Myanmar Part I

hi everybody!!
we are safely back from myanmar, and had no trouble because of the earthquake yesterday...or the one 2 weeks ago. but i dont know if an earthquake in myanmar is even mentioned in the western media??
we had a great time in this country...a nice country, but some things are really strange! e.g. motorbikes are banned in the capital (yangon) because the generals who rule this country are scared that someone could use a motorbike to atac them while they are in cars... people in myanmar drive on the right side like at home because one day a general opened the door of the car and somebody almost crushed into him - it would not have happened if people were driving on the other side...so they changed the side of driving (but the cars are all made for driving on the left side!!)... the money, kyiat, cant be exchanged in banks, just in hotels or the black market. even guidebooks say you have to go to the black market! people only accept dollars without ANY mark of usage. when we wanted to exchange they refused one 100 dollar bill because it had marks from an elastic band...you could not really see it, but you could feel it!
we came back today, and since the internet is damn slow (if it works at all) i could not write in myanmar...as well are sites like blogspot.com totally banned...and also my email sometimes worked, sometimes it did not. once a man told me in a smaller village with 4 internet cafes that if you want to log in, people check before what you wrote in the past (in the mails...they translate everything) and according to this you can (or cant) log in. once i needed to write 2 mails - it took me 2 hours!!! so because of these reasons its a lot now to write, and especially many many pictures...so i will make more posts on myanmar, since i dont want to spend so much time online!
we arrived on the 26th of february in yangon, where we stayed 2 days. the main sight in yangon is the shwe dagon pagoda...and that is really unbelivible!

around shwe dagon pagoda

the pagoda

 it is really amazing, and very bright!! and its one of the most important places for buddhists in myanmar

our lunch place

 the restaurants in the streets have mostly very small chairs - looks a bit like for children!

we wanted to change 500 dollars, they changed only 400...

...and got 356.000 kyiat!

shwe dagon pagoda at sun set

the pagoda with nuns

and at night

another interresting thing about myanmar is the 8 days week...wednesday is devided in two parts of 12 hours each!!

trishaws...2 people can sit there! its like a taxi for short ways

in all restaurants you get tea for free...but the cups are not really clean!

 in the first restaurant i asked if i could get a new cup since the ones on the table were all used. the lady put a bit of tea in one of the cups...that was the washing. then she threw the tea out and gave me the cup. sionce i didnt want to be disrespectful i took the cup and drank some tea. in many places its like on the picture...the cups are in some water, but the later it gets the more dirty the water gets...but these things do not really matter anymore... it was always nice to have some tea!!

after two days in yangon we went more north to bagan. its a really holy place, with MANY old temples!

everywhere you can buy gold leaves and all the temples have loads of gold...these people put gold ON the temple!

 its interesting to see that the country is quite poor, but nobody would even think about taking gold from a temple

Buddha is everywhere

3 lions...

...and four fighters

people, especially women and girls, look like this in myanmar

 the thing in their face is "dust" from the sandelwood tree with water. its a sunblock, and as well its said to make beautiful skin. in the beginning its a bit strange, but soon you dont realize it anymore!

public drinking water

 next to the streets are always stations like this, and all the locals drink there...its also just one cup, which is used by everyone! i preferred the bottled water!!

its amazing

you can walk in and on the temples

bribing kids with sweets!!

we had a horse car for half a day...because of the shade

what a place...!!

hope you can see the beard of that guy!

the wall in the room in bagan!

nuns, asking for food in the morning

 after bagan we went a few more hours up north to mandalay

many things are a bit like in the west!!

street market in mandalay

next to ayerwardy river, about you will read in the next post

market again

u pain bridge...on my book cover and in reality

its the longest teak bridge in the world

...and really nice

markets...

...again

7 street kids in mandalay

the palace of the former king of burma in mandalay

...in the streets

up at mandalay hill...with buddhist monks