Hello!!
I hope this finds you happy and healthy and enjoying the holidays. It is 11am Christmas Day here so Christmas Eve should be winding down in the US.
(I can access Hotmail in Bagan through some special program but can't access any of my addresses so Chris if you could send this to our friends and my Dad that would be great!) I can't access Hotmail most places but have been able to access gmail no problem as long as the town has internet access at all (which can be a problem).
Yesterday Christina and I took the boat from Mandalay to Bagan. We started off the day with some trepidation because the "fast boat" was fully booked so we had to take the "slow boat". The difference.. fast boat was $25, mostly tourists and took about 8 hours. Slow boat was $10, mostly locals and took 15 hours. I like boat trips and wasnt too worried but Christina wasnt sure she wanted to sit on a boat that long after our very long (partially miserable) train trip from Hspiaw to Mandalay.
So we got up at 4am and made it to the boat dock. WE got on the boat around 5am and got a good spot along the railing (very important!). WE took off around 5:30.. it was still dark and very foggy and cold. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise and the fog gradually lifted and the day warmed up nicely. There were about 15 or so tourists on the boat and the rest (about 200) were locals. The deck was crammed full of people and at every stop more women streamed on board carrying things on their head to sell. It was always complete chaos when we stopped.. people scrambling to get off the boat, ladies with big trays on their heads pushing their way on and men walking up and down the gangplank balancing heavy bags on their shoulders. Seemed like there were a lot of bags to be unloaded at each stop. The women would run onto the boat and try as hard as they could to get people to buy something before the horn blew then they'd run off again. First stop was the banana stop... about 20 ladies really really really wanted us to buy their bananas. Second stop was chicken stop, 3rd stop was unload many many heavy sacks as fast as you can stop (the guys were flying up and down the gangplank with these heavy bags)4th and 5th stops i don't remember and the final stop was the woven blanket stop. Good timing as it was starting to get chilly again.
SOme of the ladies from the banana stop stay on for the whole ride then take the night bus back to their homes. One lady sat by us for a long time and when she realized we couldnt eat any more bananas she started rubbing my feet. Well it worked like a charm. Soon both Christina and I were getting massages while sitting on the boat deck. I got one at 11am. Then spent a few hours reading and playing with some Burmese children (i brought some sticker books they really liked) and again passing the book of photos from home around (big hit). Around 5pm we thought what the heck.. lets get another massage. So we spent our Christmas Eve watching an amazing sunset floating down the Ayeyarwaddy River while drinking a beer getting our shoulders and feet massaged by 2 Burmese women who felt like they had 6 hands . Utterly fantastic. And only 2000 kyat each time. $1\u003d1250 kyat so less than $2. The ladies were really nice and we gave them some crayons for their kids and a couple shirts.
WHen we finally arrived in Bagan some 15 hours after starting, we were met with the usual throng of people trying to get you to stay at their guesthouse. We luckily had called ahead for a room and there was a man standing in the crowd holding up a sign that said Ms Catherine, USA. Hooray!! He took our bags and we followed him to a horse cart where he loaded us and our bags into the cart and delivered us to our hotel about 15 minutes away.
We ended the evening by meeting the 15 other tourists who had been on the boat for dinner at an Italian restaurant. CHEESE was a wonderful thing after rice and noodles for breakfast/lunch/dinner for the past couple of weeks. There were folks of all ages from France, Australia, UK, USA, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy (one of the Italians was a man traveling by himself who had to be at least 75 years old.. he was quite a character).
Then to bed. Today we\'ll rent bicycles and ride around some of the temples. Bagan is known for having thousands of old temples (i think close to 3000).
All of our days have not been as easy and wonderful as yesterday was but overall the trip has been great and Christmas Eve was perfect.
Merry Chrstmas, Happy New Year to you all and see you in 1 1/2 weeks!
Love,
Cathy :-)
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