By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
Among hundreds of wonderful pagodas, serene sunrises and sunsets, and smiling faces of Burmese who welcomed us with their genuine friendliness, the encounter with Mister Dracula stood out as the most unforgettable experience during my adventurous trip in Myanmar with my best friend Pamela. On our second day in Bagan, a splendid city with around 2,000 temples built between 11th and 13th centuries, I found it hard to distinguish the temples we had seen the first day from those we still had to explore (let alone to try pronounce their exotic names). But it took no effort at all to recognize him among the other guys who rented out electric bikes in front of our hotel. Unlike those younger Burmese guys with terrible colored hair, Mister Dracula represented a slightly older generation with natural hair, a longji (typical Burmese sarong for men) neatly covering his legs, and a calmer attitude. He never shouted ‘Need bike???’ to tourists passing by, but always spoke in a soft low voice while occasionally flashing a warm smile, revealing red blotches on his teeth, thanks to the betel leaves he never stopped chewing. He even remained imperturbable when we decided to rent a bike from the other guys the following morning, in our efforts to have them ‘share’ their fortune equally, a decision which we’d regret soon, after having a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere, and were saved by a ride from two young British students. That was enough reason to come back to our favorite man on the third day. Far from holding a grudge, he was even willing to help us with the laundry for free, as a bonus for his clients. And when there was a rumor of boats to Mandalay, our next destination, being cancelled on that date due to low tide, he even offered to call the boat company from whom we had bought tickets to confirm their availability. We had tried to make several calls from the hotel to receive our refund, but with the language barrier, it was such a hassle that at the end we did not know whether we could still go or not. When we told Mister Dracula that we had given up with the boat company and wanted to buy two bus tickets from him instead, he insisted to call our boat company so we would not have to lose our money. “They said they have a small boat departing tomorrow at the same time,” he said, shortly after hanging up. Had he told us something else other than the truth, we would not have found out. I was wondering whether he realized that his honesty would have made him lose the dollars I was literally waving under his nose, and whether he was truly sincere or downright stupid. But having spent 10 days in his country, I found out that even though honesty is rather rare in touristic places all over the world, Myanmar is different; their people still holding on to their remarkable values. I hope that will never change. Amidst the rush and stress to move to our next city, we forgot to take his picture or even ask his real name (which we probably would not be able to pronounce correctly), but if you happen to visit Bagan, I recommend you to come to him for e-bike and travelling tickets (and get unlimited free laundry from his sweet wife), in a small hut called ‘A Little Travel’ right in front of Ostello Bello. He is usually standing there around dusk, and if you see him smile at you, don’t get alarmed. As frightening as it might be, that reddish juice covering his teeth is not blood, and he won’t bite your neck.