***This is a team blog***
It’s our second official day as a team and we have to wake up at 6:00AM to be on the road by 7:00AM. We are in Chiang Mai, Thailand and we are making our way to Hakha, Myanmar. The following accounts are what we experienced to reach our ministry site 3 days later.
6:30AM- Meet out front of our hostel as a squad in Chiang Mai to get onto 6 different mini buses to head to the Myanmar border.
7:00AM- The mini buses leave. We make a few stops along the way to eat breakfast and take bathroom stops.
12:00PM- Arrive at Maesot, the town bordering Myanmar, and eat lunch anywhere we can find.
12:45PM- Regroup as a team and head towards customs and immigration.
2:20PM- Officially arrive in Myanmar as a squad.
4:30PM- Head to a bus station as a squad… Receiving all the weird looks as a line of 43 Americans pass by with big packs on their backs.
4:50PM- Realize we are at the wrong bus station so we proceed to walk to the other one that is all the way across this town. Still receiving weird looks as we pass by.
5:30PM- Get on the bus and try to relax for the night.
4:30AM- The bus gets stopped on the side of the road and three teams realize this is their ministry host, our team included.
4:45AM- Arrive at two of the teams ministry site, and rest for the day… This included hammocking and playing volleyball with some kids.
8:45PM- Our team says goodbye to the two other teams and we head to the bus station.
9:00PM- Arrive at the bus station and wait for about a half hour for our bus to arrive.
9:30PM- Get on the bus, once again trying to get comfortable enough to sleep.
12:00AM- The bus driver forces all of us to get off and go to the bathroom, despite the fact some of us were asleep.
6:00AM- Arrive in Mandalay.
6:30AM- Take a taxi from one side of the city to another.
6:45AMish- Arrive at a sketchy “bus station” only to realize that this was going to be our ride for the next leg of our journey.
7:00AM- Eat breakfast and drink coffee at a place next door to the sketchy “bus station.”
8:30AM- We find out that this last leg of the journey will not be just 10 hours as we expected, but a LOT longer.
9:00AM- We get on the bus to be greeted by chickens in boxes, almost no leg room at all, and seats that could barely fit two grown people.
9:30AM- Start the trek that brought us closer as a team than we ever imagined within the first 4 days. We stop several times throughout the day and night for food and bathroom brakes…
9:30PM- Hour 10 of being on the bus comes around and we realize that we are barely over half way done.
4:30AM- 19 hours later, WE FINALLY ARRIVE IN HAKHA!!!
4:45AM- We figure out room assignments and head straight to bed.
1:00PM- Everyone finally wakes up and we start our day exploring Hakha, and hearing about what ministry will be like in this beautiful country.
As you can see, this journey was never ending for us. We rode 3 buses, 1 mini bus, walked across a border, and went to 4 different cities within our 70 hour 5 minute travel day. There were many speed-bumps, literally and figuratively, that we had to overcome, such as Caleb throwing up, Erica getting carsick, phones and laptops dying, backs aching, legs cramping and constantly seeking warmth in the 40 degree weather as the bus climbed the mountains. But in the end, it was all worth it. The village of Hakha is beautiful, and the people are even better.
