Myanmar: First Impressions

I felt some nervous anxiety leading up to my trip to Myanmar. I've never felt nervous before about traveling so feeling nervous made me extra nervous. There were a few factors that I think lead to this unusual feeling:

Factor 1: Huyen went to the Myanmar embassy the week before I arrived back in Hanoi. While she was there she asked about me getting my visa. She said that the Myanmar embassy worker said, "We don't like Americans." When Huyen told me this over Skype I thought it must have been a mistranslation. Huyen insisted that is what the woman said. Yeah, not such a warm fuzzy feeling.

Factor 2: When I arrived in Hanoi I went to the Myanmar agency to get my visa. The woman behind the desk gave me a very skeptical look and asked me a few questions with a very skeptical look on her face.

Factor 3: Aung Suu Kyi's verdict was pushed back to the day before I arrived. I wasn't sure if there would be protests and/or if I would get turned back at the border for some reason.

Huyen and I flew Air Asia from Bangkok to Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Two things immediately struck me as I walked down the steps of the airplane onto the tarmac. Firstly, the International Airport was a dump. Clearly not too many planes were coming in and out of Myanmar. It looked like half the airport was actually not in use since there was an old mold covered building attached to a newer looking building. The second thing that I noticed was a smiling/waving airport worker. I smiled back at the worker and it helped ease my nervousness. Like I've said before, a smile can be really disarming. Seeing his random worker made me think that people were happy to see tourists.

Huyen and I went through immigration without a problem (although I had to fill out more forms to get into the country then I've ever filled in my life). Our hotel in Yangon had arranged a free ride for us and we were greeted by a man wearing a longyi (AKA a long man skirt).

(PICTURE: Men wearing longyis.)

The man told us to wait a few minutes for another passenger. We ended up waiting about twenty minutes for a passenger who never showed up. A few strange things happened while we waited. First, I noticed that Myanmar people had to go through metal detectors just to walk into the airport. One woman came in with an old camera and the security person took out the batteries. I've never seen security just to walk into an airport to greet people coming off of flights.

The second strange thing that happened is that there was a power failure. All of a sudden the lights and metal detector turned off. After a few moments they turned back on...and then went off again. I couldn't help thinking, "Please tell me the control tower has its own generator."

The third weird thing is that Huyen went to the bathroom and came back a minute later saying there was no toilet paper. We then both glanced up at a security guard who happened to be walking by us with one roll of toilet paper. He was headed towards the bathroom. This struck me as strange that they'd only replenish one roll at a time.

Finally after giving up on the last passenger we went out to the parking lot. Waiting for us was an old gutted out van. On the window was this sticker:
(PICTURE: Smiles aren't the only disarming thing in Myanmar.)

That was the first picture I took in Myanmar. Talk about first impressions...

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

My dad is the best. I really can't imagine a better father. I think I've said this a dozen times on my blog but it's something worth repeating. One of the hard things about being away is that I keep missing birthdays. Today is my dad's 64th. Despite being in his mid sixties, my dad is still a kid at heart. I love you, Dad. Happy Birthday!

BIRDS!!!!

As Huyen and I walked through Bangkok she would often get really excited to see some sites. However, she wouldn't really get excited at the sites the average tourist would get excited for like The Grand Palace or Wat Phra Keao. Huyen would get excited for the little things...like BIRDS.

On the second day she literally yelped, "Look at the birds!" and ran over to a group feeding on the ground. I asked her, "Are you seriously this excited about birds?" and she said, "There's no birds in Hanoi." In defense of Hanoi, there are some birds here but they are few and far between. Huyen said that the birds in Hanoi get eaten so there aren't that many. In Bangkok (and in Myanmar) there were birds everywhere in the cities.

Here's some pictures of Huyen with her favorite tourist attractions:

Night Bike!

(PICTURE: Team Red sans our helmets...which we wore when we rode, Mom!)

My friend Mark -- who you may remember from the World Championships of Table Tennis -- is a Thailand expert. He's spent considerable time all over southeast Asia so when he gives me a piece of advice I listen. One tip he recently gave me was to do a bike ride with Grasshopper Tours in Bangkok. I checked out the company's website and the ride through Bangkok looked fantastic. There was even a night bike ride which really peaked my interested because a) I sweat less at night b) there would be less traffic c) it would be cool to see temples at night when nobody is there.

Huyen and I attempted to find the company the first night we were in Bangkok but ended up walking miles in the wrong direction (I should have listened to my only advice from a year ago when I said to not trust directions people give in Asia). While we were walking around we found another bike shop which also offered a night bike tour. In fact, they offered the same exact tour. Literally the same exact tour. I mean they 100% stole the pictures and descriptions from Grasshopper's website and posted it as their own on their shop door. The only difference between the two tours was that this rip-off one was $5 more. Clearly Huyen and I would be going with the original company...except it turns out they were fully booked for the next night. Alas we had to go with the rip-off company and pay an extra $10. Dammit!!!

