Part 1 - Bangkok & Myanmar
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Arrived at 4.20am and the taxi driver told me the hostel is 24 hour so would be open but when I got to Breeze Guest House it was shut so I waited outside until a bit after 6am when I could check in and got a room straight away which was good as it made it easy to shower, change etc. Had breakfast and a Norwegian man who'd tried to hitchhike to India in the 70s showed me a walking route from the lonely planet for the area. I noted down some places and when I was ready headed out along the river front which was difficult as people used the pavement for all kinds of things. Was coming to the point when I should turn and I saw a big bridge so I went to have a look at it turned out it could be walked across which is what I did. Thankfully there was some shade as it was a hot day and I made it across and decided to visit 2 of the several pagodas I could see along the hills, get a view and then go back. The map gave me a road to get to a pagoda and there was a small hindu temple, but the pagoda turned out to be different from the ones I'd seen both of which were not on the map. I continued through a small village as there was more shade. I said mingalabar (hello in Burmese) to several people who smiled, giggled or waved, and I found another religious building before I decided to try for the train station as if it run it could get me back across the bridge into the main town. I bought some water and stuck to the shade as much as possible to deal with the heat and made the 1.6km to the train station to find it completely disused. It wasn't completely unexpected as I hadn't seen any trains but I thought there might be a couple a day and the tracks next to me on the bridge had looked clean. I rested a bit at the station then headed back but taking a detour to see dome more pagodas on different hill which had better views. I stopped for lunch somewhere and they didn't speak much English but got by and I headed back to the bridge. When I'd come down the steps earlier there gad been 2 guys sleeping on the steps and they were still there but this time one of them tried to stop me and maybe make me get a taxi but I ignored him and walked the bridge listening to music but not having as much shade as in the morning. Back in town I found the bus to Hpa an is easy to get for tomorrow but leaves later than I wanted. I carried on past the markets and went to a pagoda on a hill which had great views no doubt a busy spot at sunrise and sunset. I made my way down along some roads to a nicely manicured park, through a monastery and a pagoda and then made my way to another viewing spot up some stairs which were not included in the map. I had hoped to walk through the hospital and find some way up as otherwise it was quite a way round. There were a couple of pagodas and a temple at the top and some good views so I waited for sunset. There were a few others sitting down for sunset which was not bad and afterwards I headed back down the same stairs through town to the waterfront which was nice as the sky was red. Looked for somewhere to eat but decided to do a few things at the hostel then went back out, surprisingly nobody was sitting at the breakfast area which has a nice view of the river but then maybe we're not supposed to sit there. Considering I'd slept on buses the last 2 nights I was doing ok and made over 40,000 steps for the day. In South America I had a friend who did back to back buses and was tired from it but I don't think they had the free day in the middle like I did. Rest of the evening was pretty boring as dinner was uneventful and they close the hostel doors at 10pm.
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