Waiter, waiter! There's a rat in my soup!

Hey! Arno here again! Long time of radio silence and some travel stories to catch up with so let's get into business...

The bus ride from Bagan to lake Inle wasn't really that comfy. First we got picked up by this Bumese style combination of a van and a pick-up which drove faster than 100 km/h down this bumpy road. We really had to hold on the walls of the car. To make it even worse it was dark and the street lights barely lit up anything. We did suffer with some nice people there we just met which made the ride a little more bearable. After half an hour of fearing for our lives we finally made it to the bus. It was a rather luxurious bus with huge reclining seats, pillows and blankets. Adding to our luck there was also a toilet onboard. You see we'd been suffering from our stomachs the past day so it was very comforting knowing that we could just run to the toilet when we needed to and not having to stop the entire bus in the middle of the night since our stomachs tell us to. But enough about that.

The ride was not even half as good as it sounded like. The roads were bumpy for the entire night and every half an hour or so the driver just decided it would be fun to turn on all the cabin lights inside and wake up the passengers.

Our initial plan was to stay in Inle for the day and catch the next night bus directly to Yangon. Luckily we didn't end up doing that. Arriving in Inle at 5am we were dead tired and wanted to get a room to sleep in. One of the Americans we had met on board had a local sim card so we borrowed her phone and looked for a cheap hotel room (thank you Emily!). We found one, booked it online and walked over. The gate was closed and we tried nocking but no answer. I mean no one could no we had just booked online five minutes ago.

As wewere making a plan B an older lady walked out to open the gate in her pyjamas. She said there was a room that we could go in to catch some sleep. Talking about an early check-in! After a few hours of napping (and countless trips to the toilet) we decided it was time to go out and explore the little town. Immediately after breakfast we rented two bikes and started cycling around. The town was just a little entry point to the lake itself so there wasn't too much to see around. We were planning to cycle towards the lake but we ended up cycling to the wrong direction. It was a lucky incident since we ran into this little local agency that organized boats to the village on the lake. It only cost us about 12 euros for a half day trip on a private boat so we just took the offer. The nice local man even booked us seats on this local bus no one had earlier recommended - we had just heard of the expencive night busses.

Sitting in a fishing boat for hours with the diarrhea of your life isn't really a good combination but we were stubborn to see the Inle lake itself as we had made it all the way there. No matter how many stops we would need to ask the driver to do. What a great choice it was! After blasting through the lake at full speed for about half an hour we arrived in the first village. There were tomatoes planted as far as the eye could see and a few houses built on stilts here and there. The sight was amazing, nothing like you'd ever seen before. After going in between the plantations for a while we arrived I guess "downtown". It was like you arrived in any Asian village except this one was on a lake, built on stilts and the roads were waterways. Pretty impressive!

There were plenty of villages in the area, it was amazing how widespread the total area was. I think we visited at least three villages and I wouldn't be surprised if there were even more of them. On the tour we stopped at a temple, a silk factory, a tobacco factory and a big market. Obviously it was set up for tourists to go and buy stuff but we still rather enjoyed the experience. At the market I found this little stall selling beautiful handmade kitchen knives (yes, I love cooking) and I went to ask for the price. They were so cheap I eventually bought three nice knives for a mere nine euros. What a bargain!

Our tour was coming to an end so it was time to head back so we would still arrive in daylight time. Again another 30 minutes blasting through the lake at full speed to get back to Nyaung Shwe. Time at the lake just flies by since you get stuck staring at the amazing mountains surrounding it and the fishermen who are trying to catch some supper and maybe a fish or two to sell on the market.

Our trip to Yangon was a rather interesting experience. We've heard a lot of bad things about the night buses and already haven taken one we decided to try a day bus instead. Thinking about it afterwards I doubt the night bus would have been any worse. We decided to take a local bus since it was a lot cheaper than the VIP-buses for tourists. The bus itself wasn't too bad after all since we got nice big seats which reclined more than your average bus seat. So far so good. It all started going wrong when the bus started climbing into the mountains. One by one many locals around us started vomiting and you could smell the stench all around the bus. The driver was just going on full speed on the narrow roads overtaking basically everything in its way. He really drove on the endge of the road, there was just a 2 km drop inches away from the wheels and no fence protecting us from a fall down the mountain.

I think within the hour around eight passengers had vomited. Luckily there was a "steward" onboard whose primary job apparently was to collect the vomit bags and throw them outside of the window. Sometimes I should complain less about my own job...

Poor Linnea started also feel her stomach twisting. After all the climb up and down tha winding mountain roads lasted for like 4 or 5 hours. And that was just the mountains. The whole ride itself was going to last the whole damn day. And for our pleasure there was also no toilets. So no food for our still upset stomachs that couldn't hould anything in.

There was also a moment onboard when we thought this little 5-year old kid would literally die. They served everyone on board a can of "speed" (no, not the drug), which is a local brand of energy drink. In about 10 minutes the kid drank his own, his mothers and the neighbouring passengers cans empty. I mean even for an adult it's a proportionally high dosis of caffeine, not to mention a 5-year old. You could clearly see the kid going hyper and jumping around on the chair and scraming like crazy. You'd think the mother would react somehow but apparently her Facebook status was more important. Interesting way of raising your kid. Anyhow after about an hour of fearing for a heart attack we arrived in Yangon. After a 13-hour bus ride you would wish being at your destination already but the bus stopped somewhere far outside of town. Luckily we were able to catch a cab right out front. And if you have ever taken a taxi i Asia you know it can be a crazy ride. Now, tripple that speed and crazines. Never ever have we been in a car that drives so furiously around the dark aand wet roads of the city center. Just insain and barely avoidin any crashes.

In the morning we decided to head out and look around the city a bit. To begin with Yangon wasn't our favourite city. The night before the only thing we saw were huge cat sised rats running all around and an awful smell drilling straight into your brains. I mean the sidewalks had been so full of rats the locals rather walked on the crazy roads. 

We decided to take a bit of an easy day out in here since there wasn't too much to keep yourself busy with. We walked around the city but it was hard to get around since it was raining most of the day. Most of the time we spent at restaurants and also ended up making the lease agreement on our new apartment (we had never seen) back in Finland! What a tough job it ended up to be with burmese internet connection. In the evening we met a few traveller guys with whom we ended up talking and then going out to have some food at the local market. We had just eaten as much us our still upset tummies allowed us to so only the guys were having food. As a side they got some kind of meat broth. We were joking around that there could be anything in the soup. That they could put rat meat instead of chicken and we would have no idea. And as we lifted out of the broth a piece that for sure was the scull of an animal I swear it really looked exactly like a rats head! As far as we remembered chickens have a peak instead of two long teeth.

We left to the airport very early, around 5am. The taxi we took didn't have any seatbelts and the driver was a real nutjob (used of having these around already). Anyways we made it alive to the airport and headed off to our next adventure! Koh Phangan, Thailand.

Cheers,
Arno