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Antigua and Barbuda North America

Carnival in Antigua

The Caribbean hasn’t been as high on my priority list, as a region. Coming from the US, Caribbean travel is generally seen as trips via cruise or at all-inclusive resorts. Growing up, those were never the types of travel my family enjoyed, and that’s not the kind of travel I prioritize as an adult either.

Because this kind of travel has become the focus of the tourism industries in the Caribbean, it feels like a lot of the local history and culture are sort of watered down for tourists to make it palatable for the tourists who don’t want to leave their beach resorts or cruise ships. There seems to almost be an inverse correlation between the places that have the most interesting history and culture, and the places that are accessible to tourists. For me, the places that are the most interesting to me due to their unique culture are Cuba (challenging for Americans to visit), Haiti (safety concerns), and Jamaica (safety concerns outside of the resorts). And so I often haven’t prioritized the places that are easier to get to, because I’m not as interested in doing a beach trip. Outside of Cuba, I’ve only been to the Bahamas for a friend’s birthday and then Trinidad and Grenada as part of my trip to Guyana and Suriname, since those two were essentially on the way.

Enter Antigua, the country that is challenging my assumptions here.

How did I end up planning this weekend trip? My friend Amy has a house here, and spends part of the year in Antigua each year. She put out an invitation to come spend Carnival with her. I did get to see a few performances in Trinidad as part of the earlier stages of Carnival, but it definitely wasn’t the “full” experience – we were a little early for the traditional Carnival, and we only watched a few acts and ate dinner, so it wasn’t the typical fete that Trinidad is known for.

Carnival in Antigua is unusual because it is not tied to Easter, like many other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. It is tied to their emancipation from slavery, which took place on August 1, 1834. Carnival is celebrated in late July into early August. The main event is j’ouvert which takes place early on a Monday morning where there are parades through the streets of St. Johns. This is what I went for!

Before j’ouvert, though, I had a few days of going on hikes and visiting beaches with Amy and our other friend Connell! We went to some tide pools and some absolutely amazing beaches, including one that required a hike over a ridge to get to.

Amy had recently gotten a drone that she wanted to try out, so when it wasn’t too windy, we got to try out some cool shots using that!

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was watching the sun set from Shirley Heights – the viewpoint is beautiful! Apparently some days they have parties, but we chose to go there on one of the quieter nights. We figured we would get enough partying while we were doing Carnival.

Another fun moment of the weekend was seeing pigs on the beach! I know this is something you can see in the Bahamas, but I didn’t when I was there. It was cool to see here in such a random place. We were coming back from a beach that we had hiked to, hitching a ride on the boat of a friend of Amy’s, and in the process of getting a better view of the coastline, we stumbled upon this family. They were so cute 🙂

And now time for Carnival! I am going to be honest and say here that I did not quite realize what I was signing up for. I saw online that it said Monday morning, and the event title that I paid my money to was called “Daybreak.” So I kind of thought that this would be showing up for the sunrise and then a few hours afterward on Monday morning.

Reader, the event did not start at sunrise.

The event was from 1 am to 9 am. It was fully overnight. We made dinner at Amy’s house and then tried to go to sleep for a few hours, then prepped to leave a little after midnight. We started in a big field, wearing the shirts and hats that we had picked up from the organizers on Thursday night. They had music and breakfast and water for us, and we waited for everyone to arrive. When it was time to start, the speakers told everyone to go out to the road and follow the trucks. It was time.

It was remarkably well organized. Basically, we were kind of in a large herd marching and dancing through the streets. Trucks were in our procession. Some of these had music playing, some of these were serving strong drinks, and then there were other support workers alongside us as well bringing water and snacks. There were trucks near the back that were essentially toilets on wheels, where you could climb aboard, use a stall, and climb back off the moving car to rejoin the parade.

Especially as everything kicked off, there was a great energy. Sometimes, when you’re a tourist to a place, you do activities or go to performances and you have a sense that it is being put on for your benefit, and that the people wouldn’t be continuing this tradition if it was not being done performatively. This was not at all like that. This felt authentically Caribbean, with locals and a few others from nearby islands making up the majority of participants. It was so fun, with everyone drinking and dancing and having a great time. People were throwing paint, they were carrying flags, they were decked out in all kinds of outfits where they had modified their shirts or paired them with fishnets. It was the kind of experience where you truly feel like you’re one with a community of people and you sort of get to lose yourself in the crowd.

