Myanmar - 2015

Suggestions

• Most important:  Carry new, unfolded crisp US dollars.  Even if it is torn a bit or something written on the currency, it will not be accepted in most of the places.  Carry small Dollar bills.
• Take ear plugs if you are traveling by bus, the peace loving Buddhist Burmese seem to enjoy the Chinese 
  
  fighting movies full of blood flows and a lot of loud screaming.
• Avocado juice in Myanmar is amazing

Yangoon

• Go to Shwedagon Pagoda at night, it is much more beautiful and also you will be able to see the reflection of the diamond on the top of the pagoda.  You will be able to find the rays of the diamond  closer to the area where the bell that British couldn’t steal.  You can see the color markings on the ground.
• Shwedagon pagoda goes through maintenance exactly every five years and during that time they scaffold with bamboo and palm leave sheets for cleaning purposes. They started the maintenance at the end of 2014 for year 2015, so after this year, the next maintenance will be on 2020, schedule your trip accordingly.
• Circular train in Yangoon is nice and after sometime you’ll be bored because there’s no interesting scenery but you can people watch.  It’s a long 3.5hr ride.  Nice place to take a break and take a power nap.
• Hard to get the taxis in Yangoon, so pre-arrange your taxi if you can.  Number of taxis are limited and at certain time they don’t want to go to certain places because of the traffic jam.
• In Shwedagon, you will notice that there are Buddhas for every day of the week at every corner of the direction ( East, NorthEast, etc. - two for Wednesday - one for morning and one for the evening) that you should bath with five cups of water and each cup signifies the following per. the guide: Buddha, his teachings, his followers, your teachers and don't remember what the fifth one is.  When you ring the bell by hitting with the stick, you are supposed to do it five times too.
• In Shwedagon, except the Buddha on the West side, all of the Buddhas are in stone and the Buddha on the west side was damaged due to fire and he’s in Marble.

Bagan

• In Bagan, there are new electric cycles with better seats and better power available, so shop around if you
  
  can.  We paid $6 for a day for the bike.
• Don’t miss the sunrise in Bagan and it is one of the best experiences.  If you have time and money, do the hot air ballon in Bagan.  IMO Bagan and Capadoccia are the two places where you can really enjoy the ballooning experience with beautiful scenery (I didn’t do it either place)
• In Bagan, always carry the entrance tickets with you, you will be asked for it in some important pagodas or during the visit for the sunset.
• There are buses as well as mini-buses between big cities, enquire your hotel and use the one that you are comfortable with.  If you book the bus, the bus company normally picks you up from your hotel.  So make sure that you enquire/confirm before buying the ticket
• Don’t ride the bus from Bagan to Inle for the reason of enjoying the scenery.  If you want to save money, use the bus.  The scenery is not that great to spend 8 hours in the bus.

Inle Lake

• There are two different final stops for the bus to Inle, one is right in the Inle market area (Nyaung Shwe) and the other one is about couple of miles away.  So when you book the tickets, enquire and make sure that you can get off in the market area.  From here, you can walk to your hotel very easily, all you got to do is to ask people in the market for directions.
• Inle Lake is pretty awesome, in addition to boating there, rent a bicycle from the town and ride down to the Mine Thauk village to have a lunch in one of the restaurants in the lake.  You can try riding your bike in the wooden bridge.  The Forest Monastry doesn’t seem to worth the walk and this’s what I heard from few people we met in the village
• The winery is pretty good and nice view of the city.  No age limit to get alcohol there.

Mandelay

• A lot of mosquitos in Mandelay, so take the mosquito repellent with you.
  
• You don’t have to carry bundle of cash, ATMs are available in cities.  Not many places accept credit cards yet.
• One surprise in Myanmar is the laundry cost, where in most of the Asian countries the laundry cost is by the weight but in Myanmar you have to pay by each piece of cloth.
• Very safe country with very friendly people.  The people of Myanmar have a lot of hope regarding the future and the American government (especially President Obama’s visit) has provided the hope.
• If you are a Lungi (sarong) person, take it with you and you can wear the lung anywhere and everywhere
• Despite being isolated from the rest of the developed world for the last 30+ years, it is not as bad as I expected - decent roads and spotty internet.  Friendliness of the people compensates for whatever you may be missing.

Arriving Yangoon

Arrived at the small but simple airport in Yangoon and the immigration/Visa processing is pretty quick.  I saw the
VOA desk at the arrival area, but I have applied and got my eVisa, before leaving India, that took less than 3 hours to receive.  There is a Money Exchange counter in the baggage claims area and if you have US dollars (may be Euro too), it is accepted almost everywhere.  We got the taxi near the arrival gate for $10 to get to the city center and it is the expected price.  Our taxi driver completed a degree in Chemistry in 1988 but driving taxi because of lack of opportunity in Myanmar and he was not interested to go out of the country either.  He mentioned that the country had changed a lot in the last 3 years in the positive direction - the average new car price was $30K had reduced to $15K now and a lot of new tourists now.  He credited President Obama for all these changes.  Also, ATMs and SIM cards were not easily available before, now huge change in these too.  He’s not the last person who was talking highly of Obama and heard the same thing from at least from 3 other people.  

Roadside Vendor's Knowledge

The Four Rivers Hostel is pretty awesome place, closer to the China town. It is managed by a guy who was in Singapore for the last 14 years and moved to Myanmar in the hope of building business not only in the hostel but in other areas too.  Whoever I talked to in this country, they are seeing hope after a long time.  The rooms are clean and well maintained.  Met an Ecuadorian guy, Tony, who graduated from an Australian university making this trip before going to Ecuador.  He wants to go back to Ecuador and build mobile applications to the American and South American markets.  After chatting with the Hostel manager and the roommate, we headed out have dinner in the China town @1130pm.  Met an old lady who was running the roadside eating place selling grilled paneer, veggies and meat, who seems to know more about the world than a lot of people I know.  She talking about India, Japan, USA and UK, and their premiers, when I started talking to her whether she knows where Madras is or she knows about India.  Once she started talking, we were asking her about other countries and pretty impressed with her knowledge.  What a waste of Human capital in Myanmar in the last 30+ years because of the Military Junta.  

