Part 1 - Bangkok & Myanmar
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Part 1 - Bangkok & Myanmar
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We arrived on bus in Bagan and the Taxis were more than Damien expected, but we found some one else going to the same area so we shared a taxi for 15,000 - 5,000 each. the drive took us to a place were we had to pay entry into the Bagan area at 25,000 Kyats - the most I'd paid for one thing so far on this trip. after that I was checking Maps.ME as we went along and the description of places was interesting as there were so many temples one was called temple 801 and there was a viewing site labelled as not great for sunset ignore. We were early so when I got to the Hotel as it was, not a hostel the check in time was 9am or a bit later so I wandered for bus ticket and bike prices and the 2nd place same prices which for Mrauk Au (pronounced funnily Miaow Oo) was a lot - around 30,000 for some reason. I then went to temple with monks with a pagoda and walked out wrong way and was back at same travel agent place asking the same questions about bikes and buses before I worked out where I was and went back the right way to see a larger temple and saw a water place where there were caterpillars all over and as this is a Buddhist country I watched my step so I didn't kill any. I went to and soon left a temple in the area and there was someone stopping me going one way charging 1,000 for a forest walk, scenic apparently he said, maybe because there aren't many trees in Myanmar, oh no wait that's Iceland there are loads of trees in Myanmar. So I walked back past the same bike and ticket stall and thought about asking the same questions again but decided that would be taking the piss. He recognised me though and seemed to think I might buy something this time. I carried on to official tourist information but there was only booklets there, some quite good including one with tourism facts about Myanmar like how many people from each Country visit here, seems there are slightly more French than English. Back into town saw Damien and others at hostel then went to check in at my hotel and have a shower, but there was someone in the room called Joe who I like to call "friendly Joe" who had to book a room as he wanted to stay and he thought this was a 2 bed dorm, but I tried to explain it was most likely that I had the whole room but maybe we could split it, but it didn't get through to him. So I showered and then left and hired a bike with free laundry and headed out around 10.30am. Bike was ok but top speed was 13kmph only, a lot of others seemed to go the same speed. Stopped at lots of small ruin temples and others that I think most people miss out as they are not that special. Got to the main area and tried to see how people climb these temples, didn't try as it didn't look easy but I saw a viewing place on the map and found somewhere on the way that could be climbed easily as it was more like a Mayan temple. Moved on to another place next that had even better views. After that I tried to get to places and got lost a lot on the sandy roads. Went to the specially built viewing place and it was 5,000 kyats to get up and they couldn't show me pictures of what the views were like so I carried on. Took roads near the airport to far side of city and visited temples going back into the city, one temple had a kid outside about 16 who asked me where I was from, a standard question, then he said he collected money and showed me all these notes from Laos, USA, Vietnam etc and said but I don't have English money. I said English money is worth a lot and he wanted to trade me for a picture or 2 but I didn't however it was a good spiel. A few temples/pagodas later I went to the river view marked on the map which was rubbish and there was a kid there who did a similar spiel but really really badly, instead of saying he collected money from around the world he just said I have no English money and then I was surrounded by young kids asking me for money so I moved on. Went to a couple of other places and I was climbing a place which was empty and another guy turned up so we chatted at the top and he was living in Stoke Newington near to where I grew up. We moved back to the larger more popular temple for sunset views and then I followed him but my bike was too slow and when I checked maps he was going the wrong way so I turned around and headed back. Returned bike and went out for dinner. Went past a few places before I found a place that looked ok and there was a western girl on her own who was called Victoria and is from central Germany. I had 2 beers and got fairly drunk just because of not eating or drinking enough water. Headed back to the hotel and I did have the room to myself. Booked a room for the next day in the same place and it was more expensive this time.
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