Macleod Ganj

So we woke up to a very neat place. There are trees here and the views are quite remarkable and there are really cool little shops and cafes' all over the tiny streets. It is the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in Exile. It is also a little bit of Tibet in Nepal with it's hygiene standards and friendly people. Although you do get reminded still that you are in India as well. But we didn't plan too much, just enjoyed our surrounding and general vibe of the place. There are many Tibetan crafts, clothes and fabrics around, and is just amazing what a difference the people can make in a place. We went to the many tiny cafes and "retaurants" tucked away in little corners and just walked around the area. went to the Tibetan museum where the atrocities of the Chinese in Tibet are chronicled. It is amazing how these people can still have such a positive view on things after everything that has been done to them. Truly amazing. We also did the pilgrimage circuit around the Dalai Lama's residence. The path was adorned with prayer flags and tablets and prayer wheels. We went to a movie in one of the movie "theatres" which were really cute little places where seats from old buses where lined up in front of a large screen TV and a new release was shown with the whole camcorder in the movie theatre in full effect. It's funny, kinda like wathcing an old western movie how's the screen is scratchy. But as with most places you can't stay forever and at some point you need to leave and get on another crappy bus, which is exactly what we had to do. I have had some comments about me being a little grumpy but that's just what the bus rides here do to you. And it could be tolerable, until those things about India come into play and sometimes it becomes too much. (ie. the drunk guys on the bus or the touts following you when you get off the bus even though you tell them specifically not to follow you many times). But that is the reality with travelling and i don't mean to sound grumpy because it takes a lot to bring us down but just so little get us back up again. Off to Shimla, the honeymoon capital of India and former summer residence of the british raj.

Delhi-Amritsar

So we are now in Macleod Ganj after leaving the Thailand paradise/scam for India once more. It was quite the journey. When we went to pick up our plane tickets, we were informed that the plane had been delayed and instead of leaving at 3:45am, it was going to leave at 5:45am. Sweet! So we kept the room for the night but really only got one hour sleep before getting in our taxi at 3am. We arrived in Delhi in the morning and began to tackle India once more. We were able to secure the last 2 tourists seats on the train to Amritsar and headed to the train station. Now all that i had heard about Delhi was that it was stinky and gross and busy and stinky. Well after all the build up it actually wasn't that bad, although I learned that the big part of the grossness was the fact that there were cows everywhere but this time they had all disapeared. So we walked down the Main bazaar street got some food and a new bag and headed to the train station for our 4:30pm train. Now this was the Shantabdi express, one of the few "luxury express" trains that this country have and the lowest class is pretty much first class A/C seating with full meals and all. We were being served some kind of food, snakcs, soup, meals, fairly frequently and the ride went by quite fast. We arrived in Amritsar in the dark and tried to start walking the direction that we thought would lead us to a guest house. But soon we were informed by a rickshaw that we were actually going in the complete opposite direction. So we hope on the rickshaw and return to the guest house area near the station and fight off the many touts on the empty streets before we found a guest house to our liking and price range.
The day, as we hadn't slept for 2 days, that's exactly what we did, sleeping until pretty much 4pm in the evening. We got up and decided to head to the Golden Temple area to check it out at least. We got some food, which proved to be quite difficult and went to the regional tourist office inside the complex. Here we were lectured on why we wouldn't spend the night in the free dorms and eat the free food. Well we must be rich he claimed, that would be the only reason. Yes, i'm a freaking millionaire, that's why i splurged for the $5 each room.
The next day we got up, had some breakfast and headed to temple. Now this is again a trully remarkable complex, with lots of gold and marble and expensive things. And so many people who are very dedicated. The line up to get into the temple was ridiculously long, it probably would have taken 3 hours to get through, at least. So we strolled around the edge and fought off the many people who wanted to take pictures with us. That night we had told to meet a rickshaw driver to take us to Attari for the changing of the guards ceremony, but after waiting for 15min, we joined a shared taxi instead because we didn't want to miss the show. (We learned later that he had waited for 2 hours, but i made it clear to him that we were in clear view in the meeting area and we are the ones that should be found, we are white remember?) Anyways, this "ceremony" was pretty much a big Indian pep rally with chants of "Hindustan!" and other lound cheers. There was also impromtu dacing to Bollywood hits (what would an Indian pep rally be without it). Now i didn't really see what was going on at the actually border because the Indians couldn't keep still for even 2 minutes and would jump again, all trying to see. The guards would come over and tell people to sit but the Indians just can't help themselves and stand up one minute later.
After getting back to Amritsar, we checked out this free eating hall and the chapati machine that makes the thousands of chapatis needed. It was a constant flow of people coming in, eating, leaving and then a new group would enter. Quite the system.
The next day we began our wonderful journey to Macleod Ganj-Dharamsala on the bus. First a 4 hour bus ride to Pathenkot and then another 4-5 hour bus ride to Dharamsala. To top it all off, i had paid for my breakfast and then had to leave it because the bus was leaving and just before we get to Dharamsala a group of drunk Indians get on and made fun of the whiteys for a good while, even while Justina was sick on the bus. I should have yelled at them and gotten really mad but I was really tired and just wanted to get there. But i still should have yelled at them. I need to work on that. Well we got to Macleod Ganj by taxi and soon found a very nice room at a hostel up a large flight of stairs. I went to get some dinner and left Justina in bed as she was sick. Then, you guessed it, we slept.

