Don's Road Less Traveled: The Road to Yangon and a Close Call

Hey All,

Before I get to the "Good News" - "Bad News" part of the post, first let me talk about my journey. Like Bangkok, I have a Love - Hate relationship with flying. I love it cause it gets me to some interesting and beautiful spots, I hate it for the 12-14 hour flights that just woop me. I cant sleep, I hate the food and I just all around ache when I get there. My left knee has been giving me fits the past few years and those flights are not good for it. But, loved Air China, good staff, amd I was able to special order a fruit plate, which was good. They ran pretty much on time and would fly again.

Empty Plane

Once in Beijing I was able to walk for a bit and grab a bite to eat. It was a long walk to my gate for my Yangon flight and it was nice to stretch the legs for the 5 hour flight to Yangon. I got to the gate and it looked a bit sparse and soon we loaded a bus for a drive to a remote stand. There were 23 people on the bus that I counted and we loaded into the 160 seat 737-800. I was expecting another bus, but they closed the door and off we went. Everyone sat from the exit seats on up and I went past that about 8 rows and had 12 rows behind me, all empty. I know not many people go there but this is weird. I asked one of the flight attendants and she said its always like this on the Yangon flights. Wow, Air China has to be loosing a bundle on these flights. 3 flight attendants, 2 pilots and 5 hours of fuel has to be staggering.

In Yangon, I was expecting clearing immigration to be a nightmare, especially with everything needed to get a Visa, but it went surprisingly fast and efficient. I chuckled a bit becuase they scan your bags and carryon before you enter the country, never had that done before. Grabbed a taxi and go to my hotel a little after midnight. Oh yea, did I say it was hot and HUMID, geez. My hotel room was like a sauna, so got the air turned on and took a quick shower, very pleased to find hot water, a luxury for SE Asia. I went to bed a little after 0100.

Sula Pagoda

I woke up at 0630 much to my surprise, but did not help my room was at the front of the hotel and lots of street noise. Breakfast was a mixture of Indian food, Asian Food and a few western items, fried eggs and toast. I had the eggs, toast (with some really good jam), fruit and fried rice. All in all, not too bad. I loaded up and headed out the door with directions to where I wanted to go and see. I found an ATM and tried out my debit card and it worked (thank you Visa), which makes me feel good that I have back up cash if needed. The money is all paper with the exchange rate of about 1000 kyats (Chats) to the US $. The largest bill they have is 5000 which is about $5 and the smallest I have seen is 100 which is 10 cents. So, once again $300 is a pile of Kyats.

I walked to the middle of the town area where the Sula Pagoda is. As you know I am fascinated with round-a-bouts all over Asia, with my fav being the giant Durian in Kampot, Cambodia. Well, this round-a-bout is about 2000 years old, so its safe to say it was there long before the roads, but one of the more interesting I have ever seen. At that intersection is a huge Mosk, an old Govt Building from the English days, a giant Monument to the country's independence and the Emmanuel Baptist Church. So Mom, this is one of the churches founded by the famous Baptist Missionary in the early 1800's.

Emanuel First Baptist Church

It was here, not one hour into my 3 week trip the Bad News happens. I am crossing the street and traffic is coming so I speed up and when I went for the curb I misjudged and felt and heard this "pop" in my left knee. Thank goodness there was a sign post there because I could not put any weight on the leg. It was very painful and felt like someone was holding a fire to my knee. I really got dizzy and stood there for a bit, trying to put weight on it and could not. I almost wanted to cry. Luckily 2 cabbies parked close by came over and helped me. They were so nice. They helped me to one of the cabs and took me back to my hotel. He even helped me to my room with the help of one of the desk workers. I tried to pay him, but he would not accept. These people are so kind. The hotel staff were doing all they could for me. I finally took 2 ibuprofen and laid down to see if it would get better, if not the I guess off to the hospital. After a couple of hours I was able to put weight on it but had a really horrible limp. I was about to go buy crutches, but as I walked it got easier to bear weight. Now mind you, it still hurts like hell, but at least I can ambulate. This happened a few years ago, Lisa Y, you will remember it, and it took a few days, but gradually got better. I went out for a bit and came back and took a nap which was much needed, and after getting up it was really sore, but once I start walking it gets easier. I will just have to be extremely careful. Thank goodness I brought my Ibuprofen with me. While I was laying in bed, I was thinking about my advice to Michele: Buck Up!!! So, I did.

