#4 Sunset at Shwedagon Pagoda

Was this really just our first day of the trip? 

In spite of being very tired, the visit to Shewedagon Pagoda at sunset was a spectacular sight. It stands on a hill overlooking Yangon, and the late afternoon sun causes the many gold covered  and gold painted structures to glow. 

I'm really not sure about my use of the terms "Pagoda" and "Stupa" and "Shrine".  The best definition I can find is this: 
"The origin of the pagoda can be traced to the stupa (3rd century BCE). The stupa, a dome shaped monument, was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics. ... These buildings (pagoda, stupa) became prominent as Buddhist monuments used for enshrining sacred relics." Wikipedia

Unfortunately the main stupa of the pagoda was under wraps, as it is being repaired and restored.

image from web

This image from the web shows how it looked before the restoration began.

The restoration of the gold on these two bells at its base reflected the sunshine. 

The top of the left most shrine is being restored

Ninety percent of the Burmese people are Buddhist, and many come from across the country and the world, to pray at this holy site. The gold used for the restorations is donated by the faithful.

Sheets of donated gold leaf are sent to the top in a ceremony that involves this "flying" cart. I would have loved to see it in action.

The red parts of this shrine roof  will be covered in gold in the future. 

This was taken as the light was starting to fade. The amount of detail on the roof edges was amazing. In the background is a white bell with gold trim. Many designs are repeated over and over, and some are unique.

Inside each shrine there are one or more Buddha statues. Hundreds of Buddhas in all sizes. These are just a few.

But the Buddha are not alone. Four of these fearsome creatures, each on its own tiled pillar, surrounded one Buddha statue in a mirror covered shrine.

The decorative detail of the ceiling was amazing.

As I looked at this last image of the Pagoda shrines, at first I though something was on my camera's lens filter. But then I realized it was just a couple of crows coming in for the night.

First arrivals

As we walked back to our car, we noticed more and more flocking in.

By the time we left, the scaffolds we could see were covered with perching black crows.

Perhaps Buddha gives them a safe haven for the night.


 


Shwedagon Pagoda was the first we visited. There are thousands of Pagodas in Southeast Asia. They are not "churches" but people do come to pray at them. Some are large complexes like this and others are a single stupa on a hill in the countryside.

They have fairly strict dress codes, no shoes or socks allowed, but anyone is welcome to go in.

By the time we visited, I was quite tired and don't think I could really appreciate what I was seeing, except that this spectacular place was alive and is a significant part of the culture of this part of the world. Most Westerners do not fully understand or appreciate the religions of so many others. 

As we traveled I did learn a few more things about Buddhist practices, but cannot seem to put them together enough to understand them.

But then, I wouldn't expect someone from Myanmar to understand Rome either. 

Next Post:
#5  Food and more things we saw in Yangon.

#3 - Learning a little about the culture and history of Myanmar

The best way to understand the modern culture of a country is to learn a bit about their history. 

Royal Regalia (image from web)

After our drive through the city, we went to the National Museum of Myanmar.

We were not allowed to take our camera into the museum, so I am using this image from the web. 

These are royal wedding regalia. They were extensively embroidered with gold and silver threads and had many precious gems attached. They must have been very heavy.

The story behind them was that the sister of the bride stole the wedding dress and was married to the king in her sister's place, thereby becoming queen.

We  wandered the exhibit halls for an hour or so getting a feel for the past, before going to lunch and on to our next venue: The National Races Village. "If you visit the village, you will not only enjoy a fresh breeze blowing across the Bago River, but also get the sense of Union Spirit from the villages of our national brethren: Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine and Shan. You can see buildings with significant symbols denoting various national races residing in the country."

The park was quite large and the day was getting hotter. 

Image from web

Joko had suggested we rent bicycles, but on second thought we opted for a shuttle ride to the farthest house and a walk back.

Nicki, Joko and Merikay feeding the ducks

Nicki, a Burmese friend of Joko's, came with us for the first few days of the trip. Having an interpreter was so helpful. Nicki's English was impeccable. 

Image from Web

Almost all of the  "village" houses were on raised platforms with room underneath for family activities, storage and or the keeping of livestock. 
We were required to remove our shoes before entering each house. This was a bother. I was wearing walking shoes and they are not easily slipped on and off. Some of the stairs to the upper levels did not have a railing, and at these I did not go upstairs with the others.

This one was not on stilts. It had a variety of colorful fabrics and clothing items on display, a big garden, and a flower bedecked bullock cart.

This guy was at the entrance to the path leading to one of the houses. I'm not really sure which, but we thought he was fun.




















Some of the houses were empty, but others displayed a wide variety of everyday household items.

I think this sand-covered table was a cooking surface, based on the placement of the sticks and the brick-like pot and kettle holder.

