Pindaya Caves to Mandalay
Monday, August 7, 2006, 01:57 PM
Our puppeteer driver picked us up early on Saturday and drove us to Pindaya. We stopped off at the local market telling ourselves that we really shouldn't buy anything this time. However, somehow we came away with a 'Shan' violin - a stinged instrument with a funny horn bell sticking out of the side. We just couldn't resist! We're still not sure hoe to get it home!
From there we went to the Pindaya Caves up on the hill and after a climb we entered to be greeted by 1000s of Buddhas of all sizes. We wandered around the maze and crawled into a meditation cave which we found after a little search.
From the caves we were driven back to Heho airport to fly to Mandalay. Arriving in Mandalay was somewhat of a contrast. The roads were complete chaos and we feared for our lives several times. The 3 lane busy motorway was partly occupied by bicycles not all driving in the same direction. We had a very scary ride along a 6-lane road actually on a bike to a restaurant which turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The service was awful and the food was not what we ordered. Needless to say our first thoughts of this crazy city were not too good.
However, yesterday we took a ferry to Mingun along the Ayeyarwady River. We climed the huge Mingun Paya which was actually split in two by an earthquake in 1838 and we saw the largest uncracked bell in the world. The weather was beautiful and the afternoon wanfering around back in Mandalay was much better than the night before. In the evening we went to another puppet show which also included some traditional dancing.
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( 3 / 1108 )Inle Lake
Monday, August 7, 2006, 01:44 PM
The puppet show was fantastic and we ended up having the show to ourselves and a nice chat with the puppeteer at the end. We even arranged for him to drive us on our trip on Saturday as he doubles as a taxi driver.
On Friday we spent the whole day on Inle Lake in a long, thin motor boat. It was a really wonderful experience. We set off very early and travelled for over an hour to get to a market right accross the other side of the lake. We were the first tourists to arrive so of course they were all very eager to sell us things. It felt like we wanted to buy from everyone, which of course we couldn't, but after some bargaining we bought a few souveniers. The market was full of locals and their animals. We saw children riding buffalos, cows, chickens and even a bull tied up in the corner.
After a walk up to another beautiful pagoda we headed back to our boat. Throughout the rest of the day our driver took us to various handicraft places where we were able to see paper, umbrellas, jewellery, knives, cigars and other things all being handmade. We saw the mass of floating gardens and lots of boatmen rowing with their legs (leg-rowers). We were driven through one village where all the houses were on stilts and fairly old, some in a very poor condition. Despite it being a little sad to see the conditions some people live in it was one of my favourite bits of the day. They were all so happy and waving at us while they got on with their day to day things. Inle people really seem to make the most of what they have and are clearly extremely resourceful.
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( 3 / 1061 )Yangon and Inle Lake
Thursday, August 3, 2006, 02:45 PM
Yesterday we spent the whole day in Yangon. We began at the market searching our way through all kinds of stalls and enjoying the atmosphere. It was full of 1000s of paintings, silks, ornaments and lots of everyday Burmese necessities too.
After a quick bite of lunch we went to the glass factory. Here we were given a guided tour by the very cheerful owner of the family business. It was like stepping into the jungle and the compound where they live and work hasn't changed for over 50 years! We were given a demonstration of the glass blowing and lead through a maze of glass products.
We went on to see a huge reclining Buddha. I think it is the 2nd biggest in the country and the eyes were made at the glass factory.
In the evening we went for a lovely Burmese meal with Anne and Jamuna and this morning flew to Heho.
We are now at Inle Lake where, although we have had some rain, we were still able to walk around the market and take a canoe trip along the canal between paddy fields and houses on stilts. The trip was so peaceful and we feel we got a real taste of local life. We were taken to a monastry where we were greeted by an over-talkative and friendly monk who couldn't stop talking about money inflation and English biscuits!
Stefan is now relaxing with a coffee served from a tea pot and we are about to go to a puppet theatre! Tomorrow we will take a boat trip on the Lake.
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( 3 / 977 )Arriving in Burma (Myanmar)
Thursday, August 3, 2006, 02:36 PM
After a bad reaction to the malaria tablets I managed to get up and hobble to the station with my heavy rucksack and off we went to Gatwick Airport. We had a very comfortable flight from there to Abu Dhabi although as usual with these flights there were too many films to watch so we didn't get much sleep.
