Friday 27 November 2015

MInd wobbling Yangon

Day 10
8:30 - Yangoon - Chinatown

Street market in Chinatown
Life is different here in Myanmar. Different from what we know and mainly different from what it was in the past years.

Following the Buddhist path
Streets in Yangon are a mix of the Beauty and the Ugly. The people being the beautiful ones  and the living conditions being the ugly ones.

Tough life on the slum street
5000 head crowd praying as One
 I should not generalize, there definitely are people with enough money to afford good living conditions, but these guys are not walking down the road, but are hidden behind tinted glasses of their brand new air conditioned SUVs stuck in traffic jam and polluting local air.

Street sellers seem to have pretty tough life, some not even leaving premises of their vegetable street stall overnight. They cover their products with sheet of plastic and sleep on the side of the stall. Sometimes you can spot 2 months old baby sleeping on their side, looking not worried or uncomfortable at all. Hard to grasp for western mind.

Choose the part of the pig you like

Communication and commercial revolution are well under way. Smart phones are being sold on the main roads by many vendors and prices are well below European rates. Access to the online world couldn't be easier for Burmese people.

There are supermarkets, there are western style shopping malls, however these seem to be targeted only for the richest 1 % of population.

We've arrived in very busy time. Festival of Lights and alm giving has just started and the streets got very crowded through all days and nights.

Weaving monk's robe using a bike as weaver 
Trucks full of people and sound systems driving around busy streets, cul-de-sacs converted to little stages with huge speakers playing way too loud "westernised" music :) around them mainly kids jumping in and out of rhythm.

Street food is amazing. Vegetarian or meaty, up to your choice. Most of the food is cooked directly on the street in front of you and served from buffet style containers based on your choice. Expect to pay around 0.50 Eur (600 Kyats) for small single dish up to 2 E (2500 Kyats) for huge feast on many dishes.

Chinese tea is widely available on each table either cold or warm for free.

2000 years old Sule Pagoda in the heart of Downtown
As I mentioned on the beginning the most beautiful are the people. Staring with open mouth, keen to say Hello ( Men-ga-la-ba), touch your hair and share smiles :)

I'll describe Buddhist spirit in a separate post as it deserves full readers attention.

Shwedagon Pagoda in full moon night glory
Light a candle for good spirits
There is much more to write about, but it's getting very hot now and we need to get moving to catch local transport to the city of umbrellas - Pathein.

As we're heading to rural lands we don't know what will be the Internet connection like, so don't worry we'll stay on the safe side and let you know as soon as we can about the progress of our journey.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Men-ga-laba (Hello) Myanmar !

Day 7
23:00 Yangon - Chinatown

Wow ! Landed safely in Yangon after almost 3 hour flight with couple of thunderstorms around us directly to the beginning of Tazaungdaing festival.

One main street in downtown is completely closed for traffic and full of food stalls (mostly fried local specialities like bats, seafood we've never seen before and inner parts of all kind of animals), music production and locals of all age and different appearance.

It's been a long time ( last time in India ) since people were spontaneously touching our hair while walking behind us and giggling with joy.

We've learned couple of basic words ( good, bad, hello, thank you, 100, 500, 1000 ) and tried to practice as much as we could and YES the book was right, local people love when you try to speak their language.

We'll keep learning every day a bit and keep you updated as soon as we posses enough knowledge about burmese !

As it's tone language we've decided to write up simple WYHIWYW dictionary and share it later with you dear reader !

PS : Beer is cheap here !

Monday 23 November 2015

By teksi or tren from stesen to farmasi !

Day 6
23:00 Kuala Lumpur - Chinatown

You've probably seen that joke about simplified English right ?


I hope that US readers won't get offended, it originally appeared on Steam installation screen.

But what if I show you selection from couple of signs we've photographed today in KL :)

inglis izy pizy

Ha ! That's not simplified ! That's What You Hear Is What You Write (WYHIWYW), I simply love it !

This is just small selection of English words adopted in Malay language. So if you speak a little bit of English you speak quite a lot of Malay straight away :)

Didn't take good picture of polis, teksi, kaunter tiket, stesen (station), epal (apple), farmasi and other great WYHIWYW words, but believe me it's really inspiring to see how English which is considered to be one of the simplest languages to be learned and used for communication can be simplified for all people with or without formal education.

Our visit of KL is coming to the end. We can't say we saw Malaysia, we saw KL and we have to come back to Malaysia to see rural places with indigenous people (orang asli), deep jungles, crystal clear ocean water washing white sand beaches, turtles, orangutans, hornbill birds and much more what this beautiful country has to offer.

Our return flights are from KL, so we need to make sure we have couple of weeks spare !

Local people in KL are mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Filipinos and in small amount other nations from SEA region. Wide smile is being worn proudly and frequently.

Street food is freshly made in front of you, delicious and very cheap. Tap water is treated and drinkable.

Full power buffet for breakfast
Street Satay for dinner
Local bas is for free, tren is cheap, monorel is more expensive than tren but still very cheap !

Monorel (Monorail)
We were really surprised to see what was achieved in KL over just 43 years of "city" history.

From Wikipedia article : "On 1 February 1972, Kuala Lumpur was given city status".

Non-stop development would be the 2 words to describe KL.

New high rise buildings are growing like mushrooms following afternoon monsoon shower. Western style shopping malls and 5 star hotels occupying big part of city centre (do they really need more of them ?) and still more are being built !

I hope that places like Kampung Baru will survive developer's greed and will keep traditional Malay face !

