Semester at Sea has VERY minimal internet -- incredibly slow, loses
connection, and generally not worth the bother. And for students, they
have overall time and memory limits before they have to pay a
supplement. No one can use you-tube or any communications program.
So, effectively, we are unplugged. This is quite peaceful all around, though there are certainly things I would like to look up.
When we arrived at the main golden pagoda in Yangon, there was free
wifi. Students stopped their sightseeing and immediately began texting,
phoning, and skyping everyone they knew. Hmmmm......
Friday, March 7, 2014
Outside Yangon
The ship arrived along the delta that had been inundated by the 2008
typhoon -- 200,000 to 300,000 people died. The US offered to help, and
our offer was refused.
Along the Yangon river, the colors were mostly shades of brown, with a little dark green. Our ship docked at the new port, in a rural outlying area. The first trip into town was eye-opening. Again there were largely shades of brown with some dark green. At every crossroad there were people waiting, and stands set up to sell snacks. It turns out that people were waiting for infrequent and overcrowded buses -- and so selling snack to those people made sense.
We were overwhelmed with the trash along the road. Actually, near the food stands there was less trash. Later we watched as people swept up the trash in the mornings, raising large quantities of dust, and lit the little piles of trash on fire to burn them. The trash included a lot of plastic, and the irritation in my eyes was probably related to the burning plastic, as well as the burning of the nearby rice fields.
And the men really did wear skirts -- longyi. And the women and children (and occasionally men) really did wear the yellow bark extract on their faces. It is supposed to keep the skin soft, partly by providing protection from the sun. In another couple of days, we were completely acclimated and did not notice these things.
We did a Semester at Sea day trip to another outlying area. After taking the bus into town, we took a crowded 2-story ferry across the Yangon river to a crowded landing area. People were boarding the ferry at the same time as people were disembarking -- general chaos. Venders were selling quail eggs, dried snacks, guava, date/plum-like fruit and other food. The water was approximately the color of chocolate mousse.
From there we went in smaller vans along a 1 to 2 lane road. Along the road we saw a man leading a pig on a rope (think Mother Goose), a cart drawn by oxen, and a field being irrigated by a foot-driven tredle pump. We were taken to a rural market -- it actually had most of the same items as the urban markets we had been wading through. Live fish, dried fish, assorted greens, interesting fruit, bars of soap, plastic carriers, flip-flops..... I did find a cute Dahlia-sized granddaughter dress in the market for $2.00. At that price, I could not bring myself to bargain.
We also went to a small pottery factory that turned out utilitarian pots. The person seated on the floor with the wheel had enough clay loaded to make about 6 pots -- about 1 per minute. The wheel was turned by a standing woman kicking it. Even the little pots were too heavy for a souvenir.
Perhaps the most interesting stop was the Monastery/orphanage. Our students really came through with games that could be played with little language. And they used the tour guide to translate instructions for some of the games. We had brought badmitten -- which they enjoyed. We watched a death-defying climb to get the shuttlecock off the roof (successfully). I tried origami, and interestingly, one of the kids (maybe 10 years old) already knew how to make a crane.
More than half of the students in my classes today want to return to Myanmar -- me too. It will be very interesting to follow this place for the next 10 and 20 years.
Along the Yangon river, the colors were mostly shades of brown, with a little dark green. Our ship docked at the new port, in a rural outlying area. The first trip into town was eye-opening. Again there were largely shades of brown with some dark green. At every crossroad there were people waiting, and stands set up to sell snacks. It turns out that people were waiting for infrequent and overcrowded buses -- and so selling snack to those people made sense.
We were overwhelmed with the trash along the road. Actually, near the food stands there was less trash. Later we watched as people swept up the trash in the mornings, raising large quantities of dust, and lit the little piles of trash on fire to burn them. The trash included a lot of plastic, and the irritation in my eyes was probably related to the burning plastic, as well as the burning of the nearby rice fields.
And the men really did wear skirts -- longyi. And the women and children (and occasionally men) really did wear the yellow bark extract on their faces. It is supposed to keep the skin soft, partly by providing protection from the sun. In another couple of days, we were completely acclimated and did not notice these things.
We did a Semester at Sea day trip to another outlying area. After taking the bus into town, we took a crowded 2-story ferry across the Yangon river to a crowded landing area. People were boarding the ferry at the same time as people were disembarking -- general chaos. Venders were selling quail eggs, dried snacks, guava, date/plum-like fruit and other food. The water was approximately the color of chocolate mousse.
From there we went in smaller vans along a 1 to 2 lane road. Along the road we saw a man leading a pig on a rope (think Mother Goose), a cart drawn by oxen, and a field being irrigated by a foot-driven tredle pump. We were taken to a rural market -- it actually had most of the same items as the urban markets we had been wading through. Live fish, dried fish, assorted greens, interesting fruit, bars of soap, plastic carriers, flip-flops..... I did find a cute Dahlia-sized granddaughter dress in the market for $2.00. At that price, I could not bring myself to bargain.
