What a Year!

Hong Kong Fireworks

As this amazing year of travel came to a close, I found myself in Hong Kong to celebrate the end of the Year of the Dragon, and the beginning of Year of the Snake. The festivities began on February 10th with the New Years Parade. Considering that I was in Rio this time last year, I knew the parade wouldn't be as good as carnival. But I thought at least it would be better than New York's Chinese New Year parade. Sadly, I don't think Hong Kong's parade was even as good as that. The floats were tiny, most of them were corporate and had nothing to do with New Year, and the best performers were Irish, or Japanese, or Spanish. There was very little chinese in this Chinese New Year celebration!

Fortunately, the Hong Kong New Years fireworks display the following night more than made up for the lameness of the parade. I, and 300,000 other people, gathered to watch the city blow up 23,888 fireworks in Victoria Harbor. Here's 30 seconds of that spectacular 23 minute display:


Hong Kong fireworks from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

And with that? My 13 months of travelling the globe came to an end. I've been to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and all around the United States. It was an opportunity I will never regret taking, and an experience I will never forget. And because, by pure chance, my final entry about this wonderful adventure marks my eightieth post, I'm renaming and mothballing this blog. Thanks so much to all of you for reading these 80 Posts, from my trip Around the World. It has truly been the biggest blast imaginable.

I got 99 problems but a beach ain't one

Koh Tao

I just got back from four days of underwater and aerial activity on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. It is surrounded by tropical reefs, filled with fish and coral, and there are literally dozens of dive operations on the island. Unfortunately, thanks to a head cold, I was stuck snorkelling instead. But even that was lovely because many of the reefs are just off shore, so I could fall out of my basic beach bungalow and be among the fishes in seconds.

Two steps from my bungalow

Koh Tao reef

Local scrounger

Koh Tao is extremely popular with tourists, so there are plenty of land-based activities too. Including Flying Trapeze Adventures, which offers anyone the opportunity to soar amid the palm trees. The tropical temperature ensured I didn't exactly fly through the air with the greatest of ease, but still, for about an hour, I was a daring young woman on a flying trapeze.

Tropical Trapeze

This island was one of the more expensive places I visited on this trip because even though the diving is comparatively cheap, accommodation and food is pricier than on the mainland. Paradise comes with a price tag!

Koh Tao sunset

Land o' Lake

Inle Lake, surrounded by the Shan hills, has long been a premier tourist destination in Myanmar and it is easy to see why.  For about 50 dollars a day, you can rent a boat, driver and guide and potter around the 45 sq mile shallow lake, passing fishermen and flocks of seagulls and clumps of water hyancinth along the way.

Seagulls on Inle lake

Fisherwoman heading to market

Fishermen row with their legs so they can see over the reeds and water hyancinths

Locals feeding the seagulls

Sun setting over Inle Lake

It was lovely to spend a day motoring around the stilt houses, stopping in at various markets, floating gardens, monasteries, temples and weaving workshops along the shore. Most memorable were the hundreds of ruined pagodas and stupas at Inthein, the monastery at Nga Phe Kyaung where monks train dozens of cats to jump through hoops (though they weren't performing when I was there), and a weaving workshop in Inpawkhone where they turn lotus root into soft thread, often mixing it with Mandalay silk or cotton from the hills around the lake.

Stilt housing on Inle Lake

Market on shore

Cotton, silk and lotus weaving workshop in Inpawkhone

Flowers growing on a floating garden

Fisherman at floating garden

Inthein, with hundreds of pagodas in various states of decay

Nature reclaiming Inthein

Pagoda with an unexpected extra on the stupa

Nga Phe Kyaung where monks used to train cats to jump through hoops

No hoop jumping when I was there, but plenty of cats regardless

I spent my final half day in town bicycling around the Nyaungshwe village area on the northern side of the lake. Most of the people who don't work in tourism or fishing are trying to eke a living off the land. And most of the people living here are Shan, an entirely distinct ethnic group with their own language and traditions.

Flooded fields near Nyaungshwe

Shan kids getting out of school

Shan villager near pagoda on outskirts of Nyaungshwe

Even though it rained on and off throughout my short 36 hour visit, and there were hundreds of other tourists, Inle Lake was extremely tranquil and a welcome break from the rigors of travelling around Myanmar.

Fisherman on Inle Lake as the sun went down

Temples, thousands of 'em

By sheer dumb luck, I arrived in Bagan, the capital of an ancient and prolific kingdom which sprung up over a thousand years ago, on the biggest day of the biggest festival of the year there. It was the morning of the full moon of the month of Pyatho, and a week-long celebration that brings thousands of pilgrims to Ananda temple was wrapping up with hundreds of monks lining the temple grounds, waiting for their annual gifts of food and alms. It was an incredible sight to watch the sun coming up over a sea of maroon-clad monks, wreathed in the smoke from hundreds of small fires lit by the faithful, while hot air balloons floated overhead and Buddhist prayers echoed from inside the temple.