I was having a great time until about 6 am, which is when I sort of hit a wall. I have a distinct memory of thinking how I wanted to go home, and not just Amy’s house where I was staying for the weekend, but legitimately my home in DC and my own bed. I was so tired and overwhelmed at that point, and I was having a hard time with the fact that we had three more hours left to go. But I rallied and kept walking, and eventually we made our way back to the field where we had started so that we could head back to Amy’s house and sleep.

Reevaluating all my life choices

I loved Antigua. Despite my face in that above photo, and the thoughts I had from 6 am to 9 am, I was so glad to have gotten the chance to go to Antiguan Carnival. This was such a cool experience, and one I will definitely remember! Outside of the celebrations, there I also really enjoyed the beaches, hikes, and relaxed vibes on the island. Between this and my trip in February that included Trinidad and Grenada, I’m starting to re-prioritize the rest of the Caribbean countries on my travel list.

Categories
Asia Cambodia Media Around The World

Media Around The World: Cambodia

Background on Cambodia: Their earliest history starts around 800 AD, when the various communities were consolidated into the Khmer Empire. This lasted for many centuries, spreading Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia and this is the period where Angkor Wat was built. In 1863, Cambodia became a French protectorate, and declared independence from France 90 years later in 1953. During the Vietnam War, Cambodia had civil unrest that culminated in a US-backed coup, and the communist group the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. They perpetuated a brutal genocide that killed about 2 million people, or a quarter of the country, between 1975-1979. They were ousted in 1979 when Vietnam invaded and there was conflict in the region until a peace accord was signed in 1991. Since then, they’ve slowly been trying to recover.

My visit: I visited Cambodia for six days on a solo trip. I started in Siem Reap, primarily exploring the Angkor temple complex, and then headed Phnom Penh, where I took a tour to some of the genocide sites and spent the rest of my time exploring the city. I loved the hotels I stayed in and was very impressed with their hospitality! The temple sites are amazing, and it’s a fascinating place to visit overall.

Fiction: In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

This one is a semi-autobiographical novel based on the author’s experiences living through the Cambodian genocide. The writing is very beautiful and it’s a moving story. Still, I would say of these three stories from Cambodia, I would recommend the other two over this one – what sets this story apart is the royalty aspect. That part made it less compelling to me. For me, the more interesting stories to come out of war are the ones about normal people, since it does make you consider what you would try to do to survive. Their level of privilege before the genocide begins makes it less relatable. It’s still a good read but the nonfiction pick was stronger, in my opinion.

Nonfiction: First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

This is probably the most well-known memoir from the Cambodian genocide, even before Angelina Jolie directed and produced a film adaptation in 2017. It’s a powerful read. The author experienced a lot of horrors during the Khmer Rouge regime. After her parents were killed, she was trained as a child soldier, and it was a long time before she was able to reunite with her siblings. It’s a heavy read, but definitely worthwhile.

Movie: The Killing Fields (1984)

This movie is excellent. It’s based on a true story. It starts as the embassies are being evacuated in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge takes over, and it focuses on two journalists, an American and a Cambodian. The American is able to escape, but the Cambodian journalist is trapped at the beginning of the regime. The movie splits its focus on the experience of the Cambodian journalist living through the regime, and his American colleague who is trying to find him and get him out.

It is also notable as one of only two movies where a non-professional actor won an Academy Award for acting! Haing S. Ngor, who plays the Cambodian journalist, was a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. He was discovered while attending a wedding in LA and went on to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Reflections: It’s not surprising that most of the media that is available about Cambodia is about the genocide. 50 years ago, Cambodia lost a quarter of their population, and the experience of that was brutal. It has left lasting scars on the country. The books and movies I found for Cambodia are heavy, but necessary to properly understand what they experienced in the 1970s. Even studying up in advance, it was still tough to go on the tour of the S-21 Prison site and the Killing Fields and learn about the details from locals. But I do see a place that is starting to heal, that has a lot of hope for the future. If you have a chance to visit, and experience their hospitality, and see the Angkor temple complex for yourself, I would highly recommend it.

