Ok, I know, it's been awhile, but for good reason. The tour has started, long days, and things to do. But the REAL days start tomorrow.
Day Three in Yangon started innocent enough, that would be Thursday the 12th over here, and I decided to run around the city again, to places I hadn't been the other day. Boy, it was humid, and I figured it was survivable. Wrong again .... got back to the hotel early and had a good lay down. For around 36 hours ....
First time I've ever had heat exhaustion or sunstroke in a long time. Probably Barbados in 1981 ?? Anyway, I was sick, but in a semi-controlled way. Didn't eat much, but I did drink, and lost lots of water in the process. Enough said. Lying in bed, I'm thinking, "Oh God, Why are you doing this AGAIN??" The inevitable question I ask most summers .... with the faint realization that soon I'll be ok, and I'm just a wimp yet again. But luckily, the pills worked, the sleep helped, and I was very thankful I had the time to rest before we started our tour; I knew for certain the tour wouldn't have much time for being sick, being on the go all the time from the start.
Then I realized the next day the REAL culprit !! It was indeed Friday the 13th (cue the dramatic music !!). The next day came, I felt pretty strong again, and off I go. My tour leader was in the hotel lobby and suggests I take the Circular Train ride that goes all around Yangon's Northern regions. For just one US dollar ... what a deal. For three hours, there you are, amongst the locals in a rickety old train car watching the city do its thing. I might do it again before I leave, that's just how good it was. Almost a holiday in itself, if you have the guts and patience. People selling fast food from their head plates, crates of live chickens on another ladies head, then the young fruit vendors, the odd monk here and there, the friendly old Chinese local man who tells you everything you'd ever need to know, it just goes on and on. Basically, it's everyone you'd want to meet, all for a buck; and of course I stick our like a sore thumb. Perfect. I get back, feeling it's nice to finally accomplish something on my own again, and walk across the street to the new tour hotel. How easy is that?
It's a relatively small group, just 10 of us, everything is great. Five older people, some younger, and most are very, very well travelled. People from England, Germany, a retired Italian school principal, (don't worry Iona, I'm behaving), an Aussie gal, and a Czech lady who lives in Melbourne. Our tour leader, JP is originally from Norway, but he's probably travelled the entire world, and I literally mean the entire world about 7 times over. He basically has done it all on all six continents, and makes me look like a pre-schooler in comparison. Now that's who you want to lead you !!
The last two days were pretty amazing. We went back to the Shewdagon Paya Pagoda the first morning, in the rain, and what a different place it is compared to night. Interesting though nonetheless, and some local kids even were able to steal about 50 000 Kyet from JP without him even realizing it ( that's about $65 US !!) He just smiled, and said that will be his donation for the entire trip then, and no one else will get anything ...
Off we raced sort of eastward to Bago, and since the weather was raining, we bypassed it and set off for the Golden Rock at Mt. Kyaiktiyo, which took about 5 hours. I had seen pictures of this place in the lp guidbook, and it seemed simple enough. You hike up a hill, overlooking a town, and there it is. Not exactly .... sometimes you just never realize what you've signed up for. We get to the mountain "base camp" (no, it's not Everest ... ) and hop on this old truck, where most of us are on the back, in the open, sitting on these hard wooden seating planks that go across. Did I mention it was rain hard? Anyway, up and up and up and up these winding roads, bumping along and we think "How much longer is this silly thing .... these 6 km couldn't seem much longer" but they were. We finally get off in the middle of nowhere, and start the long, steep climb up. It was pretty tough and the fog/clouds/mist was pretty thick, so naturally it adds to the mystique, the mystery, the suspense and the confusion! But eventually after about an hour, we reach the top and there are these amazing fancy hotels. Our local guide had told us last Christmas 60,000 people had stayed up here all night for a big Buddhist party, and we were wondering where they would all fit?
