Myanmaaaaar

Well they let me into the country! I was half expecting some sort of "idiot warning" to come up on their screen as they scanned my passport and for them to kick me out again.

I changed over my US dollars at the airport... At a slightly reduced rate because the notes had become slightly folded in my luggage.



I'm almost a millionaire.

My taxi driver was a Catholic man called Mike, who was very helpful and called guesthouses for me while we were driving in, so that we wouldn't have to go searching for somewhere with room. Things have changed since Nikki was here - the same hotel that she paid $15 a night for a year ago now wants $27 for a single room with shared bathroom.

I ended up at Garden Guesthouse ($10 single room with bathroom) which was recommended to me by the Pakistani couple I met in KL. It's literally right next to the 2000yr old Sule Paya which is where the British centred their gridded street system.



Carrying my pack up the 8 flights of steps to my room was good training for my trek.

I went for a walk to find lunch and ended up in a packed local restaurant. I had "pork dumpling" and a fresh papaya juice for $1. No one spoke English and they were very bemused at me being there.

The girl gestured for me to put sauce on it. I thought she was trying to kill me because it was the colour of the really hot sauce Maie likes to put on food. I decided to embrace death and try it anyway. Was very tasty actually (and not very hot).



I walked 45min to the Shwedagon Paya, one of the most sacred Buddhist sites (now with wifi). On the way I found a bunch of gorgeous old decaying teak colonial mansions and added them to my "if I was a multi-millionaire..." fantasy list. This always happens whenever I come across old colonial architecture.








You can't see them that well through the trees but trust me they were huge and amazing. Alllll the plantation shutters! <3








It was a really peaceful place to hang out for the afternoon. Plus it cost almost as much as my room for the night to enter the place so I figured I'd get my money's worth.

Sitting at the pagoda I got a lot of stares. They kind of looked grumpy but I found if I smiled at them though, they'd send a big smile right back. So that became my hobby for the afternoon. I also guest starred in family portraits and gave conversational English classes to Burmese teenagers who had the guts to gradually move closer to me and then strike up a conversation.



Here's the old British train station:



Here's the Bogyoke market (over 2000 stalls.. Whaaaaaat!!?):



Here's a tonne of photos of old colonial architecture (god I love turquoise):











They chew betelnut here like they do in India. It's a bit like chewing tobacco in its requirement to spit. All the roads and pavement are coloured terracotta red from it. So yuck.

A noticeable difference from KL is the sleazy guys on the street there greet you with "hello you are sexy" whereas they say "hello beautiful". A welcome change. Seems a bit less harassment-y.

It's sweltering hot most of the day here. Very 'Biloela Summer'. I wore jeans. They're getting packed away now until Nepal. Time to invest in some baggy ass hippie pants.


Ohhhhh yeah.

Off on an overnight bus to Kalaw tonight (should be a fantastic sleeping experience) and then will organise a 3 day trek to Inle lake.

Xx

Visa fun in KL

Well on Wednesday when I went to the Myanmar embassy I was greeted by this sign:






So I went back early this morning. Got there just after 9. I was second in the queue and there was a sign saying they opened at 930. It got to 945 and there was a small crowd waiting when a girl passed us this flyer:






Outsourced. To a travel agent. Of course.

The Malaysian guy who was next to me in line said he had a car. So an Australian backpacker, a Pakistani couple, a Malaysian man and his brother in law (the driver) hop into the car (sounds like the beginning of a joke right?). We drive around to find the travel agent. At one stage we ask the taxi next to us at the traffic lights. He tells us to follow him. "Follow that taxi!".

The visa application form is very detailed:






It was a 'take a number' and sit down type scenario. I got to the desk and the woman told me I needed to have a flight booked to get a visa. I told her I didn't want to book a flight until I HAD the visa. Nope. She assured me the visa will be ready today, and told me that I could conveniently book the flight over at counter 9. Of course. Whatever. So flight is booked for tomorrow morning, and I go to pick up my visa this afternoon. Fingers crossed!





Update:
Well they were over an hour late with the visas.. But who cares because here it is!!

