garry blogs

Phuket, Thailand - Phuket feels like home already, despite me not knowing much of the language. I know the roads, I know the food, I know how to get wherever I want, and I know the schedule of the night markets. I know the best place to rent a motorbike, and which hostels are best value and which are just plain dirt cheap.

I actually stopped in Phuket intending to get some kiteboarding in the picture but unfortunately, Mr. Weather is against me. I tried asking Mrs. Weather but she was having a little bit of PMS so she plained ignored me. No wind, no high tide, no kiteboarding. So i bummed around on the beach for a bit, did a LOT of shopping, got a nice haircut, and basically bummed.

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Khao Sok National Park, Thailand - Thailand has more than 30 national parks in the northern region alone - did you know that? I didn’t, and I’ll be sure to pay more attention next time.

A 3D 2N visit to Khao Sok National Park, just 3 hours north of Phuket, was an eye opener! The hikes weren’t fantastic, but the visit to the lake and a 1km long huge limestone cave was wooooaaaahhhhhhh!

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I’m in Khao Sok National Park in Thailand now and my friend tells me results are released!

Funny, because the initial leak actually showed my results as getting a B+ for my Honours Year Project (HYP)… and a final CAP score of 4.49, which meant i actually missed my 1st class by a hairline (4.50 cutoff).

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Bangkok, Thailand - The only way out of Yangon was either to Changmai or Bangkok, and at USD$15 apart, i figured I’d fly to Bangkok since it was nearer to the place i was eventually heading to (Singapore). Bangkok was very deja vu. I’d been here so many times since I was a kid, but never remembered where or when, so it was interesting stepping into places and then suddenly realizing that this, here, was where i came when i was a kid!

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Yangon, Myanmar - So we finished Myanmar in 11 days! That’s half the number of days I originally planned for. I hung around in Yangon for 2 more days pondering my next step, while Alexis decided to take a 1-week meditation course at a local monastery. Heh, that’ll be interesting! Christine flew back to Taiwan (awww, so sad! See you again soon, hopefully!).

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Bagan, Myanmar - Bagan needs no introduction, i believe. It is said to be the Angkor Wat of Burma! In a 7km by 7km plot of land, you see ruins of pagodas and temples scattered all over as though “Buddha sprinkled them from the heavens” - almost 5000 of them to be more precise. That’s… just amazing.

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Mandalay, Myanmar - It was a rocky and bumpy 18-hour bus ride from Inle Lake with pathetic pit stops at yucky Bamar restaurants along the way (I don’t really like Bamar food). I remember being so glad to be out of the stinky “air-con” (all-natural) bus just because my butt was starting to hurt so badly… haha! But, it was still a great ride because of exceptional company.

Last capital of the Burmese kingdom and Myanmar’s second largest city, Mandalay is considered the country’s cultural heartland and is an important trade center. It is the home of some of Myanmar’s most important pagodas as well as its finest handicraft workshops. However, i must say I didn’t find Mandalay all that interesting. In all honesty i think it could have been, but we rushed through it. We had a shared taxi chauffeur us around for the 2 days that we were there, and it felt like we were visiting all the sights one after another and missing out everything in between. In some ways that was a bad mistake. But it couldn’t be helped i guess, due to lack of time.

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Inle Lake, Myanmar - Life slows to a snail’s grind on Inle Lake. Spanning some 23 by 11 kilometres at amost 900m above sea level, Inle is peaceful and its serene waters stand still in stark contrast with the peaks at the side. It’s home to 17 villages, each with its own distinct trade/industry - some are fishermen villages, some are weaving villages, and some are metalsmith villages.

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Bago, Myanmar - 3 hours was about all we had to explore Bago before catching a bus to Inle Lake so off we buzzed on separate motorbike taxis. It was fun!

Bago is somewhat a rojak of religious sites, and was reputedly founded in AD 573 by two Mon princes from Thaton, who saw a female swan standing on the back of a male swan on a really small island in the middle of a huge lake. According to legend, the symbol for Bago is a female hamsa (a mythological bird) standing on the back of a male hamsa. At a deeper level, this is said to explain why the males in Bago are more chivalrous than men from other Burmese areas. However, in popular Burmese culture, the locals joke that they will never marry a woman from Bago for fear of being henpecked! At least that’s what our guide said… Haha…

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Kyiak Hti Yo, or Kyiaktiyo, is a huge golden boulder stupa (pagoda) that is delicatedly balanced on the edge of a cliff at the top of Mt Kyiakto. Like the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon, this is also considered one of the most sacred sites in Myanmar by the Burmese. Locals believe that if you visit this site to pay your respects 3 times in a year, your wishes will come true!

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