Roads. Roads! Roads. Bagan taught me that roads here are basically cow paths and mostly dirt and unsigned even when they're nicely written out on maps (although most free maps in Asia are shitty) (Highly recommend bringing in a good road map like what I got from Kinokuniya before you get here).
The road to Mandalay was a nightmare. It was 18,000 kyat for 2 people to ride on the Pyi Awe Tay bus-- which meant you got a (presumably) nice coach seat on a half-sized bus. What we didn't know was that these buses also pick up locals on the way. In fact, there are seats attached to the side that fold out so that folks can sit in the center aisle. Those are the seats sold to the locals. There's more standing room by the door, so a lot more folks piled in over there. So while my pretty tall 6ft 2in friend had no leg room, it was a cramped and hot journey (we were pretty spoiled on the ride over on JJ's from Yangon to Bagan). Oh, and it was a super bumpy journey (friends on other buses told us that locals couldn't handle the ride either and got very carsick).
The road to Mandalay was a nightmare. It was 18,000 kyat for 2 people to ride on the Pyi Awe Tay bus-- which meant you got a (presumably) nice coach seat on a half-sized bus. What we didn't know was that these buses also pick up locals on the way. In fact, there are seats attached to the side that fold out so that folks can sit in the center aisle. Those are the seats sold to the locals. There's more standing room by the door, so a lot more folks piled in over there. So while my pretty tall 6ft 2in friend had no leg room, it was a cramped and hot journey (we were pretty spoiled on the ride over on JJ's from Yangon to Bagan). Oh, and it was a super bumpy journey (friends on other buses told us that locals couldn't handle the ride either and got very carsick).
However we did see a lot of countryside-- shepherds herding goats, rings of palm trees around rice paddies... It reminded me oddly enough, of the drive from LA to Vegas, or maybe Palm Desert. I could totally see them putting golf courses here too, in the future....
Stopped at random places on the way to Mandalay (one was a crappy bus depot and another was like a sort of restaurant across from a gas station). Was pretty hungry at this point (regretted my decision to not buy more Tim Tams when I had the chance) and tried some packaged foods that the lady was selling (obviously made earlier that day). There was a fried cracker made from chickpeas (mostly flavorless-- it was alright) and a fried doughnut with what looked like shredded old coconut (but it tasted odd-- though I saw the same stuff drying in Mandalay in the sun so maybe that's what coconut tastes like once fermented?).
Side note: I didn't realize until this trip that one of my very first favorite jazz standards (that I listened to on my dad's Count Basie CD because it was the disk that had the only recording of "All of Me" which happened to be my middle school jazz band's audition piece in 7th grade) was based on the Rudyard Kipling poem, "Road to Mandalay."