Bago to Mawlamyine with the local bus

At 5:30 AM it was still dark and somewhat cool in the air, the town was slowly coming alive with more and more traffic and a few open shops. We just sat there and waited, not really enjoying the place and then again it could be much worse. The bus for Mawlamyine would leave at 7:30 AM so it was only a couple of hours we needed to wait and at 7 ticket guy got a couple of scooter guys to drive us to the "bus station" to wait for the bus there.

The bus departed at 7:20 and we got the two last seats - at the back of the bus which was full of mattresses. A somewhat different experience than our VIP bus, but the windows were open and that made it up for AC - almost.

For the next 6 hours we slowly made our way south, a single stop on the way to Mawlamyine for lunch in an odd little village where they served local food for 500 Kyat and the young guy serving us spoke fluent English. This place is full of surprises. We made it to the bus station in Mawlamyine, left the mattress bus, got a tuk tuk, explained the hotel we wanted to go to a few times and made it to our place in 10 minutes, got the key to the room and rested for a while before going out and heading down the road. No internet, so we just had lunch the first place we passed by, getting food after a bit of help from the other customers with the English/Burmese translation. It it suddenly another world we are in.

Then we just walked down the road and bumped into a small coffee shop that turned out to serve kick-ass cappuccino. Another surprise. Two Belgian guys also rested there so we shared travel experiences with them before walking a bit more around the town and finally ending up walking along the river and enjoying the sunset. Heading back to the hotel we rested some more and decided not to go anywhere for dinner. Just a couple of beers at the hotel. Another day of walking around town tomorrow.

Early morning in Bago

Monks 

En route to the other bus station

Local bus to Mawlamyine

Sharing the seat with a bunch of mattresses

The oldest and wisest man in Myanmar

Soup for lunch

Crossing the river

Great afternoon coffee and doughnut

Old Christian church

Fried eggs for dinner??

River sunset

Preparing another load for the laundry fairy