Buckle up. This is about to be a long ride.
Pattaya seems like forever ago. After saying our goodbyes to not only our mentor but we also said our goodbyes to our alumni squad leaders.
We left early Friday morning to get a bus to Bangkok. The bus ride was a little less than 3 hours. When we reach Bangkok we go back to Orchid Hostel which was where we stayed when we first got to Thailand about three weeks prior. Going back there was great because we felt like we knew everything about our home for the night. We knew exactly what we were going to eat and where to find it. I had Pad Thai and Mango Sticky Rice on my mind– YUM!
Be ready at 7a. These are the instructions for the morning. So– at 7a we start the long part of our journey to Myanmar. When we get to the bus station around 7:30a we learned that the bus tickets for 9am to Mae Sod were sold out. So our logistics team told us we could do whatever we wanted until 9pm because we next bus was at 10:30p.
Some people left the station for the mall, others went to the movies, and some of us stayed at the station. I spent all by Thai Bath so going to the ATM was out of the question for me. Those of us that stayed at the station read, watch downloaded Netflix, played guitar– or like me learned to play guitar, walked around, found wifi at KFC to finish our India visas, and whatever else we could do to make 13.5 hours of waiting not seem so long.
10:30p comes and we are on the bus with our packs loaded underneath. We are ready to go! This bus ride to Mae Sod was 9.5 hours long including a bathroom break stop. Because this bus was an overnight bus we slept. At 7a we arrive at the bus station. Not sure what the next move was we just hung out there for a bit. Some people even pulled out their sleeping pads. But the wait wasn’t too long. An AIM ministry contact took us to the border, which was maybe 10 minutes away.
Get your passports ready. We are crossing the Myawaddy border on foot. The immigration line looks kind of similar to what you’d see in the airport but this time it was on a bridge. We got our stamps and walked to the other side. Once we made it across we had to get to another bus station that would take us to Yangon. After a 15-minute walk straight down the street from the border post we make it to a bus station that didn’t look like it could hold 40 people until our next bus leaves at 4p.
But as we were walking to this bus station my team leader, Kevin, notices a church across the street from the bus station. He walks over to see if we could possibly hang out there until the bus leaves. Praise God! they were so accommodating. They let us stay and hang out in this little tree house looking place– I know I should have taken pictures but by this time my phone was dead. God was totally looking out for us.
4p rolls around and we were loading the bus to take us 10 hours to Yangon. This bus ride was good. I ate two PBJs and passed out. I probably woke up once for a bathroom break at a rest stop. This rest stop was a restaurant and convenient store on the side of the road. Oh and squatty pottys. After Africa I’m basically a squatty potty expert.
Alright, we arrive in Yangon a little after 2a. We are nearing the end of our travel day. My team, Unbound #nochainz has one more leg. We have to get to Mandalay. And that bus leaves at 9a. We walk to that bus station and sleep there until the morning.
This ride was nice. Very scenic– the parts I was actually awake to see. We stopped at a rest stop and this time we ate at the restaurant. The first food I ate outside of PBJ and it wasn’t bad. And 9 hours after our departure time and we arrived in Mandalay! Before we even got off the bus there were taxi drivers banging on the bus ready to take us where we needed to go. It was a little scary at first but when we got off they all seemed so nice. We got two taxis to take us to our guesthouse, Yoe Yoe Lay Guesthouse.
I’m excited to be in Myanmar. I didn’t know much about this country before arrival but I know it’ll be good. Keep the squad lifted as this is our first month back in scheduled ministry. I’ll keep you updated soon.
xoxo
