Where is Phil now?

The boat from Mandalay to Bagan

Day 73, Saturday 17 March 2012 , Mandalay to Bagan

Up early, no internet again, I found out that the connection was in the hotel owner’s house and he doesn’t turn it on until 8.00 AM, we left at 7.15.

Today we caught the fast tourist boat to the town of Bagan down the Ayeyarwady River, a theoretical six hour ride that took eight. The boat was great, big and half full with a small, but expensive cafe and definitely priced so that only tourists could afford it at $40US a ride. It was a lot more expensive and slightly faster than the bus, but a whole lot nicer I suspect.

The morning was very glarey again so the early photos are quite washed out. Stupidly I did not get a photo of our boat, but I suspect the one below is one of the slow ones.

And this fishing boat should not be on the water at all.

As we passed Saigang we saw a few of the things we missed when we only did the quick stop yesterday, there was some nice colonial buildings near the water front.

This is the dry season so the river is incredibly low, small communities move down onto the sand to fish and have easy access to water. Thatched huts with no power or water are common throughout the parts of Myanmar that we travelled.

The ride was long and uneventful (thankfully) though it was far from boring, lots to see from the side was we made our way down the, not so beautiful, Ayeyarwady River to Bagan.

This lady was selling snack food from another boat when we pulled in to pick up a river pilot for a section of the river. You will see on her face a white/yellow paste, this is called Thanakha and is on most women’s, a lot of children’s and some men’s faces, throughout Mynamar. It is part make-up, part skin freshener and part sun block. I would suggest this woman is using it as a sun block as normally it is only applied to the cheeks and forward. it is an old tradition in Myanmar and one that has thankfully not died. Thanakha is made from the ground up root and bark of (I am assuming) the Thanakha tree…

The sun was setting just as we arrived in town.

We had not arranged any accommodation as there is a vast array in the three large villages that make up the Bagan region, Nyaung U is the budget village, Old Bagan, the resort village and New Bagan is the mid range. The boat docked at Nyaung U so we decided to try there first.

Once on dry land we encountered the usual manic state of dozens of cab, motorbike and tri-shaw drivers trying to sell us their services or suggest a hostel. I got a bit ticked off with them as i tried to consult the guide book on hotel names. Naturally the one I chose happened to be owned by the uncle of one of the tri-shaws so we ended up with him and his friend transporting us, via the archaeological site ticket office ($10US for a week) to the Eden Hotel. The hotel is cheapish, reasonably comfortable so we decided to stay. My pack on the back of the tri-shaw.

We had dinner in a cheap Myanmar/Chinese place up the road (we found way better eats the next day) and then went to the internet shop, where the internet was apparently broken. I found the cheapest beer in Myanmar (Andaman Gold), so grabbed a couple of very cold cans and went back to the hostel. Outside our room I ran into Bob an Aussie of similar age to me who is living in China, we chatted for a while and I shared a beer.

And that was the end of a reasonably enjoyable day, as a means of transport I have enjoyed the boats I have caught.

Mandalay – 3 ancient cities tour

Day 72, Friday 16 March 2012, Mandalay

Yesterday we booked a car to take us on the ‘3 cities’ tour, it is a well worn tourist route that takes in three ancient cities that are near Mandalay. There is limited public transport available to tourists and this just seems to be the only way to get out of the city to see the sites when you do not have much time. It was just over $30 for the day for the car so not unreasonable. Jacqueline, who we met in Yangon joined us for the day as well so the cost between three was good.

The car was a small, old, Mazda ute and we sat on a couple of bench seats facing inwards in the back. I like travelling out in the open, though the dust and fumes got to us by the end of the day. We left the hotel at 8.30 into the tail end of rush hour, the roads in Mandalay are not as wide as those in central Yangon so there was a lot more traffic, mixed in with the scooters and the usual lack of any traffic control at intersections and it was a noisy stop start ride to the edge of town. It appears that Mandalay has every type of transport available to man, horse and cow drawn carts, cars, bikes, buses and trucks, all fully laden. I particularly love these small trucks and have yet to see them elsewhere, they are very loud, slow and belch out masses of dirty black smoke. I have seen a number of Toyota Hiace trucks with these engines bolted on to the front.

The main road out of town has been fortunately split into two separate roads, one for each direction, so reasonably safe, given the way they drive. On the way to Sagaing we hit a traffic snarl up, after a while I took a peek round the side of the ute and was staring at the bum of an elephant in a truck, not something I see every day !

