Markets and walkabout to the Bay of Bengal. April /May 2012

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This country is amazing , it really is the place that time forgot . Everywhere downtown are people sitting at tables with telephones with cables 10´s of meters long connecting them to the nearest telephone socket , people come along make a phone call and chuck a few coins in a tin then carry on , no cell phones here ( well there is one network for the extreme rich) and no telephone booths either . The vehicles are mostly all 30 years plus old and the pavements nearly non existent.No tall skyscrapers and no flashing neon lights.The men wear a sarong , which is like a wrap around skirt with Buddhist monks everywhere to be seen.

Auntie S. took me for breakfast to her local favourite foodhall and we ate at 9 am a nice chicken and rice dish , the idea of this a few months ago would have made me want to throw up but but it was fine , just need to come out of your box and go with the flow ! I was now a bloody dab hand at using chop sticks ,most of the time this was the only way to eat the dishes served in SE Asia.It was a case of having to ! .

She wanted to cook traditional Burmese food that night so we went to a market , the good thing about this it really is authentic , everywhere in foreign lands you see adverts for " real authentic this or that " which is mostly a show put on for us tourists , but I try to live the real authentic experiences which often turn out to be amazing but without frills , that is the best part of it .So the market was authentic i.e. it was a shithole , when I say a shithole i really mean it . The smell was overwheelming they were slaughtering live stock on every corner albeit chicken , goat or god knows what and the blood and shit runs onto the wooden pallet flooring . Flys everywhere and the noise amazing , hussle, bussle , bartering , shouting , laughter , screaming everything possible and of course the intense heat . No hygiene rules here , 40° heat and freshly skinned goat ( actually watched an old woman ( looked like a witch) skin a goats head which was interesting ) pig , fish you name it laying out on tables ready to be sold , god and I was going to eat this tonight ? Again I was as a white man the center of attention and I was glad that Aunty S would take me by the arm so show that we were there together . She bought the stuff she needed , fish , chicken and veg and off we went to a store to get beer . She bought a few bottles and put them inher bag , now we were going up stairs so I offere to carry the bags only to be told that as she was the woman she had to carry it and I should walk in front of her up the stairs as it is the mans right to be in front ! Well this was al stange to me but was eager to repect their customs , poor Aunty , that bag was really heavy !

She took the stuff home and I stayed in Yangon to have a look around , it was amazing and like being in a film , I saw a mentally handicapped lad about 12 years old wandering around through an outside market only to be thrashed with sticks from the people who were shooing him away, poor bugger I wanted to help but thought better not, a Buddhist monk walked past and did the same , just pushed him out of the way nearly throwing the poor lad to the floor .This was sad .

I needed to go walkabout again preferably to the coast and asked Aunty for advice. She suggested a place called Chaungta and / or Ngwe Saung.To get there is very difficult about 700km away on the most rundown of roads and roughly 50 year old buses. This was going to be fun .!She asked around and got a local bus company to take me for about 10 US$ and arranged accomodation there for a good price, She gave me directions written in Burmese whcih said " my name is Simon and my destination is Chaungta with the bus line---- I speak no Burmese " So with this in hand off I went,easy ! The taxi came at 4am to take me to the bus station which was 20km away.On arrival it was chaos , it was dark, thousands of people running around and about 100 buses , the 40 or so ticket offices on a football sized muddy, piss smelling yard , there were people selling there refreshments for the travellers it was chaos , just like at the market , horns beeping, people shouting , vendors screaming what they had to offer and bus engines running all with brocken exhausts ! It was drak , I was tired and had no idea where to go , I asked the taxi driver who just shrugged his shoulder and held his hand out for the fare, but I declined until I knew what bus kiosk I had to go to , he asked someone and they said the yellow one in the corner, they were all wooden shacks and appeared in the dark all to have the same coloured had written signs outside. But I gave the driver his money and he zoomed off leaving me there. Lúckily I was travelling light , I left my suticase and valubles ( credit cards etc, ) at Aunty S´s , I knew I could trust her so I was not to bothered about getting robbed , I did actually find out later that crime is non existent here , the punishments are to extreme, I got told infact if I was to drop my wallet or money people wouild run after me to go and get it in fear of being accused of theft ! I walked to one corner and showed a number of poeple my handwritten instructions and eventually got pointed in the right direction , but I am sure they were taking the piss out of me behind my back ! but who can blame them ? I was again the only whiteface to be seen in this chaos, I was too tired and confused to enjoy it though . I went to the kiosk to show them my handwritten paper and tripped over a telephone line, god these damn cables are everywhere , and his telephone went flying onto the muddy, shitty floor .. ooops ! He read it and shouted something , and everyone just shrugged there shoulders then a lad about 12 or 13 years old asleep on bags of rice woke up looked at me and said in english " Are you Mister Simon ?" Now I was suprised and blurted " well yes, actually I am " He said someting in Burmese to the guy who then smiled and gave me a ticket , the lad said I have to wait here and he would tell me when the bus is ready to go ! This was amazing ! Aunty S had arranged for this kid to wait there for me , how amazing was that ?

