Travelogue to Pyin Oo Lwin - Myanmar's Hill Top Getaway (4 Jan 2016)

We left hotel slightly later around 9:45am as we had to pack all our stuff and checked out.  We grabbed breakfast along the way, popped over to the market to buy some souvenirs and snacks before heading to Dee Dote Blue Lagoon, located between Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin. 

Travelogue to Pyin Oo Lwin - Myanmar's Hill Top Getaway (3 Jan 2016)

Due to our late bedtime previous night, we only headed out around 930am towards the Pyin Oo Lwin Central Market, near clock tower. 

Purcell Tower

Built in 1934 by Gillete and Johnson Co. of England in commemoration of the Silver Jubilee of the reign of King George V of Britain

Travelogue to Pyin Oo Lwin - Myanmar's Hill Top Getaway (2 Jan 2016)

Right after ringing in a new year, we embarked on a trip towards the hill top getaway "Pyin Oo Lwin". This trip was further made special by our little fur-guest - Mr. Milo (a fur baby of our friends, Mike & Rachel).  After getting a doggie of my own, I realised how tough it must have been for our friends and Milo. Just think of unannounced bathroom breaks and a risk of Mr. Milo running out of our mini bus.  Heart-stopping!  So good job Milo, you had been such an angel!!!

Mt.Popa with Friends - 22 June 2015

We took our time savouring breakfast, chilling around the resort and packing our bags before checking out.

Bagan with Friends - 21 June 2015

In Bagan, locals believed that their wish will come true if you visit these four pagodas namely Tant Kyi Taung, Law Ka Nan Da, Tu yin Taung, and Shwe Zi Gon on the same day, before noon. Of course, you can only make the same one wish at all four spots. 

Due to the widespread locations of the four pagodas and the need to take ferry across Ayeyarwaddy river to reach Tant Kyi Taung, we set our alarms for 4am and set off from hotel around 430 am.  Our kind hotel F&B team went an extra mile and prepared packed breakfast of fried rice and watermelon juice for us!

The route to the top of the mountain to pray at Tant Kyi Taung was so rough and it is recommended you rent car and driver from locals.  If your group is big and want to save money, light truck (20,000 Kyats per round trip with capacity up to 15 pax) is the one.  However, expect the ride to be quite bumpy.  We hired 2 small cars, which accommodated 5 pax each. Rental fees including driver was 18,000 Kyats per round trip for each car. 

Sun rise view from Tant Kyi Taung 

Bagan with Friends - 20 June 2015

I had been to Bagan once with my family when I was about 12-13 years old and another time with Mister, during his first visit to Myanmar in 2012.  I did share about my second trip on this blog but bear with my writing as I had just started blogging then. Hopefully I have improved since then? 

http://musingsofmissn.blogspot.com/2013/03/myanmar-day-4-bagan-22-may-2012.html

http://musingsofmissn.blogspot.com/2013/03/myanmar-day-5-bagan-popa-23-may-2012.html

24 hours in Yangon

Myanmar is the last frontier for tourists and business travelers alike, at least in this part of the region. However, there is limited information available (unlike cities such as Bangkok) and so, its quite 'mysterious' to many people. I was always asked 'what is there to do in Myanmar/ Yangon?' To me, its home. Its not somewhere I go to tour. So when I had to think on my feet about places to go and food to eat, my advice wouldn't have been very coherent or helpful.  After taking my time to think of recommendations, here is the packed itinerary if you just have 24 hours in Yangon!

Given the limited time and notorious traffic jam in Yangon, I tried to reduce travelling time by focusing on attractions which are located close together.  Downtown Yangon is made up of 6 townships (Latha, Lanmadaw, Pabedan, Kyauktada, Botahtaung, Pazundaung) and the road layout follows a grid pattern. So it should be quite easy to navigate your way around.

When it comes to choosing some places and rejecting others, I had to strike a balance between history, architecture, religious places, nature, shopping and of course, food! Being the former British colonial capital, Yangon has the most number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia.  Since time has effectively stood still for so many decades, my colleague mentioned that he felt as if he had stepped through a time machine when he visited Myanmar. It is possible to walk the entire stretch of road without finding any modern day buildings. Instead, you would be inside the larger-than-life museum with rows of colonial era buildings. Sure, they are deteriorate and worn down. However, they are exhibits which you could never find elsewhere. So such sights would be the main highlights of my itinerary.  Based on your own preference, you may choose to spend more time in some places while forgoing other places. I hope you experience something new, something different!

Bon Voyage!

xoxo

Miss N

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 6 & 7 - 24 & 25 Dec 2013

After a gruesome bus journey, we finally made it to the town of Kyaukse at 4 am. Famous for its Kyaukse Elephant Dance, this is the hometown of Missy's father. 

We would spend the next 2 days here witnessing a traditional Burmese Buddhist procession called the Ah-hlu. The Ah-hlu basically is a celebration that is held for a family when they donate generously to the local Buddhist monastery. Missy's youngest uncle had recently donated and held the Ah-hlu procession also to send his sons to become monks at the monastery. This is a traditional rite of passage for all Burmese Buddhists boys to show their coming of age. They typically spend a minimum of 3 days at a monastery to follow and learn from the monks. For me, it was truly an honour to be able to witness such a procession as I have never seen anything close to that before.

 Young girls take part in the procession too! Ear piercing ceremony is the rite of passage for girls.

