It was recommended to us that we take the train at least part of the way to Mandalay, where we were flying to Bangkok from. So of course we did. That means that in Myanmar we used a ferry, taxis, a bus, boats, an airplane, bikes, a horse cart, electric bikes, a train, and our feet to get around Myanmar. Dang.
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| Train dogs are tough dogs. |
The train rattled and bounced around so much more than I expected. It was definitely not the ideal form of transportation for napping, but the scenery was so beautiful I didn't really want to miss it. The train stopped a few times, and at each stop it was enough to get off, snap some photos, drink some tea, and get back on the train. At one stop we found a cute little puppy that was so much tinier than his brothers and sisters. Of course we bought some chicken and rice to feed is, much to the amusement of the people watching us. At this same stop, Cheyenne noticed this bugs that seemed to be falling from the sky. When they landed, their wings fell off and they started crawling around. We noticed that they seemed to be getting attacked and dragged off by ants that were much tinier than these bugs. Nature is so weird.
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| Anyone know what these are? |
We took the train to Pyin Oo Lwin, and caught a shared taxi to our hostel in Mandalay. Everyone had told us that Mandalay was dirty, dusty and uninteresting. We arrived just before a massive rainstorm. When it ended, the city looked quite clean and interesting. I wish we had stayed there another day or so to be able to make up our minds. Except that at the same time I was SO excited to be going back to Bangkok.
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| The most photogenic country ever. |
Myanmar was an amazing country, but as a person who likes her down time, the month was exhausting. We were on the move constantly for the entire 28 days. When we arrived in Bangkok we were greeted with wifi, a wonderful comfy bed in a nice hotel and hot water. It was the most glorious thing ever. The hotel also had a $10 for all-you-can-drink alcohol from 7pm-9pm. So getting a real gin and tonic (or a couple) was SO refreshing.
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| Just a bridge over a massive canyon. |
After a couple days of rest, recuperation, and hanging out with my friends in Bangkok, it was time to say goodbye to Cheyenne and go back to that solo traveler life. I headed off to the airport and got on a plane to Nepal. I was about ten minutes from landing in Kathmandu when the plane hit some nasty weather. I'm talking lighting outside the window, sweaty palms, people screaming, plane bouncing in all directions. So we headed back to Bangkok. The airline I was flying on put us up in a hotel for the night, and we tried again successfully the next day.
