Myanmarvelous

Trapped in time.

Raw.

Untouched.

Awakening.

Biblical.

Before traveling to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) for my school's version of "week without walls" with a handful of eager 9th graders, these were some of the ways colleagues and friends who had traveled to this enchanted land had described it.  And they weren't wrong; Myanmar is a country in transition, one that has been a secret land, preserved in a way that can only happen in this day and age if outsiders stay out and local culture stays insulated.

INLE LAKE
Our first stop was to the Inle Lake area, located in the Shan State and made up of the Kayan (Karen) and Shan peoples. (The Bamar ethnicity, from which the British mistakenly decided to call the entire country - "Burma" - compose 60-70% of the nation, however, are not found in this region, though the Burmese language is.)

Morning street scene in Nyaung Shwe, the largest town around Inle Lake.

Daily life at the sprawling Mingalar Market in Nyaung Shwe.
Most people in Myanmar still purchase their food on a daily basis because
of the convenience of eating and having fresh food.

Farmers harvesting various water plants from Inle Lake.
The lake is quite shallow throughout, maxing out at around 3m at its deepest.

Traditional Inle Lake fisherman. The bubbles are spotted, the fisherman places
the cone-shaped net into the water, then shoves a stick down the middle,
frightening the fish into the sides of the net, which are in actuality a double-
layer, thus trapping it long enough to pull the net up.

Short of swimming, traveling by boat is the only way to visit  the "floating"
villages on the lake.

A "field" of tomato plants being cultivated on the lake.

The Kayan people (also spelled Karen) are sometimes referred to as the
"long-neck" tribe by foreigners or the Paduang Tribe, meaning "copper neck,"
by locals; both are derogatory and not appreciated.

We got to attempt the art of "leg-rowing" with some locals. This is an activity
practiced in teams for competitions during certain festivals. It is not easy.
This video shows how many people fit on a boat and intensity of the event.

BAGAN
Next stop was the ancient capital of Bagan, which today is a roughly 16 square kilometer area dotted with over 2,200 pagodas and temples across the vast plains. Local development regulations do not allow new structures to be over two stories in order to maintain an unadulterated skyline.

Bagan at sunset.

Obviously seeing such a vast area in a limited amount of time is not realistic. Therefore, to maximize our visiting potential we toured by bike in the morning and horse-cart in the late afternoon - the sun and heat are too intense to do much of anything in the mid-day.

Our bike gang.

No, the temple is not slanted; it's just not easy taking a planar photograph
while being lead around by a horse.

On our final night we boarded a simple river boat to take in the sunset along the Ayeyarwady River (old name Irrawaddy River).  In order to maintain a peaceful atmosphere, about ten minutes before sunset all motors on the river must be shut off, creating a quiet world with temple peaks on the horizon and of slowly drifting boats on the water.

YANGON
Last stop of the trip was the capital city (not really, but it should be) of Yangon, formally known as Rangoon. (The Brit's invented a lot spellings based on their interpretations of what they believed things were called in the Burmese language, spoken by the Bamar peoples. Those are mostly changed back now, except outside the country where many cartographers insist on writing both, perpetuating the old, incorrect names.)

Our primary purpose in Yangon was the "service" aspect of the trip, for us focusing on the donation of materials and the construction of a new roof at a local monastic school. Once we got there, however, the scaffolding for the ceiling had been installed incorrectly and needed to be redone, not allowing our work. Fortunately, a large classroom in one of the order buildings needed a good cleaning and painting and our kids were more than eager to put in two days work. We didn't take a "before" picture, but the results were impressive and the kids were proud of their work and relationships they had formed with the curious novice monks who eventually came to check out this strange mix of foreigners laboring away in their compound.

Curious novice monk watching our group work from his second-floor dormitory.
In Myanmar, it is strongly encouraged and widely practiced that families send
their boys to monastic schools for at least a year. For some, they stay longer as
this is the best schooling they may have access to. Still other commit for life
and before full-fledged Buddhist monks.

Though Yangon is not without it's charms - it is a bustling city with a lot of character in the architecture of the old colonial buildings downtown - there is little to see for a visiting tourist. The major exception is the Shwedagon Pagoda, a giant golden structure dating back to either 600BC or 500-900AD, depending on who you ask. Incredible amounts of people visit the pagoda each day, many Buddhists making a pilgrimage here from the countryside. Fortunately, because of a Buddhist belief regarding birth day of the week and time of the day, people are sorted out to different areas of the complex to pray, thus making the visit slightly more comfortable for the ochlophobic.

Typical Yangon traffic as one approaches the massive Shwedagon Pagoda.

Buddhist visitors burning incense and lighting candles.

The trip through Myanmar was like traveling back in time, to a simple place where I didn't mind shutting off my phone and disconnecting from the world for a week. I found a world with warm, smiling people, delicious and fresh foods, with a rich and complex history. It was also an interesting time to visit the country as they are primed for an important and historic democratic election in the coming weeks, something that hasn't happened in many years due to the military party not liking the results the previous go-around. This is definitely a country with a potential for change; I'm not sure if I will get the opportunity to visit again, however, I venture that should I return several years from now, I may return to a very different place than the one I saw during these brief days in October.

Spectacle: There were multiple cameras trained on our little group when we
were taking this shot at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
This was an amazing group of students and I am grateful to have had the
opportunity to travel with such easy-going, eager, and fun kids.