My back was in pain all last night. Maybe due to the long day with the vibrations on the boat. I took a look around the town of Nyangshwe in the morning and saw some interesting ruins scattered around. First I waited for one of the crowded pickup trucks to get me to Taunggyi. It was maybe a half hour wait, but I got on and got the local price.
On the way, I noticed some trucks carrying something huge. They were lifting up power lines and everything to get these trucks through. They looked like big tanks or a missile silo or I don’t know.
Later on I got on the bus for the long ride up to the city of Mandalay. Things were going fine the first couple hours until the bus stopped at one of the rest stops where there is a store and restaurant and I think they decided to rebuild the engine or something. There were at least 5 men working on the bus engine, from the top, sides, and behind. It looked like they were getting pretty deep into the engine, and I didn’t understand why since it seemed to be running ok.
Three and a half hours later the engine finally started and we were ready to go. By this time it was getting late at night and I was feeling cold and hungry waiting outside and in the store. Throughout the night the bus would stop for a while and they would check the engine. So not the most enjoyable bus trip. The bus arrived about four hours late. About 14 hours instead of 10 hours.