Weekend mountain biking

This last weekend the 3 of us got up at 5.30am, and went out cycling with a local mountain biking group. Bikes were loaded up into one truck, people into another, and then we drove out of Yangon for about an hour. We parked up in a village and some people ate breakfast (rice, noodles etc.) from a small cafe/shack. Then we headed off into the countryside. I don’t think the photos really show just how wet and muddy it all was. Even without the on-off rain we were soaked with sweat (nice) from the humidity and effort of staying on the bike going up and down the slippery and rutted tracks. There were endless HUGE puddles/ semi lakes to ford. Mel did particularly well cycling through one deep bit of water (up to the knees) wearing flip-flops! I guess we cycled about 20miles in total. The group was a mixture of expats and seriously hard core lycra clad locals. They were all really friendly and made sure you were never at the back (handy or we would have been totally lost), and shouted gear changes during particularly steep bits (also handy). At the end we trooped out to the back of the cafe where there was an open well. We then proceeded to pour water over ourselves with some ladles which were to hand. It was quite hard to resist the temptation just to jump in the well – as we really were filthy and hot. Anyway, somehow we did resist, and were finally able to have a sit down and eat bananas and drink some very iceice cold beer!

It was so so so nice to be out of the city and in beautiful countryside. I think we all had a great time, but spent the rest of the day zonked out. I don’t think we will do it every week, but will definitely go from time to time, especially when our mountain bikes and cycling shoes arrive!

Hopefully the photos below give an idea about the countryside. There was a beautiful stone/ gold stupa (on the top of the hill in the photo with Ant in it). We climbed up there and had a great view of the reservoir below and lush green countryside.

  

Part of the route went through a rubber plantation. It was interesting to see people processing the sap, mixing some sort of acid with their bare hands, and then letting the rubber set in the tin trays before pushing it through a mangle to make the sheets of rubber drying behind Mel.

 

Ingyin Nwe South India Food Centre

Ant has deserted me to return to slave in London for a few weeks. Mel remains, so she got to choose the diner location. We happened upon the super super cheap Ingyin Nwe South India Food Centre. There we were tempted by the mouth watering menu (and the fact it was one of the only places in the street which had electricity during a power cut).

We found it so very hard to choose what to eat. Would it be the “Oily Snake Head Curry”… or the “Snake Head Sour Gravy”… or the “Mutton Entrails”… or perhaps just plain “Oily Curried Chicken”? I didn’t really like to enquire as to what “Mutton Fighting Ball” was.

Given Mel’s vegetarian status, and my preference to eat large volumes of veg at any opportunity we both chose #2. “Vegetable and Rice”. Turned out to be a very fine, if comparatively unadventurous, decision. We each had a huge tin plate of rice and 3 types of curry. Over this the man with the tin bucket in the left hand photo poured delicious dal. There were also side dishes of chapattis, and 2 different okra based curries. Was very good, and reminded me a lot of Nepali food… and for 70p you cant really go wrong!

Oh yes and the yellow paste on the man’s face is called Thanaka. You see many people wearing it here. It is a paste made from some sort of bark, and I think is used partly as a cosmetic, and partly as a cooling moisturiser and sun screen. 

 

Early morning Shwedagon

Just magic.

 

First guest…

On Wednesday Mel arrived from Tokyo… and quickly found some new glasses.

I have been at work, so Ant has been in charge of entertainment. Mel has been happy to come over to our hotel and abuse the (superslow) internet and air conditioning, and I think between them they have managed to do a lot of washing (we are trying to avoid the hotel’s extortionate laundry charges), and hiking about the town…  in the evenings we have been trying out more places to eat in Yangon. Ranging from a fairly fancy pizza, to delicious grilled meat and veg in Chinatown, and “Mimilay Icecream” on the street which was also pretty good. We got several free samples including Avocado Icecream (probably not one to be repeated) and Coconut Icecream (delicious – we will try to recreate when our Kenwood Chef Icecream bowl arrives!) and Cashew nut Icecream. Interesting… but tasted like it had be doused with perfume.

  

Shwedagon Paya

Shwedagon Paya, in all its golden wonder, has to be the most incredible place in Yangon. Although Yangon is pretty flat, Shwedagon is on a slight hill, and can be seen from all over town. The current stupa dates back to 1769, although the site has been important to Buddhists for centuries.

Shwedagon covers a large area, and after removing shoes and socks and climbing quite a few stairs (or catching the lift) you enter a huge glittering complex of golden stupas (Swedagon itself is one of many), temples, shrines and different covered areas where people pray, rest, drink water from one of the many water purification stands donated by rich benefactors, and give blood (we didn't see this happening, but our guide told us voluntary blood donations for the hospital takes place several times a year, and thousands of people come forward).
There are lots of different Buddha's, which people make offerings to. Many of the offerings are bananas and coconuts. Ant asked what happened to the huge piles of offerings at the end of the day and apparently these are given to elderly people and slightly randomly - the zoo.
 

