Journey into the Golden Land of Less Travelled Never did I ever dream that I 'would want' to visit Myanmar, the Golden Land of Less Travelled.

Nevertheless it was a fact that I visited the country last December for eleven days.
It was indeed a remarkable trip.

It all started with the suggestion through a tele-conversation with a former school-mate, Lim Poh Aing. He sounded as if he would be going with some Burmese monks to Myanmar sometime in November 2010 and the whole idea of the trip intrigued me and I wanted to go with him on that tour. However,a few days later I got another phone call from an ex-colleague who invited me to join her Buddhist Vihara members to make a similar trip. The strange coincidence of the two proposed trips to the same country in a short span of time prompted me to decide decisively that- I ought to visit the country. It was as if it was ‘a divine intervention’.

At first I presumed I would not be spending too much money travelling in a country far less developed than Malaysia. I thought with RM 2000, it was more than sufficient to cover the whole trip for eleven days. Initially, in the month of August ,I was told to advance RM 3000 to join the trip organized by the Bukit Mertajam Buddhist Vihara. Any excess amount would be refunded. But, after ‘my neck was stuck out’ with the payment, I was asked to pay an additional RM300 as I was told that the tour would include three internal flights in Myanmar to cut down travelling time in the vast central region of the country. As I had already had my back to the wall with the Kuala Lumpur-Yangon flight ticket, I could not possibly back out of the tour although it had already exceeded my estimated budget for the trip.

When “rice has already turned into porridge” [米已煮成粥] , I informed my friends and acquaintances about the trip. Most of them reacted jokingly with an identical question, “Are you meeting the Lady?”

I knew whom they were referring to as I supposed they had read my blog on ‘The Lady by the Lake’ in which I had mentioned about Aung San Suu Kyi. Although I was unable to meet ‘the Lady of Myanmar’, I was fortunate enough to meet another lady, ‘the Lady from Thailand’, Dr.Pornthip, the famed forensic doctor in the Teoh Beng Hock’s inquest. When she appeared at Hu Pin Hotel near Lake Inle, to use the wash room, everybody was rushing to take a photograph with her just like any other crazy fans going after their favourite artist.Our twenty-one members strong tour group, comprised of three married couples and a few cliques of friends, of which I was 'an outsider' only acquainted with two ladies as they were my ex-colleagues.On 7 December, 2010, we took an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Yangon. At the Yangon International Airport, we were greeted by our ‘special’ tour guide, Venerable Shi Hong Hai[释宏海法师], a forty-seven year old Myanmar Mahayana monk who is a Burmese of Chinese descend. He is of the seventh generation Chinese in Myanmar. He became a novice monk when he was fourteen years old. At present, he is the Abbot of Guang Yin Monastery[观音寺] at Bago, Rangoon. Ven. Shi Hong Hai is a friendly, easy-going and very accommodating person; qualities tailored to be an excellent tour leader. Although he was an amateur in the tourist industry, he had planned a seemingly flawless itinerary for our trip. For eleven days we had travelled on all the major forms of transportation ranging from air planes, buses, boats and even bullock carts to cover most of the major cities of the country,such as Yangon, Heho, Taunggyi , Mandalay,Bagan and Naypyidaw. We went on a pilgrimage to a number of famous and magnificent Golden Pagoda Temples and historical temples ruins in and around these cities.

We flew from Yangon to Heho to take a boat ride at Lake Inle to visit, at the lake-shores, the cottage industries where hand-woven silks, cigars and handicrafts were made. We had a chance of a life time to see sea gulls at a close range and feeding them ‘murukku’ (a type of Indian snack). We were exhilarated throwing it in the air for the birds to catch. Surprisingly, the birds could catch the the food we hurled at them with pinpoint accuracy. From Heho we flew to Mandalay, the final capital of Myanmar’s Konbaung Dynasty before the country was annexed by the British. The city takes its name from Mandalay Hill. Apparently,Mandalay is ,in my opinion, a more prosperous city than Yangon. It was at this city that I managed to contact my family members through emails after three days of incommunicado.

The National Kandawgyi Gardens is within the district of Mandalay. The moment we entered the gardens we were amazed and dumbfounded by its beauty and well-maintained landscape. We were like curious children entering a Disneyland. It was drizzling in the morning when we arrived at the gardens. But that did not prevent us from appreciating the beauty and serenity of the scenic view there. Needless to say, our cameras were clicking away non-stop to capture the scene for memory.

The rain was in fact a blessing in disguise as we were able to watch with shouts of joys and astonishment at the momentary appearance of a rainbow over the skyline of the garden. I overheard somebody remarked , “If there was no rain, there wouldn’t be any rainbow.” From Mandalay we took another flight to Bagan to witness a landscape dotted with thousands of ancient temples as far as the eye could see. It was just like entering a jungle of pagodas[塔林]. That evening we took a river cruise to watch the spectacular sunset view over Irrawaddy River. Luck was still with us the following day when we were able to witness the mesmerizing sunset over the distant mountains at Naypyitaw, the new capital of Myanmar.

At dawn the next day the sun seemed to wake up earlier to send us off with a breathtaking view of sunrise as we travelled on the expressway from Naypyitaw to Yangon to stay for another night before we bade farewell to this Golden Land of Less Travelled.

On the whole the trip was a unique and remarkable experience despite the fact a member of our group fell ill in Taunggyi,on the third day of our trip. He was suspected of having had food-poisoning and inflammation on the gall bladder. Two days into his ordeal, he fell in the hotel bathroom and had to be immediately admitted to a private hospital in Mandalay. As he was too weak to continue with the tour, it was decided to inform his children to come to Myanmar to bring him back to Malaysia. Meanwhile, we were very deeply indebted to three of our group members who volunteered to stay behind to look after him in the hospital and accompany him on his flight from Mandalay to Yangon and to make sure he safely board the plane in Yangon with his two children. Because of the sacrifice of the three members, the rest of us could continue with our itinerary uninterrupted. As Mr.Tan Ai Keng, a member of our tour group, aptly surmised at the end of the tour, “Despite all the ups and downs, we managed to bring the tour to a full circle, thanks to the Blessing of the Triple Gems and the competent leadership of Ven. Shi Hong Hai.”