Final day in Myanmar

After a lovely few days in Bagan, I returned to Yangon and had just one day left in Myanmar. What’s a girl to do with only one day left in a country? Stick around the ship and rest? NO WAY! Instead I was up bright and early for a Noviciation Ceremony.

Myanmar is a primarily Buddhist country and all men have to go to the monastery at least twice in their lives: when they are around nine years old and again when they are about 18. Women can enter the monastery as well but they are not required to do so. The children have to stay for at least a week but most stay longer. While they are at the monastery, the children study Buddhist texts. There are three groups of 20 Buddhist books per group which the monks must memorize and the books get more difficult as you progress through them. Most people pass group one, fewer pass group two and less than 10 monks in the whole country of Myanmar have passed through all three groups.

There is a special ceremony when the little boys become novice monks: a noviciation ceremony. Semester at Sea sponsored a noviciation ceremony for five new novices and myself as well as a number of other members of the shipboard community got to be part of the ceremony.

Parade featuring the new novices.

We arrived at the monastery just in time for a parade of sorts to occur. The parade featured many novices, monks and nuns (female monks) already in the monastery as well as the little boys who were entering the monastery for the first time. There was drumming and dancing as the parade marched around the monastery and down a nearby side street, letting everyone know that the ceremony was about to begin.

During the ceremony, the little boys were introduced to the head monk and recited what seemed like an oath of some kind (they were speaking Burmese so we didn’t really know what was happening). After reciting the oath, the boys’ heads were shaved and they were dressed in official burgundy monk robes. Next they recited their prayers for the first time as novices and were finally presented to the crowd as novice monks. The boys’ families were present for the ceremony and a big cheer roared through the crowd when the new novices were presented. You could tell this was important to the families and they were very proud.

After watching the ceremony, we were able to serve lunch to the monks, novices and nuns in the monastery. I was on banana duty and I have to say, some monks were not excited about the fruit options, or lack thereof (hey, I understand their feelings after eating ship food for the past three months!).

Overall the noviciation ceremony was a unique way to spend the day and offered a small window into Myanmar culture and religion.

Have you had enough of Myanmar?! All right, all right…the next post will be about India, my final port in Asia. Stay tuned!

Boys will be boys, whether they are monks or not.

Feeding the monks, all 1,400 of them!

Presentation of the new novices.

Presentation of the new novices.

Shaving the novices' heads.

Saying their prayers for the first time as novices.

New novice.

Female monks.

Bagan, land of 2,200 temples

If you are templed-out from reading all about the Shwedagon Pagoda in my first post about my Myanmar travels, do not continue reading because MANY more are coming your way!

Umbrellas for sale at one of the temples.

On my second day in Myanmar, I took an early morning flight to begin my 4-day, 3-night trip to Bagan. Bagan is located in central Myanmar in what is considered a dry zone. The dry heat could be felt immediately, as the humidity I experienced in Yangon had completely vanished when I stepped off the plane in Bagan. The landscape reminded me a bit of some areas in Texas and the southwest U.S. with sandy, reddish dirt and scrubby-looking shrubs and trees that crackle when the hot air blows through.

The unique thing about Bagan is that red brick and gold temples pop out of the semi-arid landscape. Now, I’m not talking a few temples here and there. Bagan features over 2,000 temples, pagodas and monasteries! The sheer number of temples is amazing; they stretch across the Bagan plains for as far as the eye can see.  I tried to take pictures of the expanse of temples but my camera doesn’t do it justice.

Ananada Temple

My trip included visits to several temples and pagodas (including Mount Popa, which included a 700+ step staircase to get to the very top temples!) but also to a monastery to distribute food and hygiene products, a local village to see what life is really like for Myanmar citizens as well as a sunset cruise down the Irrawaddy River. The trip culminated with a candle- and temple-lite dinner and dancing elephant performance. The dinner was like something straight out of The Bachelor-so romantic-and the dancing elephant performance was very unique. I liken the elephant dance to the dancing dragons that you see celebrating Chinese New Year, just with a different animal.

Aside from the beautiful temple visits and chance to see a “real” side of Myanmar, I enjoyed this trip as well as the remainder of my travels in this country because of the people. Myanmar has not been open to foreigners for very long so tourists are still an oddity. I was welcomed whole-heartedly everywhere I went and people were genuinely friendly and interested in me. Despite having a fairly new tourist industry in Myanmar, they are well set-up with nice, cheap hotels and amazing restaurants serving great, safe meals. If you are interested in traveling somewhere in Asia where you won’t be hassled at every stop and instead welcomed to the country, Myanmar has my vote. Visit Myanmar and visit now.

Horse-cart ride through the Bagan plains.

Htilomirelo Temple.

Htilomirelo Temple.

Local monastery. I don't blame this dog-it was HOT!

Mount Popa in the background.

Fellow SAS staffer Cate and I on the Irrawaddy River.

This guy was very proud of his cattle.

Shwesandaw Stupa.

Shwezigon Pagoda.

Sunset over the Irrawaddy River.

Sunset over Bagan temples.

View from Bagan Muo Temple during sunset.

View from Bagan Muo during sunset.

View from the top of Mount Popa.

View of the temples in Bagan.

Dancing elephant at our farewell dinner.

Candlelight farewell dinner.

Myanmar, my favorite

Following my not-so-great few days in Singapore, we had three days at sea before arriving in Yangon, Myanmar. Of all the countries I will visit this spring, Myanmar was the one I was most looking forward to. Why might you ask? Well, Myanmar is a country I know absolutely nothing about so I was excited at the opportunity to learn more. In addition, Myanmar has only been open to foreigners for a few years and has therefore been claimed to be a “real Asia,” a glimpse back in time before tourism and Westernization raged throughout the continent. Semester at Sea visited at a unique point in the country’s history and I was excited to be part of this ever-changing place.

I’m pleased to report that Myanmar did not disappoint. I absolutely LOVED my time in Myanmar! So much so that I’ve prepared more than one blog post for this country. So sit back, relax and get ready to read all about my Myanmar excursions.

We arrived in Myanmar in the late morning and I was off immediately to lead a Semester at Sea tour of Yangon, the city nearest to our port-of-call and the country’s largest city and most important commercial center. The hour-long bus ride into the city proved this country is still developing. Trash lines the streets, traffic is chaotic, buildings built during the 19th century British rule are decaying and typical houses feature little more than a roof with walls seemingly optional. This was a stark contrast to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Singapore which we’d left a few days prior.

Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

In the midst of Myanmar’s chaos and lacking infrastructure you’ll find gold. And by gold I mean many shiny gold temples, pagodas and stupas. The whole country seems to radiate a heavenly glow from the Buddhist temples, pagodas and stupas throughout.

On our city tour, we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset which is the country’s most sacred pagoda because relics of four Buddhas are enshrined within. The Shwedagon Pagoda grounds were much larger than I expected and feature the primary, large pagoda as well as many smaller pagodas and shrines. There were small pagodas dedicated to different birthdays and washing the Buddha brings good luck. I gave it a shot but I’m hoping the guy wasn’t pulling my leg about the day of the week I was born (Was it a Wednesday afternoon , Mom and Dad?!).

After a lovely dinner, my city tour group returned to the ship late in the evening. I went straight to bed because the next day, I flew to Bagan for a four-day, three-night adventure. More about this in the next blog post!

"Washing" the Wednesday afternoon Buddha at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

Shwedagon Pagoda at night.

Sparkling gold at Shwedagon Pagoda.