Ridin' the Rangoon (Yangon) Rails

One of the scavenges in the Global Scavenger Hunt was to board Yangon's Circular Train at Central Station and ride it for at least two stops.

We went to Yangon's Central Station and tried to figure out how to buy a ticket. I stood in line at the ticket window. The man who had been working there left his position behind the cage, walked around to the front and then pushed his way through the crowd. He jumped up onto the counter and squatted so that he could use his blue marker pen to write updates on the board.

Way up in the upper left corner of this photo, the small blue sign says "Warmly Welcome and Take Care of Tourists." Unfortunately, that sign is a rare specimen of any information not in Burmese.

Bought the tickets

Checked the Map

Waiting for the Train

Excellent People Watching

"Brimming With Optimism"

Riding the Train

The blue "Air Conditioned" sign over the doorway is a joke (and it's not funny)

One stop we didn't get off at

Trainman gives the "all clear" signal, waving a green cloth flag out the window

Which Buddha is the Real Buddha?

Which statue is the real Buddha?  I'll never know.
These photos are from just one day's visit to eight temples in Old Bagan, Myanmar. We saw all of these Buddhas. And many more.

It's hard to believe they are all the same person.

Terribly Toasty Temples

Cloth walkway doesn't reach all the way

There are so many temples scattered throughout the Archeological Zone in Bagan, Myanmar that from all the stuff I read, I can't find agreement on how many temples there are. One brochure said "over 2,200." Another guide said there are ruins of 10,000 temples.  However many there are, I can say this. They were all hot. Really, really hot.

You must remove your shoes to visit a temple complex. Only a few of the temples let you wear socks.

No socks allowed (see the sign with the red X's in the left rear of the photo?)

Most of the time, it's bare skin against sizzling stone. Some temples have laid carpet or placed cloth pads that you can hop onto for a moment, before braving the next step onto searing stone.

We found people resting inside the temples, where it was cooler in the shade.

Group nap

Hiding from the sun

Sally crossing the stones; gotta run!

Q. What's that Yellow Stuff? A. Thanaka

We noticed a smudge here, a dab there. At first, when we saw yellow paint on women's faces in Myanmar we didn't think anything of it. Dirt? Yellow Caladyrl instead of pink? 

But then, we saw women and girls with leaves drawn onto their faces. The girls in this photo clinched it that this yellow stuff is on purpose. Nobody has a leaf drawn on her face by mistake. 

The yellow pigment is call thanaka. It comes from grinding the wood of the thanaka tree, a species local to Myanmar. When the wood is scraped from the trunk into a fine powder, it is mixed with water into a paste. Women (mostly women; very few men use it) spread the paste onto their skin. Some paint their thanaka into leaf shapes for decoration. Thanaka is believed to protect against sunburn and to cool the skin. Some people also spread it over their arms. 

We visited a thanaka market where logs are sold. Trees must be about 35 years old or more to be able to produce the powder for the paste.

Even babies get thanaka'ed (if you can say that). Even if you can't say it, that baby's pretty cute, right?

Kayaking in Abu Dhabi’s Mangroves

As a diversion from all the showy, gold-encrusted glitz of Abu Dhabi, Sally and I went kayaking. We rented a double kayak on the waterside walkway at the Eastern Mangroves Hotel and Spa. The name of the place alone suggests that kayaking in Abu Dhabi won’t involve roughing it. After strolling by the ATM, an inviting al fresco cafe and a luxury yacht dealership, we arrived at the kayak rental dock. The rental guy dragged the plastic boat down to the edge of the downward-tilting ramp, handed paddles to us and told us to get seated. He pushed us down into the water and pointed out the suggested course. We were lowered to eye level at the tangled thickets of mangroves. A soft breeze and the temperature drop felt great. The first thing we passed in our nature experience was a distant panorama of Abu Dhabi’s skyscrapers lining the Arabian gulf coastline. The buildings are very tall and very glassy. 

We paddled forward a little more. If you paddle sloppily and out of synch, splashing happens and you get wet. That was a good thing in this heat. 

We then turned a corner to follow the open channel within the mangroves. A piece of dredging equipment was parked on the side and we saw about 20 workmen nearby, all wearing green neon life jackets. After about 15 minutes, we had enough of nature experience Abu Dhabi-style. We retraced our path and returned to the dock. Next up: visiting the oldest building in Abu Dhabi. 

The Hard Part of the Global Scavenger Hunt

The Global Scavenger Hunt is for fun. It is like doing an exhausting and exhilarating puzzle. New and weird things come at you. You try to get enough sleep but can’t. When you finally hit the pillow, it’s hard to turn off your brain. 

