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I left Inle lake for Bago with the intention of staying a night there before moving to SW Myanmar, then to the SE before hitting Yangon for 3 nights at the end. That was where my flight was from back to Bangkok so that made sense.
Bago took about 11 hours to transit to, in a VIP bus. I'd agreed to pay a few dollars extra for this VIP privilege and the lady who sold it to me promised plug sockets (so I could watch DVDs) and I'm sure a meal was also mentioned... Neither of these happened. On the way the bus made several stops though so I managed to get some food. The stops they make are like our equivalent of service stations with all buses stopping at the same ones so they are quite big with everything you need really. I took a seat in the cafe and ordered some sort of vegetable noodle soup. The waitress then relayed this order to another lady who then shouted it on a mega phone to the kitchen! Strange way of going about business but it seemed to work quite efficiently and the lady with the megaphone definitely enjoyed being the dictator. I started munching and then noticed an old chap who was about 60 smiling at me and wanting me to acknowledge him. So I did, gave him the thumbs up and then he grabbed his food and bottle of whiskey and came and joined me. He offered me a whiskey, so I obliged and then started to try and communicate with me whilst eating his food. I was having to pretty much duck the bits of scran that we're flying out of his mouth. What concerned me most was that the chap had clearly spent many a year chewing betel so his teeth were not a pretty a sight and some what lacking so I did question whether they could have been teeth flying out of his mouth. Having said that, he was a good bloke. He claimed he'd been to the UK several times and studied at Cambridge for a brief period. I obviously questioned this a bit but he then gave me his card and he had a fair few letters after his name so was clearly quite an educated man so perhaps he was being honest. He said if I need anything then to call him anytime. He was some sort of mine/tunnelling expert according to his card so I thought it's unlikely I will be needing him for anything never the less, it was a kind gesture and he backed that up by then paying for my meal. Thank you Mr Lin.
I arrived in the middle of Bago at about 0400. I had no idea where I was so the intention was to get a taxi to my hotel. As soon as I got off the bus I was approached by a few "taxi motorbikes". I'd used these a few times in Bangkok but they are a lot more professional out there. These chaps literally look like they had just rolled out of a pub, they could have been anyone. One of the guys asked if I wanted a taxi but I'm sure I could smell ale on him so spoke to another one who seemed ok. I put my trust in him and got on the back. Although you can never be sure of stuff like this and there's always an element of risk, I'd done my research on the place and in general the people of Myanmar are respectful to tourists. If you attempt to steal or any other funny business then you are apparently a disgrace to your family/villages etc. If I was a lady travelling alone though, I'd be a bit more cautious. The fact he managed me and about 20kg of kit on one bike was quite a feat I thought. He waited until I'd checked in before heading off which I thought was good of him. I hit the sack immediately, I was shattered.
I awoke at about midday and attempted to go for a hobble. However, after spending a few hours trying, I was soon obvious that I was struggling. The cuts I'd sustained to my feet were taking some heeling, the location of them really wasn't ideal. The weather was also shocking with huge thunderstorms and quite torrential rain. So I decided to spend few days just relaxing in Bago before eventually deciding to get to Yangon where I could potentially get my feet checked out at hospital. All in all it was a bit of a waste of time heading to Bago and was actually the beginning of a week I'd be struggling with due to effectively being pretty immobile.
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