The day I got kicked out of Burma

WELL. 10h in KL airport were pretty uneventful. I got a few hours of broken sleep on this bad boy:



Then I had breakfast at Harrods (ooh la la):



I boarded my plane for Yangon. 2.5h ish later arrived... Went to the "Visa on Arrival" counter. A friend had told me you could get a visa on arrival and I was smart and didn't look into it any further. I had a guy look through my passport with a puzzled expression. Saw everyone else in line with forms already. Filled out a form. Went to the counter. The official who spoke no English just passed me back my passport and form. "No visa". "Yes - I need to get visa". "Yes". Two airport helper girls came over to help sort the situation out. They kept asking for a letter of invitation. "From who?!" "You want to make business visa, you need invitation" "no no I'm just a student... Tourist" "you have letter from school?" "No no I'm not here to study I'm here to travel" "do you have anyone here coming to pick you up?" "No..." "So what were you going to do?" "Uhhh taxi to a hotel?" "And then?" "Uhh... Travel?".
It continued like this for about 15min until it became clear I was in trouble. They didn't have the authority there to grant me a visa. I needed to have organised a visa elsewhere. Good one Amiee.

At this stage I was just a teensy bit panicked. They'd taken my passport. There were conversations going on about what to do with me that I couldn't understand. I was being escorted around and then taken back to the plane I'd just got off. My passport was given to the airline staff. I had no idea what I would be charged for the flight back to KL but I was imagining that it would be enough for me to have to cancel the rest of my trip.

I was escorted off the plane at the other end. My passport was being held in a bag labelled "Property of Malaysia Airlines". It was passed to an airport official. They took me into a room and made a phone call. I figured they were holding my passport ransom until I paid them. But no.. After the phone call they gave me back my passport and told me I could go. Oh. Cool.

So I'm staying in a hostel in KL for a few days while I sort a visa out with the Myanmar Embassy.














I went to the embassy this morning to find this:



So looks like I'll be staying a little longer. All good. I've got a couple of books to read, a bunch of backpackers to talk to and a cat called Speedy to hang with.

...Plus I get to add "deportation" to my list of life experiences.

Kowloon Life

On our last morning at Disney Resort we had an early morning play in the hedge maze. I won the 'best hiding spot' prize but Andrew thinks I should be disqualified for hiding IN the hedge.









Then we took a cable car up to the Tian Tan giant Buddha:



We moved into the Mariners Club near Nathan Rd in Tsim Sha Tsui on Kowloon island. There's a view of the harbour from our room:


Every evening has been spent at various street markets. I love how walkable this area is, and with all the neon signage and flags everywhere it looks like something straight out of a movie set.






Saturday morning we did a trip up to the Peak. Was quite an impressive view but incredibly windy and I'd not so wisely worn a dress.









Megan often breaks into impromptu interpretive dance which is very adorable and entertaining.


That night we went to the Ladies Market in Mong Kok, which is the most densely populated part of the planet at 150,000 ppl/sq km.

Yesterday we went on a little trip to Lamma island, which is about a half hour ferry ride away from HK island. We did a 4km walk up and over the island passing some beaches and villages.












It's a bit of a strange place. Big power station. Bunch of expats. Lots of seafood.

Afterwards we took the ferry back to Aberdeen and had an early dinner at Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant, which my guidebook tells me was featured in the film Contagion (which doesn't inspire great thoughts..). We had proper Peking Duck as part of an early birthday dinner for Anita.






To continue the 'ferry' theme of the day we took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon just before a torrential downpour hit.






After the rain we went back out to the night markets again. Anita and I managed to find what appeared to be the "dildo and bong" area of the Temple St night market, which was both educational and amusing.

Today I spent most of the day wandering around Kowloon. I took more photos of buildings:









Then I hung out in the public square with the old folks:






Then I decided my feet were in need of some TLC and I went into 'Joyful Relax' for a pedicure. I was expecting a salon filled with chatty women but it was actually full of old men getting their heels scraped and feet massaged. There was the Chinese equivalent of 'Sunrise' on a panel TV, hosted by three men in wigs; it was called 'Pleasure & Leisure'. There was so much dead skin flying off the foot of the businessman next to me it reminded me of the spark spray that shoots out when welding. Beautiful stuff. My feet are baby soft now, FYI.

Next was the Chungking mansions, a series of buildings connected by a labyrinth of businesses and hostels. I ripped this from Wikipedia:

"Chungking Mansions features guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices. It often acts as a large gathering place for some of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, particularly South Asians (Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans), Middle Eastern people, Nigerians, Europeans, Americans, and many other peoples of the world. Peter Shadbolt of CNN stated that the complex was the "unofficial African quarter of Hong Kong"."

"CUHK anthropologist Prof. Gordon Mathews estimated in 2007 that people from at least 120 different nationalities had passed through Chungking Mansions in one year.Mathews also estimates that up to 20 percent of the mobile phones recently in use in sub-Saharan Africa had passed through Chungking Mansions at some point."



Pretty cool, no?
Here's some photos of one of the elevator directories:






The place is nuts.



I'm currently waiting in HK airport for my flight to Burma via a long night sleeping in KL airport. Wish me luck xx