CassyBee's Travel Blog

Although I have settled into routine and many Myanmar occurrences are now part of my new normal, I still find myself struck with awe for this place. I love riding in taxis (when we are moving, not stuck in traffic) and just taking in the city from the window.

Selfie with my new glasses inside a taxi.

One of my favorite routines is swimming in the school's pool. Summer is in full swing here and it's hot!

One of the things I like about my school is the great community of international teachers that are here. Our students are respectful and hard-working and my job is fun everyday. One of the annual events is Fun Fair. It had a great turnout of teachers, students and parents.

View from above.

The event I helped chaperone was this giant ball. I did not get the chance to try it out. The lines rivaled Disneyland!

I volunteered for the dunking tank, which didn't actually work, so I had to "dunk" myself when a student hit the target.

A couple of the teachers are working really hard to get one of our lovely and loving local street dogs adopted.

And here's a video of the organized chaos which is a school event.

This shot is of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, from a park at one of the city's lakes. During a holiday, a friend and I decided to explore; you can walk almost the entire way around. It's technically a park, but much of the path is right next to the road, not exactly a break from city noises.

My Spanish 2 class has been begging for a field trip all year. Well, all Spanish classes beg for field trips all the time... Needless to say, there aren't many Spanish activities or places to visit in Yangon. However, we just finished an animals unit and we were beginning a food unit, so with the help of a couple of student organizers, we planned a trip to the Yangon Zoo and then Sai's Tacos, which, although not up to Dad's standards, is one of only Mexican-ish options here.

We scheduled the field trip on a professional development day; I couldn't justify missing class for these activities. The field trip was optional, but I had 10 students sign up. It was cute to see them at the zoo - many had never been or hadn't been for years and it was interesting to take in a zoo through the lens of a different culture. The safety features we have in the states (high fences, solid dividers, plenty of zoo attendants) do not exist in such full form here!

Look how close we are to the hippo! All fingers returned home safely.

The animals seemed well-cared for, but many of the zoo's visitors did not behave! We saw people giving the monkeys candies and cookies... and no zoo employees did anything about it!

Next to the monkeys.

El cocodrilo.

Los elefantes.

The elephants seemed particularly happy and I couldn't object to the visitors feeding them bananas. Humans and elephants have a long history together in Southeast Asia.

The cats did make me sad. There were a lot of tigers at the zoo, including one beautiful white tiger, and two lions. Their concrete cages did not seem like quite enough space for them.

El tigre triste.

All in all, it was a fun day - Spanish was spoken, we saw lots of animals and we ate Mexican food! For some of the kids it was their first time encountering a taco or burrito, so I had to teach them how to hold and approach these items.

Speaking of food, I continue to enjoy my Vegan Gluten Free food club. We recently updated our name to Vegans Anonymous! We get together about once a month and share food items, sometimes for brunch, sometimes for dinner. Here are a few shots from our last get-together.

These look like REAL crepes!

From top, moving clockwise, the toppings are: powdered sugar and lemon juice, maple syrup, cashew nut frosting and homemade peanut butter and banana!!!

Jessica shows off her creation - thin mints!

Do you want the recipes? I bet you do! Here you go:

Vegan Buckwheat Crepes

Vegan Cheese

Vegan GF Thin Mints

And ending with another cool Yangon video. Check it out and then come see this place for yourself!

My friends and I debated the reasons in this article (some do not care for the cuisine here), but the fact remains that Myanmar is a fascinating place and I recommend coming to see it for yourself!

What I'm listening to: new Modest Mouse (Strangers to Ourselves), new AWOLNATION (Run), new Bob Dylan (Shadows in the Night)

What I'm reading:

You + Me: A Collection of Short Stories & Poems by Leslie Li Hikida, I'm lucky enough to call this author my friend! Check out her blog and buy this collection on Amazon.

Just finished:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Blog posts I still owe you:

Bagan
Chiang Mai
Mandalay and Pwin Oo Lwin
...and probably one from my upcoming trip to Taiwan!

Once again my blog posts are dragging behind my travels, so here goes a different format to let you know some of my adventures. Holiday break here is almost 3 weeks so I decided to fly a little farther away and explore the Philippines. I was excited to experience the beaches, visit Palawan and Bohol and see how much Spanish language influence I would encounter (turns out not a lot, but there are words here and there I can understand).

10) Getting a haircut before I left... The prep for a trip can be almost as exciting as the actual traveling! I had been nervous about having a trim, but really needed one. I decided to be brave and visit our local hairdresser. She does a hairwash, neck and shoulder massage, hair cut (without scissors - she used a razor!) and blowout/straighten for about $12. She only understands a little English, but I learned the word for "a little" and tried her out. I think it turned out pretty well!

Tired, but happy with new hair and for first day of vacay during layover in Bangkok.

9) Traveling light! This was my luggage for the trip - all carry on! And my blue backpack has my laptop inside. My fan burned out just days before the trip (I had backed up onto an external hard drive the day before which eased much anxiety) so I dragged my pc around 4 Philippine islands to eventually bring it to Bangkok (stop at the end of my trip), only to be told that the part would have to be special ordered.

I was pretty stressed out about the computer situation (luckily there is a desktop in my classroom I can use) after spending an entire day running around Bangkok, visiting four different stores with no luck. In the end I got an email address for a shop here in Yangon and the manager had a store in Bangkok order the part and then took my laptop for repair during one of his weekend business trips. I don't think that this was really his responsibility, but he seemed eager to help and I decided to trust him. It turned out to be one of those strange but wonderful events that happens when you are abroad. My computer is now back and running!

I recommend traveling light!

