At the end of November, I left Thailand a few days early to set off on an adventure within my adventure: a 12-day trip to Myanmar with UK-based touring company The Flash Pack. Ads for this company popped up on my Facebook feed, and I was eager to investigate as it’s targeted at solo travelers in their 30s and 40s who want nice accommodations but adventurous, authentic experiences—me, in other words.
My short review is that both Myanmar and Flash Pack lived up to my lofty expectations, and I highly recommend both. My time in Myanmar may well be the highlight in a year full of them, and I’ll definitely be taking another Flash Pack trip soon.
The details, however, are so numerous that I’m breaking this post into two parts. Our days were jam packed full of excitement.
Day One
I arrived in Yangon in the early afternoon. Flash Pack arranged a transfer, so it was an easy process getting to our (very nice) hotel, the Chatrium. My Myanmar welcome was an exuberant one, as Pope Francis arrived the same day. The streets were lined with people waving signs and bands playing; it made the start of the trip quite festive.
My roommate (Flash Pack sets up same-sex roommates for you unless you pay a single supplement) had left a note on my bed with the safe code, saying she’d see me soon, and we had a couple spare hours before we were meeting up to officially start the trip, so I grabbed my laptop and settled in at the lobby bar for a snack and a couple hours of work. This would become a pattern on the trip, unfortunately. Everyone else was on vacation, but I was still working remotely, so in our brief moments of downtime, my fellow travelers would hit the pool, while I hit my keyboard.
We met up at 4 pm for a quick overview. We had a local guide, Joshua, who traveled with us for the entire trip (and did an amazing job taking care of us and showing us his country). The maximum group size for this trip is 14, but ours was just 7—six single girls in our early-to-mid-30s and one poor, beleaguered (just kidding, he loved us!) man in his late 40s.
Then we left for sunset at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most famous site in Yangon. Unfortunately, clouds were rolling in just as the sun was coming down, so we missed the famous light on the pagoda, but it was still breathtaking at dusk:
We spent an hour or so walking around, observing different rituals. My favorite was the pouring of water on the Buddha at your day station (as with Chinese birth years, Myanmar notes birth days), as the woman on the left, a fellow Wednesday afternoon birthday girl, is doing.
And at night, people lit candles in a ring around the pagoda—almost otherworldly.
Joshua took us to dinner at a local restaurant where we had the first of many Myanmar beers, and then we got to know each other a bit better at the hotel bar before turning in. Every morning on the trip was an early one.
Day Two
Joshua led us on a walking tour around Yangon. It’s a bustling, modern, VERY traffic-laden city, but I loved how the people still had a distinctive Burmese appearance, and the street culture was thriving. As a remote worker, I especially appreciated seeing all the mobile offices set up on the streets. We Roam has a running “office anywhere” photo competition that provokes ridiculous photos in places where people clearly couldn’t work…but these people on the streets really living the idea of office anywhere.
I’ve always preferred to take pictures of places over people, but I couldn’t resist a few street scene shots as we walked around:
We made a brief shopping stop (the man in our group excused himself; we were a pretty stereotypical bunch) and had lunch before a couple hours’ break at the hotel. We then reconvened to visit the picturesque Kandawgyi lake, with reflections for days:
We had a skewer-filled dinner on what’s known as BBQ street, sitting outside a restaurant that housed the first of what we would come to call “adventure toilets.” (Squat toilets are still prevalent in Myanmar, and let’s just say that some of them are more adventurous than others.) The food was delicious, but outside we were targets for many children asking for money, some of whom stood there throughout the entire meal. There are enough tourists to Myanmar that they have the game down pat, but few enough that their attention is quite focused—though we eventually moved far enough off the beaten path that we were left alone.
Day Three
Our first travel day! The longest we stayed in any hotel was two nights; I wasn’t lying when I said it was a busy trip. We took a flight to Bagan and checked into the Aureum Palace Hotel, with one of the most appealing pools I’ve ever seen. Bagan is famous for their 3,000 ancient pagodas, and the infinity pool overlooked several of them. Joshua gave us the option of a local lunch and an activity or two, but once we saw the pool, we were done for.