Public Transport and Traffic

We took a taxi early in the morning to go to the Shwedagon pagoda near the hotel for $3.  It is easily in the
walking distance but wanted to save the energy for later.  Since we couldn’t find any guides in the pagoda, we asked the person in the ticket counter to get us a guide and they’re very helpful in finding us a guide.  The guide charged $15 for 3 of us and provided us some history on the temple, the guide was an average guide.  After spending a lot of time in the pagoda, we decided to experience the public transportation experience in Yangoon and took the bus#15 to the market.  The traffic jam is really bad and we could have reached market in 10 minutes but the bus took more than 20 minutes to reach that place.  The people in the bus were really friendly and we were the only foreigners in that bus.  It is designed to have more space for the standing only crowd.

Market and Marketing

First we went to the local market where they are selling wholesale medicine and other office supplies, and someone guided us to the tourist market which was closer to that place.  There’s a public restroom well maintained in that area.  The tourist market is full of the regular touristy stuff and paintings.  On the way to the market, there are roadside stalls selling some of the South Indian stuff like, samosa, dosa, uttappam, etc.  There is a food court in the market area that you should visit to see how the different restaurant vendors were trying to get their customers.  The competition is very intense and you can people watch and witness the Myanmar’s intensive marketing there.  The food was decent and they don’t sell beer in the food court.  There are beer advertisement all over the place in Myanmar.

Circular Train

After walking around the market for sometime, we decided to take the circular train and the scenery from the train
is average.  After 3 hours, we reached the central station and the way we found out is because it has more platforms.  In most of the train stations we didn’t find any station names or any signs so you have to keep tracking the stations on the map to see where you are.  The train moves very slowly with a lot of shaking and the ticket master comes in the train to check the tickets.  There’s Golf Course station but we didn’t find any golf courses nearby.  Within 10 minutes from Central station, you can see the scenery changing from urban to rural, and the circular train mostly travels on the rural side.

Leaving Yangoon

After walking around the central area where there few colonial buildings, we reached the hostel in the evening.  We noticed that one of the main roads going through the China town is made to roadside eating area by closing down a few lanes and made into sitting area for the restaurants, pretty lively place in the evening.  Our Ecuadorian roommate, Tony, wanted to share the taxi with us to go to the bus stand but getting a taxi to the bus stand took us some time and effort, the drive to the bus stand is much longer than the distance to the airport and we felt that we’re going to a different city.  Most of the reservations in Myanmar works on the honor system, when we made the reservation either to the hotel or to the bus (directly) we never paid any advance or given any credit card, but when reached the bus station or hotel, our place was guaranteed.  The bus ride to Bagon was very comfortable and the bus reached an hour earlier at 430 am.

Arriving Bagan

As soon as the bus stopped, a lot of tots were there to help us get to the hotel but first I wanted to get the tickets to Inle Lake before heading out to the hotel.  After getting the ticket to the Inle lake (a friendly guy in a different bus counter woke up the Inle bus guy to issue the ticket), we headed to the Golden Myanmar Guest house in a taxi.  Almost halfway, the taxi guy stopped the taxi and asked us to pay to enter the city, I was suspicious because there’re no signs or anything, since I read about the entry to the city, I paid entrance fee and got the tickets.  Since our room is not ready, we used the restrooms before renting a electric cycle to head out for the sunrise.  When one of my daughters tried the eCycle, she fell down twice because she was sleepy and tired, and afterwards she was fine.  

Riding with Russian

We met a Russian lady in the hotel lobby who was interested in going for the sunrise in Bagon, so advised her to get the eCycle for the ride but after trying a couple of times she was not comfortable ridding it.  We decided to take her with us to the sunrise with the understanding that after the sunrise we would be back to the hotel and then she'd be on her own.  The ride was not bad because there’s no traffic on the road and after about 30 minutes we spotted the pagoda where a lot of people were.  The sunrise is truly amazing with fog clearing and a lot of pagodas coming to life after the sunrise.  After spending a lot of time enjoying the sunrise as well as the scenery of hot air balloons over pagodas, we were trying to spot our Russian friend to go back to the hotel.  We saw her going to a small pagoda on the sides of the pagoda where we were watching the sunset and she was not responding to my calls (Called her “Hey Russian” because didn’t get her name).  After coming down, we waited for her about 10 minutes thinking that she must have gone to relieve herself there (the Indian thinking :-) ) but no sign of her, and when my daughter went to look for her, she could not find anyone there.  So we waited for another 15 minutes for her to show up and left to the near by temple.  Before going to the Ananda Temple, I just went on the road for half a km to see whether I could find the Russian but she’s not found anywhere.

Because it was a full moon day, a special day for Buddhists so the temple was very crowded and more than 200 monks were standing in line to get offerings from someone who was donating.  As with any pagoda in Myanmar, this pagoda also had four Buddhas facing the four directions.  There were a lot of flowers and offerings to god stacked up, and prayers were recited loudly in the temple.  We went back to the place where viewed the sunrise from to see whether that lady was waiting there and after hearing a lot of advise from my daughters on how to be responsible, we returned to hotel to see the Russian having breakfast.  When I asked why she left, she mentioned that she didn’t want to disturb us so left without telling….so pissed and not sure I’ll help anyone in the future.

Riding Around

The breakfast at the hotel was decent and it was the choice of scrambled egg, omelet or pan cakes - a standard hotel breakfast in most of the hotels.  After taking rest for sometime in the restaurant, we headed out to see other pagodas but now it was scary in the beginning because, a lot of vehicles on the road - people from the neighboring villages were visiting the temples.  We didn’t have any problem riding the eCycle and the other vehicles are careful with a lot of tourists with eCycles.  The whole day we spend riding around different pagodas with a brief power nap in a temple, before heading back to the same pagoda where we enjoyed the sunrise for the sunset viewing.  Now there was no place to stand on top of the pagoda, it’s very much crowded and only now for the first time they checked for the entrance tickets.  Now we become pros riding the eCycle so we didn’t have any problem getting back to the hotel almost in the dark.

