Crossing Bridges

In my first visit to Kyauk-tan over a decade ago, there's only a remarkable bridge—crossing over Bago River, near the junction with Yangon River and Pazundaung Creek. When it's first opened in the 90s, Thanlyin Bridge was boasted to be the longest and largest in Myanmar; now Yatanarpone or Mawlamyaig Bridges, perhaps. I reached Kyauk-tan out of sheer curiosity on a full-moon day of Thidingyut in 1999.

Taking one or two hours to reach Kyauk-tan by bus and hilux ferries, it's an unusual day-trip for me, but  paying obeisance to Kyauk-tan Yay-lae Pagoda was truly worth visiting. The Strand Road of Kyauk-tan is the bus terminal, which is next to the jetty harbouring small motored boats carrying pilgrims to and from "the pagoda in the middle of waters".

The legend and history said much about Kyauk-tan, one of the ancient Kingdoms hundreds of years back.

The jetty was hugely crowded when I reached on that full-moon day, and as the distinguished features of this pagoda says, the pagoda platform always provide enough space for all pilgrims; other features include the pagoda platform never being flooded even with tides and rains.

Despite living some 20 miles or so from Kyauk-tan, I couldn't pay another visit for many years, though occasionally missed the lovely little town. Then in new year holidays this year, I followed a group of pilgrims to Kyauk-tan again for the second time in my life, wondering what would be changing there, flicking diary renewing my first experience there long ago.

It's alone when I'm there first, now I was like a special guest thanks to a famous local writer who helped preparing the trip. Visually, except some new paintings, I hardly notice significent new features; sellers and shops of souvenirs, ferry boats, the old jetty, the scenic environment and the swirling catfish in the muddy waters around the pagoda; all seemed like back in my first visit. 

I could spend less than an hour at the pagoda and on way back also entered Thanlyin and other famous places, finally crossing back the old Thanlyin Bridge and another newer one, the Mahabandoola Bridge linking Thaketa across Pazundaung Creek to downtown Yangon.

Lazing Around Pathein, the Ayeyawady Delta

The signal indicator of my mobile was almost zero on Nay La Win Express while a call from my friend to confirm my journey was ringing in. It’s uncertain at first if cdma800MHz connection would be available in the Delta city, as the network failed to cover country-wide. On my way to Pathein one Sunday afternoon, passengers were so loaded leaving no extra space on buses that all seatless travelers waving hands were left stunned as the buses rushed by.

    I’ve been familiar with a song featuring Pathein since 1990s. One modified classic song called Mama Pathein Thu of Poe Ei San was a hit in our teens. The Shwe-mok-htaw Pagoda, Pathein Umbrella, Pathein Beach, etc. have all been my dreams to witness. Regrettably, I failed to reach the Delta, let alone Pathein, until this journey in ironically rainy early December.

    Staying less than 24 hours in Pathein, I was accompanying a longtime schoolmate to visit the Shwe-mok-htaw Pagoda once I landed out from the bus-linked ferry. The time’s 6.30pm; darkness totally. At first sight, I was truly impressed with the city. It’s learnt many newly-paved concrete roads were constructed just recently, though dusty scenes & poor atmospheric quality was unavoidable, like so many cities in the country—from Sittway to Mu-sae, from Myawadi to Mandalay.

    The Strand was also shiny and smooth, with flowery figures of dolphins, artistic benches, modernized paved ways among the greenish lawn, near the glittering City Hall. It’s also overheard that the Strand was newly reconstructed, after dismal looks for many years. That might be like when I witnessed the damaging Strand in another port city Sittway 4 years back. Tricycles were the best way to go round the Strand, watching the rowing and motored boats in Nga-wun River. After some 2-minute drive was a popular high pillar with a Pathein Umbrella on top, eye-catching, though it looked dull and seemed to be left undecorated for long.

    My friend suggested Kha-kha-gyi restaurant for dinner, but it’s already locked when we approached after 8pm. A nearby shop became an option, and we ardently talked like our traditional style at Lucky1 teashop near the cinema theater.