The first stop was Sagaing Hill, sadly our driver had lousy English so we didn’t get any explanation about things during the day and I don’t think we got to see much outside of the big attractions. As we were walking around yesterday we were offered day tours from a number of people who had excellent English, but we had already booked through the hotel so had to turn them down. Next time I will wait and make better informed decisions.

I could have spent a day in Sagaing alone, the area has over 500 temples and stupas all seemingly connected by vast covered walkways up and down the small hills. Sadly, as it has been everywhere in Myanmar, the sky was foggy/dusty/smoggy so there was limited view and the glare really made photography tough. Like the other large stupas in Myanmar the main stupa on the hill is layered in gold leaf.

Around all around Myanmar are these drink stations (I am not willing to try them) . I am quite fascinated by them, not sure why as they are mostly the same and quite simple, I will do a photo post of them at some stage.

From the hill we had the driver drop us off at the start of the Ava Bridge, which crosses the Ayeyarwady river (Irrawady) and we walked over to the other side, with me stopping for photos along the way. Bizarrely the walkway over the bridge was infested with small moths, thousands of them, not something I have seen anywhere else. The Ayeywady runs pretty much north to south through central Myanmar and is the key source of transport and water for many people.

The next stop was the ‘island’ of Inwa, largely cut off from the mainland, by the river and canals the island held the Burmese capital of and on for four centuries from the mid 1300s , but few remains of this exist, parts of the palace wall and one tower are all that are viewable.

[rant warning] I really liked the things we saw today, would loved to have spent more time exploring all the places we visited, and much more around Mandalay, but from Inwa till bed time I was very frustrated by unexpected costs. I didn’t realise you had to get a boat to Inwa (I didn’t know it was an island before we left, should have read more), so the boat was an extra expense for the day, it wasn’t much but by the end of the day we had shelled out a bit here and a bit there and I pretty much spent three times my daily allowance. Hopefully this will not haunt me later in the trip as the budget was tight and I cannot get more money as there are no ATM’s. Inwa was also the start of Siem Reap size hassle by children (and adults) trying to sell souvenirs, they are persistent and annoying. [rant over]

The boat ride was a couple of hundred metres and once on the other side we found we had to take a horse and cart ride around the sites (it was further than we thought – ignorance strikes again) this was a further $10 for the three of us. Again our guide spoke no English so I have no idea about the first stupa was stopped at as it was not in the book. The ogre motif is not something I have seen anywhere else in SE Asia.

Some extremely shoddy repair work had been done on some of the stupas here, it was a real shame as a lot of it is unnecessary, it wasn’t needed for safety reasons, and it was appallingly and slightly randomly done. I am glad this Buddha had not been touched as I liked the state of disrepair.

We made our way to Bagaya Kyaung a teak monastery from the mid 1800’s, which is still being used as a school. Here we had to pay $10 each for a week long pass to visit all the old sites around Mandalay, an expense I was anticipating. The monastery was bare but fascinating, the external carvings being quite weathered. The Buddha inside was a lovely alabaster creation, but too dark too photograph.

The monastery had a small working school inside, I am not sure if this was for the benefit of the tourists or not. Don’t get me wrong seeing kids in school was a great thing as most do not seem to go at all, so any education is good, but the monk was just sitting there while the kids did their thing.

[edit] At breakfast on our last day in Myanmar I was talking to an American volunteer teacher who said that school is mandatory in Myanmar, and most kids go, maybe she hasn’t been to Inwa or maybe the school day is short and kids go in shifts as is the case elsewhere in Asia. I was pondering a post on ‘well meaning’ christian teachers after listening to a couple at the airport in Yangon as I was leaving the country, but I wont as I may offend. [end edit]

The next pagoda we stopped was mostly collapsed but had a very nice, weathered Buddha figure with a monk on each side. I haven’t seen this style, I particularly liked the peaceful expression on the kneeling monks faces.

The royal palace watch tower was built in 1822 and is virtually all that remains within the palace walls, the tower was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1838 and has been partly restored the view from the top was pretty good (though of course hazy !) and we got to share the space with some young girls trying to sell us post cards, we didn’t stay long. The tower is on an angle and is known as ‘the leaning tower of inwa’.

The final stop on Inwa was the Maha Aung Me Bonzan monastry, which was started in 1822.

