Memories of Vietnam

When I was young I thought I was naive and ignorant and knew nothing.

I grew up and traveled far and wide.

Now I know I am naive and ignorant and know nothing.

- could just be Jon Snow

It's been close to a year since I traveled to Vietnam with Benj. when I look back and think about it it is a myriad of throwbacks; annoying, hilarious, absurd and beautiful.

एक 

People smile and say f**k you! We found a hotel, got over charged, had to wait till eternity before checking in and kept getting moved from room to room. but hey at least the owner told me my brows were on fleek and Benj was really lucky to have found a pretty Indian girl!

Now only if everyone screwed you up laced with compliments!

So pre-wedding photoshoots are a thing everywhere it seems

दो 

NOTHING can beat the comfort of joy that chaos brings! Perhaps because as an Indian I am so used to things never really happening on time or happening the way they are supposed to be and yet eventually getting the result you wanted, competing with cattle and scooters and Audi's on roads, houses and every sort of construction fitting in like tetris blocks, perhaps that's why every time I travel in Asia I never feel lost or overwhelmed! 

On the other hand when I first traveled to Switzerland it freaked the day lights out of me when a bus patiently waited behind me, without honking as I sauntered in the middle of the road at my own sweet pace! I could barely sleep for the first few nights, I mean how could I without any dogs barking, cars screeching or wedding songs to lull me?!

Asia FTW!!

Always such a balancing act between chasing and letting go

तीन 

Pho-bo is comfort! Period.

Pho-tastic!

चार 

People asked to get pictures clicked with me! I understood how Benj felt about his fan following in India being a foreigner, or how animals in the zoo feel.

Also this one time we were stranded in the middle of the night, slept on a bench, woke up to see other Asian tourists video taping us!

पांच 

Hoan Kiem is life!! There is really nothing better than starting your day at Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi. old ladies graceful doing Tai-Chi, old men casually doing hammer curl reps under the weeping willows. it is an absolute burst of charm and antiquity one needs to experience!

Hoan Kiem Lake

Bridge where the morning light rests

छे 

Take a sampan ride in Tam Coc. Even if you are going to it's more famous cousin Halong Bay. Quietly meander between the karst formations, ogle at brightly coloured kingshers darting around and mountain goats perched precariously on the limestone formations as your boatman casually switches to rowing with his legs.

Sampans waiting to go to Tam Coc

Bich Dong Cave

सात 

Don't ever be a part of any tour group. You don't want to spoil your experience in Sa Pa dining with a hundred other people.

But do go to Sa Pa. Do a small trek, stand on a peak and marvel at the landscape and vegetation.

SaPa dekho!

Them topography!

आठ 

Visit Halong Bay but go via Cat Ba. Cheaper, less crowded, fantastic atmosphere and lots of places to play beer pong with strangers.

नौ 

please don't go to War Memorials, museums if you can't respect them. The country and it's people went through a lot. They have opened up to the world more to be understood and less to be photographed in selfies with awkward poses and pouts. Or so i would like to believe.

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

One of the four important symbols of Vietnamese culture; a dog's body with a lion's head representing both fierceness and loyalty

दस 

Gave it a chance. Like everything else Vietnam did eventually grow on me. They have a flag which represents tolerance and can be seen fluttering on almost structures. It is beautiful.

Very few cities I have visited blend the old and new with as much ease as Hanoi.

Beer, nem, steaming noodles with locals on streets; there are ver few things that can top such experiences.

Reminded me of India where almost every place we went the landscape had a character of it's own and its people maintained their individuality and yet blended with their environment.

Tolerance. Coz well we are all equally annoying

हमेशा 

Travel with your beloved.

love + travel = <heart/>

In my first few days in Vietnam I was n't sure if I would ever go back.

Ever since I landed back India, I have only been thinking about when next I can go back.

Call of the Great Hornbill

I cannot repeat it more often. This country of ours makes me fall in love. Over and over and over again.

And she didn’t disappoint this time around either. When we got the call from the great hornbill and headed to Nagaland for a feast, culturally and gastronomically.

You only realize how vast India is when you have the fabulously daunting task of planning a trip from one corner to another. It took us one full day to reach the Hornbill Festival from Mumbai which included a flight to Guwahati, a train to Dimapur, night stop there and then a cab to Kisama Heritage village. But two days at the festival was worth every minute of the hassle.

