The Golden Land - Adventures in Myanmar
 

The backstory.

Husband and I are 50 something Aussies who get to travel at least twice a year. We're trying to experience as much of the world as possible, including our own backyard. He's a great travelling companion, but I do ALL the planning and decision making. That's his choice, and so far it's worked pretty well.

In 2011 with a fair amount of trepidation i booked a river cruise on a Pandaw boat going down the mighty Mekong River from Siem Reap to Saigon. I say with trepidation, because we are not group tour types, and I had concerns about being stuck on a boat for 7 days. What if the people and excursions were horrible ? What if the food sucked ?

Anyway, figuring we could handle only 7 days, we bit the bullet, went, and had an excellent time. That was in March 2011.

When the Pandaw newsletter arrived in my inbox offering the "only once every two years" "See all of Myanmar, 600 miles from Yangon to Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River" I was sold.

We went in August 2013, during the rainy season, for a 14 night cruise. Again, it was excellent, and was a soft introduction to The Golden Land where infrastructure for tourists is struggling like crazy to keep up with demand.

Of course you don't see "all of Myanmar" but the slogan was catchy enough to spark my interest, we knew what to expect from Pandaw, love the Buddhist culture, and can bear (just) the humidity that prevails in most of SEAsia.
The Pandaw company is a great one to travel with, totally focused on the safety and comfort of their guests, and gives back to local communities via sponsorship of schools and medical clinics.

We had a fantastic trip, the best part being the amazing Burmese people.

In October 2013 we met two Burmese teachers who were sponsored by Rotary International to come to Australia to learn about teaching methods and improve their English skills.
They stayed at the house of a good friend who lives close by. Our trip was still very fresh in our minds, so we grabbed the opportunity to talk everything Myanmar, and shared numerous meals and day trips with these two wonderful ladies.
At some point they mentioned that they get few native English speakers to talk with their students, so pronunciation can be difficult to learn.

Our next holiday was to be to Thailand and Laos, 3 weeks in February 2014. I thought to myself, "Myanmar is close to Thailand, I can read aloud, maybe I can help". The plan became; three weeks in Thailand/Laos with husband, then nearly three weeks in Myanmar on my own. I haven't travelled solo since 1989, but I felt confident that I could handle arrangements, and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do.

So, I boarded an Air Asia flight at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok on Feb 23 for the two hour flight to Yangon. It cost about AUD $62, including 20 kg checked luggage. I booked via the airline directly after checking Skyscanner for options. My luggage consisted of one small suitcase weighing about 12 kgs, but I'm a lightweight, and knew I couldn't lift it into an overhead bin.

The flight was easy, smooth, on time, and I cracked up when the flight attendant announced on landing "Thank you for frying with Air Asia".

More to follow.

Nice start! Looking forward to reading more.

Wonderful start - can't wait for more.

I've never done the Pandaw cruise, though I was ready to book one in the early 1990s. Then ASSK asked people not to visit and the cruise was never booked. Even though I've been to Burma twice, I'd love to do their Chidwin cruise. Looking forward to your report.

Thanks for your encouragement YT and Kathie, your reports greatly assisted me with planning this trip.

The logistics.

Hotels were booked via either booking.com or Agoda (which seemed to have more options).
While it would be smarter to have everything planned out and booked in advance, I wanted some flexibility. I was unsure what to expect at the two schools that were my primary reason for being in Myanmar.

I booked one flight with a travel agent in Yangon, (YGN - MDL) on Golden Myanmar Airlines. It is a new airline with one plane, an Airbus A320. With only one aircraft, I figured they'd take good care of it. Cost was USD $60, including 20 kg checked luggage.

I booked two further flights with an agent in Mandalay, one MDL - HEH, the second was HEH -YGN. The airline was Yadanarpon Airlines, also quite new. They fly turbo props, ATR 72 - 600, new, no sign of ashtrays in armrests. Indeed, the overhead signage has the usual seat belt indicator, but instead of a "no smoking" sign, there is a "no lap top and hand held phone" sign.
They cost USD $78 and USD $100 respectively. These were booked only a few days before flying, and would be way cheaper if you plan and book ahead.

I also booked a share taxi to Pyin Oo Lwin for USD $7 with this agent, more on that experience later.

The accommodation I stayed at ranged from budget US$50 per night to splurge US$180.

The following were good for me, taking into consideration that you get what you pay for. Breakfasts were included at all, there was always fruit, coffee and toast, which is all I really eat at breakfast, eggs and various Burmese specialties were also offered.