After the monastery it was back in the boat and back to the mainland, where we pretty much were forced to stop and buy lunch at the local cafe for about twice normal prices. The food was BAD, so we were not entirely amused. At lunch I ran into Giovanni, the Italian guy I did the night visit to the Thaipusam festival in Kuala Lumpur with back in Feb. It was good to catch up. [edit] and the first of many catch-ups!

From Inwa we went to Amarapura and for the me the highlight of the day [edit] maybe of all Myanmar[end edit] – U Bein’s bridge. This is the world’s longest teak bridge at 1.2km, during the rainy season the river is almost to the bridge – there must be a huge amount of water going through.

We arrived too early for sunset so we took a leisurely walk across the bridge and visited a small temple on the far side, we then took a slower stroll back. In theory we should have spent more money and hired a boat to row us out into the river to take photos of the sunset over the bridge. Instead we walked down some steps to a sand bank in the river and hung out there until the sun set, which was entirely unspectacular. Giovanni joined us here for an hour. (and I run into him again in a couple of days). I loved the bridge and had a good time on the river bank taking photos of the people walking across.

I was desperate to get a good monk shot here and I was rewarded with a few.

After the sunset over the bridge it was a dirty, dusty, fumey, eye watering ride back to the hostel. Jacqueline and I had decided to meet with some others from her hostel to go and see the Moustache Brothers political cabaret show. So it was a quick shower and out down to her hostel to get a cab to the show. We were expecting normal cheap SE Asia prices but we were told it would be $10 return and no negotiating. We told the driver no and went and found another driver who said the same thing – i suspect a rort, the ride is about 4kms, and basically it is the only way there. I would feel safe(ish) walking the streets of Mandalay, well safe from being robbed, but there are no sidewalks, a lot of the cars and bikes have no lights running and the air is foul, so we took the cab.

The beer at the cafe next to the show was twice the price of beer at the hotel, but we had a local guy with us so paid a normal price for beer and some snacks. The show also cost $10, which was more than it was worth and way more than we all expected, I had to borrow a couple of thousand kyat (pronounced chat) from Jacqueline as I didn’t have enough money on me. The show was interesting I suppose a mix of political jokes (the govt. Does not like burglars as it doesn’t want the competition) comment on their past and a song and dance show showing Burmese dress styles (weird)…. The Moustache brothers have been doing the show for many years and have been arrested a couple of times, in 1996 they were sentenced to six years hard labour for dissent after a show at Aung San Su Kyi’s house. They are only allowed to perform the show in their house and in English, which they do nightly – it was funny in parts and weird in others, regrettably I did not think to take my camera.

Internet was off when I got back to the hostel.

The text was written at the time, but not posted till 12 days later due WordPress being blocked in most of Myanmar, and slow internet where it wasn’t. I have noted where I changed from the original.

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.

Normal transmission will resume tomorrow.

Interesting and enjoyable trip to Myanmar. Back to Bangkok and useable internet access tonight.

In some towns access to WordPress was blocked.

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.

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Day two in Yangon and back to normal.

Day 70, Wednesday 14 March 2012, Yangon

I woke after a good eight hours sleep feeling so much more lively than when I went to bed, thanks meds ! My back still aches but not as badly, and my stomach is still tender – I am wondering if my stomach hurts because I ate too much last night,But at least everything I ate last night is still inside. The headache is gone and my temperature is normal so think it was just a touch of sun stroke. Will hydrate more today and take more water with me when I go out. I am still a wee bit tired though and could curl up for a post breakfast nap quite easily.

We had a later start today, heading out just before 12, into the worst of the heat I guess, should stay in later or go earlier I suppose, but whatever we do it will be hot. We got a cab to the Monsoon restaurant downtown as there was supposed to be a good money changer nearby, plus we wanted a coffee before walking around the river front and seeing some of the central city sites, though there is not a lot to “see” in Yangon I am relishing the walk and to feel a bit of the city.

We found the money changer Ok, it is a large office with six businesses, mainly banks changing money at around the official rate. This is fairly new to Myanmar and a sign that they are starting to embrace tourism more officially. In the past, to get a good rate you had to use street changers with the risk of being ripped off. We were only allowed to change $500US each and I used five 100 dollar bills at the maximum rate of 815kyat per dollar. Mike used a mix of 100’2, 50’s and 20’s so got a lesser rate for the 50’s and 20’s. Two of his 20’s had ink marks on them so were rejected ! very very fussy.