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 5 - 23 Dec 2013

As we started the 5th day of our tour, first stop was the iconic Htam Sam cave, located 19 km east of Taunggyi (1-hour drive away from Taunggyi). Believed to be one of the longest caves in Myanmar, Htam Sam is found in Hopong Pa-O self-administered area.  From the entrance, it did not seem like there was going to be much to see inside but the moment we stepped in, we were taken aback by its natural beauty inside. Never, ever judge a book by its cover. 

Limestone and natural rock formations littered the place and were truly a sight to behold. They reminded us of icicles, just in the form of rocks. Also, further down in the cave, various Buddha images were scattered around and at the end of the path was a small waterfall. 

Discovered only recently, this cave currently does not have the popularity of Pindaya Cave but surely in time as more people come to know about this, it will be a new tourist hot-spot.

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 4 - 22 Dec 2013

We were ready and packed our bags by 7:30 am and headed to breakfast.  The previous night, we had arranged with the boatman to fetch us at 8 am. Our plan was to have breakfast, check-out from hotel but leave our bags at the lobby, go around Inle Lake, collect our luggage from hotel and go back to Nyaung Shwe Jetty.

At the beautiful Royal Inle Resort / Inle Palace Resort

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 2 - 20 Dec 2013

Our day 2 was extremely tiring.  We reached Kalaw around 5 am and alighted in front of New Shine Hotel, which is situated along the expressway.  Our tour agency "Golden Express" arranged 2 rooms for 5 of us to rest till 730 am.  As soon as we stepped out of the air-conditioned bus, we were shivering! It was so freaking cold, definitely lower than 10C. It is thus not surprising that Kalaw was one of the hilly retreats for British officials during the hot summer months [during the colonial era]. 

New Shine Hotel, where we rested for a few hours

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 1 - 19 Dec 2013

Nothing much happened on Day 1.

We left Singapore with an afternoon flight and landed in Yangon around 3 pm local time (after a 3-hour journey).  I don't really like taking early morning flights since I have this phobia of missing my flight if I can't wake up hehe :D

Mr & Missy in Myanmar

Have you guys read the news that Myanmar will be named as the World's Best Tourist Destination for 2014 by EU? 

[http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/myanmar-to-be-named-world-s-best-tourist-destination-114030900300_1.html]  

Homemade Meals

I will be the first one to admit that I cannot cook!  So not all of these are made by me.  But these are just some delicious yet simple meals I prepared with my flatmates or with Mister! 

Eat Clean! Drink fresh fruit juices instead of carbonated drinks haha :D

Myanmar Passport Extension

HELLLOOO!!

I haven't blogged in a while as I have been quite busy.  One of the errands I have been busy with is renewing my Myanmar passport in Singapore.  I HAVE TO TELL YOU guys about my experience since I was pretty impressed by the Myanmar Embassy. Those of you who have been to the Myanmar Embassy in Singapore in the past couple of years would know that a visit to the embassy could be unpleasant - to say the very least. We had to jostled with the crowd, there were not enough chairs, a whole day could be wasted there, so on and so forth.  Well, guess what? All these problems are gone! No more!

Let me offer you a step by step guide on how to renew/ extend your passport if there is a need for you to do it. 

Firstly, you need to get an online appointment.

Myanmar Day 9 & 10 - Yangon - 27 & 28 May 2012

This day was just for relaxing, packing, Mister learning to ride a motorcycle and going to a supermarket to buy snacks to bring back to Singapore. We could not afford to wait until tomorrow to pack as our flight would be departing at 8am and we were required to be at the airport by 6am. 

Our driver was Mister's motorcycle teacher! 

Man, he was a quick learner! In a few minutes, he was driving around my neighborhood - FMI City. That was what he was doing for most of the afternoon anyway :D

Myanmar Day 8 - Yangon - 26 May 2012

My mom prepared See-Kyat-Kout-Swae (Myanmar minced pork noodles) for breakfast.

Myanmar Day 7 - Yangon - 25 May 2012

We reached Yangon around 6am and I didn't want to trouble my mom to fetch us so early in the morning. So I arranged for the taxi pick-up service even before we left Kyaukse.  It was 6am, the car was air-conditioned, it was a pre-arranged pick-up/ on-call service. So I thought 8000 Kyats (around USD 10) for a 30-min trip to my parents' place was worth it! Besides, the taxi driver had worked in Malaysia and Singapore in the past, so he could speak English. If you are interested, I have included a picture of his name card (:

Myanmar Day 6 - Kyaukse - 24 May 2012

After non-stop travelling, we decided to relax! So we slept in, did some sight-seeing around Kyaukse, played with my niece and packed our bags since we would be leaving for Yangon with an overnight JJ Express bus.

The only highlights of the day were
1) sightseeing around Kyaukse on Dual-Sport motorcycles which were driven by my daredevil male cousins
2) picking mangoes at the mango plantation!

Myanmar Day 5 - Bagan & Popa - 23 May 2012

We woke up around 7am and tried to finish eating breakfast by 8am.  The restaurant owner where we had our dinner the day before had arranged a horse carriage to pick us up at our hotel at 8am. It was just 5000 Kyats / USD 6 for a one hour ride! We were pretty excited about it as it was a truly interesting way of sightseeing all the noteworthy pagodas and relics in Bagan. However, my aunt and cousins did not find it very interesting since horse carriages are one of the common methods of transportation in their hometown - Kyaukse.  So they just decided to rest at the hotel while we explored. The horse carriage guy was very punctual! He actually waited for us at the front of the hotel even before 8am!