It took me just a few days to write this but much longer to post it. It actually took six months. Can you believe it? And I’m not even finished ‘cuz I lost interest after writing about my first day. Okay…this is about my trip to Mingun.

Our train left at 12 noon. I was hoping that we get upper class seats but for some reason, the person my father had assigned to buy the tickets only bought lower class tickets. I was hoping for the worst but the seats are far more comfortable than other ordinary wooden seat. The only thing was it wasn’t all that comfortable enough for us to fall asleep so I was pretty much awake for the whole night. The other discomfort was the toilet which was pretty smelly as usual. I had to hold my breath every time I use it. Since we took the night train, we didn’t get the chance to see the landscape beyond Pyinmanar as it got dark. The train arrived at Mandalay around 3pm. We slept for a few hours at the rest house before getting up at 6 am. From there, we were taken to a Shan noodle shop to eat breakfast and we started our journey to Mingun. I used to thought that Mingun can be only reached by a ferry boat but you can actually reach it via Sagaing. It took more than an hour to reach Mingun. We have never been there before it was the major highlight of our trip.

Mingun is an unfinished pagoda built by King Boedawpaya. He wanted to build the largest pagoda in the world. At that time, there was a saying that by the time the pagoda is finished, the kingdom will collapse. So he stopped building the pagoda and it was left as it is seen today. However, the pagoda and the giant lions statutes suffered from the earthquake in the 1970s and that’s why there’s a crack in the pagoda and we can no longer see the lions in their original shapes. All we get to see now is the big butts. Some also say that the King shouldn’t have built the lions first instead of the pagoda ‘cuz it was bad omen. I remembered reading about Minister U Paw Oo who is also known for his practical jokes. One day, after viewing the lions, he wanted to comment on it, probably to say the lions look scary and the butts are too big, etc. So he said “The Lions are…” but then the King came up from behind the lions and asked him what he wanted to say. So he immediately changed his statement by saying “Due to your majesty’s grace, the lions look as if they are ready to jump to the opposite shore.” Okay, I know I suck at translation but it’s funnier in Myanmar.

The next highlight in Mingun beside the pagoda is the Mingun Bell. It’s the third largest bell and the only ringing bell in the world. My mother said she used to thought the bell was situated on a small hill but was shocked to see it on a flat ground. Also, a iron fence is put around the place to prevent people from writing on the bell. I really hate to see people destroying such property. Now the original texts on the bell have faded and I’m sure it must have been difficult to remove all those craps written using correction pens.

Myatheindan Pagoda is situated quite close to both places so we went there next. I have always been fascinated by the architecture of that pagoda.

People say it’s better to travel to Mingun via the ferry ‘cuz one can enjoy the river view. But for us, we wanted to visit Sagaing also so we took the road trip.

*The above photos are taken by dawn1o9 & my brother.

I’m 25 today and I feel older than I was a year ago (of course). Compared to last year, I have no permanent job but I have got the chance to attend two diploma classes and I can look forward to getting a master degree in English now. I never would have thought that I will have a chance since my grades from UDE were extremely low. And now, I get a salary which is higher than my previous job and it is less tiring also. Of course, I have to find books and read ahead. I think I spend more time on doing my homework for my tuition than for my diploma class. I barely study unless there’s a tutorial.

Nothing much happens today. Just the same old Monday Blue. I didn’t feel like doing anything except to go back home and read books. My sister got me (not exactly but I asked for them) an early birthday present, which are Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. I’m only missing the last book, Breaking Dawn. She also bought DVD sets of Meteror Garden I & II and Boys Over Flower. Talk about F4 craziness. But I can’t watch MG I & II as there’s no English subs. I doubt that I can find the subs online.

These past two weeks were really misfortune for our family. The third week concerned with my sister but her misfortunes made us all worried. Finally, when all things starting to get well for her, my grandmother passed away. Three days later, we had her funeral. It was my second time going to the funeral. My first time was when my manger’s mother died. I have never met her before but I felt really sad thinking of how my friend, the manager, was feeling and I was closed to tear. So, I didn’t even got up to view the corpse before it was taken away. This time, I sat in the first row near the corpse and while looking at her corpse, I tried to think good things she has done to me and I started crying. It was ironic. I wasn’t even feeling like crying but for me, crying is contagious. If I hear other people crying, I also felt like crying myself and I had a hard time controlling myself.

Anyway, after the funeral we are having ‘yat lae’ on Sunday. It’s the day when we offer alm food to the monks on the seventh day of her death. I was planning to celebrate my birthday party a day early but now I can only celebrate 7 days later in July, instead of in June.