Bus Pickup Tension

When we enquired about taxi to go to the bus stand, the hotel manager advised us that the bus company would

pick us up from our hotel and he made a call to the bus company for the pick up next morning.  The hotel room was clean but we could hear noise from the neighboring rooms as well as from the road.  Since we were so tired riding around all day in the hot sun, no sound bothered us.  We were ready and waiting for the taxi for the pickup at 630am for the 730am bus, but there’s no sign of the taxi even at 730am.  When I asked the hotel manager about the taxi, he was telling me not to worry about it and it was on its way.  I was really worried about missing the bus to Inle, so I was bugging him every 10 minutes from 7am, he laughed and advised me to relax.  But at 730am, I told him that I would pay for the taxi and asked him to drop me in the bus stop.  When I reached the bus stop, the bus was still waiting for a lot of people and 10 minutes after we reached the bus stand, there's a taxi (pick up truck) with at least 10 people reached there…so the hotel manager was right that I didn’t have spend the money for the taxi but at least I learnt lesson on Burmese punctuality :-)

Bus Ride to Inle

I choose to ride the bus to enjoy the beautiful country side and mountains on the way to Inle, even though the scenery is nice, I won’t spend 8 hours in the bus during the day time for the scenery.  The bus was very comfortable and when there’re no seats for the new passengers, the conductor put small stool in between seats for the passengers to sit. First 3 hours of the ride was through the rural side that looks like South Indian village side and I could relate to the scenery as well as things that are sold on the roadside to the villages in South India.  I have been told by the fellow traveler that the night bus in this route was bad because of the music volume in the bus was too loud and the frequent stops (every time they stop, they switch on the lights inside the bus) that makes the continuous sleep impossible for most of the people.

Boat Ride

After taking some rest in the Golden Empress hotel, we headed out to talk to Ms. Mu in the Mr. A Tan company that had very good reviews to figure out the next two days.  Ms. Mu advised on my trip plan and suggested a few changes, she gave us an option to have the boat for the whole day (from sunrise trip to sunset) for $25 that will take us up to Thaung Tho, where the village market was for that day.  Also, we booked our bus tickets tickets Mandelay, booked a taxi to pick us up in the Mandelay bus station to take us around for 4 hours (paid $15 - 5am - 9am) and rented the bicycles.  I wanted to go for the sunrise the next day morning in the boat but got a lot of resistance from the kids, so we left the hotel after having the breakfast.  Talking about the breakfast, it is the standard breakfast like any other hotel in Myanmar but the reviews in TA indicated that it’s an awesome breakfast, so don’t book this hotel for an awesome breakfast (the hotel is good and the manager is very helpful).  The local market in Thaung Tho had a lot of food stalls as well as other shops where we had a lot of sobu tofu from a local merchant for $1 - since she was closing the shop she was trying to finish all of the tofu by filling our plate.  The floating villages in Myanmar are different from the floating villages in Cambodia and here are vegetable gardens or farming areas floating but the houses are built on the elevated poles.  The sunset at the lake was very beautiful and a fisherman was posing pictures to collect tips.

Bicycle Ride

The next day, we woke up late before venturing into the villages in the bicycles.  When we were wondering what to do with when one of our bicycle chain broke off after riding 2 miles, another traveler who was riding his bicycle lent his phone to call Ms. Mu.  Ms. Mu came with another bike within 15 minutes and took care of us.  The roads and the way they were laying new tar roads in the villages reminded me of how they used to lay roads in India in late 1970s, pretty primitive way of doing.  Riding on the wooden bridge was little scary but fun.  We chilled in one of the small shelters on the bridge for sometime watching the village life before taking a small canoe rowed by leg to a nearby (25 feet away) restaurant.  There was a constant chanting sound coming from somewhere in the villages and constant flow of boats going in and out of the village.  

Bus to Mandelay

The ride to the winery was bit uphill at the end but going there is well worth it because of the view and the wine.  The Burmese massage at the end of the long bike ride was worth it and we were able to get back to the hotel on time to catch the share taxi to the bus stand.  The bus stand to take the bus to Mandelay is bit farther outside the city and there’re few places to eat around the bus stop.  Our 730pm bus to Mandelay showed at the bus stop around 8pm and on the way stopped for dinner for 30 minutes - despite being all these delays we were able to reach Mandelay one hour earlier @330am.  The conductor in that bus was a lady and she was waking us every time she was serving snacks or water and the music in the bus was pretty loud.  But overall the ride was good to Mandelay and the bus dropped us close to the city center instead of far away from the city center.  We won’t have known to get down there unless our driver, Mr. Win, was there to wake us up to get us down.

Buddha's Face Washing Ceremony

Mr. Win took us to the hostel to unload our bags and to use the restrooms before heading to the Maha Muni to witness the Buddha’s face washing ceremony.  When we reached the temple around 4am, there’re hardly 25 people there but by 430 am, there were more than 150 people arrived by tourist buses and other ways.  They were selling puja things, cookies, flowers, paper umbrella,etc. in a plate that most of the people bought and put them in a platform in front of Buddha (not sure how everyone picks up their plate).  Once the gate opened at 430 am, everyone rushed to occupy the best seat, but sorry ladies, you can’t sit in the front..:-(

The face washing ceremony is a long and detailed process where the priest bring in flowers, water, sandalwood paste and other puja things in different vessels to arrange in front of Buddha before covering Buddha from neck down with white cloth, then sprayed water on Buddha’s face to wash his face and brush his teeth.  It is funny to see a number of monks taking selfies in front of Buddha while helping to get Buddha ready for the face washing.  To get to the point of washing his teeth took about 45 minutes and it was already 515 am, I didn’t want to miss watching the sunrise @Mandelay’s long wooden bridge, U-Bein, so we left before the ceremony ended.

U-Bein Sunrise

There were not many people at the U-Bein at 545am but people started to show up slowly.  We took a power nap
in the taxi ’til 615 before started to walk around to take pictures and to enjoy an awesome sunrise.  There are a lot of locals come there to do exercise on the bridge, a lot of monks walking along the bridge as well as fishermen at the lake.  After walking on the bridge for some time, we left to the hotel to take rest.