We stayed with this wonderful lady, Mezhii Bieo who has a homestay right at the foot of the festival grounds. It was wonderful to go from 30 degrees of Mumbai to 10 degrees of Kisama and to be welcomed by steaming hot cups of tea, boiled eggs, rollicking kittens and cuddling puppies, a nice big coal heater in the centre of the hall and to be surrounded by travelers from all of the country and soaking up their experiences and stories

Only when one travels to such seemingly mysterious destinations (or maybe it’s just me) one realizes the gross insufficiency of our knowledge about our own country and culture. Of course we were all taught in school text books about the Seven Sisters, the wettest place on the planet being Mawsynram, about the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia hills but never quite about the absolutely vibrant people, zealously guarding their culture, the dancers, the farmers, the warriors, the head-hunters and their distinct tattoos. It was nothing short of an educational and eye opening experience to be a part of the Hornbill Festival and kudos to Nagaland for this magnificent showcase or rather a glimpse of their culture and etching its mark on the tourist / travel map.

There are about 16 major tribes across the state, each with its own distinct festivals, traditional outfits, food and culture. Over the 10 days of the festival each tribe showcases different aspects of their lives, tradition, sacrifices and rituals and heritage to the rest of the world and it is a delight for the eyes! With septuagenarian members of the tribes coaching the youngsters how to spar correctly or how fierce the war cries need to be. It feels nothing like how the average daily Indian life usually does.

It won’t do enough justice to speak about their culture, especially since I’m not an expert at that, however the best we can do would be to visit them, not as a tourist, but as fellow Indians and stay with them and speak with them. I had the most wonderful conversations with the old men of a few tribes and its only nice to see a heartfelt smile on their wrinkled faces rather than the stoic expressions they put on while posing for dozens of “photographers” (considering anyone who has a DSLR calls him / herself one)!

It was an overwhelming feeling to see the kind of rich diverse culture that exists in this country.

It was a feeling of shame to think I never knew about it for the longest time and still don't know about so many cultures.

It was a feeling of disgust to see fellow Indians disrespect other Indians and literally treat them as pieces in a museum, kept only for the benefit of posing and photographs to show people back in the cities.

Here’s to hoping the Hornbill in subsequent years catches hearts and minds more than in gets caught on camera lenses.

Khiamniungam tribe practicing before their performance

No joke to be dancing bare naked in single degree temperatures!

Matching headgears are awesome! With the gentlemen of the Yimchungru tribe

Patiently waiting for their turn

Coz we are all animals in the jungle Sherman!

More patience, more waiting

Chillin', Naga style!

War dances

Trek though heaven with Robin Singh : Kalaw to Inle Lake in 2 days

The only planning we did before leaving for Burma (despite my OCD and excessive excel files syndrome), was pretty much just booking the tickets and the applying for the e-VISA. More than packing the right amount for a 10- day backpacking trip, my concern was more regarding calming my nerves at the lack of “detail”! Anyway, a day before we were to depart I called on the number mentioned on the Golden Lily site to confirm if the rains were too bad for a trek through the hills, and was greeted a very enthusiastic Ms Sheila whose enthusiasm went up a few notches on knowing I was calling from India (!!) and assured me of a fabulous trek!

We landed in Mandalay in the afternoon, and after several hilarious turns of events (not understanding the language or the signs and almost missing our bus) we managed to get on to the right bus to Kalaw, which we reached in the wee hours of next morning. And there in the middle of nowhere, was a turbaned figure of warmth, charm and hospitality, Mr Robin Singh! We were 5 of us who would going on the trek with him in a few hours,  a German, a Swiss, a Korean, a French and myself an Indian and obviously Robin Singh ji took special liking to me! Turns out, his great grandfather fought in Burma under the British empire and since then his family has stayed back and started doing the trek for some 30 years back or so. Almost 57 now, never having visited his motherland, saving every penny to be able to someday, it was incredible to see the kind of joy one can give by just speaking in their tongue! It was incredulous to see how happy the family was to be able to speak in Hindi and talk about achaar (pickle) and parantha (Indian bread)!

And so it began..

After a few hours of sleep, we woke up the next morning, all refreshed and excited to embark on our 2 day trek through the pristine lands of Myanmar. Within a first couple of minutes, it was evident that not only will the trek be a lesson for our physical strengths but also for our geography, ecology and biology skills! After so many years of trekking through the same lands, Mr Robin clearly had developed specialized knowledge regarding every leaf, shrub, wild fruit we saw on the way! And to our luck, the lands of Burma are extremely fertile, so within the first 30 minutes we crossed avocado trees, coffee plantations, cauliflower fields, blooming sunflowers, rice fields! Yes, all of this in the first 30 minutes! Then one of the local families invited the always effable Mr Singh for tea (and hence the invitation very happily got extended to us). Also the family and Mr Singh had never spoken before, but apparently this is how all happy and friendly Burmese are! What should have been a quick 15 minute tea sharing session, turned into a 2 hour story telling session during which not only did we have cups after cups of tea, but all kinds of fried fish, peanuts and vegetables, freshly plucked fruits and locally brewed alcohol! A very heady and unexpected start to a trek!

