This guy Tim is doing all of my work! Perfect. Now, all I have to do is insert smart-alecky comments in brackets {like this}.
I slept through Saturday, so today we have two days’ worth of notes in one email.
-Steve
Saturday, Jan 25, 2014
Second day. Mind = Blown.
Biggest deal was a 3 hr. Slow commuter train circling Yangon. Stunning poverty in metro area, then out into the villages/farms where life is like the 1700s, except for the motor scooters.
Each stop was for 15 seconds and teams of farmers would throw produce etc. onto the passenger cars, then two or three villages later, another group would meet the train and gather all the quickly unloaded materials. Really, 15 seconds! I timed it. Rough ride, plastic seats, no glass in windows, totally awesome. {Totally awesome?? Far out, dude.}
Big nap, to a nearby pagoda to sit on the front steps to people watch for the second night and interact with locals who thought the grandfather and great grandfather were cool to sit with.
Neil insists to them that I am the elder, big laughs. Lots of Europeans at our Inn, great stories being shared as we head out in a.m. and straggle in at night. -Especially since we all share the large unisex bathroom/shower facility.
Not sure about tomorrow as Neil’s feeling pretty stove-up. However, just sitting on curbs has been very rewarding so far as Burma always comes to find us!
Neil is constantly thanking me for bringing him on this trip though. Every time I let him know he’s welcome.
It’s all guude. {guude ≈ good}
Sunday, Jan 26, 2014
Spent a lot of time yesterday – relating some stories, then lost the whole thing. Arrrgh. Will keep posts short to keep my sanity. {I think he means that he deleted when he should have sent.)
Every day is full of wonder and amazement in Myanmar’s largest city, and now we head into the ancient middle midlands of Bagan and Mandalay. {Don’t lose Hope on the Road to Mandalay.} This will be via the train Anthony Bourdain featured. {A.B. is a travel writer.}
Both of us mostly well, nothing slowing us down. I appreciate the rx I got when I said Neil was a flirt. {I think RX = remarks. Julie says RX = therapy. Maybe it is both.} More on that later.
Yesterday got Neil’s camera fixed, which was huge to get it done at all, and because it is his most important introductory tool to the locals. {Neil broke his camera on the last trip also. Is it too late to buy a new one?}
Also we did two of the obligatory biggest tourist locations (our first experience with the tourist bus crowd and none was from the USA). {Oh, those two locations. Yeah, everybody likes them.}
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