Tomorrow we have couple of hours in the morning to get ready for our next mission and then comes the journey to the wonderland - Myanmar

Sunday 22 November 2015

Lost in jungle

Today we have felt again (after Indian experience) Hindu religion in its best:
the most kitsch amusement fun park: the imposing limestone Batu Caves are swallowed since 1890 until today by hindu temples and shrines. Here worshipping imagery through money is above good daily deeds.




Shiva statue in front of main temple cave
FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) was the second adventure of the day: running away from late morning crowds and filled with refreshing coconut juice we jumped into what we can call a tiny taste of Malaysian Jungle. As usual our adventurous appetite made us trek through the most muddy path and after several kms between the giant jungle trees we unexpectedly reached dead end ! Same way back, found the botanic gardens, we had our beloved rest in a garden's hut, with the pleasant sound of rain and kingfisher in the background.





Dead man and his clean feet !
In the end of the day Malay Stalls in Kampung Baru gave us great food and magnificent view of the Petronas Towers !

Petronas towers with sunset light
Petronas towers after sunset from Monorail



Saturday 21 November 2015

4 hours of sleep and 10 hours walk

Day 4
20:30 Kuala Lumpur - Chinatown

We're still not used to KL timezone. Last night we both woke up around 5 AM and tried hard to fall asleep again. After hour and half we gave up and witnessed first really blue sky in this part of the world.

By 7 AM we set off for a walk "down the road" to Brickfields - Little India, quarter close to KL Sentral station, where we were supposed to meet free guided tour through the borough.

Down the road literally meant crossing couple of highways in both directions, as we went down the wrong road almost from the beginning :)

Interesting experience and good training for busier parts of Asia - specially Vietnam. Look right, look right again and run as fast as u can :) stop in the middle of the highway, switch sight direction to the left and run again !

From 30 minutes walk was good hour and we still had hour to spare on Indian breakfast - paratha, samosas, chicken curry and tarka dal ( how we missed Indian breakfast in Europe :)


Headlines of Malaysian newspaper Sun explained the yesterday's strong army presence (6000 troops) in the center - Mr Obama is in da town for couple of days - better not to go too close to business centre till Monday then.

Sat on the doorstep of Vivekananda Ashram we were patiently waiting for some other people and city guide to appear around 9 AM.


We gave up at 9:15 as no one appeared - Little Indian experience per se :)

Off we went to explore on our own and except

  • crazy Indian deities shop


  • really detailed Buddhist stupa describing a lot of different aspects of Buddhism


  • and couple of random market streets


it was not that breath taking experience.

By 11 AM the sky was still blueish and the heat was becoming unbearable. Air conditioned shopping mall in Sentral station provided great sanctuary to cool down our blood streams. No shopping though :) refilled the water bottle, purified with UV filter, chat with local tourism office and back to midday heat !

Not daring to cross highway traffic during noon we jumped on free bus and got out close to Masjid Negara - National mosque.


Real surprise came when we reached Butterfly park. I'll let pictures to talk instead of me :)











Right at the end there was a bonus waiting for us - other inhabitants of Malaysian tropical rainforest

The Frog King
Pig Nosed Turtle
Long Necked Turtle
Gecko and us
Our legs were becoming weaker and our bellies started screaming louder so the rest of the afternoon we spent walking through Taman Tasik Perdana park.


Until we discovered Bamboo play house where we fell down to the bamboo floor for deserved rest !


Friday 20 November 2015

Long (non) sleep and first monsoon rain experience

Day 3
22:00 Kuala Lumpur - Chinatown

Falling asleep in small fan cooled room was as easy as to wake up approximately 20 times during a night.

You can't escape humidity and heat, just get used to it :)

The night stretched till almost midday and that meant we experience proper tropical monsoon rain within first 30 mins on the street :)

Visit to couple of temples and quick Indian breakfast provided us with enough roofed shelter and as fast as the rain came, the rain was gone.

Shiva's full family in Sri Maha Mariamman Temple
Humidity reached 99 % and we started to sweat as during hiking in Himalayas.

We headed north east from Chinatown without a clear direction, just following the sight of Menara Tower.
KL Menara Tower
We would go up that 421 meters but the cost of one lift ride is pretty steep (23 Euros), so maybe next time.

There are many ways to get to Petronas Twin Towers and we followed the jungle one. Right in the middle of Bukit Nanas area is a small forest reserve to give you a taster of how it feels like in tropical rainforest.

Tati entering "city jungle"
At the end of 10 minute lasting trail we had a quick chat with two beautiful Aras Macao (which are to this area as local as 2 white rastas)

Rasta & Ara Macao
After couple of crossroads with some gentle Asian traffic


we finally reached famous highest twin building in the world - Petronas Twins Towers

Doesn't feel like almost half kilometer high
Quick walk around this crazily developed business centre got us into shopping mall full of high street shops you can see in European capitals. From Versace to Louis Vuitton and other brands we'll never buy :) Just when we're up to leave second monsoon shower started pouring down and trapped us in for hour. So we hid ourselves in massive 2 floor book shop and were scouting for inspiration.

Finally the rain was gone again !

One of the biggest surprises discovered today was the old quarter of Kampung Bahru where one can still witness original Malay houses retaining village character, heritage and tradition. The contrast of mango trees and little houses all around with backdrop of business centre is astonishing.

Kampung Bahru with Petronas towers in background

We had just a little time left before the final rain of the day arrived, which was accompanied by black clouds, lightning and thunder in plenty !

Luckily we found local hawker with spicy food, metal roof and staff speaking no English ! We ate and drunk what was given to us and after an hour the storm vanished so we walked to monorail station and caught a ride home to Chinatown !