The extremely hospitable couple, with a Polaroid of all of us together which we gifted them!

Trying so hard to eat, talk and sit in that posture all at the same time!

look at the size of the cabbages!

Mr Robin y'all!

Once we took leave from the extremely hospitable family, we continued on our trek and our educational experience about the flora of the Kalaw region. Next stop was for lunch and it was at a village monastery with the locals working to repair the monastery and the head monk. Sharing our lunch with them, playing chnilone with the young monks, talking to the head monk and him giving us locally made ointments (!?) just made us think and believe how the next few days in Myanmar will probably be one of the most warming and touching experiences we will ever have!

Quick game of chinlone with the young monks!

Next couple of hours were spent in covering in around 15 kilometres around the lush fields, the rolling hills, extremely friendly and photogenic farmers, adorable kids running behind us, tiny houses housing really big cattle, and lots of bamboo making people! Our bunk for the night was one of the village’s headman’s house, which he had very graciously given us to spend the night in. Brilliant food, and too much of it, never ending  kettles of tea through the night, card games with people we had met a few hours ago, some Korean shows with the headman’s daughters, we could not possibly have been more immersed in hospitality than that!

Next day, with the crack of dawn we were treated to some more amazing tea, instant Burmese coffee (yeah, that’s a trend there) and very sweet and delicious French bread! While the first day seemed more about food and expanding our ecological horizons, Mr Robin Singh seemed to be determined to cover lost distance the next day. So it was almost 20km if not more in half the time! So while Robin Singh went hop, skip, jump across the trail, as the rest of us went stop, pant, huff a good 50 metres behind him at any given point! Got to give it to him for that incredible stamina! The trek with all its glory ended with steaming hot bowls of noodle soup of Shew InnThein, from where we took our 1 

hour long boat trip to Inle Lake.

them Burmese babies!

To Mr Robin Singh, his energy, his kindness, his hospitality, to the people we met on the way and to all the amazing noodle soups (!), how could we have asked for a better start to this magnificent country?! Merci!

one of the many groups of absolutely adorable kids!

men making bamboo baskets

usual sights

The Wonder that is Bagan!

A wondrous vista of pagodas and stupas dating back to the 12-13^th century, beautiful frescoes (rather remnants) adorning the walls, gilding htis clinking in the gentle breeze, stories of local nats brewing in nooks and crannies. Bagan for 2 days was more than we had imagined.

So Bagan was our stop after Inle Lake. We reached really early in the morning, or rather in the middle of the night and managed to negotiate what we thought was a very cheap taxi ride from the bus stop to our hostel in Nyuang U. Turns out it was so cheap because instead of a ride on 4 wheels, what awaited us was a ride on 4 legs! This was one of the many hilarious moments we had in Myanmar. Anyway, after a good 20 min of tottering we reached out hostel, the Winner Hotel, one of the cheapest shacks in the region, especially well located.

Now, we went right after the monsoons, so it was as humid as being in a sauna the entire time, and no you cannot roam around in a towel checking out the pagodas! Adding to that, neither me nor my boyfriend were very confident in hiring e-bikes to navigate our way through mud lanes so we decide to go the good old-fashioned way, cycling around a 26 square mile area, almost 7 hours for 2 consecutive days, while drowning ourselves in history, an era gone by and bucket loads of sweat!

Some quick nuggets to enjoy Bagan:

1. Not just Bagan, or Myanmar, this holds true for most of South East Asia, visit right before the tourist season begins or at the fag end of the same when prices are still low and you’re not jostling with a landslide of humanity for the one coveted sunset spot!

2.  Stray off the main road, take the mud lanes across the plains that connect most of the pagodas. Mostly you’ll find locals lazing and will also give you useful information about which pagoda terraces are accessible and a lot of it won’t be public knowledge.

3. Read a little about the pagodas (the main ones at least, there are almost 3000 in total!), it will make you appreciate the beauty and history behind it more, especially when it’s not a part of your native culture, after 20 or so all pagodas will end up looking the same!

