Life is about the journey, not the destination took on a whole new meaning over the Full Moon of Tazaungmone holiday. On Saturday at 5:45am, I embarked on a journey 180km north to Bagan, an ancient city and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fellow volunteer, Anya, and I joined 14 Myanmar friends in three cars. As it often times is, we were picked up at my house then drove five minute to wait another 30 minutes before we officially departed town. We left my town, on a four hour drive enroute to Bagan. We drove about 45 minutes before we stopped for breakfast. After breakfast, for the next few hours, the cycle of driving then stopping for snack ensued with the occasional stop at a pagoda. During one snack break, which started as a hunt for potato chips, ended with an oil change. About 30 minutes in, we realized the car was getting a “quick” roadside oil change. As if it were natural, we posted up on the side of the road, eating our potato chips, waiting for the oil change to be finished. It took a little longer than it should have because the auto shop had to go somewhere in town to purchase the oil, which is oddly very normal. Probably an hour later, we had a tank full of new oil and our three car brigade was off northward. We had a good laugh the whole way because the only thing we could hear from the backseat was the opening of packages and crunching of potato chips. Mr. Paul, May Myat’s son whose real name is Po Myat Khin Lay Aung, ate his way through the fully stocked snack tote.
Once we hit the outskirts of Bagan, it was time for lunch. While it’s still a foreign concept to me, we unloaded our lunch boxes with precooked food and claimed a few tables at the restaurant. We ordered bowls of rice and some soup and passed around the containers with assorted dishes Thuzar Khine’s family had cooked. It is completely normal in Myanmar to bring your own food to a restaurant to enjoy. After lunch, we loaded back into the cars and arrived at our hotel. What is about a four hour drive took us eight hours, but again, this is completely normal in Myanmar.
After resting and a change of clothes, we headed out to visit a few of the thousands pagodas in Bagan. We went to about eight pagodas, but it is probably more accurate to say we shopped at about eight different shops to buy snacks. With the kids falling asleep, we headed back to the hotel at about 9pm for supper. We ordered rice from the hotel restaurant, all piled into one room and sat on the floor enjoy the leftovers from lunch. It was a wonderful ending to the day. When we finished supper, we were exhausted and welcomed sleep. I slept like a rock on a real mattress in an air conditioned room.
On Sunday, Anya and I woke up and went to breakfast. If you were to observe the two of us at a hotel buffet breakfast, you’d think we hadn’t eaten in a week or that we are preparing for a winter hibernation. And we have no shame. Six plates of fruit, 10 slices of bread, 2 eggs, a bowl of mohinga, 2 plates of rice, a plate of fried noodles and 6 cups of coffee later, we cut ourselves off. Luckily, we spent the morning exploring Bagan pagodas and temples by bicycle so we burned off a few of the calories we had consumed. We channeled our inner Instragramers, posing, laughing and taking photos. At noon, it was time to check out of the hotel and head back home, on the “ four hour drive”.
After leaving the hotel, we drove around Bagan for 30 minutes looking for a lunch spot all the while Mr. Paul was in the backseat snacking on cookies, wafers and chips. We finally reached our destination, a little famous shack of a restaurant near a pagoda. Because of it’s popularity, there were no open seats so we had to settle for a subpar restaurant on the way out of town. We filled ourselves up with less than impressive food and were on our way home (or so we thought). About 20 minutes after lunch, we stopped at the same restaurant we had eaten at the day before. FOR SECOND LUNCH. I won’t lie, we in disbelief we were eating second lunch 20 minutes after first lunch, but then again we shouldn’t have been surprised because if there is one thing we’ve learned is that eating is a staple in Myanmar culture. We decided to embrace the culture and stuff ourselves with second lunch. When is Rome, right? Side note - I have now begun to refer to meals as 1st, 2nd or 3rd, because generally it isn’t one meal and done here. We wanted to keep the cultural integration going, so we indulged in shot of toddy juice. Toddy juice is found in Myanmar and is produced by Palm trees. Sap is extracted from Palm trees and fermented in clay pots. It is enjoyed as juice in the morning, but rumor is once the clock strikes noon the juice turns into alcoholic toddy juice. I’d compare palm alcohol to a cross between rail tequila and vodka that is served warm.
With the second lunch adventure concluded, we were on our way back south, listening to the sound of Mr. Paul snacking in the backseat. The next few hours were spent driving, stopping for a snack, driving, stopping for a snack. Remember, the point of this blog post is that it’s about the journey and not the destination. For hours, this stop and go was what we did. During these hours, Mr. Paul did take a few naps, but in between naps he recruited his little sister, Miss Kim (Kin Lay Ya Aung) to assist in the snacking. If you are wondering how Mr. Paul could still be snacking, it’s because the snacks in the car were endless and he seemed to be a bottomless pit. At about 7pm, seven hours after we departed Bagan and another pagoda stop later, we arrived at our dinner spot, a restaurant about an hour from my town. To say we weren’t hungry was an understatement, Anya and I had eaten enough breakfast for four people, two full lunches and countless cookies, wafers, chips and candy, but again in the spirit of integration, we ate a full dinner. Finally, at about 9pm, we were home. What is a four hour drive on MapQuest was a nine hour adventure.
In Myanmar, a trip really is about the journey and not the destination. By the time you reach the destination, you’ve already had a full adventure. American’s could learn a thing or two from Myanmar’s take on travel. While I don’t think it is necessary to double the journey to your destination, I do challenge you to enjoy the journey a little more rather than focusing on arriving to the destination!
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