Bagan Jan 21st

We are currently in Bagan. It is amazing here. Over 2000 temples in a 42km2 area. It is spectacular to see the scenery here. We did a great temple tour yesterday with our group. We had a tour guide and it was great to hear the history of many of the places. Some of the temples are gold and some are brick and others are white. The 3 main types are stupas, temples and monestaries. It is a truly spiritual and incredible place.Today is our day off from the group. I (Sonya) started the day splurging with a baloon ride over Bagan. What a spectacular view. It was amazing to see the temples at sunrise from above. Also the Arawati river. We also had champagne which set a great tone for the day.Addi and I rented bikes and have been touring in the heat. We have went out to some remote temples and enjoyed some peacefulness all by ourselves. Nice to get off the main path and really enjoy the scerenity of the area. We also met some locals who took us for a great tour of their village. We saw some women weaving and saw how they press peanut oil. Some older woman gave us huge homemade cigarettes. Too funny. We bought more sand paintings because they were too kind. The people here never cease to amaze me.Tonight we are off to see a marionettes show. It is supposedly quite impressive. Our last night in Mandalay seeing the Moustache Brothers was really funny. Saw some great traditional dance. Quite a show. The cruise down the Arawati was also good. It was a long boat ride but good enough. I got another bad bought of stomach that night but I love Ciprofloxin. Cured me up by morning. Glad Caleb gave me his extra doses. I think I will need them.Addi and I are enjoying some wine right now before we return the bikes. I can't wait to share pics with everyone. Hopefully intranet will be better in Bangkok. Myanmar is going by too fast.Thanks again for all your great messages.Love,Sonya:)

