My My Myanmar

Hey guys, Linnea again. Continuing the story of our trip from Bangkok to Myanmar.

We had a flight to catch from Bangkok to Mandaley, Myanmar at 10.50 in the morning of 27.6. so down to a taxi we headed after our early breakfast – we had left 3h before the flight, just to be sure.

We have travelled a lot and are quite used to be “the white tourists everyone thinks have pockets full of money and are easy to trick” so we meet a lot of cheaters and know basically every trick that could be pulled on us. And because Bangkok is full of cheating taxi and tuktuk drivers trying to cash out way more money than you should pay for a trip to the airport we asked the first guy if he was going to use a meter. He said no, he wants a 500 bath deal (really should cost about 300bath)! We told that we want a meter on and he refused again so I told Arno that we should just walk away. The next driver seemed so sweet. He was just sitting in the cab, not trying to sell us anything. We asked if he knew where the airport was and if he was about to use the meter and he said of course, so in we jumped. He talked some nice low key stuff and offered us his peanuts. To us he was the best driver ever...

...Until Arno looked at the navigator (you should always follow google maps when in a taxi in a place like Bangkok) and realized the guy was driving loops and going wrong way to get some more kilometres. Arno told him that hey, we really need to make this flight, what's about the bullshit. He had no explanation what-so-ever for why he was driving the highway wrong way, he just said that it's the way to the airport (witch was in an opposite direction).

And then we hit the traffic. And there we stood, not moving. And the clock was ticking, the check-in was about to close soon. The ride that was supposed to take 25 – 30 mins had now lasted 1 h 15mins. So we made quite sure that if we were going to miss the flight because he tried to pull some trick on us, he wasn't gonna get a penny from this ride. And that's when he hit the gas. He pulled to the curb of the highway and started passing the cars. When we got pass the traffic he took an exit to the right highway and drove the rest of the way 160km/h on a 80 zone. I smelled the levels of testosterones rising and the motor of the little taxi smoking.

When we finally made it to the airport we crabbed our bags, paid the driver and ran through the airport with all immigrations and security checks. And made it!

Myanmar (earlier Burma) used to be closed for a long time. Until 2011 it was under military regime and almost as closed as North Korea. It used to be hard to travel there, you needed all kinds of permits and a guide to be with you. Nowadays it's easier to travel by applying for a visa online and entering the country. Some parts of Myanmar still require a permit to enter and some parts are totally closed from foreigners due to the high amount of opium being grown in the mountain regions.

Walking to the immigration with our visas and forms we filled in the plane we weren't sure if we would get into the country. You see, if they would ask for our returning tickets, we had not booked any. Just one way. We hadn't decided weather we wanted to take a bus or a plane over the boarder back to Thailand. Luckily no one questioned us, we got out quite fast and headed to a little shuttle bus.

After a few hours in the bus we had made it to our hostel, left our stuff and walked out of the door to the closest restaurant we could find. Nothing was in English really and no one spoke English. Yet people were so sweet. We ordered some noodles and got huge portions for 70 euro cents. And those included quail eggs that cost like tons in Finland but are a big thing in Myanmar.

After the late lunch we hired a scooter from the hostel. Arno was going to be the one to drive. I mean I have driven cars abroad in places like Zimbabwe, USA... and scooter in Bali. But seeing the way they drive in Myanmar I wouldn't have survived. It's really the craziest I've seen since Nepal and India. Would not recommend for others – I trust Arno's skills. We did not see one Western driving a scooter during our stay (when in other countries sometimes like half the traffic is Westerners), completely understand why. In some points I just held my eyes closed and wished for the best when driving through an intersection. But once we got the hang of it, the whole concept got less scary. You have to honk always when passing someone. In Finland honking means “get out of my way you slow ass looser” but in Myanmar it more like saying “dude, I'm coming from behind, don't get scared” or in an intersection “hey guys, I'm the first one to cross”.

The locals had fun with us. They don't speak much English – seems like everyone knows one sentence: “Hellooo, where you gooo?” and they always drove next to us, smile and ask that. Bet they don't see a lot of Westerners, especially on a scooter.

We decided to go to this old wooden bridge for sunset. Driving there we got a little lost and drove through some areas where they made silk. Kling klong kling klong the machines made noise. And then through some poor areas where we met a lot of kids who all ran to give us high fives. And everyone smiled. I bet that's a thing somewhere where tourism hasn't taken over yet. Usually the locals have nothing against foreigners if they don't go around wasted, trashing, creating noise and acting disrespectfully towards the culture.

We walked around the bridge area, bought a wood art piece, enjoyed some drinks and then carefully made our way over the shaky bridge. And the sunset looked prettyyy neaaaat!

Then we hit the road again to drive to a temple the locals in our hostel had recommended to go see when it's dark. And now I know why. The whole temple was made out of jade! I mean, just incredible, shining in the dark night. We parked the scooter, left our flip flops and went in the temple area bare feet and amazed. Being the only foreigners there we got to pose in so many pictures with the locals, haha! I think my favourite one was this Monk who wanted one with us and his whole family.

We bought some quail egg thingies from this nice lady with a food stand and then bumped into the locals from the hostel. They asked where we were headed and we agreed to go together to the night market. I just think they drove a little faster than us because we totally lost them to the dark night and saw them again the next day. But the night market was still fun!

Waking up at 3:30 for these crazy sunrises we so love doing is never easy. This time we headed to Mandalay hill. The sunrise looked pretty as it always does but it was hard to find a nice spot. There we sat until we took our scooter back down for a breakfast (that was barely a breakfast) back in our Hotel. A few hour nap before lunch was so needed.

In this point we had actually no idea what next or how we would like to continue our trip so we decided to extend our scooter rent and take it to the train station to go ask for train tickets to Bagan. We had heard that there's a night train with sleeper vans but oh it was hard to find someone who knew about it. People took us from one ticket office to another and after talking with maybe 8 people one officer told us about the night train and just mentioned to morning train. We were all ears since we thought it'd be nice to travel in the daylight. The officer wasn't that sure whether the train would run at all but it should leave around seven am or so if we want to try our luck but added that usually it's just locals who take it and we would be much better of with the buses that have air con and wifi. So we decided to return to the station in the morning in case the train would come against all the odds.

I always do haircuts abroad because I have such a long bunch of hair that all the hairdressers back home charge me honey and strawberries to cut it. This time we found a local hair salon from a local shopping mall and I decided to go for a 7 euro cut. No one spoke English really but they put so much time and effort into me that the whole process took like 2 hours with all the massages, oil treatments and brushing. They cut out the dry ends so carefully and nice, three girls working together - and my hair has never been that silky smooth in my life. Totally worth the cut and the tips.

We decided to lift some money from the ATM before leaving the mall and as we stood there we started hearing sirens loud and clear. Everyone started running outside to see what's happening and I followed. Fire trucks were rushing through the midday traffic and people were running around not knowing what to do. I tried asking what was happening but no one spoke English. As Arno came out and we headed to our scooter some lady said that a hospital is in fire. We jumped on our scooter and started heading back to the hotel. All the sudden there are local men in front of us waving their hand and trying to lead the traffic to the side of the road. A few fire trucks rush by as we pull to the curb. The roads were jammed. It was so busy and burning hot as we tried to make our way back to the hostel through the bad bad traffic. A big smoke cloud rose over the city of Mandalay.

The next post will be about our train to Bagan – one of the coolest experiences of our lives.