Day 18 - 5/12/2015
On the board of Malikha Express from Taunggok to Sittwe - West Myanmar
Since our last entry we’ve managed to move further up some 300km on Burmese west coast. Chaung Tha to Pathein was easy bus ride early in the morning which gave us enough time to research how to get to Yegyi and further to Gwa during same day.
It was in Pathein when we first time tried to hitch hike. We’re looking for internet cafe where we stopped couple of days ago but we either forgot the direction or the place just disappeared over night ( former is obviously more likely). Anyway stood on main road crossing some smaller road, right below the lights Tati knocked on the window of some silver Toyota Hi lux and asking with her best smile : “Mengalaba, do you want to give us a lift to bus station ?” Very warm smile from inside of the car saying, “Yes sure I’m going that direction anyway !”
We jumped to back seat leaving moto-taxis on the road with jaws open all the way to their knees :) It turned out the guy was just giving a lift to his well kept wife and baby to their home in Pathein before heading to work in Yangon. We’re offered ride full way back to Yangon with him. It was not our way this time so we gratefully said thank you. Instead he dropped us on the bus station, talked to bus drivers, asked for bus to Yegyi and following connection to Gwa for us. By 11:30 we got everything sorted, bags waiting inside the bus and we filled our bellies with delicious noodles and rice in local dhaba. Bus to Yegyi took almost 3 hours but that didn’t matter at all as the following connection bus was supposed to arrive between 5 and 6 pm.
Bus dropped us exactly on the spot where the next one should be stopping, very easy so far :)
Locals surrounded us asking where are we going ? I guess most of them never seen white face before as this place is not really on foreigners maps and most just pass through the junction hidden behind tinted windows of A/C bus.
We explained them our expectations of bus to Gwa around 5pm and they agreed there should be bus coming around that time. Cool we thought, let just sit down, read, chill and observe local life. Around 5h we got an update from one local saying that the bus will come at 7 pm. Bus left Yangon at 2:30 and had couple of troubles on the way (one side window panel completely fell out - which provided A/C and in night hours was source of bitter cold).
We got little bit bored after 3 hour sitting on the crossroad and started having jokes with locals collecting road tax :) They were really funny crowd with red stained ruined teeth :)
At 7:15 the bus really arrived and already expected us to jump on board - nothing like letting locals talk to their friends on the bus even without asking them to do so :)
The journey through mountains separating Ayerewady and Rakhine state is strenuous and far away from easy. The hills rise up to 600 m and the road is again just single tarmac track with dirt on both sides. 180 degrees turns in steep hills are very narrow and maybe it was better we didn’t see all the dangerous beauty. After 4 hours of bumpy ride we’ve managed to get across the mountains and our bus started dropping some guys in tiny villages. It was completely pitch black dark outside and we knew that Gwa should be on the beach, so we expected some signs of beach - palm trees, fisherman fishing on boats with light etc. Big part of the bus got out on one station and Tati’s instinct saved us from missing our destination. She pushed me to ask the guys who forgot where we’re heading when are we gonna reach Gwa. They replied simply : “Gwa here”, that was just when we’re leaving the village :) So we jumped off payed our 8000 Ks each and went to look for More Guest House. Even though there were no lights on in the whole village, we managed to locate it, wake Mr More and we scored quite nice room with 2 double beds and mosquito nets. 8000 Ks each per night - so far cheapest on our journey through Myanmar.
Next morning we woke up to the sound of Myanmar music around 4:30 AM, cruel fact about life of Burmese people, they wake up terribly early and they start their day with loud music and phone calls. Room next to us was occupied by 3 young workers on their journey somewhere and they had a morning blast ! At least we got out of the bed early and went for beach walk followed by quick breakfast which consisted of fried bread, fried sweet bread and for a change fried pancake like piece of dough.