In Yangon, Garden Home B & B - Bogyoke Aung San Museum Rd, Bahan township. It is just a few meters from Kandawgi Lake, a 15 minute $3 taxi ride to downtown, and, important for me, walking distance to the school. Shwedagon Pagoda is also an easy walk. Prices ranged from US$70 for a single room, to US$135 for a family room which sleeps 3. Very good wifi.

In Mandalay, The Emporer Hotel, 74th street between 26th and 27th street. It is a few houses from 26th street which is the road that borders the moat around Mandalay Palace. Price was US$70 per night for a single room, which had two beds. The staff here were fantastic, the manager went out of his way several times to engage me, and plied me with local sweet tea which was delivered in plastic bags. He made a comment about solo travellers being different from couples, who had each other to talk to. Thank you Mg Naing Oo, I really did appreciate our chats.
Very good wifi, although many times I called reception to "fix wifi". The first time after a blackout, I called and suggested "you may need to reboot the server".
That was met with great confusion, "fix wifi" worked much better.

In Nyaung Shwe (for Inle Lake), The Viewpoint Lodge and Fine Cuisines, Tak Nan Bridge and Canal. It is an easy walk into the main town of Nyanug Shwe, and built over water. The bungalows are Eco friendly, built from mud brick with timber frames, and have natural dye paint. They are styled with contemporary Burmese art and furnishings, have a small entry area, sitting room complete with Eco mini bar, and separate bedroom leading to a balcony overlooking the water and distant mountains. The food here was excellent. Price US$180 per night. Wifi was iffy, if it worked at all it was sloooow, although had a few bursts of brilliance usually early morning.

I stayed at some other places, one booked via Airbnb, was just too far out of Yangon to be practical. A taxi took well over an hour from central Yangon, when I could find a taxi that would even go there. My bad for not researching the location, but I cut my losses and abandoned two prepaid $50 nights there.

Another was Clover Hotel in Bahan township, they overbooked me, and sent me off to Clover City Centre for one night. Didn't like either Clovers at US $80 per night.

In Pyin Oo Lwin, the Pyin Oo Lwin Hotel was US$120 per night, nice enough room, but overall pretty sterile. There were virtually no other guests, and wifi worked for about 8 minutes out of my 24 hours there. The only consolation here was hearing an American tour group in the distance, crashing their party, and enjoying a few hours talking to westerners.

Next up, the schools.

Kathie, do you subscribe to the Pandaw newsletters ?

I received one recently about new river cruises in Myanmar in out of the way places.
Pandaw has built a small ship with a very shallow draft able to navigate the less visited rivers.

Google Pandaw and I'm sure you'll find the company website.

Hi Caroline, I haven't subscribed to the Pandaw newsletters for some time. Looks like I'll have to subscribe again. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

Thanks so much for the introduction about Pandaw. Everything I have heard has been positive, but it is not marketed in the US much. I am looking forward to our short cruise.

Eagar to hear more about your trip...sounds like a great experience! Had a similar encounter about native English speakers with a professor teaching college level students English for US business dealings in Japan.

The schools.

I had two main goals for this trip to Myanmar.
1) visit the two schools, one in Yangon, one in Mandalay, and spend time talking to the students to hopefully help their English language skills.
2) visit Inle Lake, which we had missed last year due to time restraints (plus, I always seem to leave something for "next time")

Goal number 2 was easily met. I'm not so sure about goal number 1.
Maybe my reason for visiting got lost in translation with emails back and forth between me and my teacher friends. When I arrived the school year was coming to an end, and exams were in full swing. However, I did get to spend a lot of time talking to both students and teachers at each school, and like to think that everyone learnt a new word.

The Thone Htet Kyaung Monastic School is in Yangon on the southern edge of Kandawgyi Lake. There are 60 students, mostly novice monks, perhaps 5 are regular children. As well as teaching the kids, the school also feeds the noviciates, with teachers taking it in turn to shop and cook. Most of the students were from other states of Myanmar, Northern Shan, Kachin and Chin states.
The kids I talked to were eager to converse, wanted to know about me and Australia, and all had career aspirations. Football was a hot topic (we call it soccer here) about which I know nothing. They certainly had excellent ball skills, I watched them playing in the dirt of the school ground, using two bricks for goalposts.


The Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High school is in Mandalay on 19th street, and has 6000 students !
The campus is huge, many buildings have been donated by German, Japanese, English and Australian charitable organisations. As well as the regular students, they feed, clothe and educate hundreds of children orphaned by Cyclone Nargis.

