2013
12
paź
Mt. Popa / Popa Hill
Birma, Popa Hill
Przejechano 1226 km
Dzis pochmurno, wiec lot balonem pewnie odwolali i znowu sobie uswiadamiamy ile mieslismy szczescia. Mamy malo czasu wiec, na gore Popa jedziemy taksowka a nie lokalnym busem coby nie bylo problemu z powrotem, bo dzis ruszamy dalej. Gdy wychodzimy przed nasz Guest House stoi mini-bus i tak sie wlasnie zastanawiamy, czyzbysmy wynajeli busa, a przeciez miala bys taksowka bez klimatyzacji...ale kierowcy nie ma, wiec najpierw idziemy zobaczyc, czy uda nam sie dostac nasze ulubione buleczki na parze, ale pana dzis nie znajdujemy. Gdy wracamy widzimy jeepa i buzia nam sie od razu rozesmiewa, wow tego sie nie spodziewalismy. Pan oczywiscie biegnie, zeby nam otwierac drzwi i ruszamy. Z niebywala predkoscia i odglosami wszystkich czesci samochodu pedzimy przez wioski (gdzie w kilku sprzedaja ozdobne kwiaty doniczkowe!!), wyschniete rzeki, lasy i pola. A pod koniec serpentynka w gore. Obserwujac ruch drogowy, gdzie wszyscy dzielnie wspolpracuja. Migacz w prawo, w lewo, gdzy skrecasz. Swiatla awaryjne, gdy na skrzyzowaniu jedziesz prosto. Trabienie, gdy chcesz wyprzedzic i odpowiedz samochodu wyprzedzanego, ze mozna lub nie, bo wbrew temu, ze samochody maja kierownice z prawej strony to ruch jest prawo stronny, wiec kierowca jest tak naprawde slepy.A gdy tylko samochod sie zatrzyma trzeba go przemyc, przetrzec i wypolerowac.Od polowy drogi nasz pan staje regularnie co pare minut i wybiega ze stoickim ‘excuse me’ otwiera maske i cos dokreca i jak samochod zaskoczy znowu to mozemy jechac dalej. Juz kalkulujemy plan B i C, gdy za ktoryms razem nie zaskoczyl, jak tu zdazyc na wieczorny bus. Ale dojezdzamy. Gora na coz pod gorke z walcznymi malpami po drodze, ktore polapily sie na Bartka czapke, ale przegraly. Wszelismy, zobaczylismy i w droge powrotna. Najlepsze z tej calej wycieczki tak naprawde byl postoj po drodze, gdzie widzielimsy produkcje oleju z orzeszkow ziemnych, wodki i prau innach rzeczy i w koncu zjedlismy Lepet czyli fermentowana herbatke z wszelkimi dodatkami. Spowrotem wycheckowujemy sie z hotelu, szybki lunch z Mahinga i zupa tajska i biorac pod uwage, ze busa mamy dopiero o 19godz. Wypozyczamy rowery...hm to znaczy najpierw siedzimy przed budka, gdzie mozna to zrobic, bo wlasciciela ani widu ani slychu, choc wszystko pootwierane i rowery gotowe do zabrania. W koncu intersuja sie nami sasiedzi i chyba albo ktos zadzwonil, albo po wlasciciela pojechal, bo wrocil. Po wynegocjowaniu polowy ceny jedziemy znowu bladzic wsrod pagod. Tym razem w bardziej odlegle tereny wlacznie z wioskami w poblizu lotniska. Po drodze ja prawie laduje w kaktusach, lapie nas deszcz co tylko dobrze robi nam na ochlode, i zalapujemy sie na kolejny slub. W drodze powrotnej zwiedzamy jeszcze reszte Nyaung U i oddajemy rowery, bo juz wiecej nie mozemy. Odbieramy nasze plecaki z hotelu, gdzie jeszcze dostajemy herbatke i mozemy sie odswiezyc przed droga i podsumuwojemy pobyt w Bagan: nawet jesli Myanmar nie jest popularnym celem turystycznym mozesz byc pewien, ze tu znajdziesz samych turystow. A coby bylo malo kolejne tysiac hoteli jest wlasnie w budowie. Ale pomimo tego i faktu, ze niestety w szale turystycznym powastaja budowle takie jak muzeum archeologiczne, czy wieza widokowa rodem z Disneylandu (to m.in. obok braku odpowiedniej restauracji swiatyn a wrecz bajokwe podejscie do ich restauracji jest rowniez przyczyna, dla ktorej UNESCO odmowilo Bagan statusu dziedzictwa kulturowego) to miejsce trzeba odwiedzic i to najlepiej rowerem. A my sie tylko cieszymy, ze jestesmy tu teraz a nie za kilka lat. O 19godz zmierzamy na naszego busa, bo nie dowierzamy, ze nas odbierze z hotelu. No bo to przeciez tylko bus...ale faktycznie odbiera innych pasazerow z hotelow po drodze, wiec nie potrzebnie sie martwilismy. Wlacznie z para mumi, czyli jedna z naszych ulubionych par turystow, z ktorymi tez mijalismy sie juz po drodze. Yeti i reszty niestety nie ma, ale chyba na pocieszenie dostajemy nawet wode na droge i bajke o spiewajacym sloniu na dobranoc. Niestety tylko bajka nie konczy sie o 19:30 tylko gra nam cala noc i to na pelna glosnosc, wiec jutro prawdopodobnie sami bedzimy wygladac jak takie dwie mumie. Ale mamy juz wprawe, po dwoch dniach spania przy modlach mnicha, ktory ostatniej nocy przerodzil sie nawet w wirtuoza organowego, az nawet Bartek wstal, zeby zamknac okno. Pedzimy do Kalaw
