Getting into the delta region is definitely not rocket science (especially when I would like to think that I am an expert in navigation). But when one does not speak any Burmese (the only term I knew was "mingalarbar" i.e. a common greeting), travelling out from the capital city could prove to be a challenge.

When we arrived on the Tuesday afternoon, there were concerns from our friends in Yangon on our plans to stay in the village. Communications is almost non-existent and any urgent evacuation (if required) is practically impossible. Rumours about a prevailing goose flu did not help. We did not really want our contacts to be worried; they felt obliged to make sure that we are perfectly well-taken care of and I really did not want to create more trouble. In the end, we decided that we should make a day trip into the village, assess the situation before deciding if we should stay.

Taking the shorter route into the delta; while shaving 45mins of from the time required for the overall journey, involves additional complexity. Instead of the typical bus ride across Hlaing Thar Yar Township (in fact, I was here with YMCA 9 years ago), we take a shortcut by crossing the Yangon River with a ferry at the Pansodan Street Jetty (10mins, Foreigner: US$1/S$1.50, Local: 30kyats/S$0.04) to Dalah. Next, we hop on to taxis (105mins, 16,000kyats/S$21.82 per car, 3,000kyats/S$4.10 per person) that ply between Dalah and Khunyangon regularly (note that they only start when cars are full). After the much-desired coffee (or toilet) break at Khunyangon, we would proceed for our final segment of the journey; a bumboat ride (1hr, 10,000kyats/S$13.64) to Chaung Gyi Village.

As we started out late, the villagers were so relieved to finally see us at 2pm. They thought we were on our own (i.e. without anyone to follow us from Yangon) and were worried if we had lost our way. We had a discussion with the villagers and they were more than willing to host us for the next 3 days. As a formality, we visited the Sayadaw (or senior monk of a Burmese Buddhist monastery) and dutifully requested for permission to stay. And as usual, Sayadaw gave a faint smile and nodded; all was finally cleared for us to experience real village life in Myanmar.