All backpackers have a secret that we don't want any of you to know. In fact, it's such a dark, embarrassing secret that we would much rather miss flights, get stuck in cramped bus rides or get food poisoning while on nonstop 24 hour train rather than be found out. But it's about time you knew. Are you sure you're ready for this?

When push comes to shove, most backpackers have a tendency to steal take stuff. 

But I'm not talking about hard core The Bank Job, Ocean's Eleven kind of deal here. I'm referring to getting excited upon seeing a full roll of toilet paper at a restaurant. Refilling your little 50ml bottles from bigger jar at a couchsurfer's place. Or stuffing those packs of jam and sugar into your pocket at a cafe. Don't play innocent and tell me you haven't done this before. In moments of lack and deprivation, we take joy in little things that we can take with us to make the journey a little more tolerable and perhaps even exciting.

This was exactly our situation in a small town called Banmaw in Myanmar. We were short on budget, with no access to cash or ATM and traveling in a big group. To make things worse, we had to take a 3 day boat from Banmaw to Mandalay later that day.

But there was a silver lining to this dark cloud: we had been staying at a hotel that offered a buffet breakfast along with the cost of accommodations. And this was not the usual buffet you get in most Southeast Asian countries. It was a real, Asian and Western style buffet that had at least 20 different dishes (why hello bacon!).  It was a wonderful surprise in a country like Myanmar!

What's backpacker to do when faced with such a challenging situation? Prepare for famine of course!

There were 8 people in our group so we thought it was best to take advantage of that. Preparations were made as early as the night before. This was our game plan:

-We would arrive at the buffet table in groups of 2 within 30 minutes of each other. The earliest group would be ready at 6 AM when the restaurant opened.

-Each group would be assigned a certain food (rice, veggies, sweets, etc) and would take these items stealthily back to the room to be packed for the boat ride.

-Food items had to be packed and stored properly to last us a few days.


This is what happened the next day:

-Before 6:30 AM, all the rice had been emptied from the pot.

-At 7 AM, 3 trays of dim sum had mysteriously disappeared

-By the time the 3rd group had arrived, all the cakes, pastries and sweets were gone- and there were only less than 10 people at the buffet area!

We used a lot of shopping bags, sarongs and even shawls to carry the food away. This left the servers very busy, confused and scratching their heads within an hour after the buffet opened. We finally managed to gather the food, place them in bags and fit them inconspicuously into our luggage after an hour. This was our sustenance for 3 days:

✓ 3 bags of plain rice