Sep 26 2008
Checking in from Myanmar, Soon to Be Checking Out
I’m in Mandalay at the moment after a bit of a crazy journey up to the north of the country involving a 32 hour train ride (10 hours of that stopped in one spot), a couple of long rides on small boats and a 36 hour boat ride where my seat/bed was a mat on the floor with 200 new friends. I’m not sure what compelled me to torture myself like that but it was a pretty amazing experience. I never want to do it again, but I’m glad I did it. People in Myanmar are by far the friendliest I’ve met anywhere and being trapped on transportation with them was a great chance for some serious local interaction. But holy crap… taking any form of transportation for longer than 30 hours is madness. I know this now.
I was due to leave Myanmar on October 12th but it looks like Haiti is a go so I’ll probably end up cutting my time here short by a week. I’m off to a place called Hsipaw for a wee look around and a bit of trekking and then I’ll probably check out Inle Lake before heading back to Bangkok.
So ya… Haiti. Kind of crazy. Big, detour. Will cost a fortune but I’ll worry about that later. I loved my time in Bangladesh working with Hands On and I know Haiti will be more of the same. I’ll get to catch up with some friends, stop in at home and say hello to my family, learn some French, help out a little, get muddy, and hopefully learn a lot about the country and meet some interesting people. It’ll probably be the most challenging place I’ve been so far in a lot of ways and I’m sure I’ll see some troubling things but I love the uncertainty of it all and can’t wait to hit the ground running.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
I know what you mean about enjoying a long, strenuous journey like that - the enjoyment part which often comes in retrospect! I took one of those cargo boats from Bintam Island off of the coast of Singapore, across the Strait of Malacca, up the Siak River where passing oil tankers almost swamped us until we finally reached Pekanbaru on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Three days! I wanted to dive off and swim ashore. At the same time, I met so many smiling and kind people. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. It was the perfect intro to the country.
Just be careful hey?
Booked my flight from Bangkok to Toronto and it looks like I’ve got another journey of nearly 30 hours happening in a week. Will I never learn? Toronto via Korea and USA won’t be fun but getting to go home for a bit will be.
Good luck in Haiti, take care!