Day 6- Thank You

Today is our last day in Mandalay before we head to Inle Lake.  It’s been quite a trip these past few days, and I know it is just going to get better.

We started our day off visiting the biggest monastery in Mandalay. There are hundreds of monks that live at this monastery and the grounds are incredible. These monks survive solely on non-monetary donations. They diligently line up every morning to receive food donations from the public. Locals also donate their time to help cook lunch for the monks in a huge wok.  Dad decided to help out too! (Check him out in the back!) And yes, Eric is wearing a Longyi!

We then headed to the longest teak wood bridge in the world. We took a long walk over the water and saw such beautiful views of fishermen and farmers. Eric was excited about how many steps this was adding to his FitBit counter.

As we were heading to the next stop, we came across a special Buddhist ceremony where young boys were being converted to monks. Everyone was dressed up and had very colorful costumes- even the oxen were dressed!

Our last stop was the 45 Buddha Monastery. As you may have guessed, it’s a monastery that held 45 Buddhas. What was interesting about this monastery was that all the Buddhas were hidden inside a cavern where you had to climb in to actually see them and give worship to them. Eric felt a bit cramped.

We ended the day with another monastery with a beautiful 360 view. This monastery was built by a minister and had a lot of different art displays and stores. We got a cute painting to bring back home.

And that’s it for Mandalay!

My parents, aunts and uncle brought my cousins and I here in hopes of showing us what it was like for them growing up. But, after hearing my younger cousins comments about the trip, I am pretty sure we are going to leave with much more than an insight of their childhood.

From my last trip to Asia with my parents two years ago, I started to come to a realization about how lucky I am to have such a great family. It isn’t easy growing up in such harsh conditions, and to be honest, I am not sure if I would be able to do what they have done.

My cousins and I are so lucky to have such a hard working family that was able to bring us to a new country and succeed and give us the life that we have today. We owe them the world.

At the monastery today, my cousin Allen made a similar comment and I realized how special this family vacation really is. Not only are we getting together as one big family, the next generation will never forget how amazing our parents are. And for that, we thank you. We can’t wait to see what is up next for us on this trip! Next stop- Inle!

Day 5- Mandalay

It's been a day and a half here in Burma, and it's been so fun and interesting to learn more about the culture and history here in Mandalay.

We got to Mandalay early in the morning and met our family! Yes! Finally!

At the Mandalay airport, we met with our tour guide and driver and found out that we had our own personal 24 seater bus! So awesome.

Our first stop was Maha Myut Mune. Built in the early 1900s, the bug Buddha is currently adorned with tons of gold leaves donated and offered by visitors. The original statue was quite skinny and not even gold, but after the king allowed visitors to put gold leaves on it, the size has grow and the statues itself has even become a bit disfigured because of the abundant amount of gold!

Women aren't allowed to actually do the offering of gold, so the men of the group went for us. Eric couldn't get over the size and how cool the experience was.

Next stop was the Golden Palace, the home of the old king and queen. The palace grounds were huge and had so many different buildings and quarters. The king had 67 official wives with 4 chief wives, so you can imagine how much living space there is!

We then stopped for lunch and then headed for Shwe Nandaw Kyaung. Which means the golden monastery. This monastery is unique because it is in its original state. Many monasteries in the area have been rebuilt after being destroyed from the war bombings. However, this one kept intact but is no longer gold after years of weather. You can now see the original teak wood that the entire monastery is built out of. The carvings are incredibly detailed!

We then headed off to the biggest book in the world. Made of over 700 pages, each page has its own pagoda and has enscriptures of Buddha teachings. There were rows upon rows of white pagodas with a page inside each!

The last part of the day was the best. We went up to Mandalay Hill to watch the sunset. Since our bus was too big for the mountain hill, we transferred to two smaller (more fun) pickup trucks which we used to go up the mountain. Super fun! We felt like locals!

The view atop Mandalay Hill was gorgeous, and the sunset was a great ending to the day.

We're having such a great time with family, and we are learning a ton! I can't wait to see what Mandalay has in store for us tomorrow!

Day 4-Finally in Yangon!

We had an early start this morning and woke up at 4:30am to get ready for the Tsukiji Fish Market. We had amazing Kobe beef yesterday night, so we couldn't wait for our amazing sushi. Our hotel is only a 10 minute walk from the market, so we headed out on foot looking for a delicious breakfast.

After taking the sights in, we decided to stop at the amazing sushi place we went to exactly one year ago. It was just as we had remembered..melt in your mouth o-toro. Oh man.