Fighting crime in the kok

Ok so as the cops here don't really do anything and just sit on their buts collecting slush money we decided to take things into our own hands and fight some crime. the deal was that on our bus ride from Suratthani to Bangkok there were dudes in the luggage compartment going through peoples bags, stealing things. This is fairly common here but we let our guard down just enough to get taken advantage of. so instead of checking our bags right when we got off the bus like our spidey sense was telling us to do, we continued on to the guest house before discovering what had happened. There are many excuses you can think of, it was 5am, we were tired, but really we should have been more carefull and we could have done something right then and there. But alas that's not how things panned out. So we had been talking with this NZ/Can couple and saw them in the morning in a frantic as well. they had discovered what had happened before going to sleep and had started all the processes when things are stolen from you. They had taken $200US cash off us and the souvenir money that we had had on us from Burma, Singapore and NZ, along with $50 worth in Indian rupees. They are very dumb, i mean they took maybe 40 cents worth of useless Burmese money, pretty much the thing we are most pissed off about. The NZ/Can couple had $50US stolen but they had found there back up cash card and had somehow had drained all $3000 out of the account. so we were pissed off but they were really stressed out. so we went to cancel the credit card that they had taken from Justinas pack and then started the process of cops/finding the company. We went the cop station that is close by and they told us that only the tourist police can help us. We found out later that they only reason for this is they are the only ones who can speak english. Well that was very far away and we hadn't figured out the bus company name for sure or had no evidence of the bus plates or anything. so we went to the place that sold us the boat tickets but were informed that it wasn't them and only had buses of certain colour etc... But they were quite concerned and told us to go to where the buses will be leaving for Suratthani at 6pm and maybe you will spot the bus. ok then we will do that. Tried to get some beers but they don't sell beer t 7-11 between 2-5pm. why? i have no idea. anyways the day rolls on, we grab a few beers and head over to where all the buses pick up the tourists. We spend our time warning the various people but aren't very positive on the chances of seeing our bus again. Just as we were about to give up, here it comes rolling along. I recognised the dude and pointed to him as he pulls up to pick up more tourists. So of course in hindsight we should have gone and got a cop right away but we were a)so surprised that the bus actually came and b)all focused on getting photos of the workers and the bus. We warned all the people getting on the bus, some of which took there bags back and on board with them. Then by the time we try and get the cops, the bus has started to drive off. We should have just stood right in front of the bus to not let it move but the driver was threatening us with a pole and all the workers were all freaked out and on they mobiles, probably telling the people that the operation is off for the night. But they knew that they were in trouble/guilty and that's why they were so mad. So Nadine is on the back of the scooter with the cop as they chase after the bus and Shawn and I go up to these worker to talk to them. I ask them what company they work for and such, Shawn takes a photo of them and they freak out. the one guy goes after Shawn, he throws me the camera and they tussle a bit. the other guy was trying to pry his friend away and then changes tactics and clocks shawn right in the head. So shawn walks/runs off, i follow him, still in awe of what just happened and the dudes are still walking after us mad as hell. We then meet up with Justina and head to the police station where Nadine comes back and let's us know that they couldn't find the bus. So a tourist cop comes and we get all the photos printed out. We then have to take a taxi for 30min to the actual tourist police office where we can get our police report translated into thai, pretty much the only thing they do. Of course in the end, the cops will do very little. We would have to go back to Suratthani to those cops for them to do something and the Tourist police might send some people undercover later but that's about it. Even though we have all these photos they are still useless. They were more concerned about the violence than about the robbery. The one cop was asking us over and over again why we didn't arrest the attacker and beat him up. Well isn't that what you guys should do as cops? Sweet. Well theres the story of fighting crime in Bangkok. Although there is no chance of ever getting some money back, i hope that they can maybe do something to that company and maybe they will be freaked out for a while so that they don't steal from more unsuspecting tourists. And it sure gave us wake up call that's for sure. I will always be checking my bag when i get off the bus, it doesn't matter where you are.

