25th October – 2nd November 2019
Leaving Myanmar was an emotional experience, I left some good friends and memories behind (as well as a box or two of things, thanks again Zoe)! I arrived at the airport confident that my bag was under the weight limit and I was ready to board the plane but when I got the check in counter, things went South. Turns out I had read the website wrong and instead of being 2kg under my weight limit I was actually 3kg over the limit!! Then they asked to weigh my hand luggage and I already knew that was too heavy. Airasia charges $20 per kilo for overweight luggage so I was looking at a $280 charge in total for my ridiculously over the limit bags!
No one ever wants to be that person; the one repacking their bag at the airport. I have always been really lucky and on the few occasions that my bag has been overweight they’ve either let me get away with it or offered me a cheaper solution. So here I was, already emotional from leaving the country I’d called home for the past eight months, having to sort through my belongings and decide what I wanted to leave behind! Let’s just say there might have been a few tears shed… Luckily Arrle was there to be the logical side of my brain that had apparently taken a quick holiday! He sorted through my things, while I sat on the floor and tried to keep it together.
With the drama of check in behind me I headed to immigration and made it to my gate in plenty of time. Next stop Bangkok!
I was asked to arrive in China at the start of the week so we wouldn’t lose any days when applying for my residence permit which meant I could spend the weekend in Bangkok and celebrate my friend’s birthday. I got into Bangkok late on Friday night and Eilidh had Pad Thai waiting for me when I arrived at her apartment (that’s the kind of friends you need in your life to be honest)! On Saturday we got glammed up and headed to the SO Pool Party at Sofitel, my first ever pool party if you can believe it. Sofitel hosts a pool party on the last Saturday of every month from 1pm to 9pm and costs 600 baht per person (one arrival drink is included but I would not recommend the mojito). Sunday I said goodbye to Eilidh and checked into the cheapest hotel I could find for the day. On her recommendation I headed out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market for a bit of shopping (but not too much after my disastrous experience at Yangon airport). I’ve been to a lot of markets since I started travelling so I wasn’t expecting to spend a lot of time there but I spent about three hours wandering around and bought a couple of nice little bits.
My flight to China left at 1am on Monday morning and arrived around 5am China time which meant I had to wait about an hour for the metro to open before I could catch a train to the coach station. I then had to wait another hour and a half for my bus to Sanxaing so I decided to put my rusty Chinese to the test and attempt to order a McDonald’s breakfast. The entire experience just reminded me of why I love this country so much; me with my broken Chinese and the server with no English managed to communicate with mimes and laughter and my McDonald’s “scrambled eggs” were delivered without an issue. I think I provided the morning’s entertainment!
Arriving in Sanxiang it was like I’d never left; I caught a tuk tuk to the school, picked up my keys and had a much needed shower before heading to the school office to see my friend Rani. The campus was exactly the same as when I’d left and it felt so good to be walking through it again. And then… I broke my phone!!
Rani had just ordered me a DiDi (like Uber for China) to go collect my cat from the kennel and I dropped my phone face down on the solid tile floor of my apartment. It was one of those moments where I just didn’t want to look, the sound it made as it hit the floor alone told me it was broken. But my car was waiting, and I had no way to contact Rani to tell her I was phoneless and therefore probably unable to contact the kennel owner on arrival. I also now had no way to get back but I got in the car anyway… When I got the kennel I asked my DiDi driver to call the kennel (luckily his phone number was on the gate). I then had to try ask the kennel owner to call Rani and explain that my phone was broken. Rani called me another DiDi but when he arrived he refused to take me because I had the cat so the kennel owner’s wife made him drive me back to the school. I still don’t really know if the kennel owner was mad at me or his wife but he seemed to smile at me as I left the car so I’m going to hope we’re ok. If this experience has taught me anything it is that I really need to learn more Chinese now I’m back!!
I went to see my friend Rose and her daughter Ning Ning on Monday evening, luckily we had organised a time to meet at her restaurant before I broke my phone! It was so lovely to see them and enjoy her amazing fried noodles again, which she gave me for no charge because she said she had missed me! She also bought me a whole bag of fruit to take home because my fridge was empty. Just another reason why I love it here so much, everyone wants to help you all the time even if you don’t ask, it just fills your heart right up!
I spent the rest of the week washing all the clothes I had left here for the last eight months and organising my new apartment. It feels so nice to have my own space, this is the first time I’ve lived by myself. I had flatmates all the way through Uni, when I arrived in China I lived with three other people for the first six months, then one person for the second half of the year and in Myanmar I had a steady rotation of flatmates over the eight months so having a whole apartment to myself is a nice change.
On Friday I finally got my phone back from the repair shop, they didn’t have the right colour of screen so now I have a white screen while the rest of my phone is pink. It’s unique! I went for dinner with my friend Luna and mentioned that I had a bit of a headache and she suggested a head massage. It was exactly what I needed and they even gave me a haircut while they were at it (which I probably also needed to be honest…)
I was so sad when I left Myanmar and I still miss all of my friends and students from Yangon but it feels so good to be back in Sanxiang. It is getting colder now and I am looking forward to not sweating constantly and wearing cosy jumpers with a cup of tea in bed! I will hopefully start work before the end of November and I can’t wait to meet all my new grade one students. It’s going to be a whole new adventure!
If you are interested in my previous adventures in China click on one of these:
Well Travelled Lass 
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