Yangon to Shanghai

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This entry focuses on my journey from Yangon, Myanmar back to Shanghai, China. Two cities that are about as different as two Asian cities can be. During this journey I also spent time in Bangkok and Guangzhou. Seeing as this was at least my second time in all of these places, there are not many pictures associated with this entry.

I arrived back in Yangon on June 5th and checked back into the hostel I had stayed in when I was last there. With my financial situation in dire straits I checked into a dorm room and spent the afternoon writing in my journal. At 6 P.M. my Burmese friend Tonee came by and I accompanied him on another night of English tutoring. We shared a final Indian style dinner together and I gave him my Myanmar guidebook as he seemed very interested in it. I bid him goodbye and got back to the dorm around 10, noticing that there was now another guy in there with me. It turned out that this guy was from Woodstock, Ontario and had been traveling in Asia for six months. It was great to meet someone with a common background and we stayed up late into the night talking Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays (Toronto sports teams).

The next day I rode the free hostel shuttle to the airport for my scheduled flight back to Bangkok. At the airport I was told of a $10 U.S. departure tax which up until that moment I had been unaware of. This was not good as I only had $2 U.S. in my pocket. Luckily for me a generous stranger gave me the $8 U.S. I needed, saying that a similar thing had happened to her in Africa. I thanked her profusely and then walked to my gate completely penniless. I left Myanmar wishing I had the time and money to see more, but also looking forward to my return to the 21st century in Bangkok.

I returned to Bangkok, a city that was becoming a home away from home, as this would be my fourth separate time in the city. Bangkok on June 6th was still under a state of emergency, but for me it seemed more calm and normal than I had ever seen it. The streets were quiet and the city was no longer a daily fixture in the international news. I settled in for a couple days to work on my increasingly time-delayed blog, and to try and figure out a route back to Shanghai.

On this occasion Bangkok was a city full of ghosts for me. On a short walk I would pass the Indian restaurant where Becca and I shared our last dinner, and the no frills guesthouse I stayed with Duncan and Curtis. Each restaurant and cafe held happy memories that would chase me like wraiths down deserted streets. I love Bangkok, but this time the city did not seem to be the place that it remained in my memory. I believe that travel can be made or broke by the people that you share it with, and for me this was vivid proof of this theory. Without my friends, Bangkok just seemed like any other sprawling Asian metropolis that I had passed through. Although it did still have $1 fruit shakes and $0.30 spring rolls, so that definitely helped dull the pain.

From the 6th to the 8th I set about updating my blog by utilizing Bangkok's plethora of internet cafes. I was able to publish an entry on each day and upload lots of photos by taking advantage of the faster connections on Khao San Road. I ate at all times of the day and also caught up on my emails. Most importantly, it was during this, my fourth time in Bangkok, that for the first time I seriously began to consider going home. I knew I still had some adventures left in me but I was also beginning to miss home and the people I cared about.

After three productive days in Bangkok I flew to Guangzhou, China on June 8th. I would have liked to fly directly to Shanghai but with Air Asia that would have involved a costly and counterproductive connection in Kuala Lumpur. I arrived in Guangzhou at midnight and due to the city's rather dangerous reputation, I was advised to spend the night at an airport hotel. I decided to follow this wise advice and checked into a very Chinese style hotel. Although the room was nice and well furnished, it came with a squat toilet and smelled like years of cigarette smoke. Lets just say that I was happy to leave the next morning for the train station to try and find a ticket to Shanghai. As it turned out, the train was completely sold out and I would have to wait until the next morning to leave. I checked into another thoroughly local hotel close to the station and set off to explore China's third largest city; Guangzhou.

I can say that after this second visit to Guangzhou I still have mostly negative feelings about the place. A sprawling city of tall buildings and wide avenues, with a crime problem that is fairly unique in China. Just another Chinese city with several million people and little to no soul. The Cantonese cuisine is good but that is about the only thing I can say I really enjoyed about Guangzhou.

The next morning I boarded the hard sleeper compartment for my 21 hour ride to Shanghai. I had the top bunk (Of three) which can be hard to get into/out of and is not really roomy enough for a Caucasian male to sit up in. As a result, I spent most of the journey horizontal, either dozing, reading, or listening to music. For dinner I went to the dining car where I was the only foreigner in sight, and as a result the only one who didn't understand the all Chinese menu. I ended up just guessing and picking the option that had the most interesting looking Chinese characters. This gave me some sort of mystery meat in a gooey liquid that was the opposite of appetizing.

I arrived in Shanghai looking forward to spending a few days with Sean, seeing the World Expo, and figuring out the rest of my trip.

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Photos

Squat Toilet
This is not what you want to see when you check into a hotel room.

A Pay Phone in Myanmar
People lined up to make phone calls. Not much privacy in this system.

The Tarmac at Yangon Airport
In a word, empty.

Guangzhou Hotel Warning
The hotel by the train station had a poster full of warnings to tourists. This one warned of a "Sexual Procurist, who would steal your money after your copulation."

Guangzhou Train Station
One of China's biggest and busiest stations. A seething mass of humanity.

Migrant Workers
Thousands of migrant workers from rural China sit outside the station and wait for relatives and hopefully jobs.