Kilometers long beach in Gwa was nice but locals advised us to check the area south of the river for more remote experience. Instead of getting a motorbike we talked to random bicycle owners and scored 2 small bicycles for 1000 Ks each for the day, what a bargain :)
To get across the river we used service of an old men paddling his 4 m long canoe like boat across the estuary. Tati dropped her heart down her pants couple of times :) but it felt pretty safe. The guy either thought we speak well Burmese or he didn’t care. Anyway he didn’t stop talking for whole 10 minutes. Ja-le, ja-le, hou-bi, hou-bi etc. Later on we figured out that ja-de, ja-de is ok, ok, and hou-bi, hou-bi is ok, enough.
Little village with own primary school, pagoda and monastery was awaiting on this side of peninsula, wedged between beautiful white sand bay surrounded dotted with palm trees and volcanic rock cape with little Buddha shrine. Water was much cleaner here than in Gwa.
Refreshing swim, rest and snack on freely laying coconut ( little mission to get in without the right tools ) and we’re on the track again exploring further. Cracked earth rice fields and dried out rivers reminded of us that wet season has been gone for a while and it’s still more than 6 months till new one comes. During this time locals seem to live mainly from coconuts - freshly cut from the trees for drinking and dry ones available to pickup on the ground for cooking.
We stationed for 2 hours, stretched our hammock between two palms and Tati relaxed while I disappeared with snorkel and mask to see what’s hidden under the water surface.
It was the first time since I tried in Myanmar and was lucky enough to see plenty of corals and quite varied marine life. Fish of different colours and shapes were occupying rock and coral sanctuaries and seemed not worried about a presence of a human. The blue square ones being quiet curious and coming really close to check me out. Little mouth and little white tail fin didn’t fit proportionally with huge blue flat square body decorated with few orange stripes. What a beauty though.
Sea breeze was picking up on the strength and Tati got little bit worried about me as she couldn’t see my snorkel any more in the choppy sea. Time to head back. By the time I got out the breeze became moderate and I’d guess somewhere close to 18 kts. It would be great to have a kite here right now...
We’ve packed the hammock after drinking another huge coconut which was just laying around and started semi walking semi riding bicycle on the beach back direction to Gwa.
Through whole day we met just Norbert (German close to his 60‘s) in first bay and few locals moving up and down or scouting for coconuts. I wish it would stay like this in the future but who knows, one day the development might reach this remote paradise as well.
That night we made first wrong decision of our journey, to have a dinner in local kneipe called Royal restaurant. Only Royal aspect of the food was being sick like a King. Poor Tati was KO all night and following day.
With the words of classic - Never more...
After full day of rest Tati felt stronger and we hit the road again. We started reasonably early with full Burmese breakfast - Rice & vegetable curry accompanied by green tea. With full bellies and good mood we walked half way out of Gwa village and stopped first pick up going past us. This little truck dropped us couple of kms out of the village just when Toyota Hi-ace (very similar to our own in Europe) was coming, quick jump in its way and question could u give us a ride worked like a charm. Mio and Nele were locals from Ngapali coming back from Yangon area where Mio is responsible for few road constructions. Mio turned out be pretty busy guy in our age. Engineer, restaurant owner and keen diver who spoke for Burmese conditions pretty well English. We got tips for cheapest accommodation in Ngapali, were offered some whiskey ( we suspect that both of them were drunk a bit ) in exchange we offered what we had - sweet little bananas and smiles. We could have gone directly to Ngapali for free.
But that would be too easy and we don’t like easy.
Firstly we’re aiming to see Kanthaya and Sattwa villages with their beaches. As they were pretty far away from each other ( cca 10 km) we opted for the latter one and hang our hammock on the beach for 2 hours. The water wasn’t the cleanest again and only spot where it was possible to see something under the water were small rocky islets 100 m off shore across the river estuary.
