Thailand to Rangoon, Burma

5:30 Start- and we were finally out of Bangkok. Leaving early certainly made the traffic less of a problem. It was an easy check in on Thai Airways. The flight was only 1.5 hours to Rangoon. We expected a bureaucratic nightmare at the Rangoon airport- and instead found a clean airport with an easy immigration and customs process. We got an A/C taxi to our hotel- the Yoma Hotel. It was modern and clean and A/C…and in Rangoon, A/C is critical- it’s hot and humid.
After working out the flight details for tomorrow to Mandalay to join the group, we headed off in a taxi to a “local” Burmese restaurant. It was truly local- we were the only non-brown faces in the tiny restaurant and managed to communicate – the menu was chicken, fish or mutton curry (lots of boney chicken pieces in sauce with rice). Nothing like tempting fate on our first day.
After lunch, we walked through the streets (which were covered in red spots from the spitting of betel nut juice- a disgusting habit of the Burmese- which not only stains the streets- but makes their teeth bright red).

One of the streets had John captivated- it was the “Home Depot” of Rangoon…tons of tiny shops and street vendors selling pieces of circuit boards, plumbing and electrical supplies. And, on most street corners, you’d find a “Nat” shrine. (More on Nats later). All the Burmese men wear traditional dress- a huge piece of cloth tied in a front knot. Basically, it’s a skirt- with shower thongs. All the women wear a sunscreen/skin conditioner called “thanaka-bark” that looks like yellow Indian warpaint. They wear it on their faces and on their arms--- it’s like a giant ad for Clearasil.
John fumbled for the camera to take a photo of a group of young monks….after a few hours, we realized that Rule # 1- “Don’t photograph your first monkey applies to photographs of monks as well….they were everywhere. Saffron robed young boys with alms bowls…and nuns in pink robes…all with shaved heads.

Fried Grasshoppers!

We walked through Independence Park- and were offered fried grasshoppers by the local vendor… don’t think we could choke one down without a cold beer.

After walking for a few hours, we were hot and sweaty and looking for the closest A/C western hotel…so we searched out “The Strand”, an old British Raj hotel. The A/C was knockout cold and the bar had ice cold Tiger beers. We also tried the famous Mandalay Rum Sour- a mixture of Mandalay rum, lime juice, raw cane sugar and bitters….very tasty.
A return to the hotel and we got a cab to dinner- Lonely Planet recommendation for typical Burmese food- the Aung Thu Kha restaurant.

It was basically a buffet- you pick the dishes you want from a long counter and they serve you. The restaurant had a few table of Lonely Planet white folks—and a whole bunch of locals, riveted to the TV watching the Discovery channel. TV is obviously still very new in Burma.

After dinner, we walked by the Shwedagon Pagoda- all lit up, no tourists, filled with local people. We grabbed a cab back to the Strand for a nightcap. They had a pathetic band playing sad songs in the corner and we, once again, had the bar to ourselves.
9:00 and we negotiated a cab back to the hotel. Even at night, it was still very hot and humid. This country is amazing- very unspoiled as yet by tourism.