Myanmar (Burma) - part 1

This is going to be the first of a couple (I don't know how much or little I have got to write) of blog entries on my backpacking experience in Myanmar (Burma). It all started on the evening of Tuesday 18 December 2007. After check-in at the Hong Kong International Airport, I noticed an advertisement on one of the billboards for Popeye fast food restaurant at the departure terminal. With time to spare, I decided to check out the restaurant. Although the food weren't cheap, I really wanted to try the popcorn shrimp and cajun fries so I ordered the popcorn shrimp meal. I noticed that they were selling Popeye figurines and there were 8 in the set (and again, they were not cheap). I debated whether I should purchase them now (on my way out of the country) or upon my return. I decided on the former and purchased the whole set for way too much money.

After I got to Bangkok International Airport a little after midnight I made my way to the departure terminal and found a row of 6 seats for my snooze until check-in time at 5:30am for my connecting flight to Yangon. I didn't get much sleep, I would say I only got about 1 hour of sleep in total. The main reason for my inability to sleep soundly was that the air conditioning was freezing, I was already wearing 3 layers of clothing and a jacket but it still felt extremely cold. The other reason was because an American retiree with a Thai wife and 2 kids on his way back home to Chiang Mai took up 3 of my seats not long after my arrival. 3 seats was just long enough for me.

The Yangon International Airport was extremely new and modern. I found out afterwards that it was newly built. The old Yangon International Airport is now the domestic airport. The guest house where I was staying for the first night, namely Beautyland Hotel II, picked me up at the airport. The US$10 room I stayed in was a standard twin room with air conditioning and ensuite hot shower. The first thing I did after putting down all my stuff in my room was to head to the Bogyoke Aung San market to exchange money. The exchange rate I was quoted at the guest house was US$1 for 1,200 kyats. The exchange rate I got at the Bogyoke Aung San market for a US$100 bill was US$1 for 1,260 kyats. Shortly after I returned to the guest house just after noon, there was a power cut. Although the guest house had a power generator, it was only turned on intermittently during the power cut (which lasted for a few hours) because the power generator uses up a lot of fuel which was expensive (by their standards) - 4,500 kyats a gallon. I decided to head out to Sule Pagoda and the neighbouring Indian and Chinese sections of town. Entry to Sule Pagoda is free but the locals made me donate 1,000 kyats. Inside the transparent box were small denomination notes and I asked why I must donate 1,000 kyats to which they replied I must so I reluctantly obliged. On the streets, perhaps because of the large Chinese Burmese population in Myanmar (Burma), I blended in extremely well and when I expressed interest in certain goods, people responded to me in Burmese even though I asked the questions in English. My stroll on the main streets of downtown Yangon helped me reach the conclusion that there was probably not enough for me to do for another day so I headed to several travel agencies in search of a seat out of Yangon the next day. For some reason, seats to Bagan (Nyaung U), Mandalay and Inle Lake (Heho) were extremely tight. One travel agency told me that all flights were full but in the end I managed to find a seat at another travel agency. I decided to head to Bagan (Nyaung U) first only because the distance between Mandalay airport and downtown Mandalay is close to an hour and this equates to more than US$10 in taxi fare. Given I was travelling on a tight budget, that was just way too much money to be spending on a taxi fare. What surprised me the most was that the three private airlines (Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan) all had flights to the same destination leaving within 10 minutes of each other. I mean, what's the point of that? Anyway, with air ticket in hand and US$85 worse off, I caught a taxi to Shwedagon Pagoda. It took me a while to find a taxi driver who knew how to get to Shwedagon Pagoda which was another surprise given Shwedagon Pagoda is THE main tourist attraction in Yangon. From Shwedagon Pagoda I wanted to walk to Sandy's Myanmar Cuisine by the Kandawgyi Lake to sample Bamar cuisine at its best (or so they say in the Lonely Planet and as recommended by a client). However, it was extremely difficult to find my way in the dark and the locals weren't much help with telling me on which street and where exactly I was standing. In the end, I decided to leave Bamar cuisine until I came back to Yangon on my return leg. The next challenge that I faced was trying to locate a taxi driver who knew how to drive back to my guest house in downtown Yangon. Eventually I found him. Thank goodness because I was beginning to panic. I order fried noodles with chicken back at the restaurant at my guest house but I didn't eat much of it.

My first impression of Myanmar (Burma) was that given the oppressive regime, it was much more developed and populous that I imagined it to be (well at least in Yangon anyway). On the road from the airport to my guest house, modern houses (like the average Australian dream with tiled roofs and cemented brick walls but at least twice the size) were being built inside a walled complex. The taxi driver told me that the complex belonged to the government. In downtown, there were high rises and multi-storey brick apartments everywhere. Yangon even has its own swimming club! However, the appalling conditions of the sidewalks (I nearly tripped over on a number of occasions) and frequent power cuts left a lot to be desired and betrayed the progress that Myanmar (Burma) was really making.