Delay to Mandalay

I (Jared) finally arrived to Mandalay after a grueling bus ride. Now I'm not one to complain about bus rides. I've had my fare share of rough ones.

The bus was aircon and the seats were padded but that is where the luxury ended. The seat width barely fit me so with no divider (an armrest) my overweight seat mate was hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder with me. He also liked to chew that tabacco-like nut and would spit red saliva into a bag every few minutes.

After filling every visible seat, our first stop was to pick up more passengers. Being a first class (used losely) bus there was a seat for everyone. There were fold down seats between the two aisle seats so now it was 5 seats across and no way to leave the bus without the passengers in the aisle leaving. Oh, and there was space in the front to place a few more passengers so plastic chairs were put there.

I left on time at 500pm and could tell by the speed of the bus that we were not going to reach the 600km in 12 hours. The roads are really bad here. The "highway" usually only holds one lane in each direction and many times only one lane total. The lack of space for all the vehichles and the number of potholes only made the bus driver more determined to get to the destination faster. Which meant swerve, stop, accelerate, stop, swerve, BRAKE, etc.

To make up time our pee breaks were a joke. They were really the driver's pee breaks. By the time all the passengers got out of the aisle and I got off the bus, the foul tempered bus driver told everyone to get back on the bus. This happenned twice and let me just say that I was looking for an empty bottle just in case. Little did I know that we would soon have a very long pee break.

At about 100am we parked in the middle of nowhere. There were lots of lights and men shouting. I thought nothing of it as the bus was still running and everyone remained tucked in there seats. At 200am I woke up and the bus still hadn't moved and now the passengers were restless. A monk in the back I guess really had to pee and quickly got all of the aisle passengers out of their seats. Thank God (or Buddha?)!

On the narrow highway there were two rows of vehicles, mostly busses and 40's looking trucks hauling livestock, on each side of the road. In the middle people wandered around, scooters zoomed by, and smaller vehicles tried to slowly manuever. Between vehichles people had laid down mats and were playing cards, chatting, or trying to sleep.

I couldn't see too much as there were no lights but I could tell that we were in the middle of nowhere. Some of the bicycling perveyors from a near village took advantage of the situation and road up and down selling snacks and beverages. By daylight it looked like a small village. I stood for a few hours (anything better than that bus) and then pulled out my sarong and sat on that. If there is one thing that I need to learn is how to squat like the locals (for more reasons than just the squat-pot). God, they can do it for as long as I can sit.

Ok... so this blog is already too long. At about 700am the trafic started moving. I think that either there was an accident on a bridge or the bridge gave out.

The aircon decided not to work (or the driver didn't feel like turning it on) and the smell of urine from the aunties and unlces who couldn't hold it filled the air. My sweatly seat mate kept trying to get comfortable which ment encroaching on my seat even more.

I finally arrived at my destination at 300pm. Yes, 20 hours. My first evening in Mandalay was spent showering and sleeping.

The LP says that train travel is slow an unpredictable but I'm definitetly sticking to the train as much as possible. Now, the LP says the train to Bagan should take 10 hours. Anything less the 15 will be a pleasent suprise....