4
On
our way home from India we had a wonderful opportunity to visit Myanmar
(formerly known as Burma) for a few days. We didn't get a chance to
see much because with our delay getting out of India we only had 5 days
there, but we had a wonderful time. We hope to be able to have a
longer visit next year.
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Myanmar
is called the golden land for all its gold covered pagodas. The
primary religion in Myanmar is Buddhism (about 90%). It has been
practiced for centuries and its followers built the pagodas in worship
to their ancestors, Buddha and other gods and spirits of their religion.
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The pagoda complexes are impossible to comprehend from books or
pictures. There are dozens of them throughout Burma, many of them
covering acres with pagodas, shrines, statues and temples. The pagoda
in the picture on the left is completely covered with gold leaf. Yes,
we are barefoot, it's the law. You can not even wear socks. Women
must wear long skirts and men must wear pants - if you do not come
properly attired they will provide clothes at the check-in counter.
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Although Buddhism is the primary religion,
about 4% of the population are practicing Muslims
and another 4% are practicing Christians
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 This
is the view of a mosque from the window of our hotel room. They were
kind enough to blast their first call to prayer at 4:45 every morning.
We would have sworn they had a speaker set up in our room.
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Above is the door to the church where we worshipped and made many friends.
To the left is 2 of the 5 flights of stairs we had to climb to get there - 87 of the steepest, narrowest stairs we'd ever seen.
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Myanmar
is a land of contrasts between the ancient and the modern. We had the
equivalent of Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dunkin
Donuts (no kidding, you couldn't tell the difference in a blind taste
test) within walking distance of our hotel room. Almost anything you
can think of you can buy. We bought a digital video camera right
before we left and had no problem getting the tapes and everything else
we needed. But if you don't enjoy pizza or hamburgers you can get
something more traditional like roasted crickets or poached pigeon eggs
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Roasted crickets anyone? YUM! YUM!
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Our how about some pigeon eggs. Do you prefer yours browned or just barely poached?
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The
biggest holiday in Myanmar is Water Festival. We headed for Thailand
before it started but mom & dad stayed for the whole thing. Water
Festival is all about getting wet and getting other people wet. We
were in Thailand for the celebration and got a little taste of it.
Mostly we were just squirted in the back by children with water pistols
and powdered by clerks if they had to get us change. The thing is, you
can't get mad because it is a form of a blessing and all done in good
spirits. We could not have this holiday in the U.S. because our
competitive nature would turn it from a Water Festival into a Water
War, but in Asia it's generally just a lot of fun. No one thought to
mention to mom and dad, however, that in Myanmar EVERYTHING closes for
4 days during Water Festival. Nothing is open, no stores, no
restaurants. They lived on peanut butter and crackers for 4 days. To
make it worse, in Myanmar the preferred soaking method is a bucket of
ice water - not pleasant when it's over 100 degrees out. Hoses are set
up all along the streets so the entire street becomes a fountain. One
day dad had to change his clothes 4 times! I think they will be
avoiding visiting Myanmar during Water Festival from now on.
You can click on either of the pictures of the Water Festival celebration below
to get a clearer idea of how it is celebrated
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Trip to Burma/Myanmar 