You're travelling, it'll happen at some point.

It's how you deal with the situation.



Having left Mawlamyine it was now time for Hpa-an from where you can undertake a few daytrips. On the day of arrival I rented a bike to explore some of Hpa-ans surroundings, which made for a very leisurely cruise. The hostel had provided me with a map which was just about as useful as giving a snake rollerblades. I pride myself in being able to read maps quite well but this schematic map had me scratching my head and cursing the thing more times than I care to remember. Eventually I did find some of the signs but not after many awkward moments of asking for directions from people who don’t speak a word of English (nor I Burmese obviously). One of the sites was a strange looking carst mountain on top of which they had built a pagoda (what else? Throw in something refreshing for a change, maybe a giant Luke Skywalker or something like that). Saw a garden full of Buddha statues and got once again hopelessly lost trying to find some famous caves. With the incoming rain closing in on my I thought it be perfect moment to call it a day and decided to ignore all traffic laws and flew back home. I thought it be only fair if some other people had to curse something as well that day, so why not be the subject of their cursing.

Hpa-an was no different in any of the other cities so far so there was no nightlife, this is something which is really starting to affect my health. After all the hard work in the Philippines I fear I shall lose some of my beer weight and might risk living healthy again. To add on to that fear I decided to climb a nearby mountain the next day. The bible told me Mt Zwegabin could be climbed in a demanding two hours so as everything is of course a race I was going to do it in a lot less than that. The climb was more a giant staircase than a hike but even so doing it on flip flops was a bad decision. Doing it bare feet gave me only a bit more grip but it did make it more fun because of the added risk.
After almost half of the allotted time I had reached the summit and was positively knackered, the view was rewarding though.
It’s only fair if you race up that you race down as well, but there were a few hick-ups there. Over some sections of the path / stairs down was a permanent stream of water which apparently formed a feeding bed for slippery algae. After my Vietnam-slippery-floor-busted-shoulder-incident, I know have a healthy fear of these surfaces so I proceeded with care but still slipped on the stairs and was very thankful for the bannister. Adrenaline speedily coursing through my veins I was not planning on doing this again. Yet on a flat surface I had to cross another algae infested spot. I carefully placed on foot on it and was then helpless as it started to glide away, I had to step on it with my other foot too and continued gliding. One side was a steep drop, the other side was a rocky wall, gravity steered me towards the drop. With both feet and hands on the floor I was not able to change my course but luckily an overhanging rock was just within reach.
Both feet on dry surface again I had a nervous laugh and looked at the drop and thanked my lucky stars that I wasn’t down there but made it “safely” to dry ground again. Still managed to descend in a half the time the book told me, but I have rarely been happier to make it down a mountain in one piece.

As a way to save time on travelling, which believe me takes a lot of time in Myanmar we took an overnight bus to Yangon to continue on to Pyay. We reached Yangon around 3 am and we got lucky by catching the next bus at 3:30 to Pyay. The bus was comfortable enough to sleep for the majority of the part and we arrived in are next destination at 9’ish. Found a new hostel and all was good until I checked my bag.
I had travelled for 8 months in central America where everyone I knew got robbed or stolen from in one way or another but I had walked away squeaky clean, yet in the country where everyone says is one of the safest in the world I managed to get robbed. I wasn’t even on guard because of all these stories, however they got into my bag whilst I was sleeping and got away with the equivalent of $260 to $300 us dollars. They just stole the content of my wallet which was nice since they left my cards and shit, but when I noticed they stole my sunglasses things got personal.
With the newly acquired information I now had to go to the local police and report the theft. Remember that this place is not on the normal tourist trail so don’t expect a lot of English. I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing and decided to view at it as an interesting experience to view Myanmar’s finest in action. As it turned out they don’t really seem to have a protocol to go by. They are champs in asking the same questions over and over again though, however irrelevant. What’s your name, where are you from, what’s your father’s name, what do you do, how old are you, where are you from, what happened, did you know the person who stole from you??!!
Well Sir, if I’d been awake for that I’d probably tell him to stop whatever he was doing however dire his needs.
Many hours were spend witnessing the police do their job (or you might say many hours were wasted) but it was all to little avail. Finally we were cut loose and could go about are day of sightseeing. We saw an archaeological site but it failed to impress and after braving the heat for too many hours we decided it was time for beers,
After a quick shower we were once again greeted by the police for some more essential questions. How old are you? What are you doing here? Have you got siblings? What was your last job? When did you get into Myanmar? Etc etc etc.
After all that beer had never tasted that good.

Next day we were taken out on a tour by a group of charming ladies and a boy who were all English students. They wanted to take us around the area and we were more than happy to take them up on it, I could do with some positive energy. We went to some pagoda and had a marvellous lunch and had great talks. I got to get my teacher on and learn about the students and about their customs.

Against better judgement we had another overnight bus to Bagan, but this one proved to be without any funny business. Not that I slept a wink anyway, it was a nightmare bus that would easily be put in my top 5 worst bus experiences.
In Bagan I cycled around town which I immensely enjoyed. I would’ve been temped out soon enough if it wasn’t for the cycling in between which made it fun. There’s temples all over the place here, some dating back to a 1000 years ago but some might be just years old. The combination of exercise with the sights worked perfectly for me.

Never change a winning formula, so I cycled around for the second day as well and loved it once again. Sort of went wherever the road took me but it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed Bagan and all it had on offer. All good things come to an end though so next stop is Mandalay.

To be continued.