Jillian's Travels

Myanmar, Part 1

Day 44, February 10

Morning came really fast. I needed a few more hours of sleep but was hoping I’d get some rest on the bus.

We got dressed and packed up in the dark and went out to the common area to wait for breakfast to be served at 7am. Our plan was to quickly eat the free breakfast and then head out for the bus station.

Breakfast ended up being toast with jam and a banana so it was easy to eat quickly. At the last minute the lady working in the “kitchen” pulled out eggs and made us each one.

I had to pleasure of getting to ask the guy to call us a taxi and he grumpily said you should have told me earlier. It took all I had not to say something snarky back to him.

He called us a taxi and the driver came to get us right at 7. We arrived at the bus station about 20 minutes later. Immediately upon turning the corner into the bus station, we could sense the chaoticness. It was a mad house. There were buses everywhere and taxis and bikes and people walking around. It was too much too early in the morning.

My sister stayed in the taxi as I ran in to see if we were in the right spot. They kept pointing to another one so I went next door (also with the help of our taxi driver who got out of the car to help me) and the guy at the counter didn’t say anything. He just wrote down some numbers and said bus. So I concluded that that was the bus number that we needed to find.

I went back to the taxi to get my bag and sister and then we went in search of our bus. It was hard to walk through the crowd normally but with our big bags made it even more challenging. I hit just about everyone I was near.

But we made it! I handed them my big bag and they gave me a number. We then boarded the bus and I decided I needed to try to go to the bathroom because it was supposed to be a 10 hour ride and I had no idea when we’d stop.

I went into a shop and kept saying toilet and they’d point to the next store over so I’d go to the next one. This went on 4 different times until finally a guy grabbed my shirt and led me to the store with the toilet. I thanked him and quickly went to the bathroom and ran back to the bus.

I was telling my sister how he grabbed my shirt and led me. She had talked to a Canadian guy that was traveling around Myanmar for a couple of weeks and he mentioned that they are very aggressive but that they are trying to help. I definitely see their aggressiveness with the taxi last night, the guy grabbing my shirt and even just the way they talk. But I also agree that they are trying to be helpful.

*From what I’ve read Myanmar has been in one of the world’s longest civil wars and in addition the government has been accused of many human rights violations. The fighting began shortly after the country became independent from the UK in 1948. In 1989, the country changed the name from Burma to Myanmar, along with many of the names of the larger cities, to excise all British influences and and to establish a national identity among the country’s many ethnic groups. That’s my history lesson for the day.*

Now back to the bus. We left a little after 8am and didn’t stop until 11am. I was dying because I had to go to the bathroom. We had a 30 minute stop to grab food and go to the bathroom. Nothing looked or sounded good to eat. Everything looked really greasy and heavy to eat and then be on a bus for more hours. So instead I got a water and some shelled peanuts.

We boarded the bus and headed out again. We didn’t stop again until after 2pm and again I was dying. The bathroom at our 15 minute stop was disgusting and we had to pay 100 kyats.

Then it was back on the bus for the final stretch. We stopped to let people on and off so that added time on. The last 80 miles took about 3 hours.

When we finally made it to the Mandalay Bus Station, we could hear the taxi drivers outside our bus pushing each other to try and get closer to the door where we’d be getting off. It was mayhem. Not that I’ve ever had paparazzi follow me but this is what I imagine it’d be like.

My sister and I joked with each other that we didn’t want to get off the bus and deal with them. Eventually we did and immediately began negotiating for the best deal. We got a taxi driver to agree to what we wanted to pay and then we were off for our hostel. We hadn’t booked anything yet we just knew of this place from one of the other backpackers at our last place who had recommended it and we were just praying they weren’t full.

We arrived and there were about 7 other people checking in before us. We heard them say that it was full so we were worried. Turns out the all male dorm was full but not the all female one. So we got 2 beds for 2 nights.

We went upstairs to put our stuff down and then headed out to find food. Nothing was sounding good to me so it was hard to decide. Also the restaurants we walked past didn’t have menus outside where we could look at it. Again, all the other countries had this convenience. We saw a BBQ and decided to go in there. I didn’t see anything BBQ related other than meat. So we each got the Thai fried rice. It was really, really spicy but good.

When we walked in there was a table of older men sitting there and they just stared. There was chair in my sister’s way so she moved it back and then they moved it closer to her on purpose. Then they proceeded to stare at me the whole time. I even tried acknowledging them in hopes that that would make them stop. It didn’t and it was getting on my nerves. After what was supposed to be a 10 hour bus ride but turned out to be closer to 12 hours, I had absolutely no patience left.

