On the road, anything goes. Shit happens, and most of the time, you rely on yourself to get out of horrible situations.
Not in Myanmar though. Here, the people are as honest and beautiful as the splendid temples of Bagan. During my short 10 days, I encountered so many wonderful wonderful people who went out of their way to help in situations where I was utterly alone. To use an old saying, it warmed the cockles of my (stone) heart… 🙂
On that fateful day, we were cycling on the plains of Bagan under the scorching sun. It was 9am, yet the mercury already hit 45 degrees celsius. Perhaps going to Myanmar at the peak of dry season was a stupid decision, but i was overly ambitious and wanted to reach the northernmost temples in the area before turning back. This is when S found something wrong with her bike and pretty soon, it was impossible to go on. We were stranded in the middle of a dusty plain, far from town, Â with only motorbikes zooming by on the road leading nowhere.
After standing in sheer despair for a while, I took a leap of faith and stuck out my hand at the incoming motorists, hoping that one of them would stop, and he would *just happen* to carry a toolbox and know how to fix bikes…and the first person who saw us, the FIRST person, stopped immediately. This was rural Myanmar, and nobody spoke English, yet when he saw our distressed faces and the broken bike, the stranger ran to his bike and came back miraculously with a wrench. We were saved!
“Chezu, chezu!” We said again and again, not knowing what else to say to convey our deep gratitude. He simply smiled and went on his way. It seemed so natural to him to help us, yet I wonder if he knew that our brief  interaction somewhere on the roads of central Myanmar would absolutely restore my faith in humanity and inspire me to do the same for more strangers down the road.
Musings of a Leaf 