In snail's pace across Myanmar

Once a year, go someplace you have never been before. Following this sentence, after my stays in India and Thailand, I set off for Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on Tuesday. This country has been on the top of my wish destination list for a long time. A country that is still struggling with the aftermath of the long-standing military dictatorship, which made headlines through the democratic Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and which is now slowly opening up to tourism and Western values. According to my guidebook, the number of tourists has sextupled in the last three years, and the ongoing opening up now also allows backpackers to explore the country on their own. A perfect time for me to finally set off for Myanmar! Besides a sense of adventure, all I needed was a visa in my luggage (the process of obtaining it was surprisingly easy - within 12 hours after applying online, I already had the confirmation in my email inbox), and together with Markus, whom I met at Bangkok airport, I arrived in Yangon, the Southeast Asian "city of blood, dreams and gold", six days ago.

And this city, which feels a bit like the sleepy little sister of Bangkok, appears astonishingly progressive. With incredible calmness and discipline, and always with a smile on their faces, motorcycles are maneuvered through the traffic, fishing boats are unloaded at the harbor, and large amounts of street food are sold. The selection ranges from tropical fruits to filled dumplings or indefinable stews to roasted beetles. So, it's a culinary experience to explore the alleys of downtown Yangon, surrounded by wonderful scents and smells. Tourists are still rare, you might meet the occasional backpacker in a small dimly lit bar in a side street or American journalists researching for their articles on behalf of Amnesty International. What fascinated me was that in the capital city of a country where until 2010 there was not a single fast food chain, there were hardly any imported products available for purchase, and internet and mobile phones were practically not available, just six years later there are modern shopping centers, glass-fronted office complexes shooting up from the ground, and you can observe the modernly dressed young hip generation of Yangon sitting with their tablet or iPhone in a western-style branch of a coffee shop chain.

All that glitters is not gold - a saying that definitely does not apply to the famous Shwedagon Pagoda, which proudly and magnificently towers over Yangon and is one of the most important Buddhist sanctuaries. I have visited many temples and Buddha statues in Asia, but the beauty and radiance of this huge golden pagoda, which shines in a very special light and an almost mystical atmosphere, especially at dusk, are unique.

After two days in Yangon, we then set off towards the west coast to Ngapali Beach by night bus, 300km according to the bus schedule, in 14-20 hours, depending on the condition of the road. A time estimate that we found hard to believe. When I think about the distance and my finishing time in the Ötztal Radmarathon six weeks ago, we would have covered the distance faster by bike :-) but due to our 15-kilo backpacks on our backs, we decided to take the bus. Just half an hour into the journey, we realized that the time estimate was not a typo. Feeling like at a snail's pace, we chugged along with two more backpackers from Germany and a bus full of locals and sacks as cargo, which were stored between the seats in the aisles, through the Burmese night, turn after turn, hill after hill, pothole after pothole. Sleeping was hardly possible - although the bus was relatively comfortable, I felt like I was crashing my head against the window or my knees against the seat in front of me at every bump. While the local passengers dozed off calmly and completely relaxed, we were only focused on getting our upset stomachs somewhat under control. Thanks to the anti-nausea pills that we were given preventively by the bus driver when boarding (he probably had the experience that we Europeans react a bit more sensitively to the prevailing road conditions), we luckily arrived at the dream beach of Ngapali after what felt like an eternity and 18 hours of travel without major incidents. Turquoise blue sea, beautiful yet relatively affordable resorts, wonderful seafood, coconut palms, and incredibly friendly people have turned the sleepy fishing village into a secret top travel destination in recent years, but it is still far from package tourists and mass tourism. There are no beach bars, no restaurants on the beach, no water sports or beach chair occupiers like you know from Thailand, but instead there is plenty of peace and local flair. You don't always need a beach bar, often it's much more exciting to slurp a fresh coconut while watching Burmese children play football on the beach or even join in.

Tomorrow we will continue our journey towards the north, but this time a little more comfortably, by plane and not by bus :-)!