It’s 3:30 AM on a Monday and Ive just arrived at the Yangon bus station. My “night bus” arrived 3 hours early from Bagan, as it so often does here in Myanmar. I was passed out hard on the bus, only to awaken to the bus driver’s tap on my leg. My ticket to Hpa-an is booked 5 hours from now for 8000 kyat. My next bus will arrive at approximately 2:00 AM*. Why, you ask? Why wouldn’t they line up the times so the night bus arrives at a reasonable time in the morning and the day bus, a reasonable time at night? Unfortunately, I do not have that answer for you and my confusion is as great, probably greater, than yours.
I sat down at the only restaurant open at this hour. “Coffee?” Sure, let’s drink some 3-in-1. For those of you who may not know, 3-in-1 is a horribly sweet instant coffee mix with the sugar and non-dairy creamer already mixed in. It wakes you up because of the overwhelming amount of sugar present in the mix. Good thing I have a stolen stash of nescafe instant black coffee in my purse from the free breakfast at my hostel in Mandalay.
So, I mix half of my Nescafe and half of the 3-in-1 into the hot water, drink it, and ask for more hot water. “Coffee?” The waitress asks again. “Can I please have just hot water?” I ask with excessive hand gestures to my mug and waving my hand at the half full coffee mixes. It is obvious she doesn’t understand and shakes her head no, only to give up and take a seat across the restaurant. A taxi driver who I briefly talked to when he asked, “where you go?” sits down at my table, his friends at the neighboring table. Okay, I know he speaks a little english, let’s try for the hot water again.
Before I know it, half of the restaurant is coming over to my table as they try to decipher my request while the other half watches. Everyone is in a tizzy over a refill of some hot water. By this point,I don’t even care, I don’t even want more nasty instant coffee concoction. I try to say “it’s ok, it’s ok, nevermind. Jesuba, jesuba.” They are determined.
The waitress brings me a bottle of cold water, confused as to why I would want this as I have a full bottle of water right in front of me. She hands it to me, I shake my head no and hand it back. I point to my mug again and then my water bottle and say “hot water”. She brings me tea. Oh perfect, tea! Just what I wanted. “Okay, jesuba,” I say with a friendly smile. Satisfied that the demanding westerner has received what she asked for, everyone goes back to their business.
Don’t get me wrong here, people, I am not complaining. I have been traveling Southeast Asia for 6 months and I am fully aware that I am currently in a country where tourism is not prevalent, and I’m happy for it. I realize that English is not the language here and it is my responsibility to learn the language to get what I want. Unfortunately, I cannot learn how to say “eggs, soup, directions, toilet, scooter, excuse me, etc” in every language of the countries I visit. I can, however, always say “hello” and “thank you” with a big smile on my face and usually, that gets me by, at least to the extent that I don’t come off like a spoiled little westerner princess. (Luckily, most everyone understands “beer”.)
I am here to experience and learn about a new culture and it’s not easy. From social norms to the language there are definitely hardships, misunderstandings, and frustration experienced by both sides. The best way to handle it I’ve found, is to try your best, use hand (and sometimes body) gestures to act out what you want and keep cool. Whilst traveling, you are an ambassador of your country, if not all western countries, and backpackers as a whole. If you lose your shit everytime you don’t get what you want, you’re gunna be perceived as an asshole and assumptions will be made. Remember, if you want everything the same as when you’re home, then go home.
So, I have 3.5 more hours until my bus at 8:00AM, well at least I think it’s 8:00 AM, it could be 8:00 PM in which case I have 14.5 hours. God, I hope it’s 8:00AM. I think I’ll try to order some eggs**, or maybe I’ll just sit here until I see someone else order eggs I can point at them and smile as I hold up my pointer finger and say, “one please”. If it doesn’t work, at least I know I’ve done my part by feeding every damn mosquito breakfast. Wish me luck!
* I arrived 3:00 PM, yet another misunderstanding. No problem.
**I received fried rice with an egg on top.
The Wide Wanderer 