But anyway, we finally get to this rock on the side of the cliff. Pretty impressive, even if we can barely see it. No view downwards (and we are very, very high up) but luckily before we left, at least some of the clouds have lifted (or at least moved slightly) and the colours changed immediately. So, it WAS worth the bother. We walk down a slighlty different way, through some villages and the kids and locals were all happy to see us. We scoot our way down the bump mountain again, and luckily the brakes didn't fail us again. We get to our guesthouse for dinner, and all is good in the world.
Today we conquered Bago, but as we left our guesthouse, the road was blocked due to a bus being overturned by the side of the road. Not good at all .... but the beautiful thing is, we just had more time to roam around the local village to visit more people, and take lots of pictures. Finally, all had soon been cleared, and off we go to the usual assortment of temples, restored palaces, pagodas and larger than life reclining Buddhas. Not tired of them yet ... or hopefully ever. Last stop, a British Commonwealth War Cemetery, which of course looks pretty much identical to any other Commonwealth Cemetery around the world. A bit of familiarity is always good. Half were British, the rest were Indian, Nepalese and local Burmese colonial troops. 27,000 Soldiers in all were honoured, but most remains were never found.
So far, the best part of the trip, is all the impromptu stops all the way around the countryside, whether it is watching workers in the fields, stopping by villages, and today at 8:45 am dropping by a school just before the kids had started the day. That was priceless ... right at 9am, the whistle blows, all 200 kids within 10 seconds (in the meantime being completely distracted by us for 15 minutes) were all in perfect class rows, ready to sing their anthem and other school songs. Better than German efficiency ... the Berliners would be proud. That's the people ... not the donuts I mean (apologies to JFK).
Tomorrow we fly up to Mandalay ... the real heat is on. But we wake up at 4 am to catch a 6:30 am flight, and avoid the 13 hour bumpy bus ride. The plane is the only way to stay sane around here. In the words of my dear friend Monika, from Germany who I roomed with in my first hotel dormitory .... "I love this country ... everything is so complicated and difficult compared to everywhere else". She's right, and I'm so glad I wimped out and decided to do it the easy way.
Ciao for now ... next stop, Mandalay, and not the fancy hotel in Vegas. That's for wimps !!
Day Three in Yangon started innocent enough, that would be Thursday the 12th over here, and I decided to run around the city again, to places I hadn't been the other day. Boy, it was humid, and I figured it was survivable. Wrong again .... got back to the hotel early and had a good lay down. For around 36 hours ....
First time I've ever had heat exhaustion or sunstroke in a long time. Probably Barbados in 1981 ?? Anyway, I was sick, but in a semi-controlled way. Didn't eat much, but I did drink, and lost lots of water in the process. Enough said. Lying in bed, I'm thinking, "Oh God, Why are you doing this AGAIN??" The inevitable question I ask most summers .... with the faint realization that soon I'll be ok, and I'm just a wimp yet again. But luckily, the pills worked, the sleep helped, and I was very thankful I had the time to rest before we started our tour; I knew for certain the tour wouldn't have much time for being sick, being on the go all the time from the start.
Then I realized the next day the REAL culprit !! It was indeed Friday the 13th (cue the dramatic music !!). The next day came, I felt pretty strong again, and off I go. My tour leader was in the hotel lobby and suggests I take the Circular Train ride that goes all around Yangon's Northern regions. For just one US dollar ... what a deal. For three hours, there you are, amongst the locals in a rickety old train car watching the city do its thing. I might do it again before I leave, that's just how good it was. Almost a holiday in itself, if you have the guts and patience. People selling fast food from their head plates, crates of live chickens on another ladies head, then the young fruit vendors, the odd monk here and there, the friendly old Chinese local man who tells you everything you'd ever need to know, it just goes on and on. Basically, it's everyone you'd want to meet, all for a buck; and of course I stick our like a sore thumb. Perfect. I get back, feeling it's nice to finally accomplish something on my own again, and walk across the street to the new tour hotel. How easy is that?
