Buses, Boats, Bikes, and Hikes

After Mandalay our goal was to fit in one more area of the country – the southeast – prior to heading to the beach for a few days.  Because our visas were running out and we have no choice but to catch our flight to Bangkok on February 28, we were trying to cram these two final locations in to relatively few days.  This meant long bus rides and some very tiring travel…but we expected it to be worth it.

After a 10-hour overnight bus from Mandalay to Yangon arriving at 5am, we struggled our way around the bus station trying to figure out how to book a ticket for Mawlamyine – Myanmar’s third largest city.  After a lot of trying to understand broken English and several points in the wrong direction, we found a bus that was leaving at 7am for another 8-hour trip.  At 3pm we arrived in Mawlamyine thoroughly exhausted.  There is not much to Mawlamyine that we could see – it may have had its hay-day in the British colonial days, but now it is a run-down place with not much going on.  We stayed at the Breeze Guesthouse which is right on the Thanlwin riverfront.  The riverfront was gorgeous even though it was lined with crumbling ugly buildings with not much activity.  Should the political situation in Myanmar ever change to warrant foreign investment, I’m telling you that this is one of many places in Myanmar to buy real estate…

 The main reason for heading to Mawlamyine was because it was the origin of a much-recommended ferry ride to Hpa-an.  It was a five and a half hour slow-boat up the Thanlwin river through jungle, villages, and limestone cliffs.  It was a very beautiful, relaxing ride, even worth the $2 ticket that went straight to junta.  We arrived in Hpa-an just before dinner and finally got a good night’s rest.  The next day we planned to rent bikes to ride to and then hike up Mt Zwegabin, a 722 meter high peak with a monastery on top.  The Lonely Planet guidebook states this about Mt Zwegabin: 

“Climb the steps of Mt Zwegabin,  11km south of town, for gods’-eye views, an 11am monkey feeding session and free monastery lunch at noon…take a map and bike and DIY.”

We, however, don’t believe that the Lonely Planet writers actually made the journey and recommend that it change its description as follows:

“Rent a bike, take a map, and ride to Mt Zwegabin, 11 km south of town.  Make sure that you leave before dawn because if you don’t you will miss the 11am monkey feeding session and free monastery lunch at noon because this is a brutally hot and sweat-drenching challenge.  After a very steamy bike ride (and the hand-drawn map will likely get you lost a few times), prepare to climb thousands of steps up a sheer limestone mountain.  Take lots of water and prepare to have to stop a lot.  Imagine Stairmaster on the hardest setting while in a sauna and add the blazing hot sun and some mosquitoes.  Make sure to save time for a beer station stop on the ride back, because you’re going to need it.”

But as always, in hindsight it was very worth it.  The views were amazing, and we did not see another tourist the entire day – only a handful of locals and a gaggle of monks.  By the way, the gaggle of young monks clearly took some “hard-core” points away from us  - they were climbing the mountain barefoot.