Burma was so different than the rest of the trip so far but I really enjoyed it. After a few days in Yangon trying street food and wandering the city, we headed to Bagan and were blown away by the beauty of the landscape sprinkled with temples in varying shapes and sizes. Rachel, Shasta and I rented bikes to explore and climbed to the top of a few of the higher ones to get the full effect. We saw sunset from one of the highest temples after climbing some seriously steep steps but it was completely worth it. Apparently the king back in the 13th century had around 4,000 temples commissioned to be built - the result being a landscape of rolling green hills and temple after temple after temple.
We were taking a quick nap under a tree when we met these Aussie guys Ben and Rory. Pretty much the first tourists around our age we'd seen in Burma. We all instantly hit it off and hung out the next few days in Bagan and then Inle Lake having family-style meals together (we're all big on sharing food) and taking a freezing cold boat trip around Inle Lake to see the local markets and of course... More temples. Really fun group to spend time with them and we had a lot of laughs over sangria and hot chocolate - especially about Rory's foot which he broke by accidentally rolling out of the top bunk of a bunk bed. Poor kid.
Shasta and I did a pretty tough 6 hour trek in the rain around Inle Lake and struggled a bit to keep up with our tiny Burmese guide who was practically running up the steep hills in the mountains. I was feeling pretty beat after the first 3 hours but they fed us an awesome meal at a locals' house in the hills and we attempted to warm up with some tea and hit the trail again. I love being active outside but the cold, rain, and fast pace were pretty tough. The views were hazy but still beautiful and while my legs were pretty dead the next few days, it felt good to complete something so challenging.
Our last stop on the Burma trail (after our third and final night bus) was Mandalay. Rachel, Shasta and I were pretty excited to come across the first European style restaurant we'd seen so we immediately sat down and ordered all kinds of burgers, pizza and fries... Fast forward 7 hours and somehow we're still there so we went ahead and got dinner too. Needless to say we weren't the best tourists in Mandalay and saw more of that one restaurant than the rest of the city but we did get up at sunrise the next morning to see monks cross this really long bridge but that was a bit of a fail too. Instead of monks, there were just a bunch of Burmese people in vinyl track suits doing weird warm up exercises like squats and jumping jacks. None of them actually worked out though... They seemed to just be preparing to work out. It was all pretty odd and after snapping some photos of the sunrise we zoomed backed to our hotel as the cab driver blasted his Bruno Mars CD and fist pumped. Gotta love it. I'll write more about Chiang Mai and Pai soon but for now... A few Burma photos!
Temples in Bagan
Trek around Inle Lake
Boat ride!
Our crew minus Rory!
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