Smeagol is off to Singapore, Burma and Bangkok
Sep 9th, 2011, 07:04 PM
#81
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shelly, you may even be finished with your 3rd burma trip before she gets motivated.... now if there were a hand cream sale at her fav paragon shop she would have no trouble finding time for that....but us?????????????????
Sep 9th, 2011, 11:51 PM
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You guys are so cruel.... Ok ok I will do some this morning ( I have to transfer to my laptop and type in word then cut and paste - which I KNOW isn't a pain I just haven't seemed to find the time to do it!!) later I promise. Bob/Pook LOL. And Bob I only bought 1 hand cream.....( although their new candles are fabulous, the ones called Bangkok and Phuket are heavenly......)
Sep 10th, 2011, 07:03 AM
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Did you post a link to your facebook pix and I just missed it? Would love to see them! Tomorrow night we are having dinner with our Myanmar travel agency friends (Joe and Lulu Shein--if any of you know them-with Goldenrock) in southern CA and taking a Blurb book to them of our time there. Love talking about Myanmar and remembering!
Sep 10th, 2011, 11:20 AM
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hanuman, me fly Ryan Air - are you crazy!!!! Canada is not for a couple of weeks I promise to add some more of my TR soon, you guys are really making me laugh with all your sarky comments
Sep 10th, 2011, 11:19 PM
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Wednesday
Whenever K has lived abroad and I go and see her we also add in a little side trip to some where, we had originally thought of going to Borneo or Lombok but we couldn’t make the flights work and it became too complicated for such a short trip. K has also travelled extensively throughout Asia, so trying to find somewhere we have both haven’t been to can be a challenge (although it’s not a major requirement just a nice to have). I checked out Silk Air and their flight timings were perfect to Yangon, not cheap but fitted our schedule (Air Asia do a flight also but the timings were so convenient), so I booked it online. (Very easy site)
At this point it hadn’t occurred to me to think about whether it may be a good time to go weather wise, it wasn’t till I read Balloons over Bagan stop operating in the summer I realised we had planned to go during monsoon time….
Anyway that aside, we decided finally to go for 5 day, after looking at a few of the tours on Santa Maria’s website. To be honest I didn’t even bother with any other travel Agents, they had such a good reputation on here and TA, I told them what I wanted and let them sort the rest. So our trip was planned as this
Day 1 -a.m flight to Yangon from Singapore – Savoy Hotel – City tour
Day 2 – early a.m flight to Bagan – Aureum palace hotel – All day guide
Day 3 – Bagan – more temples, village tour, horse cart ride etc…
Day 4 – Morning at leisure (considered an excursion to Mt Popa but after reviewing a few trip reports decided not to bother) afternoon flight back to Yangon – The Strand Hotel
Day 5 – Morning at leisure – Afternoon flight back to Singapore
Santa Maria would provide drivers and guides for the whole trip including airport transfers. I know we could have done a lot of this our selves but for such a short trip we were happy to let someone else do all the work. I gave SM a free reign to arrange what we would do with the guides (I did say I wanted to go to Shwedagon at sunset) with the caveat that we would discuss when we got there and change or add anything, which was cool with them as it was a private tour. I can say now we were extremely pleased with the service we received from SM and will use them again for sure next time i/we go to Burma.
The only thing that freaked me out was the deposit; they wanted it wired to a “friends” account in Bangkok!! I emailed Craig and Kathie who confirmed it was all above board. K did this as I was away in Corsica and it took 2 weeks for them to confirm as the “friend” was away. This made me nervous some more but eventually they confirmed and all was ok. I guess until international banks start trading in Burma this will be the way it is. The balance would be settled on arrival in CRISP US$ as most places do not accept credit cards (some hotels do but they charge 6%) but its not a widely accepted method of payment so K and I would need to take all the money (in crisp US$) we were going to need.
VISA
I applied for my visa in July as I had to wait till I came back from a trip to Amsterdam in June. Sent everything off to the Embassy in London and received it back in 8 days, cost £14 + postage.