ok, well again it's been a long time but we are now in Bangkok and getting ready to fly to Delhi in a few days. Our time on Koh Phagnan was quite enjoyable and let us relax and do whatever we please. But of course when things like that goes on, time goes by very fast. We stayed in a little beach bungalo which was just what we were looking for and got right in to the island life style. Went through a couple of books and tried not to stress out too much. It's tough to know what to write about when so little was accomplished. But we took some scooter rides which were always interesting. the whole thing with the foot brake is kinda tough, especially when your bike sucks and can't get up many hills so when it doesn't quite make it you really need to brake and put your feet down. But then of course the whole foot brake thing really complicates things like that. We tried to get to Haad Rin one day, the location of the full moon party but were seriously thwarted by the hilly terrain and our weakness in bike. But one thing that was sweet was that i got to make use of my waterproof camera! was excited and it is very fun but the visibility where we were snorkling just wasn't quite good enough so you really couldn't quite get those photos that they advertise on the pentax website. but the photos show it all. That's really about all i can think of, still a little slow from all the lounging around. I know, it sounds tough but someone'd got to do it.

Koh Phagnan

Oh how easy it is to do very little. Just a quick note letting people know that we are in fact still alive and kicking in Thailand. We have spent a week now in Koh Phagnan and have been chilling out the whole time. After arriving to find out that the bay that we wanted to stay at was a little too secluded as the road there was near impassable with 2 people on the bike. So we drove around the island a bit that first day until we found a suitable shack in Ao Mae Haad beach on the north west corner. We have a hammock, and a fan and a deck that is the most ghetto deck of all the huts but we like it that way. Finished some books, been scooting around and partying with the english and one canadian neighbors. We did say happy St.Pats day, a German guy reminded us of that fact. We got a frisbee and also did some snorkiling. Last night we went to the "Blackmoon Party" which was interesting. Well we went there at about 1am totally sober as we had taken a nap and we also had to scoot there a fair distance. So arriving at 1am totally sober at a rave can be interesting. People sometimes think that they are just so smooth, sometimes more so the more drunk they become. But we know the truth, hehe. They had advertised trance but for the 3 hours that we were threre, it mostly drum and bass and a little too fast for me by the end. But hey you can't say we didn't try. No pics, too expensive and it would just be me or Justina in different chilled out poses. We will be heading back to the Kok in a couple days to tackle the place before our flight to India on the 25th. Take care all.

Bangkok-Koh Tao

So ok, it has been a while yes and i was actually half way through this one when the comp crashed on me so now i will try again. We are now in Koh Tao, having just finished our diving courses and now will be leaving for Koh Phagnan tomorrow to find a nice beach to chill at before it's back to Bangkok for our flight to Delhi on the 25th.
So we arrrived in Bangkok and just enjoyed the easiness of thailand. Got our haircuts and such to get ready for the beach, spent a lot of time on the internet, did some shopping and some tourist watching that is probably some of the best anywhere. There are many internet places here but they are all very expensive, way too expensive. I mean more expenisve than in the middle of nowhere Burma, how is that possible? Anyways, we caught a night bus to Chumphon and from there the boat took us to Koh Tao. Not much to say about the trip, just that it was awesome. I mean actual aricon, lots of room, doesn't break down, just great stuff really.
Anyways we arrive in Koh Tao and get right into the course. They get us into the classroom for some crappy instructional vids (i think that almost all instructional vids are bad, the whole making learning fun so hard) followed by some "quizzes". The next day we got into the pool after some more vids for our first breaths underwater. I think it came a lot easier than i thought it would that's for sure. The next morning we took our "final exam" and then headed on the boat inthe afternoon for our first 2 real dives. We had to do some skills as in taking the mask on and off, practising sharing air and such but other than that we just cruised around. Now i don't know if it's my male instinct but i think that one reason that i have enjoyed this diving this is that the whole idea of it is to cruise slow and check stuff out. That's all i really need to enjoy myself. Plus the stuff that we check out is pretty cool and such that we don't get to see very often but still, i like the whole chill vibe of it.
Well the next day we woke up early to hit the boat at 7:15am for the last 2 of our dives. And of course the video had to come along because they gotta get the whole package for ya. (Didn't get it, the video was really cool but for $80, i think that i can spend my money better).

