Well as u may or might not know the past week or so (since nov 1st) i've been having a holiday with my dear mum and my dear aunt, elvina e e (ee is fu chow for aunt) in BURMA aka Myanamar (i think burma sounds WAY cooler).
The whole idea of going to burma at first was rather upsetting at first. Due to the trip to Burma mum had decided i was "travelling too much already" and because of that i was denied of goign to langkawi with schoolmates cuz she was "scared something might happen" -_- .
Burma is located just west of thailand and covers an area of approximately 678,500 km². The goverment now is still a military government and i can assure u that the whole of burma is dotted with military personnel everywhere. I would have liked to show u a picture of all this but unfortunately tourists (or "foreigners" to them) are not allowed to take pictures of any military personnel or structures. So when it came to shooting a picture i was a bit more concerned of being shot.
1st November
We arrived on Myanmar Airways International (MAI) flight 8M or MH9051 (the only plane i think flying back and forth from maynmar to klia). After waiting about half and hour to collect our baggage we set out to look for a sign bearing "mr. warren chan" in the crowded arrival hall. Yes, you heard right a sign bearing "Mr. Warren Chan", not "Agnes Chan" (my mum), or "Elvina Wong" (my aunt), but much to my mother's disgust was the name of yours truly. Now do not get me wrong the past 2 sentences are not meant to boast (i think :P) but are to illustrate a mentality of the burmese people - out of 3 individuals, they thought the male was the dominant.
After finding our beautiful tour guide we headed out of the airport where i took a snapshot, because stepping out of the airport i didn't see civilization...i saw trees
note: guy on right is military, he din see me take the pic :P
After getting into the tour van we left to the hotel
20,000 kyat ("kya" pronounced like "ja" in "jar")
note: 1USD = 1000 kyat
Our welcome drinks
After dropping our stuff at the hotel we went to Sule Pagoda, which is kinda located at the end of a street, in gact i think the street has been named after the pagoda. Anywayz, this pagoda is special cuz its got a hair of buddha in it. Unfortunately though we coucln't see the hair cuz the pagoda is a stupa.
There are 2 types of pagodas:
a) temple type pagodas where u can walk into it and see whatever is there
b) stupa type pagodas where the relic of the pagoda is enshrined under this pointy looking temple thing, so its kinda like the Kaaba (the black stone in mecca)
Sule Pagoda
The pagoda is octagonal shaped, this is because in buddhism, it is believed that there are 8 days in a week. For each day there is also a special animal for it. So buddhist when coming to the sule pagoda will then pray to the buddha for the day they were born, so there is a monday, tuesday, wednesday, etc. shrine respectively.
Something i found interesting is that according to Lily (tour guide) the amount of worshippers at the tuesday shrine is the most, and it seems most ppl are born on tuesday. I wonder what i am.
THIS POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION (INAPPROPRIATE DICTION INTENTIONAL)
Should be done within 3 days...there's ALOT
1 comment:
But what about the eighth day?!
How should one calculate? Based on the Bhuddist calendar, I suppose?
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