I've been hooked on motorcycle touring ever since I was in Thailand. Riding a motorbike through the roads of a developing country can be tiring at times. Perhaps even a little dangerous. It's worth it. Getting away from where the foreigners usually are allows me to see the country more as it really is, as opposed to how it's presented.
As I've said before, having the motorbike has been the best part of moving to Naypyitaw; motorcycles are banned from the city streets of Yangon. My travel companion Chris and I were planning our first multi-day journey. The goal was to visit Taungdwingyi, a small city about 100 miles west of Naypyitaw, visit the ruins of 2000 year-old city called Beikthano, get a hotel there and then drive back via a different route the next day.
I was interested in the ruins, but the real thrill was going to be the drive itself. You can see the route we'd planned on the map above, but let me expand on it by explaining a bit about the geography of Myanmar. As you can see on the topographic map, the country is bounded on either side by tall mountain ranges.
The center of
the country is a big valley, but the lowlands themselves are split down the middle by a range of hills. They're not that tall, but we were expecting them to be scenic. Naypyitaw sits in the eastern half of the valley. Taungdwingyi is just on the other side of the hills in the western half, the Ayerwaddy River valley. The cool thing about this trip was that we had a boundary to cross; an obstacle to overcome.
We left early in the morning and as soon as we got out of the sprawling metro Naypyitaw area, the beauty, the intense greenness all around, and eventually, the rolling contours of the Bago Hills just had us smiling ear to ear. This is why we're here: to explore a new country.
The people we passed, sat with in tea shops and interacted with were very curious about us. Full of smiles and often dumbstruck when we appeared, this was obviously just as new for them as it was for us. If you think about it, Myanmar has been closed to outsiders for 45 years before opening up in 2010. Up here in the capital, most of the foreigners here are older than Chris and even I, so on the whole, they're not the kind who go out and adventure. Our Taungdwingyi Loop certainly isn't on any tourist guidebook or website. Despite being close to a
Was that a caucasian driving by?
UNESCO World Heritage Site (the Beikthona ruins), Taungdwingyi doesn't have a page on Witkitravel.org, isn't mentioned at all on TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet. Even go-myanmar.com ignores it. It's certainly within the realm of possibility that we were the first westerners the hill-dwelling locals had ever seen in their entire lives.
Myanmar is a nation of lots of different ethnic groups. One of the largest is the Karen people who mostly live in the mountains on the east side of the country as well across the border in Thailand. I found it interesting that I noticed lots of Karen-style costumes on the people of these hills. After looking at a map of the ethnic groups of Myanmar, I saw that these hills west of Naypyitaw are inhabited by Burmo-Karen people, i.e., a mixed ethnicity. The woman in the picture above has very Karen-like facial features, but her grandson is wearing thannaka, a wood-based facial sunscreen that is traditionaly Burmese.
My friend Chris had recently purchased a new toy: a GoPro video camera. These miniature cameras record in HD, are rugged and durable and come with a variety of accessories that allow you to do things like attach it to the top of a motorcycle helmet. I so want one.
The video I made uses clips from my camera as well as new perspectives made possible by the GoPro. I'll share some screen grabs before the video. Please watch and comment on YouTube!
The Bago Hills had a big sky.
Getting to ride on the top of a truck and seeing foreign tourists in your area for the first time makes for a happy occurrence.
We filled up three times on our journey. Up in the hills, this is a gas station.
Funny framing on this one. Toddlers now available in convenient plastic containers!
Rush Hour on Myanmar's Highway 2.
The gas pumping committee.
A lovely young lady whose job was to collect the toll for the road to Taungdwingyi. Mind you, the toll was 100 Kyats, i.e., 8 cents.
I was worried about the roads, this being the tail end of the rainy season. We've been foiled by ruds-turned-to-mud before. There was only one small stretch of that on the journey to Taungdwingyi.