But with all the running around fun, it isn’t until you sit still and talk with people that you can think about the issues just below the surface. 

I’m thinking about the female Filipino taxi driver who picked us up from the fish market in Abu Dhabi. She and her sister work to send money back home. But the pay isn’t nearly as good as it had been. They are thinking of New Zealand or Canada where they might try for better opportunity. But in Abu Dhabi as a woman driver, she enjoys an advantage. Under Abu Dhabi’s Muslim rules, it is extremely rare to find a woman driver. The local Emirati women and their husbands prefer that the women be driven by women.  But that isn’t enough to make a difference in her life. And what new hurdles would face her if she tried to move to a new country?

On a plane back to the United States, I caught a headline that the Myanmar government again ruled against the journalists whose work exposed governmental abuse of Rohinga people. I’m replaying in my head the conversation I had with the Buddhist meditation master. My guess is that he would not sympathize. He could say that the journalists wrote inflammatory stories. Perhaps they don’t deserve leniency. When he and I spoke, he had volunteered his opinion questioning whether there even was such a thing as the Rohinga people. He referred back to the time when the British ruled Burma, and the British imported Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to work in the colony. According to him, those were the legitimate immigrants into Burma. He got himself all worked up, angrily asking, "Who are the people that are called Rohinga? Where are they from?" 

Those are troublesome questions at this stage of this controversy. I have since learned that United Nations' probes revealed that a segment of Buddhists (maybe my meditation instructor?) incite hatred and religious intolerance against Rohingas. The Myanmar government is accused of human rights violations for arbitrarily arresting and torturing Rohingas. Moreover, the journalists’ basic rights are at stake. And the Buddhist master, who won’t hurt a mosquito while it bites him, is annoyed at the suggestion that Rohinga people deserve any rights at all. 

Grabbing points doing scavenges such as eating weird things or climbing pagodas is comparatively easy. When you try to process complicated political and economic issues, hunting globally is dramatically more challenging. And an appreciation of the issues sticks around a lot longer. 

Scoring the Global Scavenger Hunt

A Note on Competition as we moved across the world.

Sally and I are traveling as a team in the Global Scavenger Hunt competition. Our team name is Fillies - in part because we met growing up in Philly. 

We are competing, but not really. We are only participating in the first half of the trip. We will peel off after Day 12 of 23. Thus, it is not possible for us to win the game. However, each country we visit is a separate leg, with its own scores and rankings. We can and do compete in each country.

The data from the legs are rolled into overall scores after weighing them for level of difficulty and number of days spent in that country. For example, one day of scavenging in Vancouver was a par 1, versus four days in Myanmar, assigned a par 5. 

Our scores:

1. Vancouver- we are pretty sure we won, but the leg was a trial run. No scores were posted. In wrapping up the Vancouver leg, the trip leader, Bill Chalmers announced that the Fillies (that’s us) did the most scavenges and he called us overachievers. Alas, it doesn’t count. 
2. Vietnam- We came in 4th. (I was a little cranky because we thought we would be first. We were out the door at 5:00 a.m., hard charged strategically and followed the rules assiduously. But, we got dinged by an alternate interpretation).
3. Myanmar- dead last. No surprise, because we chose to break the rule limiting in-country flights to two. It cost us a 750 point penalty. We took three flights: Yangon to Mandalay. Mandalay to Bagan. Bagan to Yangon. We did it to position ourselves to be in Bagan before sunrise for the dreamy hot air ballon experience that I have wanted to do forever. Figuring we were in the red anyway, why not go deeper so we could maximize our visit and see the most of Myanmar? We broke two other rules: no internet research and limiting a taxi to two scavenges. All said, we got to see a lot more of Myanmar than we ever could have if we hadn’t decided to “go red.”
4. Bangkok- We came in 2nd. 
5. Abu Dhabi - No idea. We left before the scores were announced.  

Really, the scores don’t matter unless you win the whole competition. The prize for winning is getting to go again the next year for free. The fun is in doing the scavenges and in racking up points while playing.

Departure area of Abu Dhabi airport. This cheesy camel photo prop, is in the corridor on the way to US Customs and Border Patrol Preclearance. After clearing immigration in Abu Dhabi's airport, when you land in the US, it's as though you arrived on a domestic flight. No immigration or customs lines required.

Abu Dhabi's Attempt at Not Looking Nouveau

Maybe Abu Dhabi is trying to say, “Don’t call us nouveau riche. Hey look! We built a fort way back in 1765. See!!!!” 

In December 2018, Abu Dhabi opened a freshly renovated watchtower and fort. They are promoting it as a museum and national landmark to celebrate their history. 

