Week 21: Myanmar/Thailand

Planes, trains, and automobiles… we have been on the move this last week! We wrapped up our time in Myanmar with a few days exploring around Mandalay. We took an epic train ride from Pyin Oo Lwin to Nawn Peng, which took us over the Gokteik Viaduct. For a small portion of the ride, I shared my “upper class” seat with a little mouse nibbling on crumbs next to me. 

On the ride back to Mandalay, we stopped to tour around Pyeik Chin Miang, a beautiful temple and set of statues displayed inside a massive cave. We also visited the meditation garden and waterfall on the property. 

We then stopped at another beautiful temple in Pyin Oo Twin and Pew Kauk Waterfall, where we saw people swimming.

The following day, we visited Amarapura Monastery, and stood spellbound as 1200 monks lined up to eat lunch. They poured out of the buildings all around us and lined up quietly to walk down the street in front of us. Once they were finished eating, we walked around the Monastery and had a very interesting conversation with a monk, who wanted to discuss the concept of thinking and feeling with us.

We then visited the town of Inwa, where we walked on quiet paths through fields of banana, rice, and corn. There were temples scattered all over the place, so we visited a few along the way. 

Next, we drove to Saing, which we dubbed “temple hill” instead. There were temples everywhere! 

We ended our day walking along U Bein bridge, which is the longest teak pedestrian bridge. It was the perfect place for sunset!

We then flew with Bangkok Airways to Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is worth mentioning because it was the first time we’ve ever sat in an airport lounge that provided a buffet for us to enjoy before the flight. We felt so fancy!

What first day in Thailand would be complete without a trip to a movie theatre to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi?! Ever since our friend Allie told Will about the trailer for this movie a few months ago, Will has been scrolling websites, checking to see if we would be somewhere that he could see it. Lucky for him, Chiang Mai was showing it in English on at least 4 screens in a theatre close to where we were staying. Lucky for me, it was the most comfortable movie theatre I’ve ever sat in!

Chiang Mai is definitely a tourist town, filled with amazing restaurants, many of which are vegan/vegetarian. As usual, we tried lots of good food, and enjoyed a few meals hanging out with other travellers. After many months of being very careful about fruits and veggies, I was able to let my guard down a bit and really enjoyed having salads and smoothies again. A big ‘Thank You!’ goes out to my friend Shannon, who enjoyed a trip with her family to Chiang Mai recently, and took the time to tell us about lots of places to check out!

We’ve walked so much this last week! The old city square of Chiang Mai is so fun to explore, so explore we did. We have seen a lot of temples lately. Like, a LOT. But there were a few that were definitely worth a visit while we were in Chiang Mai, so we tied them into our walks around the city. We especially enjoyed Wat Chiang Man (aka elephant temple), Wat Chedi Luang (very old with embalmed monks inside), and Wat Rajamontean (keep reading to see why!). The temples and Buddha statues here differed from the ones we saw in Myanmar, Malaysia and Nepal, so that was really interesting to see.

During this last week, we also attended a lot of markets. We were fortunate enough to be in Chiang Mai for the Saturday Night Market and the Sunday street market, where they close a major street off to traffic and open it as a pedestrian street. We also attended the Night Bazaar in both Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We were jammed in there like sardines, but it was fun to walk along, trying different foods and seeing the various handicrafts being sold.

While we were in Chiang Mai, we also loved having an afternoon in the beautiful Buak Had park. We laid out reading on a bamboo mat, and really enjoyed watching some amazing partner yoga taking place nearby.

We also spent a day at Galangal Cooking Studio, where we each learned how to make five different Thai dishes. For our foodie friends, this is what we made…

Will: pad thai, tom zap kai (hot and sour chicken soup), khaw soi (chiangmai noodle with chicken), po pia tod (spring roll), and kluay tod (deep fried banana)

Natasha: kai pad med ma-muang him ma pan (chicken with cashew nut), tom kha kai (chicken in coconut milk), kaeng massamun (massamun curry), som tom (papaya salad), and khaw nhiaw ma- muang (mango with sticky rice)

Our plan was brilliant- we chose different dishes to make so that we each could try a bit of 10 different things. We first visited the local market to learn about many foods we’d never seen before, and then headed over to the studio for a day of cooking with nine other travellers. It was such a great way to learn more about the culture and the country. We had so much fun, and are definitely going to look into doing more of these as we go along.

We wrapped up our time in Chiang Mai with a Muay Thai boxing match. The fights were pretty intense, and I was amazed to see how quickly the fighters moved.

Yesterday morning, we took a bus up to Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is much quieter than Chiang Mai, but still has many great restaurants and cafes. They also seem to enjoy creativity with colours, as this was the place we went to see Wat Rong Khun (white temple), Baandam Museum (black house), and Wat Rong Suea Ten (blue temple). Each of these places was a different kind of marvel. Wat Rong Khun is an unconventional, privately-owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple just outside of Chiang Rai. The outside of the main building is absolutely spectacular, and the artist is working on a number of other buildings to add to the complex. With the way the outside looked, we really were not expecting what we saw inside- within the large murals depicting modern representations of good and evil, the artist had painted small villains and superheroes you would never expect to see inside any temple: Batman, Spiderman, Elvis, Angry Birds, Kung Fu Panda, Transformers, Jack Sparrow, a Minion, Sailor Moon, an Avatar, and Michael Jackson, just to name a few! Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside, but there are pictures online if you want to check them out for yourself!

