The internet is bad here. I get a connection and it’s fine for a short while, then it goes out. The problem is trying to figure out when it’s working and to use it the most productively during those times. This entry is the second that I won’t be able to post for a while
Yesterday we were supposed to be going up the Ira Waddy (I’m guessing on the actual river’s name, it’s something close to what I wrote though). The trip was supposed to take about 13 hours and it should have been a lot of fun, but according to the guide here, the river is too low in parts for the journey. Instead we ended up taking the plane and then seeing some of Mandalay’s sites.
For the most part it is what you’d expect for a big city in SE Asia. There are cars and people everywhere, it’s noisy and dirty and I couldn’t enjoy it any more. In a lot of ways it’s very similar to Hanoi. We started at a temple fairly far from our hotel, then headed to a palace, and after lunch we headed up the biggest hill in the city to watch the sun set on the city. For the most part I don’t think anything special happened and it was a good time, but we didn’t wait for the sunset.
We got back to the hotel at about 6 and got ready for dinner. Dinner was the best for me because our tour leader invited some “tour” trainees over to our table and I happened to be sitting next to them the whole meal. So for a couple of hours I got to talk to five Burmese girls. I think I was feeling a little bit isolated from the Burmese people while I’ve been on the tour and having the girls to talk to was a great experience. In fact when they were getting ready to go back to their hotel I was a little depressed, I think I could have spent the rest of the evening just hanging out with them (I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to write that without sounding like a dirty old man ). In the end they were just fun to be around, and there is a chance that we’ll see them again in a few days.
After dinner we headed out to do a little karaoke, and I’d like to mention to now that I’ve never karaoked before, and I spent most of the time before trying to figure out how I could get out of singing any songs. It was great fun, but I don’t think I’m set up for being a singer.
