Depart Munich 12:20 (Singapore Airlines) for Singapore - 11 hours
Depart Singapore (Singapore Airlines) for Yangon ( Myanmar / Burma). -2.5 hours
Just arrived in Singapore! It’s 06:30 hrs here and 23:30
at home! We’ve been on the go since we awoke at 04:30 yesterday morning and as yet we have not arrived at our destination! I’m writing this here in the departure lounge as we await the 07:50 flight to Yangon - another 2.5 hours!!!
I think I’m running on auto pilot now. En route to Singapore, I thought I hadn’t slept until I awoke as the credits of the film Official Secrets were rolling!! I must have slept for over 2 hours. I had seen only the first 5 minutes of it ! I would highly recommend this film - it’s about the connivance of the US and Britain to get UN approval to attack Sadam Hussein and when they resolution was not forthcoming, they still proceeded to attack.
I must also recommend Singapore Airlines - the standard of service and the cuisine was excellent. The flights departed and arrived on time.
At Yangon Airport, we changed some US$ in Kyats ( pronounced Chats). We were approached by numerous men offering taxi services but we took the official one, located just outside the airport door. As usual the fare had to be negotiated - I finally agreed to K12,000 (c.US $8) even though our Guide book suggested K8,000 - the original quote was K20,000!! We arrived at the Pan Pacific Hotel exactly 24 hours after we left home and that included a mere 2.5 hour stop over in Munich and 1.5 hours in Singapore!!!
Yangon, formerly Rangoon, population 5 million, is the capital of Myanmar / Burma.
Our journey from Yangon airport took an hour, such was the traffic! The air pollution is noticeable. The road to the city was an amalgam of deteriorating colonial buildings, side by side with modern offices and apartment blocks and run down dwellings.
On arrival at the hotel, a special desk was opened to check us in - everyone else queued !! We have a fabulous room with a view of the city - the Irrawaddy River is in the background
and to our right is situated the famous golden Shwedagon Paya, adorned with 27 metric tons of gold leaf in addition to thousands of diamonds and other precious stones, which dominates the city skyline - more tomorrow when we visit the Paya.
Any thoughts of having a snooze were soon dissipated by an email which informed us that the sleeper train from Yangon to Mandalay was booked out on Saturday next - the date we anticipated travelling. Tickets are only issued 3 days before departure. When our agent went to purchase the tickets, he was told that tickets were no longer available!! It appears that there is only one sleeper carriage and groups tend to book it.
There was no other option but to immediately go to the Railway Station and see what our options were. The bell boys at the hotel gave us directions adding that the ticket office was NOT in the station but close by. While our instructions were quite precise, they were not precise enough and only for a gentleman on the street, who pointed out its location, we may have missed it. Tourism hasn’t really developed here as yet so people are genuinely helpful and haven’t an ulterior motive as in many other Asian countries we have visited!!
The ticket office was a sight to be seen - it appeared not to have received any maintenance or a ‘lick of paint’ since the British left.!!
However, the ticket seller spoke good English and confirmed that the Sleeper was indeed booked out. In fact, the entire train was booked out so he suggested we take either the 05:00, which I shot down in favour of a 15:45 train, with a first class seat and a similar ETA in Mandalay. We continued around the corner to the Railway Station, though in a better state of repair, needed some TLC.
Afterwards, we visited Bogyoke Aung San Market
which was quite sophisticated in parts - especially notable was the air conditioning in the jewellery section.
One could buy anything from a needle to an anchor there - clothes (I invested in a light trousers for temple hopping - US$3), and in addition wigs and
all manner of glitterati and souvenirs were on display. I saw few Caucasian shoppers - they appear to be few and far between - maybe tomorrow we’ll meet them at sunset at Shwedagon Paya ??
We crossed the road to Junction City a huge modern shopping complex sporting shops of every international brand - Dundrum wouldn’t compare!
The Complex is part of our hotel - the Pan Pacific
The centre is littered with western fast food restaurants and coffee shops - cakes shops appear to be a particularly favourite of the Burmese
I returned to the hotel. As I sit here in our bedroom, the sun is setting over the city and a smog fills the air!!
Til tomorrow then....
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