Oh yes everyone, it opened today (March 27, 2014) in Taipei and we rushed out to see it! Captain America is not my favorite superhero, but after seeing this one, he has moved up the ranks (go Chris Evans!) And Jason will tell you that Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow) held her own. Without spoiling anything, the movie was great! The story was complex and the acting was very good. Good action too. If you are not a fan of these movies, then I cannot help you, but if you are, run, don't walk to see this! No, I am not getting paid to promote this movie. I am here to share with you another one of our movie going experiences in Asia!
The lines for this one were looooong and I suspect it will be like that for a while. There were several showings for Captain America playing all day, in 2D, 3D or 4DX 3D (this is where the theatre is designed to provide environmental effects such as motion, mist, etc)! We opted for the regular 2D experience. Movies in Taipei are about the same price as back home, $320 NT (Taiwanese Dollars) or $12 CAD per person. Service is very professional at the counter and enough English was known to help us buy tickets. Again you get to select your seats for your most optimal movie going experience (I am going to miss this when we leave Asia!) .
The concession did not have any unusual items available for purchase but we did notice the sizing of popcorn and soda was more similar to that in North America (along with the prices!). Most places in Asia would name a popcorn large but it felt more like a small or medium in comparison to home. I personally like the smaller sizes though as it helps me with portion control! ha ha! A few baked goods were available as well and when I saw a churro, I had to have one!
We waited in the hall of the theatre and like most/all cinemas in Asia, they only let you in 5-10 min before the scheduled movie time. No need to worry though as seats were already selected! Commercials and trailers were played along with a cute little cartoon clip reminding you to turn off your cellphones. The movie played in English with Taiwanese subtitles. The audience we had was good, no talking or cellphones being turned on and it was quite full. Like I said, this movie is going to do well!
We decided to rent bikes again because we had so much fun the day before! The only plan we had was to visit the Bagan Archeological Museum (which is ok, if you need something to do), and once we were done, we did not know what to do (the only thing to do in Bagan is to visit the temples and well, we did that the day before). So we thought, let's explore the area known as New Bagan. With Jason in the lead, we followed. No real destination in mind, just the open road in front of us.
Vroom, vroom
We were riding along the road when someone said "Hi! Where are you from?", which usually prompts us into defense mode with either a "no, thank you" or silence. Usually when a foreigner is asked this, our experience has been they want to sell you something or offer taxi service. The people of Bagan though are very kind, and the man continued to talk to Jason (all the while we are still biking).
Then before we knew it, we were all pulling over to the side of the road. Apparently he said something to Jason that peaked his interest. The man named Aung Htoo (sounds like On Two), told Jason that there is village nearby that is interesting and there are no foreigners there. Well, of course we are interested! He had his wife and child on the back of his motorbike so we thought, OK, this guy is probably ok. Aung is a very nice person who really wanted to show us around, and we took the chance to follow him. It turned out to be an incredible afternoon thanks to him and his wife. We visited both his wife's village, and his village learning about the different "industries" of the villages, meeting the people and seeing life.
Sometimes it is hard to let our guards down a little and trust people. We can be so skeptical and jaded about life, but when you decide to go for it after calculations are taken into consideration, they often turn into an unforgettable experience.
Visiting Aung's wife's village
Her village specializes in peanuts & beans - picking peanuts off the greens
Roasting peanuts
This machine shells the peanuts!
The "tops" (greens) from the peanuts are fed to the cows
Pounding the beans out of the casings (first they are sundried)
These are rocks! They naturally look like this!
House
Aung and family
Next we went to Aung's village
His village specializes in lacquerware - it starts out with strips of bamboo to make a bowl/plate/etc.
