Morning arrival at Mae Sot around 5.30 and only one person was going across the border and she was going to Hpa An. So we took a tuk tuk to the border and as I had no money left she had to pay. Then we had to walk in the rain across the friendship bridge and through customs and she told me how they drive on the right but have the steering wheel on right (the wrong side), we talked about this for a while as I thought they must have changed recently but it turns out they changed in the 70's and its just that they buy 2nd hand cars from Japan. We walked into town on the other side and stopped for breakfast in a place which had WiFi which turned out to be a rarity for the town. I went to a few bus places and none recognised the invoice I had so eventually I bought a new ticket to Yangon. I guess I learnt not to trust that things will just work out in the way I'm used to and I need to ask more questions next time. Bus was ok but not as good as the Thai one and I reset to Myanmar time which is 30 minutes behind Thailand. Stopped for lunch and I sat down and was given the worst dish I had ever seen if pretty much chicken bones although the sauce was quite nice on the rice, I also had to pay for the meal.
The bus was quiet to Hpa An and then an English woman who lives in Germany called Vanessa got on so I went to ask her a couple of questions and we ended up sitting together to Yangon and I'd like to thank her for her travel tips and company. Passed lots of gold temple structures on the way otherwise just lots of green trees fields and rivers. Arrived in Yangon early and the coach provided a shuttle bus to the railway station in town so I decided to catch the train a couple of stops, but it turned out the next one was 30 minutes away so I went outside and got a taxi to the hostel instead. Check in at the hostel was really slow, but they did upgrade me to a 4 bed dorm with no one else there which was good, there was no common room and I decided to have a shower and found that I had left my flip flops back at the previous hostel. So I went out and headed to what looked like a market on the map, but they only had food really so I wandered a bit to see the river and just in that short walk I was offered a taxi several times so it won't be hard finding taxis here all you need is just to walk around looking like a tourist. The hostel didn't really have much common space so I went to bed soon after as it was pretty late. Yesterdays question was what was the green button - below is the instructions showing that it was a massage on and off button, I used it and it was not that comfortable.
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Got to the ticket window which was upstairs so I had to carry my heavy suitcase up a broken escalator but got lucky someone served me and I got a first class ticket. Then made my way to the platform but the suitcase wheels were dragging a bit so might need looking at or the suitcase may not last too long on this trip. The train was there so I found my sleep and having had a few beers I was ready to try to sleep (Hsipaw by the way is pronounced see paw). A Myanmar woman sat next to me but later moved as the train was half empty until 9am when we made it to Pyin oo lin where loads of people got on and my seat companion moved back to her window seat. The train stayed there for a while so I got up to see what was on offer and found some fried food for jyst 100 kyats and a bag of fruit for 500 so I had my breakfast sorted. I also used the foreigners toilet which was free and the train eventually left at around 10am. I tried to sleep and maybe the woman next to me noticed I wasn't doing too well it or maybe I leaned on her as she offered me her window seat which wd a bit easier to sleep on but did mean I got more leaves over me as the train would trim them as it went past bushes. The train was generally a bit slow and rickety and we had not made too much distance by lunch time and the woman next to me had somehow found some noodles to eat in a plastic container. It is quite interesting how people manage to sell food on the street for people to eat, often they cut the item up into a bag and then provide toothpicks. I had a rice lunch at the next stop and gave the woman her seat back which I think she was happy about as soon after we came to the main attraction of the train ride a big bridge over a gorge with some spectacular views but probably not worth the journey. Everyone got out to take lots of photos as the train stopped before the bridge and there were lots more photos afterwards. After that the train started emptying out at train stops as some people may have been taking taxis all the way back to their hotel. I looked for available seats to move to but some people had managed to turn the chairs round and put their feet up, but I did find somr space in 2nd class which was a pretty solid wooden bench instead of my soft reclining chair but it was ok and later I got my own 2 chairs and soon after we arrived in Hsipaw. The hostel I'd booked wasn't too far from the station so I started walking and lots of people wanted to know where I was going probably to get me a taxi ride but it turned out the hostel picked up guests for free so I got a lift and checked in ok before seeing if I could book a tour. Turned out they had nobody doing a 1 day tour the next day so I went for dinner and found a place showing champions league highlights. After I headed back to the hostel but it was a bit quiet so I had an early night to catch up on some sleep. Photos below. 