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Holiday in Cambodia - plus Myanmar for a wedding.

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Holiday in Cambodia - plus Myanmar for a wedding.

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Old Nov 19th, 2015, 09:17 PM
  #21  
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After a fairly horrid check out experience (no itemised bill, no credit cards accepted, 3 different amounts requested which took all my cash) and a 5.30 am taxi ride to the airport, we then fought the scrum at the domestic terminal.

It was an uneventful flight to Mandalay with Golden Myanmar Airlines (apart from the passenger from hell sitting behind me who had something seriously wrong with phlegm production, I kept eyeing the sickbag, it took every ounce of my resolve not to use it) we landed. So nice to see a man with my name on a sign, and even spelt correctly.
It was 12,000 kyat for a car to Peacock Lodge, took about an hour and literally 3 minutes after arriving, 3 teachers from the school turned up to collect us. I had set them a mission, DH needed a longyi for the wedding. It turned out that he also needed a jacket, so one orange longyi and white jacket later (for the princely sum of 20 bucks) we're organised for tomorrow's wedding. Susan is one of the teachers who visited our home town last August, she is the middle child of 13 children, and has invited us to visit her home village after the wedding. Some of her older siblings are married, so there are 17 people living in their bamboo house. It will be interesting.
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Old Nov 19th, 2015, 09:57 PM
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I always say that it is the transition from one place to another that is the stressful part of traveling. And you've just given us a fine example of that!

Looking forward to more.
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Old Nov 20th, 2015, 11:25 PM
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Kathie, agree totally, unfortunately you can't travel without transiting.

The wedding post is coming up, it's long, so much to tell.
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Old Nov 20th, 2015, 11:26 PM
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The wedding day !

Well it sure was an early start. We were up at 4.30 am, in order to get ready in our best Myanmar finery, pack our stuff for a room move, and get picked up at 6.30. The invite said 8.00 am - 11.00 am, but there were things to do first.

About the room, I had originally tried to book a deluxe room (all of $60 per night), but none were available for our first night, so we took the standard room, they offered to move us, and this new one is larger, has a TV and even some matching furniture. The first room was quite fine until this morning when we discovered there was no hot water (accidentally switched off apparently). There's some scuttlebut about people from SEA thinking that all westerners stink, they were probably right today. We did our best with cold water, soap and wet wipes. The room had absolutely shocking lighting so the chance of applying makeup with any degree of accuracy was diminished. The bride and her assistants were beautifully made up, and had fantastic hair with lots of jewels after their 3 am appointment at the beauty parlour !

A car and teacher came for us, and we proceeded to the brides mothers house, well, a dirt laneway outside, where about 60 people were milling around. This was a very narrow lane, barely wide enough for two cars to pass, let alone the motorbikes, people with carts, and avoiding sleeping dogs. There was much shouting and confusion as extra cars arrived, who went in which car was decided, and of course we understood nothing. We were formed into a queue, two people wide, and proceeded to the cars while a 4 man team (with only one video camera) filmed the procession. We were in car number four with the brides mother and sister and had to squeeze into a 4WD that was almost touching the next car..difficult for us, the Burmese made it look easy.

The bride and grooms car had quite a tall statue of a happy couple on the bonnet, purple flowers and ribbon decorations. We proceeded to drive slowly around the moat, 12 or so cars and dozens of motorbikes. All other traffic gave way to us. There was a small truck with the video crew, they'd pull up and film, then overtake to the next position and film again.

Arriving at the wedding venue was a hoot, no parking of course, busy road, and more shouting and juggling of vehicles. The venue just does weddings, 3 a day sometimes, but morning are considered more auspicious. The crowd was a riot of colour with the women in beautifully embroidered longyi and tops, and men in every colour you could imagine silk longyi, with white jackets. We were directed to a VIP table, although table hopping was par for the course.

I hadn't quite realised we were guests of honour, and had to take part in the ceremony. It was our job to garland the bride and groom with white flowers, on a stage of course, videoed of course, and everyone taking photos on their smartphones. The MC called us to the stage and introduced us in English, and I was so chuffed that we had the second most important job, the most important being the delivery of the rings, it was undertaken by a German man who is a volunteer teacher at the school.

The food served was ice cream, cake, and a selection of Myanmar snacks in divided lacquer trays. The snacks were pickled green salad, dried ground sweet prawns, pickled sliced nuts, chillies and boiled peanuts. There were other bits I'm not sure about, and given the number of flies, and the sharing of teaspoons (directly to mouth) I didn't try any. Cold tea was the only beverage available, and tasted a bit strange to me.

People came and went during the 3 hours, I'm told 1500 in total, wow. There were only 5 westerners, three volunteer teachers and us. We were the only ones in traditional Myanmar dress, and that effort was highly appreciated, many photos with us were requested by complete strangers.

The room was so noisy, Myanmar pop music blasting out, and hundreds of people talking, (shouting) in Burmese. I learnt some interesting things about the language from the German guy, he's been trying to learn the language for 5 years and has just about given up.