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Belgium Europe Media Around The World

Media Around The World: Belgium

Background on Belgium: Its location surrounded by larger powers has led to Belgium being called “the Battlefield of Europe.” At various points, it was part of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Hapsburg Spain, the Austrian Hapsburgs, and Revolutionary France. It has been independent since 1830 and was the first country in continental Europe to become industrialized. After it industrialized, it became a brutal colonizer of what is now Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Once those colonies became independent, it seems that Belgium turned that desire for conflict inward and its recent history is marked primarily by tension between its northern Dutch-speaking region, called Flanders, and its southern French-speaking region, called Wallonia. Most notably, after their 2010 federal election, they had a record 589 days without a government formation.

My visit: I’ve been twice. Once with Alan, where we based ourselves in Antwerp and focused more on the northern Flemish region, and a second time with Sam on a day trip to Namur from Luxembourg. It was important to me to see both the Flemish and Walloon regions of the country. I find their tension between these regions to be fascinating. The north is more economically developed than the south, which is clear at almost every point. If it gives you any indication, my first train trip in the Walloon region was an hour delayed. I’m not the biggest fan of Brussels, but I really liked Antwerp, Ghent, and Namur, and would definitely be open to returning to Belgium to explore more of their towns.

Fiction: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

This was originally published in 1995, but it’s been having a moment again after being republished in 2022 and it went viral on TikTok. People give BookTok a lot of shit for promoting books that aren’t good, but this one really is deserving of a second wind. It’s a bleak dystopian novel with feminist themes in the same vein as The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake. I didn’t realize it was from the 90s when I read it; it still feels fresh and as relevant now as it was then. I would definitely recommend it.

Nonfiction: King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

I thought about saving this book for the Democratic Republic of Congo, but ultimately I couldn’t find anything else that interested me for Belgium and I found a different nonfiction book about the exploitation of the DRC for resources to read when I get there. And really, at least some of my reads about Europe should grapple with colonialism. Plus, as the author frequently reminds us, most of the sources he has are the voices of Europeans and not Africans due to the difficulty of getting local Congolese records given what was happening to them at that time.

This was such an excellent nonfiction book. It’s a heavy read, obviously, but meticulously researched and documented. I knew some of the details of what happened in the Belgian Congo, but King Leopold’s reign there was absolutely horrific. When all the other European colonial powers are looking on in shock, you know you’ve really gone beyond the pale. If you are at all interested in this period of history or European colonialism in Africa more broadly, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Movie: Man Bites Dog (1992)

I’ve only seen 2 movies rated NC-17, and this is one of them. The other was the director’s cut of Infinity Pool that I saw at Sundance 2023. Man Bites Dog is described as a black comedy crime mockumentary. The premise is essentially that the crew of filmmakers are making a documentary about a serial killer, and as the film progresses, they end up as accomplices to his various murders. It is violent and it vacillates brilliantly between funny and disturbing. I’ve never seen anything else even remotely like it. It’s definitely not for everyone but I am glad I stumbled upon it.

If you are instead interested in a movie that shows Belgium off well, even if it is not actually a Belgian movie… may I recommend In Bruges (2008), where two hitmen have to lay low after they accidentally kill an alter boy. It shows off the city of Bruges beautifully, and I think it is part of why that has become so popular as a tourist destination.

Reflection: All my picks for Belgium are extremely dark! Which is a bit surprising for the country whose biggest contribution to popular culture is probably Tintin, and who is well-known for chocolate, waffles, and frites. They were also a brutal colonizer, which explains the nonfiction, but I have no explanation for the others. To any Belgians reading: are you guys okay?

Categories
North America United States

A World Cup Weekend

This year, the US, Canada, and Mexico co-hosted the World Cup! Like many Americans, I am usually ambivalent at best about soccer, but I also love the Olympics more than anything in this world and I’m definitely willing to get swept up in some sports-related excitement. The World Cup was SO much fun. I loved going and watching games at the local bars, I loved all the social media posts about various international visitors experiencing weird American cultural quirks, and I was thrilled to get the chance to go to one of the games.

My friend Latifeh was amazing and handled most of the logistics, and we also met up with our friend Meaghan, who lives in Miami. We went to one of the group stage games, which was Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay, and managed to find tickets that were pretty reasonable. So I headed down to Miami for the weekend to meet up with her and go to the game!

