All going according to plan, by this time tomorrow I hope to be sitting under a full moon amidst the hillocks and ruins of the myriad buddhist stupas at Mrauk U, just inland from the west coast and near the border with Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh – Visit before everyone else does”. This was the wording spotted on a poster by some fellow travellers ten years ago – somehow i still don’t think there’s any rush just yet. Having said that, it would be an amazing place to visit, no doubt, and I am amazed that I will be so close. Alas, I will not make it this trip.
I arrived here in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) a couple of days ago. Within five minutes my bag-strap broke and within three hours my stomach was galloping with the horses. Pleased to report that race was run and won in relatively short time and my bag was beautifully repaired by a cobbler on the side of the road while a crowd steadily built to look at the kinda-funny-lookin’ white guy who was looking at, and taking photos of, the kinda funny lookin’ (in my opinion at least!) cobbler who was repairing his bag! By the time he had finished (10 minutes) there were about 30 people encircling us.
A tad nervous about heading off tomorrow – probably mostly to do with a fear of further food poisoning combined with travelling on public transport for long distances – never a fun prospect! But it won’t be too full-on at all because I’ll be flying most of the way and then taking a boat inland for the last few hours. It’ll be the trip out via an alternative route that’ll be the greater worry – a 3 hour boat, followed by 8 hour ferry, followed by 19 hour bus ride which I read is notoriously rough. Bon voyage.
– a belated pic from france. Love the chemist signs.
Pabulum 