Yangon and surrounding area

On Monday after breakfast, we were supposed to continue to Yangon by bus. Since it was raining again, we were glad that our hotel was on the way and we were picked up directly. 😁 After about 5 hours of driving with very loud Asian music (those who have been to Asia know how bad that can be 😂) and a singing seat neighbor, we arrived somewhere outside of Yangon. We could only continue by taxi. Dennis, who had been to Yangon before, knew that the ride to the center would take another hour. When we arrived at the Scott@31Street Hostel, we quickly made our way to 19th Street. That's the street where there is a little something going on in Yangon in the evening. Dennis had found a nice bar during his last visit and the other two guys lived nearby, so after eating our favorite dish (vermicelli with chicken 😊), we met up with the other guys for a cocktail.

On Tuesday, we went to the Travel Agent. The bus to Lake Inle (Nyaung Shwe) had to be booked. Dennis had already left on Tuesday, Anja and I had planned an extra day. We managed to do some shopping and have a coffee/juice at the seemingly only cafe in town before it started pouring rain as soon as we returned to the hostel. Unfortunately, it didn't really stop raining for the rest of the day, which made us decide not to leave the hostel as we would have been soaked within seconds. Dennis was picked up by a taxi at 4:30 pm and Anja and I stayed in the hostel and watched the rain. It was supposed to stop for a short time at 6 pm. We used this time to walk to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most beautiful pagoda in Myanmar. Unfortunately, it started raining again halfway there, so we took a taxi and continued towards the pagoda. When the taxi driver dropped us off on the opposite side of the pagoda at a bus stop, it was pouring so heavily that we couldn't move away from the bus stop. After 15 minutes of constant rain and deeper puddles, we grabbed a taxi and drove back to the hostel. What a trip.. 😂 Since we were hungry in the evening, we walked to the main street during a break in the rain and had a small meal at the Indian restaurant. On the way back, we met a beautiful dog in front of the restaurant. Myanmar has many stray dogs. Most people don't really want them around. They also don't care about you. This one was different! He looked at me, came up to me, and we became homies. 😍 He followed us back to the hostel. I would have loved to take him in. When we went to the terrace an hour later, he was still there. He had been waiting for us, the little Alulu Slim 2 (the first one is in Costa Rica). I WANT TO TAKE HIM WITH ME!!!!!!

For the rest of the evening, we talked to our roommates Kristen and Rodrigo from the USA. They had been to China before and told great stories - I guess I don't need to go to China..

The next morning, it finally stopped raining. So we were able to put our plan to ride the Circle Train 🚂 into action. We walked to the train station and entered the waiting hall, which was full of police officers and people in the same uniform, kneeling next to each other on the floor with their feet chained together. If that wasn't a prisoner transport. At the station, you first walk from platform 1 to platform 8, buy a ticket for the equivalent of €0.20, and then walk back to platform 4. That's where the train departs. The Circle Line Train starts in Yangon and takes a big loop through all sorts of small towns. The whole trip takes 3 hours. What you experience when you ride this train is Myanmar. This train is only used by locals, it goes through all kinds of places, whether dirty or relatively clean. People squeeze in, whether there is room or not, and vendors sell their stuff. After three hours, the ride was over and we were glad to get off. The train wasn't that comfortable after all.. It was already early afternoon, so we had one last Vermicelli with Chicken on 19th Street. After that, we went back to the hostel, where a taxi picked us up to take us to the bus station to take the night bus to Lake Inle, where Dennis was already waiting for us.