After stuffing ourselves with all this fresh protein and deliciously creamy uni, we walked around hoping to burn some calories so we could go to another sushi place for one last meal before we headed out to Burma. We were hoping to go to the wholesale marketplace but found out that it was a holiday and was closed for the day... no worries- we just went and got more sushi! Eric and I were in heaven.

After being complete gluttons, off we headed back to Narita airport. What a great layover! We will be back in Japan for another layover when we finish our Burma adventure. And you can bet we will have some more sushi.

After our 8 hour flight, we finally arrived to Yangon! Our family had already started their trip and was in the city of Bagan, so we had the night to ourselves before our early morning flight to Mandalay, where we would finally be reunited.

We were greeted with smiles by our driver and travel agent and were quickly swifter off to our hotel. After meeting a family friend, we went to Feel Restaurant for a traditional Burmese dinner.

There were some things we had to avoid, so we wouldn't get sick, but the meal was good and, of course, spicy. After our dinner of spicy dried lamb, braised pork belly, tofu and vegetables and creamed corn, we quickly headed to Shwedagon Pagoda to catch a glimpse before it closed for the night. It was absolutely breathtaking....

Very similar to the pagodas in Thailand, I would say this pagoda had a lot more gold rather than the green and colorful Thai statues. I guess that's why they call Yangon the golden country. Built in 600 BC, the pagoda has a ton of different Buddhas and so many different stories and tales. There were various sections and Buddhas for the day you were born-Eric and I did a few prayers at the Thursday section since we were both born on Thursday (or so he thinks).

We did a few prayers, worships, learned some history and walked around just simply amazed at how beautiful this place was. I could have spent all night here-it was huge.

The last thing we did was fan the big Buddha. They say that if you fan the Buddha to cool and de-stress him, you yourself will be cool and de-stressed. What a relaxing ending to the night.

We went back to the hotel fairly early for our flight to Mandalay tomorrow. We want to make sure that we get rested for the Liu-Chu-Lee family! Next stop, Mandalay!

Day 1-3: We are finally in Asia!

After 2 flight cancellations, 46 hours on the phone with United, 3 departure airports, we have finally gotten out of the US. And it only took us 3 days!

Going from JAX to Orlando to Tampa might sound fun, but Eric and I were very close to having an anxiety attack from all the "excitement". Worse, we thought we were going to have to cancel our entire trip to Asia. The weather in the northeast has caused many delays and cancellations but we are very happy to finally head to our destination where our family awaits.

I could be more upset since we lost a few days to our trip, wasted time driving around north and central Florida for 3 days, I lost my business class seat upgrade and was separated from Eric and got stuck in economy in between two strange men for 14 hours, or I could just be thankful that I am safe and still get to have an amazing adventure with my family. I'll go with the latter.

We still stuck to our original plan and flew to Tokyo, Japan for our 18 hour layover. We arrived this time and DID NOT take a cab to Tokyo. We got on the Narita Express and arrived at our beautiful hotel- the Conrad Hotel. Think the modern contemporary design of The W hotels plus the sophistication and classic elegance of the St.Regis, you then have the Conrad. This was one of the more beautiful hotels we have stayed at.

We quickly took showers, changed and headed off to our Kobe beef dinner reservation. We walked 20 minutes to the town of Ginza and ate the best beef we have ever had. Ever. Real Japanese Kobe Beef. Yes, the extremely rare and regulated good stuff.

Stuffed and extremely satisfied (Eric shed a tear as he was eating his meal), we took a quick walk around the shopping capital and headed straight back for some r&r. I mean, we did just get off a 14 hr flight.

 

We are finally heading to Rangoon tomorrow! We can't wait to finally get to Burma and see my beloved fam! But for now, we are enjoying the beautiful view from our amazing hotel.

And so it begins

And so it begins. Another year, another new journey to embark.

Where are we off to this year? Burma!

For those of you who don't know where Burma is.. here's a map:

Yes, we are very excited for our trip to Myanmar. This one is going to be a special one.

For those of you who don't know, my family was born and raised in Burma, and this is my first time visiting the country to learn more about my family and their history.

We are headed with my parents, aunts and uncles and a few cousins. It's going to be epic. We'll learn a lot along the way, and definitely eat new and interesting foods. We can't wait!

We are leaving Saturday 1/4/14 and will be arriving in Burma 2 days later. (We of course had to take a long layover in Japan to enjoy some sushi first).

Not sure how much internet we'll have, but we'll sure post as much as we can.

Now all we need to do is pack and get ready for our conveniently upgraded business first class seats :)

Love,
Melric