Myanmar

Sunday 12th June 2016 – The best way to enjoy Myanmar is probably to make your own adventures and so that morning we took out a map, picked an interesting looking lake in the north of the country and decided to try to get there. Calling Mandalay pedestrian friendly would be about as accurate as describing Napoleon as a tall beefy Scotsman; walking along a pavement requires navigating so many parked motorbikes, overgrown trees, crumbling storm drain covers and pit-like holes that you quickly begin to understand why no-one walks anywhere. We headed to the train station nearby and booked two upper class tickets to Kawlin (about halfway to the lake) for the next morning. We had been carting around the tins of tea we had bought in Sri Lanka for over a month so that afternoon we made a trip to the post office to try to send them back home. Unfortunately foreign parcels were closed but if we turned up first thing in the morning we should have time to post them before catching our train. On the way back we were horrified to see a little boy, no more than 3 years old standing on his own by the side of a busy main road with a small collecting tin. We picked him up and looked around to see if anyone knew who he was. A woman – his mother on the other side of the road signalled to us and made her way across the traffic to collect him. As we walked away the mother held out her hand and said “money”. We weren’t going to encourage this and walked on without a word.

Monday 13th June 2016 – We were up early to pack and see if we could unburden ourselves of our tea. As we expected there was already a queue when we arrived about half an hour before the post office opened. Myanmar is the second largest producer of heroin in the world after Afghanistan and we watched as each persons packages were thoroughly scrutinised before being accepted or rejected for posting. Eventually it was our turn and we presented our items for checking only to be informed that they couldn’t take them because they were in tins – it looked like a bit longer on the road for our travelling tea leaves. After saying goodbye to the friendly staff at our hotel we boarded our train, settled into our comfy seats and were soon rattling our way up country. None of the carriage windows were glazed which was great as we got a completely unobstructed view of the countryside. We arrived in Kawlin around 5pm and located the only hotel licensed to accept foreigners. After being stared at a bit and having our passports and visas checked by several different people we were finally shown to a room. We went back to the train station to book tickets for the next day only to discover there were only two trains – one at 1:30am and the other at 3:30am. We figured five hours sleep is better than three and booked the 03:30 train. We ate noodle soup at a little restaurant. Alysa thought it was hilarious when, after I had finished my big bowl of noodles they came and filled it back up again. They were so nice I felt obliged to eat the second bowl but made sure to leave a bit in case they filled it up again!

Tuesday 14th June 2016 – We awoke bleary-eyed and after getting the hotel receptionist out of bed to let us out arrived at the train station at 03:30. The train arrived at 6am and we must have looked pretty knackered as an old man sat opposite us insisted on giving us his seat so we could have more space. The view from our carriage became ever more mountainous and jungly as we made our thirteen hour journey north. Finally, just after dark we arrived in Hopin. Again we found the only foreigner-licensed hotel where after careful inspection of our passports we were shown to our room. Tomorrow we would reach our destination – Indawgyi Lake.

Wednesday 15th June 2016 – After breakfast we found a chap with a delivery truck that was going to Indawgyi Lake although due to the language barrier we were unable to establish when it was going. After a couple of hours sat on some rice sacks in the back of the truck we didn’t look any closer to leaving so I went for a look around town and found a shop selling parangs. I liked the idea of having a hack at the jungle in the hills around the lake and handed over about 3 quid for a cheap parang. When I arrived back at the truck Alysa was making friends with a teenage Burmese girl who was also heading to the lake. A few minutes later we were on our way, winding our way up into the hills before descending to the lake. As we made our way round the lake the driver would make his deliveries; bags of rice, bags of cement, baskets of vegetables, boxes of betel nut etc. While we waited for a large delivery to be unloaded the Burmese girl took Alysa’s hand and led her to a little shop where she proceeded, despite Alysa’s protestations to buy her little presents. In the early afternoon we arrived at Indaw Mahar Guesthouse on the shore of the lake. We were greeted by the manager with hot tea which we sipped on the veranda as we watched the fishermen on the lake quietly putting out their nets for the night.