During our busride to Mandalay I read some more about Myanmar and it's history. As Jihane already mentionned Myanmar was named Burma for a very long time and only since 2010 Myanmar is officially called Republic of the Union of Myanmar. But a lot of countries such as the United States do not accept this name and still call the country Burma. Since 2005 the capital of Myanmar is Naypidaw. The preceding capital was Rangoon, this is the largest city in Myanmar. Naypidaw, the capital, was build in view of becoming the capital. Again the United States and also Europe don't accept this change and still refer to Rangoon as the capital of Burma (Myanmar).

I also found out that 68% of the population is part of the ethnic group Bamar. This ethnic group lives near the Irrawaddy river valley and they speak the Burmese language, which is the most important and official language in Myanmar. The Bamar were originated from East Asia (China) and immigrated to the river valley 1200-1500 years ago. They usually have black hair and dark coloured skin.

Myanmar has a rough political history. Before the Second World War Myanmar was colonized by Britain. During the Second World War Japan invaded and destroyed large parts of Myanmar. Japan was exiled by the allied.

After the Second World War the inhabitants of Burma wanted their independence with Aung San as their leader. In 1947 Aung San was killed and one-year later Burma was independed as the 'Union of Burma'. But this union under management of President U Nu was very instable due to ethnical, national and political problems. Especially the other ethnical groups who wanted their part in ruling the country was the largest issue.

Since 1962 the country was ruled by a closed military junta under the management of General U Ne Win. A one party system in which the Burma Socialist Programme Party had all the political and governmental power. The economy was nationalised and independent coverage was illegal. The economical situation of the country was getting worst and this leaded to protest in 1988. Ne Win stepped down and the 'State Law and Order Restoration Council' leaded by Saw Maung took over. Under his authority many students and civilians were killed. In 1989 the name of the country changed again, this time into 'Union of Myanmar'.

In 1990 there were elections for the first time, these elections were won by the ‘National League for Democracy’ under management of Aung San Suu Kyi. She's the daughter of Aung San. These elections were never recognized and everyone from this 'National League for Democracy' was taken into prison. Also Aung San Suu Kyi who has lived under periods of house arrest since 2010. In 1991 she won the Nobel Peace Price.

In 1992 General Than Shwe became the president. A road to democracy was announced. The constitution was a goal but this was only created in 2008. This is described as a step into democracy but in fact still 25% of the seats of the parliament are reserved for the army...

In 2010 there were elections and in 2011 the military junta of Myanmar was separated. The power was handed down to President Thein Sein and the community.

The new constitution and the elections have changed a lot in Myanmar. The military still has a lot of power but there is a beginning in the democratically future of Myanmar.

When we arrived in Mandalay I knew so much more about this beautiful but pained country. Tomorrow we will discover Mandalay after getting some sleep.

Sweet dreams

Amina

Source: https://www.burmacentrum.nl/index.php

Article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483879/Key-events-Myanmars-political-history.html

Goooooood morning! That was the first thing I said when I woke up because of the sun that was shining on my face. What a way to start the day.

Each of us knew that it was going to be a long and heavy day. We were going to climb the Mandalay hill. One of the touristic attractions of Mandalay. The hill is 790 ft high and counts 1730 steps. From the top of the hill there’s a view over the entire city and the citadel.

So we filled our tummies and took the bus to the hill, where there were many tourists. We first took some pictures at the foot of the hill, known as the Chinthe hnakaung atet. (You can find a picture below).

A local told us that the climb wasn’t too heavy and that there were many stops along the way. One of the stops was the hermit U Khanti’s dazaung. So we started walking and enjoyed the beautiful view around us. On our way to the top we saw monuments like “Shweyattaw” and “Sanda Muhki”. Both were impressive but I had the feeling this was not it. I wanted more.

After one hour and a half we reached the top and enjoyed the view. Jiji (also known as Jihane) had 2 bottles of wine, cups, and some food with her. It was something totally new, picnicking on this hill, with this great view. I guess this is what they call a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The feeling was immeasurable. Friends, fun, sun, freedom, …  I had all the things I ever wanted to have.