The bus was ready to go , god this thing was old ! They loaded chickens, rice and lots of other stuff on and we ready to rock and roll . It was full and people were sitting in the aisles as even the roof was occupied .I got "priority " treatment and got seated at the front . It was like a wooden seat and I was squashed in a corner but compared to the other travellers this was a luxury, I wish they would stop starring at me though !

The roads were deathly and barely wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass but this never made the driver slow down,. They had a lad on board about 10 years old and his job was to hang out of the doors to make sure there was no oncoming traffic when the driver needed to overtake a tractor , cow or something .It was hairy he would hang right out and give a thumbs up to the driver, our life lied in the judgement of a 10 year old kid hanging out of a bus travelling about 60 km/h on makeshift roads !

I thought the Vietnam/ Cambodian buses were old fashioned but this took the piss entirely, it was however an amazing experience.We would stop at evey temple and the kid would get out and take an offering off food or flowers to lay on the steps of the temple , then a monk would come out and throw water on the bus and directly in front to drive over , this happend about 10 times in 8 hours of the bus ride .We drove through partial jungles, over bridges that creaked and groaned as they were so old and falling to pieces and over the deepest of potholes, by bum and back were killling but this was an expericene never to be forgotten.

We made a few stops and I ventured into one of the local public toilets , again I nearly threw , the contents that the public relieved themselves off literaly went down a pipe into an open pit next to the foodhall, with the 40°+ temperature the smell was overpowering but a man has to do what a man has to do !

On arriving to my destination, I was the first to enlite, the bus just stopped on what was now barely a dirt track on the edge of the jungle to the left and Bay of Bengle to the right and the driver signalled for me to get off , but there was no civilisation to be seen! I was scared and asked where were we ? He just said in brocken english " off bus sir, off bus " ..then to my utter amazement this guy came out off the jungle side of the track from nowhere , came to my window and said " Are you Mister Simon ? " I was gobbed smacked and half expected a camera crew to follow thinking it was a wind up ! " well yes I am ! I blurted, " Very good , here is your stop Sir " he said .. so off I got ! Aunty S , you are amazing to have organised all this , I salute you ! I follwed him for about an hour through the jungle track untill we hit the coast and there was a hotel / hostel , my home for the next few days ! It was a Burmese resort , full of only Burmese holiday makers.This was fun and I was smiling to myself .

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Photos

VIP
VIP seat , bum hurt after 8 hours like this

Big famous lake
Can´t remember the name

The M25
Under construction

Sunset
They are so awesome in Asia

The team
Me with Aunty.s´s sister and the maids

Checkpoint
Had to stop here , no idea why but there was a lot of chanting

Bridge
It creaked and groaned

Comments

[inga]

so interesting
another wonderful morning i had reading your blog. thanks

[DrWho1967]

Thank you ver replying and I am glad you enjoy reading this . Please ignore all my bad spelling mistakes : )