Yangon Part 2

We had about almost a full day left in Yangon, before our night bus to Mandalay. There did not seem like a whole lot left to do in Yangon, so our only goals were to visit the Botataung Paya and to see the view of Yangon from the Sakura Tower.



The Botataung Paya was...not as impressive as the Shewdagon Paya. (admission $2) (I am pretty sure this statement wil hold true, since the Shewdagon Paya is the most grand and famous paya in all of Myanmar). Usually, the zedi (stupas) are solid, but the neat thing about this one was that the zedi was hollow, and you can see the hair relic of Buddha. ( We didn't REALLY see it since it was enshrined and displayed at a distance.) Walking inside the zedi was a little overwhelming; it was completely painted in gold, and there were large gates guarding the shelves of little Buddha statues. It felt a little claustrophobic at times. And there were people asking for money as we walked around (even a monk! I couldn't believe it.)

Inside the zedi


We finally reached the Sakura Tower, but when we went to the top, we would have to pay a pretty penny just for the view. The meals were about 6 times as much as the street food. Not too surprised, we went back down and decided to go back a little early to catch up on email before going to Mandalay.

And speaking of internet, it is pretty darn slow in Myanmar. Our hotel was charging $1 USD per hour, but we found a place across the road for only 300K per hour (about $.038). We can access Gmail, but not Yahoo or Hotmail. Facebook is ok. Not really feeling the need to spend any money on internet just to check email makes me want to put it off. I wasn't going to check everyday cos I don't get much emails anyways. The occasional ones I send to family to let them know I am ok is fine enough.

And now, part 2 of the day....the bus ride.

Our bus to Mandalay was leaving at 7pm, with an arrival time of 7am (12 hour bus ride...wee! You'd never think of riding Greyhound in the US for that long, right?) . Our hotel told us it would take about an hour to get there, and it was already 5:45pm Andi, Martin (a Czech traveler), and I tried to catch a cab at the very last minute and managed to get one taxi for K6000 (K2000 each). The clock in the cab gave us a little scare, but we learned it was running fast. But before you know it, we got into the bus station early, at 6:30pm. This was probably the oddest station I had been in, because it seemed like another whole neighborhood! We entered through these gates, and usually, you will see a couple rows of buses, but instead, we saw tons of food and snack stands, with some buses spread out around every corner. It was huge. Our taxi driver had to ask where our bus was located, because it was really that big of a place.

Having taken long bus rides Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, I had some low expectations for Myanmar buses and roads (although I read the roads are better than Laos). But it turned out to be one of the more comfortable buses I had been on. They were old buses from Japan (I am guessing 1970s, based on decor), with plenty of leg room and seats that reclined for sleeping. Andi and I had the second to last row, with no one behind us (in the beginning), so it was a good set up.

I tried to stay awake so I would fall asleep at a normal time. This was a dumb idea, because little did I know, not only would we stop for multiple rest stops, but we would be forced to get off the bus during those stops as well. This doesn't sound like a bad thing in the beginning, but when you are just about to fall asleep, it's time for a stop, even at 4am. And the weather is probably 10 degrees cooler than the previous city. The last several buses I took in other countries didn't make you get out of the bus if you were sleeping.

Another thing, a couple of the bus workers went to the back seats to fall asleep, but one fellow in particular was super annoying, and just plain creepy. In the Buddhist countries, it's a big no-no to touch someone on the head, but apparently, this guy had no problem doing that to me and Andi. At first, I thought he was just being nice to us, because he would lightly push my head against the headrest, to indicate for me to go to sleep, but he did it so often, it got super annoying. At one point, he even smelled my head! It was so bizarre and just plain creepy! Later, I found out from Andi, he was trying to get her to lay in the backseat with him. Gross. I was so happy to get off the bus when we arrived. The ride was fine except for that guy and the rule to get off the bus.