After a refreshing moment we went back down to visit Mandalay Palace which was constructed between 1857 and 1859. Because of time issues we only visited the Clock Tower, Hluttaw, Royal Mint and the Watch tower. Spanish tourists told us those were the ones that were the most worth our time.

The clock Tower was really beautiful and a guide told us that the time was marked by a water-clock. Which was –in my opinion- a genius idea.

Hluttaw was like  watching a movie. On this trip I have seen a lot of beautiful, surreal things but this was really unreal. It was decorated with figures and flowers.

The royal Mint was not that spectacular but the Watch tower was in my eyes an architectural masterpiece. Certainly because it was built in 1885.

Today tourist’s day was truly amazing and I won’t forget about the things I saw and the feelings I experienced. I just skyped with my friends at home and I’m pretty sure they’ll visit the same we did!

Now I’m going to grab some dinner with everyone, and I think I will be in bed early.

See you in a week!

Julie

Photos:

Charlotte at Mandalay Palace.

Eline in front of Mandalay Hill.

Amina in front of the Watch tower.

Eline, Julie and Jihane at the foot of the hill.

Kimberly at the bar yesterday night.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay_Hill

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleis_van_Mandalay

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinthes_guarding_Mandalay_Hill.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay_Palace

https://www.orientalarchitecture.com/myanmar/mandalay/mandalayhill.php

https://www.legalnomads.com/2010/09/photography-climbing-mandalay-hill.html

Yesterday was a very boring day, that’s why I didn’t give you guys and update!

We decided that we saw enough in Myanmar and that it was time to leave!
At one of the parties we went during our trip, Amina made a new friend! And we are lucky because Julio has his own private jet! Thanks to Amina we had the luxury to travel with just the six of us and Julio of course!

We decided to fly to Nepal, Kathmandu. We were really excited to fly in a private jet so we were totally ready for it!
We had to leave very early because it was a long flight but we had everything we needed!
We all had the time to catch up some sleep so today we are going to hit Kathmandu!

Julio travels a lot between Mandalay and Kathmandu so he is our guide for today! (Amina is very happy with that!)

We first took a closer look at the most important Hindu temple Pashupatinath.
It is situated next to the Holy Bagmati River, were a lot of tourists and locals are looking at the Pashupatinath.
We were all a bit stunned when we saw what they were looking at.
There were some cremations from people and we could all see it. In Belgium, a funeral is something between family and friends but here in Kathmandu it is the most normal case that tourists pay to see a cremation.

We were able to follow the whole process but we all had mixed feelings while watching!

Julio told us that Kathmandu was very well known for all their temples and cultural activities so to end our day we went to Kathmandu Durbar Square.
The old city Centre is dated the 17^th century.
It was really amazing a place with so much ancient buildings at once!
The one I preferred the most was the Royal Palace. The king doesn’t live here anymore because of an earthquake in 1934 and the building was damaged. But still in my opinion it is 
A-MA-ZING.

In the early evening we could check in in our hotel, not exactly a hotel but a guesthouse “Kathmandu Guesthouse”. Julio recommended this guesthouse and it was even better than we expected.

When we walked in it was like paradise. Just what we needed after our long flight of yesterday!

We’re going to enjoy the guesthouse with a cocktail!

Cheers!

Kimberly

The inside of the private jet

Pashupatinath

Kathmandu Durbar Square

Our guesthouse 

Sources :

https://www.babakoto.eu/Articles/Nepal/Pashupatinath/Pashupatinath-Dutch.htm

https://www.nepaltours.be/pages/katmandu_nl.htm

https://www.ktmgh.com/

Bhutan

Because we have only left 2 weeks before we’re going home, we decided to move on a bid because there are a lot more things to see.

We stayed another 2 days in Nepal to sail away the Koshi. At night we slept in a booth at the bank of the river, so that’s why we had no internet to post something of our two days.

Next on our trip was Bhutan, the country of the dragon. The country is situated between China and India, it’s really small and that’s why many people doesn’t know the country.  We arrived in the morning and had the whole day to visit the two most important oddities:

1. Taktshang
2. Kuje Lhakhang

I was most impressed by/in the Temple of Taktshang. It’s not only one temple but It’s a whole complex, which consist of 7 other temples. The whole complex is established on the edge of a mountain and hang 700 metres above the ground.

