Myanmar

This morning (5 AM) we took a one hour flight to Bagan and checked into our hotel, the Thiripytisaya Resort (I have no idea how to pronounce it and just nod when at reception). It overlooks the Irrawaddy River and is situated within the Archaeological Zone, probably one of the reasons Bagan is not a world heritage site.
The Hotel sent a car to the airport.

Jan's new blue suitcase purchased after she blew out her lifetime guarantee "no matter what" Eagle Creek.

It's a small airport with dirt road to the luggage collection area.

The Bagan Archaeological Zone with it's over 10,000 temples constructed from the 9th to the 13 century is a main attraction for the country's tourism industry. It is seen by many as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.


More hotel photos.
The hotel driver took us around Bagan. We visited several temples, but is's really the collective of all 2,000 remaining temples in the 40 square mile zone that is impressive. Visited an 11 story viewing tower at sunset, but the lighting was in the wrong direction. Went to the sunrise balloon launches ($320 US PP to ride in the balloon) 2 days in a row but there was no wind to propel them so they were canceled.

We'll be adding more photos here.

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Ananda Temple with four 10 meter Buddha images.

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I had been using our tap water for coffee until I drew a bath for Jan and saw this.

The hotel moved us to a suite

Arrived Yangon around 1:30 AM and the airport taxi drivers acted funny when we gave them our hotel name, but they took us. When we arrived it was still dark but it was clear the hotel had burned to the ground. 2 guests were killed. The Hotel's computers were also destroyed so they couldn't notify us.

Myanmar's Kandawgyi Palace hotel destroyed by fire

We booked into another hotel but we're not sure where we are until it gets light enough to sort it out. First built in the 1930s, it was my dream to stay there. It reminded me of the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor.

We're in a club room at the Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon. Its' near our original hotel and that's all I know until we get some sleep and explore a little.

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Oct 21 - Our hotel room overlooks Kandawgyi Lake, but its isolation from the city makes it a long walk to anywhere. Today we took the hotel bus to a shopping area with a traditional market on one side of the street and a huge western mall on the other. No one spoke English but we were able to buy some necessities. We had a hotel taxi card written in Burmese but this could only get you back to the hotel, so we could not go to another location. Until we can get a Burmese tourist phrase book we are currently limited to one stop per trip. From the mall we walked down to an area with many colonial era buildings. The government has by design, or through neglect, not maintained these buildings so this part of town meets my travel criteria: hot, dirty, dangerous... I could have spent the entire day here, but it also does NOT meet Jan's criteria so I washed her feet upon return to the hotel.

Jan did not want to try Betel Nut


Shopping was good.

We set out again at sunset for the Shwedagon Pagoda. It is said to be the oldest pagoda in existence (2,500 years) and was originally only 66 feet tall.
Over the years it was rebuilt and regilded so that in 1775 it reached its current height of 325 feet. It's a massive complex with its gold and jewel encrusted pagoda that dominates the landscape.



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We returned to the hotel, exhausted, ordered room service, and went to bed early.

Oct 22 - We are getting no where, but we don't want to spend our days on a tour bus stranded in traffic and waiting in endless lines at museums and temples. Yangon is crowded with narrow streets and poor infrastructure. Going by bus takes forever, few taxi drivers speak English, and many cannot read Burmese. So what we need is a fixer who can go with us so we can do what we came to do. A Guy. A free lance tour Guide. A Guy'd. Someone who knows the City and speaks English. We tell him where we want to go and he fixes it so we can go by foot, taxi, ferry, train, and rickshaw. Quickly and effortlessly.

1 The burned-out Palace Hotel where we had intended to stay
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2 Walking trail around the Kandawgyi Lake

3 Many large trees have fallen, remnants of Cyclone Nargis 2008 which killed 138,000 people and severely effected Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta.

4 Karaweik Palace

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6 Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda with Reclining Buddha- 217 feet long with long black eyelashes, completed in 1973

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8 The Yangon Circular Train was built by the British in 1954. It covers a railway track loop of 45.9 kilometers and stops at 39 stations. It takes almost 3 hours to complete the journey. Trains make both clockwise (Right) and counter-clockwise (Left) journeys daily along the railway loop.
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15 Dala is a small township located to the South of the Yangon River. Standing in contrast to the busy streets of Yangon, Dala’s dusty roads and cheerful villagers blissfully oblivious of their poverty stricken lives, are worth experiencing. To get to Dala, take the local Ferry from Pansadon street Jetty. Ferries leave for Dala every 20 minutes and the journey takes not more than 20 minutes.

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Last night we returned to "my" part of town for dinner. I did wash Jan's feet when we returned to the hotel.

If your eyes are closed, all is well... our table is perched over an open sewer and Buddhist chants are blasting from loud speakers across the street.