I've had an interesting (to me, anyways) last couple days, and so
I thought I'd take a little time to journal a bit. Record some
details from my life here in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
My morning class didn't go so well. The curriculum I'm teaching to
my government employee students includes a lot of case studies and
role-playing activities, which I think is great. These kinds
activities are excellent learning tools. It gets the students communicating
and being spontaneous in the use of English while at the same time
can be designed to focus on target language.
When they work, role-plays are great. When they don't, they really
crash and burn. In other words, student-led activities are a bit
risky. Yesterday's role play didn't work at all. The students went
off on tangents, sat there talking to each other in their own
language or just clammed up, stunned.
It's on me, really. As Sun Tzu said: if the troops don't follow
orders and the orders are unclear, it's the leader's fault.
Fortunately, my work day is only two hours long, and that torturous
class ended at 10 AM.
Time to take care of some personal matters. About a week ago, I
noticed this weird blister thingy on my eyelid. Some kind of growth,
an irritation of some kind, growing just above my left eyeball. It
didn't hurt or affect my vision in any way, so I just hoped it would
go away on its own. A week later, it hadn't. It had even gotten
slightly bigger. Well, the eye is nothing to mess with. It was time to go
find a doctor here in Naypyitaw. I didn't think the problem THAT serious, so my initial
thought was to go the market area and look for a clinic or GP.
Me with wind-visor-sunglasses-thingy
I'm driving down the main road and I needed to stop because I'd
dropped my wind-visor-sunglasses-thingy. When I stopped, the bike
died, and when I tried to re-start it, nothing. It wouldn't turn
over. No power, no lights, nada. Hmmm. What to do? I supposed I needed
a mechanic. I called my teacher liaison and gave her the phone number
of the dealership I've only owned the bike for 3 weeks, so I figured they needed to take care of this. I wasn't in the
middle of nowhere, but pretty much anywhere in Naypyitaw is a long
way from somewhere. I wanted the dealership to send a mechanic to my
location. It was really hot (95F/32C). There was little shade. There
was some back and forth via text message as the dealer wanted to know
exactly where I was, and during this, I thought to myself I can
try to fix this. I've owned motorcycles my whole life and have done several basic
repairs myself, but none since moving to Asia with its abundant and
inexpensive bike mechanics.
The bike came with a little toolkit, and so I began to undo the
screws for the battery cover. I figured the problem was obviously
electrical and so the battery would be the place to start. Presently,
a truck pulled over and a good Samaritan jumped out, offering to
help. Through gestures and my basic Burmese (I know how to say this
doesn't turn on), I conveyed the problem. With the help of gestures again, he replied
Have you thought about using the kick-starter?
Oh. Right.
It's got a kick start. I forgot about
that.
Gave it a kick. Turned right over.
Crisis averted. My eye problem took a back seat as I set off for
Pyinmana, the neighboring town where I'd bought the Kenbo motorcycle.
I pulled into the dealership, showed
them what was wrong and they all nodded their heads as if it was a
simple thing. It was. It was the fuse. They replaced it in a minute
and off I went. I wondered why the fuse blew; I hadn't been doing
anything unusual.
Bike repair done, I was off to find an
eye repair place. I reconsidered looking for a small clinic. I didn't
recall having ever seen one in and around any of the commercial districts,
so I decided to visit a hospital instead. Best of all, they're all clearly marked on my
phone's Google Maps app.
I stopped halfway back to NPT from
Pyinmana and checked my phone. Aha! A hospital was very close by my
location and so I headed towards it. I spent 20 minutes circling the
hospital campus never finding the entrance. I'm sure one of the road
signs said “hospital this way”, but they're all in Burmese, so
there we are.
I gace up. I had noticed on the map that
the Naypyitaw General Hospital was near my hotel, so I went
there instead. Found it easily enough too. I couldn't miss the
entrance as it was quite busy. Hundreds and hundreds of people (I
hesitate to use the word peasants, but that's probably the
most illustrative) were hanging around in the shade of the trees in
and about this very large (1000 beds a sign at the entrance proudly
proclaimed) multi-building hospital complex.
