I didn’t have a flashlight and my friend’s was dying, so we decided to just lay down where we were. Not that we had any other options. It was a little after 3am and nothing was open even if we had been able to see it. We felt around for an area that didn’t give [read more…]
A Burmese Train — Seeing Myanmar in Slow Motion
First of all, it was hot. The temperature outside was around 40 degrees Celsius and it felt like twice that in the cramped car. We were near a window so we figured we would get a nice breeze once the train started moving. We didn’t realize that the train would never really start moving. It [read more…]
Welcome to Shwebo Mr. ATM
The next two hours were pretty uneventful and even relatively pain free, since my knee caps had been thoroughly liquefied by this point. We did pass a road construction site on the way and had to wait for a bit as a group of slaves broke up rocks with hammers and placed them into [read more…]
Arrival in Mandalay
Once at the station, we boarded our bus to Mandalay and it actually was quite luxurious compared to the one we were just on and just about every other bus I would ride for the next month. The main perk you get when you pay more money is one seat per person and the fact [read more…]
Mitsubishi Pajero – Finally A Ride For Wankers
pajero {m} [Spa.] [vulg.] = wanker {noun} [Brit.] [vulg.] (http://en.bab.la/dictionary/spanish-english/pajero) A famous case of an unfortunate choice in product names. Apparently these things were all dumped in Myanmar—they’re everywhere here. I found this one on the streets of Yangon. You might not be able to buy the real thing in the west anymore, but they […]
Leaving Yangon for Indawgyi Lake
I arrived at the airport in Yangon never having heard of Indawgyi Lake. In fact, I had no idea whatsoever where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do or see during my month in Myanmar. I figured I would start by taking a taxi downtown and finding a place to [read more…]