Burma (Myanmar) travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Burma is a large country in mainland Southeast Asia. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southwest, Bangladesh on the west and India on the northwest.
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Most people have heard of the Padaung hill tribe from television documentaries, magazines and travel books as the giraffe women hill tribe of Thailand. In the border mountains between Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand live the Kayan, known also as Padaung people. The giraffe women as they are often called, wear heavy copper coils around their necks, which push their faces up and make their necks look long and elegant. The “secret” of the “giraffe” women is that the clavicle and the ribs descend 45 degrees down from their normal position. The maximum weight of a coil is of 5 kg. This ancient tradition has unknown roots. The coils may have made Kayan women unattractive to slave trade. They claim to be descendants of the ancient long-necked dragon and women traditionally wore coils as a protection from wild animals. The coils also became symbols of wealth and status and were worn as jewels.

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This small 18-foot-high Kyaiktiyo or Golden Rock Pagoda is located in the jungle in Kyaikhto Township of Mon State near the Thai boarder town of Mae Sot on Kyaikhtiyo Hill at an elevation of 1100 metres above sea level.
When you see the Golden Rock you’ll forget that you’re covered in sweat, exhausted, and have just hiked 12-kilometers up a mountain - the sight is breathtaking. A giant golden boulder with a pagoda on top seems to do the impossible: defy gravity. It’s precariously perched on a small ledge extending from the top of an Eastern Yoma mountain, and appears ready to fall at any moment.
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The origins of Shwedagon are lost in antiquity, its age unknown. Long before the pagoda was built, its location on Singuttara hill was already an ancient sacred site because of the buried relics of the three previous Buddhas. According to one legend, nearly 5000 years had passed since the last Buddha walked the Earth, and Singuttara hill would soon lose its blessedness unless it was reconsecrated with relics of a new Buddha. In order that such new relics might be obtained, King Okkalapa of Suvannabhumi spent much time atop the hill, meditating and praying. A series of miracles ensued and eight hairs of the historical Buddha were, somewhat magically, brought to the hill. To enshrine the relics, multiple pagodas of silver, tin, copper, lead, marble, iron and gold where built one on top of the other to a height of twenty meters. During the following centuries, passing from myth to historical fact, the pagoda grew to its present height of ninety-eight meters. Much of the continued construction of Shwedagon was actually reconstruction following disastrous earthquakes. During the 17th century the pagoda suffered earthquake damage on at least eight occasions. A particularly bad quake in 1786 brought the entire top half of the pagoda to the ground and its current shape and height date from the reconstruction of that time.
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Bagan, formerly Pagan, formally titled Arimaddanapura (the City of the Enemy Crusher) and also known as Tambadipa (the Land of Copper) or Tassadessa (the Parched Land), was the ancient capital of several ancient kingdoms in Myanmar. It is located in the dry central plains of the country, on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 145 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Mandalay.

The ruins of Bagan cover an area of 16 square miles. The majority of its buildings were built in the 1000s to 1200s, during the time Bagan was the capital of the First Burmese Empire.

It was not until King Pyinbya moved the capital to Bagan in 874 A.D that it became a major city. However, in Burmese tradition, the capital shifted with each reign, and thus Bagan was once again abandoned until the reign of Anawrahta.
Continue reading Bagan Buddhist Temples and Pagodas in Myanmar