Around 3 pm we slowly started walking towards the main road again. Long walk in full power heat ended on the bus station ( just opposite local primary and high school) where we waited for almost 2 hours until first bus was passing by. Motivated by morning success we expected some cars to pick us up, however through those 2 hours there was just one SUV passing by ... The rest were just local transport - trikes, mopeds, bikes and tractors.
For next 4 hours we were on bus rally ! Sitting on the back seats we’re non-stop air borne as the bus was heading lightning speed over pot-holed tarmac road and just sound speed over dirt roads. By 8 PM we’ve reached Thandwe and half an hour later they dropped us where we needed in Ngapali. Bloody great service at the end ! Massage and home delivery for few euros.
Arriving in pitch black darkness again we didn’t consider option of hammock night under the trees as we couldn’t see the trees :)
Earlier tip from Mio proved to be working. Caravan Motel ( real name Thiri Yeikmon Motel ) had non A/C room available for 30 000 Ks ( cca 23 Euro) way cheaper than the other “resorts”. Location wise it was pretty good - 2 mins walk from the beach.
We woke up next morning early as usual in Myanmar but to our surprise it was not blue bird day but overcast with little bit of rain falling sporadically.
Mohinga for breakfast went down smoothly and we went for snorkeling between the rocks on left side of the bay. Shallow waters, firstly sandy water with not much visibility cleared up as soon as the sand changed to rocky bottom with many corals sheltering marine life and creating underwater garden. The coral is not the shiniest colourful coral you can find on the other places in South East Asia, but at least it’s alive and enables the life around to vary from blue square fish to yellow dotted, leopard like fish, all of them staying on a smaller size.
By 2 pm we’re picked up by bus on the main junction and headed north to Taunggok.
The journey was accompanied by light rain which is completely unexpected during cold season and can bring unexpected complications to traffic on the roads.
Due to poor road construction conditions, every monsoon brings a lot of destruction to local roads and this year’s monsoon was rather on the harsher side. 3 months of torrential rain which some days lasted for up to 22 hours brought floods through all Rakhine state and some roads and bridges got literally washed away.
Cold season is the time to start with road works again. Year after year same bridges over little creeks are re-built with river stone mixed with cement to last till next hard core rain time.
In steeper hills areas whole sections of tarmac slide away with the mountain land slides and these areas become pure dirt roads until they are re-constructed. This can be very dangerous on unexpected rainy day as we witnessed on our bus ride.
Slight curve to the right with little inclination hanging over steep hill falling down to deep river on dusty clay surface mixed with rain water became more slippery than ice. Suddenly we understood why there is a need for 4 guys to operate one bus :)
One (the Boss) was driving while the others jumped out, took their shoes off and started throwing everything what was available under the wheels of heavy bus slowly crawling up the curve. There was moment when we fell how the back wheels are not getting enough of grip and front wheels were not following direction of steering wheel. Little bit scared of possible consequences we experienced another aspect of daily life in Myanmar. In 10 minutes we passed through difficult section and the rest of the journey went smoothly through endless rice fields surrounded by little creeks, rivers and lush green hills.
By 4 pm we’ve reached Taunggok and the rain was gone !
Busy with taxi drivers as usual, Taxi, taxi, moto-taxi ?? One guy was especially funny, with voice of 12 years old mutating castrate his “taxi” call on the beginning sound like a joke, until Tati tried to simulate the same sound and all other moto-taxi dudes cracked up to hard core laugh. Poor little thing.
We didn’t need a taxi (at least we thought so) as there were supposed to be few foreign oriented guest houses in close vicinity of the bus station.
Unfortunately 2 were fully booked, one was undergoing through reconstruction and the last one had just one room available. If the greed didn’t rule the family of the owner we’d end up there and we’re ready to pay up to 20 000 Ks. What a surprise that in shit hole like Taunggok they wanted more money than on Ngapali beach - 40 000 Ks. We’ve tried as hard as our dignity allowed us to bargain and push the price to reasonable level, but after 10 minutes of negotiations the young lady started ignoring my presence and continued in her book keeping. So we ventured out to try more radical thing. Get to jetty and to survive the night somewhere close to next morning mission. Tati has incredible hitch hiking skills. Second car she stopped gave us a lift to jetty and managed to convince owner of non-foreign oriented guest house to take us in for a night. Very basic thatched wooden hut standing on wooden pylons, 4 sqm room and ratan mat on wooden floor sheltered by mosquito net were our sanctuary.
