First Things First

Relocating from one country to another is a bit of a challenge.  The good news is that I traveled light.  After 2 1/2 years in Myanmar I was able to bring home all my belongings in 2 suitcases.  That was the easy part.

Stepping back into my old life in Florida involved a bit more.  The first thing I wanted and needed to do was to buy a new car.  I'd sold my old one when I moved to Myanmar and needed to get a new one.  As someone raised in the suburbs and used to having a car, I'd become obsessed with transportation over the past five years without one.

In Samoa, I walked in the village and took the bus to get to the market.  It was cheap and convenient, in the sense that the bus would stop wherever I happened to be standing by the road.  Of course the buses didn't really run on a schedule which meant that I could spend all day standing by the road, waiting.  One thing that could be depended on was that they operated based on the driver's needs.  If he didn't feel like driving, no bus.  If he had a chance to make extra money by taking a busload of family members to a funeral, no bus. 

When the bus did pick me up I never knew what to expect.  Sometimes it would be almost empty and I could lean back against the wood seat, let the breeze blow the sweat off and enjoy the views of the lagoon.  More frequently, the bus was already packed before I got on.  Usually, as a nod to my age and status as a foreign teacher, someone near the front got up so I could have their seat.  I also inherited whoever was sitting on their lap.  I was always grateful when it was just a few young children.  It was less fun when it was a 200 lb. woman.  In any case, the bus got me where I was going.

In Mandalay my transportation was either the school bus or a taxi.  The school bus was free.  It also got me a lot of attention when the giant bus rolled up on the narrow street in front of my doctor's office.  I never had to sign in for treatment since the bus announced that there was a sick foreign teacher coming in.  Usually, I took a taxi.  I'll save the many stories of my adventures with Myanmar taxi drivers for another post but usually they were reliable, although expensive, by Myanmar standards.

The one consistent thing about my transportation over the last five years was that I was at the mercy of someone else.  When they wanted to go and sometimes where they wanted to go.  I was very excited about regaining the freedom that comes with having my own car.

Before flying back to Orlando I did a lot of research on which car to buy.  I might as well admit that while most tourists return from two months of traveling around Thailand and Vietnam with stories about temples, festivals and beaches, I can regale you with stories of iced coffee and hour upon hour perusing carmax.com.

The obsession I seemed to have developed about which car to buy (or lease?  Perhaps I should research that!) made me realize that decision-making doesn't get faster or easier as I age.  Hmm, perhaps I should do some research on that.

As I flew to Orlando from Bangkok, I spent much of the 33 hours thinking of what awaited me.  Including a car.  I planned to rent a car at the airport and then start car shopping in earnest the next day.  There was a slight glitch in that plan, though.  When I arrived at the off-site car rental location where I'd reserved a reasonably priced rental, I learned that things had changed a bit in my absence.  I knew I had to have a credit card.  No problem, I had two!  Unfortunately, neither was acceptable because they had "debit" on them.  After taking a deep breath, I hauled my luggage (I was feeling like I hadn't really packed that lightly by this point) back on the shuttle van and headed back to the airport.

An hour later I drove off in a shiny new, tiny rental car, which I'd rented for an exorbitant amount.  At that point I was physically exhausted but on an adrenaline high.  It was only 1:00 p.m. and I was going to pass a car dealer on my way home so why not check out a car on my way home?   I'd done my research, been in touch with the dealer via internet and I'd only been awake for 40 hours or so.  Really, what could go wrong?

I discovered another change since I'd last lived in the U.S. and bought a car.  It is not a fast process.  Even though I'd talked to the dealer about the specific vehicle I wanted to buy, it took six hours to seal the deal.  By then my adrenaline had worn off and I just wanted a shower and sleep.  You'd think my smell along would have encouraged them to speed up the process.

I drove my new car home in the dark, having never seen it in sunlight.  By the time I signed the deal I wasn't even sure anymore what features I was getting or what color it was.  I didn't care at that point.

After a good night's sleep, I raced to the garage.  There was a car!  My car!  Full of gas and ready to take me on adventures!  I'll miss the company I always had when I traveled in Samoa and Myanmar but I'll get by.

Impressions and Memories of the Last Couple of Months

I'm not sure if it's my age or what, but time seems to be flying faster than ever.  It seems as if it's Monday morning and when I turn around it is Sunday.  Since I opted for a staycation over the holidays in Mandalay, I'm enjoying the time to just catch my breath, relax and get caught up on stuff I've been putting off for months.

