The White House

First stop in Yangon was the New Aye Yar Hotel. Shown to a 7th floor room, basic but normal amenities. A view of the dirty building next door attached by 6 ft. beams. $20/night. Nice lobby, very colonial charm.

Rangoon sunset

But the LP guidebook recommended The White House Hotel, so we went to check it out before deciding. Located in a narrow, crowded street, we walked up past some loudly vibrating generators to a small, moldy smelling, dimly lit 'lobby', consisting of a small counter and a bench against the wall. The stairs led up from one side, and a dark corridor disappeared behind the counter. We asked to see some rooms, and the 'porter' was handed a pile of keys and started up the stairs.

I could see up at least 3 flights of stairs, and there was a shapely apparition briefly appearing against the light coming from the top. The stairway was very narrow, barely room to pass someone, made of concrete with tile and glass pieces embedded, and uneven steps. In the low light, I was concerned for my ankle. I didn't relish healing it for the Jim trek (which the musin hugen - rainy season - has prevented) only to tear it up again finding my bed at night.

We reached the first landing and turned down the hall. It was strewn with piles of laundry, some local women sitting on the floor going through it. At the end of the narrow hallway our guide opened a room and bid us enter.

I think the POWs of the Hanoi Hilton must have had a similar reaction to their first site of their cells. It was just a little larger than the two thin single beds in it, lined in the same concrete as the floor. There was a hole off one side which was the bathroom. I'll give them credit for having a sit-down toilet. However, the shower was sit-down, too, for all but a midget. I don't think the ceiling was more than 5 feet high. And the piping was open and snaked along the hard walls.

This was obviously unacceptable, and off we went to the next cell, er, room.

Up another flight of narrow, uneven stairs. When the door of the second room opened, it revealed a larger room. One big enough to hold a dozen beds side-by side. I am confident of that statement because I counted the beds in it! All pushed together, in the same manner my best friend in High School had turned his bedroom into a single giant bed. Maybe Myanmar youth tours want a room like this, but I don't. Oh, and the bathroom was normal height, but no more appealing then the last.

Well, this guy still had a handful of keys, so onward and up0ward. At this point, as I mentioned to Todd while we ascended another narrow stairwell, I was just in it for the entertainment value. You'd have to pay ME to stay in this place. That is, unless I was traveling with Doug or our late friend Jim. This is very much the kind of experiential place we would have picked. It made the Danky Hotel in Mexico City look like the Ritz. If you have never ventured into the Danky (and why on earth would you?) just say the name a couple times and you will get the feel of the place.

As we reached the 4th floor, the afore mentioned apparition materialized in the form of an attractive Aussie girl. I asked her about the place and she said she had taken a room on a higher floor for the better exposure to light (anything outside of a dungeon would provide that). Right under the breakfast room, she added. We moved on to this floor's offering, and were rewarded with another 'bed' room, this time featuring a loft level. Not high enough to stand in, but enough for a bunch of 21" Sony Wega TV boxes to be piled - filled with what I don't know.

OK, now we had to see this breakfast room. Outside the loft room were two spiral concrete stairways. Water was driping down each, and the sound of water spraying upstairs was distinctive. Todd started up one of the stairways. I said I heard female voices, and he might be interupting someone's shower. He shrugged and went on up (he turned out all right after all). It turned out the water was from the next floor being hosed down - an advantage of concrete interior design. And flooded - a disadvantage of concrete interior design. With a couple of cleaning women sitting in the pooled water, pushing it around with hand brooms.

Piled high in the adjoining room were various fruits. This must be the included breakfast. Climbing higher still, the next level revealed more awful room variations. We finally came to the top, some 8 floors up. A small concrete perch with a few chairs, a bunch of potted plants, and a trekker reading Sartre. Or a Bamar language book. They both read about the same.

So, to summarize: No elevator, unsafe stairs, and bizarre rooms made for a very low expectations clientel added up to a wretched place to stay. The White House is the place where every stupid architectural mistake has come to rest. Hard to believe it is rated at all by LP, and the only negatives being the aerobic workout to get to the top (why one would persevere to that goal more than once is beyond me) and the 'funky' room layouts. Must be some inside joke for the editors. Yet it did have quite a few guests. And what is the difference in cost between these two places? Our rooms in the New Aye Yar are $20/night, while you can get down to lower than basics at the White House for the bargain rate of $16!