1=bridge, 2=2nd or lower class wooden seats on train So I'd talked to some people about the Grand palace and it wasn't so recommended but the bridge was do I decided to walk there. Had breakfast and packed my things away and had a little rest as it was going to be a long day. I left around 10am with trainers so I didn't get blisters and shorts for the heat but I had the thin trousers I'd bought in Bagan so I could visit temples. Walked the block and bought a sim card for 1500 with a 3000 top up and I got 500mb data which helps with travelling. Kept walking and sweating in the heat and saw a theatre on the map called moustache brothers where they do daily shows in English. Kept going and made it to some pagodas and temples including a big popular one which had a golden buddha people wanted to touch. They only let men in and I had to stow my bag in a locker before I could get in but didn't stay long. There were several other religious places all there so I walked around takung pictures and cooling off a bit before carrying on the journey. Roads were not too bad for walkibg but the traffic fumes can be a bit much so I got a mask to wear. Not too much to see on the route, a few small pagodas and street stalls but it got much busier near the bridge so I grabbed a drink and visited a larger temple there which had lots of school children doing there homework a lot of which seemed to be written in English. Had a cheap omelet from a street seller and took it onto the wooden bridge which was still fairly busy even though I was at the quiet end in the early afternoon but most people were from Myanmar. The bridge wasn't as long as I expected but it did curve and you could also get off and walk around the island in the middle to get good photos. The lake was beautiful and picturesque with people fishing in it. A bit further and there was a lot of noise as a pack (raft apparently is the word) of ducks swarmed across the lake, I must have taken so many pictures and videos of them as I can't remember seeing so many of them in a group before. Further along and there were more western tourists and boats, buses and stalls. One girl was taking a selfie while wearing high heel sandles and a dress. I went round a few places like the temple and then headed back a slightly different route which was easier as it was more shaded and later went dark. The walk was in the dark though and I made it to the train station at 6pm which despite having a 4am train was not selling tickets and I'd have to cone back at 3am to get my ticket. Went back to the hostel and had some food and drinks on the roof with Amy who was doing more on her mural, a Canadian girl who had been ill and a guy called Dan (Daniel) who had just arrived and was jet lagged. We listened to music, chatted and messed around a bit like English people do until 2.30 when I left to get my train ticket.
Was up for breakfast and Dwan said she was going to Mingun on the ferry which leaves at 9am. It looked ok so I decided to go and got my stuff together and then walked to where the boat is and got there just in time, then they were really slow and disorganised so our boat left late.
Was talking to some other girls Tina from travelzoo and her friend Sonia as well as Dwan and an older Italian lady who's husband was off working. We got to Mingun after a nice ferry ride and the ferry agreed to pick us up later than normal so we all went in a group of 4 and had to pay entrance fee to the area, only for foreigners of course. We went to the big temple they have there which was never completed due to earthquake damage back in the 70's. Turns out there was more damage from the August earthquake so now we could not climb on top. Then we went to the white pagoda which was pretty nice although not nice enough to visit again which was what the Italian lady said she was here for. other place bell and old people's hone. Back on boat the Italian lady said she had actually gone the other way to a village and not even paid the entry fee. When we got back Sonia and Tina were taking a taxi to Mandalay hill so I joined them there to split the cost. I walked up ok but it was a fairly long way while others can use the escalator or elevator up. there was also a fee at the top but it was all shiny gold so looked good and there were also lots of temples and pagodas on the way as well, some good others not so good. I got lost going down but found a different route with some nice places which was lucky. At the bottom I went round some other temples and pagodas there and as they were all close together I just carried on walking and managed to get inside the old wooden monastry place I'd heard about which frankly wasn't that special but it was old. I walked on in the direction of the hostel to the Grand palace but it was shut as it was after 5pm so went back to the hostel and had some food and drinks chatting to a Canadian called Radhika and a Chilean doctor called Valentina. Had some interesting conversations as Radhika worked as a psychologist looking after sex cases. Not many people stayed up so