Central Yangon (Rangoon)

... got this blog updated. I’m flying to Bangkok tomorrow morning and see if I’m up for some shopping but the main priority tomorrow will definitely be a massive pig-out in Burger King after too many Chinese fried noodles and chicken that I’ve had here. The only concern left for me was the Finnair pilots' strike but it seems to be over as well so my flights on Friday to Helsinki and on to Rovaniemi should be clear.

... are way too high. In fact everything the foreign travelers pay here are high – the hotels, the foods, the bus tickets, all of them. The two-tiers pricing must be working very well here because there’s no way a local with normal income can afford them. The fact that the country is poor and has relatively much less visitor actually makes the cost of traveling in it higher. For example, the only reliable transportation for us from point A to B inside the city is by taxi ...

... Declino la proposicio i li dic que em dugui cap a l'estacio d'autobus. No vull acabar desenvolupant intolerancia als temples budistes ja que al Nepal segur que em toca visitar-ne mes d'un.<br><br>El trajecte de tornada a Yangon en un autobus tronat (el diposit de gasolina situat a l'interior del vehicle ocupa dos seients de passatgers i impregna l'atmosfera amb una olor que carrega al cap de pocs minuts) es com sempre un malson.<br><br>

... smile on top of it! I took advantage of the Brits taxi to go down to their guest house: Three season hotel, which I recommend for amazing service and spectacular breakfast (pancakes, omelette or Myanmar typical rice with coconut sauce, mango, papaya, banana, juice, tea.. hmmm). Close by, I recommend the Lashio Lay restaurant, owned by Sai Moe with its typical Shan food. Then I learned you needed $ in cash. (I had 100 Indian rupees left with ...

... It was kinda gross how all these houses were gigantic and beautiful whereas most of the rest of the city was pretty much slum. We finally found a cab and headed to the main attraction, Shwedagon Paya. We immediately latched onto by a Burmese guy in the Paya that was full of useful information about the Paya. He instructed us on the proper way to pray at the temple, and what everything in it meant. He was nice enough, but I usually prefer to see things on my own ...

... cuisine. There are many Indian and Muslim restaurants. Tea shops are widespread around the country and serve also as popular venues for socializing. Most food places have thermoses placed on every table containing Chinese tea. Many country areas are forbidden to tourists or are very difficult to access therefore travelers do not have much to choose from and often follow the same route, bumping into one another along the way. Three weeks is enough time to see all top sights, but ...

... what will happen. It&#8217;s really pretty simple. No problem.&#8221;<br><br>&#8220;OK, I will try this,&#8221; he thoughtfully replied as he took mental notes on what I had said.<br><br>&#8220;By the way,&#8221; I said, &#8220;two of the women in our group want to go snorkeling. Can you arrange that?&#8221;<br><br>His eyes lit up and without hesitation he blurted, &#8220;Yes, no problem. I will go get my friend who owns this boat out here,&#8221; pointing to a ...

After a short night's sleep I left the hostel in Bangkok at 4 am. The drive to the airport was smooth, as expected at this unreasonable hour. But after boarding the plan, we were standing at the runway... and stayed a while. Finally we got the information that there was a problem with the air craft and we had to go back to the terminal to change planes. But 2,5 hours after the planned departure we took off and then a a flight without further problems. Interestingly ...

... greater sense of being watched, since all Internet activity was scanned and monitored and many web sites--including Facebook--were blocked. In Myanmar there was also an extensive firewall, which blocks e-mail sites like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo, but it was extremely easy to get around. Every internet café and hotel simply ran a program on each of their computers that disabled the firewall and allowed easy access to blocked websites (this was not possible in China ...