K had a nightmare and it took about 7 weeks to get hers…..We actually thought at one point we would have to cancel as they initially suggested she may not get a visa. K works for a news affiliated company, she isn’t a journalist or anything and her work is in no way related to the news side of the company. Because she had to apply at the Singapore based embassy, she had to prove her residents status (otherwise they would have told her to apply in London) eventually when K had befriended the guy by ringing nearly every day and going to the embassy with a letter from her HR department detailing her job and details of our booking via SM (which he looked at but gave her this back) he finally called to say it had been approved and could she drop her passport in. She got her Visa in her passport 2 days before I arrived in Singapore…..
The flight to Yangon was half empty and k and I had a whole row each to ourselves at the back to have a snooze after getting up at 5am. Anyway we arrived in Yangon International at 09:20am, from first look the airport is kind of modern in a sparse way, quite small and immigration was relatively easy. SM (in fact the guy I had been conversing with over the last few months) was there to greet us. We got into an old car (all the cars looked old to me in Burma) and went straight to The Savoy hotel. SM had recommended we stay here and I was happy to do so as we had agreed we would stay at the Strand on the way back. I won’t name our SM guide here, so will just call him SM. Anyway SM gave us a potted “history” of Yangon and talked about the areas we were travelling through, it was raining but not hard and in about 30 minutes or so we arrived at the Savoy hotel, after welcome drinks we would check in and freshen up, we were happy to get going ASAP so told SM we would dump our bags, freshen up and meet him back down in the lobby shortly.
Like a lot of hotels in SE Asia (not though say Singapore or BKK) it has that damp smell to it, but the hotel was nice in a “shabby ex colonial looking” kind of way. We had a deluxe room overlooking the pool, this would suit us fine.
We sorted out the payment with SM (I was slightly gutted that he didn’t remark on the crispness of my US$ because for us non US citizens it was a right drama getting those in the UK and my local branch of Thomas Cook went through ALL their $100 and we decide only 4 were good enough so I had to bring $50s – note to any non US citizens, arrange this earlier than the day you are actually leaving the UK like I did!) and discussed our itinerary for the next few days. They had already arranged a late check out at the Aureum Palace and the Strand and reconfirmed the flight on Air Mandalay for the next day (apparently it is super important to do this!) and asked us to ask our guide to do this for our return flight to Yangon on Air Bagan.
Back in the car and off to Botataung Pagoda by the riverside….
Whenever K has lived abroad and I go and see her we also add in a little side trip to some where, we had originally thought of going to Borneo or Lombok but we couldn’t make the flights work and it became too complicated for such a short trip. K has also travelled extensively throughout Asia, so trying to find somewhere we have both haven’t been to can be a challenge (although it’s not a major requirement just a nice to have). I checked out Silk Air and their flight timings were perfect to Yangon, not cheap but fitted our schedule (Air Asia do a flight also but the timings were so convenient), so I booked it online. (Very easy site)
At this point it hadn’t occurred to me to think about whether it may be a good time to go weather wise, it wasn’t till I read Balloons over Bagan stop operating in the summer I realised we had planned to go during monsoon time….
Anyway that aside, we decided finally to go for 5 day, after looking at a few of the tours on Santa Maria’s website. To be honest I didn’t even bother with any other travel Agents, they had such a good reputation on here and TA, I told them what I wanted and let them sort the rest. So our trip was planned as this
Day 1 -a.m flight to Yangon from Singapore – Savoy Hotel – City tour
Day 2 – early a.m flight to Bagan – Aureum palace hotel – All day guide
Day 3 – Bagan – more temples, village tour, horse cart ride etc…
Day 4 – Morning at leisure (considered an excursion to Mt Popa but after reviewing a few trip reports decided not to bother) afternoon flight back to Yangon – The Strand Hotel
Day 5 – Morning at leisure – Afternoon flight back to Singapore
Santa Maria would provide drivers and guides for the whole trip including airport transfers. I know we could have done a lot of this our selves but for such a short trip we were happy to let someone else do all the work. I gave SM a free reign to arrange what we would do with the guides (I did say I wanted to go to Shwedagon at sunset) with the caveat that we would discuss when we got there and change or add anything, which was cool with them as it was a private tour. I can say now we were extremely pleased with the service we received from SM and will use them again for sure next time i/we go to Burma.
