Burma Yangon January 2013

[taxexile]

After a tug

a what??

[terry57]

Even though DD has passed over to the big Katoey factory in the sky I still think of him when I'm doing my picture threads. Here you go DD just for you mate, sorry I'm pissing crooked but I'm a tad out of it by this time but I'm wearing my best bum bag In your honor.

[terry57]

Out of the shitter and time for a belly full of tucker, directly next door was a family doing Indian food. This young dude was the king cockie when it came to Naan bread. He had his brick oven going on in the background made his bread there and then and then banged it onto the side of the oven with his bare hands. Been doing it forever and a real pro he was. Bloody yummy as well with a side dish of Dahl and spices.

[terry57]

Terry I live 5 minutes from that hotel and would have loved to put you up for the night.

Thanks AO, we will meet up one day. I'll be back in August. Cheers

[woolyback]

keep it coming good thread

[the dogcatcher]

Can give prices for beer and food, and maybe "the other".?

[misskit]

Excellent, Terry. Hope there's plenty more of this great stuff!

[terry57]

^^

The beer was good and cheap same as Thailand around 50 Baht for a large one, food is also the same as Thailand depends on where you eat, the thing that is going to change drastically is the price of accommodation as there simply not prepared for the influx of tourists.

Some people have been forced to fly out simply because they did not prebook rooms and got caught out. This is high season I'm talking about.

Bloody hard to book rooms as well simply because the Internet is shite, cant prebook in one email. Must wait for a reply from the hotel them reconfirm that your coming.

Took my friend months to actually get firm booking for us and she's in the business. Only got a room in Mandalay in the last week before we left.

Suppose if your going 5 star all the way its not a problem but prices are stupid in that range.

Cant prebook flights on the Internet Either, must rely on your hotel or guest house to sort them. These flights are quite expensive simply because of the shortage of planes and increasing demand.

These things are keeping the Backpackers away at the moment, mainly older independent travelers with the coin to spare and package tour people doing the full monty.

Certainly not like the rest of Asia where one falls over travelers every 5 metres, that's what I loved about it, many times it was just us banging around the joint.

[terry57]

Excellent, Terry. Hope there's plenty more of this great stuff!

Oh shit yes Miss Kit, I have 1500 Images to sort through for a 7 week trip. Hang in there it will be a slow thread, maybe come back next year EH.

[terry57]

Back to the Indian Naan bread. The young dude reaches inside the kiln behind him and bangs the kneeded bread onto the side of the kiln. When its perfectly cooked he reaches in and pulls it out again. One man one job and he was the man for it.

[terry57]

The end result complete with two great cups of Chai. Around 30 baht for the lot.

[terry57]

This guy was also dishing up some brilliant looking tucker.

[terry57]

Rush hour in the restaurant. We spent our time outside conversing with the locals who where very happy to talk with us, had no choice really as we where the only farang there most nights.

[terry57]

Eating beetle nut is big business in Burma, every one is on the gear including the street dogs. Shits me no end seeing punters spitting that red shit everywhere.

[terry57]

Beetle nut is like a religion in Burma, Christ if they where on the cocaine I could understand it but that horrible shite. Whatever EH.

[terry57]

Nice tree this one. In Burma there are fresh water stations all over the place for the locals. Here's a few examples.

[terry57]

Only one year Ago Yangon only had electricity for 7 hours a day. because the infrastructure is improving they now have 24 hour electricity but its far from reliable.
every business and hotel has there own power generators ready to crank up. Surprised to see so many new units around, shows the economy is improving.

[Bangyai]

Bloody good thread Terry ......... bloody good

[terry57]

The Burmese are incredibly organized in the way they pack there stores, everything has its place and its a work of art how they stack there wares. Very proud and clean people as well.

[terry57]

lots of action on the streets, book stalls are all the go.

[the dogcatcher]

have'nt sent a green in 3 odd years, i'm mean like that. so here's yours.

[The Master Cool]

Bloody ocker mate.

Looking forward to this (and the other threads). Nice one.

Crossing from Thailand to Burma it really is amazing how nice, happy, genuine and appreciative the Burmese are.

[terry57]

Crossing from Thailand to Burma it really is amazing how nice, happy, genuine and appreciative the Burmese are.

When I travel to new destinations my main effort is to try and connect in some way with the locals as too me this is what its all about.

The thing with the Burmese is that they have not cracked on that tourists are easy to scam and rip off. Not once in our trip did any local try and scam us or over charge us.

Seeing them walk around with there wallet hanging out of there longies took quite a bit of getting used to.

Bloody awesome to experience this in a new destination. The people seem to have an innocence about them, I reckon its because they have not had mass tourism yet and experienced the problems tourism creates.

Also the locals are committed to despising the Military Government to waste energy scamming tourists.

How long this will last is anyone's guess but I feel privileged to experience it now. Blinding trip it was.

[terry57]

The Billy is on the boil ready for a nice cuppa. The Burmese do good tea which I well appreciate after a hard night on the turps.

[terry57]

Ok, its onto day 2 after a heavy day 1. We hunt out a phone shop and pay around $ 20 for a Sim card with 30 minutes talk time on an overseas call. Local calls were piss all. Sim was good for 30 days. A local told us that only a few years ago Sim cards where heavily regulated by the government and very expensive to purchase. Times are a changing in this country.