We also went to a small pottery factory that turned out utilitarian pots. The person seated on the floor with the wheel had enough clay loaded to make about 6 pots -- about 1 per minute. The wheel was turned by a standing woman kicking it. Even the little pots were too heavy for a souvenir.
Perhaps the most interesting stop was the Monastery/orphanage. Our students really came through with games that could be played with little language. And they used the tour guide to translate instructions for some of the games. We had brought badmitten -- which they enjoyed. We watched a death-defying climb to get the shuttlecock off the roof (successfully). I tried origami, and interestingly, one of the kids (maybe 10 years old) already knew how to make a crane.
More than half of the students in my classes today want to return to Myanmar -- me too. It will be very interesting to follow this place for the next 10 and 20 years.
Last day in Myanmar
We got up at 6:00 to get on the 6:30 bus into town. The "new port" is an hour away from town, and I wanted a Mayanmar breakfast. We arrived in the town square at 7:30
and flagged a taxi. When you flag a taxi, then you need to explain
where you are going and negotiate a price before getting in. Sometimes
the customer suggests the price, sometimes the driver.
We were heading for "Lucky 7", a popular tea house (according to the Lonely Planet guides). It was not too far, so I suggested 2000 kyats -- $2.00. That was good with him, and he drove us right there. There were lots of older boys as servers in "Lucky 7" t-shirts, and we were seated towards the front. I ordered "mohinga" -- a sort of soup and noodles with crunchy fried things that have peas in them. I had eaten it before at other places, but not for breakfast. Will had Samosas.
As we were getting ready to leave, after paying our 80 cents, I said hello to a couple of women who had recently arrived across the table from us. One answered in good English, and we began a coversation. Turns out that she and her husband run the Karaweik M & Travel & Tours Co. "M" stands for Myanmar, "J" stands for Japan. She arranges for tours by Japanese tourists -- speaks Japanese, and has been to Kyoto several times! Her son goes to college in New Jersey. Small world.
They introduced us to an adjacent couple -- he is a ship captain, and could not bring his ship into port until our ship cleared out!
We were headed for the zoo -- so they offered to drop us off, and pick us up again after an hour. The zoo had a few cassowary -- look it up. They are ostrich sized with brightly colored heads, and look just like dinosaurs. They have fierce looking feet, that they apparently wield like a velociraptor.
Doing "zoo" is a little different in Myanmar. At the hippos, there was a woman selling baskets of leaves that you could feed to the hippos. I bought a basket and shared it with the kids who were nearby so we could all feed the hippos. Then for the otters, I bought a basket of fish and tossed them to the otters with a metal spoon. And for the elephants, I bought seven sections of sugar cane. I shared them with a monk and 2 kids so we could all feed them.
Because of the timing, we did not get to ride an elephant, or get our picture taken sitting on a bench with a bear, or have the monkeys all over us -- all experiences reported by other zoo-goers. The couple who we met apologized that there were not too many animals. The government has build a new capital somewhere remote, and they took many of the animals for the new zoo in the new capital. In fact, the new city is too expensive for anyone except government people to actually live in. Business people need to go there to deal with the government.
The gracious couple picked us back up after we spent an hour at the zoo, and took us to visit the school that their son had gone to. Actually, he went to public school during the week, and then went Saturday and Sunday to this international school since he was 5. They said that public school was very hard because there were always sheets of information for him to memorize for the tests. His class size in public school was around 50 per class. The public school fees are around $40 year, less for younger children.
Others had explained that the teachers offered lessons in their homes in the evenings for a fee. For example, the teacher might teach ABC, then they could go to her home in the evening, for a fee, to learn DEF.
They drove us back to the bus in the town square -- we got the noon bus -- last bus back to the ship before "on ship time" of 14:00. If you miss "on ship time", you are given "dock time" in the next port. We arrived back at the ship on time, walked up the 47 steps of the gangway, got our bags inspected, went through the metal detector, and swiped our ID cards to get admission to the ship. Last step was to return our passports to the ship's purser.
Lunched on board through the regular cafeteria line. Graded student's exams. Watched the ship pull out at 16:00. Put on a new longyi skirt for dinner. Met with our "extended family" group of students for dinner . Faculty meeting. And now to finish preparing for tomorrow's classes.
.......a day in the life of Semester at Sea. Lots to do, and lots of fun!
