Opportunities an mindset

As Julia and I ventured from town to town, I note the continuous theme of figuring out where to go and how to get there. Most of the time people tell us how things work. For example, we were told You take a shared taxi or pick up from a certain place in one town. Thr difference is that with us, if something doesn't seem right or doesn't work well for us, we work hard to look for other options. If we can't find them, we try to create them. I realize that, with our opportunities we have had, we feel free to think beyond our immediate limitations. 

It was especially interesting in myanmar where there is not a lot of I fluency from foreigners. The life they live there is definitely modernizing in certain ways but not all ways. 

Since I was small, I have learned to apply myself, to learn, and to ask question always knowing that the effort I put forward would affect the end result. The way I was brought up was noticeable because it was not the way things  were for the people in myanmar. 

This difference was evident different instances during our travel in Myanmar. 

Moving quickly l...

From Bagan to sagaing and then to Mandalay and then to bangkok,we have cruised through some places. 

More than anything, wedding have much in the way of working wifi for a while so updates are slow. 

A morning run up sagaing hill past monasteries along the way was a highlight of the day. 

Then making our way to Mandalay was a slow and hilarious process on a "pick up" which is their form of a bus, we stop at each intersection waiting for 5 minutes to see if we can recruit more passengers. 

Finally deciding to pay a bit more just to get to our hotel, we hop out of the pick up an into the bed of a truck. 

A moto taxi may have been a safer option at that point. 

Luckily the numbered streets of Mandalay are on a grid allowing me to navigate us to the hotel as our driver was about to go I. Circles. 

Out to explore more soon

Bid farewell to Bagan

Our last day in Bagan was a relaxing one. I went for a short jog and then joined Julia for a bit as she did some yoga in the rooftop terrace. 

We ventured to check out some of the shops in town before our ride came to pick us up at the hotel.

In my way around town, I looked down and saw a bill on the ground. It was one I hadn't seen yet. 

I opened it up with the initial thought that Wondering If i could give it back to whoever dropped it. Realizing that no one rose was around, I figured that would be a challenge. Then I realized it was a 10 kyat bill. Haha, essentially, I just found less than a penny.  There are ~1000 kyat to the dollar. They will use American dollars here for certain things but they have to be in pristine condition. Dollars with ink stains or with creases are not accepted. The larger the dollar bill, the more value it holds so each single dollar bill had a lower exchange rate than the $100 bill. 

Anywya,  We arranged minivan to Mandalay with the hope that it would stop less often and  be a nice ride. 

The roads are a but bumpy and though distances are not to far, it does take a long time to get from one destination to another. 

We started in our way and made a few stops to pick some people up and fill the seats, pay a toll...

Then we stopped again, I immediately had a flashback a long overbight bus ride through Peru: Arequipa to Cuzco.  HavI g started on an empty bus we spread out to enjoy some space. As it grew darker, the road became more bumpy. With each stop, more people piled in. It could have been a twenty minute nap, or I slept for three house; I don't know. But, when I woken up, the aisle was full with people standing squished leaning to make space for more. 

My intuition was right on this stop and we picked up two more for aisle seating. Luckily, here, they had plastic seats to plop down in the aisle. 

Bumpy road makes for blurry photo :)

I'm looking forward to reading my book in this ride and to see what toilet stops we make along the way. It's always fun to see what kind of markets we stop by duri g our break time. 

That said, I'm reading George orwell's "Burmese says" which has great descriptions of the people here while giving some insight into the history/politics too. 

Big hike- mt popa

We organized a day trip to mt popa and recruited our new friend, Michael to join us. 

He happily agreed to be part of our adventure. We hiked up to the top of a dormant volcano looking down on a "nat" shrine. 

The people of myanmar are mostly Buddhist but also believe in spirits called "nats". 

This shrine that we visited was made for their most important nat and is very well visited. 

It was a day full of hiking ad was a great change for a day. 

Bagan photos

Bagan

Bagan,Myanmar is quite a fun place. There are pagodas and stupas everywhere you look. Some of them dating back to the 12th century. 

Julia and ventured to one of the most popular temples first. 

With so many temples, this city seems like a  destination for the Burmese and foreigners alike. 

All the Buddhist temples have a shoe off requirement so we walked barefoot with all the other visitors at the ananda pahto. 

After that we decided to take our bikes off road and just explore whatever we could. Skidding in the sand past some ruins here and coasting past some thatched huts there, we found some fun places to explore. Hidden stairways to the top allow you to get some great views. 

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vegetarian restaurant and some fun street food. 

The people here are so kind and when they can communicate, are so happy to explain the meanings of things. 

The name for this food had the main ingredient and then "ghost" after that. 

All fresh. Ingredients right there including some of the dust from the road too. :/

Phang nga, Chiang Mai, Mandalay

The last few days went by quickly as we transported ourselves to Myanmar. In some ways it's feels like we time traveled too. 

But, for the moment, back to Phang nga. 

Biked to a waterfall. Here is the best photo of Julia there. 

We had the trails to ourselves most of the way giving us some peace from the many tourists in Thailand. 

From there, we had to venture to the krabi airport and then to Chiang Mai. 

Up early in Chiang Mai, Julia and went for a run around the old city and had a good breakfast before heading back to the airport for our flight to Mandalay, Myanmar. 

On a taxi ride into town we met a Chilean and an American  from bass lake area who grew up in Mexico. So, yup, I went to Myanmar to practice my Spanish. 

Haha. 

What a stark difference from Thailand. 

First off- they drive on the right side of the road. But, the cars have their steering wheel on the right side. 

People here are very happy to smile and wave and are very curious about us here. 

The temples are very different from anything I have seen and there are random cars full of decorations and people that almost look like a float on a parade.