Oh my gawddd, the shower in my bathroom feels like Heaven! The first powerful spray of hot clean filtered water is such a welcome after what seems like eternity in a place I wanted to leave almost as soon as I arrived. My thoughts goes back to about a week before I left, some friends and family members asked why do I want to go to a third world down trodden country for holiday? My reply was a holiday in London or Paris that is oh so glamour and beautiful and classy and cold and clean is not the only thing that one should experience. And how true is that; because without knowing and experiencing in the first person how in some parts of the world, people are still living in the 70s although it is now 2013, show how we should be humble and grateful for our blessings.
After decades of being isolated from the world and facing the wrath of economic sanctions on them, have in two years ago opened up to the world. The once powerful kingdom has fallen so behind in fact it is regarded as the most backward country in Asia. Their people are among the poorest and in fact many are scattered around the world, running away from the countries as refugees seeking for a better life. Something must be done and they did that finally in 2011, open themselves up to the world. The famous Lady, Au Sang Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless courage to 'wake-up' the Burmese who has been in slumber for the past 5 decades.
Yes, I was in Burma or the now Myanmar.
To be honest, my original plan was to go Bagan (the city of thousand pagodas) but then realised it was mighty far from Yangon and the plane fare from Yangon (the one and only international airport in Burma) to Bagan is more expensive than me flying from KL to Yangon. So we decided to scrap the plan and just hang around in Yangon; and hang around we did.
The city centre of Yangon to be honest is very small. In fact, after spending 4 days there, we can direct the cab drivers of which 95% can't speak a word of English to move around town.
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| A street in the middle of the town |
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| Must be a very luxurious residence in Yangon |
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| What seems like an antic to us is an actual sewing machine for them |
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| As someone who is in pharmaceutical business, this dilapidated 'pharmacy' in the middle of the town interest me greatly. Unfortunately the 'pharmacist' can't speak English and so I can't engage a conversation with him. |
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| Specialist clinic which we will rather be sick than to seek help is probably only be able to afford by few in Yangon |
Food in Burma is very humble in my opinion. The national food is Mohingga which is like a bowl of soup noodle. For foreigners who can afford it, we can go to Chinese Restaurants who charged somewhat like 75,000 kyats for 6 dishes meal and that is probably a month salary for many.
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| Sitting on the road side in Kyot Kone |
For those who don't mind to try out some street food, there are aplenty all around town. We tried and did not suffer food poisoning so I guess it is pretty safe. But we have been detected as tourist and pay double, even triple of what the local pays for the same thing. So in the end, eating in a small restaurants cost the same with street food.
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| Street food. Salad here means noodles with no soup. |
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| 19th street in China Town seems to be very popular with foodies of Trip Advisors. The street comes to life as the sun sets but all closed by 9pm. |
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| Another popular place among Trip Advisor foodies is the Shan Noodle Restaurant in No-wa-day Road. |
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| My verdict for the Shan Noodle : Just another bowl of noodles. |
For those who likes souvenirs, Burma who apparently is rich with stones offers jades, rubies, sapphires at unbelievable price. It is so unbelievable that it is not to be believed.
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| This lion gatekeeper jade figurine only cost 1500 kyats = USD1. So I bought it to stick on my fridge as fridge magnet :) |
Hotel, oh my gawdddd so expensive.
We have decided to stay in the Garden Home which is somewhat like a boutique hotel of 10 rooms near the German Embassy. We chose the hotel because it is brand new and you can't go wrong with brand new hotel. There are many Germans staying there supposedly working or visiting the embassy nearby. It cost USD95 per night including breakfast which to me is acceptable. Staying in 3 or 4 stars hotel will cost somewhat USD200 and above per night.
Cab in Yangon is another 'attraction' all on its own. My travel buddy Evonne, had a really hard time accepting the fact that she has to climb in the 20 or 30-year-old-car with original fabric seats still intact. Air-cond in the cab in a 38C country is a luxury. Half the cabs doesn't have air cond, the other half requires us to pay extra for them to switch on the air cond. What an experience! There is an indescribable scary feeling we start to develop every time we gave up walking and hailed a cab. By the third day, every time we hailed a cab, we inspect the inside of the cab before we begin struggling how to tell the driver where we wanna go and how much we are willing to pay.
Next, Off the beaten railway-track
