So there I was, sitting on a plane all alone heading for Rangoon. Ed has left a day earlier and I got extremely worried when I did not hear from him hours past his arrival time. My SMS to him “Hello…are you still alive?” Hahahah! I later learned that there is no network roaming there. Interesting. Internet is crap and a lot of sites are blocked.

Dum dee dee dum… I looked at the passenger beside me and smiled. A Burmese man, late thirties and he’s obviously heading home (there has been a huge influx of Burmese workers seeking better job opportunities in Malaysia). I tried sleeping. But I kept wondering how Myanmar would be like. Would I need to bribe the immigration to get my passport stamped? Will the guesthouse come pick me up? I mean, I’ve done my research, but really, anything can happen in this country. It’s the land of the juntas yo.

Then, the steward (pretty cute I must say) came around with immigration cards. I filled mine out and asked the man if he needed a pen. He gestured to me and asked if I could help him. He doesn’t speak a word of English. He flipped to his work permit in his passport, an address shows where he’s staying in Malaysia. OOOHHH, he works & stays in my hometown! I was so excited, I almost jumped up to tell him…but I didn’t know how. Sigh! Yeah, I should have tried. Oh well. After I completed his card, he passed it on to his friend to use as a guide for filling his out. Pretty smart.

For some strange reason, I’ve always wanted to go to Myanmar. Maybe it’s because of a huge exposure to Burmese monks at the Buddhist centre my family goes to. Or because of the numerous debates we’ve had on the military junta. Or just plain curiousity.

Politics aside (I’ve written another post on whether people should go to Myanmar here), we decided to make Myanmar our first stop for Asia 2011. Random, I know. No, we didn’t know much about the country as online searches returned information that dated back to 2005! And we didn’t want to buy a guide book. Great! Gotta figure everything out on our own.

Within 5 mins of leaving the airport, I made a new friend – TB (whom we later travelled together for 2 weeks). We were greatly surprised by how modern the country is. To be honest, I did not have any expectations before arriving. C’mon Myanmar, wow me! And she did.

It’s interesting to experience how life was like back then. Everything is at least 25 years back in time. When I was taking my 1st shower, there was no hot water and we asked the guy to come check. Turns out, we have to wait a good 5-8mins for the water to heat-up. And it’s erratic; running out of hot water occasionally while I’m bathing. Yikes! The power supply is unstable everywhere and most businesses have generators. In Yangon, the power supply in the guesthouse went off a million times in a single night. When we arrived in Bagan at 9pm, the entire town was in total darkness and everything was closed.

I squeal with delight everytime I discover stuffs we had while growing up in the 80’s. Chocolate gold coins! Football-shaped chocs! Tacky colourful plastic toys! Bubblegums with tattoo stickers! I must’ve been the biggest kiddo traveller. Hahah.

Their national past-time is sepak takraw (chinlone) – you can see men playing on the streets every evening. Betel-nut chewing is also an everyday habit from young to old. Every corner you turn, there is a betel-nut stall. So yup, everyone has red stains on their teeth. A common sight is men in the traditional longyi (similar to a sarong) and women with Burmese yellow powder on their faces (made from sandwood), which supposedly is good for the skin and protects it from sun exposure.

And then there are the temples and pagodas. Gosh. They will blow your socks off. They’re all covered in gold, diamonds, rubies, sapphires. Shiny bling bling!  But the greatest of ’em all is Bagan, who boasts 2,230 ancient structures. There used to be 4,000+ but were unfortunately destroyed during the 1975 earthquake. We spent 2 days climbing onto higher structures just to get a good view of the pagodas… they’re everywhere and they seem to go on and on and on. The best was the sunrise where we climbed up a temple in total darkness, planted ourselves on the narrow sides and waited. When the sun finally rose, it was  magical to see the tips of the pagodas popping up one by one.

Rudyard Kipling was right: “This is Burma…and it will be unlike any land you know about”. Definitely romantic with an Asian charm.