day 44 – after checking out of the hotel, we got a rickshaw to the bus station. the entire place was a maze of confusion as we tried to find the bus that would take us to pakokku. we were getting different information to what the hotel told us and couldn’t work out exactly what was happening. eventually we found a bus that said we could get to pakokku before 3pm and get the ferry from there to bagan (our destination). that sounded good, so we bought the tickets and boarded the bus.
after the bus, shinya and i had four hours to head 20 km south to see a huge reclining buddha. first, we stopped at thanboddhay paya which was absolutely amazing. it was a huge, colourful temple in the middle of nowhere. this was the disneyworld of temples with its colours, its thousands of buddhas and shiny mirrors. there was even a small tower which we climbed for a great view of the temple complex. from there we went further along to the reclining buddha which is 90 meters long (the second largest reclining buddha in the world). directly behind it was a standing buddha (167 meters). the two were so close together and created an awe inspiring view. by motorcycle i looked around the hillside. it was possible to actually go inside the standing buddha (there were windows along the front of his body) but i didn’t have time. i headed back down the hill and walked around the multitude of smaller buddhist statues around the place.
while there i found a korean pagoda which had been built and thousands of golden buddhas which were donated by koreans. each buddha had a stone (in korean) inscribed with the name of the donor. the temple was called ban ya sa. further down were more buddhas and, according to lonely planet, there are over half a million buddhist statues in that small area.
having almost run out of time, we went back to the junction to wait for our bus to pakokku.
myanmar buses are rickety pieces of shit brought over after the chinese will no longer use them. we were crammed onto the bus and along the way the bus would keep stopping to see if more people wanted to get on. it made the trip incredibly slow and laborious, which is very frustrating when you have a ferry to catch. after about 20 minutes the bus pulled into a side street and backed into some guy’s front yard. everyone got off the bus. shinya and i were as confused as all hell, but got off the bus too. then the bus driver and other workers on the bus started pulling massive bags of charcoal out from the back and under seats. there were 20 bags of charcoal in the bus, and i have no idea how they got them all in there. the charcoal was dumped into the front yard, the bus was swept clean(ish), everyone boarded the bus and we continued our slow trip.
by half way we realised that we weren’t going to make a 3pm ferry. the bus was slow and the roads were attrocious. the seats were so small that shinya and i sat separately, sharing seats with locals, to get more space. we asked the driver and he assured us that we’d make it on time … and that was just before we stopped for a 25 minute lunch break. again, everyone got off the bus and ate at a roadside restaurant.
i could feel the anger rising and we were both starting to get pissed off with the heat, slow bus, unnecessary lunch breaks and entire concept of transportation in myanmar. shinya was angry that the whole things was so needlessly complicated. the bus got going again and, cursing every bump, we arrived in pakokkku at about 3.20pm. we got off the bus, grabbed a rickshaw driver and asked about the ferry. the rickshaw guy told us that there was never a ferry at 3pm, the ferry was 2pm. this was confirmed by other rickshaw guys.
i finally had had enough. i wasn’t road rage angry, but i was “tired of being fucked around” angry. i picked up my backpack and threw it on the ground in front of the bus stop. behind the bus stop was a restaurant which also acted as the booking office for the bus. i started yelling at the restaurant people and the owner finally came out to talk to me. i also yelled at the bus worker, who was on the roof of the bus and refused to come down and face the evil, angry foreigner. the owner took the brunt of the tirade, which attracted quite a crowd of onlookers and curious locals who wanted to see what pissed off foreigners looked like. i told him that he had to refund my money for lying about the ferry. i called him a liar, a cheat and dishonest. improvising, i even called him snake tongued, which seemed to have an impact on some of the people whispering to each other in the restaurant behind him.
eventually he said he’d help us get to bagan, and having blown my stack, i started to calm down. it was clear that we wouldn’t get any of our money back, which was probably impossible anyway. he told a rickshaw driver to take us to the river and help find passage to bagan. shinya and i were both worried that “passage to bagan” would mean $30-50 private boats, when we wanted to get $3-5 tickets on the ferry. at one point, it appeared that we might be stuck in pakokku for the night, as the drivers and owner disagreed about boat times.
