Myanmar (Burma) – Part 2
I quickly picked a place from Lonely Planet but as soon as I walked off the bus I was being asked to come with people to their guesthouses or if I needed a horse-cart (taxi). I heard someone say New Haven, which I remembered from Lonely Planet as the highest recommended place. I decided to walk up with him as it was pretty close but as soon as we got there I was told it was fully booked out. He was nice enough to walk me back to the bus station and direct me to my original destination. After 2 minutes of walking I was at ‘restaurant row’, a street in Bagan known as just that as it doesn’t actually have a street name, and decided it was best I get some food. I sat down at the busiest place (I’m such a follower) and ordered fried chicken wings, once again, and some Myanmar beer. After my food came the power went out, but fortunately I was prepared with my phone’s flashlight and continued to enjoy my meal until they switched on their generator (obviously not the first time it’s happened). I paid as it was getting late and went off to find somewhere to sleep.
20 minutes of walking later and I realized I was lost and just needed to find somewhere for the night. I passed a large place and got a room for $8. It was pretty bad, but at least the bedroom part of it was clean (don’t ask about the bathroom). I was happy to stay another night until I had the awful breakfast and found out that the toilet was completely broken. I spared their feelings and told them I was moving to the other side of Bagan, ‘New Bagan’, but that plan backfired when he saw me at the other place that night.
I rented a bike for the day (now 1500 Kyat when it was only 1000 Kyat last time Lonely Planet were there!), found a new place: Eden Motel, which is an old place but quite nice and the breakfast on the roof was really good, and started the 6km ride down into the heart of Bagan- ‘Old Bagan’. I’m not a very healthy or fit person so I won’t pretend I found it easy but I still managed and was soon surrounded by incredible pagodas. It’s quite difficult to put into words but Bagan is simply a compilation of over 4000 pagodas or temples, some very small with others huge, towering masses of beauty and history, 1000 years old. Just take a look at the photos and try to appreciate and comprehend this place. I saw just one photo at home and decided I had to visit Myanmar purely to spend some time here and I have no regrets in doing so.
I spent a couple days just cycling around, stopping to read on the top of the tall ones, take photos at the secluded and abandoned ones, and to eat, because after any amount of exercise Bryce gets hungry. I frequented the same place the entire time as they were just so nice to me, always bringing extra food for free and trying to talk to me. On my second day one of the girls even gave me a little toy Santa as a Christmas present. My only problem with Bagan was the vendors outside of all the big pagodas, trying to sell me sand paintings, books and lacquer ware. As always I appreciate being viewed as a wealthy businessman (in my old shorts, t-shirt and torn backpack), but how many 18 year olds alone in Bagan buy pottery to take home? However not all of them were that annoying, and they all still smiled back if you wouldn’t buy anything. There was one instant where a man took care of my thongs for me, moved my bike because it was in the sun and then showed me a reclining Buddha I would have missed otherwise, so I felt compelled and actually wanted to buy a book off him.
On the first day I met a really nice Slovenian guy, Martin, at the restaurant. After speaking for a bit we decided to meet up later that evening for dinner and beer. I watched the sunset from one of the pagodas with a Spanish girl and older Korean man (who ended up hating me- but that’s a story for another time) and then went back to town to meet Martin. We walked into a place but no one spoke English, so after a few minutes when someone came to translate and we were told they didn’t really have much food, we just had a beer and then went to find somewhere else. At the next place we had a little more luck, but I had a little too many chilies leaving me in agony for most of the meal. Wow, as I sit here writing this in Yangon on my last day, just waiting to catch a flight tomorrow, there’s some guy downstairs periodically yelling at the top of his voice in the street ‘Ahhhhyoahhaaraaayyy!’. He must think he’s a Pokemon or something. Anyway, it was extremely cold and getting late so we parted ways and I went to bed.
I woke up to a very nice breakfast on the roof, read for a bit (there’s really nothing else to do besides that) and then rode back to the temples for the day. Later that evening Martin and I had dinner again at a different place but went back to the previous night’s restaurant for their draft beer. It’s strange because even though it’s peak season, the streets were really empty. At times it felt like we were the only foreigners in Bagan, which is both nice and depressing.
The next day we went to the market to have a look around, where we also ate. Even though we both had almost identical dishes, mine cost double Martin’s for some reason- I’m assuming they hated me. It must be the beard. I bought some Burmese cigarellos, about 100 for $3, which I think will come in handy both as a gift and a source of extra money in Thailand. I said farewell to Martin and really did nothing for the rest of the day, which was nice.
At 6.15pm my bus came to pick me up and I was on my way back to Yangon. It was definitely not the nicest bus ride. The Burmese seem to have perfected the art of bus air-conditioning to such an extent that the entire bus is constantly freezing, there seems to be no way to turn it off, and the only way to combat it is to cover the vents with the curtain and wear a ski-suit. I left my ski-suit in Bangkok unfortunately, along with my dignity apparently as I sat there wearing 3 t-shirts and covering my legs with a small backpack. At the first stop at 9.30pm nobody spoke English so us 5 falangs just that there drinking tea, waiting for them to let us back on the bus. The next stop, at 12.45am (Why? Or at least let us stay on the bus and continue sleeping) was awful. It was the same place from the previous bus-ride TO Bagan, and I just sat there alone drinking the tea until all the little kids working there (the place is literally run by an army of 12-15 year-olds) crowded around me and were quite nice, eventually bringing me chicken fried rice. At 3.30am we arrived in Yangon (Why? Drive slower), and a group of us crammed into a taxi to save money and went to a guesthouse, where I am now. When we arrived, in order to save some money, a Polish couple (late 30’s I’m guessing) and I shared a double room, where we agreed that they’d pay $10 of the $25 cost and they could then sleep there for a few hours, shower and leave their bags until there flight this afternoon.
I’m going to wrap the post up here as I doubt much else will happen before I leave tomorrow morning as I’m exhausted and just want to get down to Ko Phangan to see everyone from home. I’ll definitely be back in Myanmar soon, but next time for longer (and ideally not alone).
