Mandalay to Hsipaw in a shared taxi

The nice ladies at the reception asked us last night if it was OK to share the back seat of the taxi with another customer. Of course. It also meant we were quite certain to share with two others. Maybe back packers.

Breakfast at the hotel, get all our stuff from the room, head down to taxi, and then out in busy Mandalay traffic. First stop some kind of office for our driver. He left without a word and came back ten minutes later giving us some time to look at Mandalay morning life this morning. Then we headed out into the suburbs and he started to call and - presumably - ask for directions. Then more waiting before a monk and a local guy appeared, loaded bags in the trunk and got in the car - one of them. Then we drove off. Next stop same routine, except we picked up a young monk. We spent a little more than an hour on the two pick ups.

Then we headed towards Hsipaw - our destination - maybe some six hours away from Mandalay. The first hour with busy traffic, lots of big trucks hauling goods to and from the Chinese border some days of driving away. The roads here a small and not really designed for this kind of traffic but our driver managed to overtake on the right places and after a couple of hours we had our first stop - some small town on the road where we pulled over, our driver got out and left without a word. So we hung out around the car, the monk still sitting in there paying attention to his smart phone and the other customer heading for early lunch.

It also gave us the opportunity to observe something we haven't seen anywhere else on the planet - "Car watering". A car would park in front of the restaurant, the driver would get out, find an available hose, open for the water and start to rinse the wheels - presumably to cool the brakes and then open the hood to the engine and jam the hose down there with the water running and leave for his break - our driver did exactly the same. We made jokes about them making sure that the thirsty elephant got enough to drink at the stops along the way and cars must need the same. Only in Myanmar.

We left and drove further towards Hsipaw, stopping just one other time, about an hour away from the town, this time in the early afternoon and Mikkel went from a cautious lunch. Didn't want to wake the dragon from yesterday and then also in need of food.

We arrived at the hostel at around 3 PM, got our room at "Mr. Charles" place and once done with the practicalities of arriving we went outside to look for a day trip to the mountains with perhaps the option to stay at a local family for the night. Turned out all the guides didn't return until 4 PM, so no one to sell in the mean time. So we went for a walk and realised just how small Hsipaw is. When we came back the guides where there, including a lot of other back packers. After some time we managed to get in contact with one of them and get half the explanation about the trip options. Turned out that we were the first one to commit ourselves to the two day hike starting tomorrow, so it was only when there was a group of 4-7 persons that the price would be 30.000 Kyat per person. It took a while to find out if they would do the trip with only the two of us and what the price would be then.

We left for another walk around town having signed up for the trip but not having paid. Among all the two story houses in town there are a few bigger and way newer buildings standing out - one of them being the high rise hotel called "Lily the home". We went in and spoke to Lily, she had a trip starting tomorrow and the group would only be 6-8 persons going on another trail than the rest of the tourists. We signed up and paid and headed back to our room at Mr. Charles place, telling the guides there that we were not going tomorrow. Early start tomorrow, and packing for an overnight stay as well tonight.

Mandalay view from our hotel room

Our shared taxi

Another shared taxi

The car is thirsty - we think

Down and up narrow roads

Back to local food for lunch

Checking out the local market in Hsipaw

Also checking out the local shakes

And the local sunset

Bus from Huaraz to Mancora beach in less than 24 hours (Huaraz-Trujillo-Chiclayo-Mancora)

We woke up on the bus to the bus attendant announcing our early arrival in Trujillo. Night busses always seem to be early for some reason. The bus terminal and Trujillo is brand new and looked more like an airport when we left the bus. We got our luggage and waited inside the terminal with the rest of the passengers. It was still dark outside and the only action around were two guys cleaning the floor of the main terminal area and the woman selling tickets to the toilets. Everything else was closed.

After 20 minutes another bus arrived at the terminal and Malene spotted the sign in the window of the bus saying "Chiclayo". Malene tried her luck and asked the bus driver if there was room for two more. 20 Soles and we were on our way. A bit excited to see if we actually got it right from the driver who seemed to be a bit grumpy this morning only mumbling a few phrases in Spanish as he loaded our luggage on the bus.

