Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: 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.