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Cloudy day today so our pilot Chris yesterday was probably right that today’s balloon flight will be cancelled so we realize once again how lucky we were. But the weather doesn’t bother us as we decide to take taxi to Popa hill because we want to move further today and needs to be back in Nyaung U in the afternoon. Before our hotel a huge bus is waiting…what? Did we hire a whole bus? We wanted taxi without air con…Since no one is there we go for breakfast first and on the way back we see jeep waiting that creates huge smile on our faces. So this is what they call non-air-con taxi. The driver runs already to open doors for us and we start. With full speed and accompanied by all strange noises that the car is making we drive through villages (where in one they are selling pot flowers!!!!in a village in Burma) and forest, fields and dried rivers. And at the end following the serpentines up the hill. But in the meantime we watch the traffic roles. Right blinker - to the right, left blinker - to the left, emergency lights – straight ahead. Horning when you want to overtake and horn back 2 times if it’s possible or 1 time if not because even if the wheel in the car is on right side the cars are driving on the right side of the road which means they can see nothing coming from opposite direction. When the car stops the first thing you have to do is to clean and/or polish the car. The best way to do so is to use each small break. Our driver stops regular every few minutes. Screams ‘excuse me’ and runs out of the car. The opens the mask and fixes something and if the engine manage to start up again, we drive further until the next stop. On the backseat we discuss already contingency plans in case it doesn’t work as we need to be back in Bagan in the afternoon for the night bus. But we manage. Well, it’s a hill and that’s about it. You have to climb following the stairs and try to avoid monkeys, which are following each step and only waiting for moment of less attention to steel something of you. Suddenly one of them jumps on Bartek’s head trying to steel his cap but it doesn’t manage. We got up hill, saw the view and can go back. The best of the whole trip was actually the way and stop at workshop on the way, where we could see and try ourselves the production of peanut oil, vodka and few other things. And for the 1st time we get lephet, which salad of fermented tea leaves that you can mix with roasted peanuts, garlic, beans etc.
Back in the hotel we check out, get Mahinga (traditional fish soup) and Thai soup for quick lunch and hire bikes since it’s only 1pm and out bus is departing at 7pm. Or better to say we want to hire as the bike stand is open but no one inside. So we wait in front until the neighbors organize someone to find the owner. We wait further. Finally he comes back. We negotiate half of the original price and bike to the remote pagoda places we didn’t see yesterday in Bagan and also nearby villages in direction of airport. On the sandy paths I almost end up in a field of cactus, we get wet by rain that is perfect against the heat and we see next weeding. On the way back we visit the rest of Nyaung U with the market and bring our bikes back to the shop because we have enough. There is still sometime so we go to pick up our backpacks from the hotel, get tea there and can even take shower to get ready for the bus to leave Bagan. Even if it’s a tourist trap as there are almost only hotels and even more are now being build, even if we can understand why UNESCO declined the title of world heritage due to free interpretation of template restoration in Disney style and building as archeological museum, watch tower or the palace which looks like from cartoons, you have to visit Bagan and preferably by bike. We are only happy that we saw it now before it turned into Disneyland completely.
