Our First Morning in Mawlamyine...

sunrise at the bus station.

We arrived in Mawlamyine at 345am and hung out at the bus station until about 5am.... Finally, when the sun started to come up, we decided to walk the 1.5km in to town rather than pay a few bucks for a taxi. The taxi drivers at the bus stop are pretty aggressive and it was so nice and cool that it seemed like a nice relaxing way to waste an hour or two while we waited for it to become a little more appropriate hour. We're working on saving money and getting exercise so it fit in nicely with our plans!

we took the small local street that cars don't drive on. we walked up a long, forested hill, watching the monks begging door to door and checking out the local neighborhood. this is a jackfruit tree.

puppies at the monastery near the top of the hill.

at the top of the hill. we asked a young monk which way to go. He directed us in to the center of downtown, to the right. We actually wanted to go to the old town, where most tourists stay, which is to the left.

a traffic light in Mawlamyine

They have really big trees in Mawlamyine!

very typical scene.

A procession of monks, maybe a hundred of them marching in to town, going under the railroad bridge. This is near the traffic circle in Mawlamyine, which is one of the landmarks of the map(the only place we could find on the map!)

The mosque on lower main st.

at the waterfront around 630am

awesome example of old school Mawlamyine architecture/charm

The grandma and grandpa restaurant. It is right on the waterfront near the Breeze Hotel(the most popular traveler hotel in town, and where we stayed the first night. Some of the profit from this restaurant goes to support the local elders.

very typical ditch/trash depository