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Published: April 12th 2006
I needed to leave Mandalay. The sun, the heat, the poverty, but oh how I love the chapattis.
I hoped in a taxi to Pyu Oo Luwin. A little town with not much in it besides a few hotels, some cool Botanical Gardens, and a waterfall that i never ended up making it out too. Somehow I managed to spend 3 days and three nights there.
The last night my hotel owner stopped by and decided to generously share his fifth of Johnny Walker Black Label with me, while we watched "Spider Man II." Well after the movie at about 6:30pm he said goodbye and left me by myself and the drunkest that I've been in a while. I headed down to the closest restaurant where I made some pretty funny videos on my camera. Unfortunately you can't put videos on this site, but you'll just have to see them when i get home.
I then headed over to the billiards place where we played a game, which should be called "Screw the Foreigner out of Money." I didn't really know what was going on, but it involved a deck of cards and at the end
No Chicken in Northern Myanmar
Because they found Bird flu about 15miles from Mandalay, the whole country is scared of chicken. Luckily their media is that good so I've been eating chicken in some parts.I owed everyone 3,400 Kyat ($3) luckily I played stupid and they didn't make me pay. One guy offered to give me a ride to the train station the next morning. His English was pretty limited but he owned the Beitel Nut Shop and was a solid guy.
Getting to Hsipaw
Option A. $10 2hr dollar taxi rideto next town.
Option B. $2 7hr Train ride through the lovely country side.
Duh!!!
The train ride was actually really pretty and not that uncomfortable. Taking Ordinary class for 2 dollars was a great idea, because there was no difference between 1st and ordinary besides the price. Everytime we stopped people were yelling, women were carrying food on their heads selling Samosas, and other fried goods. Amazing. One of my favorite days on this trip.
Arrived in lovely Hsipaw.
In this town almost every businessman or person that speaks english has a name starting with MR.
Hence I stayed at MR. Charles Guesthouse (not a good place, I swear he's mafia connected), ate at Mr Food, bought books from none other than Mr. Book.
Hsipaw is a really relaxed town, where time
Nice Gardens
Really expensive though. 200 for locals. 4,000 for foreigners. seems to fly by. I met a really good group of travelers at the guesthouse, and with some help from my good conspiracy loving Canadian pal Arch (if that's his real name), we got jeep together with 6 people and ventured 49 mile north to Namhsan. I shared the back standing area of the jeep with Adrien. Actually ended up being pretty comfortable. In total we crammed 7 people into a 4 seater jeep.
You think 49 miles might take us 3hours at the most. You have no idea how bad these roads were and the pictures really don't do it justice. One flat tire and one steering console we arrived in Namhsan 9 hours later.
Namhsan was super chill. Our room was about $2 including dinner.
I met so many awesome people in Hsipaw. Including: an awesome acoustic band who treated to rice wine and fried bugs. Mr. Knowledge who I played tennis with and who also took me to eat lunch with a famous monk. And I finally got to sit down with someone and talk Politics. Thanks to whom it may concern
All in all it was an amazing trip, and a nice
Horse Carriages?
I guess it's left over from the British. Popular form of transport in Pyu Oo Luwin break from outside world.
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Leonard Leopard
non-member comment
Great Blog and Great Photos
Especially liked two of them: 1. You Have No Idea - a classic, and a prize winner. 2. Adam and the Monkies - but which one is Adam? Enjoy your travels, Howard and Evi