Mandaley

The breakfast provided by the hostel in the neighborhood shop was very good, especially the tea from the shop was one of the best tea I had in Myanmar.  One of my daughters, Shabina, started to throw up by the time we reached the hostel, so she had naan in the shop while we had egg pancake which was very oily.  The boy who was serving us in the restaurant, Akka, was very energetic, loud and very young (about 12 years old).  We spent most of the day at the hostel sleeping and nagging Shabina to drink 100 plus/water every 15 minutes.  We met two other tourists who also had someone in their group having vomit issue and taking rest in the room.  Around 3pm,  Sharada and I left to eat in an Indian restaurant for late lunch and the food in that restaurant is very good.  We packed some naan and dahl for Shabina before walking back to the hostel.  After having the food, Shabina was feeling better, so we decided to walk to the local market to see what is there because it’s late to go for the sunset view from the Mandelay hill where all the tourists go in the evening.  We walked about a mile for the night market to have some juice in the roadside shop and waited for a taxi to get back to the hostel, but even after waiting for 15 minutes, no taxi.  Noticing this, there’s a guy in the neighborhood shop offered to take us back to the hostel in two motor cycles for $2 and we took on that offer :-)

We met a Canadian guy, Steve, from White Horse area in Canada who has been coming to Myanmar for the last 8 years because he likes this country better than any other place.  He was telling how the military regime is good for the tourists because there’s absolutely no theft from the tourists and even if a tourist get robbed, the cops will get their things within 6 hours.  Also, he indicated that it’s the only thing good about the military junta and everything else is pretty bad.  I am not justifying the junta but stating the sad fact.  Realizing the taxi situation in Mandelay, we arranged for a taxi, to take us to the airport, with the hostel.  If you have a chance, deal directly with the taxi guy and you will be able to save some money as well as the taxi guy some money because the taxi guy has to give some money to the hotel or hostel person arranging the taxi.

There is not any signage within the airport for any departures airlines but it is a small airport and you should not

have any problem finding the necessary counters.  The departure gate is almost like a bus stand, there are no signs but people queueing up to board the flight and there’s no clear announcement regarding which flight was boarding.  So don’t wait for any announcement, just ask someone what flight they queueing for and follow the crowd.  We almost missed our flight because we didn’t see our AirAsia flight and didn’t hear announcements but the flight was parked away from the gate and everyone was taking the shuttle to flight. Luckily, I asked someone about the boarding and get in the flight just a few minute before closing the gate.  To make things worse, more than one flight departs from the same gate that was the confusion in my case.

My Views

Myanmar is a beautiful country with very friendly people.  Wondered how these peaceful people or monks are fighting with the  Muslim community in the north as well as why the minorities treated badly here, the simple answer may be the “Mob Mentality” and Politics.  We never had any problems or issues, Burmese treated us very well wherever we visited.  You should visit here before thousands of tourists start arriving here.

Bangkok - 2015

Introduction

First, my opinion about Bangkok - it is the least favorite place that I have ever visited.  If you are interested in Shopping and Night Life, then spend more time else just get out after a day. 

Highlights and Suggestions

• The Visa On Arrival fees need to be paid in Thai Bhats and there are no ATM machines that I noticed on the way from the gate to the immigration desk.  Also, if you are getting VOA, please have the return ticket available to be shown the visa officer
• The public transit system is very good.  From the low cost airlines terminal (DMK), you can get to the Mo Chit Metro station by the bus “A8” and from there go can almost anywhere in Bangkok by Metro.  From the Bangkok (BGK) airport, you can take the City Train to the city.
• Air Asia provide free shuttle between the two airports and to use this you need to have the upcoming ticket in AirAsia for that day or for the next day.
• Look at the calendar for the local festivals or holidays before visiting.  All of the pagodas that we visited were very crowded because of the New Year.
• I didn’t find a single taxi that’s willing use the meter in Bangkok. 
• Always carry more than one map that you are familiar with and also have a picture of the map in your phone.
• Go to the 6th floor food court to have the authentic thai food.  5th floor food court is international and expensive.
• The immigration lines are long and the processing is inefficient, so please allow enough time to get to your gate.
• Source that I used to plan this trip: Wikitravel, Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor forum

Arriving Bangkok

The walk from the arrival gate to the immigration desk is a long walk and the wait to get through the immigration was long.  We arrived on the New Year’s eve at 11pm and the Uber estimate to our hotel was much more than what we offered by a taxi office in the arrival.  Since we were five people and also it was New Year’s eve, we decided to book the taxi in the arrival area.  Paid around $25 to go to the area new Phya Thai Metro station.  On the way to our hotel (Best Western) we enjoyed nice fireworks in the downtown area.  The rooms that got were stinking of cigarette smoke even though we were in the non-smoking floor.  When complained, someone came with the air freshener to take care of the problem :-0  We were tired to fight to move to a different room or floor.

Canal Boat Ride

The Hotel staff interested more in trying to sell services (taxi, tour, etc.) than provide any useful information  Hopefully, it will be different for you, but to be sure please do your research before getting to Bangkok.  The hotel guys asked not to take the Saen Saeb canal boat because the canal stinks.  But we just wanted to visit the canal to see whether it can beat the stinking river in Chennai.  None of the road side stalls on the way to the boat station were open because it was New Year and there are only Starbucks & McDonalds open for breakfast.  We found the food court in Platinum mall but had to wait ’til 10am to get in and the food was good and authentic in the food court.  They found a nice way to make you spend more by asking you pay for the pre-paid card and accepting only that card in the restaurants which made us spend more.  The balance in the prepaid card was refunded to you very quickly in a different counter.

The public boat service is good but don’t try to travel in that one with someone who is elderly or physically

challenged to move fast.  The boat stops for less than a minute and during that time more than 30 people get on & off of the boat on the same side.  I have to literally pull and push my 80 year old father to get inside the boat.  The trip is fine and there’s no stinking small at least during the month of January.  The boat ride was good and we’re able to some of the non-touristy areas on the way to the Wat Ratchanaddaram pagoda.

