I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Happy to be leaving Mandalay and even happier to be dry, we began a 2 day journey to the mountain town of Hsipaw. It would be a 4 hour drive by pickup to the first town of Pyin U’Lwin followed by an early start the following day to get to Hsipaw. Two hours into the trip we discovered that nobody had told the people in the hills that New Year’s was over and we got hit with our first bucket of water. With laptop, cameras, passports etc. unprotected we were less than impressed as we arrived in the first town. Then to make matters worse, the hotels in town were filthy and roach ridden. When we finally did find one with vacancy outside of town, we found condom wrappers under the bed, a fresh supply under the pillow (the fact that they were strawberry flavoured didn’t help matters) and needed to clean the bathroom ourselves. All of this put us in a foul mood and when our beer arrived in a recycled plastic bottle from who knows where and Jen’s bra broke, we had both had enough. It was this day that sparked the “We are homesick” entry.

Day 2 was a little better and finally dry. A 5am start had us sandwiched into the pickup atop sacks of rice where our feet would normally go. After a bum numbing six hours and two tire changes we were told to get out at the side of the road where we were directed to Mr Charles Guest House. After reviewing the guide book it seemed that the major attraction was the Popcorn Factory? Why did we just put ourselves through that drive? With no better options we grabbed some bikes and not only did we fail to find the factory Jen’s bike lacking in any brakes caused her to bail out as she plummeted downhill towards a bridge. Why are we doing this to ourselves?

The next day was a dramatic improvement as we managed to successfully hike through some farms and rice paddies to a lovely cool swimming hole with waterfalls. The children along the way continually greeted us with a toothy smiling "Goodbye", (who taught them that?). We returned to the guest house to be invited to Passover dinner where we cooked, dined and learned about this Jewish holiday with some newfound friends.


Next morning we caught what was billed as one of the most amazing train journeys back to Mandalay. The highlight of this twelve hour journey (it was sold to us as eight) was the treacherous crossing over a long bridge spanning a canyon that was a terrifying distance below. That the train slowed to a snail’s pace to avoid derailing on the bridge was comforting… I think.