chatted to Sam from Tel Aviv again. Up just after 5am and got my stuff together then left to catch the sunrise I was a little ahead as it was about 5.25 and sunrise was 6.14 and I had 4km to run as I wanted some exercise after yesterdays electric biking. Headed out through town and turned towards my chosen temple, the road was good if a bit dark in places but I mainly used my head torch so that cars and bikes could see me. Seemed a lot of traffic and after about 7 minutes I decided to check how far I'd gone and the map showed I was going the wrong way towards the airport. So I turned around and got back to the junction at about 5.45 so now I had a few km to do in 30 mins but the heat was hitting me and I had already walked a bit. Kept going and of course if you read yesterday's blog you won't be surprised to hear that there was mud which slowed me done as I couldn't run through it. Checked the the map and I had 3.2km to go so maybe I had misjudged how far it was and there was only 20 minutes I was already tired and it was hot so this was going to be tough. Kept going past more mud and the sky was bright so I could see which is not what you want when you are chasing the dawn, walked a bit more and checked the map and I was still going the right way but the map was still showing 3.2km which meant it didn't update so it was probably only 1km but only 15 minutes to go and soon after I got my first glimpse of the pagoda and then soon after I could see how many people were in it and it looked like maybe there was no space so I'd have to ask people to move down. Got there about 5 minutes early and there was loads of motorbikes parked in front, but when I got up the monument it was ok and I found some energy to haul myself up to the higher part and walk round for a better view. Sunrise was a bit disappointing overall but it was nice seeing the hot air balloons and having them in pictures. Got back down and walked back stopping to climb another temple for a different view. Back in town I bought a few things like some Myanmar green thin trousers with pictures of elephants on and then decided not to rush for the 9.30 bus instead I'd relax and get the midday one which was at 1pm so I went to see a laquerwork place which was really expensive.
Packed at hotel and got picked up 12.20, a bit later than they said and in small pickup truck. There was a Vietnamese girl called Dwan who wondered if it might take us all the way, thankfully not and we had a small minibus, not as comfortable as the coaches but faster and we made good time stopping for a break at 2.20 where everyone hot off to stretch legs and go to the ok offices toilet. I walked past a few other buses and saw a small toddler who saw me and started crying so that proves I do have a face to make babies cry. Her Mum thought it was quite funny, as the toddler was shouting something between crying maybe calling me a monster or something. Bus driver continued to drive fast but at least it was a new vehicle and the steering wheel was on the right (meaning left) side. We soon stopped to pick up some Myanmar people who squeezed in the back with their items (no livestock thankfully). Later we stopped again and most got off to be greeted by a toddler who at least didn't cry when he saw me. Arrived fairly late and I looked on maps.me and the hostel didn't look far and started walking when the driver said they had a pickup to take us so we waited then got on and got dropped off last so maybe we could have walked there quicker but it turns out it was a fair distance as again some of the blocks are massive. Hostel was ok, but the food was really overpriced, I did my usual things and then had a look around and went to the rooftop which was empty apart from one girl from England, she was eating cheese biscuits as she missed cheese, turns out its really expensive and crap in this part of the world. Went back down and found a shop nearby at the English girls recommendation and had a pot noodle and a steamed chicken dumpling, I also grabbed a beer for later. Back at the hostel there were a few people around and I ordered 2 for price of one cocktails, but I didn't like their selection so they agreed to make a screwdriver which the bartender had never made before even though its just Vodka and orange. I found a few people to talk to but most went to bed pretty early until it was just me and an Israeli guy called Sam who couldn't go to Malaysia or Indonesia as they don't recognise his country. We called it a night soon after. Cockrell woke me up, so I went out and got water and had breakfast and hotel staff told me my booking this time was through booking com which would be why I had to pay more and to the hotel. The room was pretty sweet though with 2 beds a TV which did show some movies and my own bathroom for a reasonable price. Went and got a bike and did laundry again, its a great place 4,000 for the bike rental and laundry called little travel something . Found that the reason I had no speed was I didn't change gear, doh. Got cash out to pay for the room and the receipt said they charged me a 5000 fee which is a lot but still less than Thailand, I had planned to take money out here and change in Thailand to save the fees but I won't now did my pressups and having lost a bit of weight I looked quite good.