Woken up by dogs having gnarly fight below the house around 4 AM and by sore joints from tough floor we ventured off to find a jetty of Malikha express direction to Sittwe.
We got disappointed by first sight of our speed boat. Fully closed cabin reminded submarine. It looked like we’ll spend next 9 hours locked inside with almost no view through dirty black colour tinted windows.
But don’t despair, it wouldn’t be reasonable to follow safety rules on a boat navigating with 20 kts pace through rivers and ocean to keep the cabin sealed :)
As soon as the sun warmed up surrounding air we climbed into the front deck and spent following 7 hours watching beautiful nature around us. Steady breeze forced us to wear a jumper for almost all of the journey and protected us from harsh sun power which you forget about while cruising in high speed.
On the board of Malikha Express from Taunggok to Sittwe - West Myanmar
Since our last entry we’ve managed to move further up some 300km on Burmese west coast. Chaung Tha to Pathein was easy bus ride early in the morning which gave us enough time to research how to get to Yegyi and further to Gwa during same day.
It was in Pathein when we first time tried to hitch hike. We’re looking for internet cafe where we stopped couple of days ago but we either forgot the direction or the place just disappeared over night ( former is obviously more likely). Anyway stood on main road crossing some smaller road, right below the lights Tati knocked on the window of some silver Toyota Hi lux and asking with her best smile : “Mengalaba, do you want to give us a lift to bus station ?” Very warm smile from inside of the car saying, “Yes sure I’m going that direction anyway !”
We jumped to back seat leaving moto-taxis on the road with jaws open all the way to their knees :) It turned out the guy was just giving a lift to his well kept wife and baby to their home in Pathein before heading to work in Yangon. We’re offered ride full way back to Yangon with him. It was not our way this time so we gratefully said thank you. Instead he dropped us on the bus station, talked to bus drivers, asked for bus to Yegyi and following connection to Gwa for us. By 11:30 we got everything sorted, bags waiting inside the bus and we filled our bellies with delicious noodles and rice in local dhaba. Bus to Yegyi took almost 3 hours but that didn’t matter at all as the following connection bus was supposed to arrive between 5 and 6 pm.
Bus dropped us exactly on the spot where the next one should be stopping, very easy so far :)
Locals surrounded us asking where are we going ? I guess most of them never seen white face before as this place is not really on foreigners maps and most just pass through the junction hidden behind tinted windows of A/C bus.
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| Observing traffic on crossroad in Yegyi |
We got little bit bored after 3 hour sitting on the crossroad and started having jokes with locals collecting road tax :) They were really funny crowd with red stained ruined teeth :)
At 7:15 the bus really arrived and already expected us to jump on board - nothing like letting locals talk to their friends on the bus even without asking them to do so :)
The journey through mountains separating Ayerewady and Rakhine state is strenuous and far away from easy. The hills rise up to 600 m and the road is again just single tarmac track with dirt on both sides. 180 degrees turns in steep hills are very narrow and maybe it was better we didn’t see all the dangerous beauty. After 4 hours of bumpy ride we’ve managed to get across the mountains and our bus started dropping some guys in tiny villages. It was completely pitch black dark outside and we knew that Gwa should be on the beach, so we expected some signs of beach - palm trees, fisherman fishing on boats with light etc. Big part of the bus got out on one station and Tati’s instinct saved us from missing our destination. She pushed me to ask the guys who forgot where we’re heading when are we gonna reach Gwa. They replied simply : “Gwa here”, that was just when we’re leaving the village :) So we jumped off payed our 8000 Ks each and went to look for More Guest House. Even though there were no lights on in the whole village, we managed to locate it, wake Mr More and we scored quite nice room with 2 double beds and mosquito nets. 8000 Ks each per night - so far cheapest on our journey through Myanmar.