Pottery on display was simple but functional.

Notice the woven wall, and the open spaces in the floor and walls. Air circulation must be very important in the hot humid climate. All of the peoples made extensive use of local materials to weave baskets and other containers. This was all pre-plastic, but they had everything they needed.

In contrast, I noticed the extensive use of plastic at this modern Burmese family picnic outside one of the houses.

In most of the houses there was a large open room, used for all daily activities, and where the entire family slept on the floor mats that were rolled up each morning.

We saw this bed in a separate area of one house. I don't recall the story, but noticed the "mattress" is just a woven mat on a wood slat base. 

Some of the houses had separate sleeping areas for the unmarried women of the family, called "virgin rooms".

At the time, I had a hard time really seeing the differences between one village house and another, but later in our drive around the countryside I began to recognize differences from place to place. In the countryside people still live in these kinds of homes. They have no indoor plumbing, and the walls are mostly woven or wood slats.

Our walk back to the entrance was long, but leisurely. It was late afternoon but Joko and Nicki had one more magnificent thing to show us. 

The next post will be #4, Sunset at Shwedagon Pagoda

Look for my next post to read more about it and see some really stunning images!

#2-Sghts in the streets of Yangon, Myanmar

This is the second post about our Southeast Asia trip, if you want to know why we went where we did, start at the beginning: #1 -Why 

You just don't want to remember some parts of a trip. The flight   from San Diego to Yangon was long but uneventful. We left home on the morning of December 25th and arrived in Yangon after 10 PM, on the 26th. Intellectually I knew we had crossed the dateline, but it still felt strange to think that it was today in Yangon but  yesterday in San Diego. 

Our son Joko had rented a car and was our driver. On the 27th, after we had a good night's rest, he picked us up and we went for a drive around some of the older parts of the city. 

One of the first things that I noticed were all of the wires.

This was not the heaviest concentration of wires on one pole that we saw, just one that I caught while we were stopped in traffic. This was typical of the power line structure.

In many places large bundles of wires sagged against the walls. No one uses land-line phones, so perhaps many of them are dead.

I can't imagine how this guy knows which wire is which, or which are "hot." Craig said they don't repair the wires, they just string new ones! I think I see he has some sort of safety belt attached to the pole, but

 is he barefoot, or wearing some sort of rubber sandal? 

Hundreds of wires sagged across this side street.

Vendors line both sides of the streets, selling everything imaginable. Behind them there are also small shops selling, among othere things, clothes, pharmaceuticals, electronics, plants, flowers, vegetables, rice, used and new auto parts, plastic furniture, rugs, and blankets.  I have other pictures of street sellers to share, but for now this is just a quick look.

Food of all kinds is also sold on the streets.

This lady was selling fresh fish from pans on the ground. No refrigeration or ice. Mixed among the vendors were many people cooking and selling things to eat on the go. 

We did not sample any of the street foods because I was a bit paranoid about the warnings from the CDC. My theory is that the people build up an immunity to some of the things that sicken a visitor. After a week or so, I did eat a few fresh fruits and vegetables at a hotel restaurant, without serious consequences. 

I may be wrong, but it is my impression that millions of people in the city areas buy their food daily and either eat their meals at little stalls on the street, or cook it quickly in their apartments. Joko has told us that power outages in the hot or rainy months are frequent and many people do not have refrigerators. 

image from the web

Two other things I saw a lot of as we drove around, were plastic waste and street dogs.

Wherever there was a space between buildings, or the edge of a street that was not occupied by a vendor, there were piles of plastic waste. I also noticed this when we drove through the countryside later in the week. I can't help remembering our own country's movement to clean up the litter along our roads in the past. Perhaps someday Myanmar will do the same. They do seem to collect and recycle plastic water bottles, but that is because they get paid for them. 

image from web

The dogs are every where. But they don't belong to anyone. 

They are not pampered house pets and have a life of their own on the streets.

They don't seem to beg, but I saw people feeding them scraps. 

Since most Burmese are Buddhists they let the dogs be.  After all, they may come back as one in their next life if they are not good.

The dogs are all about the same size, but vary in color,  and are generally short-haired with a curling tail. 

Such a different, vibrant place. This was just our first few hours.

Much more to come!

#1 Why did we go to Myanmar and Vietnam

I decided to wait until we returned from our trip to Myanmar, Vietnam and Hawaii before I blogged about it. 

I knew I couldn’t do the trip justice if I tried to post day-by-day as we went along. I will be putting up posts about it every few days for a while. I will try to keep each post reasonably short so as to not burn out on writing them (nor burn you out reading them 🙂).  Hopefully this also encourages you readers to come back for more. I hope you will enjoy following along and sharing the adventure.

