Skip to main content

Offline in Myanmar

Ok so I am very much in a backwater here in Yangon, Myanmar - or as many of you will know it as Rangoon, Burma.


I have been unable to exchange $600 USD (mostly as my notes from cash machines in Cambodia were marked, torn or creased!) so far but am hoping that a friendly departing Canadian's crisp 100 dollar bills swapped, ensure I can see this seemingly undiscovered country!

ATM's are non existent here, as is wifi. So this is my last chance to let you know I am going off piste for a month.Also my mobile is no longer working - it seems the only place in the world without a shared network agreement.This is what backpacking is supposed to be! Ahhhh no ringing in my ears or incessant tapping on the bus next to me and dog barks from sms's!

I've meet a cool Spanglish woman called Ayesha and we are planning to travel upriver to Bagan to see the many temples, then up to Mandalay to see the political activists the Moustache Brothers and east to the hill tribes and hiking to Inle Lake. it should take the best part of 2.5 weeks.

Unfortunately my ideas of winging it would mean I would be sleeping in the streets (or police station as some reports are coming back) real with hotels booked with no infrastructure for the overflow of toursits now here since the peace talks have been brokered with the military regime (and Air Asia flys from Bangkok for $50!). The people I have met so far are so friendly and by all reports it is THE safest place to visit with no personal attacks, thefts and only few suggestions of scams, except with the train officials which I will not be encountering on the bus. In fact today I watched 3 foreign girls all cautiously ignore a gentleman! All I could think, was of a man from Mum's Lions group being ignored and how affronted he would feel. Oh Buddhism you may have got it right with the people of Myanmar, sorry us Westerners are so damn rude from our other experiences.

Can't wait to tell you about it all in due course. Until then, have a wonderful Waitangi Day on the 6th and a brilliant February with kids back to school in NZ and the end of winter nigh in the Northern Hemisphere. Miss all my wonderful friends and family madly but alas, there is an adventure to be had.

Big Love X




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My My Myanmar

I have been touched, pinched, squeezed and had my back rubbed as I was sick. Myanmar is one phenomenal place which I have so much hope for. Hope for democracy, hope for development and hope for conservation, all in a gradual process without losing its authenticity. I have felt safe, with my large amounts of cash (remember no ATM’s so budgeting became a real past time of all travellers not just the “budget” ones) and in pilgrimaging crowds, in villages and on rickety hill top roads, travelling solo or in a crowd. Not once did I fear for my personal safety or that of my belongings. I had to stop myself on the first day from being so travel weary and closed. I had to trust. I had to open up and Myanmar may well have taught me one of my greatest lessons on my Big Adventure. captive in Myanmar There were moments of democratic desire, like an aged village monk carrying a bamboo log who stopped me to ask “Do you know Aung San?” to which I replied quietly knowing it was a very c...

The day I saw the Polish countryside

After taking a night stop off in Warsaw to ensure I got a speed train for 3 hours to Krakow I was directed to platform 3. I got on and 6 hours later I am still not in Krakow. But I have had the privilege to see the beauty of the Polish countryside. It’s lush and green. The sun is shining and my mood has lifted along with it despite missing a day in a city I have been fascinated by since my early days in London.  The rail roads are simple and the trains and the children squealing out the windows remind me of Hollywood films depicting happy children departing for respite from the war.  Again I have been a cabin this time with the same space as yesterday but with 4 seats each side. No-one deared speak to me today! The farms are orderly and attempts at growing hay in the wettest summer the Poles have seen in years are well underway. It seems simple here and its definitely very appealing. I can see why my Polish friends speak so happily of life in Poland. Or maybe it’s the news ...

ticking boxes has never been so enjoyable

Arriving in Vienna hadn't started well. The door to the train wouldn't open. Finding another open door, I was left with a mother and 1 year old with a Trunkie, no husband, 4 year old, luggage or money. Turns out the family were Hungarian-Australian and on their way to the airport Oz bound so doing my good travellers deed for the day packed Mum, son and Trunkie off to the airport in a shuttle. I really hope they all made it home together. I found my way to the hostel and then given the bright sunshine took to the streets having missed the opportunity to take photos of every other city in sun so far! I made my way to the central Basilica and then wandered the streets finding a Schnitzel house filled to the rafters, a ornate clock, music singing through the streets, pianos being practised on and some of the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen (fit only for Elton John let it be said!). The film festival on that evening started at 9pm and with a rain shower about to hit I opted f...