Myanmar – Page 2 – Where is Phil now?

Mandalay

Day 71, Thursday 15 March 2012, Mandalay

Mandalay, Mandalay.

I have always been an avid reader, as a child and young adult I was drawn to novels of adventure and mystery and there are certain place names that even now send a small shiver of expectation of adventure up my spine. Mandalay is one of those places names.

Up at 5.00 am for a 5.15 taxi to Yangon airport. This was probably the crustiest taxi we have had and the driver certainly had a touch of the formula one driver about him, his intent was to pass everybody on the road and not allow anyone to pass him, it was a fairly fast ride to the airport. Check in was as manual as the ticket purchase, but at least it was straightforward. There was a lot of people in the airport, I am guessing that to save costs they maybe only open the airport for certain periods ? A lot of flights went out at a similar time to us.

The flight left 15 minutes early ! I guess when everyone is on you may as well go. The plane was an ATR prop jet, it was about half full. It was a full service flight so we had coffee and a croissant and a free newspaper. Great flight but the visibility was appalling and I didn’t get to see much, so I read the paper and caught up on Myanmar news.

We arrived in Mandalay at 8.00 and took a mini-van to town, the mini-van seems to be the only choice to get there, accept maybe tour buses. Cost for the mini-van was 4000 kyat each (about $5) for the forty five minute drive, and we were taken to the hostel we wanted to go to. Which was full…. Bugger. Luckily there were a few others in the immediate vicinity so we wandered up the road to the Nylon Guest house, which turned out to be pretty good and better value than The Winner Inn in Yangon, it did have wifi, but it was sporadic at best. The view from the room.

We took a small walk around the immediate area. Mandalay is not like I expected, given it is a famous SE Asian city and the capital of Burma for many years. We were in a fairly central area and the city is quite run down, even in comparison to Yangon, it is very dusty and the pollution from the cars is eye watering. Unlike Yangon motorcycles are allowed in town, and like everywhere else in Asia, road rules just do not apply to motorcycles.

We stopped at the Rainbow restaurant for lunch, which was pretty good, washed down with a couple of Myanmar beers, which was even better. There was a lot of locals drinking beer and whisky for lunch.

Myanmar is famous for its red splattered streets, betel nut chewing is very common here and not something I have seen anywhere else is SE Asia, reminds me of Papua New Guinea. The local people in the bar, both men and women had red stained lips and teeth. Given the lack of dental care and hygiene in Myanmar, the staining really made the mouths of some of the people we met quite unpleasant looking.

We had a bit of a rest after lunch and mid afternoon started on a walk to and around the royal palace walls and on to Mandalay Hill. The hill houses a few stupas and is the single high point in Mandalay and supposedly offers great views.

We planned on walking around the Royal Palace walls, which are approximately 2kms each side.

The walk was long and hot and after a couple of km’s a trishaw ( bicycle with a small side car) rider came past and offered us a ride, it was on my list of things to do so we took it to Mandalay Hill. I am glad we did, the walk was a lot further than I expected !

The trishaw was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, and this really proved to be the case throughout Mandalay – I suspect there was some price fixing between the providers as there was no bargaining and taxi’s were twice the price of Yangon – and five times the price of elsewhere in SE Asia. By the time we left the city we were pretty unhappy with the gouging as were most other backpackers we spoke to.

The Hill was pretty good though there was no view at all due to, according to a local man we spoke to “fog”, it tasted like smog to me, but he said there was no smog in Mandalay as the was no industry… There were numerous Pagoda up the hill and I had enjoyable walk snapping photos on the way.

Apparently Buddha stood here and pointed down from the hill and prophesied a great city would be built here in 1857, which was when the king Mindon Min moved the capital to Mandalay and built the palace.

A number of people live on the hill, selling souvenirs and drinks to tourists, Mike and I bought a couple of sketches of Myanmar scenes from on vendor. Myanmar is a lot like Cambodia and Borneo, the lack of good infrastructure and a rather lax attitude to rubbish disposal means there is rubbish everywhere. Mandalay Hill, which is the prime tourist attraction in Mandalay is covered in trash, everywhere you look off the path to the summit is covered in rubbish.

After the disappointment of a lack of view from the top of the hill and there being no chance of a good sunset we walked back down again and I took a few photos of the setting sun, through the “fog” over the moat of the grand palace. On the way down we stopped to chat to an Burmese English teacher who said he had been a political activist and had fled Myanmar to Thailand a few years ago and had just come back now things were changing. We had an interesting and slightly cagey chat about politics and life in Mandalay for a while. We all hoped for some good news on the by-elections on April 1.