i sat down in the adjacent restaurant, had some tea, and calmed down. shinya went for a walk to buy cigarettes and came back 30 minutes later angrier than ever. locals were trying to charge him three times the price, effectively ripping him off, and it took a two kilometer walk to find a shop who was going to sell cigarettes at a reasonable price … so by the time i’d calmed down, shinya was in a kicking and screaming and cursing mood … which stayed with him all afternoon.
at 4pm the rickshaw driver told us we had to leave and head to the river. we weren’t sure about finding a boat to bagan, but had little choice. the ride was supposed to be 3km, but took nearly an hour and was clearly a lot further away than 3km. this only added to the bullshit day we’d had and by the time we arrived at the river the blood temperature was starting to rise again. there was a small checkpoint for foreigners near the river and they asked for our passport and visa details. shinya slammed a photocopy of his passport on the table and stomped away, only to be hassled by a lady trying to sell him a blanket (talk about adding fuel to the fire). as we walked away, the blanket lady sneaked up to me and offered to get us a private boat, for $20 each. i told her to fuck off.
after the checkpoint, we continued down the river and onto a barge. the barge, it turns out, is the loading point for a ferry from mandalay to bagan, which stops at pakokku along the way. we’d be able to get a ferry to bagan at 6pm, costing $5 each. it was a government ferry and we tried (unsuccessfully) to get a better price. we paid the $5 each and i headed off to get some drinks and wait for the ferry. once the ferry arrived, it was smooth sailing to bagan. the blanket lady had also jumped on the ferry to try and make some money. she walked up to me in an attempt to sell me a blanket. i yelled at her “you’re the woman who tried to make $40 from us with a private boat, i’m not buying your blankets”. mortified, she ran away and down the stairs. shinya and i both laughed. our spirits lifted and we were much happier. i took photos and played checkers on my ipod. the boat worker, who wouldn’t give us a discount on the tickets, watched me play checkers. i was tempted to tell him to fuck off, but instead gave him my ipod and let him play a game.
we got into bagan after dark and headed straight for the hotel. instead of doing the cheap backpacker thing, we decided to go to a nicer hotel with aircon, satellite tv and a swimming pool. the twin room cost us $10 each a night … but it was definitely worth it. we had a swim and a late dinner at the restaurant next door. they were selling meat, potatoes, and other food which was barbequed on skewers. the food was great and we drank some beer to celebrate arriving in bagan.
day 45 – today was a lazy ass day. after the dramas of the previous day, i decided not to do anything strenuous. breakfast was on the hotel’s beautiful lawn, which was full of umbrellas and trees. two ladies served breakfast and we had our choice of noodles, fried rice, eggs, pancakes, omlettes, juice, tea, coffee, and various fruit. both shanya and i gorged ourselves on food for over an hour … it was quite humorous that every time we walked away from our table (to get more food) the lingering crows would swoop down onto the table and pick at the leftovers. i put some laundry in, went for a swim in the pool (i used my waterproof camera to play around and make some underwater photos). i had a sleep, another swim and more bbq meat and beer for dinner.
a funny thing did happen today though. while the hotel had a pool, i didn’t have any swimming shorts. i thought about using regular shorts, but went to the front counter to ask if they had anything. they had two pairs of swimming shorts for 2500 kyats ($2.50) each. i took the bigger pair, but they were a little tight. when i jumped into the pool, i split the seam and ripped a hole in the arse of the shorts. then, getting out of the pool, i tore the hole again, making it so big that the shorts were unwearable. i got a towel and went back to my room to change. the laundry lady, whom we’d already met, was a very nice person and when i showed her the shorts she understood the problem. she took the shorts away and i got them back the next morning, sewn up and stronger than before. the shorts survived the rest of the time i was in bagan. nice!
i had a great day today doing absolutely nothing …