We go to the bus station even if they told us that they will pick us up from the hotel. But since they didn’t even right down the hotel name we are skeptical about it. But they actually do with other tourists including our favorite mummies. Yeti and the rest are not there but we get over it by water we received and watching a story about singing elephant that they display on the bus screen. Only later we discover that it’s very long story going on the whole night using full power of the loud speakers. Even my ear plugs hardly manage and we watch how other passengers manage to cover the ears but putting blankets or cautions or whatever they can find. Tomorrow we will probably look like mummies ourselves. But we got our experience in not sleeping already last night since our prayer in Bagan tried to became Chopin last night and even Bartek got up to close the window. Now with singing elephant we continue to Kalaw. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cloudy day today so our pilot Chris yesterday was probably right that today’s balloon flight will be cancelled so we realize once again how lucky we were. But the weather doesn’t bother us as we decide to take taxi to Popa hill because we want to move further today and needs to be back in Nyaung U in the afternoon. Before our hotel a huge bus is waiting…what? Did we hire a whole bus? We wanted taxi without air con…Since no one is there we go for breakfast first and on the way back we see jeep waiting that creates huge smile on our faces. So this is what they call non-air-con taxi. The driver runs already to open doors for us and we start. With full speed and accompanied by all strange noises that the car is making we drive through villages (where in one they are selling pot flowers!!!!in a village in Burma) and forest, fields and dried rivers. And at the end following the serpentines up the hill. But in the meantime we watch the traffic roles. Right blinker - to the right, left blinker - to the left, emergency lights – straight ahead. Horning when you want to overtake and horn back 2 times if it’s possible or 1 time if not because even if the wheel in the car is on right side the cars are driving on the right side of the road which means they can see nothing coming from opposite direction. When the car stops the first thing you have to do is to clean and/or polish the car. The best way to do so is to use each small break. Our driver stops regular every few minutes. Screams ‘excuse me’ and runs out of the car. The opens the mask and fixes something and if the engine manage to start up again, we drive further until the next stop. On the backseat we discuss already contingency plans in case it doesn’t work as we need to be back in Bagan in the afternoon for the night bus. But we manage. Well, it’s a hill and that’s about it. You have to climb following the stairs and try to avoid monkeys, which are following each step and only waiting for moment of less attention to steel something of you. Suddenly one of them jumps on Bartek’s head trying to steel his cap but it doesn’t manage. We got up hill, saw the view and can go back. The best of the whole trip was actually the way and stop at workshop on the way, where we could see and try ourselves the production of peanut oil, vodka and few other things. And for the 1st time we get lephet, which salad of fermented tea leaves that you can mix with roasted peanuts, garlic, beans etc.
Back in the hotel we check out, get Mahinga (traditional fish soup) and Thai soup for quick lunch and hire bikes since it’s only 1pm and out bus is departing at 7pm. Or better to say we want to hire as the bike stand is open but no one inside. So we wait in front until the neighbors organize someone to find the owner. We wait further. Finally he comes back. We negotiate half of the original price and bike to the remote pagoda places we didn’t see yesterday in Bagan and also nearby villages in direction of airport. On the sandy paths I almost end up in a field of cactus, we get wet by rain that is perfect against the heat and we see next weeding. On the way back we visit the rest of Nyaung U with the market and bring our bikes back to the shop because we have enough. There is still sometime so we go to pick up our backpacks from the hotel, get tea there and can even take shower to get ready for the bus to leave Bagan. Even if it’s a tourist trap as there are almost only hotels and even more are now being build, even if we can understand why UNESCO declined the title of world heritage due to free interpretation of template restoration in Disney style and building as archeological museum, watch tower or the palace which looks like from cartoons, you have to visit Bagan and preferably by bike. We are only happy that we saw it now before it turned into Disneyland completely.
We go to the bus station even if they told us that they will pick us up from the hotel. But since they didn’t even right down the hotel name we are skeptical about it. But they actually do with other tourists including our favorite mummies. Yeti and the rest are not there but we get over it by water we received and watching a story about singing elephant that they display on the bus screen. Only later we discover that it’s very long story going on the whole night using full power of the loud speakers. Even my ear plugs hardly manage and we watch how other passengers manage to cover the ears but putting blankets or cautions or whatever they can find. Tomorrow we will probably look like mummies ourselves. But we got our experience in not sleeping already last night since our prayer in Bagan tried to became Chopin last night and even Bartek got up to close the window. Now with singing elephant we continue to Kalaw.
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