Known as Qasr Al Hosn, the quaint two-story building is smack in the middle of downtown, surrounded by skyscrapers. 

We had read about the new attraction in Etihad Airways’ in-flight magazine and chose to visit for the explanation of United Arab Emirates history. 

Our taxi driver had trouble finding it and then finding an entrance, because he couldn’t believe that we wanted to go to the fort. He insisted that it’s under construction. He was right about the construction. He had to drive off of the street and into a sandy field of earth-moving machines. We had to pass through jumbled piles of building materials until we came upon a cut-through. We found a place to access a door by climbing over only a few ankle-high obstacles of rubble and rebars. 

Apparently it is not well known to locals that the museum is open for business. 

The museum is beautifully laid out. All postings are translated into English. Designed with a lot of white space and a “less is more” approach, walking through the museum is a pleasant experience. There are a handful of photos of the fort dating back about 100 years, showing a couple of camels milling around. Before the very first building (i.e. the fort), was constructed, the area’s people lived off of fishing and then diving for pearls. Trading in pearls brought wealth, leading to the need for defense. Hence, the fort. Nice clear explanation of history to that point. 

But then, we peered into the case displaying a supposedly 7,000 year old pink pearl button typical of the goods the people harvested from the sea. The button looked a little too perfect and much too shiny to be 7,000 years old. The holes were drilled symmetrically. Honestly, that button looked like something you could buy at a Michael’s craft store. 

I'm thinking that Abu Dhabi's attempt at a history museum should stick with the 250 year old building as its oldest artifact. The fort is a beautiful renovation. 

In my opinion, the pearl button is lame. Just stick with the narrative and let people imagine the rest.

For the Birds: Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital

Patient in Falcon Hospital (Helmet covering eyes; Feet tied to perch)

Apparently, people who own falcons in the Arabian Gulf region are as passionate about their birds as racehorse owners are about their animals. Only the most professional of care will do, and price is of little consequence. A visit to the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital has become one of the top tourist things to do. For good reason. The veterinary technicians outfitted in blue hospital scrubs conduct a technical and informative tour showing the capabilities of the medical and recreational facility. We spent over one hour in the procedure suite. We watched a patient being put under anesthesia. 

The tech placed a cone over the bird's head. Kind of like a human's oxygen mask, except more like a football helmet. Once the bird relaxed and its respiration slowed, the tech went about clipping the bird's claws and beak.

The visitors' area has a room filled with plaques and awards for excellence. The facility is sought out by owners for everything from care while molting to treating traumatic injuries. They conduct orthopedic surgery and they repair cracked feathers by implanting replacement shafts.

Drawer Containing Supply of Feathers to use in Repair and Replacement Procedures

If we had been competing for points that day, we probably would not have done the visit. The Global Scavenger Hunt assigned 35 points, the same number we earned for 5 minutes in the fish market. By contrast, the Falcon Hospital took a total of 3.5 hours. 

Avoiding the bird hospital would be good strategy. But, we weren’t in it to rack up points. Taking the tour of that bird hospital was well worth the visit. Points were not the point. 

Patients are helmeted to keep them from seeing (and thus, attacking) each other

Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi: strange security rule

Built within the last few years, Abu Dhabi's presidential palace is an immense complex of bloated buildings. It is intended for ceremonial grandeur to dazzle and impress. Apparently nobody lives there. To visit, you take a taxi to a holding area where golf cart-type trams pick you up and transfer you to the entrance of the visitors’ center. 

Gold in the Fountain on the Grounds of the Presidential Palace

An entrance ticket costs about $5.  There is the usual security screening of backpacks and handbags. Nothing usual about that, except that the security people allowed water bottles through. That was nice. It’s hot and we need to drink. 

But then, we watched as the people ahead of us had their belongings rifled through extensively. Their cigarettes and lighters were taken away and put aside in a plastic bin. The guards assured the owners that they could collect their smoking materials at the end of their visit. I get that. It’s a Muslim country. No smoking, right? 

But, when Sally and I reached the front of the baggage screening line, the guards confiscated our granola bars and candy. Oh no!  Not my GinGins! The guards made the same promise to us as they did to the tobacco guys. 

We toured the gigantic facility. Most of the surfaces are decorated in gold leaf. The opulence and scale approach comical. Each door is as tall as a multi-story house. A gallery constructed for the purpose of displaying gifts and honoraria from other nations is less than half full. I got the feeling like I was at a party where the gift table for the honoree is embarrassingly sparse.

Oh, and as promised, we did get our food back. But, what was that about? 
Were our granola and Gin-Gin candies a national security threat or a cultural insult? We never did get to understand why.