   Pyinsawady FM was airing at La Pyae Wun Guest House on Min Gyi Road, where some friends said to occasionally reunite for their official meetings every few months. Previously heard about meditation centers and monasteries in Pathein though, I had to abort the plan to visit at the rickshaw driver’s reluctance for the far outskirts.

     Four-hour drive from Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar bus terminal to Pathein has widened my outlook even with a short break from the Capital and less time to laze around. Dreaming face to face with the Delta, the rice basket of the country since the colonial era, at last I could land the soil of the Ayeyawady Delta, which I earnestly took pride in, and next times, hope to reach far-flung areas and beaches close to Bay of Bengal.

A Stop Called 115

It's not very uncommon for us to name famous junctions and notable areas according to their respective milestones from a center point. Everybody from Yangon, for instance, is used to name Mayangone's Junction 8 area, Insein's 10th Mile bus station, 7th Mile near Yangon University's Hlaing Campus. And if you leave Yangon too, there's Pyin-Oo-Lwin's 21st Mile camp, Mu-Sae's 105th Mile Trade Zone, etc., all naming after their signs of distance.

One of the newest of such nomenclature is nearest to my native, on a special high way linking Yangon and Mandalay through Naypyitaw, not the old Yangon-Mandalay main road. That's 115th Mile Station. The place is also the first multipurpose station for those hi-way expresses leaving Yangon towards north. In other words, it's the first stop for all the travelers, to get refreshments, to eat, to relax from hours of driving.

There're a gas station, a wide car park and several famous restaurants and teashops. Feel, Shwe Khayar Gyi, Pioneer, Famous are some brands you can trust for your complete breakfast, lunch or dinner, and even supper. Standardized service areas are impressive and there's a voice from loud speaker requesting travelers not to spit from betel chewing and throw rubbish at the area. Perhaps that's the only place I've ever heard of announcing like this in public; maybe they should do that in our economic capital as well, for the sake of clean and hygienic environment.

In fact, no one can travel long hours and it's a good idea to settle a while at roadside stations along the high way. The 115th Mile station is located at the 115th milestone (from Yangon), some 2 miles to the west of Phyu township, Bago Region. It's also the halfway mark between Yangon and Naypyitaw. One pleasant scene is its facades facing misty Bago Yoma, one of the longest ranges in Myanmar. There's a dim view of an electric power dam project to the north-west of the station. While refreshing, you can tune in Shwe FM music programs from your mobile's earpieces. However, you can't expect to stay overnight there as there, much as I know, isn't any hotel or inn around there.

And for your next visit to Mandalay, if it's also sunny at this station, you can shoot a photo there too. I'm sure you'll really look photogenic as, most of all, it's also a good place to photograph with high mountainous scene in the background. Look what I've just done with some Myanmar writers recently at the 115th Mile Station's car park!

My Second Native

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon. That’s where I’ve spent more than half my lifetime. I have experienced both  setbacks and enthusiasm staying in Yangon for many years. In fact, it’s like my second native, and whenever I reached around the world, I could hardly forget where I started the rat race or city life back in my teenage years.

            Some people from Yangon say they’re never happy living anywhere except Yangon. Perhaps they’re right, partly because this is the center of all the sources from food and living things to latest models of computer devices, and to say the most, you can get whatever you need instantly in Yangon. More, most of the standard fashion Myanmar girls fancy are originated  (also partly from Korean TV series) from this capital, now just being regarded as the economic capital second to Naypyitaw. Business headquarters, wholesale malls, best restaurants, arts, music, periodicals, medicine, garment, and so forth all are stationed in Yangon, whatever their origins may be.

            However Yangon sometimes treated me like a stranger. There’re several couples of younger people going all along the Yangon streets and supermarkets, but the city failed to offer me a decent girl to get along with, what an unfairness!

The truth, though, is that I’m clinged to Yangon, both during hard times and good ones. Nargis gave me unexceptional fear of living in a port city, witnessing from start to end the nagging wind and rain, in the middle of the storm hitting delta region historically in early May 2008. My joyful moment was when I was just graduated from a university in Yangon, being able to accept the degree scroll from the once-impressive convocation hall inside the compound of Yangon University near Hledan.