Again, all the signs were in Burmese, which I can't read. Now, the medical profession, anywhere
in the world, requires a knowledge of English, and so I knew if I
could find a nurse, any nurse, I'd be directed where to go. So, I
parked the motorcycle and walked into the nearest building which was
marked with a sign that said simply 'medical ward'.
As I mentioned, there were lots and
lots of ordinary people all around, and the sight of a foreigner
visiting the 'people's hospital' was an extraordinary thing in their
eyes, so I was drawing a lot of stares.
I found a nurse and she directed me to
the emergency room. The ER? Really?
So many buildings here are painted this light green color, including the NPT GH.
Okay, I'll go where I'm told.
The lobby of the ER was packed. Dozens
of people waiting. Many more assumedly hale family members in groups
looking distressed. There was a large group of very worried looking
people clustered around one of the doorways out of lobby; there
must've been something quite serious happening beyond it.
I got to the triage station and said
“eye problem” while point to the pustulant growth on my eyelid.
They gave me a check-in form.... again, all in Burmese. I mean, I am
in Burma, after all. They helped me with “name”.. “Family
name” (wait, I wrote my full name in the 'name' box')... address...
also address... they stopped there.
Immediately, I was lead into the
treatment room. However much I sometimes complain about differential
treatment I suffer as a foreigner in Asia, just as often, if not more
often, that differential treatment is in my favor. No waiting for the
white guy!
The treatment room was intense; so much going on! A little kid
with a broken arm crying here. A nearly comatose looking guy hooked
up to an oxygen mask and a heart monitor there. Immediately next to
me, in a place that as I sat on the examination table I just had
to look at, was a guy who had been in what was most likely a motorcycle accident.
He had road rash all over him. Because
of the many body X-rays, which were hanging on a stand right next to
me, I saw he had two broken legs. Worst of all was his face.
His nose was nearly gone. His forehead was so swollen it nearly
covered his eyes, and in the midst of that swollen forehead was a
huge gash that must've gone all the way down to the skull. At least
his skull wasn't cracked as I could see from his X-rays.
It seemed a silly place for me to be
with a little blister on my eyelid.
After some time of me watching my
neighbor writhing in pain, his family members holding him down and a
doctor attempting to stitch up this massive head wound, Myanmar
George Clooney approached me and introduced himself.
Dr. Aung McDreamy
He was 6'3” or so (a giant by Burmese
standards), stunningly handsome, very well spoken, and of course, a
doctor. His features showed that he was Indian by descent which along
with being at most 25 was probably why he was working at 'General
Hospital' and not someplace nicer. Anyways, the George Clooney of
this ER looked at my eye and told me that I had an infection at the
base of my eyelash follicle. It should be drained, but the eye
surgeon should be the one to do that.
Eye surgeon? Sounds serious, I told
him. He explained that the instruments for doing this were very
delicate and one needed a very steady and experienced hand to use
them. That made sense. I didn't want anyone poking around my eye
with a knife who wasn't sure what they were doing. Dr Aung McDreamy
wasn't perfect; he didn't have the necessary steady hand.
10 minutes later, handsome doc came
back and said the eye surgeon couldn't come because he was in the
theatre. The theatre? He's watching a movie? What the heck? Then I remembered that
'theatre' is British English for 'operating room'. He told me
he'd give me some antibiotics but to come back tomorrow anyways.
I sat another 15 minutes or so watching
the poor guy next to me getting his face put back together, and then
another emergency occurred. Two guys got rolled in on gurneys, both
pretty messed up (again, I'm guessing motorcycle accident). The
second of them was being attended to by a swarm of medical staff,
which made me think he was on death's door. There were no empty
spaces in the ER at this point, and so they were working on him in
the middle of the room.
Umm... I'm just waiting on some
meds. I don't need to be here. Oddly, no one came up to me to
express this. Again, differential treatment; no one would dare tell a
foreigner to fucking move it! So I got up and stood next to nurse's
station. They immediately moved the guy over to my vacated corner and
began hooking him into the heart monitors and stuff.
