Boat-Bike ride to Dala

Yesterday we took our bikes on the boat across the river to Dala.

You can buy everything on the boat… from custard doughnuts to a nasty red beetle nut – tobacco chew

 

Lots of other bikes and motorbikes on the other side, one heavily laden with many chickens. Poor chickens… plucked and upside down pootling along on a bike – still alive! Yangon also has many Tri-shaws – a bicycle made for 2 (or 3).

Rainy season. Grey skies. Flooded rice paddies.

There was also a (very skinny) man on horseback… riding along a beautiful (potholed) purple flowering tree lined avenue.

After a look round an interesting temple it was time for what Ant described as the Myanmar version of a English Cream Tea. This included a shot of strong tea sweetened with condensed milk, and (for Ant) some sort of sweet bread with squirty cream and jam in the middle. During tea we both had our legs admired. Mine because of an earlier incident involving getting rather friendly with the pavement, resulting in big grazes on my arms and knees (oops), and Ant because much to the amusement of the Myanmar men in the tea house he has hairy legs. There followed a fair bit of gesticulating to indicate that none of them had any leg hair at all. Nice.

 

Nice and sweaty… and looking rather matching.

Looking towards downtown Yangon, Shwedagon and home. You really don’t have to go any distance at all to hit rural life.

Road to Mandalay

The head of the herd was calling
Far, far away
They met one night in the silver light
On the road to Mandalay
So Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trum
Trump, trump, trump

The road to Mandalay was long and dark (and there were NO elephants). It took the best part of 10 hours driving through the night. Bus travel here is fairly good, aside from the random entertainment videos/ monk chanting soundtracks, and the fact that despite the shiny new busses I think there are a fair few accidents.

At the end of the road was a beautiful 2 tone “sanitised” toilet, with conveniently located cigarette stand.

I did think the sanitised toilet would be the highlight of the trip, but on the last evening we escaped the workhouse and headed off on mopeds – a big excitement as motorbikes and mopeds are banned in Yangon.

U Bein bridge - a fairly famous tourist attraction. A wonderful long old teak bridge full of ambling monks, locals and tourists all enjoying the last of the evening sun.

      

Then lungyi shopping… piles of fun fabrics to sort through.

 

Then off to the night bus in the back of a funny midget van!

Chinggis in Myanmar

Chinggis Khan “man of the millennium” (according to the bottle) has made it to Yangon.

Here he is enjoying the Shwedagon views and trying to work out how to get rid of the hat, fur and beard ASAP. Monsoon in Yangon is hot and humid. We don’t want his felt boots and hat going mouldy now…

As you can see from the bottle it didn’t take long for us to toast his arrival!

Back in Cambodge

After 7 years it was time to return to Cambodia.

Poor Ant. Everything was so different and I spent the whole time on repeat saying how it wasn’t like this 7 years ago… and bemoaning how back in the day there weren’t so many Range Rovers/ Porsches/ BMWs/ Rolls Royce's in air conditioned marble garages/ Costa Coffee outlets/ people/ restaurants/ swanky gyms… etc.

Some things are still the same. The same lady selling pineapples and green mango outside work, a few of the same Tuk-Tuk/ motodop drivers outside my old apartment (one even recognised me!)…

But overall a lot of change. Although not so peaceful anymore Phnom Penh still has to be one of the nicest capital cities I can imagine living in. The food scene is incredible. We spent a LOT of time eating and drinking. Heaps of fun shops too, and there is a nice relaxed vibe. Still possible to Tuk-Tuk about town or ride a bike (if you are feeling brave)… and it’s still super cheap.

On reflection though I think that what Yangon lacks in terms of chic cafe culture, amazing food, and amount of sunshine during the monsoon, it more than makes up for in terms of golden pagodas and the interest and excitement of being able to watch the momentous political and economic changes that are unfolding as we poodle through life there.

We spent some time down south… scooting around pepper plantations and dilapidated French colonial architecture on a moped, hiking up a big hill, and a day on a tropical island. For now perfectly un-commercial. No nasty concrete resorts… no deforestation… just some beach shacks selling fresh sea food, some hammocks for lazing, plenty of friendly dogs (I tested this when I stood on one getting out of a hammock!) and a masseuse… you can’t go wrong with a massage overlooking the ocean.

The best bit was the sunshine. After 2 weeks of endless monsoon rain and dark clouds it was so nice to see blue again. Phnom Penh’s climate is definitely better than Yangon’s.

 

Evening cocktails watching the sunset in a very fine seaside restaurant. We feasted on fresh crab cooked with local green pepper corns and pancakes. Crepes/ pancakes being a big theme of the trip. I think one day we managed to eat a pancake for every meal. The French food legacy combined with amazing Asian flavours does result in very fine food!

 

Munson-Whites… do you recognise the Right to Bare Arms?!

 

Trees

Now that the rains have come the flowers are past their best, but for a month or so we enjoyed fabulous blossoms in red, yellow and orange on the many trees that are about the town. I didn’t really manage to take many photos, but here are a few.

  

Golden Shwedagon in the distance. Men wearing lungyis, carrying their metal tiffin boxes which are filled with rice and curry for lunch. A very typical Myanmar scene.