16 May 2018
We were driving from Mandalay to the township of Pinlebu, which took us a little more than 10 hours of travel, including lunch break and stopping for some field supplies.
With me were two company geologists and one government geologist from the Department of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration (DGSE). A field manager who handles the logistics and money matters, and a driver. There were the six of us in one vehicle.
Our service vehicle was a Toyota Land Cruiser (V6 engine), a battered vehicle yet sturdy and field worthy. Being their guest, I was asked to seat in front. The four other companions were cramped at the back seat. Instinctively I wore my seat belt, but the rest did not bother. I could have asked them to, but I realised there is not enough seat belts at the back to cover all four passengers, there were on three seat belts. Anyway, I kept quiet and made sure that I ceremoniously buckled-up for them to notice, even if just the driver. Over the trip's several stops of getting in and out of the vehicle, no avail.
Myanmar is a right-hand drive country; the vehicles travel on the right side of the road. Which means vehicles are driven from the left-hand side. Interestingly, it so happens our vehicle is a left-hand drive! Glancing around, I observed other vehicles, ours is not the only one. There is a fair percentage of licensed vehicles with steering wheel on the wrong side.
Riding in the front is much more comfortable than the pack at the back, especially for the long drive, but there are some tense moments along the way too. Seating in front makes me feel like a driver with no steering wheel - no control! Seeing the incoming traffic from the opposite side of a narrow road is terrifying. Towards the rural areas, the bitumen roads are single lane to cover both two-way traffic. I don't know what the road etiquette is on who gives way. Though when meeting an incoming vehicle, they drive half their vehicle on the bitumen and half on the unpaved shoulder. This system works, except that the clearance between the opposing vehicles are less than a foot. Lorries from opposite direction were speeding that does not seem to slow down, imposing their size against small vehicles to give them way. Several times my right foot reflexes made a breaking motion, stepping hard on the floor, jolting a realisation that there was no brake or a steering wheel to steer.
The long drive made me tired that I did dose off, only to be awaken several times by the sound and vibrations of a speeding by vehicle. After several of this wake-ups, I did not mind and left my faith to our skilled driver. At the end of the day, we arrived Pinlebu, a little bit anguished and importantly unscathed that I am able to write this journal.
One observation made during the long trip was, our driver opened his window and emptied his quarter full water bottle on to the street. I wondered to myself why? Then, he brought the empty water bottle to his lips and spat a red liquid into it. Then I realised he was chewing betel nut. This was done several times over the trip. Looking around, I also noticed another driver opened his window and skilfully spat out a jet stream of red liquid into the road. This has led me to question who is doing the right thing. Is it our driver who did not want to pollute, yet wastefully threw out clean drinking water? Or is it the driver who just spat on the ground without wasting water?
I am still battling for the best answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment