Trekking and miraculously surviving a train ride

Greetings from Northern Myanmar. I am currently in a small town called Pwin U Lin which means nothing to anyone except you can relate how hard it is to remember the names of towns here. Especially like the last town, spelled Kyaukme and pronounced Chao-Mae. Anyway I arrived at this pleasant town last night at the unfortunate hour of three AM, seems to be a Burmese standard time of arrival, after taking the scariest train ride in history. But first, the trek! In Kyaukme we trekked with Camille, an English woman who is the sweetest person I've met on the road. And Dan, a Canadian who is hilarious and extremely organized so we've been relying on him for a lot of the travel details. And Meg, an American woman who lives in SF and is awesome. The five of us did a trek together with an amazing guide named Naing-Naing. It was two days and we walked at a pleasant pace up beautiful ridge lines and through tiny villages that see very few Westerners. The people were so friendly. We must have drunk tea at ten houses and everyone says hello. They don't speak Burmese, only dialects, but Naing-Naing could speak 6 languages and communicated with them for us. The group officially bonded when we showered together. Before anyone's thoughts become X-rated, everyone in Burma wears Longyi's which are sarong type skirts that are a loop. So you hop in and tie it at the top, and take a bucket shower outside with your body completely covered. I'd seen people do it the entire trip and finally we were able to try it! It was so fun! Without any major wardrobe malfunctions, luckily, as there were many kids watching amused by our awkwardness. Naing Naing helped us organize transportation to the next town, where I am now, and we decided to take the government run train for  the experience. Four hours, $2. Wooden bench seats, lots of bugs, and open windows.  It was supposed to leave at 4 but it started raining and whether or not the train would depart became questionable. A train that can't go in the rain? A foreshadow of the ride to come. The ride was rockier than any bus I've ever been on. It left at 8pm and we arrived at 3am which is the third time that's happened and is entirely inconvenient. At one point the train stopped and someone had to get out with a hammer and nails to fix the tracks. The entire cars shook from side to side making sleep a challenge. And at one point all of our backpacks fell off the overhead racks and onto us. The booths were wooden benches that faced each other and the windows were open for some air and allowed a minor bug infestation. But the ride was a blast. We arrived at the train station about four hours before the train ultimately left and got well drunk playing cards and drinking beer. There was a group of about thirty locals that watched our card game without a clue to how it worked, but chipped in with some commentary on how my hand was doing. Whenever I would pick up a Joker, which in this game is the most valuable card, they'd all whisper "ooo joker" and defeat the purpose of secrecy. But by the time we left we were all pretty drunk and we had a good laugh and were sort of able to sleep on the train.  Tomorrow we'll wake up early and try to get to Mandalay, a major Nothern city. I say try because we're entirely unsure of how it will work. There is no bus, despite it being one of the biggest attractions of the North. We have to find a pick up truck (the one's here have bench seats in the back) and go, which will be fun but is unfortunate after three hours. But we'll get there with plenty of time before the 4:30 pm bus to Bagan, our final destination in Myanmar. It will be a 14 hour ride, getting us to Bagan at the lovely hour of 4 am. Bagan is a city of 4,000 ancient temples that are essentially deserted. And we're going with Meg and Camille, we've created a little group! Dan has a bit more time here than us so he's taking the same route but slower. Hopefully we'll cross paths one last time in Bagan.  And that's that! Myanmar has flown by and been incredible. It is a place we should all hope to visit and plan on returning to. There is a ton of area I have not seen and would like to, but the visa length will not permit. It's been amazing though, and even though Im excited to go back to Bangkok (mainly to have access to ATMS. That's been difficult), and hopefully some Western food (just one pizza is all I need!) I will miss this place dearly. 

Introduction to Myanmar, in Yangoon

What an amazing country. Where they drive right handed vehicles on the right side of the road. Where men wear skirts. Where people put white chalky paint on their faces (some sort of religious symbol). Where there are no ATMS, 7-11's, or Starbucks. A mainstream band called AC IC paints the billboards and despite the evident poverty they advertise for Cannon, Rolex, and Timex. Where broken down American cars come to die (with their left sidedness). This place is foreign in every sense of the word. And I love it. The food is incredible, although the street food looks dodgy. The internet is slow, despite what I heard, and cold bottled water is a rarity. I'm traveling with Michael, an Australian I met in Bangkok at the beginning of my trip. We are on a tight budget because we brought in all the USD that would last us. The food is cheap though, luckily, and we've been able to walk everywhere in the old capital of Yangoon, where I am now. Yangoon is dirty and crowded but amazing. Everyone smiles at us. If they're not smiling they're staring and when we say hello ("Minga laba") they always say hi back. We've been approached frequently by people who seem to have no other goal than to practice English. Today someone told me he LOVES Obama. And they are so helpful it's amazing. We went to two temples today, one with a massive reclining Buddha, bigger than the one in Bangkok which attracts hoards of tourists. Today was Buddha day, a holiday, and at the second temple, Shwedago Pagoda, there were thousands of people gathered to cleanse Buddha statues with holy water. The Lonely Planet describes this temple as, if you were to see only one in all of SE Asia, it should be it. And with the billions that there are - that's saying something. It was a $5 entrance fee for foreigners only (prices here are usually quoted in USD, except food). The temple was huge. And beautiful. Google it if you can, I don't know how to begin describing it. 365 feet tall, gold, emerald, turquoise, some diamonds, rubies, thousands of Buddha statues. You could walk around that place for hours. Which I would've had it not been mobbed with people. But it was so crowded and hot that I spent about an hour there and continued on. We've been walking everywhere, not able to afford taxi's, and the walk home was brutally long. But rewarding. We spent the afternoon hiding in the AC because I have never been hotter in my life. I ate fried noodles with vegetables for dinner and we're currently sitting at a bizarre doughnut shop that offers wifi. Not many places do. Tomorrow we're talking a 15+ hr bus ride to Inle Lake up north. Then we'll make a loop to Mandalay, Bagan, and some small towns around there. None of these names mean anything to you but they are beautiful places. Bagan has over 2,000 temples. Mandalay is the second largest city (?) and Inle Lake is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. Im really excited. Not sure how often I'll be able to write, but this country is amazingly safe. Ive never felt safer, even though we're in a big city. The people are just too friendly. When Michael and I get separated on the street someone will stop him and point to me, to show him where I am. Its happened twice now, and even though we were never lost, it is a kind, heart warming gesture. People stare and take photos, but they've seen very few white people and it must be exciting. It is certainly exciting to be here.

Back in Bangkok

I came back to this massive city to acquire my Burmese visa. After a 20 hour bus journey from Southern Laos I spent about three hours in the Embassy just dropping off my paperwork (and sweating). But it worked and I'll pick up my visa tomorrow!

Laos was pretty great. I had expectations that I would love it infinitely, which I actually didn't, but I think my experience there was slightly tainted. In Luang Prabang I spent a couple days in the hospital with a friend who had gotten severely ill. The other days we went to a beautiful waterfall with cascading green pools of warm and welcoming water. And when Tess flew off to Singapore to seek proper medical care I hopped on the first bus to Vang Vieng, a beautiful small town where Westerner's go to party and tube. And buy buckets of alcohol that are very cheap. I had one really fun day of proper drinking then took off to the 4,000 islands in Southern Laos where the Mekong river splits up into (surprise) 4,000 islands. It was supposedly a place to go and relax, and that is exactly what we did. In fact there isn't anything to do there except relax. One day we rented bikes and biked to another island to see the second largest waterfall (by volume) in SE Asia. The other days we watched movies at Adams bar literally all day. It was fun though, the first time so far where I've done nothing with my day and it was pretty enjoyable. The food on the island was overpriced and extremely bland. And their currency - Kip - was so annoying it was unbelievable. 7,500 kip to 1 USD. Meals costed anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 kip, and the bus ride costed 260,000 kip. So you feel like you're spending a bunch of money, taking out 700,000 kip from the ATM, but in reality its only about $90.