I dunno what happened to him, but I
hoped he lived.
Eventually, Dr Aung McDreamy came back
and gave me my script. I asked where the cashier was, and he kinda
shook his head and said, “No, no, no. This is a free hospital”.
A free hospital?
Myanmar is the second poorest country
in all of Asia (only Afghanistan is more destitute). The military
government here has never really been known for always having the
best interest of their people at the front of their mind, but they
have free healthcare. I'm a foreigner, and they even gave me free
medicine.
In America, I've heard of things like
free clinics in some areas, but never would there be a free General
Hospital. Good for you Myanmar and the government here. The hospital
may have been second-rate, but it was free.
I went back out to the parking lot, hit
the electric start on my bike and got nothing. Dead. Again. The new
fuse had lasted a couple hours.
* * *
Day two.
Today is Friday and my morning teaching
went much better. This class is the most advanced of my three
groups, and they understood my instructions, although after
yesterday's fiasco, I took things slower.
After class, back to the free hospital. I
got directed to the optical department and once again was confronted
with a waiting room of 100+ people. I walked to the front, gave them
my medical file and was immediately let into the secondary waiting
area.
15 minutes later, I was in the
examination area and was asked to do a vision test. An eye chart, but
the letters on it were in Burmese. Fortunately, the alphabet here is
based on incomplete circles with openings on one side or another, and
so I just had to identify which side the opening was on. When I got
to the doctor herself (one doctor to help so many people), she didn't
think the infection needed to be drained, reinforced that I take my
meds and prescribed hot towel treatment over the effected eye.
Again, my charge for this treatment was
zero.
On my way back to my hotel, the rain
poured down. One of the things I've liked about NPT is that although
it's still the monsoon season, it rains maybe 1/4th of
what it does in Yangon. Today, that quarter caught up as it poured
all afternoon.
There was a break in the late
afternoon, and so off I went to Pyinmana to get the fuse on the bike
replaced again. Halfway there, the skies opened up.
Drenched, I pulled into the dealership
and said the fuse had blown again! Something must've been wrong. The mechanic
said that the rain had gotten into the ignition and that had caused
the fuse to blow. But..But..It hadn't been raining when the fuse blew
the second time! That was yesterday! Unfortunately, the language
barrier prevented me from explaining that. Besides, non-waterproof
electronics is still in no way acceptable on a brand-new motorcycle!
On the way home, the thunderstorms started again forcing me into a roadside restaurant. Good BBQ! Can you see the bump on my left eyelid?
Tomorrow, maybe the next day, I suspect
the fuse will blow again and then it's time to bring in an
interpreter to complain properly.
Well, that was eye-health and
motorcycle-health last couple days. I said they were interesting
days, but not so unusual. Most days here are interesting.
A few days ago, my friend Chris and I
went on another bike trip. $10 isn't a lot of money, but it's the
principal of the thing. Maybe since I got the free healthcare, I can
go back and cough up the entrance fee to the National Monument Park.
Last weekend, Chris and I went on another journey on our motorcycles that proved to be very challenging. Twice we got stopped by roads that were 'impassible during the rainy season'. Even though it hasn't rained that much here recently (at least as compared to Yangon), the roads were simply mud pits. It was really hard to navigate them, and even harder to give up and realize that we couldn't go any further.
Now, this weekend, my touring buddy was out of town, so I got to do something I like to do: go museuming. Is that a word? Anyways, visiting a museum is something people should do on their own time. This exhibit really interests me; this other one I could skim and just glance at.
Today I visited the newly opened Myanmar National Museum. Mind you,
there's already a National Museum in Yangon, but from what i've heard,
it's rather dingy and run down. Not so for the Naypiytaw version!
Interesting. Very well presented. Interactive and educational. Even the
signs were done well; the English was perfect.