Just when all the misfortunes seem to have rested, another thing happened. My uncle got into a car accident while driving our car. Luckily, no one was hurt but the compensation has to be paid and our car needs to be fixed also. The total amount is pretty high, it’s four months of my current salary and I get paid well.

I hope that the misfortunes will not continue anymore.

So it was the first day of June and I thought the university was open again but it didn’t. It opened a day later. So I attended school on the 2nd day and on that night, I got sick and was submitted to a hospital. I stayed there for a day and a half and even then, I wasn’t feeling better. I was no longer vomitting but my stomatch was still sick. However, I wanted to get out of the hospital so I lied about my bathroom trips and was allowed to leave early. I had to be put 7 drips during my stay at the hospital and another one more at the clinic near my house.

I only got better on Saturday morning after I stopped taking the medicine from the clinic. One of the medicine made me very sick and I kept vomitting air. I don’t know what’s better…vomitting food or vomitting air/gas.

Not that I’m happy about it but at least now I know how it’s like to stay at a hospital. Most of the doctors are pretty young and they are always around except at night like 2pm (when I arrived at the hospital but they came to take care of me right away).  I was placed in a temporary bed made out of wood, full of bedbugs and I didn’t get a proper bed until the next afternoon. Even then, it was in an open space ward, no privacy. I could barely sleep on the first night and on the second night, I tried my best to sleep while trying to ignore the vomitting sounds from the next ward. Thank god my mother brought my mp4 player to the hospital. At least I could listen to Boys Over Flower OST while I was resting.

Okay…gotta go now…Time for my tution class. I’ll try to blog more since I’ll be able to come online more often.

Although I was disappointed with “Flash”, at least I watched a better Myanmar movie the next day. This movie is based on a thriller by Ta Doe Tay Za which is loosely (or closely?) translated from “Say Cheese and Die” by R.L. Stine. Although the original novel is similar to the foreign novel, the movie is a lot different from the plot in the story. The director only took a few ideas from the novel and created his own story.

The director and scriptwriter is Nyo Min Lwin. He is famous for his other Myanmar thriller movies but I have never seen them before. The lead casts are Htun Htun and May Kabyar. It’s not a love story and the story rotates around a group of friend who waste their times at MIT Park (previously MICT Park) during when they aren’t attending their computer classes. Htun Htun was challenged by two classmates, who he don’t get along with, to go to the famous haunted house and take something from the house. So, he and his friends decided to go there at night (instead of during daytime) and went around the places showing only their feet and flashlights to the audience.

Htun Htun found a Polaroid camera from a cupboard and took it with him. Things didn’t turn out well afterward ever since he took it. Whenever he took a picture with the camera, something bad always happens as the pictures always show what’s gonna happen in the future. In the end, he decided to take it back to the house after his friend disappeared. However, the ghost won’t let him do that and it told him his story while HH was unconscious. What he has decided to do with it afterward is the ending.

I rarely watched Myanmar thriller movies ‘cuz they are usually more funny instead of being scary. I have to say I was a bit scared, 10 percent scared, while watching this movie. It was creepy to watch the ghost standing at the back of Htun Htun but after he started talking, he became as scary as Voldemort was in the Harry Potter movies. The movie is too noisy when the people are speaking at the same times but sometimes I couldn’t hear anything. Was the sound removed on purpose?

Note: I meant to post this earlier but I wasn’t able to log on to wordpress at that time.

No, it’s not about Flash Gordon. It’s just another Myanmar movie I’ve watched recently. Why did I even bother to believe in the advertisement? It said it’s a movie different from typical Myanmar movies. Sure, it’s completely different. I barely recognize what I’m watching.

The movie stars Ye Tike, Phoe Kyaw, Tin Zar Wint Kyaw and Wine Su Khine Thein. Have I ever mention that I dislike TZWK? I had to think twice before renting this movie ‘cuz she’s in it.

The plot goes like this….

Ye Tike is a camera man who goes by the name Ye Tike. He met Phoe Kyaw (forgot his character’s name), a very rich person who just came back from France, during his photo exhibition. PK inviited YT to enter a photo contest with the title of “Fear”. So, YT got a famous actrees Cherry (TZWK) to act as his model and he tried to take photos while she pretended to commit suicide by cutting her wrist. I think they were in a relationship or something ‘cuz they went driving around places with a car.

One day, Cherry was found dead in her room with her wrist cut up. Around the time of her death, YT was watching Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and suddenly became aware of global warming. So, he went to a fundraiser and donated K 500,000 with a check. Ka Thi (Wine Su) was collecting the money and she was pretty surprised to find the check. So she ran quickly and took pictures of the car bumper as it drove away with a camera that appeared out of nowhere.