Now I'm back in Bangkok at the wonderful hostel WE Bangkok. Its clean, nice and has working AC. The showers are deluxe. Bangkok is HOT. The food is good though and there is a ton of diversity. The sky train is my favorite way to get around, its a metro system in the air so when its moving you feel like you're floating. The city is so big I will never conquer it all but I have to say this time around its growing on me.

But I am excited to get out of Thailand and go to Myanmar (Burma). After that, Cambodia!!

Songkran

The craziest holiday I've ever heard of! Officially the Thai New Years, this three day celebration makes people go wild. Traditionally Buddha statues are cleansed with holy water. In modern times, it is a huge water fight! Its acceptable to drench anyone and everyone with water, even small children and old people. It's really great. The concentration of partying happens at the gate of the old city which is where I spent all day yesterday. They set up huge stages with music and foam, and there was water fill up stations every few feet. No one was without water. The hostel owns a truck that they took us around in. We had three huge barrels of water that we would dispense with buckets onto every passerby. It was a blast!! Today the celebration continues at the hostel but Im off to get a $5 massage first. In a few days Im going to Laos with my friend Tess from Canada! We're going to Luang Prabang first. It's going to be a long bus ride but well worth it.

New Hobby

MOTORBIKING!!!

SO fun. The best way I've discovered to see the country. Despite the fact that Tiffany and I had never ridden bikes before, we took off an a four day adventure called the Mae Hong Son loop and have loved it!! 1,000 kilometers and a few rain storms later, we made it safely. Have a long journey home tomorrow but its been worth the tribulations.

Finally some nature..Thai Style

My first two days in Chiang Mai were a bit disorienting. I wasn't sure what to do with myself and I was a bit nervous about being on my own. There is tons to do here but it is mostly tours outside of the city that cost good $$. I was initially thrown off because I don't think the city is particularly attractive, contrary to what everyone told me. But all my fears were quickly diminished. I took a Thai cooking course that was awesome. I'll be making Pad Thai for the rest of my life. It was a really fun evening and I befriended a big group of Aussies that invited me to stay in Melborne! Makes visiting even more tempting.

The next day I took off on a three day trek up through northern Thailand. This was spectacular. I finally felt in my element hiking through the jungle. I was with a group of three lovely girls from Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands that were all living together in Hong Kong. They were a blast and made the trip for me. The people was a group of Malaysians that were interesting (slow) but very friendly. On the first day we hiked a bit, rode elephants for a half hour which was terrible! I was pretty excited for it, but once we got on I realized it is completely overrated and only for tourist amusement. They had strapped seats on the backs of the elephants which was sad and it was a very bumpy ride. Our seat was falling off to one side so I had to climb on the neck of the beast. That part was fun, except his skin was so rough it hurt and after a while it was just boring. Elephants, by the way, are incredibly slow and it makes absolutely no sense to ride them. They're smart, but dont wish to be trained and kept stopping to eat whenever they pleased. Luckily that was a very small portion of the day and we spent the following three hours hiking through the jungle until we reached a small pool with a waterfall and enjoyed cooling off there. Slept the night in a "village" (once again only there for tourist amusement) that was made completely out of bamboo. That night the skies opened and unleashed one of the biggest rain storms I've ever seen. The lightening alone woke me up dozens of times.

