Into the (recently news-worthy) northeastern territory
Travelogue: September 3rd
We've found ourselves more than a couple of times having to wake up at 4am in this country in order to catch a bus to our next location. Our trip to Hsipaw (pronounced see-paw) was no exception. To catch the buses to and from Hsipaw you have to meet them at 5:30am for them to be taken to the bus station to catch the 6am bus.
The journeys on these buses is quite pleasant thankfully. It's a short journey by comparison, 6 to 6-1/2 hours, but still the length of a plane flight across the U.S. - just to put things in perspective, so you want to be somewhat comfortable. These are 'cheap and cheerful' buses run by a company (called Duhtawadi) that really has it together and seems to be the main transport company and delivery service between Mandalay and Hsipaw. On their buses, transporting mostly locals and a couple of foreigners, the windows are down and there's plenty of fresh air as you journey through the mountains and valleys. This type of journey might normally cause a lot of nausea for travel-sick folks like myself, but switch-back after switch-back was handled with perfect precision by the drivers which allowed us to simply enjoy the amazing scenery for the duration.
Hsipaw isn't the most exciting of places and it doesn't offer the widest variety of restaurants or food choices. Instead, it offers everything a small town in an interesting country does: life going on around you as usual, including local markets and local folks doing what they do. We did manage to find a couple of yummy food spots though with extremely friendly waitstaff. (Some of which even very closely resemble the bar in 'From Dusk til Dawn'.) We also had a few good wanders around town both on foot and on bike, though the latter is better since it was often prohibitively hot while we were there. Even though the main road in Hsipaw is almost entirely dirt, it's the a major road between the Chinese border and Mandalay, which means dirt and dust are constantly being kicked up by trucks making walking around a bit difficult.
The main reason to go to Hsipaw is to enjoy some trekking either to local villages or nearby sights. Given the intense heat (and my recent knee injury) we opted for a 4-5 hour roundtrip trek to the waterfall. This proved to be a very interesting hike as it takes you through three different cemetaries (Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese), banana plantations, rice fields, corn fields and other assorted terrain. It was beautiful but a bit confusing as we tried to make our way there. We were given a map by our guesthouse, but it didn't always account for every twist and turn. So, as we trekked, we had to ask farmers along the way which direction was the 'namtok' (waterfall). At one point, we ended up in the middle of a rice paddy which we eventually managed to find our way out of but not before I fell in the muddy paddies a couple of times. (Ew!) Upon exiting this particular paddy, a family of corn farmers invited us in from the heat for some tea and a rest. It was a nice, but quiet, experience as we didn't have a common language, but did manage to communicate as one man petted Darren's arm in amazement of the hair he had on it. Darren, being the good traveler and communicator that he is, responded by reciprocating, petting the hairless man's arm. Each made a questioning face and we understood, "You have hair where I have none. Isn't that interesting?"
We were on our way before long, after our new friends pointed the correct way, no doubt having a good story to tell their friends about the silly, hairy foreigners who got lost in their neighboring rice field on the way to the waterfall. It was never really clear whether we were going to make it to said waterfall given these occasion missteps, but eventually we did and thank goodness. What a beautiful 'fall it was! Absolutely one of the biggest and most beautiful either of us had seen. The mist from the 'fall was so strong that you could literally shower next to it. I was so muddy and hot by the time we arrived that I ended up washing myself (and my clothes) in the waterfall, enjoying every magnificent moment of it. It felt like being reborn, having all of the dirt and heat being washed away down the mountain as we bathed in the accomplishment of our journey.
It was at the end of that day that I found perfect relaxation at a brilliant cafe on the river. Black House Coffee not only can serve Vietnamese 'plunger coffee' (as they said) but they also have a magically peaceful courtyard behind the cafe which overlooks the river and all its spectacular scenery. We sat there after our hike with our feet up, sharing a beer and marveling at the beauty of it all. And it was in that moment that I hit 'the zone': all the stress from previous months was somewhere miles behind me and I was giddily happy and relaxed. Needless to say, it was then that we decided to stay another day and extend our time in Burma (Myanmar) another week.
