Yangon

We had a leisurely morning and took advantage of the hotel buffet. Breakfast food in Asia is so different from what we're used to in America. It has everything from cold cereal to congee to curried meats and stir fried vegetables. It's everything but...the kitchen sink. And it's ALL delicious!

We caught a taxi just outside the hotel and got lucky...air conditioning and our driver, Joe, spoke English pretty well.

First on our list of things to do was to buy bus tickets to Mt K... As discussed with Jeremy, our trip non-leader...we would head in the direction of the Golden Rock today so that we at least had a goal to achieve. Aimless wondering just wasn't going to cut it for me!

Just as we pulled up to the bus ticket desk (it was literally a desk on the sidewalk) we ran into some SAS girls in search of a bus to their chosen destination, a good 12 hours away. That's actually how we chose The Golden Rock. We heard it was only a 7 hour bus ride and I could barely get my head around that!

We missed the early bus so we had to settle for the next departure time...8pm. You've got to be kidding me! Plus 7 hours would get us to the base of the mountain by 3am! Because the sun is not up that early, hiking and trucks to the top of the mountain don't start until 6 am. We asked Joe and the bus ticket guy what there was to do at the base of the mountain at that time and the answer was "nothing". We made a decision to forge ahead. If worse came to worse, we could sleep a couple of hours in the bus station on the other end.

Second on the agenda...arrange for a hotel at the mountain. Joe tried to hide a laugh when he realized we didn't have a hotel reservation already! Payment in advance was required so Joe took us to the hotel management company to secure our rooms at The Mountain Top Hotel.

Here's an interesting fact: Most businesses here do not accept credit cards but they do accept USD. But it's still not as easy as it sounds. Because of counterfeiting, they will only take USD dated after 2006, clean, crisp bills only and will absolutely decline any bills from the "C" Series. We traded out bill after bill for several minutes until everyone was happy.

With all that done, we set out to enjoy the rest of the day! A trip to the local market, Bogo Market, for local souvenirs. The boys were longing for a longi. It's a skirt! It's a long skirt for men! Everyone wears them here because of the heat and it was HOT that day! We found a kiosk that had plenty to choose from and the ladies enjoyed the boys' reaction when they realized just how comfortable a skirt is ; ) Ben was the only one man enough to actually wear it that day. And his determination was real! It is a tricky thing tying the perfect knot so Ben tied and untied for most of the day. Seriously! And throughout the day, no less that 15 people stopped to help Ben keep his longi on ; )

The Shwe Dagon Paya is a stupa in Yangon. It was built 2500 years ago and is considered, by the Buddhists as a place of pilgrimage. All devote Buddhist make a promise to visit this stupa at least once in their lifetime.

The Buddhist have gone all out and adorned the tip of the Shwe Dagon Paya in precious jewels including 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies topping off the the stupa with a 76 carat diamond!

We made the mistake of asking a stranger to take our picture. The next thing we knew, he became our uninvited tour guide. But before it got too involved Chris handed him some money and we said our good byes. "Young man, have you ever seen a jade Buddha? Come, let me show you. " There were several hundred Buddhas in the stupa, unfortunately for him we caught onto his game early this time had an uncomfortable good bye.

We arrived early for our bus so we hung out with Joe, who came to pick us up...his last fare of the day. We stood on the dusty roadside and watched the nightlife of Yangon. Still hot and humid and feeling the exhaustion from the day, the waiting tried our patience. 15 minutes after, Joe checked the last bus in line. It was ours and they had been waiting for us!

It was a comfortable bus. Since it was the overnight bus, the seats reclined, there was air conditioning and it had a tv. We were the circus on the bus, hauling bags and arriving late. We were also the only foreigners on the bus. The conductor seemed to speak enough English and got us settled in our seats.

We picked up passengers for the first hour of the trip all the while watching a loop of Myranmar's Top 40 music videos. The people here can sleep through much more tv volume than I can. It was a restless ride. At one point, he conductor, with microphone in hand, rattled off what im sure were instructions for the ride but it was in his native tongue. The boys were asleep and I was too lazy to ask for a translation. Plus, we were "winging it" ; )

We stopped a couple of times for the restroom and once for a snack. They have full on rest stops here with restrooms and a restaurant. The locals sat down and had a full meal around 11:30pm. We had sodas and the local potato chips.

At around 1:30 we stopped again. This time I was actually asleep. Another rest stop it seemed. But as we watched all the other passengers file off, it appeared they were carrying all their belongings. The conductor stopped me and asked, "Are you sleepy?" "Yes, a little." And quickly checked to see if I had drool on my face. We walked into the rest stop and was greeted by the proprietor...I think. "Are you sleepy?" Wow. Was it that obvious? Did I have bus head or something?
"You sleep here, 5000 kyat." as she pointed up a sketchy flight of wooden stairs.
"You sleep here, free." As she pointed to large wooden platforms at the back of the restaurant. "
Confused, we turned to the conductor who we found lugging all our belongings off the bus. Chris and I concluded that we had reached our destination much earlier than expected. We had not two hours to kill but five before we could go up the mountain!

I checked out the upstairs, all the while getting stares and giggles from the locals. It was basically a big treehouse divided into several rooms. 10x10 with a rattan mat. I made the family decision to stay downstairs in the back of the restaurant. It was open and Chris and I can get a little claustrophobic at times. I feared this was one of those times.

We headed over to find an empty platform...about 3 feet off the dirt floor and lined with lanolium. We soon realized that Ben's camera was left on the bus which was no where in sight. I tried to explain our situation to the conductor who all of a sudden didn't speak English as well as I first thought. I rustled through the translation book as Chris and Ben ran down the road to find the bus.
"I left my camera on the bus."
With a nod of acknowledgment, the proprietor replied, "Yes, bus car 6 o'clock. "
They had explained to us earlier that the "bus car" to the top of the mountain began running at 6. " She wasn't getting my meaning.
"I lost my camera. It is on the bus."
"Ahh, camera. Yes, yes, bus car 6 o'clock. "
Oh, God help me...
Just then, the driver came running up with Ben's camera. Thank goodness for honestly!!

We situated ourselves on our platform. I was so filthy, sticky and exhausted that I fell fast asleep using my back pack as a pillow and swating insects all night. I woke up at one point and saw Chris and Ben in the restaurant watching TV with a monk. I reached for my camera but was too tired and committed the image to memory instead.