Postings from my recent travels in southeast Asia, Italy and England. As usual I found that travel reveals more about oneself than about ones destination.

Monday, February 18, 2002

My trip to Mrauk-U (alternative title "Who said getting there is half the fun?")

Mrauk-U - pronounced somewhat like the noise a cat makes (Meeeoooow) followed by 'YOU' is in the Northwest of Myanmar (be warned that the website I have chosen to link to seems to be run by the dictatorial government of Myanmar and its contents should be taken with a grain - or pound - of salt for a more balanced view see the Free Burma Coalition ) close to the Bangladesh border (map of Myanmar ). What is there you may very well ask - ruins is the answer. And if you know me at all you know that I have a rather unhealthy obsession with ruins.

I had also been challenged by Barry Thorne, my intrepid travel agent, who has twice tried to reach Mrauk-U and never succeeded. So at great personal risk and danger I decided to undertake the feat that he has so far never accomplished.

Part 1 - If at first you don't succeed . . .

My first attempt to get to Mrauk-U was to try and take the same route that Barry had attempted to take in the past. That was to take a boat from a town called Taunggok on the western coast. Only problem was that no-one seemed to know which day the boat went from Taunggok. And as Taunggok doesn't even rate a mention in my Lonely Planet guide for southeast asia (though it may in the Myanmar guide). I was a bit hesitant to just go there with no idea of when a boat might arrive. I was also by this time running a little short on time with only 9 days or so left in Burma and no concrete idea of how long it would take me to get there.

Anyway - I gave it the old college try. I caught a bus from the marvellous area of Bagan to a nasty town called Pyay. Here I was let off the bus at the delightful hour of 2:00 a.m. (at least it was cool) and delivered into the very narrow seat of a betel chewing, red toothed trishaw driver (for some reason all the trishaw seats in Pyay seemed a centimeter or so narrower than I had encountered anywhere else meaning I was uncomfortable perched on one buttock on each trip I took there - very unpleasant).

The Lonely Planet recommended guest house was full, the next was pretty horrendously dirty and the third was not much better. But by this time it was getting on for 3:00 a.m. so I took it. The bathroom was the worst part - with a dingy cement floor and enough sooty grime on the toilet tank to write your name in. There was a hot water shower but as the electricity was scheduled to go out at 6:30 a.m. this was of questionable use.

I laid down for a bit, fell asleep and woke at about 7:00 and decided to get up. I went out to the local pagoda (which was quite pleasant and had great views) after establishing that no one had the foggiest idea which day the boat left from Taunggok which was an excruciatingly bumpy, hot and arduous 10-12 hour bus ride away. After a quick look around the town which actually doesn't deserve to be called nasty as it had quite nice streets, litter bins and hilarious (to me) signs in English and Myanmar script about such electrifying subjects as the responsibilities of a wife to her husband and employees to employers etc I decided to return to Myanmar's travel hub - Yangon.

So a scant 11 hours after I arrived I was back on the bus - this time to the capital, Yangon. Where I would investigate the truly brave method of getting to Mrauk-U which would cause pain to the backpackers most tender organ - their wallet!

Part 2 - . . . fly, fly away!

I arrived back in Yangon on Sunday, February 10th and arranged to fly to Sittwe on the 12th. I actually wanted to go a bit later as this now left me with a few days back in Yangon before I left but that was the best I could do. From Sittwe I would take a boat to Mrauk-U (the next day - Wednesday). I would have an afternoon and another day to look around in Mrauk-U, return to Sittwe on the Friday and fly back on the Saturday.

The flight was uneventful although the level of security checks was unbelievable - I think I had to talk to 5 separate people and show my passport several times simply to board a domestic flight. We stopped at Sandoway (Thandwe) on the way which was pretty - it is close to Ngapali - Myanmar's beach resort - and it was lovely flying over the aquamarine ocean. The food on the flight was amusing to say the least - perfectly square, whitebread, crustless sandwiches with tomato and lettuce in one and two slices of bologna in the other.

On arrival at Sittwe I was obviously considered an anomaly - a tourist without an attached group and tour guide. I had to retrieve my own luggage from the terminal and was the object of much staring, pointing and laughter from the assembled group. Most tourists to Sittwe (who are bound for Mrauk-U) are whisked away from the airport in a tour company bus to a waiting fast boat.

