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Published: December 18th 2010
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Yangon
Shwedagon Pagoda at night All I remember was our plane landing, I passed out soon as we took off from Bangkok, very tired after hardly any sleep in the airport waiting for this flight. The queue was long at the immigration, the airport is quite modern, locals were asking us even when we are still in the baggage claim area if we have a place to stay, I waited for Connor to get through customs then we decided to just go to downtown by taxi, we were told $7 to town! we got it down to $6 then I saw a Japanese backpacker alone and being crowded by taxi touts, I approached him and asked him if he wants to share a taxi with us, one taxi dude driver told me "no sharing"! F..k off I told him, he can't tell us what to do, taxi sharks!
We got dropped off at Garden's GH, $10 for double we tried to bargain it down but they would not budge but they were kind enough to point us next door at Mahabandoola GH for $7 double, so we took it, very simple and old building but clean, a tad bit smelly though , no windows
but there is an exhaust fan. After settling in we went out to change money the GH owner told us not to change with touts on the street so we went to Bogyoke market, he told us change at jewellery stores there. It's only past 9am and the streets are alive with people sat on side streets selling trinkets of every kind and street food as well, we came to a man selling baby snakes! yikes! We asked several people and finally we found the market, we found one guy who can change our money at 890 kyats for $1 but only on $100 bills, and it has to be clean, crisp, no creases or folds or marks, the lower bills have different rates, slightly lower, so what we will do is use the lower bills to pay hostels and maybe tours whatever.
Then back to the GH for some needed nap and we woke up at 4pm and started heading out just getting lost in the city, when it got dark the streets are dark so we struggled to navigate the streets, carefully and minding the open sewers here and there. We had dinner at this small BBQ
stand, we had chicken wings and goat among other things, this place is run by teenagers, we had our first taste of Myanmar beer, not bad. When it was time to pay the bill, the boy said 4,00 kiyats but still a bit confused with their money I thought the 5000 bills were 500, he refused to take the 40,000 I gave him, and Connor thought he wanted dollars! Then he gave me back all but the 5,000 and gave me a change, such a nice fellow, if he was a crook he could have just taken it and say nothing, these boys were very honest, quite a welcome respite.
We looked for a bar to chill as it is my Birthday! We found 50th street bar in a quiet nook, we chilled for a bit there playing darts watching football and chatting with the staff, very friendly, for $20 total we had a good pizza and a few rounds of beers, not bad to celebrate my birthday. Then we walked back to the hostel, I tried to buy beer at the restaurant next to the GH but the manager gave it for free and asked us to have
a few drinks with him and his friends outside near the tree across the building as they are about to close, government rules he said. One of his friend is of Indian descent, very friendly and good English, Connor asked a lot of questions about their government, and all of them dislike the current situations, they told us military guys were given ballots they were pre filled up and all they have to do is fill in their names and sign and cast it. Disatisfied with their government but they said it is safe here because people are scared of the repercussions if they commit a crime, we have not seen a policeman on the street really such a surprise for a military dictatorship we thought the streets will be teeming with soldiers and police. Anyway the annoying owner was always interrupting his friend when he explains some things to us and I got pissed I cannot understand his friend's stories so I begged off and left early and left Connor with them, a few people have stopped us on the streets to chat and always they go for Connor right away, partly ignoring me, probably because I look like
a local, then they change their tone after realizing we are both Americans. Anyway off to bed for us back at the GH.
We got woken up at 7am with loud music from our next door neighbor, I got up and went out the hall in my boxers and asked him to turn it down, he was a bit surprised, then we went back to bed and got up at 10am and got ready to walk the city again. We found a nice eatery and have some delicious Burmese cuisine, though it could have been Chinese, we then walked towards Bogyoke market to change more money, then we walked around there and we found cool paintings, which I would buy when I get back here before flying out.
Our goal today is to find and visit the ShweDagon pagoda, in the meantime we visited the Zoological museum which was a disappointment for the both of us, animals in small cages, poor state of maintenance, what broke the camel's back was when we saw the poor brown bear full of sores and quite thin in one of the small cages, they were not meant for this warm humid weather!
The tigers were struggling too! we took off quickly severely disappointed and found the pagoda where we spent 3 hours until sunset, really cool shrine, lots of tourists of course. then on the walk back to the GH a man started speaking to Connor, I just walk behind them, we found food and back to the hostel to have a cold shower and beer and turn in early, we have a long bus trip tomorrow out of town.
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