[I typed this first part yesterday - Saturday - morning, a couple of hours after I arrived, but could not post it until now.]

I made to Yangon, Myanmar no problem. I am very tired because I slept on a metal bench in the Bangkok airport last night. I only had about an 11-hour layover, and it made no sense to pay for a cab to go find a hotel room and pay for that only to have to be back so quickly – so I just ate dinner, read a book, and crashed on a bench.

I landed here about 8:30am this morning. The travel agent I hooked up had three people meet me at the airport, one of whom spoke English well so the whole getting into the country thing was completely
painless. They drove me to my hotel – the Central Hotel downtown – and checked me in, went over my schedule with me, and gave me my vouchers for the hotels I’ll be staying in for my whole trip. Then two of them left and one of them took me to the train station to get my ticket to Mandalay for Monday morning (5:30am! 14-hour train ride!) and to a travel agent to get my flight from Bagan back to Yangon for next Sunday, May 4th. So I’m all set there. Then he took off and I’m
on my own. I just ate lunch in an Indian restaurant near my hotel – an all-you-can-eat vegetarian thali plate, large bottled water, and hot tea for $1.30. Woo hoo!

After lunch I found this internet cafe – I had read that there was no public internet access in Myanmar, so I’m glad that’s not the case! – and just emailed my family to let them know I made it here okay.

I’m now going to go take a nap for a couple of hours. It’s hot as hell here – really hot. Not that it’s not hot in Vietnam right now too, but it definitely feels an order of magnitude hotter here. (It probably doesn’t help that I spend about 90% of my time in Vietnam inside an air-conditioned building (either my house or office) and I’m going to be out in the heat with the rest of the unwashed masses here.)

Anyway, so far I like Yangon a lot. It reminds me of India more than anywhere else. I hope that does not bode poorly for me given my last experience in somewhere like India – which actually was India. It
feels more exotic than Vietnam – the men wear these long skirts around. The women all have this yellow paste on their face called thanaka. I was told it’s a sign of beauty but also a sunblock. It’s definitely quieter and slower-paced here than in HCMC. I can tell that already. Much more of a mix of different looking people – some look more Indian, some look kind of Thai, some look just like the Vietnamese. I think it is going to be an interesting trip!

[Update: 9:30am Sunday morning]

Did I mention that it is hot here? Damn, it is hot. It’s a little overcast today, which helps, but still pretty hot. And humid. And I just looked outside this internet cafe and I see that it’s pouring down rain – so I may be here for a while! (Is a while two words or one? Awhile? I can’t remember. You get the point.)

So after my abortive post yesterday, which I finally was able to post above, I did in fact go back to my hotel and slept for a couple of hours – until about 2:00pm. Then I went out and did what I normally do in new city and just walked around for a few hours.

My hotel is in a great location – right downtown, so it was easy to walk to a lot of places right from my hotel. First I walked to a big traditional market near my hotel. It’s current name is some long Burmese/Myanmarese name, but it used to be called Scott Market, so that’s what I’ll call it. It is very similar to the other big SE Asian traditional markets – Ben Thanh Market in Saigon, the Russian and Central Markets in Phnom Penh, etc. Did not seem to have as much variety as in those other markets. A lot of gems – apparently Myanmar is known for gems. I think emeralds and rubies but I’m not 100% about that.

After the market I went walking around through some random neighborhoods. I took what I hope to be some good photographs. I don’t think I’ll be able to get any posted until I get back to Vietnam, because internet access is pretty slow here. I may fill up my camera card and have to have some photos burned to CD – I’ve already seen some shops where they do that, so it will not be a problem.

Knock on wood, but I feel safe here so far. I have gotten some odd looks – people seem more surprised to see a westerner walking around than they do in Vietnam. Probably because very few western tourists are coming here right now. I’ve seen a few, but not many and nowhere near as many as I see in HCMC on a regular basis. It’s actually kind of nice.

There actually are tourists here – they’re just mostly Asian. Myanmar is a big spot on the Buddhist pilgrimage circuit – especially Shwedagon Paya (pagoda), which I read that all Buddhists who can are supposed to try to visit in their lifetime. More about that in a second. I’ve overheard so many different Asian accents here that I’ve given up even trying to guess what countries they’re from. Yangon feels much more cosmopolitan/global than HCMC.

It looks like it’s stopped raining now, so I’ll wrap this up. Anyway, after walking around for a few hours yesterday, I went to Shwedagon Paya at about 5:30pm to catch the sunset. It was really, really neat. Shwedagon Paya is a huge, about 300-foot-tall pagoda completely covered in real gold. And it’s surrounded by tons of other, smaller pagodas, statues of Buddha in various poses, bells, etc. Until I am able to post the photos I took, you should do a Google search for it and check it out. [I pasted in one photo I found on the web above.]

I don’t know how to explain it, but there is something very inspiring and peaceful about it – this big, golden, bell-shaped pagoda with the sun glinting off of the gold and framed against the blue sky. I took a ton of pictures of the same thing – just the light bouncing off of that big gold spire in different ways. They probably won’t – I am almost 100% certain they will not – do it justice. But trust me when I say that it’s very neat. I am not really a “pagoda guy” – it seems like in every city in Asia there are all of these pagodas you’re supposed to check out, but I’m usually just not that interested. But I have to say that this one was very unique and very cool. I will probably go back tonight!

There were thousands of Asians there. Some meditating. Some burning incense. Some washing little statues of Buddha. Some doing various types of ceremonies. I took what I think should turn out to be some good photos. We’ll see.

After Shwedagon Paya, I went back to town, had a nice dinner near my hotel, then went to my hotel room, read, and went to sleep pretty early – probably around 10:00pm. Yangon shuts down pretty early. Most restaurants apparently close at 7:00pm, and there is supposedly an 11:00pm curfew in effect. I was already asleep by then so it didn’t cramp my style at all! Tonight will be another early night for me because I have a 5:30am train to Mandalay to catch in the morning. It’s a 14-hour train, which sounds long but which I’m actually looking forward to. I like trains, and it will also be a nice way to see some of the Myanmar countryside. Everyone keeps telling me that it’s even hotter in Mandalay and Bagan than it is in Yangon, so I’ve got that to look foward to.

Okay, that’s it. I’m off to explore more of this city. I’ll update more as I can. Hope everyone is doing well!