Of all the places in the world to travel to for a winter vacation, why did we choose these three? Craig and I love living full time in an RV, because although we enjoy travel to new places, we don't enjoy 

• flying on airplanes, 
• living out of suitcases, 
• eating every meal in restaurants, or 
• checking into and out of hotels. 

So why did we leave our Alfa parked while we went off to Southeast Asia?

Because we wanted to visit our son, Gil, who has been teaching English in Yangon, Myanmar for the last five years. 

My son the poster boy

Merikay and Gil in front of another poster advertising the school he works for.

During our first few years of full time RVing, we didn’t want to put the Alfa in storage and had no real alternative as to where to park her. When we found Jojoba Hills, we knew it was a perfect place to leave her for a month or more without worry. 

I wanted to add Thailand to our itinerary, but Gil has been there many times and suggested we all go to Vietnam for a week instead. So we did.

One of the great things about being retired is that you don't have to go home to go back to work. If you want to travel for one week, two weeks, a month, it doesn’t matter. You have no time clock to punch, and the only limit is your own endurance and budget. Both of which we stretched to the limit on this trip!

Then, when thinking about the return flights to San Diego from Hanoi, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to visit the last state on our RV travel map - Hawaii.

   

Many RVers have these maps and have different personal rules for earning a state sticker. Some say they have to actually camp in a state; we may have counted one or two that we have just driven through. Hawaii is a special case. The Alfa doesn’t float, so she had to stay at Jojoba Hills, but we count this trip as our 50th state anyway. 

Joko and Craig

Our son was named Gil after my father. When he was in high school, he went to Indonesia as an exchange student. His Indonesian family and friends had a hard time with the "G" in his name, so he took "Joko" as his nickname.

He now goes by Joko MacKenna to his friends in Southeast Asia, and as I continue this story I will call him by that name too. 

Coming Soon:
# 2-Sights in the streets of Yangon, Myanmar 

Myanmar, Vietnam, and Hawaii

We are currently on a 30 day trip to Myanmar, Vietnam, and Hawaii.  

The Alfa had to stay home at Jojoba Hills because it does not float!

I will blog about the trip in February.

Last Post for Summer of 2018 - Grand Canyon - North Rim

Only one in ten people who see the Grand Canyon do so from the North Rim. Hopefully, this post will inspire you to be one of the ten percent in the future. It was easy to get to, and we had no problems going there with our 35' motor home. There were also lots of cabins and the rustic lodge looked delightful.

But before I include pictures of the canyon,  I have to include a couple of wildlife shots.

I know there are deer everywhere, but this gal, who was resting with a few other does near our camp site, had such big ears I felt like smiling when I looked at her.

Craig likes the picture of her friend:

Ravens are also common birds in campgrounds. They are so smart. If you look closely at his eye you can see the reflection of the ground and just a hint of the picnic table I was sitting at. I wish I had gotten a bit more background above his head, but this is an excellent example of what my Sony RX10iii can do. 

These first two pictures of the canyon were taken from the Bright Angel Point overlook near the Lodge on Wednesday afternoon.

I wasn't sure if it was going to stay clear.

I've been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon a couple of times and am always overwhelmed by it. Not much needs to be said, except I am amazed at how big it is.

This following is the one of the most South-Rim-like images that we saw from the North Rim.  (The actual South Rim is visible in the upper left.)

The North Rim Lodge has a wonderful viewing room with big plexiglass windows.  Of course, what you see may differ each time you're there.

The following pictures were taken on Friday when we drove out to several overlooks, including Cape Royal and Point Imperial.

That day the air had been washed clean by the rain and the day was incredibly beautiful.

We are very old fashioned. We take pictures of each other instead of taking selfies.

The following image suggests that some of what's now rock was once liquid and swirly like ice cream.

The 19th century folks who named features of the Grand Canyon called many of them "Temples".  This view may have contributed to the name:

The line in the middle of this image was probably a dead tree.  Or perhaps something left behind by extraterrestrial aliens when they came to visit.

The track in the lower part of this image is a tributary of the Colorado River, a bend of which is visible further away.

Tourists above Angels' Window, through which you can see the Colorado again.

It may be hard to see that this scene includes two rock towers, between which you can see a similar rock wall further away.





















Final Words:

We have been back at Jojoba Hills for almost two weeks already. The next two months will be busy with Craig getting his cataracts removed, and visits with friends and family for the pre-holiday times.

On Christmas Day we will be leaving on a three or four week trip to visit our son in Myanmar (Burma) and some additional travel in the region. 

Keep an eye open for posts about that trip and our return to the RV travel life in Spring.

Until then, thank you all for following this blog and for leaving so many encouraging comments.  

Hugs ...