The only thing that freaked me out was the deposit; they wanted it wired to a “friends” account in Bangkok!! I emailed Craig and Kathie who confirmed it was all above board. K did this as I was away in Corsica and it took 2 weeks for them to confirm as the “friend” was away. This made me nervous some more but eventually they confirmed and all was ok. I guess until international banks start trading in Burma this will be the way it is. The balance would be settled on arrival in CRISP US$ as most places do not accept credit cards (some hotels do but they charge 6%) but its not a widely accepted method of payment so K and I would need to take all the money (in crisp US$) we were going to need.
VISA
I applied for my visa in July as I had to wait till I came back from a trip to Amsterdam in June. Sent everything off to the Embassy in London and received it back in 8 days, cost £14 + postage.
K had a nightmare and it took about 7 weeks to get hers…..We actually thought at one point we would have to cancel as they initially suggested she may not get a visa. K works for a news affiliated company, she isn’t a journalist or anything and her work is in no way related to the news side of the company. Because she had to apply at the Singapore based embassy, she had to prove her residents status (otherwise they would have told her to apply in London) eventually when K had befriended the guy by ringing nearly every day and going to the embassy with a letter from her HR department detailing her job and details of our booking via SM (which he looked at but gave her this back) he finally called to say it had been approved and could she drop her passport in. She got her Visa in her passport 2 days before I arrived in Singapore…..
The flight to Yangon was half empty and k and I had a whole row each to ourselves at the back to have a snooze after getting up at 5am. Anyway we arrived in Yangon International at 09:20am, from first look the airport is kind of modern in a sparse way, quite small and immigration was relatively easy. SM (in fact the guy I had been conversing with over the last few months) was there to greet us. We got into an old car (all the cars looked old to me in Burma) and went straight to The Savoy hotel. SM had recommended we stay here and I was happy to do so as we had agreed we would stay at the Strand on the way back. I won’t name our SM guide here, so will just call him SM. Anyway SM gave us a potted “history” of Yangon and talked about the areas we were travelling through, it was raining but not hard and in about 30 minutes or so we arrived at the Savoy hotel, after welcome drinks we would check in and freshen up, we were happy to get going ASAP so told SM we would dump our bags, freshen up and meet him back down in the lobby shortly.
Like a lot of hotels in SE Asia (not though say Singapore or BKK) it has that damp smell to it, but the hotel was nice in a “shabby ex colonial looking” kind of way. We had a deluxe room overlooking the pool, this would suit us fine.
We sorted out the payment with SM (I was slightly gutted that he didn’t remark on the crispness of my US$ because for us non US citizens it was a right drama getting those in the UK and my local branch of Thomas Cook went through ALL their $100 and we decide only 4 were good enough so I had to bring $50s – note to any non US citizens, arrange this earlier than the day you are actually leaving the UK like I did!) and discussed our itinerary for the next few days. They had already arranged a late check out at the Aureum Palace and the Strand and reconfirmed the flight on Air Mandalay for the next day (apparently it is super important to do this!) and asked us to ask our guide to do this for our return flight to Yangon on Air Bagan.
Back in the car and off to Botataung Pagoda by the riverside….
Sep 11th, 2011, 12:48 AM
#94
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Actually the first stop is to get some money. SM takes us to a building which I guess are some local shops, upstairs there is an office and it’s crowded with foreigners, here K and I both change $150 we get a huge wedge of Kyat. The rate here is better than the bank…..