There's so much I'm enjoying about my new home of Nay Pyi Taw. More than anything it's about having the freedom of my own vehicle. Yangon had a lot more places to go, but as I either needed to walk or take a taxi, I didn't do as much.
Here, particularly since I've made some new friends who also enjoy getting out of town and seeing the countryside, I'm loving life, exploring this foreign country and recording lots of neat footage to make videos out of...
Well, it's been nine days now since I've moved to Naypiytaw (NPT),
the capital of the Union of the Republic of Myanmar. Time to write
some stuff down about how I'm finding this strange and interesting
town. Perhaps, more importantly for how I like to share stuff, post a
video letting you see what I'm experiencing here.
When sharing my trip up here last week, I said
that this place reminded me a bit of Disneyworld, but government
style. Actually, a more appropriate comparison for the 'Hotel Zone',
my first destination on arriving here, would be the Las Vegas Strip. But
without the people. Or the gambling. Or the fun. Kinda plastic and
fake; purpose built to impress, nothing organic about it.
I've discovered there's more to this town than the mega-hotel
filled hotel zone, the sparse and mysterious government zone or the
Orwellian residential zones. There's a bustling outdoor market not 2
miles from my house. There are many good restaurants. There are
regular people here just trying to make a living and have nothing to
do with the government.
The Hluttaw Building - The Myanmar Parliament
When I bought my new motorcycle on Monday, I had to go to Pyinmana, the
next city over. See, Naypyitaw was created in 2005. Before it was
built, this was marginal scrub land with a little agriculture and
that's it. Pyinmana was the biggest city for a hundred or so miles in
any direction, and it's NPT's sister city. Older sister. You can
really tell when you leave and NPT and enter Pyinmana: the streets
shrink from 18 lanes to 2. There's the normal (for Myanmar), ramshackle chaos of
shacks, crumbling poured concrete buildings and busyness I've come to
associate with Myanmar cities. And, since it's a rural outpost, you
still see things like horse-drawn carts and cattle on the sides of
the roads. Anyways, I'm writing about NPT, not Pyinmana. Suffice to
say, there's a big chunk of real Myanmar just on the outskirts of
town.
Pizza waitress, traditional Myanmar style
One thing I found difficult to deal with when I first got here
was how I'm treated by the people. At first, it was because I'm a
guest at a hotel which strives to adhere to the highest standards of
hospitality. Everything is “Yes, sir. Very good, sir” People open doors for me.
They carry things for me. I get treated with the utmost respect in
every interaction. At the place where I teach, a government ministry,
it's even worse. I can't carry anything out of the classroom. Someone
has to do it for me. They bring me everything and treat me like a
god. Coming from middle-class America, an egalitarian society which
kind of rejects the idea of any sort of aristocratic reverence, this
obsequiousness rubbed me the wrong way. No, I don't want to be
treated like royalty; that's not how I was brought up and it makes me a bit
uncomfortable.
Well, I've gotten used to it. I realize it's a cultural thing.
I'm not putting on any false sense of superiority. It's just the way
they treat teachers here, particularly nearly-middle-aged ones like
myself. I have to set aside however much it makes me uncomfortable
and just let them do what makes them feel more comfortable.
As mentioned, I've bought a motorcycle. A
Kenbo 125cc Chinese-made model. Brand new, under $600. It's the first
time in my life I've ever purchased a brand new vehicle (excepting my
first motorbike when I was 7 years old, and my parents helped with
that). I'm loving it. Share my first significant ride by watching the
video below. I set off to find the “Three Kings Monument”, some
ways out of town and in a possibly forbidden zone... Do I make it?
I've now been here in Naypyitaw, Myanmar for about 24 hours.
Unfortunately, the negotiations with the Hilton fell through, and we
weren't able to get the rate we wanted... or something like that. In any
case, I'm NOT at the Hilton as promised, instead another place which
although not as nice, is more conveniently located. It's across the
street from BOTH of NPT's only two malls. Given the sizes of the hotel
grounds and the roads here, I can zip over to the supermarket and back
in under 30 minutes. So, the place has its good points.
