Myanmar Travel Infographics

Collaboration: kateabuzo x idioticgiraffe

Backpacking Myanmar Series: Mandalay

Mandalay is located North of Yangon and formerly the capital of Burma. While preparing for this trip, I only expected to be amazed by Bagan but Mandalay was quite a pleasant surprise and provided a perfect end to our Burma trip. Thanks to our new found friends Kriz and Apol (whom we "made alliances" with in Bagan, hehe), we not only got to share the tour expenses with 2 more tourists but they also chanced upon the taxi driver Ye Lwin who toured us to the most important places to see.

On the first day, we visited the Shwenandaw Kyaung teak temple near Mandalay Hill. It had very intricate carvings and is definitely one of the prettiest temples I've seen to date. We then proceeded to the largest book in the world which is Kuthodaw Pagoda. This is a funny story. When we entered the temple (which at this point of the trip we were so immune to doing after visiting a LOT in Yangon and Bagan), we started looking for a literal book complete with its cover and pages only to find out that we were actually "inside" the book. The whole place apparently houses the pages. They were made of marble tablets with the teachings inscribed in these stones and were encased in rows and rows of mini stone houses.

Backpacking Myanmar Series: Yangon

Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, is a good place for a city walk. The buildings that you'll see here have an old world charm that boasts of rich architecture.

Unfortunately, majority of the stores were closed during our visit as Myanmar observes a full week of celebrating the Thingyan Water Festival and their New Year.

On the flip side, we got to celebrate and join the locals in enjoying all-day water fights around town.

Yangon houses a lot of Buddhists temples. Some of those we've visited were Shwedagon, Sule, and Botataung near the pier.

Backpacking Myanmar Series: Bagan

Bagan, Myanmar

When we landed in Bagan, the first order of the day was to look for transportation that could take us to our hotel and since again we were in the middle of the Thingyan festivities, we went out of the airport only to see all the other tourists rushing to take all the few available taxis until there was none left. We were about 8 travellers left with no ride, staring at nothing across the vast and dry land that surrounded the airport. Luckily one mini assembled pick up truck arrived and we all scrambled to find a comfortable spot on the floor. The catch: the whole back area was open making us all vulnerable to the trigger-happy locals armed with pails and water hoses when we make our way across town. We had to rush waterproofing all our backpacks before we reach any form of civilization when true enough, ice cold water started spraying to our faces that we all were shivering within the first 10 minutes of our ride. But it was all fun and happy. Ciel and I were dripping wet on the carpet at the hotel reception when we arrived.

Travel Local: Dumaguete City

My siblings spent their college days in Silliman University and with them knowing the ins and outs of this pretty laidback city, we took a quick 2-day visit to some of the prettiest places with cool walls. :)

Scooby's branch beside Silliman (on the 2nd floor)

Cute and Cozy Cafes in Manila

After seeing a LOT of cute and cozy cafes in Seoul, I started collecting photos of the cute cafes I've seen locally. Here are some of them:

Epic Coffee Roastery, Kapitolyo, Pasig

14Four Cafe, Taytay

Backpacking Myanmar (Yangon-Bagan-Mandalay)

U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Mandalay at sunset

My Myanmar (Burma) trip is a spiritual and nostalgic experience. Myanmar has an old world charm with the country being relatively more open to the influx of tourists in the recent decade. My friend and I were blessed to visit Myanmar in April 2014 during the Thingyan Water Festival. In 4 out of 5 days we were touring their streets with our clothes fully wet as locals throw water at every passerby, a tradition observed to wash away one’s sins in the past as one welcomes the new Burmese year.