Botataung Pagoda is a beautiful pagoda, with space and a riverside location and has the added benefit that you can actually go inside the Pagoda Structure (they are normally solid) this one is adorned with gold walls and the very centre has a Buddha hair relic. We wonder round this pagoda for a while and then out to the other outer buildings, here they have a shrine dedicated to the “nats” K thought it in appropriate that I remarked one of them looked like Colonial Gadaffi.There are some workers in the main hall who have taken a break from polishing all the statues and are having lunch, they invite us to join them. It always amazes me that people who have so little are always willing to share; this turns out to be a theme during our trip. We very politely decline and walk down to the riverside.
A huge market boat has docked and SM takes us aboard. Here the workers are off loading huge old oil drums, pottery etc. This is their work space, cooking space, eating, washing, sleeping etc…. quite fascinating. These boats travel up and down the river probably arriving at each destination once a month.
We then head off by car downtown to see some of the old colonial buildings. Yangon city hall has been spruced up with a new coat of lilac paint (it was formerly yellow) It’s interesting to see the mix of old British buildings with a Burmese twist. It’s also sad to learn that they are not allowed to renovate these buildings unless the government say so. Yangon could be a beautiful city but it just looks worn with damp and plants growing out of buildings crying out for renovation.(I guess on the scale of disasters this isn’t one, as the money could be better spent on a decent education system, healthcare etc etc – although I don’t really want to get into the politics of things on a travel forum)
Next is Sule Pagoda , right in the heart of town another fascinating place. The traffic has grown around it and the 2000 year old Sule Pagoda is like a large traffic Island. Inside though it’s calm and people go about the business of worship. Everywhere we look is a gorgeous picture waiting to be taken. We spend some time here with SM learning about the place and talking in general about Myanmar. Sule Pogoda is also the point where all addresses to the north are measured.
AT this point I am very hungry and a perfectly placed lunch stop is scheduled. We walk to Zawgyi house, which is a café very close to Bogyoke Aug san market. It’s clearly a favoured spot for the tour guides to drop their clientele as the crowd is definitely tourist but the food is welcome (Its sad to say I had a club sandwich – I was so hungry having not eaten on the plane and after heeding Lori and Pook’s words about the food in Myanmar I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t spend the rest of the day hungry.) K has a very uninspiring noodle soup. We asked if SM and the driver wanted to join us be he wanted to get back to the office. We agreed to meet back in 1.5 hours time as the market is next door we would look round there too.
Well we go into the mall next door and it’s a very uninspiring place we don’t know how we are going to kill the time, its not till we wonder down the road that we realise that wasn’t the actual market….. We have a quick look here, its hot and starting to drizzle we can come back when we are back in Yangon on Sunday. One of the things I notice is that if you smile at people they always smile back, some stop to ask you were you are from (are these the government spies we have read so much about – or just people being friendly) as soon as you mention England, the inevitable is football (K hates football) and then of course Manchester United (that will please you Pook)
SM arrives back and we walk a few blocks to the car and we make our way out of downtown Yangon, a quick stop at Kandawgyi lake and view from across the lake a HUGH structure on the water which is actually a large conference centre/ restaurant of sorts. It’s built in the style of a royal barge and must of cost a fortune, it’s (of course) run and owned by the government. Our next stop is Chauk Htat Yi monastery and it’s reclining Buddha. This is a simply stunning reclining Buddha and it’s huge. Attached to this is a meditation centre and monastery. For me this is a must see stop in Yangon, its peaceful and beautiful and we just wonder around the grounds. I can hear monks chanting in the class room and people getting on with daily life. We take lots of photos here and I am in a mild panic when my battery on my camera starts to flash (I have no spare) especially as our next stop is what we came to Yangon to see, Shwedagon Pagoda.
