Yangon, Myanmar

The night bus from Inle Lake to Yangon was uneventful, filled with the usual late-night bathroom stops and yelling taxi drivers upon arrival. A nice Burmese woman living in Sweden helped us find the local bus stop, where we had another hour ride, pre-sunrise, before arriving to our neighborhood to find our guesthouse. The bus was the most run-down vehicle I’ve ever seen. Imagine a very old school bus, with only a few seats remaining. Those few seats no longer have their stuffed-pleather cusions, just the frame and some cardboard protecting riders from falling through the seat. Along the sides of the bus, normal seats were removed- a long bench carried crammed bus-goers, and most others stood. The metal exterior ws rusty, and the windows rattled and no longer slid open or closed. The back row was a seat over the engine, emitting so much heat through the floor Will’s soles became tacky as they started to melt. It was another adventure just cruising to our hostel.

Quite the mood lighting on the night bus.

We stayed at the White House, a giant 7 or 8 story British colonial converted to a guesthouse with plenty of rooms and a rooftop breakfast featured on the Discovery Channel circa 1994. The breakfast actually was amazing, and I filled my plate and belly with incredible lemon and mango preserves on toast and sweetened coconut over fresh fruit. Even the scrambled eggs were fancy, with carmalized onions and pan-fried veggies mixed in. If it wasn’t for the empty lot turned landfill next door, the place wouldn’t have been half bad. But the wafting smell of rotting trash rushed right into our corner room, and was so horrendous I woke up while the moon was still high in the sky to an aroma so suffocatingly horrid I was sure I wouldn’t wake up the next morning. I couldn’t put my finger on the smell; it wasn’t just garbage, but much more sour, pungent, and tart. Acidic almost. Gross.

Yangon, similar to Mandalay, is a super dirty city, and again, unless we missed the greatness this city has to offer, I didn’t particularly love it. We marched through the intense sun and heat to a large Buddhist temple complex, spending the afternoon hiding in shrine-cast shadows to stay cool. We ate fried noodles and sipped on fresh sugarcane juice from a street vendor, grabbed some fresh fruit, and headed back to the worlds most stinky guest house. We ventured through the night market down the street, grabbed some noodles and the largest plate of fride rice I’ve ever seen with the locals from a packed food stand, cooled off with some coconut ice cream, and packed our bags.

Our time in Myanmar had come to and end. Check another country off the list. We had a great time, felt very satisfied with our journey, and very ready for a little break. We's been moving around quite a bit, and needed some time off from hauling our packs all over the world. We flew to Bangkok and immediately hopped on a night train.

My little Buddha bun and I hopping onto the train. My jaw still drops when I see how small my pack is.

Lucky for us, a little slice of paradise was coming our way in the form of a Thai island known as Koh Tao. And on that little paradise island awaited a partner in crime that we couldn’t wait to see.

From Yangon, with Love,

Sara + Will