I don't know how to describe the diving much but it's a really good sensation. And which each dive it gets better because you learn to control yourself so much more to just float around. And of course i would like to take pics but don't have any of those. We had thought of getting a disposable but it wasn't guarenteed, especially if we went down to 18m or even 30m. Wel after passing the first course we decided that we liked it so much that we wanted to do the advanced too. After that we can go pretty much anywhere and do almost anything, including our own dives and dives at night as well as certified to 30m. So we took one day off, which was spent sleeping and reading and beaching and we were right back into the boat. The first day we did 3 dives, the first one being a naturalist cruise. The next we attempeted to navigate with our compasses. Now this proved to be more difficult than you think. Firstly, there are currents everywhere that try to take you off course. And then on top of that you measure distance by the number of kicks you do. So as you can see, it is for sure no accurate science. But we tried. After those two dives, we went ashore to get some water and food and were right back on for our night dive. Now that was really cool. It was cool for one because you couldn't look everywhere, only really where your flashlight was pointed so you tended to notice the little things that you don't see during the day. And plus the fact that is was dark with phosfluorescence, it just made for a very interesting atmosphere. We returned tired and hungry and after dinner i decided to make a phone call to my bank to inquire why my card wasn't working. I soon found out that someone in the lower mainland has been using my identity somehow and has drained my account over the past few months with transactions throughout the lower mainland. Kinda shitty but i hope the fact that i have been away the whole time will make the insurance process a lot easier. But it will take a while. Some people are just so mean.

Anyways, the next day which is today was another early wake up call and we loaded up the boat for our last 2 dives. The first one we went down to 30m. At this depth, you can have symptoms of nitrogen narcosis which is pretty much drunken elation and the reason that many people do really deep dives and never come back. Just because they are having such a good time and forget everything else. Well we didn't get anything like that but it was a little different down ther with a heavily clouded thermocline. One last dive of cruising around checking out the fish which inclueded some very feisty rightfully named Trigger fish. These fish are quite territorial and can take a pretty good chunk out of you. We also saw another cute family of Thailand style Nemos as well.

Well that's all for now, we really haven't been up to too much other than that. We didn't see sharks or turtles or anything like that but i have found a something new that i enjoy quite a bit that's for sure. And I am very glad to have done it now as I can do more diving around the world wherever i go next, whenever that is. I hope all is well where ever you are in the world and send me some emails with updates.

Yangon

ok well not much to say about yangon, we pretty much went back there because a)that's how we fly out of here to bangkok and b) we had to see the Shwedagon Paya, pretty much the one must see in Burma, along with Bagan. I think that it's something like Disneyland meets Vegas with all the flashing lights around and many different Buddah caracters and animals around. Tried to sneak in but we were caught quickly and had to pay the $5 fee to get in. Oh well it's pretty amazing place. But for me way too much, i mean these countries are soo poor and yet they devot so much of their time and money, soooo much money, the top is decorated with a 76ct diamond and 2000 other diamonds(even though it's so high up so one can see it). It seems like a huge wast, i mean think if all the time and money spent on religions was donated to feeding people and maybe making a road or two, how much better off this country would be. And that goes for anywhere really. I know religion gives some people hope but i think that there is a limit. And what's so good about hope that is no doubt false, can you really think that giving money to this dragon head will solve your problems? Well maybe i'm just a big pessimist. and another thing is a monk shows us around and chews his betel and then asks for a "donation" at the end. Pretty much a scam. And we asked him why women aren't aloowed in some places of the temple and he says straight out that Buddha believed that women were far less than men in the world. So even buddha isn't perfect.