8) Manila - I wouldn't say that Manila is a "must visit" if you go to the Philippines, but I enjoyed the old part of town. The Spanish architecture feels familiar to me and having a day here broke up my travel to Palawan (I spent an entire day to get here... Yangon - Bangkok - Kuala Lumpur - Manila).

Cathedral downtown

Park inside the old city wall

Part of the wall

7) Walking to the Beach in Palawan - I stayed at a Yoga Retreat center called Bahay Kalipay and they are located a short walk from a nearby beach. More on Bahay Kalipay below!

Flying in I couldn't believe I was here!

Dirt road leading to nearby beach

I visited for sunset

And sunrise...

It's a mangrove beach so not great for swimming, but beautiful

6) Exploring Palawan - there is a LOT to see and do on this island. I could have spent my whole trip here and been happy. I did not make it as far as El Nido, but I did see the underground river and get in some beach time. Palawan definitely merits another visit...

Beautiful Palawan

A day at this beach...

On the way to the underground river

Wildlife at the park!

Beach at mouth of the river

Christmas day at the underground river

Navigating out of the cave

5) Reading! Buying a kindle in March 2014 as a birthday present to myself was one of my best purchases for my traveling lifestyle! It is so powerful to have so many books in one small machine. With flights, some delays and lots of beach time, I checked quite a bit off of my reading list.

Za Za, emperador de Ibiza - Ray Loriga (this author's works were the focus of my thesis and he's still a favorite)
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri
Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart (Thanks for the rec, Y!)
I started The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan), but got distracted by the novels.

Not bad for 21 days, right?

4) Yoga Retreat, Bahay Kalipay - This is an amazing space and the owners have a fantastic story; they built the entire place themselves with a careful eye on design, community and sustainability.

My simple room.

One of the resident cats relaxing near the yoga space.

The "lobby"

Path through the property

Our Tai Chi classes were held here

Coconut storage house

Yoga practice space - second floor has a treehouse feel.

3) Raw Food at Bahay Kalipay - I have been gluten, dairy and egg free for years now, but my experience with a raw diet was fairly limited. Bahay Kalipay is a great place to experience raw food - the meals and snacks are prepared with local, organic ingredients and lots of care.

Buffet dinner

Cold miso soup with apple and salad

Carrot pineapple salad, curry and fresh greens

Dessert!

Ingredients for our raw vegan dessert cooking class

Treats made by guests - Banoffe Pie with Meringue, Fruit Cobbler, German Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Pudding!

A typical breakfast: loads of fresh tropical fruits, topped with coconut, chocolate sauce and a side of chocolate nut milk.

I am not planning to add the raw component to my diet full time, but I enjoyed learning more about this approach to food and tasting all the wonderful dishes at the retreat!

2) Escaping the flood in Loboc - This is a better story now that it is over and I am safe. I arrived into Bohol 24 hours late due to a delay at this small airport (an airplane had a flat tire and that stopped all flights for the rest of the day...). After spending an extra night at an airport hotel in Manila I was so happy to get off the plane and find a taxi to take me inland to Loboc, despite the rain. Since when does a downpour stop a gal from Seattle? My plan was to stay two nights, touring the interior of the island, home of the chocolate hills and tarsier monkeys. I had also booked a stand-up paddle boarding nighttime tour to see the fireflies. Sounds lovely, right? I was so excited that I even snapped some rainy photos of the inn.

For more "before" pictures, check out Stephanie Grace's website or Trip Advisor's page.

Already a swelling river when I arrived to Stephanie Grace.

Hotel in Loboc - my room is on the far right, perfect river view.

I confirmed my car and driver for the following day, settled into my room, ate a delicious fish dinner and went to bed early. Around 11pm I was woken up by noises in the hall. When they didn't stop, I got up feeling slightly annoyed that the other guests were being loud and so I wandered out to see what was up. No one else had gone to sleep - they had watched the river rise up, filling the lower level of the inn. The owners had not been worried at first, saying that the water never got too high. We found out later that they had opened a dam upstream and that Typhoon Seniang was passing right through Loboc. Water came through the entire first floor of the hotel, filling roads behind the hotel and trapping us.

Muddy water filling the reception area and dining room (view from second floor).

Floating furniture downstairs.

View from my room the after one long and rainy night.

I don't have a lot of photos of the event because I needed to conserve my iPhone battery to send updates to my sister (and it eventually died). I did take the following video, though.

The pool is to the left of the flags and the right side is the driveway.

I was never seriously concerned for my safety and I feel incredibly lucky to have been at this hotel, with its sturdy foundation, second floor rooms and caring family. The Philippine family that owns the hotel live on the second floor also and they went out of their way to take care of us (swimming to the neighboring homes to bring back mangoes and rice, diving into the dirty water to bring back bottled water from the underwater kitchen, never mentioning a worry about their own property and livelihood).

We were trapped two nights and one full day. We couldn't believe it when we walked out on the second day. The water had receded, but the village was flooded with mud, homes and businesses destroyed and the locals were beginning to attempt to clean up the mess. The government even sent in workers with food and water donations. I felt so lucky to find a car and continue on with my vacation. As a tourist, I had the luxury to leave; most people in the village did not have the same situation.

If you would like to help the family that took care of me in their effort to rebuild their business, then visit their page and make a donation.

1) Beachside accommodation in Anda - I decided to splurge on accommodation here before the typhoon incident and it was definitely a treat to escape to tranquil Anda after the flood. Not a lot of tourists make it out to this side of the island, so I'd definitely recommend it if you want to get away from the busy beaches in other parts of the Philippine islands.

I spent my time reading, catching up with family and friends (phone re-charged and wifi connection!), wandering on the beach, walking to the nearby village and swimming.