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.