We arrived in Abu Dhabi in the evening and were in transit there for just over an hour. The airport's architecture was very unusual and impressive but very different to any other I have ever seen. The departure lounge was a round capsule just for our flight. There was a little door leading off it and we wondered where people kept going. Of course it dawned on us in the end that it was a prayer room.
We were very tired when we got to Bangkok and our next flight was a little delayed but we eventually made it, on a very colourful plane, to Yangon, the new name for Rangoon.
My cousin, Anne and her little 2-year-old daughter, Jamuna were there to meet us. We were driven to their house and went nstraight for a dip in the pool to freshen up a bit. Then we were ready for our first taste of Burmese culture. We were driven to the Shwedagon Paya which is, I have to say, the most magnificent place I have ever seen. It is the most sacred of all Burmese sites in the country and is centered around a great golden dome 98m tall. Gold was everywhere and around every corner there were so many things to look at. Many local people were there too, some meditating, others sleeping and many just enjoying the atmosphere and spending time with friends.
From here we went on to experience some Burmese everyday culture by walking down a local street. Here we met some interesting smells, saw lots of meat and fish being cut and sold on the side of the road and walked by many shops and small cafes. We stopped at one for a very sweet Burmese fizzy drink. It really does feel like stepping into a different world here. From the way people dress (many in longyi, a skirt/sarong for both men and women) to the buildings around us it's all so different. We can't wait to see and explore more.
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( 3 / 991 )2 Weddings and a Celebrity Encounter
Sunday, July 30, 2006, 10:33 PM
Over the past week we've been to 2 weddings. Cathy and Mark's on the Isle of Wight and Sarah and Alan's near Poole. We enjoyed both of them very much and it was great fun to see friends we hadn't seen for a long time. Photos are up for Cathy and Mark's and the others will go up when we come back from our holiday.
We are nearly packed up and ready to go. I went to collect my visa the other day from the Burmese Embassy and much to my surprise Gwyneth Paltrow was shooting a commercial right outside the door. It's weird when yo see someone like that in real life but it was most definitely her.
Anyway, we're off tomorrow so I better get some sleep.
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( 3 / 896 )The quest for simple glass of water
Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 11:30 AM
A few days ago I was in a Pizza Express restaurant and tried to get a glass of water and ice with my meal. The first glass arrived with water, ice and lemon. I never get the whole lemon in water thing so asked if I could have it without the lemon. The second glass arrived, this time without ice and without lemon. I drank it despite the fact it was as warm as I was in this heat and then attempted one last time to order water with ice. The final attempt arrived..this time with water, ice and....lime! So, it's obviously impossible to get a simple glass of water these days!
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( 3 / 88 )Ending the season
Sunday, July 16, 2006, 09:39 AM
Well, a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks and yesterday I had my last concert of the season. I have probably had my busiest time since moving over to Slovenia but this is a good thing as I feel I now begin to establish myself here. I've played concerts in Austria, all around Slovenia and last week in Italy. Yes, it was the day of the world cup so I'm surprised we had any audience at all! We left Ljubljana at 9am on Sunday and arrived back at 7am on Monday. It was baking hot in Lerici (quite close to Pisa) and we had no music stands provided. This along with a light breeze created a bit of chaos with the music!
I also played in the opera for the first time in Ljubljana. It was fun to play in a pit again. I've always liked that as you're kind of hidden away a bit more. It was fun although they play at a slightly lower pitch than I'm used to in the Filharmonija so it created a few intonation problems for me.
On a social note, it's also been a good time. Obviously saying goodbye to Sam was sad but we've had a few ex-pat evenings lately which have been fun. I also had 2 friends to stay, Matt and Sam, who used to play in the same county youth orchestra as me. It was really great to catch up with them (see video clips). Last Thursay I went to Minimundus with my neighbours. This is in Austria and full of the worlds famous buildings in miniature. It was really fun and nice to escape my oboe for a while. There was even a mini Osaka castle which I visited in Japan.
So I've completed my first season here now and despite a few difficult times it's been great and I don't regret coming here for a second. I even feel the language is finally getting a little easier! I'm looking forward to flying back to England next week and then in 2 weeks Stefan and I are going to Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand for 2 weeks. My cousin lives in Burma so it will be great to visit her and it just felt like too good an opportunity to miss. So perhaps my next installment will be from there. We'll see.......