Fun fact, I had never been to Miami before! Or rather, I had sort of been, once, when I was in middle school and I performed in the Orange Bowl halftime show at the original Dolphin Stadium, but I don’t think that counts because most of that time was spent in rehearsals in one of the conference rooms in a Hyatt. This trip was quite a bit different.

It was such a vibe, honestly. We did almost nothing that would be considered “touristy,” instead opting to hang out at the pool of the various resorts nearby, drink fun fruity drinks, and try out the various restaurants in South Beach. We did walk down to the beach and spent some time there, but it wasn’t as nice as the pools because they had an algae bloom and the water smelled a bit off because of it.

This game was pretty early in the overall World Cup schedule. It was the first game played in Miami, as far as I know, and it was kind in the stage of the event where no one was sure if it would go off without a hitch or be a total clusterfuck. Overall, I would say it went pretty smoothly – the only challenging part for us was that the labeling wasn’t good when we were trying to park, so we weren’t sure which lot we were supposed to go to, but as soon as we made it into the lot, the whole event was seamless.

And to talk about the game itself! Part of my beef with soccer is the scoring to play ratio. My hot take is that basketball has too much scoring to the amount of play, and soccer has not enough scoring. And also, I am sort of anti ending in a tie. But this game ended in a tie, at 1-1, and it was thrilling the whole way through, so I suppose it is time to eat my words.

What made the tie so exciting here is that Uruguay was clearly the favorite – no one expected Saudi Arabia to do well in this game, so it was pretty exciting when they scored. Most of the game, they were in the lead. I have a great video of the tiny section of Saudi fans cheering and waving flags when they scored. Meanwhile, our section was full of Uruguay fans who were increasingly distressed as the game went on. They did come back with a goal to at least make it a draw, but it was engaging throughout the entire 90 minutes + the nebulous amount of extra time.

It was an amazing weekend. I would definitely recommend going to a World Cup game some day if you get the chance. Like my experience at the Olympics, I am satisfied with the experience I had and wouldn’t go out of my way to go to another one, but I absolutely thought it was worth the trip. The energy of having the World Cup in the US made the whole summer brighter!

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Armenia Asia Media Around The World

Media Around The World: Armenia

For years, I’ve been interested in reading a book from every country and watching a movie from every country, as one of those stretch goals to expand my media consumption. But it will be easier to complete with some degree of accountability, so I’m going to start posting about it here! I’m starting with Armenia. For each country, I will choose a novel, a nonfiction book, and a movie.

Background on Armenia: It was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion back in 301 AD. Its location put it at the crossroads of many empires, including the Byzantine, Ottoman, Persian, and Russian empires over the various centuries. It suffered from a genocide during WW1 and about 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Armenia briefly declared independence in 1918 and then was pulled into the Soviet Union in 1920, only gaining true independence in 1991 when the USSR dissolved. It has ongoing border disputes with its neighbor, Azerbaijan, as well as with Türkiye for their refusal to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.

My visit: My friend Alan and I spent four busy days in Armenia, including a trip all the way to Tatev Monastery in the southern part of the country. They have beautiful landscapes, a lot of monasteries, and a unique winemaking culture that is only found in the Caucasus region. We based ourselves in Yerevan, the capital, and visited the genocide museum, the Mother Armenia statue, and the Cascades, as well as a couple truly haunted Soviet-looking theme parks. The food is an interesting mix of Middle Eastern and Eastern European cuisine, and they put pomegranate in everything. I really enjoyed my visit overall and felt like I saw a lot of the country.

Fiction: The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

This focuses on an American nurse who volunteers with the Friends of Armenia to provide aid to the refugees of the Armenian genocide, and ends up falling in love with one of the men she meets. Then there is a second storyline set in the present day, which follows the granddaughter of the main character discovering her family history. It touches a lot on the Armenian diaspora experience, which I liked, and I also liked the main character’s perspective of trying to give aid even as the local government resists their help.

Nonfiction: The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey by Dawn Anahid MacKeen

This was a five star read for me. It alternates between the author’s grandfather’s journals, meticulously translated and fact checked wherever possible, and the author’s own journey to follow his steps in what is now modern day Türkiye and Syria. I read this before I traveled to Armenia and it gave me a much better understanding of their history.

