I wanted to spend time on the west coast since I got to Myanmar. I was looking at the days going by a bit fast and wondered if I could get there before my visa expired. It became obvious that I would have to overstay the visa and since the fee is only of 3$ /day, the choice was easy since I wanted to get to Mrauk U so bad. The day my visa expired, I was flying from Inle Lake to Sittway. I had to think about this trip carefully and here is why.
As I was mentioning in the previous blogs, the amount of money available to us is limited because of the boycott by western banks, and the government is really good at tracing a path for tourist to follow. The west coast is lined with a chain of small mountains that separates it from the central part of the country and has numerous rivers that isolates some parts of it.
There is no road that cut across those mountains that are used by buses and especially not by tourists. It means that we have to go around the mountains and the only possibility for tourists is to go back down towards Yangon. There is also no direct flight except from Yangon. Since I was in the eastern part of the country in Inle Lake, I had to buy 2 plane tickets, one from Inle to Yangon and the other from Yangon to Sittway. It starts to get expensive right there because the prices of plane tickets are fixed and there is no reduction even if you have connecting flights. I spent 165$ on plane tickets. I had evaluated if I could afford it but I had also looked at other options. Using buses, you also have to go back towards Yangon (16-20 hrs according to the guidebook from Inle and the price was of about 12$) and go back up towards Thandwe. This is where they lost me. You have to take a bus from Yangon to Thandwe (18 hrs, 15$ and a mention that this bit of roads is the worst in the country). We then take a bus or a pick-up truck to Taunggok (5-6 hrs, 4$) where you have to get on a boat to reach Sittway. They give you a choice though. You can get a fastboat (8 hrs, 40$) or the government ferry (3 days, 9$ and a lounge chair 4$ if you want to sleep on the boat). From Sittway to Mrauk U, You have to hop on another boat and again there is a choice. You can get a fastboat (3 hrs, 20-30$) or the government ferry (6hrs, 4$). When you calculate the time and the money to be spent, you become very tempted by taking a plane.
I spent 3 nights in Sittway since the or the government ferry is only twice a week. These 3 nights were very long!!! First of all, the electricity there is on from 7pm to 11pm. That means that you sleep without a fan at 40 degrees. I was dripping and had to take a shower more than once. The next night, I went to bed earlier to fall asleep before the power was cut. A cockroach woke me up, it was playing into one of the plastic bag and I realized that it had snacked on my banana. They fly those big things! I had to chase it around to finally flush it down the toilet. The third night, the police showed up around 1am and did a check on everybody that was sleeping there except me. They knocked on doors and screamed to get people out of their room asking for the identity papers. It’s exciting don’t you think?
Now, the government ferry. The guy who was selling the tickets was a pain in the butt with no smile whatsoever and since it was pretty early, I lost my smile very quickly as well. He wants me to pay with US dollars but the smallest bill I have is a 20$. There is no way to obtain change in US of course and so he starts talking very loud and looks at me as if I was the problem. I am sorry but if you want US dollars, you should be able to give change. He keeps selling tickets to other passengers and still makes some gestures towards me from time to time. He ignored me for 45 minutes and when the clock read 6:55, I got a little excited and asked him to take my kyats if he could not get me change, I was going to be on the ferry!! Somebody shows up at that point with some autority I guess since he agreed right away but it did cost me a little extra for using kyats…in Myanmar!
The boat is full and we stopped 3 more times on the way with more people getting in at each stop. We are treated like kings and queens as tourist since there is always chairs for us. I suspect that they actually asked somebody to sit somewhere else… Everybody else is sitting on the ground with chickens, dried fish, babies without diapers. There is no space where you can see the floor among that see of people. We have to ask people to stand up to go to the toilets. People looked at me the wrong way for a good part of the trip and I suspect it’s because of my backpack that laid against my chair and was taking up floor space. I believe that they expected my space to be limited to the chair only and when I had my feet on the ground, I had bad stares. Very good thing that I had brought candies and cakes to buy off some of them anyway.
Finally Mrauk U, prononced Mraw oo. It is divided in small islands by the arms of the river extending further inland. The landscapes are extraordinaire with small green hills all around. On top on some of those hills, you can see stupas which makes it even more picture perfect. I went around town for 2 days exploring those hills in the morning and when the sun was lower at the end of the day. I enjoyed a little nap at midday while the sun was unbearable. I spent my last day there on the Lemro River to visit Chin villages. These villages were appealing to me because they are further away and you can meet the last generation of women with tattooed faces.
You will have to look at the pictures on Facebook or Flickr when I will take the time to upload these. The boat trip also allowed me to do some good. I took a little family with me and we stopped to swim for a part of the afternoon. They loved it! The water was so warm, too hot to get refresh at all.
The way back to Sittway was without problems. I saw prisoners being escorted by the military police. He was not a killer I assumed since he seemed free to walk around the boat. He stopped quickly though since his ankles were attached together with shackles. The only part that bug me was the control they did when we got into Sittway. They looked at my passport for 30 minutes, reading all the visas infos with dates of entry and exit. They tried to ask a few questions but the language barrier did not make it easy. They let it go at the end.
I am going back to Yangon tomorrow and will be flying to Indonesia where I should spend 2-3 weeks. I am coming back soon now!!!
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