all interest.

Whatelles said...

Anonymous (easy complaining without a name),
You don't have to read it. Actually, please don't.
Happy travels anyway.
Elles

Whatelles said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alleghe said...

This is great revealing content. Thank you I really appreciate the unique articles you write. dolomitistars.dolomiti.org provide this Alleghe

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but the negative vibe, high and unreasonable western expectations, lack of knowledge and historical awareness let you paint Burma what i would call 'wrong'.

I would not take this as gospel, Burma can be a lot better that this with the right attitude. One of my favourite countries actually. I do not agree with the picture painted here.

Whatelles said...

@last Anonymous. Safely complaining without mentioning your name, and posting comments that makes me wonder if you have read my blog at all. I am in love with Burma.

Dream said...

I hope all the hotels, transport companies and travel agencies of Myanmar read your reviews and upgrade their service.

Louisette said...

Een mooie post voor een mooie plaatje, groetjes uit Belgie

Michael said...

Hi Elles. I found youre blog very interesting and informativ. My wife and me, we are traveling since 6 years from Germany to SEA with bicycles. We went to almost all SEA states and Myanmar will be one of the last one on our long tour. Our son is born on the way in Cambodia and we wrote a lot about our storys in different forums. It was one of my worst expirience. People just dont know. They think they read something about a country and travel maybe a few weeks an then judge others for the experience stated in blogs etc. I think i know exactly what you encountered on this sh..ty train. And for this. We decide to take a bus this time. Because sometimes it is impossible to cycle all the way with a 2 year old boy. Dont give a fu** what the Anonymous people write. Keep on writing the truth. Thanks and best regards. Michael, Sybille & Maximilian (The Khmer) from cycle-for.a-better- world.org

Whatelles said...

Hi Michael, thanks for your lovely post. I am very very impressed by all your traveling...wow (I feel tiny now). Happy travels and thank you so so much! Elles

GonzalezRevo said...

So glad I found this post on Myanmar. i came to your for the first time.I've been researching it for an upcoming information by you. I'll be going over your information with a fine tooth comb...thanks a ton.. for sharing :)

Whatelles said...

Thanks a lot Gonzalez!!

Jess Rowe said...

I find this to be a damaging write up on Myanmar and to be frank, racist in parts. To put a photograph up of a man you were disgruntled with on a train ride? The mind boggles at such behavior. There is truthful writing and then there is cultural insensitivity. As a tourist, I hope you will consider the latter when posting a public blog such as this in the future. As a foreigner living in Yangon, I certainly hope Myanmar people do not believe we all think like you.

Whatelles said...

Thans Jess for your comment. I totally disagree, but I do not feel like getting in a discussion with you. I've received hundreds of private e-mails of people all over the world telling me how happy they were with my blog. Also from travellers after they returned from Myanmar. They said it was exactly how I described it. Any how, thanks for your post. I hope it helps other travellers.

Unknown said...

You had a really nice blog.Thanks for the post and if you love to visit different places then you may go and visit Cambodia. It is simply an amazing place to visit and enjoy. You can also join the Cambodian Language Course to get some more help.

Jackson said...

Everyone has their own opinions & views
Your criticisms of some of Myanmar's problems may be founded but you do sound selfish & self centered
Nice comment on kids ” crying little monsters"
To bad your parental units didn't feel that way,eh

Keep your crappy attitude out of California

Whatelles said...

Hi Jackson,
Thanks for the comment. It's very informative and helpful towards other travelers.

Thanks again,
Elles

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Whatelles said...

Thanks Myanmar Tours, appreciate it! Elles

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Unknown said...

Informative post.. Thanks

Burma Travel

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Wonderful article, thanks for putting this together! This is obviously one great post. Thanks for the valuable information and insights you have so provided here. scooterbanden

myanmar travel and tour said...

nice post..thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

Very nice info for new traveller to Myanmar. I took help your site and Myanmar based travel site like Oway to do all travel planning and booking for my family. Thanks

Whatelles said...

Thank you very much Gonzalez!

Myanmar Tours said...

superb post.. thanks

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Old, but excellent post. I recently traveled to Myanmar. Lot of things have changed. Lot of hotels and facilities. Online booking was earlier not avialbale, but you can do that now with sites like Oway

Whatelles said...

Thanks Gonzalez. Good to hear that. It goes (super)fast there in Myanmar I see. Wow.

Anonymous said...

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Karen said...

Woow zie er geweldig uit, zou ik binnekort samen met mijn verloofde ook wel eens willen doen. Ik blijf je volgen,

Alvast dank vor de inspiratie !

groetjes

Karen

Whatelles said...

Karen, dank je wel. Erg leuk te lezen!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Shiva Excursion said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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