We were heading for "Lucky 7", a popular tea house (according to the Lonely Planet guides). It was not too far, so I suggested 2000 kyats -- $2.00. That was good with him, and he drove us right there. There were lots of older boys as servers in "Lucky 7" t-shirts, and we were seated towards the front. I ordered "mohinga" -- a sort of soup and noodles with crunchy fried things that have peas in them. I had eaten it before at other places, but not for breakfast. Will had Samosas.
As we were getting ready to leave, after paying our 80 cents, I said hello to a couple of women who had recently arrived across the table from us. One answered in good English, and we began a coversation. Turns out that she and her husband run the Karaweik M & Travel & Tours Co. "M" stands for Myanmar, "J" stands for Japan. She arranges for tours by Japanese tourists -- speaks Japanese, and has been to Kyoto several times! Her son goes to college in New Jersey. Small world.
They introduced us to an adjacent couple -- he is a ship captain, and could not bring his ship into port until our ship cleared out!
We were headed for the zoo -- so they offered to drop us off, and pick us up again after an hour. The zoo had a few cassowary -- look it up. They are ostrich sized with brightly colored heads, and look just like dinosaurs. They have fierce looking feet, that they apparently wield like a velociraptor.
Doing "zoo" is a little different in Myanmar. At the hippos, there was a woman selling baskets of leaves that you could feed to the hippos. I bought a basket and shared it with the kids who were nearby so we could all feed the hippos. Then for the otters, I bought a basket of fish and tossed them to the otters with a metal spoon. And for the elephants, I bought seven sections of sugar cane. I shared them with a monk and 2 kids so we could all feed them.
Because of the timing, we did not get to ride an elephant, or get our picture taken sitting on a bench with a bear, or have the monkeys all over us -- all experiences reported by other zoo-goers. The couple who we met apologized that there were not too many animals. The government has build a new capital somewhere remote, and they took many of the animals for the new zoo in the new capital. In fact, the new city is too expensive for anyone except government people to actually live in. Business people need to go there to deal with the government.
The gracious couple picked us back up after we spent an hour at the zoo, and took us to visit the school that their son had gone to. Actually, he went to public school during the week, and then went Saturday and Sunday to this international school since he was 5. They said that public school was very hard because there were always sheets of information for him to memorize for the tests. His class size in public school was around 50 per class. The public school fees are around $40 year, less for younger children.
Others had explained that the teachers offered lessons in their homes in the evenings for a fee. For example, the teacher might teach ABC, then they could go to her home in the evening, for a fee, to learn DEF.
They drove us back to the bus in the town square -- we got the noon bus -- last bus back to the ship before "on ship time" of 14:00. If you miss "on ship time", you are given "dock time" in the next port. We arrived back at the ship on time, walked up the 47 steps of the gangway, got our bags inspected, went through the metal detector, and swiped our ID cards to get admission to the ship. Last step was to return our passports to the ship's purser.
Lunched on board through the regular cafeteria line. Graded student's exams. Watched the ship pull out at 16:00. Put on a new longyi skirt for dinner. Met with our "extended family" group of students for dinner . Faculty meeting. And now to finish preparing for tomorrow's classes.
.......a day in the life of Semester at Sea. Lots to do, and lots of fun!
What to do in the hot sun in Yangon?
This equatorial sun is fierce! We walk from shady spot to shady spot --
I have been using my parasol (UV umbrella) from Japan to give me
portable shade. They report 3 seasons here -- hot, hotter, and rainy.
We are at the transition between hot and hotter now, though it is hard
to imagine it getting much hotter.
So by 3:30 we are quite wilted. This has given great opportunities for people watching at the Buddhist pagodas. Each of our 3 days of independent sightseeing has lead us to a different pagoda. They offer shade and a place to sit. Today we were at a pagoda with a huge reclining Buddha. We sat on the carpets and watched the monks and regular folks praying and visiting. Buddha had pretty dilated pupils -- Will suggested Buddah was meditating in the dark -- I though nirvana might be like drugs in dilating pupils. I chose not to purchase the guide to the 108 symbols on Buddha's feet -- but did make a small contribution in the box labeled for the support of the electric bill.
So by 3:30 we are quite wilted. This has given great opportunities for people watching at the Buddhist pagodas. Each of our 3 days of independent sightseeing has lead us to a different pagoda. They offer shade and a place to sit. Today we were at a pagoda with a huge reclining Buddha. We sat on the carpets and watched the monks and regular folks praying and visiting. Buddha had pretty dilated pupils -- Will suggested Buddah was meditating in the dark -- I though nirvana might be like drugs in dilating pupils. I chose not to purchase the guide to the 108 symbols on Buddha's feet -- but did make a small contribution in the box labeled for the support of the electric bill.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Oh my gosh Yangon!