Having found out that Cherry was found dead, YT felt miserable and was drinking alone when PK came over to talk to him. Then, KT came over with accusing looks in her eye to talk to YT. PK went away and YT and KT have a little chit-chat about YT and Cherry’s private life. KT got mad and nearly accused YT of being the culprit. She had decided to investigate this murder so she started stalking YT.  YT taught her some lessons which include taking off his shirt while KT was spying on him with her binoculars. (Yeah, it’s supposed to be offensive to ladies and make them blush and look away but KT seemed to enjoy it.)

Two policemen came out of an expensive looking car (maybe saloon car) and took YT away. KT went to the so-called police station and bailed him out. They talked over and KT was convinced that YT couldn’t have committed the crime since he was at the fundraiser that night. Another famous model got murdered in the same way as Cherry. The two sleuths (YT and KT) went to her house while police made way for them to take photos of the dead body. YT was so afraid of KT being in danger so he spend the night at her house. (Another point – normal Myanmar ladies do not allow guys to spend the night in their home, even if he just sleeps on the couch)

To cut it short, the big bad guy PK called KT over to his house. At that time, YT found a Canon lens cover in Cherry’s room. So, he became suspicious of PK ‘cuz he also is a big fan of Canon.  KT got drugged, PK took pictures, the prince charming comes to the rescue, the two guys wrestled on the floor, the prince rescued the princess and I don’t know what happened to PK. I only seem a picture of him at the exhibition, looking terrified.

I rarely watch Myanmar movies. I only chose to watch them only when they are recommended by people online.

Yes, although this movie is different from other typical MM movies, I don’t enjoy watching something which tried to imitate foreign movies. In Myanmar, reporters aren’t allowed to investigate murders. Police do not use nice saloon cars to arrest a suspect and they sure do not make ways for reporters to come and take pictures of the dead as they please. I don’t know how the bail out system work in here but I am more curious about why the heck YT was interrogated in the first place, a couple of days after the murder. If he’s the possible suspect, he could have been interrogated immediately. And don’t get me even started about this stalking business. It’s freaking annoying and so darn obvious. How many people park their cars directly in front of a house and spy with a binocular. Why does PK look like a psycho in the first place? It’s a dead giveaway, taking out all the suspense if there are supposed to be any in this movie.

Overall, I only enjoyed watching this movie ‘cuz of Wine Su. Although I disagree with her character’s actions, she was the only person I can stand watching. I’m really glad that TZWK died early as she was annoying me to death. And why does YT always raise his eyebrows while talking? Is he trying to make himself look attractive? Maybe some might agree but not me though.

This movie is English subbed but I barely noticed them as the subs are too small.

Note: I meant to post this earlier but I wasn’t able to log on to wordpress at that time.

The main reason for not blogging lately, if not due to the fact that I didn’t want to spend money on internet fees, is that I was sick for a few days. I didn’t really know what happened to me. I have no fever or anything but I couldn’t stand the wind, even in this hot weather. It must either be the rain or the mango. Now, although I’m better, I still have not appetite for meals. I only rather eat other things like hot and spicy stuffs.

Even through I was sick, it didn’t stop me from watching tv and reading e-books. I have finished all four books of the Twilight saga now. Now I want to read the books in print so I went to the library the other day and put my name on the waiting list. I can only request for one book at a time and I’m on number thirteen. Great…counting two weeks per person, I’ll be able to read the first book by August. Then, I’ll have to put my name on the waiting list for the rest of the books.

So I came back home with Pride and Prejudice and another book by werewolves. I have been forcing myself to appreciate English literature and so far, I’m trying my best not to skip any pages ‘cuz the story is starting to bored me. The other book has more actions but I already read half of it and flipped to the end so it’s not that much interesting for me. Sometimes I think IY Library was much better than this one. It may not have so many books but at least it has a lot of books by authors I recognize.

Anyway, I have decided to come online more often, maybe just to spend an hour about three times a week just to catch up on things. I don’t like having to depend on local news journals for news which my sister considered as unimportant. Well, JJH wasn’t her second favorite actor anyway so she didn’t bother to tell me anything and I have to find out about it a week later from a local news journal. It’s not really important but still I really did like him a lot and I still do even though he turned out to be a bad person. I guess it’s because I always liked him for his characters’ roles in the dramas than what he was outside.

Do you believe in astrology? I am not really enthusiastic about it but sometimes I like to know about my future. But so far, the few astrologers I have visited didn’t give me enough reasons to believe in them. Some can’t even predict about my past and they said that I have never been abroad. So yeah, why should I believe them?