We are now in Bangkok and after planning we have arranged to leave tomorrow night for Koh Tao to start our diving course and hit the beaqch after those 4 days. it's gonna be fun, i'm quite excited. And Thailand is just sooo easy, it's sweet.

Inle lake

Well the next day we heard that is was a good idea to take the boat to all the sights. The spanegian pair had said that it was their best day in all on Burma. So we booked the boat to take us out at 8:30am. As we went out to breakfast however there was another couple just about to leave on a boat of their own. It would've been a little helpful if the hotel would have maybe let us know that and we could have gone with them. Oh well, at breakfast we grabbed this socks and sandals japanese guy so it was a little less expensive. The day was spent in these comfy seat visiting the many sites around the village. We first checked out the floating "market" which used to be a market. I've seen it on an old picture postcard so i know it's true but by we have come here too late and now it is really just a big souvenir boat mob. We then visited the village of Indein with it's close packed actient, yup you guessed it STUPAS. It was pretty neat though as most of them were left to whatever state that weather and time has transformed them into. We then had some lunch and visited the most sacred temple in the Shan state with their famous 4 buddha images that since being covered with so much gold leaf have now tranformed into egg images but you get the idea. From there we visited the factories for the cigars as well as for boats and and another for silver jewerly. On the way back to town we were able to catch the sunset before returning to our hotel. Another nice dinner and we were back to bed for a sleep after the long day.

The next day was our journey to Yangon which was supposed to take 18 hours. But of course that didn't go that way. We first had to take the pick up truck bus thing to the larger town of Shwenyaung. And there we had to argue with the dude as he wanted more money from epopel to leave right away but the foreigners held out and when we threatened to go and share a taxi then they said yes. Of course from there the bus was maybe 1.5 hours late and we were told that we weren't on the first bus but the second one. Fine, 2 stops later we are told that we are supposed to be on the first one not the second one. Well ok then, i can see how this is going. Of course the first bus was not as nice and we soon learned was in much better condition. Broke down once, got fixed enough to carry on and then broke down for good. Not sure what was going on as they probably told the people in Burmese. So by this time it's 3am and we are told that it will be a 5 hour wait for the next bus to come get us. Sweet. Ok so it wasn't 5 hours but a bunch of hours anyways and the next bus was so much worse than the one we had. they pretty much commendeered a local bus, kicked most of the people off it and loaded us on. Another many many hours and we finally arrive in Yangon. 18 hours? More like 26. But that's Myanmar for ya. And for those of you who think that all this complaining is because i'm grumpy and not having a good time then your totally wrong. This is part of it and it's fun telling people the stories. See Laura's comment.

Kalaw

So after that terrible bus ride we got up around noon to check out the town. Went for some lunch and booked our 2 day trek to Inle lake before walking around the town and such. After a break back at the hotel we went back to the same restaurant for dinner as it was good and then to bed for a good amount of rest before our 2 day trek starting the next day. It was recommended to us by a few people to do the trek from Kalaw to Inle lake, staying one night in a monastary or with a family. As the trek usually takes 2 nights and 3 days, we took a shortcut by taking a taxi past all the hard mountain stuff and started at a town called Lamine where there was a noviciation ceremony happening. We left with one guide Thun thi and our cook Disa. We caught the taxi at 8:30 and arrived at the village about an hour later. We later learned that the last time they had this ceremony in this particular village was 22 years ago. There are many factors that determine if it possible for them to have the ceremony but the major one is they have to have a very successful harvest as they have to feed the many hundreds of people that come from surrounding villages and pay for the rented costumes and all the festivities, the catering guys, the tents, the stage, the band. It all seems trivial stuff but for a village that survives mostly on sustinance farming, this is huge. So we were clearly lucky to be part of it any part of it. We took some pictures that we will send to the family that invited us in for food and tea and such friendly hospitality. We did a tour of the village where many others tried to invite us into their homes and passed the procession of the kids becoming novice monks riding on the shoulders of the men in full costume dancing as the band follows them behind. As the last time they had a ceremony in the village was 22 years ago, there were around 150 kinds becoming novices as well as full fledged monks. Some did both in the span of the 3 day ceremony as you have to do one before you get to the other. There were groups of caterers who made huge pots of pork and fish curry and so much rice. The food was actually really really good, some of the best authentic burmese food that i have had here so far. It was very interesting to see how they cooked for all these people for the 3 day ceremony. Well we finally had to continue on even though we were very invited to stay for the night. It would have been quite the experience but again there is only so much time in this country so we continued on. The trek was quite nice that first day, there was a good breeze going on and the slope fairly easy going. We arrived in the village where we were staying after around 4-5 hours hiking. As we arrived, we learned that they had just finished building a new house for this one family and were having the house warming party/ceremony that night. Wow how our timing is sweet. They of course invited us and everyone carried some of their stuff into the house and all sat down in our segregated rooms. Men and women of course but Justina got to stay in the men group. We all sat down and they served tea and sugary sticky rice and fermented tea leaves and cigars were offered to all. We stayed for a while and took some picks that we will send there too. We then dropped our stuff off and walked around the town where we were showed how they de-husk the rice and the monastary of the village where another group of trekkers were staying. We then returned to family home where Diza cooked us up an amazing meal, some more of the best food that we have had in Buma and then hung out drank tea and helped the lady of the house crack peanut shells to get the seeds that they will use to plant more peanuts. We could hear the neighbours making pop sticky rice and the boys came over to our house to visit the 14 year old daughter and they had a fire outside the house and probably talked huge village gossip while shelling peanuts. But unfortunately we couldn't understand any of it, but i'm sure it was good. It is amazing though how much energy it takes just to feed your family, the work seems to never really stops ever.