The process is very intensive consisting of lacquering, drying, lacquering again, etc before the etching can begin
This little piggy had to do #2 - yes, I took a picture
IT was amazing to see ancient Bagan by air (balloon), and the next best way to see them is to rent an e-bike (or bike). The temples, pagodas and monasteries are spread throughout Bagan and being able to go at your own time, pace and order is special. We may not have visited them all, and we might have missed the "must sees", but we visited not only those that everyone sees, but also those that were neglected and rarely visited; Ones that seem to have been forgotten or overshadowed by the bigger ones. Just going down various paths to see what we may find was part of the fun. With no destination in mind, and no concrete plan in front of us, we just went and found what we found. It was beautiful just riding around and seeing all these amazing sites around us.
We visited DaNang for a couple months and really fell in love with it. On our previous visit to Vietnam a couple years ago we visited Ho Chi Minh City and did not enjoy it all that much. It was a very interesting experience but we did not feel we needed to return there. The city was too noisy, crowded, polluted and did not feel overly safe (not really dangerous either but you kept your senses up a notch).
DaNang is an unusual place, its very laid back, safe (in our experience) and the surrounding mountain area is beautiful. It is well developed with great roads, a dragon bridge and very good internet (I think it was the best we have experienced in the 10 countries we have visited so far, even close to or better than Korea, Japan and Singapore at times).
You will find that most of the businesses are mom and pop (and youngster) operations, where some "restaurants" are basically a tin roof and some plastic chairs. In this sense its very market orientated, and I have to imagine the rate of self employment is extremely high. Many houses convert their street level livingroom into a business like a convenience store, motorcycle repair, parking or just about anything the market will support.
Two of the favorite pastimes in DaNang are drinking coffee and drinking beer. I have never seen so much beer consumed and I am Canadian! They will order a flat at a table of 4, finish it in one sitting and order more (at lunch!). The beer cans just pile up beside the table until they are done. They sell beer by the FLAT(24 cans) in restaurants! The locals seem to be able to handle their drink well, we really did not see any drunk people stumbling around or rowdiness at all.
The most unique part of the experience is how little the locals bother with you. It is like you are just another Vietnamese (even though I am 6'2" and white). Rarely are you pestered. Even at some of the local touristy markets the sell is pretty soft compared to other cites and countries. Never once was there an inkling that a cab driver would overcharge us. Restaurants do not have separate prices for foreigners. All the typical scams you see else where you just do not see here. If it does exist, it is rare. This makes for such an enjoyable experience.
Danang is friendly toward foreigners as you will see in this video where people will say HELLO! But unlike most other places this is generally not a prelude to them selling you something or scamming you, they just want to say hello! The children especially are happy to see foreigners and say hello but do not pester you. They just wave and say hello. I really miss this!
We love DaNang sooo much, what a classy place with really cool people! With investments like the Dragon Bridge, new airport and infrastructure DaNang is really set to take off!
Hai Van Pass, is unreal!
My favorite thing to do was drive my scooter (or automatic motorbike as they call them, scooter is a western term apparently)around town. Video:
There are a few different ways to see the pagodas, temples and monasteries of Bagan, walking, biking, horse and cart or my favorite....hot air balloon! Jason opted out (he prefers aircraft with steering) but I had my cousin Megan with me and we watched the sunrise over this ancient city! It was sheer magic and one of the most amazing experiences ever!
Finding the booking office was easy. Buying the tickets was not a problem but convincing myself this was going to be a good train ride was another story. Especially not after our train adventure a few years back in Vietnam. That train had the stench of 30 years worth of sweat on the mattress, cockroaches and questionable food. After that, we vowed never to do another train ride like that again. I feared worst than that in Myanmar. We saw the videos on the internet, we heard the stories, yet we committed to move forward. Jason always likes to remind me that whether good or bad, it is still an experience. And well, I always have an interesting story to tell about the Vietnam train! Let's go! ¡Vámonos!
On the day of departure, we had mentioned to a cab driver in Yangon that we were heading to Bagan by train, he laughed, and said "Very bad. Foreigners take the overnight bus, very nice". We all looked at each other and thought, "oh no". Then we were having breakfast and my cousin, Megan mentioned to the order taker we were heading out by train, and she said, "you are brave". If the locals are scared, what are we in for we thought? It can't be that bad, can it? People are still using it...