We tore ourselves away a few hours later, though, to visit the first few of many pagodas. It felt surreal to see these structures just sitting out in fields, largely unbothered by tourists:
We were surprised and delighted to walk through an archway…
and see a field of cows with two old women minding them next to one of the pagodas:
Then we grabbed some beers and took a short boat ride out on the Irrawaddy River to watch the sun set:
Not nearly as impressive as the sunset coming up next; get ready.
We finished the day with dinner at a marionette show, an old tradition in Myanmar from the days when it was used to entertain the king. This wasn’t the favorite activity for a lot of the group, but I really enjoyed it. I’d been surprised before by how much I liked the Salzburg marionette theater; it’s an art form that requires a great deal of skill. And one of the performers we saw is apparently famous for his level of talent.
Day Four
The fourth day was one of my two favorites on the trip. (I can’t choose between them; don’t make me.) We gathered in the lo
bby at 5 am (particularly early since my poor roommate was up all night sick to her sto
mach, the first of many of us to go down, as is basically inevitable when you visit this part of the world), but we were excited despite our exhaustion, as this was the first time to go ballooning for most of us, including me.
We took a bus to a field for a safety briefing over coffee, then stood by, watching them inflate the balloons.
Once we were airborne, it was just magical and somehow peaceful, despite being sixteen people in a balloon basket.
When we got back to the hotel, we quickly changed clothes and then hopped on slow-moving scooters to explore more of Bagan’s pagodas. The pagodas themselves were beautiful, but the best part was the journey, rather than the destination. Driving a scooter down a dirt road, pulling over to the side of the road to let a cart and oxen past, calling hello (Mingalaba!) to much speedier motorcycles passing by. It was a ridiculous amount of fun.
Though all the pagodas were pretty, I enjoyed the story behind the one below. After having to repair the top portion repeatedly after earthquakes, they finally said, eh, let’s just make it gold. Why not?
After another tasty meal, we passed up afternoon activities in favor of a few more hours at the pool and one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen:
Day Five
We hit the road again, waking up early for a flight to Heho airport and then a couple hour’s drive to Kalaw. I, sadly, felt very under the weather, just congested in my head and my chest and generally rundown. When I go on my next Flash Pack trip, I’ll be much better rested; constantly on the move like I am now, I feel like I’m just one errant sneeze and bad night’s sleep away from collapse. So I missed the hike that everyone else enjoyed while I took a five-hour “nap,” but I can tell you that the drive in was lovely. We were up in the mountains, on twisty turny roads; we’d moved from suffocating heat to chilly breezes; yellow wildflowers bloomed everywhere.
Unexpectedly, Kalaw has an excellent Italian restaurant; a man from Italy married a local woman and is turning out delicious pasta and pizza. I rallied enough to join the group and eat spaghetti carbonara (carbs are great for your immune system; it’s science) and then had a Nyquil night.
Day Six
Back on the road, via bus this time, we started with an hour’s drive to the Green Hill Valley Elephant Sanctuary, where we fed elephants who were mercifully retired from the logging business they’re still used for in Myanmar and gave one of them a scrub down in the river.
I felt better but still not one hundred percent, so I was almost glad to spend most of the rest of the day in the car, on a long four-hour drive to Inle Lake. We did have one fun stop, though, at an umbrella workshop where a man made these gorgeous creations by hand, whittling the wood on a foot-powered machine to make the frames. I bought one, obviously (a little one). Once again, this was something the rest of the group wasn’t super jazzed about—though I believe they appreciated it more once they got there—and I was like YES, UMBRELLAS! Basically 34 going on 85; don’t mind me.
The Pristine Lotus Resort was maybe my favorite of our hotels; I wish we could have stayed more than one night. They designed the rooms to look like boats on the water from the balconies, and the setting on the lake was marvelous. We arrived just in time for twilight.
As you can tell, I had an incredible journey. In editing this post, I had to do an adjective search; I used the word beautiful SEVEN TIMES in the first draft. But it really is; am I right?
Stay tuned for part two, which includes my other favorite day in Myanmar!