Movie: The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

I first learned about The Color of Pomegranates while I was researching my trip to Armenia. One of the places you can go in Yerevan is the house of the director, Sergei Parajanov, which was turned into a museum shortly after his death. We put it on the itinerary and said “if we have time,” and then we ran out of time. Still, I found myself interested in tracking down the movie, which is considered a landmark in film history. The movie itself is meant to capture the life of Sayat-Nova, an 18th-century Armenian poet. The experience of watching it is something of a fever dream. I’m not sure if I would say I…. understand the film, but it was certainly an interesting watch. It’s got some beautiful color grading and cinematography.

Reflections: A lot of the book options in Armenia are focused on the genocide. It’s been about 110 years, and the country is still reconciling with what they went through. What I like about this particular set of the fiction and nonfiction books is that they focus on different elements, so it gives a more holistic picture of the events that occurred during this time frame. I also found it interesting that most of the book options I found in my research were from the Armenian diaspora, instead of people currently living in Armenia. I suppose that the genocide and conflict in the early 20th century led to a lot of refugees.

Overall, a strong start for this project! Next up is Belgium.

Categories
Asia Singapore

Another Singapore Stopover

Another Southeast Asia trip, another set of flights through Singapore! It’s consistently voted the best airport in the world. While I would prefer to do security up front instead of at the gate, there are some pretty cool features in the airport so I can understand why it keeps winning.

For this trip, I had an awful time getting to Singapore. I was flying from DC to San Francisco, with a planned 3 hour layover and then the 17.5 hour flight to Singapore. The issues began almost immediately after we left the gate. We started to take off, then pulled off the runway. The pilot came on the intercom to inform us that we were having issues with a fuel pump and they wanted to check it before we left. When the maintenance crew came to look at it, they decided it was a problem, so we had to go back to a gate to get it fixed. Which meant waiting for a gate for another 20 minutes. Once we got to the gate, the fix was pretty quick, but then we didn’t take off again. Instead, the pilot came on the intercom again and said that when they redid the paperwork, it changed our weight limit, and were 8 people willing to give up their seats? The volunteers got off the plane. Then they took all the luggage off the plane and informed us it would be put on a different plane, also going to San Francisco. I have never been so glad that I don’t usually check luggage.

After all that, I watched my beautiful 3 hour layover tick down to 8 minutes, to get across basically the entire airport. San Francisco’s airport construction is still alive and well, and I did my best to sprint through the world’s longest hallway. I made it in the last minute before boarding closed, told them that we had landed and to please hold it for a few others who were getting off my same plane, and got on board, incredibly relieved to have made it.

When I finally got off in Singapore, I was in a fugue state, having spent nearly 24 hours straight on planes. I had a few hours to grab breakfast and nap in the lounge before I met Lucy and headed off to Brunei.

Thankfully, my other forays through Singapore went a little more smoothly. We also went back through Singapore on the way from Brunei to Hanoi, where we explored the butterfly garden!

It really is a beautiful airport.

My third and last visit to Singapore on this trip was also the one where I got to leave the airport! From Myanmar, I had a short flight back to Singapore, then a night in a hotel before I reversed my path back to DC. A few others were also heading through Singapore, so the five of us headed out for some sightseeing.

We started out with dinner at one of the hawker centers, which are one of Singapore’s best contributions to food and culture. It’s such a cool experience, and unlike last time when I was traveling solo, it was fun to go with a lot of people where everyone tried different dishes.

Behind the scenes

From there, we headed to the classics: the Merlion, Gardens By The Bay, Marina Sands. Most of us had been to Singapore but Jorge had not, so we tried to do a quick whirlwind tour to make sure he had seen all the most iconic places in Singapore. We even managed to catch the lights show at Gardens By The Bay, which is still one of my favorite things in the country!

Singapore remains one of the best places to transit through in Southeast Asia, and I’m sure I’ll be back at some point! I still have a lot of amazing places to visit in the region. Next time, though, I’m going to try to go in a slightly cooler season.

Happy travels!

