I suspect the geography nerds among you will take great umbrage with the title, given that only Cambodia and Laos haver smaller coastlines in South East Asia than Burma/Myanmar, but the purpose of our blog isn't to be oft cited in Wikipedia (admittedly a problematic example). Our purpose is to have a wee bit o'fun sharing our travel tales to the tens and twenties of loyal readers like you, while sneaking in some local insights and history (not unlike putting chickpeas in a brownie...Yum!).
Now, back to the sea. You see, our trip to Burma/Myanmar was almost exclusively spent on the water #happyplace and made for a different type of trip to this largely Buddhist, and under toured, country. Looking back, while we both thought an overland trip to cities in Burma/Myanmar like Bagan or Mandalay would have been nice, a trip of this length requires difficult choices and we chose the sea. I think you will see, we made a great choice.
When planning this portion of our trip from the comfort of our Portland couch, we figured we would be exhausted from almost daily travel through SEA and should seek a zero effort, maximum relaxation, experience. Our prediction was prescient and our choice of travel through Burma/Myanmar perfect. YES we were exhausted (see Cambodia) and YES the 4-day cruise through the Mergui Archipelago gave us an ideal effort:enjoyment ratio!
It's important to note that the beginning of our trip had us feeling nervous that we made another horrible, terrible, no good mistake. Jackie's face says it all...
also maybe mine... #worstpokerfaceever
The beginning of our Burma/Myanmar cruise started in Ranong, Thailand. After failed attempts to organize an airport pick-up through our hotel or order a car, our transportation option was to figure it out at the airport. We see an XL Tuk-Tuk and instinctively join a dozen other western tourists looking to catch a ride to their hotel. This Tuk-Tuk was packed as tight as a Japanese pusher train and the driver asked us to tell him the name of our hotel no less than 10 times. In fact, we said it so often, when he asked us for the 11th time one of the passengers shouted "The BOAT HOUSE!" This did not fill my travel wary heart with optimism that our hotel would be a stop en route.
Thankfully, while we were the last people dropped off about an hour later, The Boat House was a stop and that was the last time we had any travel stress on this leg of our journey. The entire experience with Moby Dick Adventures was exceptional. The transfers to and from Ranong, the staff, the itinerary, the food and of course the breathtakingly beautiful islands.
This trip was R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks? Didn't have to worry about procuring or preparing those. Snorkeling? Sure, we just jump off the boat. Scuba? Yep, we just take the kayak over to that other boat over yonder. Wake up? Whenever we damn well want. Beautiful beaches? The Mergui are lousy with them. Magnificent sunrises and sunsets? Every morn and eve. Tourists? Pretty much no one but our group of 10.
The cost of taking it easy is that we learned the least about this country. Thankfully the entire crew was from Burma/Myanmar which helped give us some insight into the history and culture of the country. Before we arrived on our cruise, we knew that Myanmar was formally known as Burma, but didn't know why. We learned that while Myanmar has been the official name of the country since 1989, nations and news organizations differ in what they call the country (e.g. The US & UK use Burma while France, Japan etc use Myanmar). The name changed happened a year after thousands were killed <deep sigh> during an uprising against the ruling military (and completely ignored a landslide electoral victory by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, the now the defacto leader of Myanmar who has had a very questionable rule.) The general consensus is that if a country, news organization or person refers to the country as Myanmar, they are sympathetic to the military government. As you have seen, Loisandclaireblog.com choose to be neutral and use both.
Speaking of neutral, after booking our trip, we learned that choosing to travel to Burma/Myanmar is considered by some to be problematic. Many are calling for a travel boycott to the country as a protest against the human rights abuses against the Rohingya (who practice Islam), which Ms. Suu Kyi has done very little to end. We have learned that any travel brings with it a host of ethical, moral & environmental conundrums. We've had a lot of them, and do our best to "do no harm." In today's exceedingly complex geo-political world, the "good path" isn't often clear (and is also a reason why The Good Place is a show we have fallen in love with.) Where we travel and how we spend our money is ever evolving with the education we are acquiring along the way. There is no well-defined moral travel, but we commit to exploring curiously and attempting to make the best decisions that are consistent with our values and integrity.
While most of our time in Burma/Myanmar was spent on the water, we did have a chance to visit the small (~300ppl) village of Jar Lann that exists primarily to support the fisherman who fish in the Andaman Sea waters. Unlike our stops in the small villages of Thailand or Laos, we didn't see another Westerner and it felt like we were having an experience that won't last much longer.
On our last day we got up before dawn, climbed aboard a SUP and took in the last beautiful sunrise. That's all I need to say, the pictures do the heavy lifting.
Overall our five days in Mergui Archipelago was a highlight of our trip and highly recommended to anyone who would like to make a holiday (ahem, vacation) out of a trip to Southeast Asia.
Oh, and no worries loyal readers and cat-lovers, we spent enough time on land for me to pet a cat.
More than one night in Bangkok...4 in fact
Before we started our cruise in Burma/Myanmar, we spent 4 nights in Bangkok, Thailand, staying in fancy hotels secured with hotel points as a way to pamper ourselves from the grit and grime of Shinoukiville, Cambodia. We didn't do much in the way of sight seeing, (#soovertemples) but still had a grand time enjoying a more Western experience at the pools, malls and movies of Thailand.
Some of our favorites:
"We don't belong here"...Checking into the Waldorf Astoria after our journey from Cambodia. I can still feel the heat from the stares of well coiffed and dressed guests.
Enjoying proper pool time at the hotel
Celebrating New Years with live music, snap-chat filters and our best punk faces.
When we went to the movies and everyone stood-up to recognize the Royal Family and we didn't and had more than just passing nervousness that we would be forcibly removed from said theater
Packing to leave on a domestic airline flight with strict limits on luggage weight (RIP vegan red handbag I've had since 2006, I'll missing saying "Thanks, it's made from recycled plastic bottles!")
and lastly this....
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