Mandalay Jan 18th

Well we made it to Mandalay on the train a couple of days ago. I wrote a huge e-mail yesterday with all the info and when I hit send the computer crashed. I hope to have better luck today. This will be the last update until next Friday. E-mail in Bagan and Inle Lake are not so good. By the way, thanks to everyone who wrote. It is great to hear from people back home. Sorry I will not reply until Thailand, internet is too slow here. The train ride to Mandalay was 15 hours with the locals. It was great but long. We were in first class which means reclining chairs and lots of leg room. Regular class had hard benches and people are packed in there. The train was not the cleanest and the fans on the ceiling are full of cobwebs and do not work. The windows were so dirty you could not see out of them. We tried to clean ours but it was no use. We even had mice as visitors along the way:) We bought a mickey of rum and gin for the ride (at a whopping $0.70 a bottle). That helped pass the last few hours. The people were amazing and the scenery was great. I was surpised the time actually flew by. When we got to Mandalay we checked into the hotel and went to Chipoti corner to eat. The Chipoti (Indian Flatbread) was served with vegetable and potato curries. 4 of us ate with water to drink for 1500 kyats ($1.35). Amazing food. Too bad that night Addi and I got some bad stomachs (probably was something we ate from one of the locals on the train). At each section of the train locals jump on the moving train and sell what they have made and then jump off when they are ready. Quite something to see. Yesterday we toured the ancient capitals of Myanmar. We started the day in Anapura by walking the worlds longest Teak bridge (1.4kms). It was beautiful. Then stopped at the largest monestary in Mandalay. Home to 1400 monks. We saw them have their morning meal. So 1400 monks line up for rice and food. Amazing to see. Then we drove to Saiging where we went up Saiging hill for a great view of the Irawati river and Mandalay. We visited an amazing temple where all the buddhas are carved right out of the side of the mountain. They say we are in a cave but it did not look like a cave to me. Behind the Buddhas were beautiful glass mosaics. Then we went to another temple with great views of the river. Then to a nunery to see how the female version of the monks live. Very amazing and peaceful people. After a lunch of rice and veggies (still trying to settle our stomachs) we took a boat ride down the Irawati river to Mingun. This is where one of the earlier kings tried to build the worlds largest stupa. After the base was built there was a huge earthquake in Myanmar and the people thought this was a sign that the stupa should not be built. It isnow the worlds largest pile of bricks with huge cracks from the earthquake. In Mingun we also saw the world's second largest bell. It was huge. I had more fun playing with the kids behind the bell. They loved my tattoos and came to hang out. They were so sweet. There were about 6 of them from 1-7 years old. The oldest spoke a bit of English. I stayed until my group said we had to go. Then one last temple in Mingun. It is on the cover of the Lonely Planet Myanmar. It is an all white temple. Very different style then most. Amazing. The kids in Mingun spoke good English but really followed trying to sell stuff. I guess there have not been any tourists lately so they are pretty desparate. Too bad they are all so beautiful and helpful. Last night we went for a fancy dinner that cost 7500 kyats ($7). It was an upscale restaurant to be good to our bellies. They even had diet coke (which you do not find here). No McDonalds (but they have MacBurger), or other chains either. I am going to hit send and finish this in a minute since I keep getting a virus warning.... Today we got up and we had a free day. So Addi and I got up around 6am (feeling much better) and went and toured the morning produce market. What insanity! There were huge piles of fruit, vegetables, chili powder, curry powder and other items as far as the eye could see. It was crazy. The locals still love us so we wandered around soaking in the surroundings. We stopped at a small noodle stand and ordered 2 coffee mix (an instant coffee with mild and sugar in it that taste like a cappacino, best coffee for this country). Too bad this stand served it with milk instead of water a bit too sweet and thick for me. We wandered some more and stopped at an Indian breakfast stand where we had 2 more coffee mixes (with water this time) and Addi had a flatbread and Dahl. Then headed for breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we hired a taxi to take us to some temples and hanicraft shops. We had the taxi for 3hours for $3 each. It was great. We started at an amazing teak temple. One of the only original pieces of the Mandalay palace. The king moved the monestary outside the palace walls before the palace was bombed in WWII. Very cool! It was beautiful and a very moving and scerene experience. No one was at the temple except for us and a couple monks (who again loved my tattoos and talked with us a bit). We sat in the temple and had a fabuloud moment of peace. The next stop was another temple where the buddha has had so much gold leaf put on it that it looks all globular and fat and crazy. They say it has 15cm thick of gold leaf everywhere but the face. Crazy looking. We could not get a good look since there were many locals praying there and we did not want to be rude. We did tour the shopping stands there and found some beautiful embroydered Longi (the traditional Myanmar skirts, like a sarong without the opening). We also saw how people made Tenaka there. Tenaka is the white face paint they wear that come from a certain wood ground up. It opens the pours and protects from the sun. We then stopped at wood carving shops, gold leaf buddha making shops and shops where they make gold leaf. It was amazing to see how much work goes into these items for the price. It really give you respect. Then back to the hotel. We are going to eat after this and meet our group at 4pm in the lobby to go and climb Mandalay hill for sunset. I am debating if I will do the climb. 900 stairs does not bother me but in my bare feet? All of the temples here are starting to pay a toll on my flat feet. In Thailand and other countries you only remove your shoes to go into the main temple hall where the buddha is but can wear them for the other parts of the temple. In Myanmar there are no shoes allowed in any part of the temple complex. So I have been walking up all kinds of stairs, on rocks, dirt, bad ground and for long period of time. I really want to climb Mandalay hill so I might climb up and take the elevator down (I feel too much like a whimp taking the elevator all the way). However, we still have a ton more temples in Bagan (the main reason I took this trip) so my tour leader says to save my feet we will see. After that we go and see the Moustache Brothers (a local comedy troupe). I guess they have been in trouble in the past for political humour so now they only "reherse" out of their home. Should be interesting. Tomorrow we catch the boat to Bagan. We cruise the Irawati all day and then we are in the land of a thousand temples. I can't wait! This country just gets better all the time. Oh yeah, I got an e-mail today saying I won the GAP photo contest I entered and won a trip to Greece that has to be used in 2008 and a bunch of camera gear. I hope it is not a hoax. Too bad I have no more vacation. I guess I will have to think about a leave of absence or see if I can give it to someone. Take care and lots of love, Sonya:)

