Sunday, 2 February 2014
I was woken up by the sound of the
guesthouse staff talking (and I was worried if I’d sleep through my alarm!). I
got up reluctantly and showered. After prayers, I got ready to check out. The
cabbie was already waiting despite me requesting him to come at 0710 instead of
0700. I told him to wait a bit (not sure if he understood me) and had a hurried
breakfast. We left at 0711 and reached the airport at 0755. No, he didn’t exceed
40 km/hour at all.
I immediately checked in and went
into the boarding area. There were so many Caucasians there and I wondered why
I only saw less than that in Nyaung Shwe. Perhaps they went trekking and didn’t
stay in Nyaung Shwe. We took off at 0930 (ETD was actually at 9) and flew over
the dramatic landscape of the country before landing at Thandwe Airport at
1040. We had to go through an immigration process at this airport too and it
was then when I found that the airport was right next to the sea. After
collecting my bag, I lingered for a while and a good thing too as the check-in
counter for my next flight out was opened shortly after. After checking in my
bag, I went for a stroll down to the beach before exploring the neighbourhood.
I returned to the airport 35 minutes later.
We took off on time at 1225 and
landed at Sittway Airport at 1315. Yes, there was another immigration process.
I was approached by a chap who asked if I wanted to join a private boat. See, I
wanted to go to Mrauk U (also spelt as Mrauk Oo) and to get there you need to
take a five- to six-hour boat ride, There is a daily morning boat service at 7
am but all the travel fora I read advised against staying in Sittway (also
spelt as Sittwe). The boat costs $20 but a private boat costs $120 one way (I
had emailed a Mrauk U guide to enquire). $20/person is a fair price and I
wouldn’t need to wait until the next morning, thus saving me half a day. I
agreed as it’d not only save me half a day (meaning I could start my
sightseeing the very next morning), but I would also not need to overnight in
Sittwe. The local chap managed to persuade two Italian couples to come along
too so the five of us boarded a tuk tuk to the river (quite far, about 15
minutes’ ride away). The boat was smaller than I had thought but spacious
enough for us. So we settled in our seats, sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Unfortunately, half-way through the
journey (three hours into it to be precise as I happened to look at my watch
then), the engine went kaput. We floated about before the crew anchored the
boat. Luckily for us, another boat came along 20 minutes later and we were able
to join the two Italian ladies in it. I was outnumbered alright. Hot afternoon
turned to dusk to twilight and night had fallen for some time before we finally
reached Mrauk U. There was only a small fluorescent tube lighting our sitting
area and it was dim, so dim you couldn’t read in it at all.
Now, you have two choices if you want
to go to Mrauk U: 1) take the morning boat and reach Mrauk U in the afternoon.
This would mean spending a night at Sittwe (as I mentioned before, not
recommended) and wasting half a day. Plus, you need to be at the jetty before 7
am the next morning to catch the boat; or 2) taking a private boat which could
cost up to $120 one way or sharing it with others. The downside is that you
would reach Mrauk U at night when it’s dark and if you haven’t arranged for any
accommodation (I didn’t as I didn’t know beforehand if I would be able to take
the boat on the afternoon of my arrival or not) or pick-up, it could be tricky.
The advantage is that you save half a day because you arrive at Sittwe in the
early afternoon anyway and use the rest of the day to travel up to Mrauk U
instead of waiting until the next morning. The chap who approached me
recommended me a guesthouse for $10 for a single room ($15 for a double room
but the Italians didn’t want to confirm). As I didn’t want to be looking for
accommodation in the dark, I told him I’d stay at the guesthouse for one night
first and test it out. It was a good thing I did that because we only docked at
Mrauk U at exactly 10 that night. The guesthouse had pick-up waiting and the
two Italian couples agreed to come along. We drove through the night through
the small village town before arriving at our guesthouse. I was appalled when I
saw it and even more disgusted when I saw my room. And guess what, there was no
light switch in the room or bathroom. The lights are centrally-controlled. So I
went to bed with the light blazing over me. Actually, I was a bit afraid to
sleep in the bed, in case there were bedbugs so I spread my sarong on the bed
sheet and curled up, too afraid to touch the part of bed not covered by the
sarong (a futile attempt because bedbugs cab crawl anyway) while at the same
time, trying to shield my eyes because I cannot sleep with the lights on at all.