It's a toll dog
Unfortunately, it's also kinda small, not a lot of room for my stuff and
well, it's not the Hilton. The shower head was clogged. There's no
bedside lamp(I bought one). Perhaps, however, the oddest peculiarity
showed up at about 3 AM when I woke up to go pee. The window was wide
open. I had no recollection of having opened it. What was going on?
See, Naypyitaw has a reputation for being haunted, which is kind of
strange for a city that is only 10 years old. None of the buildings are
older than that, but certainly the land is. Land that people used to
live and farm on and had taken away when they started creating this
capital. I've got two friends who've visited here and had spooky
experiences. In both cases, their showers would turn on mysteriously in
the middle of the night. All on their own.
This was running through my mind as I stared at the wide open window.
This morning, I mentioned this along with the couple other issues I have
with my 2nd-tier hotel room to the head of our corporate department,
the lady who coordinates our outside work (not the incredibly cute girl
in the video below). This afternoon, on returning from my first teaching
session at the Department of Labor, I got a series of visits from the
hotel's maintenance crew. New shower head: installed. All the wet bar
stuff in the fridge I won't use: gone. They even sent a guy with a
screwdriver to tighten up the latches on my window.
Unfortunately, no witch doctor appeared to exorcise the spirits for me.
Here's some clips from the "Death Highway" - AKA the Yangon-Mandalay Road. There is a video there. Just click it. It's not showing a thumbnail because of copyright issues...
When I moved in moved into my apartment 16 months ago, I didn't
understand what moving into a place next a Buddhist monastery meant.
The Thantapin monastery is a medium-sized religious place, housing a
few score monks. Ever since I've moved in, however, they've been
building a new building: a five story monk dormitory just outside my
window. Perhaps because it's not a for-profit enterprise, it's taken
more than a year to complete this medium-sized high rise.
It's finished now. Here, on the eve of me moving to Naypitaw for 4
months, they've cut the ribbon, moved the monks into their new home
and are now celebrating. One of the final touches was a sound system
with 5 humongous loudspeakers. Megaphones. One of these speakers is
pointed right at my apartment. Today was the day they decided to
announce their announceability. All day, my windows vibrated from the
decibels produced from a 10,000 watt speaker 100 meters or so away.
Buddhism is about peaceful co-existence. Peacefulness isn't
something that should be imposed on your neighborhood via
loudspeaker.
There are no noise pollution laws in Myanmar. Anyone can do
whatever they want in terms of what you hear. If I wanted to, I could
amplify my ukulele and broadcast myself from my balcony as loud as I
wanted. My TV is turned up very loud right now; the (recorded) Pali
chants from the monks next door are still louder. Nothing I can do
about it.
Tomorrow morning, I move to the “Hotel District” of Myanmar's
capital, Naypyitaw. I'll be there for four months, so this is my last
night in Yangon for 2015.
I've loved and hated this town. If I allow myself, I can really
hate the noise coming from next door. I could have also hated the
little problems with the apartment I've lived in this last year+. I
haven't shared with you on video too much what I don't like about
where I live. In this video, I do.
As I've said before, having the motorbike has been the best part of moving to Naypyitaw; motorcycles are banned from the city streets of Yangon. My travel companion Chris and I were planning our first multi-day journey. The goal was to visit Taungdwingyi, a small city about 100 miles west of Naypyitaw, visit the ruins of 2000 year-old city called Beikthano, get a hotel there and then drive back via a different route the next day.
My friend Chris had recently purchased a new toy: a GoPro video camera. These miniature cameras record in HD, are rugged and durable and come with a variety of accessories that allow you to do things like attach it to the top of a motorcycle helmet. I so want one.
My friend Chris had recently purchased a new toy: a GoPro video camera. These miniature cameras record in HD, are rugged and durable and come with a variety of accessories that allow you to do things like attach it to the top of a motorcycle helmet. I so want one. 