            My pity, unfortunately, towards my adopted city was it’s dull and obsolete infrastructure. You’ll see just a few high rises, less than a dozen even in downtown business zone. The badly-damaged paved roads are not standardized, some major roads being reconstructed only a third or left unrepaired, flecks of spitting and litter abounds, etc. In fact, the prestigious image of Yangon will, as one friend noted, never fade away, along with the great Shwedagon, seemingly awaiting to catch up with other advanced regional capitals.

            Recent cool weather, a sign of climate change has also hit Yangon. A week of gloomy weather in extreme coolness reminded me the day of Nargis, but the weather reporting system was so smart to warn and give exact detail of the event and all are correct, mostly via FMs. When a public FM radio was started back in 2000, it’s a big effort to tune it for radio lovers like me; now there’s about 7 FM waves and more to put forward, although the quality of real-time reporting and public programmes require some technical expertise.

           Some critics argue the lagging behind in some aspect of Yangon and reaching advance in some will continue to overwhelm in Yangon for many years to come. As for me I will never forget Yangon and will be ever more delighted to be a permanent resident of Yangon in my future. All because it’s my only second native, that’s enough.

From Mandalay To Java

A beautiful volcano called Merapi was seen overlooking Yogyakarta, a culturally attractive Indonesian city worst hit by the Asian Tsunami in Dec 2004. Four years after that dreadful tsunami, I was heading there. It's also when I got the chance to visit the world's largest stupa—Borobudur. That's a huge Buddhist temple, although some called it a stupa. Situated in central Java, Indonesia, nearby Yogyakarta (Jogja, as locally named), Borobudur has been well listed by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

     In fact, it's long before I was face to face with the Indonesian culture that I'd seen some postcards from Jogja featuring Borobudur. After a nice smiling welcome for the rare visitor from Yangon at the Jakarta airport, I'd have to make an hour flight to Jogja, by a local airliner Garuda.

     Soon after a period of stay in Jogja, in one cloudy afternoon in the fall of 2008, I was led by my friend with his shabby motorbike, left the city and headed straight to Borobudur. The environment seemed not foreign as we passed through many villages and forest, along Indonesian countryside. We had to postponed lunch to reach there in hot and gloomy climate, under the hottest equatorial sunshine. Travelling towards lushing ranges for about an hour took us to one of the world's 7 most wonders, at last.

     In one book from Myanmar it's noted that Borobudur was built resembling Ta-wa-dein-tha; Mya Thein Dan pagoda from Min Gun, nearby Mandalay, was also build with the same idea, it said. I've also been to Mingun and, when I first saw Borobudur, I instantly remembered Mingun Pahto Taw Gyi, both being pictured as huge structures. Mingun Pahto Taw Gyi was just abandoned with about 160 feet (though originally intended by King Boe Daw as 500 feet, aiming for the world's highest) and you'd need a great effort to reach the top of Mingun Pahto Taw Gyi.

     Probably constructed when Buddhism availed in Indonesia around AD800, as a heritage of Buddhist tradition, Borobudur was truly amazing with systematic stone architecture. The scenery and entrance compound were like vast green velvet, all systematic, neat and clean, packed with tourists & pilgrims. The basic structure of Borobudur was like pagodas from Myanmar, somewhat influenced by Indian culture, and the main stupa at the top was encircled by 72 small stupas, each with a Buddha Image inside. The foundation was known nearly 200 feet on each side. Nine platforms were step by step ascended to the top. It's unbelievable to read that the way to the summit of Borobudur extends through some 4.8 km of passages and stairways. Amazing!

     It's also notable we didn't miss our lunch thanks to a hawker selling traditional pies near the cultural museum in the garden surrounding Borobodur. "Our hostel is a few minutes' drive from the beach. There's lots to see and do here. Many historic monuments such as Borobudur and the Prambanan temples are just nearby. It will surely be worth visiting for you," said that friend long before I left for Indonesia; actually, it's no question. More than worth visiting!