Day two: we hiked about an hour in the morning, had lunch, and everyone else went rafting. I stayed behind and continued hiking with Kamon a 29 Thai guide who spoke minimal English. We hiked for three hours up a HUGE hill. It was exhausting but the views on top were so incredible!! We stopped at a bat cave where monks actually come and live for a year or two while they're studying to be monks. Incredibly minimal lifestyle. They had a platform set up in the cave for meditation which for me would be so creepy but I suppose also relaxing. That night we slept in anther bamboo hut, although this time in an actual village. It reminded me of Central America, I loved it. The little kids were all staring and I started drawing and had them replicate my drawings in my notebook. Although the evening was a little lonely, it was nice hiking on my own because I went at my pace and got to do extra things like the bat cave.

Day three (today): we hiked to another waterfall, this time one you could slide down. It was great. The trails are so wild, we walked through farm properties and schools and at one point another elephant reserve so I was actually hiking in between elephants for about ten minutes. Most of the farmers in these villages grow cabbage (which reflects beautifully off the sun), coffee, bananas, and mangos. The second part of my day was supposed to be rafting but I doubted they would send me down alone. I was wrong. And it was terrifying. Not the rafting itself, but getting there. Perhaps it was the truck that had no windshield, windows, or mirrors. Or the fact that I could see the road beneath my feet because the car had holes. Or the passenger door that didn't shut properly. Most likely a combination of all factors. Luckily it was a short drive and within ten minutes we were there. It was hilarious, the guy stops the car and says we're here. But you couldnt see the river and there was no one else around. I actually thought for a moment I would be rafting alone. Then a kid hops out of the truck bed and carries the raft down the hill on his head. He looked 14 although claimed to be 18, and was wearing jeans and a tshirt, no lifejacket or helmet. Again luckily there was only one rapid right where we put in and we almost capsized!! We started surfing the wave which is something I've done before and loved, in the grand canyon and on the Tuolonme but with real guides and a full boat. This time it was an accident and he didn't know how to get us out and the boat was entirely filled with water. I was just lauughing and laughing it was so comically scary.

I got back this afternoon and Im quite exhausted. The sunday night market is happening, where they shut down a major street downtown and people set up booths of amazing and cheap items. I will do some damage on my budget tonight, I know it. Im waiting for it to be fully set up before I begin to tackle it. Tomorrow Im taking off with Tiffany, a girl I met at the hostel and we're renting motorbikes and driving to Pai and other northern cities of Thailand for a few days. Then we're coming back here for Songkran, Thai New Years. After that, Laos :D

Meditation..

The meditation retreat did not go as planned. It was SO challenging, I ended up leaving early because I was unhappy. Our daily schedule was as such:

 

5am wake up

530 dharma talk with our Teacher Monk

7 breakfast

11 lunch (no eating allowed after this)

2 pm report to monk

6 pm chanting

930 must be sleeping (I was alseep by 9)/

 

It was mainly silent, I didnt speak for about 24 hours and felt crazy. Finally I broke the silence and talked to a younger girl there, who happened to be from San Jose, CA. She and her friend were only staying until the 5th and I immediatly decided to leave early with them. All the meals were supposed to be vegetarian but they all had a mysterious meat substance! I was very hungry, and I finally lost it this morning when the breakfast had what looked like steak in it. I decided immediatley to leave today, on the 4th.

 

The retreat was at a temple outside of Chiang Mai city, very far up on the hill. The other people there were of all ages, I was the youngest, many 30 year olds, and a couple older people. Mainly white although not American. Our living situations were nice, we each got private rooms in dormitories for men and women. During the day there was NOTHING to do but meditate, which is clearly the point, but hard to do when you've never really meditated before! The experience I have had has all been guided which is much more enjoyable. We were not allowed to read or sing or talk unless necessary. I thought it would be much different and I am  feeling better already that I left. Shout out to Elena, I would not have survived without my pistachios :)

 

So I left this morning and came to Chiang Mai which is where I'll be for the next two weeks. I am staying at Deejai Backpackers Hostel where Megan stayed and recommended. It is very cute. The owner informed me already they're going to have a huge Songkran party and they're fully booked for the holiday. Im really excited.