Myanmar - Part V
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The morning after our trek, we caught a bus that would take us to Bagan. We had signed up for tickets on the "VIP" bus, as in Myanmar there are several options of buses available, from the ghetto, loud, rattle-trap options, to the nice, fancy air-conditioned Chinese-built coaches. It's important to specify, because if you don't, you can end up some really zesty adventures. So, we thought we had cleared up with bus we were on, and for the first ten minutes we thought we were good and on the VIP bus. Then, we made several stops over the next hour as we progressed a mighty 5 kilometers. That was when we realized while dodging the scary local bus, we had ended up on the middle of the road, "we'll stop for whoever has money" option.
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Finally we started making real progress as the bus started chugging up the hills on it's way out the Inle Lake valley. We had scarcely done 15 minutes solid, without a stop, when we rounded a corner and got a little far off the curb, there was a loud blowout noise, and we had to pull over and confirm that we had indeed blown one of our rear tires. With no other options, we kept on going down the road, simply electing to keep on with the remaining three tires in the rear and push on to the next town.
The day's travel called for a diverse elevation profile. First we would have to climb out of the valley, through some very small hills, and across a flat plateau like area. Then, through some more hills, and then down and out of the mountains, and onto the plains of the Myanmar's central plain. We would see a good range of ecosystems, as we went from nearly 8,000 feet in altitude in Shan State to as little as 1,000' near Bagan. The first set of hills were the highest, and we got to see real pine trees! |
We finally pulled into a small town just outside Kalaw, and got our tire fixed. It was a pretty quick manuever, and actually kind of smart. Many of the buses use the same kind of tire and wheel, so we simply popped the blown one off, the shop slapped a new one on it and we were on our way. Took about 10 minutes tops. Pretty smooth operation. The area we stopped wasn't anything spectacular as far as scenery, but it was beautiful. Small pockets of pine trees and evergreens were spaced amongst rolling fields of short grasses. Limestone hills poked out here and there, and the standard SE Asian explosion of green was in full effect. All things considered, not a bad place for a tire swap.
Just a few kilometers down the road was the town of Kalaw, a surprisingly beautiful little place, with lots of colonial buildings and flower gardens in a small valley between the pines. If I ever came back to Myanmar this is one place I would spend time at. Just one quick glimpse from the bus was enough to sell it. But, after Kalaw, I got really excited, as the next stretch of road that we had to drive was the one I really wanted to see the most. It was along this stretch where the road dropped off the edge of the world and onto the central plains. On Google Maps and Google Earth, the highway went from being a nice, mostly direct road, to a bright yellow squiggle through some rugged looking terrain. The route also lost a huge amount of elevation between Kalaw and the plains, so it was going to be an interesting taking a bus down this road.
The first part of the drive out of Kalaw followed down an ever-deepening canyon, along several joining forks of the headwaters of the Zawgyi River. The views abounded, first offering a panorama of hills and small farms. Later on, as the canyon deepened and the hills rose, the views got even more dramatic, as the hills turned into mountains, many still wild and undeveloped and un-logged. The canyons became big gorges and the road became steeper. It was during this section that we passed out of the drier, higher pine forests of the Shan Plateau, and into the upland jungles of the Zawgyi River Gorge. The forest got super thick, with lots of big trees and hearty undergrowth. These were mountains where dragons could still be.
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All of a sudden, we rounded a corner, and there it was: the zig zags of Zawgyi Hill. We geared down and started into it. Our driver did a great job and we made it down the hill smoothly, but it was everything you expect out of a big hill: scary, blind corners, road construction & damage, dangerous traffic, landslides, and always-staggering hills. There was lots of rest stations and Beer Gardens, and I lost count of how many "Myanmar" beer banners I saw. One of the interesting things that we saw (and I tried to take photos of but they didn't come out) was the people who ride on the top of vans, buses, and trucks in Myanmar. Much like India and other 3rd world nations, space on top of moving vehicles is plenty open game, and it was a bit hair-raising to come around blind corners and see trucks fully loaded with 20 people in the back, AND 5 people on top, coming at you at 50 kmh.
Once we hit the bottom of the valley, the road simply followed the gentle grade of the river for a long ways. This stretch was very interesting as it was seeing some local development, but it was still very wild west. There were wildcat coal mines and Kelsey saw a domesticated elephant working. There were families and small communities as well, and while things were on their way, it was still on the fringes of society.