Waiting at the train station in Yangon
We were scheduled to depart at 4pm but in places like this, we knew that would not be the case. We did not leave the station until 6pm. We booked the sleeper car on the train as it would be the most comfortable. When we arrived to our assigned cabin, we were happy to see we had the place to ourselves. It was actually quite spacious with our own toilet. It wasn't the cleanest cabin, but at least it didn't stink. We stocked up on a few provisions before boarding in case the restaurant car was not something we could stomach. Little did we know that our cabin was enclosed with no access to any other car! What happens now? Before we knew it, a guy assigned to take care of us popped up asking us if we would like dinner later in the evening. We opted out of it, but ordered breakfast for 7am. After he left, we wondered how that would work considering the enclosed car we were in and the moving train?! Guess we will see!
Sign at the train station
As we settled in and tried to adjust to our surroundings, we took a deep breath to prepare for an "interesting" ride and a long one at that. From the moment the train left the Yangon station, the "experience" started. The train cars would slowly move from side to side, and as the speed picked up, there were moments where the swaying became rocking. Left to right and right to left with a force I had never felt before on a train. Then it would be interrupted by moments of "whoa", a bump. Wait, how does a train go up and down? We knew this was coming, and didn't really believe it until we felt it. Then some of the bumps were so forceful that we would actually get some air! Sitting or laying down did not matter, either way, the jarring impact that you felt on the downward motion was a little painful on the back. Our poor, poor backs.
Farmer with his ox & cart
The best part (and what made the experience) was the fact that you could open the windows to get air and take reflection free photos. It got a little dusty in the room but it was worth it. The poverty along side the train tracks as we left Yangon was pervasive. The farther we distanced ourselves from the city it disappeared and the countryside emerged as the sun was setting. No more looking outside, so we all crawled into our respective beds for the night to read. The noise on the train was loud. The normal click-clack noise of the wheels hitting the tracks was there, but also some other strange mechanical noises we could not determine. Hope the train isn't going to fall apart we thought!
Myanmar countryside
After a couple of hours, we all felt the noise was at an excessive decibel level but no one said anything. We had been hearing other strange noise and thus thought nothing of it. As the train came to a stop at one of it's many stops along the way, we could hear the voices of children outside. Boy, those voices are clear we all thought but didn't say anything. Then all of a sudden Megan looked up from her book and noticed our cabin door was open! The lock had broke and the train was starting to move again! With the train in motion (and picking up speed), Jason put his foot on the door to keep it closed and examined the situation. If left open with the way the cabin rocked it could launch us out on the way to the toilet! He called out for his Swisstool (yes, he travels with tools) and promptly began fixing the door as best he could using screws and blots from other parts of our cabin. The rust had eaten away a portion of the locking mechanism and with the aggressive movement of the train, the pressure was finally too much. Jason was able to secure the door again and we were able to sleep as soundly as we could given the noise and erratic dance of the train. Come morning, we were able to open our windows again and view the beautiful countryside. We even watched the sun rise over the landscape.
The door can lock again!
We have no idea how he did it, but come 7 am as we rolled into another stop along the way, our cabin caretaker popped in front of our window asking us if we were ready for breakfast. Seeing him caught us off guard, as we didn't believe it would happen on time. Afterwards, we continued watching the stunning landscape as we had many hours still to go...
When we arrived in Bagan, we needed a taxi to get to our hotel. We negotiated a price, then followed the driver. He brought us to his small truck where we piled into the back with our bags. We were tired, and crammed into this tiny truck bed but it was the perfect way to end the ride.
Taxi ride in the back of truck
The journey from Yangon to Bagan is over 600 km and by train it took more than 18 hours to get there. In the end it was not as good as I had hoped, but not as bad as I had feared. Worth the adventure in our opinion, but not one we will need to do again!
~ Christine
Our journey in pictures:
Breakfast
Hygiene does not take a break! Brushing teeth & spitting out the window!
Food stall at one of the stops along the way
Getting water from a well
Farmers
Beautiful flowering trees
Our train was like this at times (not our video but the experience was very similar):
