Day 3 Myanmar – Trains, Buses, and Rickshaws oh my!

I decided to take it easy today. I went to breakfast and ran it Eric – from Peekskill – and we had a nice conversation. It says 11:18 am on my phone – which is actually only an hour and a half faster than local time. I think I might just chill out on the roof until around noon waiting for check out. It’s really nice up here with the breeze and sun. Ahh how I miss sunny days, they’re pretty rare in China.

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Sitting on the roof and just thinking about things made me realize that I’m running kind of low on money. Money dries up real quick here. I’m already down to 25,000 Kyat from the initial 80,000 I exchanged. I think I’m gonna exchange some more while I’m in Yangon, apparently the exchange rate is the best here. I talked to the front desk and they’ll let me leave my bags, hopefully they’ll be secure.

After I exchanged some more money, at a better rate of 840 Kyat to the dollar, I decided to check out the Yangon train station keeping in my relaxing theme day….

All in all, I think it took about 3 hours to complete the entire train route around Yangon. I’m not sure I would recommend this activity because it isn’t really for everyone. However, it gave quite an interesting perspective on daily life for average people in Myanmar. If you’re looking to take it to see the countryside, you may be a little disappointed because you only catch a glimpse. Anyone coming from a Western country and traveling for the first time in a developing country by train will be in awe. People selling food and water would pop on and off going from one carriage to the next whenever the train stopped.

Once we arrived back at the main station I decided to head to the markets to maybe pick up some souvenirs. However, for the most part all they were selling was clothes, fabric, jewelry and “precious gems.” Basically only things real tourists would buy. I like to consider myself part of a different type of tourist who doesn’t do/buy things of that caliber. Eventually I gave up perusing and decided to call it a day. It was also about time for me to head back anyway to pick up my bags from the hotel and head to the bus station for my bus to Mandalay.

At the bus station I ran into Richard. He actually decided to go to Mandalay as well and that we would be traveling together. Fortunately the ticket collector and the person who was suppose to site next to me were very cooperative and allowed Richard to change his seat so that we could sit together and talk. Out bus took off at 8pm and arrived earlier than anticipated at 4am. For both Richard and I, our guide books and research said to expect a 10-12 hr ride. So when we arrived in Mandalay we weren’t quite sure that we arrived or if we were just at another stop along the way. Actually, we almost didn’t get off the bus until someone told us we arrived. Apparently, Myanmar’s road system has improved drastically in the last year or so.

We decided to share a taxi – which turned out to be a rickshaw to the Royal Guest House and hope that rooms were available. When we arrived we were told rooms would be available later, after people woke up and checked out. I was able to get my room immediately, though, because I didn’t need my own bathroom. After getting to my room I took a long and most need rest.

Pictures

So for those who don't know already, about 100 pictures are up on facebook covering mostly Yangon, Myanmar.

Day 2 - Myanmar Madness

As I haven’t had breakfast anywhere else in Myanmar I can’t really compare, but I think it will do. The eggs and toasts were good; the 100% real fruit juice was delicious; the bananas were a little too sweet for my tastes; and this fruit-like/cheese pastry was interesting to say the least. All in all, I’m definitely looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

After breakfast I headed to the Shwedagon Paya (pagoda). It was simply amazing. I can’t even describe it in words, so I hope the pictures give you a small taste of the magnitude of its AWESOMENESS. God willing you should see some great pictures soon. I decided to hire a tour guide for the entire morning; so he not only gave me a tour of the Shwedagon Paya but also of the surrounding sites. To give a little background information on this pagoda, it is an active site of worship and yes it is made with real gold. One of the really cool things I was able to do while there was wash Buddha. There are eight Buddhas, representing each day of the week – Wednesday for some reason has two, one for the morning and one for the afternoon – and you’re suppose to wash the Buddha according to the day you were born. My tour guide had a book that contained calendars for like the past 50 years or something so we were able to find out that I was born on a Sunday. After, I invited him to lunch to eat some authentic Myanmar food – which was similar to last night, nothing extraordinary.

After lunch I headed back to the hotel. Currently, I’m sitting in a lounge-like room enjoying the shade and cool breeze. It’s a nice place to relax and take a break from the searing sun; also perfect for conversing with the other guests. I’ve actually met a fellow American named Richard from Washington DC. He’s a crazy travel-holic who has been to over 100+ countries. What’s somewhat surprising is he didn’t even get his college degree. He seems to be in his early 60s, retired, worked as a train ticket operator and loudspeaker announcer at Union station.

Later I’m probably gonna head out and get some dinner and maybe check out the Yangon river. I think I forgot to mention, but I’ve booked an overnight bus ride to Mandalay for tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m probably going to do the Yangon train. The route makes a circle around Yangon in around 3-4 hrs. It should be an interesting opportunity to get a little taste of local life.

After I left the lounge I realized that the sun should have started setting so I decided to go all the way to the top and get some pictures from the roof. Up there I met another American and fellow New York, actually quite close to me in Peekskill named Eric. I got distracted in conversation and forgot about the sunset. The pictures I took aren’t the greatest and there’s a building in the way. But at least Eric pointed me into the direction for dinner. He told me how to get to the Indian Quarter so that’s where I’m heading. I ordered fried catfish and curry, but was a little disappointed in the curry. It just didn’t really taste like Indian curry, but then again I haven’t had authentic Indian food from India so I guess I shouldn’t criticize just yet. I guess I need to put India on the list of countries I need to visit.

Well I’m back in the lounge just finishing up writing today’s events. Even though most of the stalls and shops close by 8pm, the city itself is still pretty noisy. The sound of the city is pretty interesting. It has the same feel I would imagine a Muslim country to have – or at least the ones in the movies we watch. What I mean is that throughout the day loudspeakers are constantly saying Buddhism prayers. Sort of like how I imagine the Koran being read in Arabic. It’s nice to listen to during the day, but the morning prayers are a little annoying – or a little too early haha.

Final thing before I go. I found out today that I would be in Myanmar for their Union Day. I think this is similar to what we consider Independence Day. I wonder if anything interesting will happen. If things work out as they are in my head, I’ll probably be in Bagan – home of numerous amounts of temples but very little social life… We’ll see what happens I guess. Night.