During our visit to the Baandam Museum, Will used the map to take us around the 40 buildings on the property. The art is described as “controversial”, and we could see why. Although we absolutely loved the many carvings and sculptures found on and around the buildings, there were also many rooms filled with animal pelts and skins.

Wat Rong Suea Ten, or the blue temple, was also very impressive. We admired the dragons guarding the doors and the beautiful blue paintings found inside.

Now that we have been away from Canada for nearly five months, we have started to notice that there are a number of ‘new’ things we have just become so used to. Someone recently asked us if we thought it would be hard to go back to our regular routine at home, and we realized that with entering each new country, we have become very accustomed to a “non-routine”. Here’s ten things that make up our non-routine:

Language: with each new country comes a new language as well! We certainly have not learned as much of the local languages as we could have, but we are eager to practise ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ as soon as we arrive. Spending months speaking primarily to people who do not speak English as a first language has also got us in the habit of speaking quite slowly, with lots of hand gestures, and simplified sentences. When we do find other travellers who speak English as a first language, it feels strange to try to keep up with a regular paced conversation! We also feel like we have become so used to seeing signs where nothing is written in English that when they are in English, we feel so well informed and ‘in the know’. We ask questions like ‘do you think that sign might say __?” at least five times a day.

Walking down unfamiliar streets: once we drop off our bags in a new city, we are eager to hit the streets and explore. At first, this came along with some uncertainty and a sense that everything was unfamiliar. Now, it’s just what we do, and we are surprised about how easy it is to simply walk out the door and see what there is to see. I must say, there really is something amazing about walking into shops, restaurants, or neighbourhoods where people know you and greet you as a familiar face. Although we have been in some places long enough to get to know some of the locals, it’s still not the same as the greetings we’re used to at home.

Credit cards: at home, we rely almost solely on credit cards. Since heading out from Canada, we have really only used credit cards online to book flights and accommodations. This really hit me when we went to use our credit card at a place that had a ‘tap’ option, and I was alarmed that the woman had no idea how to use the machine when she placed my card on top of it, rather than inside.

Cash: with each country comes a new type of money, and we have become pretty quick to adopt the new currency. We are very thankful for our exchange app on our phone, but we are also surprised how quickly we adjust to working out a new exchange rate in our heads.

Children: between teaching and having many friends with children, we are used to having kids (of various ages) around all the time, but we really haven’t seen many families travelling together until we hit Thailand.

Music: we have become pretty accustomed to listening to new music with each new country. That, or we listen to pretty rough karaoke of English songs!

Clothing: we wear the same clothing often without getting tired of any of it. We certainly dress more for the type of weather or the day’s activities than style. There are no closets, and we have become very used to unpacking only what we need and repacking everything within five minutes.

Roads and Driving: We have flip flopped a few times about which side of the road people drive on, so when crossing the street, we look both ways repeatedly and fully expect to see cars coming towards us both ways. We are also so much more used to busy streets now. Will put it well when he said that if he looks one way and doesn’t see any cars, he knows he’s looking the wrong way. With such limited public transit where we live, we were also very used to jumping in our own car to get somewhere at home, but haven’t driven a vehicle (aside from a scooter) yet. Now when we want to get somewhere further away, we just figure out the public transit routes and prices for each particular place. 

Preparing meals: ever since leaving Africa, we have not had any opportunities to cook, so we have become used to going out to eat for every single meal. Although this has been a really nice treat, I think we’ll both enjoy having places where we can cook again down the road. And it’s been over five months since I’ve done any baking! I can’t say I have missed washing dishes though…

Toilets: going into the bathrooms is something of a game now, because you never know if you’re walking into a Western toilet or a squat toilet. I am so happy to report that either one is fine with me now, as I am finally over my fear of squat toilets. Before going anywhere, I also ensure that I have toilet paper with me. This was advice from my friend Misty, and it might be the single best piece of travel advice I have ever received. Also, because toilet paper clogs the squat toilets, it’s now our habit to throw all toilet paper in the garbage.

Ending with words about toilets, classy.

Other things we’ve become so used to: walking behind each other instead of beside each other (I get so excited about sidewalk wide enough for two), not sleeping in our own bed, stray dogs wandering the streets, getting new phone numbers in each country, and buying bottled water (this is not something we will ever get used to though and can’t wait to quit).

Act of kindness SO MUCH FUN: My lovely friend Tanya was just in Chiang Mai with her husband and adorable son. We missed each other by TWO days, which we were both super bummed about. BUT, being the very thoughtful person that she is, Tanya hid a note for us to find at Wat Rajamontean, and sent me this as our directions for finding it:

I was so excited to get to this temple, and my heart leapt when I saw the note sticking out from under the statue. It was so amazing to be standing in the exact same place one of my best friends was just a few days earlier. This was just SO much fun! Of course, it would have been so much better to get to see her in person, but this was almost as good.