We then took a motorcycle each back to the hotel and went out to the Lashiolay restaurant, a Lonely Planet recommendation for a fairly good Shan meal and a couple of beers. The local food is heavily influenced by India so is quite spicy. We had a couple of chicken dishes, a spicy potato and a vege dish with rice. The food was OK, the quality of the vegetables here is considerably lower than elsewhere I have been, so though the food is well prepared and cooked and tasty enough the meals are not great – not anyone’s fault of course. I am also very cautious of the chicken as nothing seems to get wasted here….

After dinner I was pretty whacked so back to the hotel, for what was the best shower in SE Asia, as the internet was down it was an early night.

Gallery – some photos from Mandalay and Bagan

Really enjoying Myanmar, Mandalay was average but Bagan is awesome, though leaving here for Inle Lake tomorrow. Internet is hopeless, so sitting down for a meal while these photos hopefully upload. some images of Mandalay and Bagan. The sky has been a constant haze since I have been in Myanmar, so apologies for some washed out images.

Will do some long winded and probably tedious posts when I am back in Bangkok.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Stupored after the stupa

Day 69, Tuesday 13 March 2012, Yangon.

very slow internet, so not many photos… but Myanmar is a big yay so far 🙂

I had a pretty average sleep, while the room is quite nice it only has internal facing windows and these are on to a lit hallway, while the curtains and frosting provide privacy they do not block the light – and my bed was right next to them. The hotel is also quite noisy so going to have to take a pill tonight. I am not sure of the status of my stomach, it is quite tender this morning, could be due to emptiness, could be due to one of these last night but who knows – will test and see.

The hotel provides a simple free breakfast, i had scrambled eggs and toast and soon after that we went out for the days mission. Go to Air Mandalay and get seats to Mandalay, change money and visit the Shwedagon Paya.

Through good fortune rather than good planning Air Mandalay’s offices are situated almost between the hotel and the paya and a 15 minute walk from the hotel. After setting off, at my instance, in the wrong direction, we soon realised our mistake and turned round and headed back the way we had come. It was an interesting walk to the office, the guide book says the footpaths are a mess in Yangon, but in this section of town the footpath had been recently replaced and was smooth as silk. As i mentioned last night, the roads are wide and clean, the buildings around are mostly ‘western’ in design and I could easily be walking down a street in Auckland.

The first sign that things are behind the times here was at the air Mandalay office, Air Mandalay is one of a few small local airlines plying the local Myanmar routes, apparently it is not owned by the government so by buying tickets we are not directly supporting the regime – I will post on this separately. Anyway, the tickets were hand written, there is no ticket machine, the confirmation that seats were available was done by phone and we had to pay cash, I think I mentioned yesterday, no credit cards in Myanmar…

On the subject of cash….

I had read a lot about changing money in Myanmar, in guide books, forums and blogs and all have the same story, yet there is always that doubting she will be right attitude that you take when you go.

A few places will change money, apparently the legitimate places, such as banks and the airport (it was closed when we were there) now offer a rate close to the official rate, before you had to use street money changes to get a good deal – with the associated risk of being ripped off. And there are a LOT of stories of people being ripped off, no matter how closely the exchange was followed.

You can only change US Dollars, I read a couple of posts about people managing to change a few Euros, though they got really really bad rates, and it took them a while to find someone to change it.

The USD have to be immaculate, – no folds, no tears, no marks, they must be near new, old bills are no good (even if they are immaculate !).

Big bills get better rates ! you will get more kyat for 1 $100 bill than 10 $10’s….

So those are the rules…

We handed the Air Mandalay clerk are money $105 each (a massively expensive trip but will save us a day). As we were paying in USD rather than use a precious $100 we used a mix of $20’s and $10’s. The clerk went through all the bills and rejected 3 $20s and a $10 saying the bank would not accept them, we couldn’t see what the difference was with some of the others, but changed them for other bills from our wallets and these seemed to work. We also had to pay a further $3 fee for the airport and again 2 of $1 bills were no good… I used 10 and got us some Kyat (local currency ) in change as we needed some anyway. First mission completed.

