Day 276 - The Road to Mandalay (by Small Bus)
Tuesday, April 9th, 2019.
Today I woke up with my bed trembling. I’m a deep sleeper but somehow the trembling woke me up and I thought it was an earthquake. I woke up Gregory and he only said, “maybe” then he rolled over. I got out of bed and opened the door to see if everything was OK. The guard was standing right there with a flashlight and waved at me. I asked if everything was ok and he only waved his hand. Hmm.
I came back in and I was ready to go back to bed when Gregory asked, "do you want to see the sunrise?" I said yes and asked him to come but he only grunted. The hotel has a sunrise viewpoint so I walked toward that direction. Once I found it, I stood there wondering when was the sun going to come out since it was already getting lighter and lighter. I appreciated the quiet and the birds chirping. I thanked God for giving me the opportunity to appreciate this. Even if I wanted to see the sunrise, the mosquitoes were eating me alive so I decided to leave. When I turned back and saw the pink sky, I came back and saw a huge red and yellow ball coming up! It was so stunning. Right after that, I saw four or five hot air balloons. I was so happy I got to witness this.
When I got back to the room, I went back to bed but couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go for a swim. I forgot how much pleasure I get from doing exercise first thing in the morning. I’m a morning person and I need to go back to that, but my schedule changes all the time and we tend to go to bed around midnight so it is hard for me to get up early. [Gregory's note: OK, actually the schedule doesn't change very much and Sunshine and I find time to exercise. Lili does stay up reading or looking at Facebook until later than she should.]
Anyway, after breakfast, we went back to our rooms and I spent about an hour enrolling Daniel in middle school. I felt bad that I had forgotten to enroll him because I focused all my attention on Sunshine’s re-enrollment. Around noon we went to the front desk to check out and tip the friendly staff. We read that it is not common to tip here, but if you feel like doing it, of course, they will appreciate it. We were advised that if you do tip, not to give more than 500 kyats, which is the equivalent of 40 cents! Everyone was so happy.
We were told that the bus was going to pick us up at the hotel. They forgot to mention that it was going to be a light truck, like the one the locals ride in town. We laughed and in the back, which made other stops to drop a package and to pick up guests from another hotel.
We were expecting to go to the bus station, but we didn't. Instead, we stopped on the side of the road, and there was our bus. I only knew it was our bus because it had the name OK Express. "Mamma mia," I said when I looked at the mini bus that we have to ride for 4 hours. Oh well, I just laughed when I saw the tacky decoration of the inside. We realized why the tickets had been so cheap!
Luckily, we only had our backpacks and not our suitcases, because there was no space for luggage. The front of the bus was already packed with boxes and bags. They call this a VIP bus because there were two seats on one side and one seat on the other side. The aisle was very narrow and you could hear everyone's conversations, including the driver on his cell phone.
I got a little worried when the bus stopped even when all the seats were taken. The assistant driver took a pile of plastic stools and set them in the aisle. Before I knew it, the aisle was full. I felt bad for the lady sitting in the aisle next to me who started to lean on me when she was falling asleep. I noticed it does cost less to ride in the aisle. I wonder if the driver and assistant kept the money from those passengers. I wonder if the bus company knows about it?
The bus made only two stops and we made it to Mandalay in five and a half hours instead of four. It wasn’t that bad but we promised ourselves to check the bus before we buy the tickets! The good thing about the bus is that it dropped us at our hotel. What bus gives you taxi service?
I worried about the hotel when I saw Christmas lights hanging from the roof to the awning. It looked pretty tacky and so did the neighborhood. [Gregory's note: this was a fine neighborhood: wide, clean avenue, no slums, no food stands. To Lili, everything looks blue-collar or tacky if it's not like the Dubai Mall.] The good news is that the hotel might look tacky but it is clean and nice. We settled in and crossed the street to J&J BBQ & Beer restaurant. There were only men eating there, and I stopped to make this observation but Sunshine nudged me and said, “come on, we're hungry.” And we were, so I just followed them to our table with plastic chairs.
The restaurant might not look great but the food was amazing! We had ordered too much and thought we were going to have a lot of leftovers, but we didn’t! Everyone was staring at us. We were the only foreigners there! I also noticed (again) all the buckets next to the tables. I think I finally realized that is for the people to spit when they chew betel nut or tobacco!
We had a nice dinner. I like how our family has learned to sit and chat for a while afterwards. This is very common in all the countries we have visited but NOT in the United States where everyone rushes the meal and runs right after! We came back to our hotel, I read and Gregory researched what to do in Mandalay.
