Kalilandia

I have been to the jungles of South Africa and to the Himalayan jungles in Bhutan, and there has always been something that mysteriously fascinates me and makes me feel truly alive. However, experiencing the jungle between Ngwe Saung and Chaung Tha in Myanmar will leave an eternal mark on me. Driving through the fisherman villages and (literally) through the rivers is not within our capacity, so my German friend and I rent two motorbikes, accompanied by two local guys. The route starts from our Ngwe Saung village, crosses three rivers, two beaches, some other fisherman and jungle villages, and reaches to the neighboring Chaung Tha village. I am enchanted by the little bamboo houses erupting within the palm trees, the people chilling on the ground and just observing what is happening (which is not much). They live in complete unity with nature and whatever it has offered them to live with - to make their houses and boats, to eat, to play with. My driver looks like he is ...

I know there is pleasure in doing nothing, but I never expected the pleasure of the nothingness in Ngwe Saung will be of that dimension. The night bus ride from Yangon is around 6 hours and is an absolutely hilarious experience with the host of the bus tirelessly speaking on that microphone, which has a funny echo and one almost feels like in a club. Any time I drift away the guy will shout something, will remember to announce something more, will push my seat for some unknown reason. A German girl is traveling next to me and we share this memorable ride, which will bring us together frequently during my stay in Ngwe Saung. Life in the middle of the rice fields The host of my guest house meets me with a scooter taxi in the middle of the night and brings me to my bungalow. As I wake up in my first morning I am full of joy to discover that the bungalow is in the middle of the rice fields and the village people living in the field are having a great time singing on a m...

Bagan, possibly the most sacred place in Myanmar, and one of the most known in the Buddhist world. It is usually advised to take an e-bike (scooter) to ride across the temples, but I feel so intimidated by the traffic, and the constant honking and illogical movement. So, I take the "brilliant" decision that I will WALK from Nyaung U to Bagan (it's just over 5km, without all deviations, and probably 10km with all temple drifts). Later I will bitterly regret, when I will need to find the most random kinds of transportation any time I need to move - from a horse carriage (!), through an open-air van for workers (!?)...to the back of the scooter of some poor kid (!!?). I am literally the only lame duck walking on the road. At some point I wonder if I am on the right way and where are ALL these temples when suddenly they start erupting from everywhere. There are over 2200 temples in Bagan and one could hardly imagine what that means unless they really see it with ...

My next destination in Myanmar is Nyaung U/Bagan, I take a flight from Yangon, which is already a hilarious experience by itself. Safety instructions are considered overrated a t the local airline Air KBZ . As soon as the flight attendant closes the door of the little suspicious plane, we literally take off while placing our carry-on luggage and ourselves.  The airport in Bagan is something rather like a hangar where some guys literally unload the checked luggage one by one and bring it on their backs directly from the plane, asking whose that bag is. Inside the airport there is literally nothing, the "check-in" counters are actually something like little hotdog kiosks where I see people dropping their bags on the floor (apparently same strategy works for loading the bags as for unloading them). Finally, the airport "bar" is outside the airport and represents some sort of a wooden construction where one could chill and get some fried rice, noodles and fis...