Burmese culture disrupted by tourism & gut-feeling instruction to change travel-plans

Someone is singing. A beautiful female voice in a language that I don’t understand. I roll over and want the singing to last. In shock I sit upright in my bed. What time is it? No I slept through my alarm! I still hear voices on the rooftop. The new year party is still ongoing. Quickly I brush my teeth wash my face with cold water. I grin to myself in the mirror. Probably not 100% sober, but it was well worth the lack of sleep.

The rooftop terrace was turned into a great party location. A maze of colourful balloons formed sort of a roof with enough openings to see scarce fireworks. Music was playing. The bar had moved to the rooftop and was having difficulties keeping up with the high demand leading to interesting conversations when queuing for drinks and the Italian buffet was opened. Some fancy an intimate setting on a table of four, other a fourposter with comfy pillows, long wooden tables or just hanging from bar tables. Some hanging out with friends, most meeting new people and a couple of locals attending in awe. At midnight we have fireworks too. Everyone congratulates each other and the party continues with even more energy. What a way to start a new year. 

And what a way to end a year. Sitting on top of a temple to see sunrise when the sky is slowly filled with the balloons riding silently passing over the colour palette the morning sky forms, tour on an e-bike along many temples during the day, stop for some good food, witness a magnificent sunset and then have a great laugh with other travellers playing a quiz!

This year I ended up in a dorm in Morocco. That was unplanned and it was the first time. This time I planned for it and was so happy to stay at this place. Ostello Bello is an Italian hostel with a great sense of humour and everything is aimed at connecting people by organising sunset e-bike tours, the trivia but also just by the way all the different tables are set up. I spent quite some time just hanging around. Reading a book. Sorting stuff on my laptop. But mostly chatting with other people. And actually the room-sharing is not that bad.

I like the temple grounds best in the morning. A fine haze turns the area in a mysterious world in which one sees the outlines of the many temples scattered around. The air is crisp and fresh. Birds sing the song of the morning and slowly the colours in the sky start to change.

The temples history goes back such a long way. In some the paintings are well preserved. Some are never finished so you can see how all those centuries ago many people worked on a phased approach making the paintings. When using a torch you can see the development from roughly outlined sketches, to the more detailed version and then the already coloured ones. The development in temple construction is clearly visible. Shapes. Materials used. Decorations. Staircases. They all changed over time. It is a unique experience to hop from temple to temple. When doing this you might forget that you’re actually not alone.

Upon arrival in Bagan I experienced what quite an explosion of visitors can do to an area. Where you’d negotiate in Yangon for a long ride a price of 2,000 to 2,500 Kyatt they had fixed prices of 7,000 Kyatt at the airport of Bagan. The friendly Burmese had turned into almost rude young guys pushing everyone into a taxi as quickly as possible. I had to step away for a moment to take a deep breath and count to 100 before I could actually grab a taxi. It’s not only what they do but mostly the tone and the attitude that really struck me and did not fit for me at all.

And I get to encounter this attitude a second time. I made a mistake in booking a place for new year’s eve. Ostello Bello, where I stayed in the end, was fully booked. I didn't want to run the risk to not have a place to stay and everything was pretty much booked. There was this one place which was incredibly expensive and had suddenly more than halved its price. I decided to pay the $ 110 as by then I would have spent 3 nights in a dorm and would probably be up for a good night sleep. I lost track seeing the confirmation; my credit card was charged for $218! Puzzled, as I was sure I hadn’t booked for 2 nights (and didn’t add up to 2 nights), I found out that I was signed in for a compulsory GALA DINER! That is the last thing I wanted. I started to contact agoda.com (not helpful at all) and went to the hotel to talk. The manager was rude, not willing to cooperate, a liar and not respectful towards women at all. I was furious. I managed to get out of the diner, figured out that this place has close relationships with the Generals and didn't want to set another foot in this place ever again.

This trip is full of that kind of learning experiences. Here is another one.

About a week after arrival I couldn't picture myself travelling through Myanmar for four weeks. Not because it’s not a wonderful country, with mostly extremely lovely people and good food. But somehow it didn't feel good. I started to puzzle where to go and how to arrange it. When I did this first check the changing of the dates of my ticket was for free. Flights to Koh Samui (Thailand) were affordable. I started to look for yoga retreats and played safe; waiting for a confirmation of a retreat before booking flights. Changing my ticket was not for free anymore and tickets to Koh Samui had tripled in price (also if checked from another computer). Still I decided to change my plan. If that is what my gut-feeling says is the right thing to do then I should listen. I should just have listened the first time as once somethings sets in my gut it won’t go away. It’s about daring to listen to your intuition and follow it.

So I changed my plans and feel much lighter.