I met a German man, he was running the woodworking school where the students learn skills by building desks and benches for the classrooms. He had sold his woodworking business in Cologne several years ago with a view to retiring, figured he had more to offer, and has since built a number of shelters for disadvantaged women and children in underdeveloped countries in Africa and SE Asia. Inspiring guy, makes me wish I had some kind of tangible skill to offer.

I met expat teachers, Americans working in remote Monastic schools in Kachin state, an Australian woman teaching music, and one of the co-ordinaters of the schools' training programs. The schools not only teach students, but also run programs to teach a standardised curricular to other teachers.
In Yangon there were 25 teachers from Rahkine state, all undergoing this training, staying at the school, being fed by the school.

The Venerable U Nayaka is a Buddhist monk of considerable vision and energy, he's the man behind this endeavor. He has devoted his life to the education of children from poor families. No fees are charged at the schools. Sadly, some families are too poor to allow their children the time to gain an education, so you will still be served lunch by a 12 year old.

I saw graffiti on an underpass while on the circle train in Yangon "education is power" it said.
More power to U Nayaka, I say.

Next up, some of the other bits.

Fabulous start, Caroline! I'm really enjoying reading about your time in Myanmar. Looking forward to more!

Paule

Great stuff!

Yes, very interesting perspective.

Other bits.

The trip ended up like this:

Sunday Feb 23 arrive Yangon, stay 5 nights

Friday Feb 28 fly to Mandalay, stay 4 nights

Tuesday March 4 share taxi to Pyin Oo Lwin, stay 1 night

Wednesday March 5 private taxi back to Mandalay, stay 1 night

Thursday March 6 fly to Heho for Inle Lake, stay 5 nights

Tuesday March 11 fly to Yangon, stay 2 nights

Thursday March 13 fly to Singapore for 6 hour layover before overnight flight home to the Gold Coast, Australia.

In Yangon.

Apart from visits to the school, I spent a fair amount of time just walking around, although it is very hot, and footpaths, where they exist at all are likely broken. The crumbling colonial buildings are in various states of decrepitude, some still in use, others clearly abandoned. Very atmospheric, I try to imagine what it would have been like here in the early part of the twentieth century. Hard I reckon.

There some lovely green spaces, families gather in the cooler early evening to watch children run around and burn off surplus energy.

I get the hang of crossing a six lane road, one lane at a time. At least in Yangon there are no motorbikes zipping between lanes to catch the unwary. The local busses are crammed to the gills with people, sometimes even hanging on/out in the doorway.

Took the Circle train, the ticket counter is on platform 7, you cross the tracks on a bitumen path to get there. Had to show passport, ticket cost $1 pristine USD. Note that a new, but previously folded note was rejected. The train did the full circle in 3 hours 20 minutes. It was slow going, but when it did pick up a bit of speed (maybe 30 kmh) it lurched alarmingly from side to side. I considered my options in case of derailment. Came up with none.

The countryside is varied, rice paddies, banana plantations, many other crops like onions and sweet potato, small villages with bamboo and thatch houses all built above the ground. There was an interesting looking local market at the half way point, Danyingon. Many locals with bundles of produce got on or off here.

I spent a day with two of the teachers, M is female, 23 yo, J is male, 27, both teach English. We visited Sein Yaung Chi Pagoda (thanks Esme travels) which is a stunningly decorated temple. Green mirror tiles line many surfaces, it's an octagonal shape, has some amazingly decorated shrines, and inside on the walls thousands of red plaster figures. There are only a few locals here going about their daily prayers.

On to Botataung Pagoda, where the inside of the temple is completely gilded, and very bling. This is a big complex, we wander through some of the lesser halls, where there are Burmese people playing a game of sorts. A large revolving disk turns, it's about 3 meters in diameter. On it are about 10 silver bowls, each labelled with words like "lottery, health, children". You buy a plate of tiny folded ex banknotes, stand behind a metal barrier, and aim to score a direct hit into the bowl of your choice. Fun to watch the Burmese get so excited !

Lunch was at a hole in the wall in Chinatown, food was good, cost for all of us about $11. Then we walked to Bogyoke Aung San market for a little shopping. I bought some old tribal leg warmers at Yoyomay (thanks Kathie) a few small woven purses for gifts, and some of the ubiquitous black velvet flip flops for me. The vendor at this stall didn't want to sell me the men's version (which have wider straps). With the help of my teacher friends, I convinced him that no one in Australia would know I was wearing men's slippers (that's what they call flip flops here). A bargain at $4.