We've found ourselves more than a couple of times having to wake up at 4am in this country in order to catch a bus to our next location. Our trip to Hsipaw (pronounced see-paw) was no exception. To catch the buses to and from Hsipaw you have to meet them at 5:30am for them to be taken to the bus station to catch the 6am bus.
The journeys on these buses is quite pleasant thankfully. It's a short journey by comparison, 6 to 6-1/2 hours, but still the length of a plane flight across the U.S. - just to put things in perspective, so you want to be somewhat comfortable. These are 'cheap and cheerful' buses run by a company (called Duhtawadi) that really has it together and seems to be the main transport company and delivery service between Mandalay and Hsipaw. On their buses, transporting mostly locals and a couple of foreigners, the windows are down and there's plenty of fresh air as you journey through the mountains and valleys. This type of journey might normally cause a lot of nausea for travel-sick folks like myself, but switch-back after switch-back was handled with perfect precision by the drivers which allowed us to simply enjoy the amazing scenery for the duration.
Hsipaw isn't the most exciting of places and it doesn't offer the widest variety of restaurants or food choices. Instead, it offers everything a small town in an interesting country does: life going on around you as usual, including local markets and local folks doing what they do. We did manage to find a couple of yummy food spots though with extremely friendly waitstaff. (Some of which even very closely resemble the bar in 'From Dusk til Dawn'.) We also had a few good wanders around town both on foot and on bike, though the latter is better since it was often prohibitively hot while we were there. Even though the main road in Hsipaw is almost entirely dirt, it's the a major road between the Chinese border and Mandalay, which means dirt and dust are constantly being kicked up by trucks making walking around a bit difficult.
The main reason to go to Hsipaw is to enjoy some trekking either to local villages or nearby sights. Given the intense heat (and my recent knee injury) we opted for a 4-5 hour roundtrip trek to the waterfall. This proved to be a very interesting hike as it takes you through three different cemetaries (Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese), banana plantations, rice fields, corn fields and other assorted terrain. It was beautiful but a bit confusing as we tried to make our way there. We were given a map by our guesthouse, but it didn't always account for every twist and turn. So, as we trekked, we had to ask farmers along the way which direction was the 'namtok' (waterfall). At one point, we ended up in the middle of a rice paddy which we eventually managed to find our way out of but not before I fell in the muddy paddies a couple of times. (Ew!) Upon exiting this particular paddy, a family of corn farmers invited us in from the heat for some tea and a rest. It was a nice, but quiet, experience as we didn't have a common language, but did manage to communicate as one man petted Darren's arm in amazement of the hair he had on it. Darren, being the good traveler and communicator that he is, responded by reciprocating, petting the hairless man's arm. Each made a questioning face and we understood, "You have hair where I have none. Isn't that interesting?"
We were on our way before long, after our new friends pointed the correct way, no doubt having a good story to tell their friends about the silly, hairy foreigners who got lost in their neighboring rice field on the way to the waterfall. It was never really clear whether we were going to make it to said waterfall given these occasion missteps, but eventually we did and thank goodness. What a beautiful 'fall it was! Absolutely one of the biggest and most beautiful either of us had seen. The mist from the 'fall was so strong that you could literally shower next to it. I was so muddy and hot by the time we arrived that I ended up washing myself (and my clothes) in the waterfall, enjoying every magnificent moment of it. It felt like being reborn, having all of the dirt and heat being washed away down the mountain as we bathed in the accomplishment of our journey.
It was at the end of that day that I found perfect relaxation at a brilliant cafe on the river. Black House Coffee not only can serve Vietnamese 'plunger coffee' (as they said) but they also have a magically peaceful courtyard behind the cafe which overlooks the river and all its spectacular scenery. We sat there after our hike with our feet up, sharing a beer and marveling at the beauty of it all. And it was in that moment that I hit 'the zone': all the stress from previous months was somewhere miles behind me and I was giddily happy and relaxed. Needless to say, it was then that we decided to stay another day and extend our time in Burma (Myanmar) another week.