holidays!

I’m currently enjoying the last days of my two-weeks school holidays for which I once again had to be quite spontaneous (as I only got to know about them a few days in advance), but still I manged to organise a very nice trip leading me from Bagan to Yangon and back to Mandalay ;-)

So two weeks ago, I found myself sitting together with two guys from Germany, who are now also teaching as volunteers in the PDO, on the sundeck of the boat heading from Mandalay to Bagan. Really relaxing way to start into a journey, enjoying the view and the food on board while getting a taint and watching life go by. We arrived in Bagan safe and sound and on the next day began to explore the ancient buildings of this beautiful area. I learned to drive a scooter within 5 minutes (never drove a motorbike before… just saying) and rolled over streets, ways and dusty paths and couldn’t get enough of those impressive sights and beautiful pagodas. The best part was to go off the beaten track, feeling like Indiana Jones, with no other people, but only nature and temples around – there you can really find some breath-taking spots and even climb up hidden stairs to the rooftop of some pagodas! Is there anything better than finishing a day like this with a cocktail at sunset? This stunning and relaxed stay in Bagan is certainly something I will never forget and something about which I’m going to dream about for a long time :-)

After three days in Bagan, the city of Yangon was almost a shock – being all busy, loud and full of hectic people! But behind this surface there are still a lot of beautiful and peaceful places – most of all the Shwedagon pagoda, overviewing the whole city and glooming golden, full of hopefulness, being like an anchor for the whole surrounding. On the next days we enjoyed some vivid markets, the river side, really good and stylish restaurants and (is there even another possibility?) nice temples. In one of them (to be specific, the Ngadatkyi pagoda – very beautiful wood carved Buddha inside!) an old man started to talk to me and didn’t only explain the building itself, but also showed me the colonial-style monastery, which is hidden in the garden around of it.

 

 

 

So after two full days in Yangon, I took the bus back to Mandalay and happily arrived there after only 8 hours. On the contrary to the bus to Monywa, it was like you’d imagine this kind of vehicle – it was really comfortable and quite big, the only disturbing details were the bullet holes in the wall. But as I said, the journey itself went smoothly ;-)

This amazing trip was followed by the next highlight only a few days later: the light-festival at full moon. For this occasion thousands of candles are lit all over the towns to guide Buddha’s way from the Nirvana back to Earth again. Together with all the people I met here in Mandalay I climbed up the Mandalay Hill this evening and became part of the probably most beautiful festivity in this country. On the top there were already prepared a sea of small candles and all together, side by side, we started to light them on by one – what an incredible feeling! Everything seemed so peaceful and joyful, the candles spread their golden lights, the city below us sparkled in silver and above everything there was a red full moon hanging in the sky. This atmosphere had something so unforgettable impressive in its own way, I really couldn’t compare it with anything else.