Categories
Asia Myanmar

More Temples in Mandalay

When we left Bagan, we were all hopeful that the weather would be cooler. Which, in a way, we got, but the monkey’s paw definitely curled. After about 4.5 hours in the car, we had originally thought that we could go find a restaurant in the city, and maybe end at a local bar. But instead, we ended up having one of the heaviest rainstorms I’ve ever experienced.

Instead of going out, we ate at the restaurant in the hotel and found a liquor store across the street to get some drinks. It was a tiny local shop, and I think the owners were both excited and overwhelmed to have so many foreigners crowded inside. It ended up being one of my favorite moments of the whole trip, all of us searching for mixers and laughing and cheering when the owners pulled out another box from behind the counter. Then we had to run back across the street with the rain pouring down on us.

For our sightseeing in Mandalay, we saw another round of temples. By now, I think we were all getting pretty “templed out,” but I will give Mandalay credit that they had fairly unique temples that all felt more distinct from each other and from the ones we saw in Bagan.

A lot of the temples across Myanmar would have these sections that said “ladies not allowed.” Obviously here we’re making fun of the concept, but we did see them again and again. It wasn’t like the whole temple would be off limits, but there would be a section near the Buddha sculpture or a random platform that would be designated as only for men. I found it a bit strange.

One of my favorite ones we saw in Mandalay was this wooden one, which had such cool details and carvings on the walls.

All of us wanted to do photo shoots in the free time we had here!

We also went to a temple that purported to be the biggest book in the world! Each one of these 729 white structures has a slab of stone with a portion of the the Buddhist canon texts, and one could presumably visit each and read it all as a book. The temple grounds were very beautiful and it was cool to walk around them through the aisles.

I loved this diorama showing all the structures! It really emphasized how massive the grounds were of this temple. We only saw a tiny fraction of the book they were spelling out.

One of the best known sites in Mandalay is the U Bein Bridge. Wikipedia informs me that it is believed to be the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world, and that the wood came from a former royal palace. There’s a market both next to and on the bridge, with local sellers plying their wares to anyone who expresses interest. In all honesty, walking on the bridge itself was a little scary. Most of it doesn’t have any sort of guardrails, it’s not that wide, and as an old wooden bridge there are a lot of sections that don’t feel incredibly stable. But what I really enjoyed was the boat ride we took around it!

It was a great place to watch the sun set over the water and over the bridge, and it was the coolest we had felt outside in days.

My favorite stop in Mandalay, though, was the temple on the hill. It was beautiful and it had nice views of the city and surrounding landscape.

We did also stop by the Mandalay Palace on our way to the airport and saw it on the other side of the moat. We didn’t go inside – I’m not sure if it’s possible to go inside, actually, given that it is currently controlled by the military.

And that’s a wrap on Myanmar! When it becomes more stable, and more open to tourists, I have no doubt that it’s going to be an incredibly popular destination. The people were friendly, the places we saw were amazing, and they have great hospitality there – not every hotel was nice, but we did have a few really pleasant hotel stays during our time. Hopefully, the security situation will continue to improve in Myanmar. If you get the chance to go, I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Categories
Asia Myanmar

The Temples of Bagan

Our time in Bagan was marked by some of the hottest weather I’ve ever experienced, at around 110 F / 43 C and extremely humid. Even now, as I write this, DC has just gotten out of a “heat dome,” so my weather app has been giving me dire warnings and the newscasters are offering up tips on how to stay cool, and it feels positively mild in comparison to Bagan.

This was exacerbated by the fact that the temples we visited required us to take off our shoes. Not just at the entrance to the temple, but at the entrance to the temple complex, so we had to walk across brick or tile that had been baking in the sun. Or rather, run across it to try to keep from burning our feet. Trying to take pictures in front of the temple required sprinting out, standing as long as you can while you tried to smile and not grimace, and then sprinting back to try to get back to a shady area before it got too painful. Exhibit A:

Trying to keep my feet off the ground as much as possible

The temples were beautiful. From the 9th to 13th centuries, Bagan was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, which was the first empire that began to unify the areas of Southeast Asia that now make up Myanmar. During this time, the region was home to over 10,000 temples! About 2,200 still survive to this day.

Bagan is definitely the most well-known area for tourists to visit in Myanmar. Back when there were actually tourists going to Myanmar, they would do hot air balloons over the area, which I think would be a great way to see the temples. Alas, we were seemingly the only tourists around, which meant it was just us and the monks who were there for worship.

