Articles from this Category
27 January 2013
Day 1 in the Dark I got to Batu Caves station around 2315 so there was less than an hour before Thaipusam officially starts. There was a bottleneck entering the Batu Caves temple grounds. The crowd was unbelievable. We shuffled through the commercial area where just about anything was on sale: food, henna-ing services, dresses, […]
26 January 2013
Thaipusam Eve Procession I got to the junction of Jalan Sultan and Jalan Tun HS Lee just before midnight. There was a large crowd plus presence from the police and volunteer firefighters (who had their own paramedics). It was too hard to get any closer to the Sri Mahamariamman Temple (where everything will start from) which […]
25 January 2013
My flight to KL leaves at 1715. I’m very good at wasting the day away. I slowly repacked and went rambling around old Yangon before having a foot massage. I managed to fit in yet another South Indian meal before checking out at midday. I have South Indian too often in Yangon because the central […]
25 January 2013
After two weeks in Myanmar, here are some of my thoughts: Likes The weather in winter is perfect in the shade and in the highlands. Watching day turn into night at Shwedagon Pagoda Small rural towns and cycling through the countryside. Cruising Inle Lake. Dislikes It isn’t a value destination. Accommodation is expensive. Eating is […]
24 January 2013
I had to wake early for the 0900 flight to Yangon as the airport is over in Heho, some 50 minutes away. The ride was very picturesque with Intha fishermen working in the mist. Then there were lots of monks collecting their alms; with not just their begging bowl … this time they a bamboo […]
23 January 2013
I had enquired several times about excursions to Inle Lake and the standard itinerary was about USD 17. What they don’t tell you is that the price is for the whole boat, which seat five. When divided by five, it becomes a really cheap daytrip. Finally, something cheap in Myanmar … because there is a […]
22 January 2013
I had a leisurely day (or half-day) on the bike today. I read about the hot spring about 40 minutes away by bike. It seemed like a good way to while the day away. The road there was a mix of sealed and unsealed. I had a nicer bike than the one in Bagan and […]
21 January 2013
Above: Sightseeing boats on the river at Nyaung Shwe. I woke at 0530. As I left the hotel the monks were on their rounds collecting their food. The ride to Bagan Airport took about 15 minutes and the place was very quiet when I first arrived. It didn’t take long before busloads of older western […]
20 January 2013
I set the alarm for 0500. It was an unusually warm morning; even in the lowlands including Yangon, it is normally quite cool. Despite that, it wasn’t warm enough to cycle in just a thin T-shirt. I felt apprehensive wearing my black raincoat cycling on the poorly-lit road from Nyaung U to get to Shwe […]
19 January 2013
Seven of us had agreed to go to Mt Popa today. We had organised a small pickup truck to take us there and back at about USD1 more than the public transport rate of USD7 per head (see, I told you Myanmar wasn’t cheap … that’s a lot of money for a 1h + 1h […]