Botataung Pagoda is a beautiful pagoda, with space and a riverside location and has the added benefit that you can actually go inside the Pagoda Structure (they are normally solid) this one is adorned with gold walls and the very centre has a Buddha hair relic. We wonder round this pagoda for a while and then out to the other outer buildings, here they have a shrine dedicated to the “nats” K thought it in appropriate that I remarked one of them looked like Colonial Gadaffi.There are some workers in the main hall who have taken a break from polishing all the statues and are having lunch, they invite us to join them. It always amazes me that people who have so little are always willing to share; this turns out to be a theme during our trip. We very politely decline and walk down to the riverside.
A huge market boat has docked and SM takes us aboard. Here the workers are off loading huge old oil drums, pottery etc. This is their work space, cooking space, eating, washing, sleeping etc…. quite fascinating. These boats travel up and down the river probably arriving at each destination once a month.
We then head off by car downtown to see some of the old colonial buildings. Yangon city hall has been spruced up with a new coat of lilac paint (it was formerly yellow) It’s interesting to see the mix of old British buildings with a Burmese twist. It’s also sad to learn that they are not allowed to renovate these buildings unless the government say so. Yangon could be a beautiful city but it just looks worn with damp and plants growing out of buildings crying out for renovation.(I guess on the scale of disasters this isn’t one, as the money could be better spent on a decent education system, healthcare etc etc – although I don’t really want to get into the politics of things on a travel forum)
Next is Sule Pagoda , right in the heart of town another fascinating place. The traffic has grown around it and the 2000 year old Sule Pagoda is like a large traffic Island. Inside though it’s calm and people go about the business of worship. Everywhere we look is a gorgeous picture waiting to be taken. We spend some time here with SM learning about the place and talking in general about Myanmar. Sule Pogoda is also the point where all addresses to the north are measured.
AT this point I am very hungry and a perfectly placed lunch stop is scheduled. We walk to Zawgyi house, which is a café very close to Bogyoke Aug san market. It’s clearly a favoured spot for the tour guides to drop their clientele as the crowd is definitely tourist but the food is welcome (Its sad to say I had a club sandwich – I was so hungry having not eaten on the plane and after heeding Lori and Pook’s words about the food in Myanmar I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t spend the rest of the day hungry.) K has a very uninspiring noodle soup. We asked if SM and the driver wanted to join us be he wanted to get back to the office. We agreed to meet back in 1.5 hours time as the market is next door we would look round there too.
Well we go into the mall next door and it’s a very uninspiring place we don’t know how we are going to kill the time, its not till we wonder down the road that we realise that wasn’t the actual market….. We have a quick look here, its hot and starting to drizzle we can come back when we are back in Yangon on Sunday. One of the things I notice is that if you smile at people they always smile back, some stop to ask you were you are from (are these the government spies we have read so much about – or just people being friendly) as soon as you mention England, the inevitable is football (K hates football) and then of course Manchester United (that will please you Pook)
SM arrives back and we walk a few blocks to the car and we make our way out of downtown Yangon, a quick stop at Kandawgyi lake and view from across the lake a HUGH structure on the water which is actually a large conference centre/ restaurant of sorts. It’s built in the style of a royal barge and must of cost a fortune, it’s (of course) run and owned by the government. Our next stop is Chauk Htat Yi monastery and it’s reclining Buddha. This is a simply stunning reclining Buddha and it’s huge. Attached to this is a meditation centre and monastery. For me this is a must see stop in Yangon, its peaceful and beautiful and we just wonder around the grounds. I can hear monks chanting in the class room and people getting on with daily life. We take lots of photos here and I am in a mild panic when my battery on my camera starts to flash (I have no spare) especially as our next stop is what we came to Yangon to see, Shwedagon Pagoda.
Sep 11th, 2011, 01:50 AM
#96
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Thanks for the encouragement Pook, hope it's of interest. It takes me hours... will try and do a bit more later. Housework and shopping to do today! BTW K was on a quick stop to the UK and I caught up with her yesterday, we are considering Inle for our next trip but she is not sure she can stand the potential hassle with the visa again. I did suggest that she probabaly won't have the same issues next time, but hey we'll see.
