Mountain Get-away

June 30 - July 2

To escape the heat we decided to head to the hills so we took an overnight trip to Pyin Oo Lwin a former British hill station. It's only about 45 miles away from Mandalay but it takes 4 hours to get to (by public transportation). This is generally because the public transportation are old, overloaded pick up trucks that need to stop every hour to cool off because they don't handle the incline well.

We didn't have much in mind for this town and so for the first afternoon we just wandered around.

One doesn't tend to notice the heat quite so much until one is away from it and then one begins to realize just how oppressive the heat can be and how much nicer it is to be a little cool. This is how it felt in Pyin Oo Lwin. It was great being able to walk about without sweat pouring down your face and back. And the evenings were downright chilly! We actually used the blankets offered by our hotel!

The next day, we planned to rent bicycles from one of the hotel employees in order to bike to a nearby waterfall. We made the terrible mistake of actually trying to discuss with him plans other than renting his bicycle (which of course, he made them sound like terrible plans), so somehow we were talked into renting his bikes for the day.

We set off early in the morning in hopes of getting some bird watching done along the waterfall trail. We left before our "free" and terrible "Western-style" breakfast that every hotel offers to foreigners and so we stopped at a hopping tea-shop to have a bite before heading out. After breakfast, we decided to split up to accomplish some errands faster to leave more time for birding.

At a store, KC quickly discovered that he didn't have his bag, which contained his money and worse, his passport. Naturally, this freaked KC out a little and he frantically hoped back on his bike to search the tea-shop for his goods. Alas, the tea-shop employees claimed they had not seen the bag, so KC hurried back on his bike to search for Lora.

One thing led to another and a minor accident involving KC and his bike and a man on a motorcycle. Now this is even more nerve racking because Lora isn't around, all of KC's money and passport is missing AND the man on the motorcycle is demanding money for damages. Soon, Lora arrives, solving the mystery of the missing backpack, money and passport. Then the fun of extortion begins.

With the help of a local English speaker, we followed the motorcycle to the nearest open bike shop to enquire about the cost of fixing his bike. Now, all that was wrong was that the cover of one of his back lights broke, his foot rest broke and his handlebar got a bit scratched up. While the mechanic was assessing the damage, the translator began casually discussing the fact that the boy's uncle was a policeman and that if we didn't pay him then we "would be the trouble."

These were the words he actually said, "if you don't pay, then you will be the trouble." I felt like I was in a mafia movie with a threat like that.

He commented that if we don't pay a small sum now, then the police would be after us and we'd have to pay a larger sum later. This is because if we didn't pay to get the bike fixed, then the parents of the boy would ask what happened and he'd be forced to tell them that he hit a foreigner on a bicycle. Because of this, the would demand that we pay large sums of money. However, if we pay a little money now, then when the boy's parents ask about the damage, he has the ability to lie.

Well, we weren't sure if this was true, but we didn't exactly want to test out the man's theory (as enfurating as it was) so we paid 7000 Kyat. This may not seem like a lot to other Westerners but it is a good amount of money to most Myanmar.

After this fiasco, we still biked to the waterfall and enjoyed a little birding in the heat of the day. The falls were nice. Larger than expected. Of course, there was a small pagoda planted smack dab in the middle of the best view of the falls.

We managed to lose our way back up the mountain. This means we took the direct - straight-up-the-mountain-with-no-switchbacks route that obviously belonged to locals who collect bamboo and other forest products.

After the verticle but short climb up we were back on our bikes. This was not so easy as the downward trip and Lora had to repeatedly get off her bike on the slightest of inclinations. Soon she realized, however that Casey's bike was much easier to maneuver uphill and all was good again.

We rode our bikes out to the Botanical Gardens that afternoon. These gardens were made by the British, but the government now charges $3/person to enter. We were told that we could see them from our bikes and wouldn't need to pay the entrance. We didn't see much except for a large pond but it was a nice bike ride in the suburbs of POL.

In the 'burbs, the housing of POL is very interesting as many of the houses are left over from the British. There are many, many large brick colonial style mansions. Such a nice difference from the concrete boxes seen in the Philippines. I imagined what this place would be like if it was placed in America. How everyone who could afford it, would have their colonial vacation home set among the cool mountains. I pondered if I'd ever be able to buy such a place...(haha).

The only other thing we saw before it was time to go home was the Chinese temple. This was an interesting mix of Chinese and Burmese styles. We kinda got lost on our way to the temple, but it was a nice walk. If we wanted to go up the tower at the temple, we had to pay some Kyat to the stair keeper, so we decided to give that a miss. We did buy some delicious lychees from a woman who picks them from the grounds and then sells them. Not quite sure why I couldn't just pick them for free either.

The next day we ate breakfast and left. Not much time to explore when one only has the weekends off. How do people work full time and ever have any fun?