Bago and The Golden Rock - Jan 15th

Hello there everyone, Well I wrote my first blog the other day from Myanmar but it bounced back and would not take it. I guess I can not use my blog until Thailand. So I am reverting back to e-mail instead. We arrived safe and sound in Myanmar on Sunday. What a spectacular country. We absolutely love it here. If anyone got my first e-mail I am sorry if I repeat. I do not think it was sent though. The people in this country are truly the kindest, happiest people I have ever met. They have been treating Addi and I like queens. People here love to talk with us and especially love me because of my tattoos. They are truly facinated with them and they all come up smiling to talk and ask questions. It is truly amazing how many people here speak perfect English. I think this is my favorite country I have ever visited so far. On Sunday we went and explored Yangon by foot. Our tour did not start until Sunday night. We walked all over. We got amazing huge plate of Veggie Indian Bryiani for 900 kyats ($0.80) each. Our entire meal was under $2. Then we went and did a walking tour of the main area. They have a great temple and stuppa in the main traffic circle called the Sule Paya. It has great buddhas with neon lights over their head. The temple work is fabulous. We met some monks at Independance monument in the gardens near the main circle. They asked us to join them for a tea so they could practice their English. It was a great experience. They were really great. They invited us to come and teach English to the other monks at their Monestary a week from Friday when we return to Yangon. I think it will be a great opportunity. Later in the afternoon we took a taxi to see a large reclining buddha temple a bit further across town. It was huge and amazing too. The feet still have the 108 teachings of the buddha but in a different form then I've seen before. We met our group a bit later. Small world there are 4 retirees from Toronto with us and one retired teacher from San Francisco. A good group over all. Our tour leader is around our age and is very knowledgable of Asia. Yesterday we headed out of Yangon for the "golden rock" for the night. It is a temple high on top of a mountain. It is built around this rock that is hanging over the edge of a cliff that was painted gold and is considered one of the most religious sites in the county. They believe the hair of the buddha holds the rock in place. It was a 6 hour drive to get to the hills. We stopped in a town called Bago at another temple with 4 huge buddhas sitting back to back. It was built in the honour of 4 sisters who never married. They believed if any of them ever married their respective buddha would crumble. One did marry and her buddha crumbled many years later in the 1930 earthquake (so it was fixed). When we got to the bottom of the hill we had to take a truck 1/2 way up with the locals. They crammed at least 60 people in this truck with 2x4s for seats. It was crowded and like a crazy roller coaster ride. I was happy to be in the front row so we could stand up and hold on to the top of the truck. Then we had to walk 45 minutes up hill to the top. We stayed at a hotel at the top of the hill with breathtaking views of the mountains. The temple was amazing and the people were so happy. Many locals travel there on pilgrimiges at least a few times a year if they can. It is great to see so many children and families playing and hanging out. No kids ever seem to cry. Everything is still super cheap. 1L of water is $0.25. We watched the sunset at the temple and finished the night off with a great meal at the hotel. Today we woke up early and went and watched the sunrise at the temple with the locals. It was only me and Addi. It was great to chat with so many people again. Then we toured down. This time I had a horrible but adventurous truck ride down. I was in the middle of the 60 people and could not even put my knees straight out so I had to tuck them unded the 2x4 and people in front of me. Going down we had to brace ourselves with only one hand to not slide right off the seat. My feet were asleep and my hands cramped for the 45 minutes but overall I loved it. We stopped again in Bago at another huge reclining buddha and just arrived back in Yangon an hour ago. We are off to dinner in a bit and the grocery store. We have an unairconditioned 15 hour train ride with the locals tomorrow to Mandalay. Should be interesting. Then up to the north of the county. I will try to write if I can but I hear e-mail is even worse there. I really hope this one actually makes it out. Take care and lots of love, Sonya:)