The Old British Colonial Headquarters. Fallen on hard times, but they are going to restore it. Takes up a whole City Block,

I went back to the square where I got hurt, might as well, and finished sightseeing. There was a little shady spot where this lady was selling cane juice. They have this machine that she starts pulling like an old lawnmower and it cranks up and she puts in a couple of stalks of sugar cane, It squeezes it down and then she lowers it and runs back through and so on until its a pile of mush, sorta like a giant pasta maker. The juice is then put in a glass with a half a lime and it is delicious, Very refreshing on a hot day. Did I mention it was HOT! From there I hailed a cab to the Botahtaung Pagoda, or the other name is Buddha's First Sacred Hair Relic Pagoda. This Pagoda contains a Ivory Container with a Hair from the Buddha. When you walk up to the entrance you report to the Foreigner Booth and pay $3 entry fee for which they give you a giant receipt. Now, did I mention that nobody use a computer here, its all done on hand ledger. If you ever wandered where the worlds supply of carbon paper ended up, it all went to Myanmar. You get to leave your shoes in the booth and doe the hot tile dance to the entrance, which on a sore knee was very hard. At the entrance are 2 metal detectors, one is marked "gents" and the other "ladies". You walk through carrying a backpack and it beeps loudly, but there is nobody there to care. So why? you ask. (there is also a metal detector at the entrance to my hotel, but you can walk right around it. so why? you ask.) You quickly learn to stay on the white tiles, as the colored ones will burn your foot. You can actually walk inside this Pagoda and you come to a small viewing window where you peep through this little slit and see another piece of glass with the ivory container with the Buddha's hair. People were filing through saying prayers and bowing at the window. I went through and took a peek. You can also take a walk inside the pagoda, it has a maze of gold lined walls and was very beautiful. Outside, once again staying on the white tiles, you can walk about. Very nice place. Outside are many booths selling bowls of fruit and flowers for those wishing to leave offerings inside the Pagoda.

Botahtaung Pagoda

I was able to limp out to this place to eat. I read about this place that makes really good local Seafood dishes. I had the desk write the name in Burmese and the cab driver took me straight there. I still dont know the name, but when I got out of the cab I walked up and asked for a seat for 1. It was open air, very crowded with all locals. You should have seen all the stares when this fat western guys comes in. A bunch of the server girls were giggling at me. The menu had pictures and I picked a curry seafood looking dish. It came with a bowl of soup, rice and the main dish was sitting on this flame thing. It was really spicy but oh so good. All these locals where just stariing at me eating, it was kinda weird, but this is what I love. They were giving me extra special attention making sure I liked everything. When I made my drink order nobody could understand, so I walked over to the cooler and pointed to the bottle of water. There was squid, fish, clams and shrimp in the curry sauce.. All in all it was a great meal and only cost me 5000 kyats ($5). I left there and did some walking before catching a taxi back to the hotel. Until I made it back to the main road, I was getting all kinds of looks, but they were all smiling and giving me "mingalabars" (burmese greeting). I stopped at a little store at the main road and bought a bottle of water, 2 little cake things of unknown ingredients for 70 cents. The bottle water here is 20 cents.

Please say a little prayer my knee holds up. I am going to be extra careful.

Viewing Spot to see Buddha Hair

Some observations after 1 day:

1) the peolpe here are extremely friendly, and they went out of there way to help me out.

2) Something was bugging me while crossing the road today, and it finally hit me, there are no motorbikes in this city. (NONE). Turns out they are banned.

3) I kept hearing this funny noise today by cabbies and different folks, they were making the kissing sound. You here it alot, and turns out, its a way of getting someones attention. I feel better knowing this because it was atarting to concen me a bit.

4) Men here wear this garment called a Longyi. Its a wrap of material and looks like a long dress. I will try to get some pictures for you. Never seen this before anywhere. Now I dont see young people wearing them, just older. They young poeple dress very western and the boys like the Korean Pop Star look with the hair.

Happy Travels, Don

P.S. Sorry so few pictures, took about 10 minutes to upload each one I did.