Excuse me for cutting and pasting from emails sent home. Hopefully the following snippets will prove useful for others contemplating a trip to Myanmar. They will be in no particular order.
Note that my Burmese teacher friends always referred to their country as Myanmar, rather than Burma.

Share taxi to Pyin Oo Lwin.

Well, that was an experience I really don't need to repeat. The cost was $7 or 7000kyat, a private taxi costs $35 or 35000 kyat, but I'll be getting one tomorrow back to Mandalay.

The travel agent told me I would be sharing with 3 others, and the trip would take about 1.5 hrs.

She didn't mention it might take 1.5 hours just to pick up the other 3 in Mandalay, or that a Fat Burmese Woman sitting next to me would encroach on my personal space rather than the man on the other side of the backseat. The FBW was picked up about 5 kms west from me, she then fired rapid directions to the driver, in Burmese of course, I had no clue.
She proceeded to hoick and spit out the window. Mmmm, charming.

We went to recycle town, some many kms away, think every house with some kind of garbage in the front yard, empty bottles, stacks of flattened cardboard boxes, and rolls of plastic bags. The bags are the PVC $2 shop variety at home, and yes, that's what we came for. Once the large roll of second hand cheap plastic was loaded we were off.

So this is okay, just me and her, until we get to way over the other side of town for two more passengers. A big guy gets in the front seat, a smaller guy tries to open my door (which would have put me in the middle) so I say no, FBW now has the middle. All three are Burmese and promptly fall asleep. FBW must think the guy on the other side has rabies, she keeps a good 10 cm gap between her and him. Which means of course, she's practically on top of me.

I was picked up at 9.00 am, we left Mandalay City at 10.30, and made Pyin oo Lwin at about 12.15. A good 1.5 hours - not !

The car is a small station wagon, like a Datsun 120 Y. It's hot, really hot, no aircon, all windows down, and I'm sweating with her touching me. As we wind up into the hills, the road has many hairpin switchbacks, which makes the leaning even more encroaching. I start thinking about saying something. I have no idea if she understands English, but eventually I say, "how about you lean on him for a while" she gets the drift, and tries not to lean on me for the rest of the journey. Meanwhile my hair, usually parted on the left, is getting a serious combover to the right.

We stop after 45 mins at a restaurant where FBW and the driver both order food. Alarmingly the driver also raises the bonnet and uses a hose to fill the radiator and cool the engine. It must be some kind of tradition here, a relatively new looking Suzuki Swift gets the same treatment.
I hear a rooster crowing, there are two, and they are in the restaurant ! Pecking around for crumbs between tables.

Whoever said Pyin oo Lwin is like Surrey is seriously delusional. The place is almost totally devoid of any charm. Many colonial era houses are being demolished to make way for ugly concrete McMansions, complete with razor wire fencing. While this hotel is quite nice, it is also way out of town, and I'll probably stay in tonight and sample their limited and for Myanmar expensive menu. When I checked in they said I was upgraded to a suite, my research indicated all were "suites", plus they gave me a package of free post cards - all of which have the hotel name and address over the top half of the card ! And, the wifi is totally crap, iPad couldn't even find the connection. The hotel blamed the government.

I went into town by taxi for $5, he dropped me at the market which houses row after row of cheap Chinese manufactured rubbish. I wandered some more, trying to find anything of interest.

A dog took particular exception to my presence, and followed me down this horrible broken street barking it's head off, very angry. Of course that set all the local dogs off, until a kind lady threw water at them. Note to self, carry water to chuck at rude dogs.

Eventually I found a beer bar, very cold tap beer cost 60 cents, and had excellent wifi. The hotels excuse about the government restrictions is a thinly veiled attempt to conceal their own server issues. I might leave feedback.

It's not all bad here, but nothing like I expected. Will never need to revisit.

Next morning I walked about 15 minutes up the road to the botanical gardens. I paid $5 for the foreigners entrance fee, which included camera fee. The gardens are largely very pretty and well kept, although certain sections had dirt and dead trees. Signage is limited. I saw the saddest children's playground ever. There were 5 metal frames for two swings each, not one had a working seat. Similarly the see saw had missing seats. There was a climbing frame that looked usable, and a maze built with upright wooden posts, about a meter high, so only for very small children.

