The Bagan Temples and The Race Against the Clock

We were up around 5am for the second day in a row. This morning we were off to see the sunrise from one of the temples in Bagan. Awesome. This was going to be a great day.

The sun set wasn’t that spectacular but the views from the top of the temple certainly were. After a while hanging out there and taking photos we headed back to the hotel for a quick breaky. Despite charging my camera the night before it was nearly flat. This may have been just the first time I’d had to charge it all trip so it gives a good innings but this sucked. I don’t know why but this seems to happen every time I charge it. It’s like one charge flattens it and screws me then the next time it’s ok. It also has a knack for going flat at big ticket items. I recall a couple of years previous it died while I was at the temple of Anchor in Cambodia. Luckily Peach had her camera so I took charge of it once my camera finally gave up.

Starting so early we were able to get lots done before it got really hot around 11am. I was full of energy though. The temples were so amazing that I couldn’t get enough of them. After a long day checking we got back at our hotel around 2:30pm. That probably doesn’t seem like a long day but when you get up before dawn and are on the go virtually the whole time it is.

Peach and I collected our bags from the hotel staff and waited for Tess. She wasn’t around. The bus was due to leave at 3:30pm and if we weren’t on it we’d miss our flight. We were supposed to get to the bus stop half an hour before departure. As was customary Peach started peaking out – ranting that Tess was inconsiderate and putting at at risk of missing the flight. As expected (by me at least) Tess showed up with a few minutes before 3pm and we made it to the bus stop just in time. But the fun was only just beginning.

The heat was beating down and the coolest place to wait was on the bus which was idling at the stop. Although our tickets were for the fold out middle seats we were told we could sit in normal seats for the first hour until some more people got on at another stop. You beauty!

Just as the bus was pulling out of the station the engine died. Uh oh.

We all jumped off and watched the local men jump into action. They pulled a panel off the side of the bus to reveal a massive stash of spare parts and tools. Obviously they were prepared. As scripted Peach started cursing the world and everything in it. I tried all sorts of methods of getting her to chill out – but to no avail. After I suggested that perhaps she should try some relaxation exercises I was told to “stop fucking preaching”. So I did. I found it all very amusing. For the best part of an hour the blokes toiled away at the back of the bus then we were finally on our way. Our estimates now put our arrival time in Yangon at sometime between 6-6:30am. Our flight left at about 8:30 – so it was going to be tight. We had no idea it was from the bus station to the airport once we arrived in Yangon.

After an hour we stopped in another town and picked up more passengers. We had to switch seats but Peach and I were lucky enough to get a couple of seats in the back row while Tess got one closer to the front. Hopefully it would be another couple of hours before we had to move into the middle.

It turns out that we ended up getting to keep the two back seats for the duration of the trip but about 3 or 4 hours in Tess had to move into one of the middle seats. I offered to take it instead, you know – gentleman and all, but she said she didn’t mind.

The problem with having a seat in the middle of the bus – besides the fact it doesn’t have a proper back rest and that you bounce around even more so than usual thanks to Myanmar’s pothole riddled roads – is that every couple of hours or so the bus stops for a toilet break. So if anyone in a seat behind you wants to get up (and they always do) then you have to get up too. So even if you’re lucky enough to get to sleep (and you never are) you’re bound to be interrupted after a short while.

In the back row I managed to snatch a few minutes sleep at one point before Tess finally asked if she could take my seat. I obliged and took hers. No more sleep for me. I think it was probably 1am by this point. I’d been awake for the best part of 20 hours and had tramped around Bagan checking out temples all day and now I had almost 6 more hours in the middle seat of a bumpy 14 hour bus ride before a flight to Bangkok and then another 10 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai. I was delirious with tiredness. My eyes were so sore from wanting to sleep that it stung to open them.

For the next few hours my mind played all sorts of tricks on me. Every now and then I’d open my eyes for few miniutes and notice that we were fanging down a dirt/sand path not really wide enough for two vehicles. We’d break suddenly every few minutes to crawl around a broken down truck or allow another to pass. Best to keep eyes shut. At one point we broke down again. This time we were on the road in what seemed like 10 minutes – but to be truthful time was blurring itself in my mind.

When the sun started coming up the driver pumped Thai pop music through the stereo system. Even with earplugs in it was still piercing. Pumping music like this was a familiar theme at dawn on buses throughout Asia. I’ve still got some of the songs in my head today.

Peach woke up at the back of the bus as we rolled into town and noticed it was nearly 6:30am – time was tight. She asked me to ask the driver if we were going past the airport. Gold idea. But unfortunately we weren’t. I could see smoke coming out of Peach’s ears. I could hear her muttering and swearing back there but chose to ignore it. She asked me to find out how much longer until we arrived but I refused – apparently that’s bad luck in Myanmar. More ear smoke.

We got to the bus station a few minutes later. Check in had already opened for our flight. There was every chance we’d miss the flight by a matter of minutes. There was nothing we could do about it though so there was no need to stress.

We started bartering with taxi drivers. The driver we took said the airport was 40 minutes away. Tick tock, tick tock. Peach stress level: CODE RED!! He quickly bailed us into his car and we headed off. He seemed quite sure we’d be late. I applied my Myanmar time filter and reckoned we’d be at the airport in 20 minutes instead of 40. And correct I was!! No need to stress. We checked in our bags and got some breakfast in the large stinking hot waiting room that housed the 2 departure gates. And we waited. And we waited. Finally the plane took off nearly an hour late – ha ha!! All this time we thought we were going to miss the flight and then it gets delayed. What a capper!