The pagoda was good and crowded because it’s the New Year.  You can climb up to see the bird eye view of the town but the views are not that great.  You can visit this pagoda if you want to take the canal boat then make it part of that trip.  Don’t think that it’s worth a separate visit IMO.  After visiting the pagoda, we walked to the Royal Palace because we’re not able to get a taxi or Tuk Tuk to take us there.  On the way to the Royal Palace, we came across huge banner all over the place for the King and these are permanent structures.  Also, we crossed Democracy Monument and September Monument before reaching another Pagoda right across from the Royal Palace where there’re huge ceremonies for the New Year happening.  

Royal Palance

Getting into the Emerald Buddha pagoda, located inside the Royal Palace, was a major problem and there’re no lines but just push your way through. But once inside the pagoda, it was fine.  No photography allowed inside this pagoda and the Royals come to this pagoda on special occasions.  After this, we walked around the palace, all over the palace walls there’re paintings depicting Ramayan stories.  I could understand some of the stories painted there but a lot of them are new to me, they may be Thai version of Ramayana.  Hope there’s a publication (there should be) that walks through each painting.  Just outside and opposite side of the Palace, there are a lot of roadside restaurants where we had our first roadside Pat Thai which was very good and cheap.  

Broom Beating

The Sleeping Buddha pagoda was nice but very crowded.  A Buddhist monk was blessing everyone by beating everyone’s head with small broom, and there’s a long line to get the blessing.  It’s good and bad in visiting the pagodas and temples in an auspicious day, good because you get to see the different customs and the crowd makes it bad.  We walked to the boat dock to catch to go the Wat Arun another beautiful pagoda.  The boating dock is a nice place to see the beautiful sunset and it’s a quick boat ride to the other side of the river where Wat Arun is.  It’s a nice place to chill and enjoy in the evening.  The pagoda is very beautiful from outside and my readings indicated that there’s nothing special going on inside, so enjoyed the pagoda from outside.

Boat Ride Back to Hotel

The line is long to get into the boat to go to the pier to get the ferry to go back to the hotel.  The problem was no signs or announcements on the ferry that arrives in the pier, and make sure that you ask before boarding on the ferry.  We got into the fast ferry that doesn’t stop in the pier to get closer to our hotel, and I didn’t realize that before boarding :-(  so ended up in some other pier but luckily it was closer to the MRT.  In the ferry ride, I lost my map and couldn’t identify the neighborhood of our hotel in other maps. After asking few people to look at their maps, I was able to find a map where I could find our hotel to take the right station to get off.  On the way back from the MRT station to the hotel, we couldn’t find roadside stalls to eat, so after leaving my parents in the hotel, I left to get the dinner.  There’s a night market very close to the hotel, which we realize and we had very good local food there.  The information given by the hotel was that all of the places would be closed because of New Year and advised us to eat in the hotel…so pissed with their service.

Gaming the System by TukTuk Driver

We absolutely no idea what to do the next day.  The only place left to go was the floating market and there’s nothing to do there during the day time, so we decided to the Siam area to eat and hang around in the MBK mall.  When our hotel Tuk Tuk dropped us in the main road at 9am, we met a funny Tuk Tuk driver who was talking non-stop.  He mentioned that all of the eating places and the mail will open only at 10am so he wanted us to go to the Art shop before the mall drop off.  He agreed to drop us in the mall for $3 but we have to go to the Art shop and he requested us to spend 10-15 minutes there showing interest in the things so that he’d get 5 liter petrol from them.  Since there is nothing much to do ’til 10am, we decided to go for the 15 minute ride through the local neighborhoods and the King’s home to the Art shop hearing his non-stop stories and advise on things to buy.  After spending about 15-20 minutes in the Art shop looking at different handicrafts, jewelry, etc., we went to the MBK for breakfast and to kill our time.

Cowboy Street

After wasting the whole day walking around the mall, we took the Air Asia shuttle to DMK from BGK to take our flight to Myanmar wondering what to do in Bangkok when we return back in one week.  Exactly after a week, when we landed back in Bangkok, we stayed in the Siam area.  Siam area has a lot of roadside places to eat where we had our dinner before going back to the room to chill.  We had to take care of a number of things related to work and personal emails to take care after being shielded (limited) from Internet in Myanmar.  The next day, after leaving my kids in the airport, I returned to the hotel.  In the evening, I walked around to see what the night life is in Bangkok.  Walked around the Cowboy Street and the surrounding areas to see complete commercialization of sex in Bangkok.  The number of older man walking around with young woman is a lot in the Siam area.  Wondering how the people working and living in the Siam area bring up their kids (especially girls) with this kind of environment.  All I can say is that Thailand may be beautiful in the North (mountains) and in the South (beautiful beaches), but Bangkok is the least favorite place for me. 

Cambodia - 2014

Introduction

Thank you for visiting my blog.  The Observation and Summary  section of the blog will list some of the helpful information as well as some suggestions if you plan to visit.  The next section Our Journey will make you go through the experience that I had in this wonderful country with me.

Observations And Suggestions

Visa andHotels

The Visa On Arrival is easy but remember to bring the passport size pictures.  Also good crisp dollar bills.  If the bill is little bit torn, dirty or something written on them, no one will accept it.

Palace @ Phnom Penh

If you have a chance to book a tour guide, my suggestion is to book a guide for the whole day (approx. $30).

The US Dollar is accepted everywhere but have some Riel for smaller changes.

Not all of the hotels in this part of the world has elevators, so if you are physically challenged to climb the stairs, check with your hotel before you cough up the money.

Tuk Tuk 101

Tuk Tuk’s are the best mode of transportation where you can enjoy the local scenes.

Tuk Tuk’s are pretty inexpensive so don’t pay big bucks to stay in the city center, you can stay closer to the place also.  From here, you can take a nice walk to the center and ride the Tuk Tuk back for a few bucks.

You can negotiate the price of the Tuk Tuk price.  Do your research or ask your hotel, how much certain rides will cost before head out.

The poles at the side of the road carry a lot of cables and not sure how they figure out the problem ones to fix.