A couple of years ago, I went to see a fortune teller ‘cuz he was pretty famous. I went with my sister and friend and waited five hours in that apartment which stank of cat pees. When I get to my turn, he said he can’t sense anything about me. He was able to predict the future for my friend and my sister but not for me. So again, I didn’t want to bother with astrology, palm reading ,etc at all.

Last year, I went to see two astrologers ‘cuz my mother wanted to know whether I would pass the exam or not. Both of them said that I wouldn’t and that’s the only thing right with their predictions. I never wanted to see another astrologer again but one came to our house and predict the future for me, free of charge, as he was a friend of my father. His prediction is true in some part but I have my doubts ‘cuz he probably already knew that I worked in computer industry and currently giving private tuitions. In his letter, he said I’ll work for NGO or some organization but not a teacher. It doesn’t fit my future goal so I don’t keep them in mind anymore.

Well now, I’ve just visited an astrologer whose home is located in the outskirts of the city. My brother went to see him first and he got pretty good results ‘cuz everything the astrologer has predicted was correct for him. In addition, the astrologer predicted that his second sister (me) will go abroad to study on a scholarship some time in the future. You can see that I got interested of course. I decided to go and see him with a couple of friends last Sunday.

I arrived at his home near 10 am but the astrologer wasn’t home. He didn’t get home until after 11:30 and I was eating lunch nearby at that time. I waited another 2 hours and my turn finally arrived. However, I was pretty disappointed ‘cuz he only predicted about my education and work, which I already knew since I have set my mind on getting a master degree in English and work as a teacher. He did mention about scholarship but only after I have asked whether I would get to go abroad to study. Compare to my other friends’ results, mine is the fewest. He also read my palms and drew something on my right hand while mumbling something to himself but he didn’t tell me anything. I guess it’s just my nature not to ask when someone doesn’t want to tell so again I didn’t bother to ask him.

I wonder whether I should have mentioned my birth place and birth time ‘cuz according to my few knowledge about astrology, the position of the constellation is different in each country. But then, it’s the astrologer’s job to ask for them and since he didn’t bother to ask about them, I didn’t want to offend him. After all, he was speaking nonstop about my education and future career, which didn’t surprised me at all.

So, I guess it’s just me ‘cuz I’m always unlucky with meeting astrologers.

I spent most of my days reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkiens and The New Moon by Stepheine Meyer and watching movies and dramas. I was more interested in what’s happening with Biblo and was waiting for Edward to reappear in the story rather than spend my times outdoors. Beside, nobody is playing with water on our road except on the last day. It was pretty quiet except for the jeering, whooping, shouting, etc made males on passing cars. My family went out on the last day and asked me to come along but I decided to stay home instead. They said I’ll miss everything and I had to tell them several times that I was absolutely not interested in participating in Thingyan events.

I don’t hate Thingyan. I love the concept of Thingyan – the whole throwing water on each other to wash away sins and get ready for the new year thing. But I really wonder if we are washing away old sins or creating new ones during the festival. All these jeering, whopping, shouting, yelling, getting drunk, smoking pots, etc are surely sins. I don’t mind being thrown by water buckets but I hate being thrown water from tin cars which hurts a lot. I am pretty sure that those little punks who use them is only thinking of hurting people and I don’t appreciate being called names by little kids They just imitate whatever they hear and eventually they will grow up to become those brainless, reckless, inconsiderate people.

Some guys from the mandats use big pipes and try to drown the girls in the cars with water. Some sick perverts will take advantage of the girls while they are hiding beneath their towels, slipping their hands to you know what places. And of course, most of the guys on the cars are drunk so there are also high chances of getting into fights. My friend told me once that her mandat got stoned so she had to ran away into the boat club nearby but the owner of the boat club, who is a famous sailor around our age, tried to kick the people out. What a display of Myanmar hospitality.

Some of my friends pay tons of money to sit on Thingyan mandats. I see that as a pure waste of money ‘cuz what’s so fun about it. Sure, people sit there, girls dress in tank tops, short pants will dance to whatever music that is being played while the opposite sex from the cars will jeer at them. But these girls are pretty drunk so they probably won’t care. Another friend has also told me what she had witnessed while being stuck in traffic jams. She saw some guys taking the shirt off a girl while the girl was too drunk to know what’s happening to her. She and her friends were shaking with anger from what they had witnessed but they couldn’t do anything ‘cuz they didn’t want to risk getting in a fight. I didn’t ask for further details from her as I was sick with what I had heard. I have heard other tales from other friends but of course since they are guys, their versions are different from what I hear from girls. They seem to enjoy seeing girls who barely have clothes on so I didn’t bother to listen for details.

