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Myanmar 3 – Mandalay and then Bagan

We did sooooooo much in Mandalay and saw sooooo many memorable things that I forgot one visit in the previous post.

Near Amanapura, another old Burmese Capital, there is a shallow lake crossed by a rickety teak bridge – U Bein (the bridge was named after the mayor of Amanapura) Bridge was built over 200 years old and is still the longest Teak span in the world – and it is spectacular.

The views around the lake from the bridge were not bad either.  This fishermen in his narrow boat seemed to attract water fowl.

I was fascinated by this dead tree and the fisherman standing nearby

Row boats were used to shuttle us back.  As we crossed the bridge, they were slowly getting into position to get our business.

From the water, the bridge looks even more spectacular and light – one wanders how it stayed up there so long

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Myanmar 2 – Mandalay

After Yangon, we flew to Mandalay, the last capital of the Burmese Kingdom before the British invasion.

The royal palace complex is a huge square (2 km by 2 km) surrounded by a very wide moat.

 

As soon as you cross the moat and enter through one of the many gates (however only one that can be used by foreigners), the hustle and bustle of the city disappears, but not the people.  The military occupies most of the space with living quarters and training areas.

The palace complex is surrounded by its own fortifications with interesting ancient watch towers.

 

The palace itself was completely destroyed at the end of WWII and rebuilt out of concrete instead of wood.  However it still possible to imagine what life was like in the time before the British took over.

 

Mandalay itself is a much smaller town than Yangon and felt even more like a return back in time.

I found this old post card

 

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Myanmar 1 – Yangon

If you are interested, there is practical information about this trip at the end of the post.

I feel like I just spent 17 days on another planet (not my words but they fit!)

My trip to Myanmar began and ended in Yangon.  My first and last impressions of this wonderful city were very different, proof that one’s perception can change in as few as 17 days.  As I was driven from the airport to the hotel in a 20 year-old taxi, I wondered at how “traditional” everything looked.  I was amazed by the number of people who still wore traditional clothes; many men and women wore longys (wrap-around full length skirts) and button down shirts.  The vehicles on the roads all seem to have had a previous existence in another country and another century; small shops are the general rule and I saw one small supermarket and no shopping center.

Further exploration, confirming what I had read, showed that there are no ATMs, that my GSM phone who worked everywhere else in the world does not work here, that none of me three e-mail accounts seem to be accepted and I have no idea how to exchange money.

As we were driving back into Yangon at the end of the trip, I was surprised to see so many men and women in ‘western’ clothing; I saw the largest supermarket I had seen in the whole country, and a shopping center I had not even noticed the first time through.  I was surprised to see so many relatively new cars and buses.

The first two days were rainy and therefore we started pur visit of Yangon in a downpour at the Shwedagon Pagoda.  There is a “special entrance” for foreign visitors with an elevator to get us to the right floor.  Even with the rain, the place is a hive of activity.  Our leader is quick to point out that we need to be extra careful not to slide on the slippery floor (wet from the rain and we are not wearing any shoes).

I took this picture just before falling flat on my side.  I was able to protect my camera, but not my hip which a few days later became blacker than ink.

The best view of the Stupa itself I took at the end of the trip, when the light was better as it was a very sunny day.

However, there are many activities that go on in the complex.  There are Buddha statues for each of the eight days of the week (Yes, Wednesday is actually split into two days…)  If you were born on a Tuesday, or if your planet is currently in the Tuesday portion of the sky, you pray to the Tuesday Buddha Continue reading “Myanmar 1 – Yangon”

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The 5-Yearly Genealogical Migration

Just like the great migrations of Wildebeest and Zebra in the Serengeti and the Monarch Butterfly in North America, my kind migrates as well.  However, we are miserly of our efforts and therefore only do so every 5 years.

At least since 1954, the known descendants of our common ancestor Hans O have been meeting somewhere in Europe but I seem to recall evidence (an old photo) of a reunion already in 1931.  The last reunion was in Boppart (Germany, along the Rhine River) in 2003 and therefore we met again this year in Chantilly (France, near Paris).

There are now 12 generations of descendants – I am the 11th generation and my ‘code’ in the family tree is 13511131112 – it means that I am the second child of my father, who is himself the first child of the first child of the first child of his great grand father Hermann O and so on.

One of my cousins Cathrine O (number 135111311231) actually married her great grand uncle (many times removed) Christian O (number 13537323) who is a member of the 8th generation, but only a few years older than she is.  They met at a family reunion 25 years ago.

The format of the reunion is generally the same.  Everybody gathers on the Friday evening for “Registration” in the hotel selected for the occasion.  Just like all good conventions, we have name tags just to remind ourselves who we are (and not all names end with O any more as there are many descendants of female lines who have adopted, some may wonder why, another name!)

Dinner was a first opportunity to reacquaint with people we do not see on a regular basis – this is even more the case for me as I live far away from everybody else.  Most people came from Europe (France, Germany and Belgium) but a few also came from the US.

Saturday morning and the fun begins.  While one group decides to visit the stables of the Chateau de Chantilly, known for horse dressage, the rest visit the Abbaye de Royaumont, founded by the King of France known as Saint Louis

The garden is very nice as we approach the buildings

Everybody listens intently to our guide in the musical chapel

and than in the garden where she explains all the medicinal plants which were grown by the monks.  We are blessed with beautiful sunshine.

The old cloisters are still almost intact

But only this corner tower remains of the church, which must have been really grandiose – it was destroyed after the French Revolution, in a period when many monasteries were destroyed, and monks fled to Belgium and other neighboring countries.

The monastery had a very ‘sofisticated’ system for latrines – up to 60 monks could use it at the same time, in silence! It seems to fascinate our group…

Here are some of the organisers of the week-end.  This is not a minor activity.  Planning usually starts a year in advance and final attendance is confirmed several months early.  Just for the visit of the Abbaye, we had three guides, one of which needed to speak German.  All these arrangements needs to be in place in order to keep things flowing smoothly.

Lunch was at the restaurant of the stable in Chantilly after which we visited the castle of the same name.

O’s were seen meandering from one location to the next

Once again, several groups were guided through the ‘chateau’.

One room above all others attracted my attention: The Chinese room, with oriental motifs that were not necessarily Chinese, but everything East of Arabia used to be associated with China!

That evening, big dinner with speeches and lot’s of merry making.

On Sunday, we visited Senlis, a small town that can trace its history back to Roman times with a roman wall and a stunning church.  There is something up there ….

Ah, yes – the church …

old Norman architecture

and a nice place for lunch.

That marked the end of the week-end and time for O’s to return to their own pastures, until 2013 when once again they will gather in Brussels.From here, I headed for the Normandy Beaches made famous by the D-Day landings, but that will have to wait for another post in the future …

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