Amata Resort & Spa Yangon (Rangoon)

Had a "thankfully" non eventful flight on Air Asia from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar. Had the guesthouse's driver pick me up at the airport. Arrived around 8:30. What a lovely surprise when I did arrive at the guesthouse. The staff at the guesthouse were just amazing. I was quickly checked in and settled in my room and was told that breakfast would be waiting as soon as I was ready for it ...

... be going. James is coming by at 8am (or in a half hour) to pick me up so we can go to a couple of mission fields outside of Yangon. Then I rest and take it easy tomorrow and the next day I leave for south of Yangon Division and go to Ayewardardy Division (where the cyclone called Nigris hit). It is a restricted zone but James already got me a special permit to visit the area so all will be fine.
Well Take care. I'll try to blog another email sometime within the next 24 hours.
Alex

Hello Everyone,

OK I have had enough of Yangon and its unbelievably hot and humid weather...and it is the start of the cool season:( I have to bring two extras shirts to change during the day and a hand towel to wipe the sweat coming out of every single pore in my body (LOL). Niagara falls has nothing on me when I sweat in Yangon!

I went into two mission fields and meet with the brothers and sisters in these small villages. The first one was NW of the city about 14 miles out ...

... image in your head, you can start to begin to understand the sacrifice Robert made for the believers.

Brother Robert, serves as a pastor over four churches in a northern state (name of state withheld for security reasons) which has approximately 270 believers in total. He has been a believer most of his 50+ years.

Once I was met at the airport we took a taxi to my hotel. The ride cost about $4 USD and took us about 45 minutes to get there. Once I ...

... people in shambles. Yangon is a city of rubble and rubbish everywhere. A city full of people with no phones, no TVs, no Internet, no banks or ATM's, no foreign literature, and basically no sense at all of the outside world, everything censored.

I have ...

... sights. In Yangon the Shwedagon Paya was simply breath taking and a very magical place to walk around. It is a massive golden pagoda surrounded by a beautiful temple complex....we decided to take a guide who was a lovely a lovely lady who told us all about the different statues and a bit about Buddhism. As the sun went down the whole thing looked even more beautiful lit up against the blackening sky. The other hightlight in terms of sights was the mighty Bagan, an ancient city in which ...

... such, and spoke English reasonably well, enough to communicate (don't forget I'm an English teacher though, so as long as it's anything that resembles English, it's all good). They had noticeably bloody-looking teeth, and lots of Myanmarese do, actually, so you'll see lots of red spots on the streets and sidewalks, and that's their spit. It turns out its a nut they chew on according to a friend who corrected me on it. It still freaked me ...

... cafe for a while before we went to bed. As we were going to sleep the kids above us were running around and I could hear another noise. Bill tried to convince me it was the kids, but I thought it was a mouse or rat. Since our room did not get cleaned today and I did not hear anything last night when I was awake, I convinced myself it must be a noise outside our room. The next day while packing we found mice poop on the table in our room. EWW!

... he wouldn’t understand, hoping he would drop the subject. No such luck. Finally I said, “Why do you want to pick up foreign women anyway?”

“Because they have very light skin. Burmese women have dark skin,” he said.

“Western men often like tan looking women,” I told him hoping he might give this up.

“”Dark skinned women look…dirty,” he blurted out. Well, this was a different view ...

... per couple for five days, the rate was a little more than expected, especially given the questionable reliability of the aged vehicle, but Monet assured us it was a good deal. Attempts at negotiation were unsuccessful. Thi Ha explained he was an employee and it wasn't his van. He would only earn $7 a day for driving. The fee included all fuel, tolls and driver expenses (food & lodging).



We knew the trip to Bagan was long and ...