The lunch afterwards with was great, but I'll leave that for another post.
Apparently we're having dinner with the bride and groom tonight, but given lunch arrangements changed three times this morning, who knows what will happen.
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Old Nov 21st, 2015, 12:12 AM
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It sounds like quite an experience! Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Old Nov 21st, 2015, 12:54 AM
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It was precious, I'll probably think of more details later....
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Old Nov 21st, 2015, 06:21 AM
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Wow, what a fantastic experience! I once got an impromptu invitation to an Indian wedding, and it was a highlight of the trip, but less noise and safer food! Real drag about the cold water, brr.
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Old Nov 21st, 2015, 06:27 AM
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Fascinating! Thanks.
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Old Nov 22nd, 2015, 12:54 AM
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Thursdaysd, I would love to go to an Indian wedding !
I have an Indian friend in Australia (unfortunately divorced and unlikely to remarry) who has given me many insights into the whole ritual. Lucky you !

julies, it was fascinating, and I do realise that it takes time to build the relationship that allowed us to be a part of something like a wedding. I'd still urge you to consider Myanmar. The staff at our hotel, the people in the street, even the taxi drivers, are all so friendly and welcoming.

Lunch yesterday after the wedding was with 4 of the teachers at a local but fairly upscale restaurant which promoted organic food with no msg. Given that they had a menu in English, French and German, it didn't surprise me that many tables were reserved for people on private tours.

The food was great, we let the guys order. We shared prawn and vegetable soup, Shan chips with a green chilli, garlic and soy dipping sauce, chicken with straw mushrooms, stir fried corn and snow peas, fried rice, and steamed rice. The total for 6 of us was US $28. I wanted to pay, but the guys insisted that we were their guests. The junior teachers only earn about US $50 per month, I felt bad.

Dinner was amazing, we had a private room in a restaurant, with two low tables. We sat on the floor on what I would call a placemat. I asked if I could get a cushion, but got several more placemats. The food was served on a raised lacquer centrepiece, with at least 10 different dishes. There were about 14 of us including the bridegrooms' brother who presented us with two Myanmar puppets as a gift. We'd never met him before. The groom paid for everything.

Our taxi ride to both places was in a small flat bed truck with a roof. I don't have much in the way of padding, so the bony bits, like ankles, knees, seat bones etc are getting a bit sore.

I present the payment details only to highlight how generous the people of Myanmar are. They have little, but give a lot. My next post will be on lunch at the home of one of the teachers, and will reinforce this generosity.
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Old Nov 22nd, 2015, 03:17 AM
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What an amazing experience, sartoric! How lovely to be guests of honor and to be part of the actual ceremony -- I can just imagine the many guests asking to have their photos with you. Lovely story.

And what a sweet, thoughtful gift that the groom's brother presented !

Many thanks for sharing this here and looking forward to the rest --

Paule
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Old Nov 23rd, 2015, 12:58 PM
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Your experience sounds absolutely amazing. So glad you had the opportunity to really get to "know" a country that most only dream about. Are there any photos from the day that you will be sharing?
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Old Nov 23rd, 2015, 05:25 PM
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Loving your report!
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Old Nov 23rd, 2015, 10:17 PM
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Thanks for the encouragement.

TP, two things I wish for Fodors is the ability to post photos, and a PM function whereby I could give you a link to my FB page. Anyway, I will post a Flickr link with photos, but not until I have a decent internet connection.

A visit to a locals home in a village.

We took a taxi (the flat bed truck type) to the village. The taxi dropped us off about 500 m from her house because the road was not good. I'd say it used to be a village, now it is more like an outer suburb of Mandalay. The road borders a canal where many people were washing either themselves or clothes.

Her father and mother, many siblings, several neighbours and many small children were all so welcoming. Again many photos were taken. They'd prepared an excellent lunch for us, a chicken dish, a pork dish, rice and soup. Soup is served at every meal here, and everyone shares the same spoon.

The house was typical bamboo thatch with two levels, an open air front room, another room behind and a kitchen out the back. Upstairs a 2 X 2 m room was in one corner, all the rest was open plan. They used to have views to the Shan mountains, but development has taken that. There's a betel selling stall out the front, and one of the sisters is a tailor, so two treadle powered sewing machines sat in the front room, one was an overlocker !

It was a short walk to the local fish farm where they grow ornamental koi. The many different ponds held fish at various stages of growth and were netted to keep away birds. There were several dead birds in the nets, so I guess they work. The largest fish were about 40 cm long. We have a fish pond at home, but the kookaburras keep stealing them, our biggest gold fish is 6cm. Once these fish have matured, the pond is drained and cleaned in preparation for restocking. A young woman up to her thighs in thick mud was scooping out waste into a bucket. I will never again think taxi drivers have a hard life.

One of the neighbours works with jade, he showed us some raw rock and used a spotlight torch to highlight the difference in quality. He presented me with a thick pale green bangle, plus the plug from inside.

We visited two Hindu temples in the afternoon, both were closed, but I believe the decoration on the outside is more ornate than inside anyway.

Next up, a visit to the Jade Pagoda.
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 02:57 AM
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Fascinating report - what an amazing personal connection you've made! I'm loving reading your experiences.

