Ye, Myanmar – November 29th – December 1st, 2016

After a typical minibus ride (by typical I mean cramped, uncomfortable, loud, and randomly dropped us off 4 km away from our actual destination), we arrived in Ye. Ye is a small town which is firmly off the beaten path for regular tourism. We made our way to one of the few hotels in town, which was a six room guesthouse owned by non-other than an expat American named David! He spent 11 years in Thailand before moving to Myanmar with his Thai wife and adopted daughter. It was a such luxury to be able to easily communicate with someone that lives locally.

Once settled into the guesthouse, we started wandering the small town. We visited a couple of pagodas, the picturesque lake in the center of town (which apparently used to be a moat), and the market. Since we are celebrities, we couldn’t be too surprised when we acquired a stalker. As a typical stalker is, he was very creepy. He followed us for almost an hour, attempting to be sneaky by passing where we turned and waiting for us to turn again. Problem was that he was terrible at stalking and it was very obvious that we were being followed. After not being able to shake him, we got up the nerve to directly confront him. Since we don’t speak Burmese, it’s doubtful that he understood, although one may think that if your stalkee calls you out, you might stop. Alas, he did not, and we eventually had to corner him inside a store and tell the locals he was following us (which they did not understand either). We then ducked into a café ourselves and lost him for good. 

Back at the guesthouse, and stalker free, we enjoyed hanging out with the owner’s eight year old daughter, Emma. She was quite the character and had the second best English language skills in town (after her Dad of course). We eventually ventured out for dinner and found some delicious local Thai food that ended up giving me a bit of an upset stomach. Worried the stomach problems would worsen (which they didn’t, WIN!), I stayed in while Andy went with David to his free English class. There were about 20 teenagers and adults eagerly learning English, and Andy had a great experience participating in the class with the locals.

On our only full day in Ye, we rented motorbikes from the guesthouse and toured the surrounding areas. Unlike Dawei, this time we were sure to bite off the appropriate amount. We went to Banana Mountain where the highlight was a nine story four-faced Buddha temple/building. We both had to borrow longyis (the traditional Myanmar skirt wrap) from the nuns at the entrance before ascending the stairs to a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside. After, we went to what the online travel guide said was a popular beach. It turned out to be more of an abandoned littered sand patch surrounded by rocks and a few restaurants (maybe it livens up in the evenings). Regardless, we went into one of the restaurants for a cold drink and enjoyed the music of a couple of locals that were practicing nearby. Next, we visited yet another Buddhist site where 500 monk statutes (literally, there were 500) were erected in one glorious line leading to a pagoda on the top of a hill. It was pretty spectacular!

Buddhist temple / pagoda mania. 

Buddhist temple / pagoda mania. Doesn't Andy look good in a skirt?

Around Ye and the "popular" beach area. Serious bonus points for anyone that can tell us what animal is pictured in the bottom right. We have no idea what it is, but it seemed to be the monastery's pet. 

500 Monks. For accuracy's sake, the top left photo is actually of Buddha statues at a nearby site. 

When we returned to Ye we were reunited with an amazing Scottish couple that we had met in Dawei a few days earlier. Together, we went to a local bar for drinks and dinner. Without a menu we could read, we winged it and ended up having a great time! After about 3-4 hours of surprisingly delicious cocktails, beer, fresh fish, chicken, vegetables, and great company, we were shocked when the bill arrived and turned out to be less than $25. Did I mention we consumed about 20 drinks in total?!  

Top left: David's free English class, top right: local musicians at the beach restaurant, bottom left: Andy and Craig trying Myanmar local whisky, bottom right: Andy demonstrating that we are way too tall for most everything in Myanmar (including stairwells). 

Except for the stalker, we really liked Ye and wish we could have spent another day there. Unfortunately, because the tourist infrastructure in Myanmar is still developing, we had been forced to book hotels in advance and a reservation in Yangon was waiting for us the next day. We boarded yet another bus early the next morning. At least our bellies were full. David had gotten up early and arranged for some pepyoke nanbya to be dropped off as part of our breakfast. Pepyoke nanbya, a traditional Myanmar dish created from Indian influence, is naan with a chickpea onion mixture inside – YUM!