If you are tight on time, get a Tuk Tuk and don’t rely on the bicycle.

Other Info

You can get your bus tickets or mini-bus tickets in your hotel or in restaurants.  You can ask them how much the mark up is and you ask around before committing to buy the ticket.  Also, make sure that the bus company picks you up from your hotel for free.

Siem Reap Sunset

If you live in a place where there’s a beautiful sunset or you don’t care for a sun set, my suggestion is not spend time going for the sun set in Siem Reap because there’s no nice background or anything.  It is like climbing a hill to see a sun set.  Don’t take me wrong, it is beautiful.  But I would rather spend time visiting temples than climbing up the hill to see the sun set.  There is no temple or Angkor background for the sunset.

If you are white guy, you will be getting a lot of attention from the local ladies…not sure whether they are serious or joking around with the white guys asking them to take to America.  Nothing vulgar or indecent, fun to watch them joking around.

The road trip between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is not as bad as I feared or depicted in the forums.  It is a decent road for the developing country.

Food near the temples are decent but expensive.

Cambodians have found very innovative ways to use their motor cycles.  They anything and everything to their two wheelers and I was hoping to see the Airplane being towed by a two wheeler but it didn’t happen…other than this different type of carts and attachments were hitched to their motor cycles.

You have to pay for the rest rooms in the Angkor War temple as well as in other temple areas.  So have some Cambodian Riel handy.

Strange things

All of the check-in counters for the international travel open just two hours before the flight.  While waiting in the line to drop in the bag, one of my friends from WalMart days (25 years back) recognized me and started talking to me.  I still can’t remember him:-(. 

The immigration official at the departure counter was yelling at a Chinese guy for not having the departure card and when I presented my stuff, he was asking for tips so I paid a couple of dollars as tips for the kick of tipping an immigration officer…:-)

Our Journey

Arriving at Phnom Penh

Palace

The VOA is quick and easy.  You fill out the visa (available on the side desks or on the counter that states “Visa Applications” - the left most counter), attach a passport size picture and drop off with your passport.  A bunch of guys sitting behind the counter go through your application and the officer at the right most area will call out your name.  You go there to pay the visa fee and collect your passport.  It all takes about 15-20 minutes.

We were hungry and tired, so didn’t want to haggle with the taxi guys, so got the taxi in the airport.  The going price to the city is $12, since we are 5 people we had to pay $3 more.  It is better than taking two taxis for two Tuk Tuks.  You may be able to save a bit if you could walk out of the airport and get a taxi from the road (not sure how much but we didn’t do it).  Took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel.  The first thing that I notices was that there’re not horn or honking sounds even though there’re a lot of chaotic traffic and the second thing is that the
Cambodian made use of their two wheelers for a lot of different purposes (from Tuk Tuk to mobile stalls). 

Walking Around Phnom Penh

Walked around the Royal Palace area while trying to figure out where to get the mini-bus tickets for the next day to go to Siem Reap.  Even though the google map didn’t take us the place to buy the ticket (may be the place is closed now), we walked around some interesting areas where a lot of monks were staying and around the local market.

The food in Cambodia is relatively inexpensive and we were able to buy the tickets for our trip in a stand near the restaurant.  So don’t hunt for the particular bus company office to buy the ticket, you could find the ticket booth in most of the shops and you could get the ticket in the bus company that you are interested (it is cheaper than what you could get from your hotel).

Walked to the night market along the Mekong river and enjoyed the very lively atmosphere there - about 20 people were dancing on the sidewalk with music blasting with some tourist joining them.  Visited the night market where someone was playing music on the stage and a bunch of T-shirt & typical night market shops around.  Took a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel for $2.

Visiting the Killing Fields

Prison S21 - School Converted to Prison

Locks for the Legs in the Prison

We took a Tuk Tuk to the Killing Fields museum and we paid about $17 for more than half a day trip.  The museum is very basic and none of the original buildings survived but being in the same place where thousands of the Cambodians executed was eerie.  I think that everyone should visit this place to understand what happened in this place which is right in the middle of the farmlands.  The thought of “it is better to kill dozens than let one criminal get out in case of doubt” is very dangerous and we all think that it’s reasonable to think that way but it led to killings of thousands just in one prison cell.  The S21 was a school but this school was converted into a prison where each class room is made into smaller cells and walls broken to connect each room.  Couldn’t believe that this went on for more than 3 years.  Only 7 people out of this prison walked out alive and all others were executed.  Must see place in SR.

The Bus Trip to Siem Reap

The mini-bus has a free pick up from the hotel and the mini-bus left on time.  The trip was not bad at all given that we were sitting on the very last row in the bus.  The roads are reasonably maintained and because of the new road construction, it was bumpy part of the way.  We arrived within 6 hours and the hotel, Gold Temple Villa, sent a car to picks up.  The hotel ambience at the check out area is really good but the rooms are basic.  Cambodians are really friendly people.  We made arrangements for a Tuk Tuk and a bicycle to go to Angor Wat for the Sun Rise to Sun Set.  But forgot to book a guide for the day.

Bike ride to Angkor Wat

Sunrise

Tough riding the bike early at 430am and keeping up with the Tuk Tuk in which my family was riding with the old basic bicycle (no gears). Whenever I braked, the bike was making a huge noise and whenever the bike started to speed, the back wheel started to wobble.  When you are entering the temple, choose the left side entrance and stay there to see the view of the temple at sun rise.  Our luck, it was cloudy and there’s no beautiful view we saw in the pictures.  

Angkor Wat 

Looked for the guide and hired someone to guide us in the Ankor Temple for $20, and the tour lasted for 90 minutes.  The guide is decent but not great, so please get a guide from your hotel if you can.  It was interesting to see a room where clapping the hands or any other noise generate echo but only if you beat your chest and that noise makes echo.  Also, the sound of “Om” echoes but no other word makes the echoing noise.  There is a belief about the center of the universe that exist inside the Angkor Wat.    

The reason for the steps are are steep in Angkor Wat and in another temples in this area is that the devotees need to go up to pray to the god by touching the ground and they shouldn’t walk standing straight up.  Walked around the temple and enjoyed the sculptures beautifully done and one interesting thing is that the Hindu epic Ramayan is everywhere but no sign of Mahabharatha.  The Ramayan war scene statues are every wall.