Before I forget them, I want to jot down some experiences and impressions from recent months.

• Myanmar has struggled over the last decades, politically and economically.  Things are improving but the country's infrastructure needs so much work.  Health care, for example.  As a result of Mark Owen's recent traffic accident (he was hit by a truck while riding his motorbike) I've been asked to put together a policy for the school on getting emergency treatment for injured teachers.  The health care in Mandalay is not the best and getting out of the country is not easy.  

  

  A dog napping on the dirty floor in the hallway of the largest government hospital in Mandalay.

  
  

  

  Getting Mark from the ER and Radiology to get an ultrasound required a trip outside.  Notice the gurney is bare metal. We made this trip more than once, by the way, since they determined he also needed a CAT scan.  That was a brand new piece of equipment.

  
  

  

  The Mandalay airport has jetways but I've never seen them used.  Instead, Mark had to endure being carried up by baggage handlers.  The jerking was not good for his broken ribs and punctured lung.  While Air Asia has jetways it uses in Bangkok and knew that they had someone on board who needed to get off in a wheelchair there was neither a jetway or wheelchair when we arrived.  It took over an hour to get off the plane after everyone else had disembarked and was the worst example of customer service I have ever seen.  Ever.
  

• Sounds always remind me of where I've been.  Most of the time they're in the background and I'm not even conscious of them.  Other times, like the early morning church "bells" and roosters in my village in Samoa, they can't be missed. A sound I'll always associate with Myanmar is that of horns honking.  Because driving rules here are loosely applied, cars, trucks, motorcycles all honk to let you know they're coming up on you from behind.  Or if they see that you might be trying to cross the road they honk to warn you not to.  Or to let you know that they are in the lane next to you.  While I wish AIS was closer to the center of town to make dining and shopping easier, I appreciate the relative quiet of being on the outskirts of the city.
  
  I was surprised and laughed out loud at a sound I heard repeatedly at the Chatachuk market in Bangkok.  Prior to making an announcement on the loudspeaker they would play the exact same bell tones used on cruise ships.  
  
  I still think I'm hearing helicopters when Chinese made trucks go by.  They sound exactly the same.  And at the same volume.
  
  I generally prefer silence to noise.  I've never understood why people walk on the beach listening to Ipods instead of waves.  After a day in a room with 29 first graders, I do not want to go to a noisy restaurant or bar.  I'm looking forward to my fellow teachers returning from the holiday travels but while they're gone I'm enjoying how quiet the apartment building is.
  
• Transportation is my greatest challenge (other than language) in Mandalay.  In Bangkok, you can usually grab an inexpensive taxi anywhere.  Friday and Saturday nights, especially when it's raining are exceptions.  In Mandalay, taxis are expensive and can be hard to get.  Getting a taxi to pick me up at school requires a phone call.  Because simcards are so expensive here (about $250 USD) I don't have one.  I ask a school guard to call for me.  But the guards generally don't speak English.  Usually that's no problem.  They know "taxi".  But if I want to be sure a taxi picks me up an hour from now?  Not possible to communicate.  Usually it takes 15 - 30 minutes to get a cab.  But it's not unusual to take a couple of hours and a few times I just gave up.
  
  If I'm cooking and forgot to get X ingredient it involves a taxi ($10 fare) to drive the 15-20 minutes to the store, then back.  I usually just ditch my plan for dinner.  Or beg another teacher to make a shopping run on their motorbike.  I don't have a motorbike because of the traffic and healthcare situation.
  
  Dinner out generally means hiring a taxi to take me to the restaurant, wait for me, then take me home.  That means the taxi is generally at least twice what I pay for a nice dinner.  I tried having the driver not wait around and had the restaurant call a taxi for me when I was ready to leave.  The driver didn't speak English, there was miscommunication and the normal 15 minute ride turned into an 1 1/2 hour adventure.
  
  I thought I'd reached a solution to my dilemma.  I found a nice taxi driver, who speaks English and was willing to give me a bit of a discount for using him regularly.  Then I had a wallet dropping incident during the recent emergency trip to Bangkok and lost his phone number.  Damn.  U Soe Min, where are you???

  

  I still have not gotten over my fear of crossing four lane roads with no traffic signals and pedestrians don't have right of way.  But I do it.  Because even a chicken has to cross the road.

  
  

  

  Trucks, motorbikes, cars, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages all share the roads.  To get a driver's license you just have to pay a fee.