Next morning we woke up to the sound of Myanmar music around 4:30 AM, cruel fact about life of Burmese people, they wake up terribly early and they start their day with loud music and phone calls. Room next to us was occupied by 3 young workers on their journey somewhere and they had a morning blast ! At least we got out of the bed early and went for beach walk followed by quick breakfast which consisted of fried bread, fried sweet bread and for a change fried pancake like piece of dough.
Kilometers long beach in Gwa was nice but locals advised us to check the area south of the river for more remote experience. Instead of getting a motorbike we talked to random bicycle owners and scored 2 small bicycles for 1000 Ks each for the day, what a bargain :)
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| Crossing of river in little canoe |
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| Coconnut and bamboo provide all needed shelter |
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| White sand paradise beach ! |
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| Getting into coconut with little blade is rather difficult |
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| Life ain't that hard |
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| Hammock view |
Sea breeze was picking up on the strength and Tati got little bit worried about me as she couldn’t see my snorkel any more in the choppy sea. Time to head back. By the time I got out the breeze became moderate and I’d guess somewhere close to 18 kts. It would be great to have a kite here right now...
We’ve packed the hammock after drinking another huge coconut which was just laying around and started semi walking semi riding bicycle on the beach back direction to Gwa.
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| Queen of the jungle on the bicycle |
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| Endless beach in midtide |
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| Spiritual part of life in Gwa |
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| Lost pagoda between the palm trees |
With the words of classic - Never more...
After full day of rest Tati felt stronger and we hit the road again. We started reasonably early with full Burmese breakfast - Rice & vegetable curry accompanied by green tea. With full bellies and good mood we walked half way out of Gwa village and stopped first pick up going past us. This little truck dropped us couple of kms out of the village just when Toyota Hi-ace (very similar to our own in Europe) was coming, quick jump in its way and question could u give us a ride worked like a charm. Mio and Nele were locals from Ngapali coming back from Yangon area where Mio is responsible for few road constructions. Mio turned out be pretty busy guy in our age. Engineer, restaurant owner and keen diver who spoke for Burmese conditions pretty well English. We got tips for cheapest accommodation in Ngapali, were offered some whiskey ( we suspect that both of them were drunk a bit ) in exchange we offered what we had - sweet little bananas and smiles. We could have gone directly to Ngapali for free.
But that would be too easy and we don’t like easy.
Firstly we’re aiming to see Kanthaya and Sattwa villages with their beaches. As they were pretty far away from each other ( cca 10 km) we opted for the latter one and hang our hammock on the beach for 2 hours. The water wasn’t the cleanest again and only spot where it was possible to see something under the water were small rocky islets 100 m off shore across the river estuary.
Around 3 pm we slowly started walking towards the main road again. Long walk in full power heat ended on the bus station ( just opposite local primary and high school) where we waited for almost 2 hours until first bus was passing by. Motivated by morning success we expected some cars to pick us up, however through those 2 hours there was just one SUV passing by ... The rest were just local transport - trikes, mopeds, bikes and tractors.
For next 4 hours we were on bus rally ! Sitting on the back seats we’re non-stop air borne as the bus was heading lightning speed over pot-holed tarmac road and just sound speed over dirt roads. By 8 PM we’ve reached Thandwe and half an hour later they dropped us where we needed in Ngapali. Bloody great service at the end ! Massage and home delivery for few euros.
Arriving in pitch black darkness again we didn’t consider option of hammock night under the trees as we couldn’t see the trees :)
Earlier tip from Mio proved to be working. Caravan Motel ( real name Thiri Yeikmon Motel ) had non A/C room available for 30 000 Ks ( cca 23 Euro) way cheaper than the other “resorts”. Location wise it was pretty good - 2 mins walk from the beach.