The Tuk Tuk driver agreed to take me in the vehicle for additional $2, so we parked the bicycle nearby.  The Angkor South gate is very impressive and the Bayon temple has a number of similar faces in its temple.  Whose faces are those is a question for which no one knows the answer.  After touring a few more temples in the South Gate area, we headed to the Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset.  There are a few cops there who asked us whether we needed my parents to go in the motor bike to the top of hill.  We decided to walk and it’s a good 30 minute walk up hill.  Phnom Bakheng  was very crowded and hardly any place to sit but the view from there is average and the sunset is nothing great.  If I go there again, I won’t make the trip for the sunset.

Arch walkway just with stones

After collecting the bike, rode the bike back to the hotel.  Not bad riding back because the Tuk Tuk couldn’t go faster because of the traffic so I was able to cope up with the speed.  If you are getting a bike from your hotel, check the locks before leaving the hotel.  The lock in my bike didn’t work.  Made a deal with the driver to pick us up to go to the floating villages the next day.

Trip to the Floating Villages

There’re a lot of marriage pandals on the way to the floating village.  The Tuk Tuk driver was punctual and we made arrangement to meet him away from the hotel because we didn’t want him to get into trouble with the hotel for making separate arrangement with us.  When we stopped to take the picture of the marriage pandal, we were invited for the wedding.  The country side roads are decent and it’s beautiful greenery.  To go to the floating villages, there is mud road detour where there’s a guy sitting in a check post kind of a setup to collect the money for the boat and was issuing tickets.  Initially, he asked for $15 per person and at the end we bargained for $35 for all of us five people.  

Commuting to School

Our Tuk Tuk got stuck in a couple of places on the way to the boating dock, the boats are pretty basic and we got in the boat thinking that the may get stuck somewhere.  There were a bunch of guys standing in the water to fish and didn’t find a lot of fishing boats in that area.  We told the boat person not to stop in any shops and when he stopped, we didn’t get down so that’s the first and last shopping stop.  Saw very small children rowing the boat by themselves to go to the school.  In that remote corner n the floating village, there’s a huge pagoda.  After going for the ride for about 90 minutes, we came back to the dock to see our Tuk Tuk driver missing but the Tuk Tuk was there.  There’re a number of local guys in the dock area were looking for our driver and he was in the river fishing.

Remember Where Your Vehicle is

On the way back to the town, i struck another deal with the driver to extend the Tuk Tuk rental to take

around the big circle of the temples in Angkor for additional $14.  After having lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting the temples in the big loop area.  We visited Preah Khan temple at the end and our driver wanted us to remember the gate where we are entering from because a number of people forget where their vehicle is parked and spend a lot of time.  I was thinking that he’s kidding but he was not because we found a girl in the temple trying to figure out where she parked her bicycle.  We visited this huge temple at the end and after 5pm, so there’s no one there. Being in the 1000 year temple, where trees are grown over the structures, was strange.  All tired when we headed back to the hotel.

We were trying to eat in the hotel but the restaurant was closed because someone working in the restaurant was getting married, so everyone left for the wedding party.  Since everyone was tired, I picked up food for everyone before heading out to the night market.  The night market is filled with massage places and every other shop was a massaging shop.  The lanes are zig zag and I completely lost my orientation and had to ask someone for direction to get back to my hotel.

Bye Bye Cambodia

Woke up pretty late in the morning and relaxed in the hotel room before getting the complimentary massage from hotel.  The late lunch at Maharaja Indian restaurant was very good.  Walked around the tourist market as well as the local market where they sell the fruits/vegetables/spices.  People watched for sometime in the Night Market area where a number of local come and hang around before got back to the hotel.  The same Tuk Tuk guy showed up with his friend to take us to the airport.

Summary

Cambodia is a country literally screwed by the western nations for a period 15 years when there's no external aid or support provided for the country that lost 25% of the population because of the brutal Khmer Rouge rule.  And on top of it, USA and China were working together to bring back the Pol Pot rule because they both didn't like Vietnam, the country that liberated Cambodia from Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge).  Even with all of the sufferings Cambodians went through, they treated all of the tourist with pleasure and very nice people.  Also, the roads and tourist infrastructure was decent for a country that's trying to develop.

Relatively it is a safe country and we walked around the back alleys in Phnom Penh without the fear of being mugged.  

Visit to God's Own Country and Spa of South India

Three Day Trip to Kerala and Thenkasi

Summary

• Trip to India is not complete if you don't travel in the train.  Safest mode of transportation in India.
• Always carry a blankets (light weight) or sleeping bags when you travel by train.
• Kerala is the most beautiful place I have been.  You don't have to take the expensive house boat to enjoy, you can stay in one of the backwater villages and take day trips.
• Road trip is long and tiring, so plan accordingly.  
• Thenkasi is a very beautiful place with a lot of greenery, go with the flow and enjoy the waterfalls.
• Visiting temples in Kerala or closer to Kerala border is a pain.  Always be prepared to deal with BS.

Alleppey Village Docking

This trip doesn't have any exciting stories but logs about my planning process and the trip.  This is a family trip with my parents, kids and their friends (Nikhila and Tejas) to Kerala and Courtallam in the first week August 2013.  It was almost end of the monsoon season in Kerala, we were little concerned about making the trip there and getting stuck in the rain.  Decided to get the train tickets to Alleppey and paid Rs.1000 advance for the house boat - a friend of mine recently told me of the difference between house boat and boat house ;-).  The plan was to monitor the weather, if it became terribly bad, we could cancel the trip and all we would lose was about Rs.2000 for the family of 7...so it didn't sound like a bad plan.  But we were very lucky that the weather in Alleppey was better and not much rain, we were all set to go.

Security @Central Station, Chennai

From the train

The Chennai Central Train station was easily manageable with their electronic train/platform information.  Not sure what the purpose of having metal detectors in the train station because the police who was sitting there never bother to monitor the alarm the detectors made - may be they would do random checks.  I am not sure whether they could do individual checks with the number of people traveling by train.  One thing with the train station was that after certain section, the platform was not well lit but with the number of people there, there is no worry about security.