And looking forward to seeing some photos of you in your traditional finery!
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 06:53 AM
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Still reading - what an amazing trip!

"I will never again think taxi drivers have a hard life."

The rice farmers, literally bent double, always make me cringe.
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 07:28 AM
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I am still loving it! Compared to such a large portion of the rest of the people in the world, we are all so fortunate. Unfortunately, most of us take our lives for granted.

How has the hotel in Mandalay turned out? Here I just mentioned how lucky we are, and in the next sentence am asking about the quality of a stay in a room that many families around the world would probably give their eye teeth to live in. Pretty ironic!
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 12:50 PM
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Thanks for sharing such a fascinating experience.
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 02:39 PM
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For julies.
The Peacock Lodge - no 5 60th St between 25th and 26th Sts.

This is a family run guesthouse with 9 rooms, a pretty garden with sitting area under shady trees, a large deck and a comfortable lounge. They serve Bamar food, like curries, stir fries, noodles and salads, plus have a selection of juices, soft drinks and cold beer.

The owner, his wife, teenage son and grandma all speak excellent English and are happy to help with any request. He has plans to expand by building another 3 rooms at the back of the property, plus a bar along the side after the next busy season is over. He told me that his family owned much of the land in the area before the government took it and left them this one plot.

With our decision to stay here an extra 3 days, we've had to do a bit of room shuffling, so have now enjoyed 3 different rooms.
The deluxe rooms are spacious, with hard wood floors, modern furnishings, TV with 2 channels, a small fridge, tea and coffee makings, aircon and fan, a balcony and modern bathroom.
The standard rooms are older and smaller but adequate, with the same features except the TV.
Booking by email was easy, Internet has been okay for Myanmar.

We took a cooking class last night which was an absolute hoot. The cook set up two tables on the grassy area, holding a table top stove and all the ingredients. We made lentil soup, chicken curry, eggplant curry, tomato salad and stir fried veggies.
I've done a lot of cooking classes before, and this one rates highly.

The cook, the owner and his wife were all on hand to offer explanations and take photos. We had a gaggle of eight young men (all employees) watching, helping, taking photos. It could be hands on or not, which suited me fine as I know how to use a knife and was more interested in technique, timing and of course ingredients.
US $20 pp and we ate very well.

The location suited us, but it is a bit out of downtown. 60th St is an unmade road and bumpy. If you're up early enough you can see the monks on their morning alms collection.

The staff have been fantastic, I will stay here again.
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 03:42 PM
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Today started with a walk to the school, where we spent a few hours meeting new teachers and talking to those we already know.
Six adults and a 6 month old baby came with us to lunch at Batu, a local restaurant, which is well known for it's salads.
Indeed, we tried at least 6 different kinds, including tea leaf, green tomato, red tomato, duck egg, seaweed, and green leaf. We also had mutton sticks, (like beef jerky but made with goat), fish sticks, 3 different soups and of course steamed rice. One of the soups was offal, it was pretty funny explaining that we consider offal awful. I had to spell it out. The food was great.

We've pretty much left our excursions for the teachers to decide, but they're all keen to show us their city. They chatter away in Burmese, decide where to go, then give us a pick up time. So, I had no idea where we were going, but at 4.15 pm they arrived in yet another flat bed truck taxi. At least I got to ride up front with the driver (DH has far more inbuilt padding than me). The driver turned out to be a very interesting man with pretty good English.

He is the secretary of a charitable organisation that supports children with HIV, the father of one of the new teachers who joined us, and the nephew of the monk who started the monastic education group. We talked education, politics (everyone is so hopeful about the change of government- geez I hope they're right) wealth disparity, and what Myanmar needs to do to prosper.

Off we go through diabolical traffic. It took just over an hour to arrive at the Weirawsana Pagoda. It is claimed to be the largest jade pagoda in the world. The man who was responsible for its construction had been stockpiling jade for 25 years. It is reported to have cost US $10.3 M, took 3 years to build and opened 6 months ago. It sits on a dusty plain in Amarapura district, amidst scores of new condos under construction. I can't believe how much development is going on here in Mandalay. According to my spies, all are destined for wealthy Chinese merchants.

The pagoda was impressive, many different types of jade, the most expensive at the very top which started to glow as the sun set. We had a discussion about whether some of the panels are backlit, the guys thought not, but logic prevailed and they agreed it seemed likely.

Several hundred people were there at the time of our visit, not a single other westerner. The sunset was vivid, pollution probably a factor.

Trivia - the Myanmar people believe that if a baby's head is shaved, they will have thicker and stronger hair as adults. Our friends 6 month old boy was bald as a badger, and his head will be shaved until he is two. Baby girls get the same treatment.
The baby's name is chosen 100 days after birth.
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Old Nov 24th, 2015, 03:45 PM
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Thanks so much for the extensive reply. I too had been wondering what you would get with your $50 a night room.

This sounds exactly like our kind of place--small, family-run so you can get to know the owners. And, it is nice to know that booking is possible via e-mail.
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