day 56 – i woke up early and shinya and i walked down to the restaurant for breakfast. i went back to the room, packed my shit, said goodbye to shinya, and got a pickup to the train station. i had to wait for nearly an hour for the train, so i spent that time messing about with my camera and photographing the kids who were curiously staring at me. the kinpun train station is a small station and i was the only foreigner. so i was a bit of a spectacle.
the train arrived and i found my seat. the chairs were big and comfortable, if somewhat old, and i settled in for the ride. the window next to me opened on a great view of the myanmar countryside.
while waiting for the train i’d tried to find some water and snacks. however, the only water available was refilled bottles, which i wouldn’t buy. i hadn’t been sick in over a month but i wasn’t prepared to risk it. i thought i was going to have to do the whole four hour ride back to yangon without food. i got lucky though, since there was a food cart and other vendors wandering up and down the train. i bought water, some cookies, and a coke (at the exhorbitant price of $2 for the coke, smuggled in from thailand).
the train trip went without dramas and was, quite frankly, the most pleasant travel time i spent in myanmar … a million times better than the buses. it was funny though, that as we reached the fringes of yangon the beautiful countryside transformed into piles of garbage and slums on the outskirts of town. those too eventually disappeared and were replaced by the familiar sites of yangon’s colonial architecture.
the hotel i stayed in before owed me three more days, so i returned to the hotel and checked in. this time i got a room with a view of shewdagon pagoda, myanmar’s most famous pagoda. i finished ‘burmese days’ and got some sleep.
day 57 – with time to kill, i decided to wander the streets of yangon. i only had a few objectives for the day, but i thought i’d get out and enjoy the beautiful, if hot, weather. i went to myanmar air’s offices and changed my flight, bringing it forward to may 4th. the building i was in also had a top floor restaurant with an impressive view of the city. i headed there for a drink to check out the views. on the way back through town i walked past the australian embassy (which was closed for the weekend) and into the british council offices (which is built into the british embassy). although there were no classes on weekends, the british council library was open. it’s a really big library and is quite nice. i went upstairs and asked a secretary about jobs with bc. she gave me a little info and the name of a person to talk to. so i promised to come back on monday and get more information.
after that i headed back to the hotel. it was early afternoon and hot as hell. i had a shower and a rest and went outside onto the balcony to listen to my ipod. i was surprised how sore my arse and the backs of my legs were from the truck ride to kinpun. i spent the afternoon listening to music, thinking about my awesome trip in myanmar. i watched the sunset, headed to the internet cafe to check email, and called it a night.
day 58 – after breakfast i decided to clean my camera. actually, one of the girls who worked in the hotel was cute and she kept smiling at me. it seemed like she was always lurking around. so, while cleaning dust and crap off my camera, i left my door open and watched her walk past my room quite a few times. i don’t think she spoke english, so i didn’t know what i would do if i got her attention … so i enjoyed the breeze and focused on getting grot out of the buttons on my camera.
for lunch, i walked into town again and went back to the building with the top floor restaurant. i had a burrito and a beer (which were both good). my plan was to spend the afternoon at shwedagon pagoda. today was my last full day in myanmar and i hadn’t actually been to the pagoda yet.
first, i got a cab and went to chank htatt kye pagoda which houses a massive reclining buddha. this buddha is quite unique in that it looks very real. in fact, it’s so realistic, that the eyes are glass and even contain pupils and pigments. i got some shots and went to the nearby bogyoke aung san museum. aung san is the father of the very famous aung san suu kyi (the rightful president of burma who is under house arrest). their family house has been preserved as a museum because aung san is the most famous figure in modern burma. sadly, the museum was closed (lonely planet said it’s open sundays), so i went down to shwedagon pagoda.
minutes after arriving i was waylaid by a monk who was intent on having a conversation with me. the problem was that he spoke no english. we sat in the shade, drawing quite a crowd, and he tried to explain stuff to me in burmese. with a little help from onlookers, we had fun with burmese words and translating them into english. he kept writing on my notepad and eventually he explained that he was my teacher and we practiced some greeting rituals. eventually, we both got frustrated and bored and he decided to go and hang out with other monks.
i wandered around for a while, taking photos, and was taking a break when i met another monk. this monk spoke english so we sat and talked. i was happy to sit because there was still time before the sun began to set, which is what i was waiting for.
while i talked to him, two girls sat down near us and i could tell that they were keen to join our coversation. so the four of us talked for quite a while about various random topics.
right on sunset we decided to walk around the pagoda some more. i took photos and the three of them explained to me what different parts of the pagoda were. my favourite story is about the very large bell at the pagoda which was taken by the british. after england conquered burma, they decided to steal the bell so that they could melt it down and use the metal to make cannons. the bell is very big and extremely heavy, and while the british were trying to load it on a ship, the bell was accidentally dropped into the irrawaddy river. the british, with all of their technology and superiority, couldn’t recover the bell. so in a fit of anger and arrogance, told the burmese that they could keep the bell. the burmese, using bamboo poles placed under the bell by divers, eventually floated the bell and took it to shwedagon pagoda … now that’s funny!
shwedagon pagoda is covered in gold and jewels. at the very top of the pagoda is a massive diamond and after dark, the diamond appears to be different colours depending on where you stand to look at it. so, while wandering around, we went to the places where it’s possible to see white, yellow, red and green reflections.
not long after that, a strange thing happened. i’d been walking around with the monk for nearly an hour (the two girls were also still with us, but left not long afterwards) and for a moment the monk walked away. while he was gone, some guy tapped me on the shoulder. i turned towards him and he pointed at the monk then gestured, making a circle around his ear with his finger, then gestured towards the exit with his arm. the message was clear: the monk is crazy, you should leave. the man kept walking and the monk didn’t see this little interaction.
after that i was more on my guard. and when the monk suggested leaving, i thought that maybe he meant leaving together or that he’d want something outside the pagoda. however, i shook his hand, said goodbye, he talked to a taxi driver and told the driver to give me a good price, i waved and drove off. perhaps the monk is strange, or crazy … but he seemed fairly harmless.
back at the hotel i decided to set up my tripod and photograph the pagoda. i got some decent shots, packed up my gear and went to bed.