The next morning we woke at 7am and some nice hot breakfast before heading out on the road for the day. This day was a little hotter but we trudged along at a steady pace and arrived at the village at the edge of Inle lake. From here we had a boat meet us for the 1.5 hour ride to Nyaungshwe, the town where all the guesthouses are. It was a gorgeous boat ride through all these floating gardens which is pretty much earth that is connected to bamboo poles. We secured a room and said farewell to our great guide and cook. Went out for dinner of course a little later than we had planned and caught then end of things in town. But we did run into the Norwegian and spanish pair that we had met in Ngwe Hsaung and chatted with them for a while. The next day we looked forward to a full day of boating.

Mandalay

Ok well it's been another bit of a stretch between blogs again but that's how it works here. It could be similar in Thailand but it will be more because of the chilling on beaches and less internet access problems. But we are back in Yangon now with 2 nights and a day left before we fly out to Bangkok on the 4th. So Mandalay was an interesting place and it would have been very nice to spend a week there as there are many one day or a few days trips that you can make up and down the river to many villages and such but of course, we only have so much time here and so we must only see what we can. (It would have been also nice as we would have travelled by boat which we learn how great that is more and more with every bus ride.) Well that first day we walked around a bunch, and of course after spending 3 hours of internet at one place walk by another for 1/3 of the price. Ahhh, sweet. We bought some local market fruit, tried in vain to find this travel agent that no longer existed and entered this posh supermarket with lots of chocolate, like real chocolate as everything here is only chocolate flavoured and they have no good chocolate. I know it's scary but true. We should have gone for the cadbury but we could get twice as much for the malaysia stuff at the same price. Got greedy and paid for it in quality. After a break back at out hotel we emerged a little too late for most of the restaurants. well i think it was maybe 8:30pm but everything here just closes soooo early. You can't even get a bottle of water here after 10pm. Anyways, on the way to the street chappathi stands (some of the only food available at this "late" hour), a trishaw approached us, his name was Jo-Jo and he suggested that he take us around to all the sights for the day. We agreed that it would be a good idea and so we agreed on a price and a time to meet and went on to our street dinner. Its amazing sometimes how small and young the kids here look and yet how old they can act. At many of the street stalls and such, that get most of their business, employ young kids, mostly around early teens but sometimes as young as 9. But this one 9 year old that was serving us acted as if he was in his thirties and running the show. It was great but kinda too bad as these kids need to grow up so fast.
The next morning after breakfast, we met Jo-Jo outside at 9:30am and we headed out to see the sights. As we hadn't bought the $10 Mandalay archeological zone ticket (fancy word for govt tourist tax), Jo-Jo took us to all the sights that didn't need to ticket and knew how to get around it when possible. It seems after talking to some other trishaw drivers as well as they kinda respected the fact that we didn't buy the ticket. We saw quite the amazing temple with this huge Buddha statue that was stolen/sent, i don't know which one, from far away, i think even northern India. It was carried over mountains and floated down rivers before arriving to a place where Buddha himself it was to stay. The people here think it is quite special and the smoothness is no more as it has been covered many times over with gold leaf. And of course women aren't allowed to get close to the Buddha or touch it, ahh religions and their discrimination. We then saw a very old monastary and a gold leaf factory. There we witnessed true back breaking labour where these guys pound on huge stacks of leaves all day long, each leaf has gone through 3 stages and a tolta of 6-7 hours of pounding. Had some oily lunch and back to the hotel to rest. On the way to Mandalay hill for a lookout of the city we stopped at this amazing place where there were hundreds of large tablets with each of them having their own payas. Then the hill was neat