10-2 (Monday) The Road to Began . . .

I woke up at midnight and never went back to sleep. I finally got up at 4:30 since we had a wake up call for 5 a.m. We went down to breakfast at 5:30. Our guide U Tin Wint and driver Ko OO were a little late picking us up in their 1984 Toyota. We headed out of town. Because the guide and driver had not had breakfast we stopped at a local restaurant so they could eat. The locals couldn’t get over us being in there. Back on the road again to Began. What a road it was! Usually it wasn’t any wider than what we would call a one lane road. It was so full of pot holes that we were bouncing up and down so hard that the axel was hitting the ground. How the car stayed together I’ll never know. We passed everything in sight. We stopped several times for gas which we bought from the black market. At government stations in the country you are only allowed to buy 3 gallons of gas at a time. In Yangon, the capital, you are only allowed to buy 2 gallons at a time! We were amazed at how far that car could go on 3 gallons. We would drive more than 1/2 a day! We would stop along the side of the road and ask someone and they would direct us to the black market petrol. They would bring out a plastic container full of gas and a giant funnel to stick in the tank. Once we had the gas we were back to riding over mile after mile of pot holes. The “road” looked like I cold have poured it myself. There were no shoulders. At one point we were passing a huge gas truck and our car started going out of control and spinning around in the gravel on the side of the road. We got it under control and continued down the road. At one area we went through a path of sand. The sides were half way up the car. Because it was wet we had to keep going even thought there were men along the side to guide us through. We came to a river with fairly swift current and continued at a decent speed so as not to get stuck. U Tin Wint said that if he comes through after a rain the current is so swift that the car could be carried downstream. We had to stop for tolls about every 20 minutes (or so it felt like.) This consisted of a red and white metal pole which could be lifted up and down or sideways. You stop at these and pay a small fee. They are out in the middle of no where.

We continued on. We came to the fairly large town where our driver grew up. We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. Joyce and I were scared to eat anything so we ordered fried rice. U Tin Wint paid for our lunch. We drove over to see the drver’s sister. She brought out cokes for us. Joyce and I split one. I didn’t want it because I haven’t had a coke in over 15 years. I did gag it down. They asked if we needed to go to the toilet. I took them up on it. It was a tiny wooden building out back, naturally it was a squat. The “shack” itself wasn’t big enough to stand up in and there were cobwebs in all the corners. Before we left the family gave us each a huge bottle of water which we were grateful for. Next we went over to the 73 year old aunt’s house. She used to be a schoolteacher. The aunt was thrilled that 2 Americans had stopped by to see her. She had a really big house.

UTin Wint says you get NOTHING, nada from the government when you retire. The government doesn’t pay for hospital stays – you’re on your own. If you can’t afford it, you don’t go.

On the bumpy , pot hole road again. We did not stop to go to the bathroom or eat. When it got dark it got scary because half the vehicles didn’t have their lights on until later. People were walking along that narrow road and riding bicycles. Of course there were NO street lights. Looking out the front windshield you couldn’t tell if the road went straight or curved. The driver must not have been able to tell either because a curve came up and we screeched around it on our bald tires. It felt like we were on 2 wheels. I screamed!

We finally made it to Began after stopping at another black market gas “station.” We arrived at 8:30 and checked into the hotel which was beautiful! The room was huge and all teak. The bathroom was to die for – all tile, a tub and a separate shower area. The only bad thing was the A/C. It was one of those remote control jobs. The room was stifling when we arrived and it took a long time to cool it down.

Our luggage was filthy from all the dust and dirt that got into the trunk. One of the hotel workers and U Tin Wint cleaned our bags for us.

We were exhausted and filthy after our 400 mile trip that took 14 ½ hours. U Tin Wint wanted us to go to dinner with them but we declined because we were so tired. All we wanted to do was shower and get in bed.