Take 1: A group (Joel, Pieter, Christiaan, Philip, Josh and I) of us decided to do the Circle Line which is a train that goes around Yangon.
It takes 3hrs to do a full circle if you don’t get off at any of the stops. There were 2 stops that the Lonely Planet suggested we get off on. So naturally we followed their recommendations because all travelers know that the Lonely Planet is basically a treaveler’s bible. No not really but kinda. I can’t remember the names of the stops we got off of but we got off twice. The first stop we walked around a bit and found a pub. Had some beers and basically ate all their chicken. This was still morning and I don’t think they were prepared to have a group of hungry foreigners that early. The first stop wasn’t too bad. It was a small town. Went back to the tracks and waited for the train to come.

Got back on and rode past a few more stops before getting off again. This time we were looking for lunch stuff to eat. Easier said than done. It took us an extremely long time to find some food and in the end only a few of us snacked on the street food. Got back on the train and found out that there was a stop called Insein. Insein became a destination that we HAD to get to. Unfortunately we never made it to Insein because none of us realized that there were different trains going on different routes. The train that we had gotten on didn’t do the full circle around Yangon. It instead went to the end of the line and then went back. Since we had spent a good amount of time on the train, we decided to just cut the train ride short and get off at our stop. So we did a half-circle line and never made it to Insein. I also learned that day that Joel was the only one who got my jokes. Tough crowd. We also decided to go to Happy World the next day to make up for not going to Insein.

Take 2: The 2nd time I was in Yangon, these guys (Harm, Erik, Theresa and I forgot the other girls’ name) from the hostel suckered me into going on the Circle Line again. And this time we weren’t going to get off. We were going to stick to riding it for the whole 3hrs straight. Harm and Erik are adorably hilarious and freakishly tall. They taught me that the Dutch are the tallest people in the world. I thought back to Yoreh and Christiaan who weren’t above 6feet. And then I thought about all the other Dutch people that I had met and yea, they were right. The Dutch are pretty freaking tall. Harm and Erik also wore their longyis which got them extra stares on top of being a foreigner. The train went a whopping 10 miles per hour. Or at least that’s what it felt like. It was slow, hot and humid. But it was all worth it when I saw the INSEIN sign! I had finally made it to Insein! And then the amusement wore off and it was back to staring at the countryside pass by.