Day 40: Bagan to Kalaw

-We woke up early for a six-hour drive to Kalaw, a mountain town in the Shan state. Our driver brought along his brother for the ride so he didn’t have to complete the whole journey (there and back) by himself. Driving that long in the US would be one thing, driving that long in Myanmar is something altogether. The cars here are as old as me, and those are usually the nice ones. On top of that only recently did they build toll roads, which are actually paved. Even then there are areas under construction so you have to go off-roading for a bit. Additionally honking is used as an indicator here, and a way to warn the traffic in front that we’re coming up. It also seems to be just a thing for the driver to sound for no apparent reason at all. We frequently swerve around to avoid the multitude of stray dogs casually sitting in the roads. Seat belts don’t seem to exist in any of the cars we have driven in, and the roads don’t have speed limits. Near the end of our drive we saw a truck completely flipped over and stuck in a ditch on the side of the road. That should give you an idea of driving in Myanmar.

-We did take a couple of breaks on our drive. First was at a palm oil and brown sugar plantation where we saw a guy climb up a tree to collect some palm juice. We were given some different types of palm juice to try, including the highly fermented kind, so we casually took some shots at 8am. They gave me a present of brown sugar and sesame seeds (eaten together here), which is code for ‘tip me.’

-Our second stop was just for lunch in a little restaurant. The driver(s) used a hose to cool off the tires resulting in billows of smoke, another example of the perfectly safe driving methods of Myanmar. Lunch was nothing special; I’m just ready for a meal that doesn’t consist of fried noodles and chicken.

-Once we arrived at our hotel we soon discovered that a) no one in our hotel spoke English and b) there is really nothing to do in Kalaw. Therefore we ended up relaxing yet again, this time in a very un-relaxing room as they were doing construction next door.

-For dinner we made the 30-minute walk into town and found a little restaurant. I ordered a cheese sandwich much to Marco’s dismay, but I wasn’t expecting the little green worm that came on it. On our way back we bought some more movies and then were caught in a downpour. I had to use my book light as a flashlight since parts of the streets were pitch-black. Always prepared.