The cool thing about going with a copy-cat company is that everyone goes with the original. That meant that the whole group consisted of the tour guide, Huyen, myself and some random American girl who lives in Korea. The tour was absolutely fantastic and took us through 20 kilometers of backroads and alleys in Bangkok. We definitely saw parts of the city we would never have seen if it wasn't for this tour. It was worth every penny...even the extra 1,000 we had to pay.

(PICTURE: Jump if you like riding at night!!!)

(PICTURE: Believe it or not this was my least sweaty picture all night.)

Here's some video from the ride:

Happy Birthday Queen!

(PICTURE: Happy birthday, Queen!)

The second day Huyen and I were in Thailand was the Queen's birthday. To say the city was a mob scene would be a gigantic understatement. Everyone had off work and in the park near where we were staying was free food for the poor. There were literally thousands and thousands of people waiting in line for fried rice.

Huyen and I decided to take in the sites and walked to all the major landmarks in Bangkok. Unfortunately since it was the Queen's birthday the palace was closed.
(PICTURE: This guy wouldn't let us into the palace. What a jerk!)

Also unfortunately I didn't wear long pants so I was given a pair of pull-over pants that were made of plastic. Basically it was a disposable tablecloth people use for picnics. The material wasn't exactly breathable which meant my sweatiness doubled in a matter of minutes. Can you say heat rash?!
(PICTURE: My hips look really really big in these pants!)
(PICTURE: Just a picture I like from a temple.)

After checking out the big temples and tall buildings, Huyen and I took a tuk-tuk to a park on the other side of town. We strolled through the park enjoying ourselves until Huyen let out a sort of scream -- there were giant lizards coming out of the lake in the park! Check out this video:

Bed And Breakfast

I did all the planning for our trip and decided to treat Huyen to a nice hotel in Bangkok since it was her first night sleeping outside of Vietnam. I found a bed and breakfast online that was highly recommended. Check out our room:



I should have been skeptical when the website said "shared bathrooms."

Vacation! Vacation! Vacation!

I know it's hard to get excited about my vacation since, well, I've basically been on a vacation for the last three months. And well, some would argue I've been on vacation for a year and a half. That said, if you can't get excited for me going on vacation, be excited for Huyen.

Over the last 11 days Huyen took her first trip outside of Vietnam. Her family was nervous to say the least. My family was nervous too but perhaps for the first time ever, I could say my mother wasn't the most nervous mom. Our itinerary was quite simple: two days in Bangkok and then nine days in Myanmar (please insert your Seinfeld, "It'll always be Burma to me joke." here).

There's nothing controversial about going to Thailand but I know there's lots of differing opinions about traveling to Myanmar. I can't write the blog without weighing out the pros and cons of going to a country with a horrible human rights record as well as an oppressive government. My timing was, well timely, with Aung Suu Kyi being sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest the day before I departed for Yangon. I obviously deplore the treatment of Aung Suu Kyi and understand many people's feelings that that alone is reason enough to boycott the country. However, I don't believe that ignoring a country is the way to enact change. I personally think that visiting somewhere and meeting people and having them see the freedoms you enjoy is a way to help spark change. Aung Suu Kyi herself even recently changed her stance on tourism saying that she thinks it might help draw attention to the oppressive military junta.

In all the pro-tourism literature I read, there was one thing that was unanimously said: don't use government industries/packages/tours/etc. Besides paying my visa fee, exit fee and archaeological fee (50% supposedly goes to the archaeological sites) all of the money I spent was put into the hands of private people: hotels, food, taxi drivers, etc.

But my Myanmar entries are a few days away. As a teaser though, I can tell you that traveling in Myanmar was one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had. But first some fun was to be had in Thailand....

Huyen and I flew Air Asia together to Bangkok. You know your girlfriend is REALLY ASIAN when she wears a surgical mask on a plane:

And you know your girlfriend is REALLY REALLY REALLY ASIAN when she wears a surgical mask on a bus too:


We stayed at Ko San Road -- AKA the cheap backpacker area -- which, despite the thousands of tourists, was a great place to get pad thai and amazing fruit shakes.

(PICTURE: Huyen with her first ever pad thai.)

(PICTURE: When not sleeping, I average a fruit shake ever 180 minutes.)

After eating and sucking down liquified mango, Huyen and I wandered around the city checking out temples and hordes of tourists all wearing the same tank tops with Thai beer logos on the front.

I'm luke warm on Bangkok but it was really exciting for me to see Huyen in another country. Huyen was pretty wide-eyed at all the tall buildings and the infrastructure of the city itself. To her, Bangkok was like how Vietnam would be in the near future.

Traveling was quite exhausting for Huyen so at the end of the day I treated us to foot massages. Huyen fell asleep approximately 82 seconds into her massage. Ah, money well spent. After the massages we drank two Thai beers (the tank tops brainwashed us) and listened to some live music on the street.

(PICTURE: Beer and cards = good times.)

It was a great start to the vacation...minus the fact that the singer played some pretty depressing songs that he probably thought had good meanings. For example, Phil Collins "Just Another Day In Paradise" which is about homeless people. Here's a little video of the massage and music: