We almost died in Myanmar...

"Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other."

- Carol Saline

     My sister, Katie, came to visit me in Korea for 3 weeks over Christmas.  For the week between Christmas and New Years, we went to Myanmar.  Our trip started off to a rocky start.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:30AM so we got to the airport at 4:00AM.  Then our flight was delayed for 7 hours. Not only was it delayed but we were already on the plane.  That's right we sat on the tarmac for 7 hours.  Within the first 5 hours the flight attendants ran out of water and food.  This should have been a clue to us about what was to come.

Surprisingly Myanmar was very into Christmas.  There were lights and street festivals everywhere!

The next day we went on an amazing walking tour of the capitol city, Yangon.  It was very cool to learn about the history and architecture of this amazing city.  

Its unfortunate that a lot of the beautiful historical buildings haven't been kept up. The yellow building was originally a mansion built by a single family.  Today it is split up into many apartments.

There was construction being done on the sewer system so we got to walk over this super sturdy and safe board bridge.

All of the apartment buildings in Yangon have stairs that go straight up.  These stairs go all the way up to the 4th floor.  Can you imagine carrying children or groceries up these stairs?  The photo on the right was our delicious meal at the end of the tour.  We were even able to order crab rangoon in the city formally called Rangoon (When the British colonized Myanmar they couldn't pronounce Yangon, so they changed the name to Rangoon.  After Myanmar gained their independence the name was changed back to Yangon.)

This is Yangon City Hall and on the right is the Burmese Independence Monument.  The monument is actually in the shape of a big star surrounded by small stars, which you can only see from the top down.

We then went to the Shwedagon Pagoda.  The pagoda was built between the 6th and 10th century.  Legend has it that some of Buddha's hairs are inside the stupa.

 Christmas eve we boarded a 10 hour overnight bus to Bagan.  It was a super nice bus.  They even provided us with these beautiful Dora the Explorer pillows.

 We arrived Christmas morning and climbed to the top of a temple to witness the most stunning view I have ever seen.  It was so beautiful I started tearing up.

Bagan was the capitol city of what is current day Myanmar from the 9th to 13th century.  In that time 10,000 Buddhist temples and pagodas.  You can climb to the roof of some of the temples and watch the mist and  hot air balloons as the sun rises across the plain.  

I'm sorry but now you will look at hundreds of sunrise hot air balloon photos.

After the amazing sunrise we checked into our hotel and then they gave us mopeds to go exploring.  Yes they trusted Katie and I to drive mopeds.

 It was very cool to just drive around on sand tracks and stop off to explore these ancient temples.  Now the temples are mostly just the brick layer.   Originally they would have been covered in plaster and painted.  Its amazing to see the little bit of plaster left and imagine what it would have been like.

So after a magical morning of seeing stunning temples and having fun driving the mopeds, we ate lunch at a super sketchy and poorly run restaurant, but it did have a beautiful view of the river.  After lunch Katie wasn't feeling well so we went back to the hotel so she could take a nap.  I went and got a massage.  After my massage, I went back to find Katie really ill, as in vomiting and stomach cramps ill.   It got so bad that she needed assistance to sit up and could barely walk to the bathroom even with assistance.  I was so worried about her getting dehydrated that I finally convinced Katie that we needed to go to the hospital.  At the hospital, she was diagnosed with heat exhaustion and food poisoning and was given an electrolyte drink, re-hydration salts, anti-nausea meds, and antibiotics.  All for the price of $46.  When we finally got back to the hotel, I started having the same symptoms.  For the next day and a half, Katie and I didn't leave the hotel room and both thought we were going to die, it was terrible.  

 We were supposed to take another overnight bus to the next city on our itinerary, but the thought of riding on a bus for 8 hours with our stomach issues was terrifying.  So we looked at flights and found that a plane ticket was only $100, so we booked a flight and within an hour were in Inle Lake.

 Katie was finally feeling better, but the first day in Inle I had intense stomach cramps and still really couldn't move.  By the evening I was ok enough for us to visit Red Mountain Estate Vineyard.  The vineyard was on top of a mountain overlooking the valley and lake and the view was stunning.

These were our very official handwritten tickets and sticker boarding passes for our flights.

And our plane had propellers.

The next day we were both feeling well enough to actually go and site see.  The lake is 45 square kilometers and life revolves around the lake.  We rented a boat and a driver for the day and were off! 

25% of the lake is covered by floating gardens.  These are made by pushing the aquatic plants together and then putting dirt on top creating "land" for the tomatoes, beans, and flowers to grow.  Such an ingenious way to utilize what you have!

While touring around the lake we stopped at a couple of workshops.  The first was a weaving workshop.  They actually make fabric from lotus plants, but it is so labor intensive that they only make scarves and they are crazy expensive. 

Everywhere we went there were these golden chickens.  I googled it and found out it is a mythical bird.  The second picture on the right is me drinking watermelon juice with a smug expression because when I was about 10 I decided I wanted to make watermelon juice.  My mom told me it was not a thing and then forced me to drink the weird concoction that I made.  So here mom, watermelon juice is a real thing!

It was so cool to drive through the floating villages and see how every aspect of life is carried out on the water.

Here's a Burmese farmer, farming his floating garden.  All he has to do is float his canoe down the rows.

 We then bought another flight back to Yangon.  Because we flew and cut down on our travel time we had extra time back in Yangon.  We decided to just book a nice hotel room and relax for the next two days.  So we checked into the Shangri-La and spent two days in luxury.  Our room was on the 17th floor and the photo on the right was the view from our window.

By our final night our stomachs were finally strong enough to go back to the first restaurant we had eaten at and had a fantastic last night meal.  

Myanmar was an amazing place to visit.  I am so glad I got to do it with Katie by my side.