I hadn't really got in mind to do it, but actually I was glad at the end I let the old man on the trishaw lead me...I only needed to get to Yangon, the capital and I had all day to do it!
As soon as I walked out of my hotel, he clapped, as they always do, to grab attention, "Shan ma lay" that I thought meant bus station, I tell him, 1000 kyats he say, I smile and I open my palms towards him, then I bring all the fingertips to touch in the middle, repeating it few times!! (that's the sign for 500 kyat here!!), he agrees and I jump on the sellotaped seat next to him.. it's 7:02 am.
After meeting a few trucks carrying some ladies playing recorded buddhist chants, another with a small golden Buddha statue with some hangover looking teenagers holding it and followed by a procession of people and empty streets, we arrive at something that looks like a bus office.
The only bus of the day is complete and left at 7!!..the thrishaw man with his red stained smile, went back to his seat and started to pedaling me somewhere else, he tried his best even crossing in front of a passing bus that was supposedly directed to where I was directed, no chance...
He had a very limited english but he pointed that there was a road were bus passed more often, so he started to gently pedal...rice fields, squeezed snakes on the road, stray dogs playing on the side, some scooters overtaking us and me that I couldn't see any road ahead of us, nor cars..
After 30 minutes I questioned if there really was a road, that I actually knew existed, and he said uhh, uhh that meant maybe there, there pointing ahead of us, but still nothing...his sweat started to fall from his arm on my knee, his cigar smoke coming my way and I started to focus on the landscape to release the stress that the slow ride was generating, I offered him one of my red bananas....
It's 8:10 and there in the horizon there is a white overpass, but quite far and very slowly nearing...
My backup plan is the only day train at 10:45, in the worst of the cases...but at this precise moment we were in the middle of nowhere!!
It's 8:30 when we arrived on the side of a main three lanes motorway, very few vehicles passing but he grabs my backpack and crosses the road to stand by a sign, starting to raise his hand on coming cars!
I thought the bus was my option, but I it wasn't, hitchhiking had been decided somehow and so it was...
I paid the old man, that stated 10000 kyats (9 euros circa) as fare for the service, but that was pretty happy to count the 4000 and something else I gave him, he crossed the road and left to get back to town...(in internet, after, I calculated that we had done 15 km!!)
I was there standing on the first lane as there are not guardrails here anyway, and I was alone with my index up on the few cars coming my direction, I selfied the moment and not even 3 minutes later I was already in the brand new Toyota gt-four caldina of a young family of five!
The only embarassing note of the trip, but maybe for them, it's been when the 1ish year old daughter struggled with her number two in the middle of the drive, but the journey was smooth nonetheless, despite the A/C was extremely low and none of us could speak a language that any other being in the car (we were 3 adults and 3 kids!) could understand (sadly)...at the end the only words exchanged were: "Yangon", "mingalabar", "toilet", "where go", during the three hours that delivered me in Yangon before lunchtime!!
Hitchhiking seems quiet easy here in Myanmar, and even if I heard that payments are required, I was not allowed to pay; locals tend to help us foreigners, even if the government forbids homestays, and they are a little concerned to be seen too close to us, they would do their best..and today I got proof.
As soon as I walked out of my hotel, he clapped, as they always do, to grab attention, "Shan ma lay" that I thought meant bus station, I tell him, 1000 kyats he say, I smile and I open my palms towards him, then I bring all the fingertips to touch in the middle, repeating it few times!! (that's the sign for 500 kyat here!!), he agrees and I jump on the sellotaped seat next to him.. it's 7:02 am.
After meeting a few trucks carrying some ladies playing recorded buddhist chants, another with a small golden Buddha statue with some hangover looking teenagers holding it and followed by a procession of people and empty streets, we arrive at something that looks like a bus office.
The only bus of the day is complete and left at 7!!..the thrishaw man with his red stained smile, went back to his seat and started to pedaling me somewhere else, he tried his best even crossing in front of a passing bus that was supposedly directed to where I was directed, no chance...
He had a very limited english but he pointed that there was a road were bus passed more often, so he started to gently pedal...rice fields, squeezed snakes on the road, stray dogs playing on the side, some scooters overtaking us and me that I couldn't see any road ahead of us, nor cars..
After 30 minutes I questioned if there really was a road, that I actually knew existed, and he said uhh, uhh that meant maybe there, there pointing ahead of us, but still nothing...his sweat started to fall from his arm on my knee, his cigar smoke coming my way and I started to focus on the landscape to release the stress that the slow ride was generating, I offered him one of my red bananas....
It's 8:10 and there in the horizon there is a white overpass, but quite far and very slowly nearing...
My backup plan is the only day train at 10:45, in the worst of the cases...but at this precise moment we were in the middle of nowhere!!
It's 8:30 when we arrived on the side of a main three lanes motorway, very few vehicles passing but he grabs my backpack and crosses the road to stand by a sign, starting to raise his hand on coming cars!
I thought the bus was my option, but I it wasn't, hitchhiking had been decided somehow and so it was...
I paid the old man, that stated 10000 kyats (9 euros circa) as fare for the service, but that was pretty happy to count the 4000 and something else I gave him, he crossed the road and left to get back to town...(in internet, after, I calculated that we had done 15 km!!)
I was there standing on the first lane as there are not guardrails here anyway, and I was alone with my index up on the few cars coming my direction, I selfied the moment and not even 3 minutes later I was already in the brand new Toyota gt-four caldina of a young family of five!
The only embarassing note of the trip, but maybe for them, it's been when the 1ish year old daughter struggled with her number two in the middle of the drive, but the journey was smooth nonetheless, despite the A/C was extremely low and none of us could speak a language that any other being in the car (we were 3 adults and 3 kids!) could understand (sadly)...at the end the only words exchanged were: "Yangon", "mingalabar", "toilet", "where go", during the three hours that delivered me in Yangon before lunchtime!!
Hitchhiking seems quiet easy here in Myanmar, and even if I heard that payments are required, I was not allowed to pay; locals tend to help us foreigners, even if the government forbids homestays, and they are a little concerned to be seen too close to us, they would do their best..and today I got proof.
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