but couldn't get all the way to the top as we needed a ticket but that's aight, we got the idea. Had some Nepali food dinner and then went to see the famous Moustache Brothers show. Well they were famous around the country but then banned by the govt and 2 out of 3 of them were in jail for 7 years, so now they just cater to their tourist and have a little show out of their house. And it is true, just as the one brother says many times in his elmur fudd accent, it is a "toowist twap". Oh well it was interesting. After the show, yes Jo-Jo was still with us, he insisted he stayed, we cycled home and gave him a little extra which he was thrilled. They relaly don't make much those guys, he says he pays $5 rent a month, $5 school for his kid a month and then there is all the rest still. And sometimes he gets no customers some days so he actually loses money because he pays rent per day on his trishaw. On top of this he has to deal with the police who harass them sometimes, just the other day he told us this story where the police took his trishaw lisence away from him for no reason and then he had to go to the police office then to a lawyer to pay him and get him to fill out some sheet and then back to the police office to pay them and get his lisence back. In the end is cost him K8000, which is more than he pays in rent for the whole month. It really makes you mad sometimes the way the people are treated here.
Ok well before i continue, just 2 things that made us quite frustrated about our hotel staff. They were quite unfriendly first of all and we decided to buy bus tickets from them to Kalaw. Now this was a little bit our fault as we didn't even check other options and just bought them and so we ended up paying almost double the price necessary. Our fault. But he says that the bus trip takes 12 hours and you get in at sometimes around 6am the next day into Kalaw. Fine then. The next thing was they had a computer in the lobby that had a sign that said internet access. So they turned it on and we just wanted to use it for 5 min to check if the flights that we booked online went through. As we leave to go to our room they ask for money. Well you really should have a sign or tell us how much it is before we get on, but ok how much is it for 5 minutes. Well he says that it's K2000 minimum. Are you crazy! the other place we went to was K400 per hour. So now your just trying to rip us off. So we argued a bit but right from the start they were quite rude. They said that we should care that they have to pay taxes to the govt. Well actually that's your problem not mine and you should tell people it's K2000 before you let them on. But if they did no one would use it probably. Anyways we didn't pay. hehehe
The next day we got up and checked out. Then we caught a taxi out to the longest teak bridge in the world at Amarapura. It was neat and one of those things where you should just go and do it. At the start of the bridge there was the bird sellers again but this time they had all kinds of birds for sale, huge beautiful owls and such. It was sad but i wasn't paying this guy $4 just to free a bird that he has caged. Just doesn't seem right.
Well we got back and waited for the transport to the bus station that was "included" with the bus ticket. Another thing that was annoying. It was just this pickup truck that we filled with people but the thing was that it took pretty much 1.5 hours to go maybe 5km. It was ridiculous. At one point the drivers and the workers of this bus company got out and just left where we waited for like 30-40 minutes doing nothing. It's amazing how much these Burmese put up with, they were all calm but we were close to freaking out a little. Then we get to the bus station and get in this very crummy bus. Like it was bad. My chair was broken and wouldn't go back and the armrest wasn't even attached to the rest of the chair anymore. So the bus ride sucked as they all do here in Burma with basically no road ahead of us and no room to move and always for me, no sleep at all. So then around 2:30am in the morning and were told that we are in Kalaw. So not only did we pay double the money, we got a shitty ride to the bus depot, a shitty bus and then lied to about how long it takes to get there. So we arrive in Kalaw at 2:30 am and mad at our hotel because now that we are here , we have to wake these nice people up to see if they have rooms, something for which we could have phoned in before. The second try they had a room available so we went to bed.