Rangoon, Myanmar

                     

This was a port that everyone was looking forward to. Formally know as Burma until 1989, it had been closed to tourism until 2012. HAL had just started bringing in ships here so the majority of the people on board had never been. With so many frequent world cruisers on board, that does not happen very often. We heard that 700 people were on HAL tours, a huge number for one port. My first glimpse of Myanmar was of the shore of the river. Everything was brown and mysterious looking, with mist in the fields. Later I would realize that it wasn't mysterious at all, just polluted, the air and the river. Everything was brown!

It was a bit of a zoo getting off the ship as the program had said we would dock at 6 but didn't actually dock until almost 8. Then it was almost 8:30 before the ship was cleared. Our group of 12 met on the pier then took the shuttle bus to the harbor gate. It would have been quite a long walk had we been allowed to. They would have charged us each $20 if our bus had been allowed in the gates. So we were finally with our guide, Spring, and off toward the city after 9. 

Just the ride was interesting. We were in a very rural area. The houses, or should I say huts, were made of woven bamboo. There were people and dogs everywhere. At least we knew they didn't eat dog! It was a dusty, bumpy road almost to what they call Yangon, which took about 45 minutes. Once we passed over a large river, we were in the city. Our first stop was at a beautiful gold stupa. A pagoda is a temple you can go into, a stupa you cannot. They are both large bell shaped structures, covered with gold leaf. We could see them all around town and in the countryside. Of course to confuse things, this first stupa had been destroyed during WWII so when they rebuilt it, they made it so you could go in. Inside all the walls were beautifully patterned, covered with gold leaf. The attraction was the 8 hairs of Buddha. They were inside a shrine inside the stupa. It was very crowded. The entire city was crowded with horrible traffic all day. 

We next stopped at a reclining Buddha. It was enormous. They had pictures of the original one that had been there. The Brittish had built it using Indian workers. Since the Indians didn't know what Buddha should look like, they made him with a very scary face. That one was torn down with this one replacing it in 1959. It was beautiful with flowing robes addorned with mosaic designs made with mirrors. We had to take our shoes off at every holy place we visited and our guide provided us with wipes to clean our feet when we were done, nice touch. 

We stopped at a beautiful colonial hotel for a potty stop. We were supposed to look like we were just looking around then use the toilet. They had a beautiful gift shop with a lot of nice relics. Spring told us we could find everything in the market for less money, so we left. We walked around the corner, up a flight of stairs to a photograph exhibit. There were pictures of Burma from years ago up to as recent as one of Obama when he was here in 2012. It was interesting. 

Now it was time for lunch. It took us almost an hour to get there. Everyone was dozing off in the bus. It was so hot outside, hard to be out in for any length of time. At the restaurant were several HAL buses. I guess that was the place for tourists. It was a fixed meal with about 8 courses, all of them good. I especially liked the roasted eggplant salad. We were also served curried fish and chicken. 

From there we headed to the market. Someone in our group suggested we only needed 45 minutes there. Spring suggested 2 hours! I would have been very happy with 2 hours but we settled on 1. Spring stayed with Mel and I to help us find what we had seen in the hotel, a harp shaped like an alligator. In the first store we went to they had a dragon harp, really spectacular! We continued to look around though and found a small one shaped like an alligator. This thing has so much detail, carved out of wood, and it was only $30. We bought that one then went back for the dragon. They packed it up in a very sturdy box. Hope we can just ship it home that way. The box is over 36" wide, maybe 30" tall, big. We will figure it out, we have never had a problem getting anything home before. Also in the market were jewelry store after jewelry store. Burma is known for rubies and sapphires, they were beautiful. A lot of gold also. 

Our last stop was the largest pagoda. Spring referred to it as Mecca for Buddhists. Buddhists from all over the world want to visit this place. We removed our shoes and took an elevator up. There was a large gold leaf stupa in the middle with dozens and dozens of smaller temples all around it and hundreds of Buddhas. We walked all the way around to see everything. We saw the Tooth of Buddha but never did see the other relics. It was a big place. We stopped at the gift shop on the way out then got on the bus for the ride back. 

Spring told us a lot about the Burmese way of life, love, marriage, etc. There are 8 major tribes in Myanmar. The name Burma refers to only one. They changed the name to Myanmar to include all the tribes. He told us that the Burmese do not kiss on the lips. They rub their nose on the other's cheek or forehead. We found that interesting. He said he did not allow his teenage sons to watch western movies because of the kissing. He also told us that marijuana was quite common when he was younger. Now you will be imprisoned for 18 months if caught in possession of even a small quantity, so he stays away from it. He did say they like to mix it with chicken and potatoes and invite friends over. He would still go if someone invited him. Mel said it sounded like chicken pot pie. Good one! We were onboard at about 7. It had been a very long but wonderful day. Now we do it all again tomorrow only to a different city.