A ways down the canyon, we turned and started up another fork of the Zawgyi River, and started following it up. This canyon quickly narrowed and we went through an interesting spine of mountains that was quite tall but very narrow. It was like a gate to the mountains. Beyond there was some small rolling foothills for a bit and then it was onto the flats beyond. We stopped for lunch in this area, and got one of our best "Shit White Tourists Say" moments of the trip. On the bus, one of the fellow groups of Western travelers was a group of four from somewhere in Europe (at least one of them was French), and at the cheap highway rest area they were trying to argue "....but it was only rice and vegetables, not noodles, we should ony pay 1000 kyat, not 1500." Mind you, they were arguing that they should get to pay $1.00 instead of $1.50. C'mon guys, you're makin' us look bad! |
Once we hit the plains it was mostly flat and unexciting all the way to Bagan. The vegetation changed again as we hit the plains, turning into something much more what I would expect Africa looks like. Lots of dry, hearty bushes and scrubby trees were widely spaced throughout a surprisingly arid landscape of parched fields and dirt. This area of central plains suffers from geographic inversion, being a low spot between a ring of hills and mountains on all sides, so it receives quite a bit less moisture than the hills and mountains around it. We kept driving for hours and hours through this Africa landscape, only slowed up once when we had to cross a flooded street in downtown Meiktila, a former key city for the Japanese during WWII.
We kept on pushing west, always to the west. Finally, we were told "Bagan Bus Station", and everyone had to get off. So, we all piled out and into the brand new, gigantic, and mostly unused bus station. Here things got a bit bothersome. There was several taxis all lined up, ready to take people to their various hotels. The area known as "Bagan" is actually a widely spread out area of ruins loosely bound in a triangle by the towns of Nyaung-U, Old Bagan, and New Bagan. We talked with the other foreigners about splitting a taxi ride into the towns, but the taxi and shuttle drivers wouldn't let us, and kept saying over and over that the "the rules, one group one taxi, the rules". Just trying to ensure everyone got a slice of the action and that we were all going to pay top price. We argued and argued, and almost got into two different vehicles, before we were finally hustled into a van. We asked the driver how far to New Bagan (where our hotel was) and he said "between 30 and 40 kilometers". So, haggled a bit over the price (you always pre-set the price in Myanmar as there are very few meters in the taxis) and took off.
Well, about 2 kilometers down the road we had to stop and buy a ticket to the "Bagan Archaeological Zone", which was $20 USD apiece. For the two of us, $40 is no small change, even by US standards. Obviously we understand that they couldn't charge at each and every monument (there are literally thousands of them) but it was a bit of a shock to know that you couldn't even enter the towns without paying the ticket. Even if you just wanted to go to the town, stay the night, and leave, and never visit a single site, you still had to pay it. Between the cab affair and this, we were a bit grumpy, so when they tried to charge me $2 bucks for a map I got even more upset. Than, to top it off, we got back in the van and our hotel turned out to be like, 7 kilometers away. F%@&#ng taxi driver totally lied to rip us off. It was the only time in Myanmar that we had issues with taxis. Needless to say, by the time we turned into the Crown Prince Hotel, we were ready to be in our room and relaxing. But, we had made it! Bagan!
Well, about 2 kilometers down the road we had to stop and buy a ticket to the "Bagan Archaeological Zone", which was $20 USD apiece. For the two of us, $40 is no small change, even by US standards. Obviously we understand that they couldn't charge at each and every monument (there are literally thousands of them) but it was a bit of a shock to know that you couldn't even enter the towns without paying the ticket. Even if you just wanted to go to the town, stay the night, and leave, and never visit a single site, you still had to pay it. Between the cab affair and this, we were a bit grumpy, so when they tried to charge me $2 bucks for a map I got even more upset. Than, to top it off, we got back in the van and our hotel turned out to be like, 7 kilometers away. F%@&#ng taxi driver totally lied to rip us off. It was the only time in Myanmar that we had issues with taxis. Needless to say, by the time we turned into the Crown Prince Hotel, we were ready to be in our room and relaxing. But, we had made it! Bagan!
On to Part VI - Bagan....
All photos copyright Kit Davidson, unless otherwise cited.