We are not in Kansas anymore. Incredible dust, trash and poverty on the way from the ship to downtown. Then the most amazing 326 feet tall gold Pagoda. If you thought that the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto was over the top, than this would be hard to imagine. At this site there was an original 66 foot (44 cubit) pagoda around 600 BC. We arrived as it became evening and the light was changing. Total sensory overload with incense, birds, sounds of monkeys, monks, chanting, gongs, and bells. Also Monks with I-pads and I-phones, ATM machines, and money change booths. Worshipers prostrating themselves, local people resting, and tourists, all mixed together.
You circle the pagoda clockwise, and the 8 sides of the base represent the 8 days of the week. Eight? Well, Wednesday is in two parts, morning and afternoon. You worship at the particular side of your birth day of the week. There are sitting Buddhas, standing Buddhas, and reclining Buddhas. Your offering depends on what you are wishing for -- flowers bring you inner and outer beauty, candles make your mind sharp, little umbrellas something else, and pouring water over the statue something else.
You circle the pagoda clockwise, and the 8 sides of the base represent the 8 days of the week. Eight? Well, Wednesday is in two parts, morning and afternoon. You worship at the particular side of your birth day of the week. There are sitting Buddhas, standing Buddhas, and reclining Buddhas. Your offering depends on what you are wishing for -- flowers bring you inner and outer beauty, candles make your mind sharp, little umbrellas something else, and pouring water over the statue something else.
Markets in Yangon, Myanmar
What food didn't we buy? Live chickens, chicken eggs, quail eggs, live fish, live eels, dried fish (all sizes and shapes), dried shrimp (several sizes), eggplants (several shapes), watermelon (available here all year round -- slices sold from a tray on the head of a young woman), tomatoes (mostly green), about 7 or 8 kinds of greens that are not familiar, onions, potatoes, garlic, shallots, long beans, small tangerines, huge grapefruit, guava, dates, fish paste (very dead fish), hunks of meat, bitter melon, strawberries, grapes, kumquats, and other fruits that we cannot even identify.
What food did we buy? Banana
What food did we buy? Banana
If you have two, give one away -- Myanmar
This is what we were told by our SERVAS day host in Myanmar. In the morning from 7 to 11, the monks walk around collecting alms -- usually this is prepared food. Monks usually eat when they wake up, then again before noon, and not after that. If they are running an orphanage, they are collecting food for themselves and the children. Nuns collect food twice a week -- they get food that is not prepared and prepare it themselves. With a country that is mostly Buddhist, this gets a lot of people in the habit of giving.
Our host was on the founding committee for an orphanage about 6 hours away from Yangon (Rangoon). She has put her own money in, and collected money from others. Small businesses nearby pledge (and give) about a dollar (US) a month. Much of the expenses are for formula for babies.
Who are the orphans? The orphanage that we visited today near Yangon has mostly boys from the terrible 2008 typhoon that killed 200,000 to 300,000 people. Other children might have parents from the many boarder areas who are sending them away to get them out of the way of armed conflict. Others are truly abandoned babies -- sometimes with very poor parents.
Our host took us to visit the "Twilight center" -- a non-profit residential program for the elderly. It had been started when an undertaker realized that the death of one individual could leave others vulnerable who had been cared for by that person. Our host also helped support this program. There were about 40 elderly people cared for in this facility -- it would not be up to US standards, but it was clean and tidy -- and smelled good.
Our host also showed us pictures of two wells that she supported. She went to her old university friends to gather funds for the wells.
And, speaking of water, it is really hot here, and there are covered ceramic pots of water in many public places for drinking. I am not saying that this is clean water, especially if you drink out of the provided shared cup, but generosity has provided water, and apparently even more water spots are available when it gets even hotter.
Our host was on the founding committee for an orphanage about 6 hours away from Yangon (Rangoon). She has put her own money in, and collected money from others. Small businesses nearby pledge (and give) about a dollar (US) a month. Much of the expenses are for formula for babies.
Who are the orphans? The orphanage that we visited today near Yangon has mostly boys from the terrible 2008 typhoon that killed 200,000 to 300,000 people. Other children might have parents from the many boarder areas who are sending them away to get them out of the way of armed conflict. Others are truly abandoned babies -- sometimes with very poor parents.
Our host took us to visit the "Twilight center" -- a non-profit residential program for the elderly. It had been started when an undertaker realized that the death of one individual could leave others vulnerable who had been cared for by that person. Our host also helped support this program. There were about 40 elderly people cared for in this facility -- it would not be up to US standards, but it was clean and tidy -- and smelled good.
Our host also showed us pictures of two wells that she supported. She went to her old university friends to gather funds for the wells.
And, speaking of water, it is really hot here, and there are covered ceramic pots of water in many public places for drinking. I am not saying that this is clean water, especially if you drink out of the provided shared cup, but generosity has provided water, and apparently even more water spots are available when it gets even hotter.
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