Myanmar - Oh My:) Jan 18th

Well, we made it. No blogger access here so I am just dropping a quick note to let you know that all is well. We are loving it here in Myanmar. Our flight was delayed this morning so after only 4 hours of sleep (because we got to our hotel at midnight and had to leave at 5am) we waited at the airport for a few hours. By the time we arrived we were so sick of traveling. However, we had the best day here in Yangon. The people of Myanmar are the nicest I have ever met on my travels anywhere. We started out with an $0.80 lunch. It was a huge heaping plate of vegetarian briyani (Indian food). It was truly fabulous. Everyone here is facinated with my tattoos so they all love to stop and talk. After lunch we did a walking tour of the downtown corridor. They have an amazing temple called the sule paya in the middle of the main traffic circle. Very interesting. The walking tour passed city hall and many other main buildings. We also saw a huge monument in the main gardens. While walking back from the monument we met a couple of monks who wanted to learn English so they offered to buy us a tea and practice their English. We went to a local tea house (the main social place for Burmese people). It was great. The "tea" was a strange coffee mixture with condensed milk (not so good). We talked for a couple of hours. They invited us to their monestary to teach all the monks english when we return to Yangon (so we took them up on the unique opportunity). So Addi and I have a date with a monestary of monks on our return. They said they like to get to practice on real foreigners, it helps them learn quicker. After that we toured out to see a large reclining buddha that was amazing. It was nice that is was in a large building so we could take pictures. Then we toured back up town to the main temple and went inside. The main pagoda was amazing. Sorry to run but we just got back to the hotel and we have to meet our tour group in 2 minutes. I don't want to be late. Take care and know we are safe and having a great time. We love Myanmar so far! Sonya (& Addi too)

Finally On Blogger

Well we are back in Bangkok, hence why Blogger is now up and running. Burma's crazy control freak government has most internet sites blocked, luckily Dofasco e-mail is under their radar. I am going to go back and post all of my Burma messages on my blog today. If you have read them already then please just skip them. At the end I will add another post with an update for the last few days. High speed internet is so amazing. I forgot how painful slow crashing dial up is. The entire country of Burma only has 1 server and you have to use back door sites to access anything. I had many a computer crashes while I was there. Thanks to again to everyone who wrote me. I love to hear from home. The love from everyone reminds me why I truly am blessed to have such a great life back in Canada. I will write more after my back posts. Lots of love to everyone, Sonya:)

Hong Kong Airport

Well we just finished our first 16.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. I think I figured out why it used to stop in Vancouver first and then connect to Hong Kong. 16 hours is about 6 hours too long. My ass has never been so sore. It also did not help that Air Canada messed up our meals so all 3 meals we got a bun and some fruit (since they only had meat dishes). Oh well, I have to figure out how to contact them before we return to make sure they have it right for that one. We are waiting for our connecting flight to Bangkok right now and have 4 hours to kill. We are both very tired since it is now 4am for us but 5pm for them. My body is starting to wake up, I hope I will be able to sleep when we get to Thailand at 11pm. We are off to Yangon, Burma first thing tomorrow morning. We fly out of Bangkok at 7am again. So not much time for sleep tonight either. However, any sleep will be welcomed after this never ending day. So now the worst is over and the fun can begin. Take care and we will keep posting whenever we can.

Getting Ready

Well it is finally sinking in that we are heading out this Friday. All of the major preparations have been completed for our journey, now we just have our packing to do. It will be a bit different packing for this trip since we will be heading further North through Laos and Vietnam. Some travel guides said to pack warmer clothes since it is cooler in these regions. I have been watching some weather networks and they say the weather is between 25 and 35 in these regions right now. However, this is more difficult then just packing for 40 degree Thai heat. I guess it just gives me an excuse to bring more clothes with me. It is hard to believe that next week at this time we will be getting off our 16 hour flight for a 7 hour stop in Hong Kong. Then off to Bangkok and Rangoon the next day. We saw a great "Don't Forget Your Passport" episode on Burma a couple days ago that have us ready for our journey. Today I will start researching vegetarian restaurant for most of our stops. I have heard it is much more difficult to get vegetarian food in Laos and Burma. In Thailand they accommodate the vegetarians almost anywhere (sometimes with a bit of communication difficulties). So I have found a few websites to copy down info from. However, finding these places once we are there is a whole other story. I am also going to do my best to get some English maps of the larger cities we are visiting. This may help tremendously. Anyway, off to finish up some trip research. Take care....