My private taxi back to Mandalay costs only 20,500 kyat, fantastic new, clean and air conditioned car. The driver has some English, and asks if I'm in a hurry, or want to go safely ! Of course, safely is the answer. The scenery on this drive is of desolate mountains. It might be prettier after the rainy season, but now it is all dusty trees, dirt, and desperately poor villages.

This time the trip does take 1.5 hours, and back at the Emperor Hotel I'm greeted like a long lost relative.

A word on relatives. Terms like sister, mother, aunty are used freely here, there does not need to be any family connection. I came across this many times, perhaps the words are used more as a sign of respect or affection.

I found the condition of the sidewalks or lack of them in Yangon a serious detriment for me to enjoy looking at the buildings. I was constantly looking at my fee to ensure I didn't trip or step in a big hole.

Your drive to Pyin OO Lwin is so funny -although I'm sure not so funny being in the midst of it. I hadn't expected much in POL so wasn't terribly disappointed. For us it was much cooler than Mandalay, so that was good. The hotel is soulless and we had the worse food there of anywhere. Only had a snack and breakfast. Had dinner out.

Very much enjoying reading about a trip so very different than our typical on the tourists circuit. And yes, the brother, sister deal was always said. I figured it just meant a good friend in some instances or they told you that to make yu more comfortable? We heard it in Thailand too.

A day in Mandalay.

Had plans to bolster booty today, but played the nice guy and let myself be taken to Mahamouni temple (the one with the gold leaf issues) yet again, instead of silk shopping in Amarapura.

EiEi is a teacher at the school, who I'd met in Australia, with husband Muji and niece Sidi, they came for me at 9.00 am. Sidi is EiEi's brothers daughter, he was killed by a snake. She is painfully shy, and despite my attempts to engage her, we hardly spoke. She is only 16. They organised a driver for the day for $35 - I ended up giving him $40. The vehicle was an ancient left hand drive small Toyota ute, luckily I was granted the front seat, while the others sat on a mat on the tray back. The driver chewed betel (with the resultant spitting) throughout the duration of our 6 hour day.

We started at Mandalay hill, guess what is there ? A temple ? Yep, you got it right. At least they had escalators, three really long ones, of course with bare feet. My guides felt the need to leave all our footwear in the truck, so lots of dirt and rocks to just even make it to the starting point thru the car park. I paid 1000 kyats for a camera permit and took some okay shots.

The views over Mandalay are superb, (on a clear day, ours was hazy) and the gang pointed out places of interest like the prison !

We walked down the usual arcade of shops selling crap, back to the car park and off to U Bein bridge. I should point out that it is about 36 degrees, humid and not my ideal walking around weather. It's not even driving around weather, no aircon, plastic seats, and a driver who while he was very good, found it necessary to beep beep every time we passed anything ! By anything I mean, motorbikes, pedestrians, other cars or crossroads. By about 11.00 am I wanted to dislocate his right thumb.

Okay, U Bein bridge, we walked about 200 meters, I suggested a rest in the covered shady spot, and then thought "why am I doing this again ?" I've had enough of walking on unstable surfaces in the past few weeks, it's crowded, and so hot. Let's do lunch !

I'm not sure if you remember the waterfront restaurants there, this time we ate at one, it had bamboo chairs, uncomfortable but a nice change from plastic. I let the guys order food, and said I would have stir fried noodles with vegetables. Unlike when I ate with Mas We in Yangon, this time everything but my noodles was to share, doh !

A plate came with fried sweet corn fritters, fried gourd fritters and fried lake fish (which I didn't try). There was a plate of stuff described by EiEi as chilli, lime, lime and something else, I tried a pin head full and nearly self combusted. We each had dipping sauce (eye watering stuff) and those lucky guys had steamed rice, while I toyed with the noodles. I did get a large bottle of very cold Myanmar beer, thanks to EiEi, while they drank water. Total cost $7.50, I insisted on paying, and the nice lady packaged up my noodles for the guys to take away.

There was a flurry of Burmese conversation between the restaurant owner and my gang, which I soon found out was about the four important temples in the area ...oh no. Yes, we visited all four, some of which are undergoing horrible renovation. Think ancient Angor Wat styles, being covered with concrete and plaster, painted brilliant white with gold paint highlights. The military junta threw out UNESCO a few years ago, they had been overseeing the work, now the government does it. It's a crying shame.

At each temple all three of my mates prostrated to the Buddha. One temple was kind of nice, it had 306 Buddha images inside, and another 30 outside. We were the only visitors.