Full moon festival, Ananda temple

Monks in the early morning

Hot Air Balloon over Ananda temple

Pilgrim watching the monks

Monks receiving alms

Tiny pilgrim banging sacred bell for luck

After that auspicious beginning, I spent the next three days visiting as many of the 10,000 plus temples, pagodas and ruins dotted across the 41 sq km Bagan archaelogical site. Ananda is still a working temple, and most of the others have not exactly been preserved with care. Those that aren't ruins have often fallen victim to dodgy restoration efforts. But the site is still breathtaking in scope.

Bagan

Thabeik Hmauk

Thatbyinnyu Pahto

I spent my first day there trying to see the sites by bicycle, but the hordes of pilgrims in town for the full moon celebration made the roads especially dangerous. So I spent my second day lounging in the back of a carriage being driven around by Bobo and his horse Madonna (no kidding, his kids named her). After such decadence, I braved the bicycle again for my third and final day and was relieved to find the roads relatively clear. If anyone is interested in my full itinerary, I've listed it at the end. And while the architecture and the atmosphere was incredible, I enjoy talking with the Burmese people the most. From the group of hardened red-mouthed and almost toothless betel chewers who chuckled as I tried my first betel quid (and spat it out a mere ten minutes later), to the lady living in a temple with her family and 20 goats who smothered me in the Myanmar Thanaka make-up then gave me a guided tour with her four kids, to the cart driver who jokingly mimed his suggestion that I punch out any official asking for my non-existent site ticket (I never did end up paying the $10 entrance fee, but fortunately no fisticuffs were required), to the pilgrim kids who wanted to take photos with me for souvenirs. The people were definitely the best part of Bagan.

Bobo and Madonna

Making Betel Quid pouches

Bagan kids getting out of school

Bagan Itinerary:

Day 1: rented bicycle for 3,000 kyat a day
Ananda Temple for sunrise
Shwezigon Paya
Afternoon nap & pool
Day 2: rented horse & cart for 25,000 kyat a day
Thisawadi Paya
Lay myetha group
Payathonzu group
Tayok Pye Paya
Thambula temple
Nandamannya Pahto
Kyat Kan Kyuang monastery
Dhammayazika Paya
Lunch at Green Elephant in New Bagan
Nagayon temple
Abeyadana Pahto
Manuha Paya
Gubyaukgyi
Dhammayangyi Pahto
Shwesandaw Pahto for sunset
Day 3: rented bicycle for 3,000 kyat a day
Sulamani Pahto
Thabeik Hmauk (where the lady, her goats, children and thanaka live)
Htilominlo Pahto
Upali Thein
Lunch at Be Kind to Animals The Moon in Old Bagan
Thatbinyu Pahto
Shwegugyi temple
Gawdawpalin Pahto

Sunset over Bagan

Yangon a minute

Getting to Myanmar is easier than ever before, but still more difficult than anywhere else I've been to in south-east Asia. The visa requirements can be stringent, most land border crossings are closed, you can only exchange crease-free and pristine dollar bills and until very recently, there were no ATMs. It is also more expensive than other countries, and the shoddy state of many roads makes overland travel lengthy and uncomfortable. Yet despite all that, Myanmar was one of my favorite places so far.

Streets of Yangon

View from Mahabandoola Gardens in Yangon

Men and women wearing longyis

Government instructions!

First stop for me, as it is for most tourists who have to fly in to Myanmar, was Yangon. The former capital of Burma, and still Myanmar's biggest city, sprawls from the banks of the Yangon river and is the most bustling part of the country. Millions of men and women, most wearing longyis or sarongs, inhabit this city. I saw plenty of Muslims, many with henna dyed beards, and even a Christian nun or two, but most people here are devout Buddhists.

A game of Chin Lone or rattan ball playing

Shopkeeper in Bogyoke Aung San Market, Yangon

Waiting for the bus

There are hundreds of monks in the streets, which was to be expected, and hundred of nuns, which was not. Apparently, a lot of women shave their heads, don pink robes and ask for alms in Myanmar, even though there is not the same cultural imperative to serve time in a nunnery as there is to serve time in a monastery. Every Burmese Buddhist boy is expected to spend part of his childhood as a novice monk, and to re-enter the monastery for a period as an adult.

Monk and civilians

Trio of Nuns

One of the most holy sites in Myanmar is the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. Legend has it that two Burmese brothers met Lord Buddha more than 2600 years ago. He gave them 8 of his hairs which they carried home and enshrined here. Successive rulers have added to the golden stupa on top of the shrine over the centuries and it currently stands at 325 feet tall.

Shwedagon Pagoda

Pouring water on the Buddha for luck at Shwedagon Pagoda

There are thousands of stupas and temples across Myanmar, some in some pretty strange places like the Sule Pagoda in a roundabout in the center of Yangon. But one of the greatest concentrations of holy buildings in the country is where I was heading next - Bagan.

Sule Pagoda in the middle of a Yangon roundabout