We woke up next morning early as usual in Myanmar but to our surprise it was not blue bird day but overcast with little bit of rain falling sporadically.
Mohinga for breakfast went down smoothly and we went for snorkeling between the rocks on left side of the bay. Shallow waters, firstly sandy water with not much visibility cleared up as soon as the sand changed to rocky bottom with many corals sheltering marine life and creating underwater garden. The coral is not the shiniest colourful coral you can find on the other places in South East Asia, but at least it’s alive and enables the life around to vary from blue square fish to yellow dotted, leopard like fish, all of them staying on a smaller size.
By 2 pm we’re picked up by bus on the main junction and headed north to Taunggok.
The journey was accompanied by light rain which is completely unexpected during cold season and can bring unexpected complications to traffic on the roads.
Due to poor road construction conditions, every monsoon brings a lot of destruction to local roads and this year’s monsoon was rather on the harsher side. 3 months of torrential rain which some days lasted for up to 22 hours brought floods through all Rakhine state and some roads and bridges got literally washed away.
Cold season is the time to start with road works again. Year after year same bridges over little creeks are re-built with river stone mixed with cement to last till next hard core rain time.
In steeper hills areas whole sections of tarmac slide away with the mountain land slides and these areas become pure dirt roads until they are re-constructed. This can be very dangerous on unexpected rainy day as we witnessed on our bus ride.
Slight curve to the right with little inclination hanging over steep hill falling down to deep river on dusty clay surface mixed with rain water became more slippery than ice. Suddenly we understood why there is a need for 4 guys to operate one bus :)
One (the Boss) was driving while the others jumped out, took their shoes off and started throwing everything what was available under the wheels of heavy bus slowly crawling up the curve. There was moment when we fell how the back wheels are not getting enough of grip and front wheels were not following direction of steering wheel. Little bit scared of possible consequences we experienced another aspect of daily life in Myanmar. In 10 minutes we passed through difficult section and the rest of the journey went smoothly through endless rice fields surrounded by little creeks, rivers and lush green hills.
By 4 pm we’ve reached Taunggok and the rain was gone !
Busy with taxi drivers as usual, Taxi, taxi, moto-taxi ?? One guy was especially funny, with voice of 12 years old mutating castrate his “taxi” call on the beginning sound like a joke, until Tati tried to simulate the same sound and all other moto-taxi dudes cracked up to hard core laugh. Poor little thing.
We didn’t need a taxi (at least we thought so) as there were supposed to be few foreign oriented guest houses in close vicinity of the bus station.
Unfortunately 2 were fully booked, one was undergoing through reconstruction and the last one had just one room available. If the greed didn’t rule the family of the owner we’d end up there and we’re ready to pay up to 20 000 Ks. What a surprise that in shit hole like Taunggok they wanted more money than on Ngapali beach - 40 000 Ks. We’ve tried as hard as our dignity allowed us to bargain and push the price to reasonable level, but after 10 minutes of negotiations the young lady started ignoring my presence and continued in her book keeping. So we ventured out to try more radical thing. Get to jetty and to survive the night somewhere close to next morning mission. Tati has incredible hitch hiking skills. Second car she stopped gave us a lift to jetty and managed to convince owner of non-foreign oriented guest house to take us in for a night. Very basic thatched wooden hut standing on wooden pylons, 4 sqm room and ratan mat on wooden floor sheltered by mosquito net were our sanctuary.
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| Tasting local life style |
We got disappointed by first sight of our speed boat. Fully closed cabin reminded submarine. It looked like we’ll spend next 9 hours locked inside with almost no view through dirty black colour tinted windows.
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| Sunrise on Taunggok jetty |
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| We all live on the white submarine ! |
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| Simple living conditions on the river shore |
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