While I often love going to the non-touristy places, this one did have the unfortunate side effect of making us the target of every vendor in the vicinity. I felt for them. They were so excited to see a group of tourists, but even if you usually buy a lot of souvenirs (which I don’t), there’s only so much you can bring home with you from a place. Bagan had some very interesting handicrafts. We visited several artisan shops in Inle Lake and Bagan, and some of the items they were selling were truly cool and unique. I ended up buying a few pieces of artwork that I’m excited to frame and get up on my walls!

I loved the art on the walls of the temples. I haven’t seen this sort of art on other Buddhist temples – there are paintings on the walls in Bhutan, but that’s a very different style. One of the temples had art that was so old and sensitive to light, they had us use flashlights to see it.

As part of our efforts to get out of the heat, we spent a lot of time in the pool at our hotel. Not just in Bagan, but almost every night we would go to the hotel pool as soon as we were done with dinner. Outside of the temples, that’s one of my strongest memories of Bagan – having drinks in the pool and finally feeling cool.

Bagan feels not dissimilar to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It has a lot of temples clustered together and there’s visit structure of going to see lots of temples and finding the best place to watch the sunrise or sunset. The temples of Siem Reap are a lot denser than the ones in Bagan and there are, of course, a lot more visitors there.

And now, for a collection of my stranger pictures from Bagan:
(1) the Nuclear Catastrophe Overcome Pagoda, which is presumably not one that was built in the 9th century. Tragically, I have no other information about what this is or why it’s here. We went past it and I managed to snag a picture of the sign.
(2) Very old chairs that you absolutely can’t sit in.
(3) A bus that says County Road Take Me Home, as proof of just how far that song has spread in popular culture. I found it very charming.

One of the highlights in Bagan for me was going in the horse-drawn carriages, which was a nice change of pace. We went past a lot of beautiful temples and pagodas in a more leisurely view than we had from the bus.

Our first night in Bagan, we had sunset at a viewpoint where we could see a lot of temples. On the second night, we went to a temple that overlooked the river. This trip had some fantastic sunsets all around!

Outside of the heat, Bagan was great. I’m not sure I would recommend a visit in late May – the heat truly was oppressive. Go in a different season. I can’t remember the last time I’ve sweat that much. But Bagan is absolutely worth the trip. And with that, we were off to the last area of our itinerary, Mandalay! (and no, it’s not just a casino)

Categories
Asia Myanmar

Exploring Inle Lake

From Yangon, we took a short internal flight north to Heho and headed to Inle Lake! First of all, I’d like to do a quick shoutout to the internal flights in Myanmar, which were surprisingly nice. National airlines in less touristy places can be hit or miss (and they’re often a miss), but I was impressed with these ones.

Very charmed by this plane eating a sandwich

Inle Lake was by far our nicest hotel of the trip. We had these beautiful villas, and we watched the sun set from the pool. Across this whole trip, we spent a lot of time in the pools to escape the heat.

We spent the whole day near Inle Lake exploring it by boat, which is the only way to get around. I’m fascinated by these communities that live on the water like this – I would love to know more about what their day-to-day life looks like. We had a stop here at Inle that focused on the floating gardens, where they grow vegetables, which was an interesting thing to consider. The logistics of getting food and other materials into these communities, the supply of clean water, transporting every single thing by boat… it is a completely different way to build a life. I’ve seen similar communities in a number of places, from a more built-up version like Venice to places like Ganvie in Benin and Brunei, and each time I’m left wondering what it would be like to live like that.

We visited a lot of artisans in and around Inle Lake. It was cool to see the different types of crafts, and there were some incredible handicrafts, although after a while I was tired of being sold things. This was a common theme across Myanmar, and I feel for them, given that there are so few tourists at the moment, but I don’t typically buy a lot of souvenirs. Things that involve plants or natural materials can also be challenging to get through customs in various countries as well.

This guy is a silversmith. You can see the fish he’s working on if you look closely at the bottom of the picture – these were probably the most impressive thing we saw, as they are highly articulated and move beautifully. Of course, they’re very expensive because of the price of silver. I mostly took this photo, though, because I was absolutely baffled to see a photo of Herbert Hoover on the wall. I guess before he became president, he was involved in silver mining in Myanmar with a company called Burma Corporation? I can’t imagine any other reason for this, as nothing in his foreign policy section on Wikipedia really deals with Myanmar or Southeast Asia in any way.