4. Try and scout for our own sunset point. The famous ones are crowded beyond belief, even in the low season and it is next to impossible to get that Facebook profile picture without someone’s arm jutting into the frame! On a serious note, Bagan has too much art, history, culture spread over a decently large area to force you to congregate on just one terrace!

However, Bagan is the torchbearer of tourist spots in Myanmar and hence you’ll find plenty of hawkers and young kids always smiling and trying to sell something or the other. They even sell their own drawings, nothing more than little colour pencil stick figures!! It is sad to be surrounded by beauty, to be transported to an era long gone by, and then hear from the local elders how kids and youngsters bunk school or don’t take part in the daily farming activities because it means more money to sell a few wares for a couple of dollars.

It is sad to be a part of this craze towards mass tourism, and in that sadness lies hope that all of us who visit the land still so pristine and its people still so uncorrupted (if that is a word!) will spread the word and encourage responsible travel. 

Still functional wooden monastery

its more beauty than any camera can capture!

Ayerawaddy river on the western and northern borders of Bagan

Of gilded pinnacles

Panoramic Bagan

The sun sets, the magic won't

A helpful local and your own terrace!

Lessons from Birmanie!

They say life is not about the number of breaths we take, rather than the moments which take your breath away. And I’ve been more than lucky in that aspect to have had the opportunity to visit Myanmar (erstwhile Burma) for its magnificent landscapes, people beyond the definition of hospitable, art and architecture to satisfy your senses to no end and smiles and peace to greet you even in the most chaotic pick-up van!

While, soon there will be several posts detailing your journey which started from Mandalay, then a 2-day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake, followed by 2 days at Inle Lake and the neighbouring regions, moving to Bagan for 2 more days and finally back to Mandalay and the neighbouring ancient cities! 

It sounds too much for just 8 days, and it did stretch us to our physically limits, but if we have to do it again, there’s nothing we would change!

While now I sit in my apartment, on a humid Sunday Bombay evening, I can’t stop thinking of snippets of the Myanmar trip and how much I learnt about history, geography and people in general in just those 8 days!

Lessons from Myanmar:

Smiling is a national mandate!

It is crazy, how can an entire nation always put up a smiling face?! Irrespective of the weather, the hardships in life, the spice in your curry, there is nothing that a smile cannot overcome! One night we reached our hostel post midnight and had to bang on the doors to wake up the owners inside, and wake they did with a resplendent smile! Everywhere we went the one thing common was the innocent smiles that greeted us!

First family we met on our trek to Inle Lake. And it was the first time they were seeing foreigners! So happy to have a polaroid to keep those memories forever!

Babies of Burma! On the trek to Inle Lake

So excited to show off his catch!

History does not define your future

Historically, the capital of Myanmar has mostly circulated between Inwa, Amarapura and Mandalay, the three ancient cities. We happened to visit Inwa on one of the days and unless we had specifically read about it’s royal history, there is pretty much no semblance to an erstwhile royal capital! Just goes on to show how if people don’t move ahead with times and still hold on to their heritage, they will neither belong to the past nor to the present.

Ruins at Inndain

More than a thousand pagodas at the Shwe Inn Thein

Bird's eye view of the Shwe Inn Thein

Indulge in the arts!

Almost everywhere one can see people setting up easels or mixing colours to paint the silhouette of a wooden monastery or the flaming colours of the setting sun or the life story of Buddha! Agreed, a lot of it is turning towards commercial consumption owing to increased tourism, however, it is still heartening to see old men with flowing white beards painting sunsets.

Just another morning at a monastery

Too much beauty in the same frame!

There is always time for football!

Footballs here are not what one is used to seeing, the colourful patches on a bouncy big ball. Instead it is fashioned out of bamboo (called a chemlo) and is considerably tinier but still clearly affords the same amount of fun to kids and adults alike. On most corners and alleys it’s not a rare sight to see young monks, with their maroon drapes tied around their waists running after the chemlo.

Chemlo is always a good idea!

At any time of the day!

With anyone!

Mass tourism is fast approaching!

Myanmar saw about 2 million tourists in 2013. Compare this to the 20 million that its neighbour Thailand saw in the same time. While in major tourist spots like Bagan you can see taxi drivers approaching the bus even before it has stopped at the station, at others like Manadalay (surprisingly) most locals just leave you alone as you walk about its crowded streets. While Myanmar is still one of the most pristine and untouched countries in south East Asia, it doesn’t seem like it will remain so for a very long time. It is up to people like us, who while should visit the country and savour its beauty and hospitality in all its glory, but also do it in a manner most responsible. Let’s not make it another Thailand.