Outside the money changer we met an Australian girl Jacqueline who was looking for Monsoon, so she joined us for a bit of lunch and a coffee, it was nice to have someone new to chat to. The coffee was great, but pricey, so won’t be doing too many of those while we are here as really going to have to be careful with cash for a few days at least.

After coffee we took a leisurely walk around the river front and downtown area of old Yangon. I got told off for trying to take a photo of the British consulate building, one of a few nice old colonial buildings on the river front. A lot of these buildings are in a terrible state, which is a shame.

Downtown Yangon is set out in a grid fashion with some wide main thoroughfares and smaller side streets, very different to the narrow lanes of many other places. With no motorbikes in sight, there a lot of cars about and lots of pedestrians. Some of the footpath is pretty bad so you are constantly looking up at where you are going and down again to ensure you don’t fall into a hole (or worse the drains)… According to Jacqueline a motorbike once hit and damaged the car of one of the “generals” and he subsequently banned them all from Yangon.

Unlike Cambodia walking the streets in Yangon is hassle free, no one (very few) people try to sell something or a taxi ride, it was quite a change. Quite a few people said hello, especially the kids, as we walked past, there are lots of tea stalls.

I paid a visit to the Sule Paya which cost me a couple of bucks and was pretty disappointing, Mike got his palm read while I was inside, I should have done the same in hindsight. Apparently he is going to come into some money soon – that was a real shock ! We wandered directionless around for a bit longer and then decided to get a cab back to the hotel as the heat was getting up.

After a wee rest I decided to go back to the Shwedagon Paya from yesterday as it was supposed to be stunning at sunset with the jewels sparkling under the setting sun. I had a rapid twenty minute walk there and arrived a bit worn and thirsty right on magic time at 5.30. however it wasn’t all that magic really, there was no sparkly reflection…. though the light was much better, it was significantly cooler and subsequently far more crowded than mid-day yesterday. I wandered around and snapped a few more photos. There are a lot of lights and other intrusions around the main stupa, so it was quite tricky to get shots that masked them.

8 second exposure to capture some movement 🙂

I was just preparing to sit down in a quite corner with the long lens on and try and catch a few people shots when I ran into Jacqueline, so we hung there till dark, the place does look good under lights.

We left soon after nightfall and agreed to share a meal at the Feel Myanmar restaurant that was a couple of blocks away from the paya. It was an interesting walk, on semi-lit streets, with the occasional torch light read of the map to find the restaurant, but well worth it. It was a nice place, not as “European” as Monsoon, but obviously geared for tourists, though it was mainly filled with Burmese. Burmese food is heavily influenced by India, so lots of curries, and plenty of vege options. I had a nice pototo and pea curry, which is one of my favourites and we shared a bottle of Myanmar beer. The restaurant brought round desert a watery tapioca and brown sugar dish that was quite nice, when they asked if we wanted a second, we both said yes… not sure if paid for those or not, bill was confusing ! but the meal was very cheap, I was anticipating to pay significantly more for the food, so very happy. After dinner we caught cabs back to our respective hotels.

We are both heading to Mandalay tomorrow, Mike and I on a plane that leaves at 7.00 and takes 1 quarter hours and Jacqueline on the bus that leaves at 7.30 and takes 10 hours… Ours was a LOT more expensive. We may catch up in Mandalay and share a hire car to do a day trip to the “3 cities” on Friday.

Up at 5.00 for the flight to Mandalay so early night!

it has taken 2 days to upload this so photos are a bit haphazard.

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 !!

S-21 and the “killing fields”

Day 67, Sunday 11 March 2012, Phnom Penh and back to Bangkok

Final day of a two day stop over in Phnom Penh, I was keen to get out to S-21 and Killing fields today, had a light breakfast of toast, but was a waste of time, however I did feel a little better so I decided to just go and see how it all went. I am quite hungry and not exactly full of energy today, so was going to make this a shortish trip.

I am sure everyone knows what happened in Cambodia during the mid to late 1970’s when the country was known as the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea under the brutal rule of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge party. If you do not know then you need to, up to three million of the then eight million population died under the regime.

S-21 (security prison 21) was an old school converted into a prison and torture centre when the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in 1975. It is now the Tual Sleng Genocide museum. During its time as a prison from 1975-1979 between 17,000 and 20,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, tortured and murdered here, including New Zealander Kerry Hamill, the brother of rower Rob Hamill. A documentary movie about Kerry Hamill, Brother No 1 (the name for Pol Pot) is on release in NZ in march 2012, so go see it !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

As we had to be at the airport at 3.00 I took a tuk tuk for the trip and left the hostel at 8.30 for the twenty or so minute ride to S21. I did get the obligatory monk shot on the way though!