Second was to visit Shwedagon Paya. The main Zedi (stupa) is 98 metres tall and is layered in a rumoured 55 tonnes of gold leaf and is incrusted with 5000 diamonds and 2000 other precious stones. The paya can be seen from just about everywhere in Yangon and is central to Burmese Buddhists faith.

The paya is certainly impressive ! started 2500 years ago it has been added to over the years and is quite large. Unfortunately it was late morning when we arrived and sun was blasting down on the reflective tiled ground so it was quite warm. I took a lot of photos but will only upload a couple here due to bandwith, I may do a bulk Myanmar upload to Flickr later on.

After the Paya we set off to walk into down town, it was a couple of kilometres away down a hot wide road, but it gave us an opportunity to see some more of the place. We were looking for a bank to change our money and after an hour or so of walking around in the heat I was pretty gone, my back was aching badly and I had tanked energy wise, so we ended up getting a taxi back to the hotel with the aim to get a cab directly to a bank in the morning. Another sign we are not in the real SE Asia, no scooters in Yangon – and now this – how will they drive !!!

I spent most of the afternoon lying down and pouring water in to my mouth, I was feeling very average and think I got a touch of sun stroke, was hot and achy and very tired.

We watched a few bad movies on TV, ate some food, I had a chicken cashew, my first non-western food in a few days. Now my stomach appears to have settled i can back to trying local foods again : )

I popped painkillers, Imodium and half a sleeping pill and hit the pillow at 10.30, hoping for a good sleep..

Bangkok to Yangon – Myanmar, new adventures

Day 68, Monday 12 March 2012, Bangkok – Yangon.

No photos today!

I didn’t sleep well last night but at least my stomach was feeling better today. I went down to try some toast just after 8.00, was still feeling OK by 10.00 so went down for more toast and a coffee as a second test. I spent most of the morning in the air conditioned room as it is quite hot outside and down in the lobby area of the hostel, as we were flying this afternoon there was no point in heading out too far. I did a load of washing and the dust of Siem Reap did not come out, so half my clothes still look dirty ! I also posted another package of souvenirs back to New Zealand and sent my tripod this time, at least I have some space in my pack now.

Check out time was 11.00 so we spent a couple of hours down in the hostel lobby, I had a good chat with an American guy about his trip to Myanmar last year, really got me excited about the trip this afternoon.

We took the train out to the airport and joined a massive queue at the Air Asia counter, and then a massive queue at immigration counter so by time we got into the lounge area we were very close to boarding time. We had a quick burger at BK, my final successful test of the day and then after a small delay we were off to Yangon airport in Myanmar !!!!

It was a great flight, in fact all my flights in Asia so far have been good, much better than the horror stories I used to hear. Air Asia have really forced a lift in the game of some airlines, and I have nothing but good things to say about their flights – so far.

We landed into a setting sun at Yangon and had a very slow trip through their immigration service, not a lot of people just a thorough process. We walked out into the arrival hall to find a driver holding up a sign with “Phil Platt” on it, first time that has ever happened ! Ok we did pay for the service from our Hotel – Winner Inn. I decided that rather than faff about in a strange town, and an untested country with trying to find a way to the hotel I would pay for an organised ride. Worth it I think.

The ride to the hotel was interesting, though it was dark here are my observations so far !

Lots of men were the traditional longyi, a type of long wrap around ‘skirt’.
Unlike other SE Asian cities there are no scooters or motorbikes, almost unbelievable, however I understand they are banned in Yangon !
The cars are mainly old, lots of Nissan Sunnys and old Corrollas, a lot don’t seem to have working headlights, or it may have just been timing as we arrived just after sun down.
The majority of cars are right hand drive – which to me is an issue as they drive on the right hand side of the road !!! over taking will be a challenge…
There are a few new cars, passed a car yard selling BMW’s so things are changing here.
Lot of Korean restaurants and one large hotel we passed had its big sign out the front in Korean…
The streets we drove on were wide, clean, semi-well lit, with the lack of scooters it was almost like driving down Great North Rd !
We passed a few new looking houses and apartment blocks, but they were mainly empty, lights off and no one home, weird….

The hotel seems Ok, twin room, reasonably comfortable, vaguely old fashioned maybe. Will take some photos tomorrow.

Very limited internet so not sure how blogging will work, have to do via USB drive, and not sure on the speed yet. The American guy I was talking to this morning said there are some cafes around with decent wifi, so maybe hunt one of those out later. But don’t expect a huge amount of posts over the next couple of weeks, I will do my best !!