Left Yangon
early...like 11:00 :). The hotel had some hot water tank maintenance
scheduled and it resulted in a flood of old sewer water spill outside the
lobby. The staff cleaned it up quickly but the staff sprayed 11 cans of
Breeze in the lobby.
Funny
thing, Myanmar drivers tend to answer the mobile phones just while waiting for
the green light, not while driving. Safety precaution or legal issue?
The
domestic airport terminal in Yangon was kind of cool. We all got a stickers,
different colors depending on what flight/company we were using. Everybody seemed
to understand the system except MR SPECIAL CHINESE GUY who run around the terminal
like a beheaded chicken asking everybody everything ...in Chinese. Short flight
and we arrived at Mandalay International. +37C. Sweet! The security check for
the bags was made AFTER we exited the plane. Well, we had one BEFORE we boarded
too....
We were
greeted by the guide, and elderly lady. I guess a former school teacher or
intelligence officer. Very hard on us, asked us a lot of question about the
country. Her English was very good but I guess she was specially educated for
the job as a spy or someone that was educated to torture people with hard
questions J. We
did have a lot of fun though and a lot of laughs. We booked her for a trip boat+car
Mingun>Sagaing>U Bein (Amarapurna). Own private boat, guide for the whole
day, no lunch, 156 USD for 2 persons. I can live with that.
So off to
Mandalay we go. One hour in a car constantly using the horn. A clear difference
between Yangon, where the motor bikes are forbidden. Mandalay´s “local people”
seem to use the horn just because they own it. Fakk what noise that generates. The road from
the airport was nice. Beautiful old alleys framed by very old Mulberry trees.
We also crossed the highway to the new capital of "General or Number 1" as
everybody called him with a smile. A three file tarmac highway with no traffic
on it. I guess no one was allowed to go there J.
Up at 7 and
Mrs EVIL was already waiting for us in the lobby!
We agreed
on the itenary:
6th free
time from Mrs Evil, we make Mandalay on our own
7th boat
trip Mingun > Sagaing car to U Bein
8th free
time from Mrs Evil, walk up to the Mandaly hill and all the trempleas around it like the worlds biggest book.
9th trip to
the Waterfalls
10th 11:00
car to airport, and fly to Bagan. no boat ride since the low season and tourist
boats are not running.
Checked in at
the Mandalay Hill Resort hotel, sweet to have your name posted on the welcome
sign, except that it was only my name, not the misses :D. The hotel and the
service is superb. I really don´t get why people are complaining on the
Tripadvisor. If they complain about this hotel I just wonder which hotels do
they normally stay at. Only Hiltons or wot? I´d like to see that. I stayed at A
LOT of hotels in my life in Europe and in Asia and this one is one of the better
ones by far. The pool area is great,
although the bar was unmanned due to the low season. The personnel is running
around anyway so you just hail them for a drink. A beautiful park surrounding
the hotel holding a spa and a huge outdoor dining area was also great. The teak
small towers around the pool with comfy sofas looked and felt excellent. AND NO
SNAKES IN THE POOL! Great!
The lobby
is fantastic I wonder where one of the guys saw the paint falling off. We were upgraded to a
better room with the view on the Mandalay hill. SWEEEEET!
Took a
quick 1h refreshing swim in the pool, we were alone :) nice. We then grabbed a
taxi to go to the Tu Tu restaurant recommended by the guide.
-“Is a
little taxi OK said the bell boy?”
- “well..yeah....?
I guess?”
So up comes
a little blue/white Mazda pick up with no shocks in the back axel. You sit on
the bench and the only damping is made by the tires hahahhahahahaaaaa faakkk
me! The funny part was that they are more expensive then a AC taxi in Yangon!
2-3000 to the city, 4000 at night. Tried several ones, all offered the same
price. They all claimed that it was expensive due to the high gas cost. And
sure, we saw some huge lines with several hundred people cueing for gas. On top
of that the blue Mazdas are nowhere to be find when you need them since 90%
drive motorbikes! We learned to book a return trip soon so the cab was waiting
for us while we went exploring and eating.
We took the
cab to the new Tu Tu restaurant. Great food, we paid 10800 for3 dishes, water
and coke, the rest of the green is included. Superb. No beer at Tu Tu and that
sucked royal ass L. We continued to the palace moat and met some Norwegian
guy with a Thai wife to whom we recommended the Tu Tu. They ate at the BB grill
restaurant and that was horrible they said. When you see the map the palace
area doesn´t look that large but tone side is 4km and it´s a long walk around
the area. We walked the two KM to the start of the Lonely Planet walk tour of Mandalay
in rush hour, climbing over the water festival stages being built. Oh, the platforms
were built in TEAK hahahha SICK! So, regarding the walk, Don´t do it!
Visited one
pagoda (check) and walked the hell walk around noisy mopeds, crazy pre-festival
crowd etc. to the central Zao. HELL ON EARTH. They were already preparing for
the festival. A sea of people selling thai/chinese clothes and a LOT of nazi t-shirts.
Strange :) also a lot of people ride with moped/mc helmets with nazi signs. I
guess they like Hitler here. All the shops had discounts on teh street before
the festival so the streets around the market were actually not functioning for
communication anymore.
We squeezed
along the stalls to the canal where we found a vegetable/fruit market. The
canal is a stinky soar since the water is low and isn´t really worth visiting.
It has nothing similar with a sweet small village food market. It´s just a huge
messy noisy sweaty exercise.
Tried to
find a ridiculous blue Mazda taxi to drive us to the “grill street”. The whole
west (or east?)side of the palace is lined with grills stands. Tried one place
first, but after visiting the toilet we change to another one. The first one on
the street. I ordered some Chan ribs, whole grilled fish and 6 beers for like
10600. We had a staff of 6 persons surrounding us constantly killing mosquito.
They brought anti mosquito incense, anti mosquito UCV light sand and they brought
a battery driven electric mesh tennis racket that they waved around and fried mosquito
with. Hahhaa wtf! We also tried and had a lot of fun! We must have looked like
1 million dollars to them. (Mind you that I always dress like a “normal being”
wearing old converse, shorts and t-shirt! There were some other tourists at the
restaurant but they were not called “BIG BOSS” and did not get that attention
:D.
Again, the
price level was higher then similar in Yangon on 19th street. BAD Tendency! What
if a taxi costs 6000 in rural areas, a dinner 40000 and a beer 20000 hahhaha
shit! AND NO ATMS! CASH ONLY! What you bring is what you have!
Took a taxi
to a supermarket and back home for a swim and a drink. 2 long drinks and one
beer 2 USD..OUCH! On the bright side, we had some live music, AC and comfy
seats. No plastic chairs, no mosquito and no warm beer. We managed to make a
skype call!!! Video wasn´t working but voice call worked! (During the rest of
the trip the internet was in mode “SORRY NO HAVE. MAYBE TOMORROW MAYBE”)
