Inle Lake to Yangoon

We both got sick at Inle Lake (like so many other travellers we got a flu, it is not food poising) and we were happy to had a domestic flight to Heho. Again check in was super fast (1 minute!, free seating) They hardly checked our bags. We were waiting for boarding. As usual you can walk around with no restriction and the smoking area is just at the runway.

Each flight was announced with a little sign and a megaphone to ensure that you get on the right flight.

We finally hopped on the Mandalay Air flight, and even enjoyed a french croissant (!), before landing in Yangoon. You walk from the plane to the arrival hall, or let's say arrival room and wait, while you buy the taxi ticket (fix 8000K). No luggage belts are there, so you just wait until the airport crew comes with a little wagon full of luggage from different domestic flights. If you see your luggage you shout loudly and get finally your stuff!

We stayed at Aung Si Guest House in downtown, just at a little market street. So you have to pass all the chicken, fish, fruit...hawkers to enter the first floor of this lovely GH. The manager gave us a lot of hints, what to do so we were walking through the city to the jetty.

Yangoon has a lot markets, where you can buy a lot of things. Very popular is for example chewing beetle nut with lime.

Of course you can buy the daily must-haves for dinner:

Interesting is the wiring of the electricity, which seems to be installed from the British:

I assume very much, that this is the reason for constant power failures and giant generator all over the street....

You still find old buildings from the colonial area (but they will disappear slowly):

When we arrived at the jetty, we were immediately guided to the 'foreigner booth', where we had to pay two dollars for one journey, while the others are practically paying nothing, but that's life.

When we arrived on the other side, we were entering a new planet. This part of Yangoon is very poor, but full of street life, which we could watch from our rented rikscha:

Next day Bjoern arrived from Tazi, totally exhausted from the night bus (as the train was full!) And he was also sick. Nevertheless we could all manage to visit the famous Swedagon pagoda in late afternoon (Taxi 2000K). It was so fabulous that we stayed until late evening:

It was really a wonderful scenery and constantly new people were approaching to pray or lit candles or have a religious ceremony with the kids;

When it was finally getting dark, they enlightened 10000 candles (Light Festival sponsored from a Japanese company) and it looked really amazing:

Next day we drove to the airport with a big sigh, as Burma was or better is such a wonderful country! We did not wanted to leave....but we will come back!

Burma/Myanmar is definitely a must-see before it will be transfered into a modern country...