Another reason for avoiding to go out this year is ‘cuz I won’t be able to escape the Thingyan music played on mandats. I do not hate traditional Thingyan music at all and I never get tired to listening to them but I absolutely hate other type of Thingyan junk music – those copy songs with crappy lyrics. I didn’t hate them so much until last year when I wasted my money on piratedThingyan vcds. So, this year I didn’t buy a single Thingyan vcd at all. I only saw Jenny singing a copy song of BabyVOX on MRTV4, wearing a purple mini skirt over purple tights. Gosh, when will people grown out of those horrible color tights. It’s like living in the 80s.

The only thing I really regret is not getting to watch Thingyan Moe movie on TV. I must have missed it ‘cuz I didn’t get to read the TV announcements in the newspapers, which didn’t come to our house at all. Our newspaper postman went missing right after Thingyan started. I could only listen to the OST instead . I wished I had downloaded from the internet when I had the chance. It’s just not Thingyan without Thingyan Moe. All I saw on TV was this ridiculous Thingyan video with an actor who only wore expensive shirts even when he had amnesia and was living with some villagers. He changed his shirt daily, never donning the plaid shirts wore by his poor savior. I lost interest immediately and went back to listening to my mp4 player.

Thingyan…It used to mean a lot to me when I was younger. I really don’t remember how I spent my Thingyan before I was 10. I think I had stick around home and throw water to passersby. I was away from the country afterward and I didn’t come back until a couple of years later.

2000 – I joined my neighbors and gathered near a big road and threw bucket of waters to passing cars. I had my share of fun but it was when I first witnessed the cruelty of Thingyan. I was jeered, mocked and even worse, thrown with whiskey by males from the cars. I was shocked but I still went back there the next day ‘cuz I didn’t want to miss all the fun.

2001 – My family and I went to Mawlamyaing. We stayed at our cousin’s place and do some pilgrimage touring while splashed with water on the way. I really enjoyed the trip to Ka Toe, my mother’s home village. From Ka Toe, we walked a mile to the next village with our cousins and on the way, I was hiding behind my cousin so that I don’t get Thanakhar on my face. It must be a tradition of the villagers to put Thanakhar on people’ faces instead of splashing them with water.

2002 – I don’t remember much but I think I was outside my house again, splashing water to passing cars.

2003 – We put up some water tanks in front of my house and splashed water at the passing cars. We invited our friend KKM to visit us and she fell in love with my brother’s friend (KYP). (They got married a couple of years later and I still wish that they didn’t get married)

2004 – This is a memorable year for me ‘cuz I spent most of my days outdoor in a truck with my colleagues. I got to go around the city and for free ‘cuz my boss was paying for all charges . I even had to invite my friends to come with me ‘cuz there wasn’t any other girls on board except for me and my sister. I spent one afternoon stuck in traffic on University Avenue and didn’t get wet the whole day. At least, I got to stare at my favorite actor MMK for 2 hours as his car was also stuck in the traffic jam. But since he was MMK, people were nice enough to made space for him to allow him to make a u-turn and get out of the jam.

2005 – We got back from Bangkok in time for Thingyan. Actually, I wasn’t in any mood to enjoy it at all and watching the love couple (KKM+KYP) made me sick so I stayed inside most of the times. My mother said that I wasn’t acting like a good host to our guest KKM so I had to go out and play.

2006 – I stayed indoors and watched Wonderful Life drama while trying to ignore the blare of speakers my brother had opened. It was the year Thaxa Soe’s Yaw Ta Ma Hmway came out and I had wished I didn’t buy that CD ‘cuz I got so sick of it after listening to it being repeated over and over again.

2007 – We went to Shan State this time and it was one of the most horrible trip I have ever been to. I was sick for two days and I wished I was back home instead of riding in the car. I would have enjoyed the trip if it was taken during another time. I never wanted to go on another trip during Thingyan. What I really loved about the trip was the night in Kalaw. It was the most peaceful night as I lay in bed, listening to classical music played on violins. Also, I like the Padonmar restaurant from Kalaw very much. Everything I ate at that restaurant tasted so good and the food aren’t that expensive at all. I wish I were back there drinking chicken kar lar thar soup.

2008 – I stayed indoor except when our family went to Bago. My father was keen on taking photos and I had shared them at my blog before. It was pretty boring for me and I only wanted to go home instead of getting water splashed on me all the time.