Somehow the silk shopping plan changed to visiting Mahamouni temple - I don't think these guys get out in a car much, so I went along with it (sorry booty).

I didn't go inside, said I was templed out, had seen it before, and would have a look at the stalls on the street. On the street I was asked eight times in 15 minutes if I wanted motorcycle taxi. I gave 100 kyat to a nun, then several other beggars appeared - only the nun I said. She later patted me on the shoulder when I was back at the area where the ute was parked.

I'm tried an Indian vegetarian restaurant close by for dinner. The sign out the front says "Be kind to animals, don't eat them". The food was very good, dal, vege curry, rice and pappadums for about $5.

This might sound like I didn't enjoy the day, my sarcasm does shine through. However, it was fun, my gang were great, Muji has pretty good English and explained many things, all in all it was very worthwhile.

I'm very lucky to have EiEi and her family members to smooth the way.

YT, yes agree the walking was difficult.

I forced myself to stop, and ensured I was rooted to the ground before looking up at the various buildings.
I tried to enter a few, but was turned away by fierce guards. Perhaps they were government buildings, the signs were all in Burmese script, so I had no idea.

This trip was very different from the usual tourist circuit, nonetheless very rewarding, and serendipitous that I was able to do it.

Will post more in dribs and drabs.

I have a question about going barefoot at temples: if one was to carry a thin pair of flip flops to put on would that be acceptable? Or what about those disposable shoe covers that you see in hospitals? The bottom of my feet are extremely sensitive and I want to be prepared for walking through temples during my visit in November. I can't imagine going barefoot on a metal escalator.Sounds very dangerous.

Susiesan, I'm sorry, but barefoot means barefoot. I don't think any kind of foot covering will be acceptable. At some temples you are not even allowed to carry your flip flops.
Feet and shoes are the lowest and dirtiest part of the body for Buddhists.

I would work on toughening up those sensitive feet if I were you.

Agree. Signs even said no socks. There were people who constantly motioned to you to take off your shoes, socks and whatever else on your feet if they thought you were leaving them on. In most of the places we went, we walked on smooth surfaces.

A day trip to Mingun.

I went to Mingun with EiEi, it's about a one hour boat trip up the Ayerwaddy from Mandalay.

She came to the hotel as arranged at 8.30 am, only to say she had phoned her friend in Mingun, and that she couldn't take the foreigners boat. I questioned her about why, the reason being it cost 5000 kyat ($5.00), I offered to pay for her, so off we went. Jeez, I would have paid for her anyway.

Taxi to boat jetty also cost 5000 kyat (the largest note they have here, that's why the stacks are so ginormous). On arrival, the ticket seller wanted to see my passport which was safely locked in my hotel room (how safe is another matter, first day I stuffed up the number, a staff member promptly appeared with a key). Anyway, I now remember the passport number after so many arrival and departure forms (would have just bluffed it anyway if I didn't) bought the tickets, and was impressed that the Burmese ticket man guessed me as Australian.

I probably didn't need to do this trip after 14 days on the Ayerwaddy, (the highlight for many tourists being the boat trip) but one has to fill 5 days in Mandalay somehow, and Mingun was fun. All the more so for being with EiEi who has many friends there. There's some slightly impressive sights, read temples and pagodas, but what was really special was hanging in the cafés of two different friends of hers.
At the second place they wouldn't even let me pay ! I had a beer too, and learnt the Burmese for "very cold beer please" which I've written down, and will continue to practise.

We were served various fried things, if I'm gonna get sick, it will be tomorrow. Fried things were cooked some time ago, and handled literally by hand. The "things" included fava bean fritters, sweet corn fritters, tiny prawn fritters (think in millimeters, maybe 3mm) and bigger prawn fritters. I also had a coconut drink.

I asked for, and was granted, a smiling photo of the lady cooking fritters over an open flame.

We jumped back on board after stopping for chats with some other locals, who all made an effort to engage me. Im so lucky I got this opportunity to visit with a local.

Chilling in my hotel room now, literally, after every room service they turn the temp down to 17.
I turn it back up to 24. Wifi is again quite good here.

I'm going to the school tomorrow, have instructions written in Burmese and will take a taxi. Eiei offered to have Muji pick me up on the motorbike, but I politely declined. I told them the story about my bike accident that resulted in two black eyes and gravel rash down both sides of body, arms and legs, I didn't divulge it was a push bike ! One thing I don't need is a motorbike accident, and I seriously don't have the desire for any more motorbikes ever.