We also visited a temple while we were in Inle Lake. We went to a lot of temples while on this trip; this one was fine. It was a smaller one and worth a quick stop since we had lunch right across from it, but I think it looked more impressive from a distance over the water.

In the late afternoon, the clouds came out and gave us some reprieve from the sun, which was amazing. We went through some of the more dense areas of the communities around Inle Lake and saw the temples and homes and shops where the local people live.

All in all, I loved Inle Lake! The boat ride was so pleasant, and it’s always interesting to see how different communities live across the world. It should absolutely be included on a Myanmar itinerary. And with that, we were off to our next destination: Bagan!

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Asia Myanmar

Yangon, Myanmar

From Hanoi, I flew to my next destination: Yangon! This was the start of a week in Myanmar, which included visits to Yangon, Inle Lake, Bagan, and Mandalay before I flew back to the US.

Obligatory disclaimer that Myanmar is not the most stable country in Southeast Asia. They had a coup in 2021, perhaps best documented in this exercise video of a woman dancing obliviously while the tanks roll in behind her, and there has been instability ever since while they’ve been under military rule. There is also a long history of conflict between the various ethnic groups, with Wikipedia calling it the “longest-running ongoing civil war” in the world and noting that some of these conflicts have been ongoing since 1948. For the record, I felt safe everywhere we were. Our tour guides did adjust a few parts of the itinerary in Bagan and Mandalay, but the conflict was happening on the other side of the river and we were able to keep a comfortable distance.

In fact, the most alarming part of the trip might have been waking up to an earthquake the first morning in Yangon! It was about a 5.3 magnitude on the south coast and we felt it in the city. It didn’t do more than shake the hotel a bit, thankfully. I will say, I find earthquakes to be the most alarming natural disaster since there is no warning.

We started our tour of Yangon at the Sule Pagoda. One of the cooler aspects of this one, for me, was having the normal buildings behind the spires of the temple, which I think makes for an interesting perspective. Here, I also loved that the guidelines on what to wear appeared to be sponsored by a local energy drink. I have a lot of questions about this arrangement, honestly?

We explored downtown Yangon for a bit, including the main park with their city hall and a monument to Myanmar’s independence. I liked the vibes of the city. The core downtown area had more historical buildings, including some historic hotels as well as some of the embassies, but we did also go to more modern sections of the city as well.

One of the interesting things that I noticed as we were walking around town was that the license plates in Myanmar appear to have the make and model listed. I’ve never seen this before!

One of the more interesting sites in Yangon is the Chaukhtatgyi Buddha, which is a very large (and dare I say glamorous?) Buddha statue. I had seen pictures before, but I was still unprepared for the scale of the statue itself.

What I liked about this one is that it was the most distinct of any temple we saw – when you see a ton of temples over a short period of time, it’s easy to have them all start blurring together.

Yangon, of everywhere we went, was obviously the most developed, and also had by far the best food. Most of the menus in the more rural areas were a lot more basic. Luckily for me, there were always vegetarian options. The vegetarian option was generally fried rice, which I love, but by the end of the week of having it for every lunch, dinner, and sometimes breakfast, I was so ready to eat anything else. Yangon at least had more choices in the restaurants.

I also got to try wine from one of Myanmar’s wineries, Aythaya Vineyard! They only have two vineyards. This one was the first, opened in 1999. It tasted pretty different from anything I’ve had before. The best way I can describe it is that it almost had a smoky taste, which I rather liked.

If I had to pick the single best tourist site that I saw in all of Myanmar, it would hands down be the Shwedagon Pagoda. We arrived just before sunset, got a quick overview of the complex, and then we got to experience it as day turned to night. I say “tourist site” but the truth is that we were the only tourists – everyone else there was local families, coming to pray and to take photos and to spend time with their loved ones.

With every moment the light changed, it became even more beautiful. There were chimes going off in the background and the whole experience felt absolutely magical.

Yangon was an amazing start to our visit to Myanmar, and I couldn’t wait to experience what came next! I really enjoyed our time in Yangon, and we had a lot of cool places left to visit.