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( 3 / 852 )Wedding and hot weather
Thursday, June 29, 2006, 04:08 PM
Well, the wedding went really well and the weather was just perfect. It took place at a hotel in Dawlish on the south coast of Devon. I was able to catch up with some friends and much to my delight there was a chocolate fountain in the eveing! View all the photos here.
I've been back in Slovenia for about 10 days now and the weather has been unbelievable with temperatures well into the 30s and humidity on top of that. It really hasn't been very comfortable especially as we have had a lot of concerts lately. We played in Slovenj Gradec last week, then Ptuj and Ljubljana cathedral this week. Stefan was here until Sunday and he flew back from Zagreb. We went there together and spent the morning wandering around which was really nice. It was good to see the city in the sunshine having only seen it in December when it was so cold.
This weekend I'm off to Austria for rehearsals and a concert and the following weekend to Italy so it really is a busy time at the moment. It's all good fun though and there are lots of social events going on too. Yesterday was the orchestra picnic. It's always nice to meet the orchestra in a different and more relaxed situation and it was great fun.
Today I went swimming in Lake Bled with Milenka and her daughter and Floor. It was so relaxing and peaceful, I will definitely have to go again.
We just had a really big thunder/hail storm so hopefully it will cool down a bit now. I better finish now as tonight is Sam's last evening in Ljubljana before she heads home to Canada so the 3 of us are going to spend the eveing together and see her off in the early hours of tomorrow. I can't believe it's already time for her to leave and we're really going to miss her.
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( 3 / 860 )Enjoying the Slovenia lifestyle
Thursday, June 15, 2006, 08:34 PM
I've spent the last few weeks just enjoying life in Ljubljana. We had one week where orchestra was cancelled which gave me even more time to sit outside enjoying the cafes, river and meeting up with friends. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so good for a while but it is back to being hot and sunny now. My Uncle and Auntie came to visit last weekend and I showed them round Ljubljana and we also drove out to Skofja Loka. It was really lovely to see them and I'm glad that the weather didn't let us down.
However, I flew back to England on Tuesday only to be greeted by rain, floods and cancelled trains. It really wasn't a nice welcome home and after last time when London felt really good it suddenly felt like the place I least wanted to be. However, I eventually made it to Stefan and we had a nice day in London yesterday. I even made it to the Guildhall oboe recitals and it was fun to see and hear some oboe friends again. I'm now down in Devon with my parents and the weather's been great today so England feels better again. I'm certainly living up to the reputation of an English person and talking about the weather a lot at the moment but it really has been quite unpredictable lately!
I'm now looking forward to tomorrow evening when Stefan joins me down here and then Saturday when my school friend, Lucy will get married. I have the honourable job of bridesmaid so let's hope the sun continues to shine and that I don't make a fool out of myself and trip over or something!
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( 3 / 862 )Salzburg and Šmarna Gora
Sunday, May 28, 2006, 10:49 AM
;)
I spent last weekend in Salzburg with Sam. The main objective was to go on the Sound of Music Tour which to our surprise took us out of Salzburg to the lakes and mountains rather than just showing us the sights in the city itself. We were extremely lucky with the weather and the landscape was very beautiful. Our childhood dreams were dashed as we discovered the house in the film doesn't exist as half of it was filmed in Hollywood! However, we did see the outside of the house and many other of the locations in the film so all in all it was a good experience. In our group we had a fun tour guide and an amusing guy with a pig on his head (see photo), not to mention his matching mobile phone case!! However, we were more reserved than the other which contained a whole group of dressed up nuns!
Salzburg itself was also very beautiful and we visited the Mirabell Gardens, fortress and Mozart’s birthplace. We left the city laden with Mozart Kugel but our adventure was not over yet. We ended up in a train compartment with a very strange Austrian lady. She drove us completely crazy by chewing gum really loudly and then started writing strange German poetry in big betters before hitting herself repeatedly on the head and shoulders. Yes, it was as bizarre as it sounds!
Now back in Ljubljana again and yesterday I climbed Šmarna Gora, a mountain very close to the city, with my neighbours. It was a beautiful walk and when we reached the top we rang the bell and made a wish. Dunja, my 5 year-old neighbour, informed me that I hadn’t rung the bell enough times for my wish to come true. Luckily she saved the day and did it for me!!
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