1. Off to Myanmar

1. Off to Myanmar

After a long flight via Bangkok and a night largely lost due to a 6.5 hour time difference we were met by our guide Tun (call me Tom) and were driven into the ex capital city of Myanmar, Yangon. The capricious military government here has done some odd things such as suddenly changing which side of the road the country drives on when 99% of the cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side, the logic of the change being that the right side is lucky. Similarly the capital has been moved many times, most recently to Naypyidaw in 2005, apparently on the advice of an astrologer and changing the name of the country seems similarly random. Anyway the locals seem to ignore it and still refer to “ Burma” and “Rangoon” and so shall we in this, our 7th trip Blog.

Rangoon

The capital, well, at least the modern capital is very forgettable and with appalling traffic, despite the fact that motorbikes and bicycles are banned from the central area.  

We stayed at a modern hotel, the Chatrium, where Hilary Clinton once stayed in 2011, and they have the photos to prove it.

Most women and children protect their skin and/or decorate their skin with thanaka 

After a rather underwhelming lunch in a touristy restaurant as our guide was allegedly concerned about our tums’ reactions to spicy food, we visited the Bogyoke market which had the largest collection of jewellery stalls ever seen; the most entertaining moment was watching the locals playing chilone with a rattan ball, they really put it on for us! We are travelling with the Dawsons on this trip, a guided one with Mountain Kingdoms, their “Cultural Cycling Tour “ promising easyish road and off road riding; we shall see.

Then our first Temple, the Shwedagon Pagoda, on a Sunday night, the busiest of the week. Both Bhuddism and astrology are taken very seriously here and the latter is based on the day of the week you are born. Eight options as Wednesday morning and afternoon are considered separately!

Yes, the large complex and that much gold leaf gilding is very impressive particularly as dusk falls.