It's a relatively small group, just 10 of us, everything is great. Five older people, some younger, and most are very, very well travelled. People from England, Germany, a retired Italian school principal, (don't worry Iona, I'm behaving), an Aussie gal, and a Czech lady who lives in Melbourne. Our tour leader, JP is originally from Norway, but he's probably travelled the entire world, and I literally mean the entire world about 7 times over. He basically has done it all on all six continents, and makes me look like a pre-schooler in comparison. Now that's who you want to lead you !!
The last two days were pretty amazing. We went back to the Shewdagon Paya Pagoda the first morning, in the rain, and what a different place it is compared to night. Interesting though nonetheless, and some local kids even were able to steal about 50 000 Kyet from JP without him even realizing it ( that's about $65 US !!) He just smiled, and said that will be his donation for the entire trip then, and no one else will get anything ...
Off we raced sort of eastward to Bago, and since the weather was raining, we bypassed it and set off for the Golden Rock at Mt. Kyaiktiyo, which took about 5 hours. I had seen pictures of this place in the lp guidbook, and it seemed simple enough. You hike up a hill, overlooking a town, and there it is. Not exactly .... sometimes you just never realize what you've signed up for. We get to the mountain "base camp" (no, it's not Everest ... ) and hop on this old truck, where most of us are on the back, in the open, sitting on these hard wooden seating planks that go across. Did I mention it was rain hard? Anyway, up and up and up and up these winding roads, bumping along and we think "How much longer is this silly thing .... these 6 km couldn't seem much longer" but they were. We finally get off in the middle of nowhere, and start the long, steep climb up. It was pretty tough and the fog/clouds/mist was pretty thick, so naturally it adds to the mystique, the mystery, the suspense and the confusion! But eventually after about an hour, we reach the top and there are these amazing fancy hotels. Our local guide had told us last Christmas 60,000 people had stayed up here all night for a big Buddhist party, and we were wondering where they would all fit?
But anyway, we finally get to this rock on the side of the cliff. Pretty impressive, even if we can barely see it. No view downwards (and we are very, very high up) but luckily before we left, at least some of the clouds have lifted (or at least moved slightly) and the colours changed immediately. So, it WAS worth the bother. We walk down a slighlty different way, through some villages and the kids and locals were all happy to see us. We scoot our way down the bump mountain again, and luckily the brakes didn't fail us again. We get to our guesthouse for dinner, and all is good in the world.
Today we conquered Bago, but as we left our guesthouse, the road was blocked due to a bus being overturned by the side of the road. Not good at all .... but the beautiful thing is, we just had more time to roam around the local village to visit more people, and take lots of pictures. Finally, all had soon been cleared, and off we go to the usual assortment of temples, restored palaces, pagodas and larger than life reclining Buddhas. Not tired of them yet ... or hopefully ever. Last stop, a British Commonwealth War Cemetery, which of course looks pretty much identical to any other Commonwealth Cemetery around the world. A bit of familiarity is always good. Half were British, the rest were Indian, Nepalese and local Burmese colonial troops. 27,000 Soldiers in all were honoured, but most remains were never found.
So far, the best part of the trip, is all the impromptu stops all the way around the countryside, whether it is watching workers in the fields, stopping by villages, and today at 8:45 am dropping by a school just before the kids had started the day. That was priceless ... right at 9am, the whistle blows, all 200 kids within 10 seconds (in the meantime being completely distracted by us for 15 minutes) were all in perfect class rows, ready to sing their anthem and other school songs. Better than German efficiency ... the Berliners would be proud. That's the people ... not the donuts I mean (apologies to JFK).
Tomorrow we fly up to Mandalay ... the real heat is on. But we wake up at 4 am to catch a 6:30 am flight, and avoid the 13 hour bumpy bus ride. The plane is the only way to stay sane around here. In the words of my dear friend Monika, from Germany who I roomed with in my first hotel dormitory .... "I love this country ... everything is so complicated and difficult compared to everywhere else". She's right, and I'm so glad I wimped out and decided to do it the easy way.
Ciao for now ... next stop, Mandalay, and not the fancy hotel in Vegas. That's for wimps !!
oh yeah .. the first song in the title is an old Monkees song, some wouldn't know ... the other is bit more obvious if you like Kiss :o)
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