The only way to go to the temples was by foot or on a donkey. Of course adventurous as we are we went on a donkey, it was a trip of an hour, but had a lot of fun. Our guide even had to say we had to be more quiet.

After the trip we decided to search for a hotel. Although there are many expensive hotels, we found a nice and cheap hotel: Gangtey Palace Hotel. Later that night we were sitting on the bar of our hotel when we heard a couple speaking English. They came from our country, really accidental but we had a nice night together because they leave tomorrow. Party all night long!

Eline 

For our trip to India we decided to go on a group trip with a local guide since it is the best way to see the most of northern India.

Day 1

We took the plane and arrive in Delhi where we were transferred to our hotel. Our local guide was waiting for us in the arrival hall. He was waving his cardboard like a mad man when he saw our group. His name was Apu.

On the way to our hotel he skimmed through our agenda and gave us an overview of our trip.

We were staying at the Hotel Florence, situated in the middle of the city which was ideal!

Day 2

Around breakfast time we had a short briefing to outline our trip and also cover many aspects of travelling in India. Apparently we were going to take a short flight and head to Varanasi, also known as Benares, the oldest and the holiest of all pilgrim spiritual places of India and a high venerated city of Hinduism.

Few of us got scared to jump on the plane but thinking about what we were about to see made all theirs fears wash away.

So we got on the plane and we were enjoying the splendid view of the sacred Ganges River and the magnificent Himalaya which was covered in snow.

Around the afternoon we arrived in Varanasi and we checked into our hotel to freshen up a bit. Our local guide then took us to visit the ruins of the monasteries of Sarnath, the plaace where Buddha preached his first sermon. We saw numerous pilgrims wandering around this place, you could clearly notice that this is a holy spot. Buddhists from all around the world come to this place of pilgrimage to catch a glimpse of the monasteries.

We also saw a what is called a “Bodhi tree”. Apu told us that this is a particular type of tree where Buddha did some of his preaching.

Day 3

After a long night sleep we got up before dawn and made our way down to the river.

Apu had settled us a boat ride, he told us that at sunrise we would see a lot of pilgrim perform rituals along the river. So on the boat on the Ganges we saw many Buddhists perform Hindu rituals along the banks of the river. They were praying and washing themselves with the water. Apparently, this is also the place where they cremate their dead. Apu also took us through the Old city, a really ancient city which is famous for its peculiar lifestyle. We enjoyed the rest of the day to explore this spiritual place before catching an overnight train to Agra of 13 hours.

Day 4

After our long trip overnight with the train we finally arrived in the city of Agra! We were so thrilled to finally see the Taj Mahal.

Apu told us that the Taj Mahal has a beautiful love story behind it.

It was built by the Shah Jahan (do you notice the similarity with my name?) who was madly in love with his wife. Unfortunately, after giving birth to his 14^th child, his wife died and this is when he decided to build her the most beautiful tomb. It took over 20.000 people to make this possible in just about 17 years. The materials were brought from all over India with marble from Rajasthan transported by over 1000 elephants.

When you arrive at Agra, you think that you’ll the Taj Mahal at first sight, but that isn’t true. It’s almost hidden. We arrive at the city and you first have to pass this enormous door before seeing the majestuous monument .

No picture on the internet could compete with the feeling you get when you see the Taj Mahal standing before you.

We had the rest of the afternoon off to visit other monuments and small flea markets.

Greets
Jihane




sources: wikipedia.com

picture

After exploring the beautiful India we headed to Pakistan with the Samjhauta Express. We arrived in Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan. Lahore seems to be one of the oldest cities in the world and walls surround it.