We did head North - next leg of the journey and we were unexpectedly on our way. Originally we had planned for being "stuck" in Trujillo spending the day at a cafe and maybe going to the ruins, but now we headed out of town and the sun had just cleared the horizon.

We arrived at Chiclayo around 9:30 in the morning, the bus station for our bus company being more like a small and crowded courtyard with passengers trying to get off and taxi drivers trying to get new customers. We got our luggage, fended most of the taxi drivers off, asked at the ticket office whether they had a service going North to Mancora - which they didn't. A nice tuk-tuk driver offered to take us to a bus company that did have service to Mancora and we had our luggage tied on to his tuk and raced through the busy morning traffic. On the way he asked if we wanted to go for the morning or evening service - morning, please. It turned out it left at 10 AM so we had around 5 minutes left before departure when he pulled over in front of the bus terminal. Malene ran in to get tickets, Mikkel took care of the luggage and then we just had to wait for a while for our slightly delayed service to Mancora. The bus was almost full this morning, a good indication that there aren't that many services going North. We were happy, now being on the bus for our final destination at least 12 hours before expected and even though the guy in front of us insisted on listening to crap salsa music on his mobile phone it didn't spoil the experience.

Looking out the windows there wasn't much to cheer about. A few dusty towns, dry desert and lots of trash. The whole stretch of road littered with plastic bags and other waste blowing around in the wind.

We arrived in Mancora at the main square where the bus off loaded most of the passengers and cargo. 922 kilometres in little more than 17 hours including three different busses. Not bad at all. The bus arriving at Mancora created the usual stampede of passengers, tuk tuk and taxi drivers the latter wanting business. Mikkel took care of getting the luggage while Malene found a tuk tuk and then we headed back out of town again, 2 minutes on the paved road and then 15 on a small dusty road running along the ocean. Just one unplanned stop on the way when the road got so bumpy that Mikkels back pack decided to jump off the back of the tuk tuk.

Then we made it to our place - or at least the place we had reserved for tomorrow. We found the guy taking care of the place and he was a bit confused to see us a day early but we got our bungalow - right on the beach and the place seemed very quiet. In fact it was only us staying there and one other guy. Julio - the guy looking after the place - cooked dinner for us and we had a couple of well deserved pisco sours for the sunset. We didn't bother going our looking for food or drinks. We just needed a bed that didn't move tonight please. We only have to listen to the waves crashing on the shore tonight. Wonderful.

5:30 AM unloading at the bus terminal

Chiclayo - have to look for the next bus

We love tuk tuks

Finally at Mancora

Two very well deserved drinks and the sun set

Can never have too much ceviche

Drive to Lake Ogii and dice game in the ger camp

Back on the truck again. We haven't been with our truck for a full week, but this morning we left early to drive west towards lake Ogii. The weather had changed since yesterday so it was grey sky with clouds and a bit of rain in the morning. Perfect day for driving. We had a lunch stop a some not so interesting ruins in the middle of no where. The Khar Bukh Balgas ruins are part of and old fortress and were really interesting to walk around and think about who'd been there hundreds of years ago. There is a small building next to the ruins labeled "Museum" but it is nothing more than a shed containing some artefacts found around the site.

We had lunch at the ruins before we headed for the Ger camp at lako Ogii. Gers are the same as yurts which we have stayed at in Kirgistan and China.

Arriving there in the afternoon the lake just waited for us to dive in, so we went swimming as soon as we could. Enjoying the hot weather, the sun and the cold lake was fantastic. And when a herd of wild horses also appeared we could just enjoy them as they also went for a drink and a swim in the lake.

Our ger camp was very nice, located on a hill side where we could enjoy the sun on the terrace. We had dinner and then we played dice (Snyd) with some of the others from our group. It included Carl's Chinese no-label rice wine. 

The sun sets late here in Mongolia. Just like a Danish summer, around 10.30 pm so there was plenty of time for playing dice and drinking in the evening. It is good to be back on the road again.

Leaving UB

Alice

Lunch group

Mongolian style  (Chinese style is also rubbing your stomach)

Dodjo - our Mongolian guide

Entering the tiny museum at the ruins

Truck and museum in the background

Goat, horse or sheep?

Ruins

Stupa

Christa and Daniella

Ger camp

Dodjo, Autumn and Mikkel

Evening sunset in Mongolia