S-21 was interesting, it is a sad place and it is the portrait photos of the victims and staff that are the hardest to look at, though working out the difference was impossible, some are so young. Not feeling a hundred percent lessened the impact on me I think.

The torture rooms, when the Vietnamese arrived at the school in 1979 they discovered a number of bodies still in these rooms and there is a photo on each wall, I have elected to not show any of these photos or photos of skulls from here or the killing fields.

The prison block is a three storey set of converted class rooms, the Khmer rouge made crude doorways between the class rooms by smashing holes in the walls. In each classroom numerous cells were created, on the third floor they were made of wood and the first and second brick and concrete.

One of the victims and her baby

Some of the guards.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge executive.From S-21 I took my tuk tuk out to Choeung Ek, one of many “killing fields” around Cambodia and the site were victims of S-21 and others were taken for execution. About 17,000 people were killed at this site between 1975 an 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choeung_Ek

Choeng Ek is also the main memorial site just outside Phnom Penh. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, and really there is not a lot to “see” as all the buildings that were here during regime have been torn down. You can do a self guided tour with an audio player which describes the site as you walk around.

To conserve bullets the khmer rouge what ever was handy to dispatch their victims.

The audio tape has a story of one of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge which I (along with many others) listened to in a shady walk at the back of the site.

The final part of the tour is the memorial stupa which contains bones and the skulls of 5000 victims, many of the skulls are smashed and damaged from the method of execution.

Some graffiti on the wall at S-21

Vietnam invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia) in 1979 to put an end to the Khmer Rouge reign, thousands of Khmer soldiers fled to Thailand and to near the Thai border.What is really scary is that even though all this was well known after discovery of the mass grave sites in 79/80 the US and its normal allies supported the Khmer Rouge until 1993 in its struggle against the communist regime in Vietnam and the puppet government it had installed in Cambodia. Some of the key players in the killing fields were allowed to go free….

After that rather sobering start to the day I went back to the hostel for lunch which was very nice and stayed in for a lot longer than the previous few meals, though i made the mistake of having a coffee once we got to the airport as I was gagging for one… it was expensive and ended badly.

I did make it safely to Bangkok and we stayed the night back at the HI Sukhumvit hostel again.

A wasted day in Phnom Penh

Day 66, Saturday 10 March 2012, Phnom Penh

I had a pretty good sleep last night but was straight to the loo when I woke up – damnit, today was killing fields day ! I gave things a rest for an hour and at 8.00 decided to try some toast for breakfast, if that stayed in until the tuk tuk arrived at 9.00 then I would call myself sorted and head on out. Sadly it didn’t even last ten minutes so that was my day decided for me. Mike went out to do the killing fields and I went to the room to read. Fortunately we can just get wifi in the room – the hostel is advertised as only having wifi in the cafe, so a real bonus.

The room, where I spent most of the day.

The view out the window.

The hostel, lots of these skinny buildings in Cambodia.

I spent most of the morning reading and putting a plan together for Myanmar, I have booked us three nights accommodation in Yangon plus airport pickup as we arrive in the early evening. The Winner Inn, lets hope it is ! it looks like Myanmar has become very popular this year, I have read a few blogs from people who have been there in the past few weeks and apart from sounding amazing, it seems to have gone up in price… I am hoping we have missed the peak season and accommodation will be easier to find on the ground than some of the stories I have read suggested was the case in Jan and Feb. At least we have something for the first place we go to booked, from their we can suck it and see, it should be interesting at least.

I will let Mike run through the plan when he is back and will then post it from Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. It appears there may be more internet in Myanmar than I first thought, but I wont bank on it. I am sooooooo looking forward to Bagan !

I attempted lunch just after 1 and it stayed in for longer than breakfast – hopefully that is a sign of improvement. Mike came back soon after that and we went out for a walk about 4.30 to try and get to the palace and silver pagoda, but after a hundred metres or so I knew I wasn’t going to make it there and back and started getting some small cramps in my stomach so we turned round.

We did walk back via Wat Phnom which is just up the road from the hostel and on the highest point in PP, a massive 27 metres !

I loved this sign at the entrance to Wat Phonm.