Checked email and I had used agoda just they had sourced it through booking.com so interesting. Messaged Victoria so we could go biking round temples and when she came round she just had a normal bike as she had explained yesterday she doesn't ride motorbikes but I hadn't properly remembered, still it was relaxing for me as the e-bike was fast enough and I could hide my things away. We stopped first at the tourist info where a woman was able to tell us some things then headed on stopping at lots of places all over. I managed to get stuck in some mud and almost lost a flip flop and was a bit off a mess but we carried on visiting places until about 11.30 when her bike got a flat tyre as a stick got stuck in and she made the mistake of pulling it out but we were able to get back to the bike shop in time and while they were fixing the bike we had lunch and I cleaned up a bit. I had a small noodles with vegetables dish and Victoria had a large potato curry dish but I think I had more on my plate, maybe a sexist thing. I had thought the night before that she could maybe get into Mensa but it turned out not to be the case as she had done well on an IQ test but not quite high enough. We headed back out visiting more places and at some point I ripped my trousers climbing one pagoda which Victoria noticed then at another pagoda I took a step too far to be on the edge for a photo and completely split my trousers. I decided to keep them on for the day but threw them out later. Sand paintings are the main thing they sell everywhere which is on cotton so you can supposedly fold it and even wash it and its still ok, and Victoria heard some German tourists at one temple asking the same question about whether it can be washed in the machine twice and moved on so she could avoid hearing them. Not too many English tourists around. At 2.45 she had to rush off to get back for a tour so I carried on seeing places I'd not been to or that were the major attractions and also managed to get stuck in the mud again. Headed round to Andrews hotel but he was not there so I headed back to try to see the sunset as it was looking pretty special and a friend had posted an amazing sunrise picture with balloons so I wanted some of that and rushed to try to get to a climbable temple but only managed a hill and a lake which gave me at least a different picture from other people. Then I had to get back in the dark and the bike started slowing down so after a while I turned the light off and it still got slower with time so I walked it up a bit of a hill and it was struggling all the way back but just made it back to the bike shop. I went back to the hotel, cleaned up, sorted some things out, had a healthy dinner to get more vitamins and then had an early night to try to make sunrise the next day. 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 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. 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. I got up before 8 and again it was a good breakfast, but not really anyone to talk to, I decided to start with the most important thing of the day so I walked to get bus ticket and chose a different route past the Martyrs monument, which looked shut but I saw someone inside so I went round and found the other entrance was open and the charge was just 200 MKK to locals but 3,000 to foreigners like myself, I didn't even know what it was about so I walked on and went to the Temple from 2 days ago when I had shorts on and it was quite nice. I'd seen a place on maps/me which was an information centre so I took a different road to get there but it didn't look like the place existed at all.