While we were on the train I read some interesting facts about the habits here. Since we are in Pakistan we have to take into account that we cover our bodies so we have to wear long sleeves and skirts. When you meet someone in Pakistan, wait until this persons reaches his or hers hand because in Pakistan people who don't now each other can't touch. Even Pakistan women will not talk to us because they aren't allowed to talk to strangers. When you are invited in somebodies house you have to taste the food that they present, if you reject they will see this as an insult. When you're in a conversation don't rush through it but take it slowly. When you eat and you eat everything that's on your plate they will see this as a sign that you want more to eat. So if you’re finished, leave a little bit food on your plate, but not too much otherwise they will this as an insult. Also praise the food!

When we arrived with the train we walked into this beautiful historical city Lahore through the Delhi gate. It is named that way because the gate faces into the direction of Delhi. Once we entered the city walls we saw the inner city with breath taking palaces. We went to visit the Lahore Fort, it's on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Next visit was the Badshahi Mosque, this was for a long time the largest mosque in the world. We covered our heads to enter this marvellous building.

Another site that we really wanted to visit was Shalimar Gardens. There are 410 fountains in these gardens! The construction of these gardens started in 1637 and they are also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We strolled around in this beautiful landscape.

The second city we wanted to visit in Pakistan was of course the capital Islamabad. During our ride to Islamabad we made a stop in Katas for the Katas Raj Temple. This historical temple made us al quite with his historical beauty. Some people were even swimming in the water!

Arrived in Islamabad we discovered the city. But soon we were exhausted from the last days and decided to have a quiet night. We have realised that our trip is almost over... And there's still so much to see and do...

Good night

Amina

Katas Raj Temple

Sources: Wikitravel.org

7 am: ‘ring ring’ said our alarm clocks and we came up with a brilliant idea. Due to lack of time we thought it would be a good idea to pack our bags and leave Pakistan behind us to go on to the next stop on “our road journal”; Afghanistan.

In Pakistan we took a direct airline to Kabul, which is the capital of Afghanistan. Kabul has 30,419,928 inhabitants and their official language is Pashto and Dari (=Persian).

We had only arrived at the airport for five minutes and it was clear that we would see the military everywhere. At the airport we were transferred to the Pamir Mountains.

The peak of these mountains is called Ismail Samani Peak and these mountains are 7,495m high. A guide wanted to show us the most beautiful places in this area and the trip took about 2 days. On our way we slept in a cabin and in a shepherd’s shed. We saw some beautiful landscapes, but one thing is sure, the walking trip was the most precarious I had done in my life. And as you should know, I’m in a girl scouting movement, we walk a lot. I have been in the Flemish Ardennes, Italy, Corse and many more.

At night we were very tired so we slept in the bus on our way back to the hotel in Kabul. The hotel was named Kabul Serena Hotel and it had a swimming pool.

Today (Wednesday morning), we woke up at about 7 am and we wanted to visit the capital of Afghanistan. We left early and visited the National Museum of Afghanistan.

The National Museum of Afghanistan was established in 1922. The building outside is not really attractive.  But we thought, the only thing that matters is the inside. So we entered and walked around. They had told us the collection had been the most important of Central Asia. There are over 100,000 items that are dated back over several millennia. We saw many treasures of ivory. For example antiquities from Kushan. There were also many archaeological materials such as painted frescos from Dilberjin, fragments of architecture, sculpture, metal objects and coins who were rescued from the French excavations at Ai-Khanoum and Surkh Kotal.

After the tour in the National Museum of Afghanistan we didn’t have any energy left to walk around in the city so we went back to our hotel where there was a pool. We swam until dinner.

After dinner we had a few drinks and left for bed.

Now everyone is asleep so  I think I really should go to bed now as well.

Sweet dreams.

Julie

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Afghanistan

Photos:

Charlotte, Kimberly and Amina before the Pamir mountains.

Eline, Julie and Jihane before the pool at the hotel in Kabul.

Today I woke up very early so I decided to go for a swim. I enjoyed it so much last night that this was the first thing I wanted to do again and I have to stay healthy of course!

I ran into Eline this morning and together we went to the pool. When we were ready the others were already waiting for us to eat some breakfast.

After breakfast we hit the city again because yesterday we didn’t have a lot of time!

Before our trip I read a book about the history of Afghanistan.  There was one building that was realy fascinating “Bala Hissar”, so now that we’re here I really wanted to see this.