I quite enjoyed Sittwe except for the staring and pointing. It is right on the sea and while sitting in a peaceful little restaurant sipping tea I could almost imagine myself on Dallas Road (in my home town of Victoria) - except for the palm trees of course.

The next day I travelled in style to Mrauk-U as one of two foreigners on a 'private local ferry'. I found out on arrival at Sittwe that the government boat which all other information sources assured me went daily to Mrauk-U in fact does not go every day. So the $10 US boat was the only option (the government boat is $4 US). We arrived within 5 hours however and the trip was very nice with lots of birds and scenery to look at and the first part on water that was more ocean than river so it was refreshing cool (I even had to put on a sweater).

I wandered around a bit the first day but I wasn't very well oriented to the place and it was very hot. The next day I had a trishaw driver take me to the main temple (Shitaung) and saw most of the major sites from there. It was quite interesting but it is probably a place that is best suited to a guide and having transportation. But I did it and I have the pictures to prove it!

Part 3 - If getting there is half the fun - getting back is even more fun!

So the Saturday dawned and I was at the boat early (too early - the manager of the hotel and I didn't like each other much and I think he purposely told me a time that was an hour early). I got my deck chair (100 Ks on top of the $4 fee) and got settled. We chugged along pathetically slowly for about 2 hours and then the engines stopped and we cuddled in close to shore. At first I thought we had just run aground (the water was very shallow) but then I realized that we were broken down. Lots of people were getting on to whatever craft was going by and going back to Mrauk-U but I needed to get to Sittwe for my flight the next day.

Finally a boat came along that agreed to go back to Sittwe but it first needed to go to Mrauk-U to get diesel fuel - by this time it was 2:30. The trip back to Mrauk-U for fuel took another hour or so and finally we left Mrauk-U at about 3:30. The trip up to Mrauk-U had taken five hours and I was hopeful that the one back would take the same amount of time. But as night began to fall and we were still far away it began to look pretty dim (in more ways than one). The last three hours of our journey were done in complete darkness (there was a tiny sliver of moon which soon set) with only a flashlight for notifying other boats of our presence.

I was sitting upwind of the diesel engine and periodically the bilge pump would stop working and one of the crew would have to suck on it to get the siphoning going again. Or else the hose would come loose from the hole it was jammed in and spray water all over the passengers sitting near the engine. It was a very long and harrowing trip since I am convinced from the posture and body language of the 'captain' that he hadn't the faintest idea where he was going and was as much in the dark about navigating as the rest of us on the boat.

Finally at 10:15 pm we docked. They then asked for my name, passport number and country. Perhaps if we had sunk and they hadn't asked for this information there would have been no record of a foreigner on board and everyone would have been much happier - as it was I suspect I was the only one who could swim. I knew that the electricity goes off at 11 p.m. in Sittwe and that my chances of a hot bath were quickly fading.

There was not a trishaw man anywhere in sight so I walked in the right direction and came across two very drunk but still coherent locals (young men in their early twenties). They smelled as if they had been bathing in booze. They led me to the main road and we soon came across what I think was a bar with a trishaw parked outside. They went in and convinced the driver to come out and I was soon on my way to my hotel. Unfortunately I suspect that the trishaw driver was also very drunk as he pedalled so slowly that the trishaw moved barely faster than I would have been able to walk.

By the time I got to my hotel it was 10:40 p.m. Luckily the room I had reserved was still mine (you never know - sometimes when things go wrong they decide to go spectacularly wrong in groups) and the young man on the desk got me an eighth of a bucket of scalding hot water. I added probably 10 liters of cold water before it was cool enough to use and then took a lovely bath using half a mineral water bottle as a scoop. I felt human again! I'd eaten basically nothing all day but there was nothing to be had so I crawled under my mosquito net, blew out my candle (by this time the electricity was gone) and went to sleep.

My flight back to Yangon the next day was uneventful except for the repeat of the security grilling (at least I didn't have to take off my shoes - not that there is anywhere to put explosives in Tevas really). The flight cost $180 US (ouch!) and I expect the whole escapade cost me around $250 US. So if anyone knows where I can publish an article on the adventure (at more length of course and with gory details of my boat trip from hell) to recoup some of this do let me know.

Stay tuned for bulletin number two on my favourite subject - food!