Got to the bus place and went to a couple of desks and booked the same bus as Damien to Bagan, since going to Muarak Au was a 24 hour journey. when I left the train station with Jeremy and Lily I had seen quite a large cathedral so I crossed the same bridge we had done and could see the cathedral again so I headed across to it and had a look round, after I went to an Islamic cemetary and a man there wouldn't let me walk somewhere for some reason so I went a slightly different route and still saw most of the place, I found a few other places as well from the map like a church of st Anthony (also Catholic) before going to the large park and wandering round to the part I didn't make last time where I had to pay entry fee and get another sticker. There was an impressive building which was also a very large picture on a paper map I had but when I got there it was just a closed floating restaurant, only open for dinner buffet. I headed back to the main attraction but was a bit tired so I stopped in a Temple to rest and someone else had the same idea as he was lying down snoring on a bench. after that I felt up for the big deal and went and paid to get into the Shwedagon Paya, all 8,000 kyats but it was impressive and I used the free wifi there to check in on facebook, before wandering around it a few times and finally deciding to head back. The one thing I did notice was that my corner based on when I was born was Wednesday morning and it had 2 corners, more than any other, so not only did I only have to share it with one 14th of the population but I also had 2 corners to worship at. I went back to hostel and had to rest to recover from heat slowly and then ordered dinner thinking we had ages to get the bus but the girl on reception said we should leave now as it take 90 minutes to get there so I rushed and then the 2 dutch girls, Damien and me all left together in a taxi we flagged down. the journey was not long however and we arrived bus station before 8.30, with the bus due to leave at 9.30 so we sat there a while and they had some football on the screen including Real Madrid, a Lazio game and Everton playing West Ham but they kept flicking between the games. When the bus came I sat down in seat written on my ticket next to someone but after they told me I should be sitting one row behind but I didn't see much point in moving and the guy next to me had been quite friendly so I stayed, but then the guy next to me snored a bit and also spread himself out so it wasn't so comfortable, later when I tried to sleep there were bells ringing on the bus and it was really cold as the a/c was on full blast and I remember trying to watch a film on the individual screen on my seat (Ghost ship - for some reason they were heavy on horror in the selection) when the guy next to me from under his blanket took a phone call then after hanging up was almost immediately straight back to sleep and snoring. I had asked the girl conductor earlier if I could move seats and she had said no, but there were a few seats free near the back so I just climbed over the guy and moved there and later on the girl even made space for me by moving some other things so she wasn't too upset and finally I got some sleep before waking up early and finishing the ghost ship film, then a bit more sleep before people just got too loud I couldn't sleep anymore. Breakfast was pretty good at the hostel and I was chatting to a couple the guy called James was from London the girl called Colleen was from France. I went to get some flip flops to make it easier to visit temples and then we headed out together with me mostly leading from the map and we visited a couple of local temples and then walked back near the hostel and I said maybe James would want some sun cream as he's a bit pale but he thought he was ok so we went to People's park which had a funfair. After we saw an old airplane and then went round to an area where they were charging entry of 300 kyats to the park. I refused to pay and walked around to the next entrance while James and Colleen looked for money as they didn't take dollars which is what they had having just flown in. Got to the next gate and they were charging as well and the couple caught me up as they couldn't pay the entrance fee. I decided to lend them the money until they got change and we went through the park which had some nice features and we found some people doing tug of war. We tried to join as a team of 3 but couldn't so we carried on and saw a pagoda before getting to the national museum which Colleen decided was not worth it. We separated soon after as they wanted to go downtown and I had already been and was planning on going to the Shwedagon Paya. There was a mixup where I miscalculated how much I had lent them in dollars but James gave me their Myanmar money which was 200 less instead which meant they had no Kyats at all so couldn't buy anything from a street seller for example.
My next destination was a military history museum and I walked in the door and was told to use the other entrance. I argued for a bit then tried other entrances but ended up walking round the whole block and back in the first entrance where this time the security explained that the museum had shut and moved to Mandalay which would have helped if they explained at first. I carried on walking to a pagoda, City market shop and the Football stadium before getting to the Bus ticket place and checked out some prices. By now it had been a few hours and the sun was pretty strong so I felt like I was going to get sunburnt so I decided to go on the train loop which I'd heard about to get in some shade. So I bought my ticket at the station for just 200 Kyats and started chatting to a guy called Jeremy who was English but worked at Brisbane university. The train arrived a bit late and Jeremy started talking to a girl called Lily who was moving back to California having taught English in China. We sat together and had some interesting conversations on the 3 hour journey which was good as it would have been pretty boring otherwise. The three of us went to a place nearby for some food and beer but I had to leave soon after to make a Skype call home so went back to the hostel. Afterwards I joined some people outside for drinks including Damien from New Zealand, 2 Dutch girls and a German. Turned out the Dutch and Damien had been at the bus ticket place and seen me there. |
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