Bala hissar is the first bastion built in the 5^th century. It was the “headquarter” of the lords of Afghanistan. A lot of episodes found place in this bastion, the first Afghanis/English war were situated here. But after the second war, the bastion was destroyed by a British army.

When I looked at the bastion I could really feel how it was back in the days. You can see that there are some details that show you the bastion is from the 5^th century.

We liked it a lot in Kabul but we decided that it was time to go. You can read a lot of bad stories in the newspapers, on the internet, television, … And we’ve also noticed that this is not an ideal place to stay longer. It was a beautiful city but due to the bombardments 65% of the old center and 40% of the churches and houses were destroyed.
It is safer for us as a tourist to go to another place and we still have a long way to go!

I will always remember Kabul because of its big diversity the beauty of the buildings but also the way we could face how bad war is in this country.

We’re now about to take a nap at our hotel and after that we will take the bus to Iran!

Time to sleep!

We’re ready to hit Iran. We’ll meet again in Iran!

Kimberly

Sources :

https://petermarkusopmissieinafghanistan.blogspot.be/2012/02/bala-hissar.html

https://reizen.idealo.nl/land/Afghanistan-AF/

WOW!

That was one of the longest bus trips of my life! I was very lucky that I took my uno cards with me when I packed my bad! I think we played for at least 10 times and then we started to play some search games!” I see I see what no one else sees and it’s green”  and yes it was a tree in Iran! We were arrived.

We didn’t went immediately to the capital city and we went to shiraz. Shiraz is the 5^th biggest capital city of Iran.

We first took a closer look at the city. The place where the bus stopped gave us an amazing overview of the city. We all agreed to come back this evening to look again and enjoy this view by night!

But now time to explore this new city!
We first visited the tomb of Saadi. I must admit when I heard the word tomb it made me think it was like a big building in the middle of nowhere a bit like Egypt.
But the tomb was nothing of what I expected, it was even better! Every piece of the building was very accurately built!
There was a fountain with ceramic tiles that I would love to have in my yard, I asked if I could borrow it but that wasn’t possible (the people looked very astonished when I asked it because they didn’t understand it was just a joke) this made us all laugh harder. Well I could give it a try!

After our visit to the tomb we went to our hotel : Shiraz International Parseh Hotel.

We had a drink at the bar and ate something to fill our stomach and we were ready to take a look at the same place we stood this morning. I have to admit it was even better than this morning. All those lights, just like stars! Thanks to Julie we were able to stay and relax at this place because she had the idea to buy some wine and snacks this afternoon at the store.
We just sat there and talked a bit, enjoying our wine!

We didn’t do a lot this evening but having a drink with my girls is all I need to end this day with a smile on my face!

This was it for today!

Bye Bye

Kimberly

Shiraz by day

Shiraz by night

Tomb of Saadi

I want this!!!!

We woke up at 8 o’clock, although it was really hard, because we’d drunk a bit too much of the lovely wine we’d bought the day before. We had to take advantages of the weather because the day we’re going home, is almost there. We had planned to go to the beach of Rahst but first we wanted to see the capital city of Iran, Tehran.

We are women and we all like to shop. So took a bus to the great Bazaar of Tehran. The market is almost 10 km  long and they had a lot of different booths. Obviously we were searching for souvenirs but we also had to buy food.

When we were buying the food we need, we saw behind us a booth with a man who was demonstrating some dangerous tricks with animals like snakes, spider, scorpions. Because we were so fascinated, we forgot to look at the hour. It was almost 1 o’clock.

We moved on to see the rest of the market. At 2 o’clock we searched for a bus, which had to bring us to the beach of Rahst. We bathed for about 3 hours until I was so burnt I couldn’t hold the pain. Back in Tehran we went back to our hotel, where we stayed the previous night. We took dinner and we dressed because we wanted to reveal the nightlife of Tehran.

At 10 o’clock everybody was ready to go, except me, because I had to much pain to go out. I went to sleep. No all the ladies are sitting on my bed, telling me all the stories of last night, but I won’t tell you ;)!

Byeeee!

Eline