Not as many monks about as one might expect… but there was the odd one wandering around. The green mats were quite useful as bare feet + rain + a marble floor = somewhat treacherous.
  

Golden glory… much of the stupa is covered in gold leaf, but the top is apparently covered in 13,153 solid gold plates each covering 1square foot. It really is huge. Hopefully some of the photos with people in give some sort of perspective. We will have to return once the rainy season is over as all that gold against a blue sky will, I think, be far more spectacular than with the a grey sky.
     

Below is quite a fun photo-of-a-photo of the bit at the top of the stupa. I will quote from Lonely Planet about this part of the stupa – because it is incredible!

“…The top most vane, with its flag, turns with the wind. It is gold and silver plated and studded with 1,100 diamonds totalling 278 carets – not to mention 1,383 other stones. Finally at the very top of the vane rests the diamond orb – a hollow golden sphere studded with 4,351 diamonds, weighing 1,800 carats in total. The very top of the orb is tipped with a single 78-carat diamond…”

Another interesting fact is that there is 2nd “Shwedagon” (Uppatasanti Paya) in Nay Pyi Taw. Nay Pyi Taw is the new captial city, built in 2004. Obviously a new capital city needs a big landmark, and so the then leader of the country constructed a replica of Shwedagon (apparently with his own money – as an act of merit making), but made sure it was 1ft smaller than the original version (I guess out of respect for the original). At some point hopefully we will visit Nay Pyi Taw with its air conditioned zoo and replica golden wonder.
Finally, Shwedagon at its most amazing – by night, when it becomes a tall glowing golden beacon – so beautiful. This is the view from the hotel we are now staying in. Our window isn’t at quite the right angle, and I don’t yet have my tripod so it is a bit of a grainy photo, but you get the idea. At some point (when it stops raining perhaps), we will go back up there at night for a wander around, and to get some better photos.

Markets and food

During our stroll around town last weekend we enjoyed walking past lots of fresh food markets, selling any number of weird and wonderful fruits and interesting bits of dead animal… which reminds me chicken legs and feet are on most menus here. Will let you know if we are ever brave enough to try those particular delicacy's.

  

We were both amused by the ginger cat talking to the cadged chickens for sale at the market.

(L) Ant displaying his pink wet wipes… he does like a good wet wipe. (R) Ant drinking fresh yoghurt lassie from a street stand.  Many streets are lined with little stalls and stands which have several small plastic stools to sit on whilst you eat or drink. One particularly delightful stall which I must get a photo of at some point is (for lack of a better description) the seemingly popular animal innards stall. Here you get a wooden skewer and can choose the intestine bit of your choice (which has been cooking on the stove), there are then jam jars of sauces to dip your skewer into. YUM?

  

A typical Burmese meal – rice, salad, sour soup, and a selection of vegetable and meat/fish curries of your choice. This type of food is not too spicy, but quite tasty… perhaps somewhere between Indian and Thai… since the photo was taken I have become less pasty (sunburn through grey clouds incident) and thinner (commencement of the Dysentery Diet – most likely unrelated to photographed meal… and in truth highly unlikely to actually be dysentery, but never before have I been known to not want to eat for 4 days… after some self prescription of antibiotics things seem to be improving).

 

Downtown 2

Apparently the uploading the first downtown post did not kill the internet… uploading to the blog appears slow, but it would seem to be easier than ordering flowers online or making a bank transfer - neither of which I have been successful with this evening. grr. I guess spending an hour trying to login to Nationwide will become normal after a while…

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of the Royal Lake. It is a nice place to have a walk as there are wooden boardwalks all around the edge and it is quite peaceful even though it is close to main roads. The only downside is that the climate means any walk is super sweaty and there is significant risk of drowning in torrential rainfall. Lesson #1 – in the rainy season ALWAYS carry an umbrella.

The large gold boat thingy is apparently a government owned restaurant. I wonder if it is equally lavish on the inside?!

 

Downtown Yangon

On Saturday we went for a walk around downtown Yangon. Here are some photos so you can get an idea. You should be able to enlarge the photo by touching on it (Groo!)

Churches, Pagodas and high rise buildings…

  

Colonial era architecture… the Victorians built things well!

     

Some not quite so decrepit colonial era architecture… on the left we have The (very fancy) Strand Hotel, where apparently one can purchase a fine afternoon tea. On the right we have the British Embassy. We would have taken a photo of the Olympic banners outside, but there was a security guard and a “no photography” sign, so I thought it might not be the best of plans. Opposite The Strand and Embassy is a scruffy park and then docks and the river. It isn’t really set up like Phnom Penh with cafes and restaurants etc. along the river. It is more industrial/ functional than leisure. Wonder if that says anything about the difference between French and British colonists?!

  

More to follow… but it will probably kill the internet if I add more photos at this point!