Day one in Yangon

We’re here! Day one in Yangon.  Connecting in Bangkok was a breeze—Thai Air meets First Class passengers with guides and an electric cart to whisk you from one area to another. The flight to Yangon was a little over an hour in an Airbus 330—and hot meals were served to everyone.  Imagine that on a US carrier!

The city is greener and more lush than we expected and there is new construction very near our hotel.

Guides from Akorn/A & K were there to usher through visas, customs, bags and such. The whole thing too less than ½ hour.

We met our guide, Nyi Nyi Thun, and he told us he would be with us the entire tour, with the exception of the Irrawaddy cruise and our last days on the beach. So he will be trekking in the mountains of Shan State, visiting the elephant camp—everything.  The people at Akorn warned me that we would love him—and it’s already true.  He has a wonderful sense of humor, and a photography nut (has Canon equipment) who knows his culture and history.

We are smitten!  He wears a longyi (the skirt-sarong thing than men and women both wear). He did a bit of orientation, dropped us at the Savoy Hotel, and will pick us up first thing in the morning for a day of pagodas. We have asked that he balance tourist sites with exploration of daily life and the local people and he seemed very pleased.

The Savoy is just what we hoped—a small boutique hotel with the feel of a colonial manor house.  High ceilings, polished teak and mahogany, French doors….like that. We had upgraded our room a bit and have a lovely suite on the ground floor looking out on the pool.

 The famous Shwe Dagon pagoda (Pres. Obama visited in November) is very near our hotel. A walk at rush hour shows tons of small bus transports with people hanging on, hopping on and off. It is much scarier trying to cross the road here than it was in Saigon.  No lights, no crosswalks.  We just duck behind locals and run!

Walked around the city a very short time (Nyi Nyi has warned us to watch out for holes in the sidewalks and told us to always carry a flashlight at night. Good advice!

Now…to bed in a real bed!