I do not mind people looking at us because we look different than them (we had that in Cambodia and Vietnam) but I am not ok with them staring in a rude and disrespectful way. I truly feel it was just those guys being rude and not any reflection on the Burmese culture, though. Anyway, after we finished eating we decided it was best to just head back to the hostel.

Day 45, February 11

We had our free breakfast consisting of an egg and mashed potato on the rooftop of our hostel. We weren’t sure what we were going to do today so we hung out there for a little to research Mandalay and map out our day.

I decided to go down to the lobby area in hopes that the internet would be stronger while my sister got ready. When she came down we talked to the girls at the front desk to see about the best way to get around.

We started by walking around our area and saw a soccer tournament going on. The kids shut down part of the street and set up nets and just started playing. We found out it was a tournament when we walked back the other way and saw the bracket.

After walking around we went back up to our room and booked our flight to Thailand and also mapped out the best we could the 5 days we’ll be here. Today was going to be our local sightseeing day. I started talking to an Italian lady that is in the bed across from me and she mentioned a really good and cheap place for lunch. So my sister and I decided to go there.

I got the Nan Gyi Thohk which is a salad dish in Burmese cuisine made with thick round rice noodles mixed with chicken curry. It is basically the Burmese version of spaghetti. Burmese culture is also known for their tea so I got a tea but have no idea what it was. I was hoping it’d be cold but it came out hot and had a milk base. I wasn’t not a fan of it.

After lunch we had our hostel call us a taxi to take us around town. We started with the Mandalay Royal Palace. It was unreal. It was gigantic and had a moat all around it. I have never seen anything like it before. I thought all the other temples and monasteries were beautiful but this blew all of them away. Just the shear size was hard to wrap my mind around. And then everything was gold or white. While we were walking around we saw some water buffalos roaming around with a guy leading them.

Then we went to the Golden Palace Monastery. It looked like some of the other temples we saw in Cambodia. It was still neat to check out though.

Right behind the Golden Palace Monastery was the Atumashi Monastery. It was basically one extremely large room that was white and gold but extremely visually appealing.

After the monasteries our taxi driver took us to Kuthodaw Pagoda which is a buddhist stupa that contains the world’s largest book. This was a place I wanted to see but I had no idea what to expect. In my head, I thought it was like a Guinness World Records thing. But in reality it is 729 stone inscription caves, each containing a marble slab inscribed on both sides, with a page of text from the Tipitaka, the entire Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. Theravada is a branch of Buddhism that uses the Buddha’s teaching as its core doctrine.

It was almost sundown and we wanted to see the sunset at the top of the Mandalay Hill so that was our next stop. It was a full moon and in Myanmar it is also considered a holiday. So it was a little more crowded than I think it might usually be on a normal day. But we lucked out and got to skip all the steps because our driver drove us up to the top. We walked around taking pictures before it was time to stake out a spot for the sunset. It was really smoggy so the sunset wasn’t all that great.

Our final stop of the day was the Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda. I am so glad our driver recommended doing this one at night because seeing it all lit up was incredibly beautiful. There were a few giant Buddha’s that we walked around and saw. I also was able to buy some meditation beads that I had been wanting for a while now.

After this we headed back to the hostel. I had to do a quick change of shoes because my feet were disgusting from all of the walking around and I didn’t want to put my socks back on. You have to take off your shoes and socks at all the temples, pagodas and monasteries so our feet were basically black on the bottom. We headed out to dinner after a quick change. On the drive back I saw a place that we could try so we went directly there. I got the hot and sour noodles with chicken and man it was so spicy. My lips were on fire after so I had to put on Blistex. I look over and I see 3 young guys staring at me along with the waitress. I had no idea why they were all staring. I guess because I was putting on Blistex? I still have no idea but we quickly paid and left.

The streets are really easy to navigate even at night. The are a simple grid pattern with numbers for streets. At most of the other places they were actual names and incredibly hard to remember. Since we knew our whereabouts, we walked to the mini mart to load up on waters. I drank a lot today so I wanted to get stock up. I found a 6 pack of water and decided that would be good for at least a day. You would have thought I bought 10 6 packs the way everyone was staring at me. When we got back to the hostel multiple people commented on the amount of water, too. I really didn’t think it was all that much but oh well, we’ll be well hydrated.

We are doing an all day tour of the ancient city tomorrow so it’s another early night (my favorite!).

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