Hpa-an to Pathein with local busses - a very long day on the road

Alarm set for 5 AM, we left the hotel at 5:45 and walked to the corner of the road and waited for our 6 AM bus. No traffic this early in the morning except for the odd scooter or local bus passing by. And so we waited, and waited and waited some more asking the few big buses that passed by if they were "Lion bus for Yangon". No luck

Eventually the Lion bus showed up, we got our seat (no mattresses this time) and enjoyed the equivalent of water boarding - being stuck for 6 hours in a local bus in Myanmar. AC set to "frozen" and the TV showing the DVD with monks chanting for the hour of our trip. Not being on the local-local bus which stops to pick up everybody we actually made good progress on our route. After the first hour the DVD was changed to local Karaoke and later to some version of Myanmar "The Bold and the Beautiful". It truly was a long way to Rangoon. But we made it.

Arriving in Yangon wasn't as bad as expected. Traffic was busy but no gridlocks, the bus station - one of them - is located a bit outside the city so it was relatively easy to get there and then we just had to get confirmation that the bus for Pathein left from "the other" bus station. And find a way there. The taxi drivers started with their usual crazy prices but we found one who would take us across town for around 8000 Kyat. Starting price 15000. He started the taxi, we loaded the bags, got in on the back seat and then the driver ran away. We waited for 5 minutes, then left the taxi, found another driver, haggled the price, got in his taxi and the same happened. He left to find another customer.

After some 20 minutes we finally left for our 45 minute drive across town, experiencing a bit of crazy and crowded Yangon traffic. The taxi driver made it to the Western bus station just before 2 PM, dropped us off right in front of the bus to Pathein, we bought tickets and the bus left about 2 minutes later only to stop after some 300 metres of driving and then wait 15 minutes for two extra passengers. You have to muster your utmost of patience in this country when travelling around.

The drive to Pathein wasn't as bad as feared. We had estimated some five to six hours but we made it there just before 6 PM before sunset. For the first time in a while we didn't have a hotel room reserved in advance so we had a couple of guys taking us on mopeds to the city centre and then walked around looking for a room which we found after a short while.

Check in and then we headed out for late lunch/early dinner right around the corner before walking a bit around town. There was a small nigh market at the river and by coincidence we bumped into a guy - James - who was local and relatively fluent in English. After chatting with him for a while we agreed to be picked up in the morning at 9:30 outside the hotel and he would show us around town. Great start to our visit in Pathein.

6 AM  - waiting for bus

Chanting DVD

Karaoke DVD - they love the water festival

Morning break

Off loading in Yangon

Finally on the way with a taxi

Ready for the next bus ride

And a moped to the city centre

At the hotel in Pathein - 4 guys carried our luggage to the room

Curry dinner - again

Night market flowers

Fruit seller woman with local sunscreen

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