Myanmar
Two years ago, over Christmas and New Year, we did a land, ocean and river cruise in Vietnam and Cambodia. At the end of the trip there were these two gals, who'd been on our trip, who were flying to Myanmar to do a very similar trip with the same company. We decided right there and then that we'd do it as well - in the future of course.
Our trip itinerary is shown below.
The itinerary shows one night in Yangon and then a flight to Inle Lake but we arrived in Yangon a day early to make sure there were no problems with air delays, etc. so we had a full day and two nights in Yangon. Yangon used to be called Rangoon just as Myanmar used to be called Burma. Strangely enough I can recall these names from high school.
Myanmar has been a controversial destination lately due to the (alleged) bad treatment of the Rohingya population. We spoke to a few locals who denied everything. We considered cancelling our trip a few times but in the end determined it wouldn't really help anyone. And it's funny because the Irrawaddy section of our trip was only about 1/2 full due to cancellations. The ship held 40 people but there was only 20 of us. It was good in some ways and not so good in others.
So we flew from Perth, Australia and arrived mid afternoon. We got to our hotel about 5:00ish. The air on the way to the hotel tasted funny..when was the last time you could taste the air?
A shot from our hotel looking over the city just after our arrival.
This is a shot the next morning.
ditto...
Strangely enough after a few hours the next morning the air cleared up quite a bit and it looked like this.
This is a shot taken from ground level mind you.
A nice lake and it was on this lake the Soo Chee Choo (or whatever-the-hell her name is) was kept under house arrest for so many years. Her house is just at the left of the photo. Now she's been released and has some political position and, apparently, is as corrupt as the rest of them.
So there's a nice park around the lake but the things you can do there are strictly prohibited. No fishing, swimming, motor biking, kissing, no music and no money! No fun these guys.
Another rule - no spitting! Just about every man here and a lot of the older ladies chew betel nuts and then spit everywhere - red gobs of goo all over the place.
The guy below has chewed betel nut daily for years. How's about a kiss baby?!?!?
There was nothing that said No Dogs or No Sleeping so these guys are ok.
And these two must not have read the No Kissing sign...
Same with the kids under these shelters...all of them having a little foreplay at 10:00 AM...good for them!
Our hotel was beside a huge multi-story mall and we went looking for something..can't remember what. English writing and ads everywhere...it was like being back home but strangely hardly anyone spoke a word of English.
So by mid day the air had cleared up quite a bit .
I think it was of the houses with the red roofs (at the left side) was where Soo Chee Choo (or whatever-the-hell her name was) lived. Probably the place with the pool.
So in the evening we met our travel companions including the two couples we had travelled with before: Konstantin and Marina from Moscow, whom we did a one week cruise in the Galapagos a few years back and Ian and Inge, a couple from Brisbane (Australia) area who we cruised with in the summer of 2018 on the Bering Strait cruise.
Konstantin and Marina had been scheduled for this trip right from the start but Ian and Inge were late joiners and only were able to get a cabin because of the many cancellations.
Tomorrow we fly to Inle Lake for three days and begin our trip.