The Train

Even though the outside of the train look dirty, the inside was reasonably clean in the II Class compartment and the train left on time. As soon as my kids joined, Tejas got his energy and started singing at 11 pm that made the other guy in our compartment get irritated with Tejas singing at that time but it didn't bother Tejas at all...;-)
Kerala is truly a God's country - it's very beautiful with a lot of backwater, green farmlands, coconut and green trees.  The view from the train is very beautiful and couldn't find a lot high story buildings and got the feel that most parts of Kerala are untouched by the stupidity going around in Tamil Nadu of converting form lands into housing flats.

The House Boat

Alleppey train station as well as the town are small and the owner of the house boat was there to take me to the boat.  The house boat had 4 bed rooms with good size and a nice dining/hangout area.  Two guys were working in the kitchen and one guy was maneuvering the boat.  The quality of the furniture and overall deco of the house boat was really good, but I could see that it's not being maintained properly when we started lifting the cushions and looking under the furniture for the ear ring that Shabina had dropped.

My mother wanted to maneuver the boat, so she was allowed to do it and she found out within 5 minutes that it's not an easy task.  We were sitting around reading books, taking pictures and talking while Tejas was busy playing the video games in his game controller.  There're small stretches of land in the backwaters where they were having the paddy fields and a lot of coconut trees. The lunch was typical Kerala food with the choice of rice, sambar, dhal, beans and avial.

The Ride to Tiruvandrum

It was cloudy most of the time and it rained about 30 minutes in evening and immediately after that it's sunny.  The back waters was a large area and felt like we're in the sea, we were able to see Kumarakkam and other town in the afternoon from the house boat before anchoring the boat in a village.  I was told that there're more 15,000 house boats in that area.  On the way to the village we noticed people washing cloths and vessels, kids swimming, etc. in the backwater. The coconut trees in that village were short and we could easily pluck coconuts without climbing the tree.

Morning scenery: Vegetables being transported

The morning scenery in the village was very beautiful with a number of small boats ferrying vegetables and people in the village.  It's very nice to sit and look around the village waking up slowly and getting into the daily routine.  After having breakfast, we headed back to Alleppey where I had arranged for another car to pick us up to go to Tiruvandrum before heading out to Curtlalum.

We had so much difficulty finding a vegetarian place to eat our lunch before reaching Tiruvandrum and finally we were able to eat in a place just an hour from Tiruvandrum.  The whole drive took about 5 hours and we were thinking that we could make it in 3 hours, it was a very tiring drive.  The museum, private museum, outside the temple has a lot of nice things those are more than 300+ years old but both not displayed and maintained nicely - so sad to see that.

Pain In Tiruvandrum Temple

Getting into the temple was a major headache because of the rules about what you can wear and what you can't.  I understand that the men have to wear dhoti but the rule about not to have pants under the dhoti seems to be strange.  When I was wearing pants under my dhoti, I was asked to removed my pants and leave it outside.  Also, the girls are not allowed to wear salwar into the temple only allowed to wear sari or skirt, looks like that the gods have not kept with the changing times..;-)  The way the guys at the entrance of the temple behaved made us pissed off with the whole experience.

After waiting in the queue for more than an hour, we were able to get into the main room of the temple to get the dharsan, there was a priest throwing holy ash to the devotees and I was totally pissed off with the way he was treating the people as well as the holy ash.  My daughters were pissed off with the whole experience of going to the hindu temple with this experience ;-( and I don't blame them.

Ride to Thenkasi

Tiring Ride from Alleppey to Thenkasi

After the temple visit, we started our journey the Thenkasi and literally it was hell of a trip with a bumpy, windy road and bunch of people with travel sickness.  The plan was to stop to eat paratha (layered bread) in one of the famous places and go to the waterfalls in the night but with the condition of everyone in the car, we decided to just sleep and call it a night.

By the time we reached Thenkasi, it was about 10 pm and after having a cup of coffee, we made plans to wake up and leave around 9 am for the waterfalls.

Myth and Reality

The crowd at the main waterfalls was not bad and there may not be more than 200 people trying to take the bath in the falls but the way they were getting closer to the falls was really bad...lack of better words, it was stupid.  Luckily, there're different sections for men and women, otherwise the way the men were behaving to get to the falls would have created some nasty situation there :-0  There used to be a myth about the falls that after putting oil in your head (South Indians put oil in the head once a week before washing it off) and take bath in the falls, with the force of the water all of the oil would have gone without applying any special soap.  But what happened to me was that I went to take bath in the water falls without oil on my body but came out with a lot of oil after taking the bath ;-) It is because of the crowd and how they were pushing each other and screaming.

South Indian hospitality & lunch

On the way down, we bought some mango slices and sweet toddi on the roadside to enjoy.  The sweet toddi (padhaneer) was cooling and really tasted good.  Came back home to have lunch with our friend's (Vikki) family and after that we went to the close by temple in the hill.  It's funny that Tejas got scolding from the priest for not concentrating while praying and playing around.  The view from the hill was good and the whole area around Thenkasi is very beautiful and green, as good as the places in Kerala.

Observations

1. Train travel in India is awesome.  You can have very comfortable and safe journey in the second class (reserved) compartments that costs almost nothing.
2. Kerala is really the God's Country and if I visit next time, I would love to stay in the country side rather in the house boat because after sometime it gets boring in the boat.  The cost of the house boat experience is very expensive and it is a good experience that you should experience once.  We were trying to do too many things in three days and I would love to spend more time in Kerala and Thenkasi enjoying the great climate and natural beauty.
3. The turn-off in this trip is how the politicians robbed the natural resources in Tamil Nadu and how people are indifferent to those horrible actions.  There was a river (Cheyyar) that goes near my home town Polur and now no one will know that there's a river flowing there in the future because they completely removed the sand and there are plants growing in the river bed.  I had read about the sand scandal but didn't expect to see the river bed disappear and returned from India with heavy feeling about this.  Still pissed about this.