What to do in 11 hours in Abu Dhabi? (If you are on the Global Scavenger Hunt)

Sally and I pulled into Abu Dhabi with our Global Scavenger Hunt fellow travelers around 10:00 p.m.  Wiped out and grossly sweaty from a wickedly hot day of running around Bangkok, everyone was craving a shower and comfortable bed.

How about two nights at the St. Regis? Oh baby! Yes!

Thinking it might be nice to enjoy a glass of wine in the lobby with some fellow travelers, we thought wrong. Muslim country. No alcohol in the lobby. Rather than go into the bar, which was peppered with people who looked well dressed and showered, we gave up and went to our room. That turned into in-room dining and in-room drinking from a silver tray. 

Bill Chalmers, the Global Scavenger Hunt’s leader,  let us sleep in and relax over the hotel’s beautiful breakfast buffet. We all met at 9:30 a.m. to receive our book of scavenges for the United Arab Emirates. 

This would be our last day. Back when Sally and I first planned to participate in this competition, we knew would leave halfway. Alas, our departure day had arrived. 

We hustled over to the hotel concierge desk to get a map, ask a bunch of questions, and plan out the day. If we were competing, it would have been a violation of the rules to get any help from a hotel concierge. The point of the Global Scavenger Hunt trip is to get out of your comfort zone, walk out of the hotel and start talking to people in the street. We used the concierge anyway because: (a) we wouldn’t be competing anymore and (b) we wanted to make the most of our one day in Abu Dhabi. During this leg, the rules did allow using smart phones for calling and internet research. The day’s scavenges required two foods and at least one that is classified as an “experience,” rather than just going and looking at something. We did two experiences: the Falcon Hospital and kayaking. 

Here are some of the things we chose to do. 

1. Presidential Palace (See separate blog entry)
2. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. 

This giant white mosque is so big that the numbers I throw at you are numbing and hard to comprehend. There are over 80 marble domes, 1,000 pillars and four minarets. Of the multiple chandeliers, the largest weighs 11 tons and is made of Swarovski crystals and 24 carat gold. The floor is covered  by the world’s largest loomed carpet that took 1200 craftspeople two years to make. 

The crowd-handling of visitors evokes American entertainment attractions. Think Disney. A giant parking lot is filled with tour buses. Our taxi dropped us at the top of the escalator to begin the entrance process. The escalator empties out at a Cinnabon store. As we followed the pathway to the entrance, we were routed by clothing and souvenir shops and finally by an usher sorting people based on whether they had an advance timed reservation or not. We did (Thank you, Concierge). Inspectors determined if visitors were dressed modestly enough. If not, you had to borrow long pants, long sleeves and head scarves. Fortunately, we knew that and had arrived with our longs and longs and our head scarves on. We were waved on through. 

Next stops were:

3. Falcon Hospital (See separate blog entry)

4. Kayaking (Again, a separate blog entry)

5. Qasr Al Hosn Fort (Yep, yet another blog entry) - Not a scavenge but we wanted to see it.

6. Fish Market

At the Fish Market, the scavenge was to price three exotic species. That was easy. In the frame of a single photo, we spotted Jesh, Magroor and Biyah. 

7. Enjoy a “truly fresh meal in the fish market.” The market is so clean and the fish is so fresh that it does not even smell fishy. Separate establishments with ovens and counters line the outside walls of the market to cook the fish that customers bring to them from the market. Instead of going fish shopping, we chose to eat at a regular restaurant, Al Shader, where we had grilled shrimp and sea bream. The food was delicious.

8. Have a golden cappuccino at the Emirates Palace Hotel.

The hotel is another massive behemoth of gold architecture, with hallways and shops all selling similar jewelry, designer clothes and watches, sharing the same esthetic. If it’s big, gold, gaudy and a lot of, that means it’s beautiful, right? Is beauty suggesting how much money you have by showing how much you spend? In the lobby bar, cappuccino is served with flakes of gold sitting on top of the foamed milk. It looks lovely until you hold it up to your face and laugh or sneeze. The gold powder goes flying like pixie dust. Pretty funny. 

9. With less than one hour left before deadline, we had to do one more food scavenge. We had to find halwa, lokhemat and mehalabiya. 

Of course that required figuring out what they were. We found all three in the Emirati and the Lebanese restaurants in the ground floor of the Emirates Palace Hotel. 

Lokhemat (basically, fried donuts on a stick with honey)

Halwa

We arrived back to our hotel just in time for the deadline. Of course it didn’t matter if we met the deadline. We couldn’t win because we didn’t stay in the game. But a major point of the Global Scavenger Hunt is to engage in conversation. All throughout the day, we talked with people we met and we learned a lot about people’s lives, the countries they came from, and why. Mission accomplished.