Today I woke up with my bed trembling. I’m a deep sleeper but somehow the trembling woke me up and I thought it was an earthquake. I woke up Gregory and he only said, “maybe” then he rolled over. I got out of bed and opened the door to see if everything was OK. The guard was standing right there with a flashlight and waved at me. I asked if everything was ok and he only waved his hand. Hmm.
I came back in and I was ready to go back to bed when Gregory asked, "do you want to see the sunrise?" I said yes and asked him to come but he only grunted. The hotel has a sunrise viewpoint so I walked toward that direction. Once I found it, I stood there wondering when was the sun going to come out since it was already getting lighter and lighter. I appreciated the quiet and the birds chirping. I thanked God for giving me the opportunity to appreciate this. Even if I wanted to see the sunrise, the mosquitoes were eating me alive so I decided to leave. When I turned back and saw the pink sky, I came back and saw a huge red and yellow ball coming up! It was so stunning. Right after that, I saw four or five hot air balloons. I was so happy I got to witness this.
When I got back to the room, I went back to bed but couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go for a swim. I forgot how much pleasure I get from doing exercise first thing in the morning. I’m a morning person and I need to go back to that, but my schedule changes all the time and we tend to go to bed around midnight so it is hard for me to get up early. [Gregory's note: OK, actually the schedule doesn't change very much and Sunshine and I find time to exercise. Lili does stay up reading or looking at Facebook until later than she should.]
Anyway, after breakfast, we went back to our rooms and I spent about an hour enrolling Daniel in middle school. I felt bad that I had forgotten to enroll him because I focused all my attention on Sunshine’s re-enrollment. Around noon we went to the front desk to check out and tip the friendly staff. We read that it is not common to tip here, but if you feel like doing it, of course, they will appreciate it. We were advised that if you do tip, not to give more than 500 kyats, which is the equivalent of 40 cents! Everyone was so happy.
We were told that the bus was going to pick us up at the hotel. They forgot to mention that it was going to be a light truck, like the one the locals ride in town. We laughed and in the back, which made other stops to drop a package and to pick up guests from another hotel.
We were expecting to go to the bus station, but we didn't. Instead, we stopped on the side of the road, and there was our bus. I only knew it was our bus because it had the name OK Express. "Mamma mia," I said when I looked at the mini bus that we have to ride for 4 hours. Oh well, I just laughed when I saw the tacky decoration of the inside. We realized why the tickets had been so cheap!
Luckily, we only had our backpacks and not our suitcases, because there was no space for luggage. The front of the bus was already packed with boxes and bags. They call this a VIP bus because there were two seats on one side and one seat on the other side. The aisle was very narrow and you could hear everyone's conversations, including the driver on his cell phone.
I got a little worried when the bus stopped even when all the seats were taken. The assistant driver took a pile of plastic stools and set them in the aisle. Before I knew it, the aisle was full. I felt bad for the lady sitting in the aisle next to me who started to lean on me when she was falling asleep. I noticed it does cost less to ride in the aisle. I wonder if the driver and assistant kept the money from those passengers. I wonder if the bus company knows about it?
The bus made only two stops and we made it to Mandalay in five and a half hours instead of four. It wasn’t that bad but we promised ourselves to check the bus before we buy the tickets! The good thing about the bus is that it dropped us at our hotel. What bus gives you taxi service?
I worried about the hotel when I saw Christmas lights hanging from the roof to the awning. It looked pretty tacky and so did the neighborhood. [Gregory's note: this was a fine neighborhood: wide, clean avenue, no slums, no food stands. To Lili, everything looks blue-collar or tacky if it's not like the Dubai Mall.] The good news is that the hotel might look tacky but it is clean and nice. We settled in and crossed the street to J&J BBQ & Beer restaurant. There were only men eating there, and I stopped to make this observation but Sunshine nudged me and said, “come on, we're hungry.” And we were, so I just followed them to our table with plastic chairs.
The restaurant might not look great but the food was amazing! We had ordered too much and thought we were going to have a lot of leftovers, but we didn’t! Everyone was staring at us. We were the only foreigners there! I also noticed (again) all the buckets next to the tables. I think I finally realized that is for the people to spit when they chew betel nut or tobacco!
We had a nice dinner. I like how our family has learned to sit and chat for a while afterwards. This is very common in all the countries we have visited but NOT in the United States where everyone rushes the meal and runs right after! We came back to our hotel, I read and Gregory researched what to do in Mandalay.
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rxCrRr8oPnUdtc1PA
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