Monday, 3 February 2014
I slept poorly. All through the
night, I heard the disgusting sounds of someone clearing his phlegm alternating
with loud voices. I finally got up after 5. It was dark and the lights came on
at about 6 am. I left the guesthouse and went for a walk. The guesthouse was in
an area which kept making me think ‘What a dump!’. I’d look to my right and
thought, ‘God, what a dump!’ and when I looked to the right, thought ‘What a
miserable place!’ I walked up until I hit a T-junction before turning back. I
walked to the main road and walked along it back to the bridge (a metal one was
under construction) all the way until I reached Royal City Guesthouse which I
spotted the night before en route to the guesthouse from the jetty. I had made
up my mind to check out of the dump I was staying at so I went to the reception
to ask. There was no one manning the reception at first and after a few
minutes, a cute guy came along. He told me a room would be available after 9
am. I went to take a look and agreed to take it. It was much smaller than the
room at the dump-y guesthouse and the bathroom is separate but it was a dozen
times cleaner. I also asked the eye candy if he could find me a guide to bring
me around and he said he would have the guide arrive soon. He immediately began
trying to call his guide friend.
I told him I’d return in five minutes
and walked all the way to the jetty before turning back. I returned to Royal
City Guesthouse and the cutie pie said his guide friend would come shortly. I
told him that he needn’t hurry as I would return after 9. I needed to return to
my guesthouse, have breakfast, check out and make my way over.
I
returned to my guesthouse and waited a while for breakfast to be served. I went
up to say goodbye to the Italians before breakfast. I had to pay for my room in
kyat (10,000 kyat) but I couldn’t wait to leave. I made my way back across the
village town. I did consider hiring a rickshaw but the couple of rickshaw
pullers that I saw didn’t offer me any ride so I walked on. It wasn’t far but
it was a rather dusty walk. I reached Royal City Guesthouse less than ten
minutes later and checked in. The guide was already there, waiting. I went to
my room and deposited my bag, changed footwear (I’d be entering temples today
so I might as well wear my Crocs) and went out again. When I went back to the
reception, there was another bloke there. Turned out that the cute guy had
called him when he found out that I was a Malaysian (this bloke used to work in
Malaysia and could speak Malay). I spent the whole day talking in Malay, much
more so than on an average day in KL! The guy asked me to call him Meor.
We
left at 9 am and went to a lake/reservoir before visiting some temples. The
roads in this suburbia were so bad that I kept hurting myself when I bumped
against the tuk tuk railings. It was a bumpy ride throughout except for very
few roads. We met a few other tourists... I also saw one Caucasian girl cycling
and wondered how she navigated her way around. There were hardly any signboards
so how does one know where to go? We also saw a young couple with their toddler
strapped onto the mother cycling around. We saw some police at the temples and
then we learnt that the Vice President would be arriving soon for a visit. We
stopped for lunch at Moe Cherry Restaurant before returning to the guesthouse
for rest. It was already too hot then.
We
resumed at 1440 and drove to a few more temples. There was more police presence
then and we couldn’t enter a temple as the police didn’t want to risk having us
there when the VP arrived. So we went to another temple. The afternoon was
spent more leisurely and at 5, we went to one of the two sunset viewing points.
We climbed up and chatted while waiting for sunset. Then Meor sent me back to
my guesthouse. I paid Meor (20K kyat for his service and 20K kyat for the tuk tuk,
yes they were priced separately) and paid for my room and the government ferry
the next morning (USD10 each) before venturing out again looking for dinner and
finally had some rice with fish and vegetable soup at a roadside stall.
I
had been nursing a headache, no thanks to the early morning and hot day so I
retired early.
To
be continued
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