Myanmar...sucks!

Dad woke me up in the middle of the night groaning and moaning really, really loud in his sleep. It sounded like he was being tortured. It went on for about three minutes. I got a small clip of it, it's hilarious to listen too!

I also had bad diarrhroea in the middle of the night. Oh noes, travellers diarrhroea, here we come!

I got up about 8:00, showered, then we went downstairs for breakfast (included in the price). Not a very good breakfast, mostly Asian with noodles and rice and crap.

Credit cards are pretty much non-existant here (as are ABM's). Whatever money we have on us is what we have, there's no reasonable way to get more. Dad started fretting because we have no ticket out of Myanmar. We decided we should book something right now, while we still have money. If the internet worked, we could have booked something online and paid by credit card, but with no internet, we have no choice but to pay cash at an airline office. We wanted to book Air Asia online, they only accept online bookings and are cheaper than all the other airlines. Air Asia not an option, because the internet is busted. We tried Thai Airways, fully booked for the dates we were looking at (next Saturday, Sunday or Monday). Tried Bagan Air, fully booked. Then we went to Myanmar Airlines International, they had a special $75 fare one-way to Bangkok, and had seats, so we took it. It's unfortunate, this is the government run airline, so we're supporting an oppressive regime, but our hands were kinda tied, and we did try booking with other airlines first. Anyway, the total price was $100 each for the flight, and we had to pay cash for that. We fly out on March 17. Dad is very relieved. However, he did remark to me earlier that he's ready to leave tomorrow...on his impressions of Yangon, he had already decided that he didn't want to see any more of Myanmar. I wasn't about to let that happen. I knew once we got out of Yangon, things would get better.

We tried to walk around and find working internet, but everything is down. One guy told us that the internet is down because the UN envoy is back in Myanmar. While that is true, I wonder if that's the reason the government cut the internet!

I changed some more money for kyat and got 1030 kyat for $1US this time. We then booked a bus to Mandalay, $20 for the both of us for tomorrow. It's a nice bus, it'll be nice to get out of Yangon, it's not a very pleasant place to be.

The boy that befriended us yesterday found us today and walked around with us. We went to a restaurant (Zawgui's Cafe) for lunch, and he came in with us and sat down. Dad made sure that the restaurant didn't think that we were buying him lunch. Dad did give him his leftover french fries, however.

There's so many people offering money exchange, it's getting annoying!

Went back to the hotel, dad napped, we watched tv, did crossword puzzles and I wrote in my journal.

About 4:00, we walked to Kandawgi Lake, a natural lake in the middle of Yangon. We (foreigners) had to pay 1000 kyat to the government to get in to the park around it. It's very nice, there's boardwalks all over the lake, very nice park. We walked east toward this humoungous boat at the end of the lake. Saw the Shin Upagot Shrine on the way, on an island in the lake. At the east end of the lake is a nature park, Karaweik Garden, Kandawgyi Nature Park. 300 more kyat to the government to get in. And 500 kyat camera fee! Dad payed for his camera, but I didn't pay (had my camera hidden in my pocket). There's also a 1000 kyat video camera fee, which dad didn't pay, he had is video camera hidden away a pouch. The boat is called Karaweik, a concrete reproduction of a royal barge. It's huge and has a bug Buddhist temple inside it. It was 1000 more kyat to go inside the temple, so we didn't go. The foreigner fees are ridiculous!

Lots of activity at the park, people playing live music at various stages, lots of restaurants, a mini-zoo, big playground for kids. We considered supper, but we were low on kyat. We did hang around the area for sunset to get some views of Shwedagon Paya from a distance when it's all lit up by floodlights.

After that, we got a taxi back to our hotel. Decided to try the internet, and it's working!!! It's super slow, but we were able to send a few emails and read some before it went down again.

As we were walking to the internet, a money changer offered us 1200 kyat per $1US. I told him I would change, so we followed him all over, down dark alleys for quite a distance. He asked us to sit inside while his boss came. Dad didn't say anything at the time, but he later told me he was stressing because we were going so far, down dark alleys. He had thoughts of picking up a big bamboo stick to fight them off should they jump us. We sat for a while in the office, then another guy came and said not 1200, 1020 kyat. I told him I was told 1200, not 1020, so got up and left. They started begging us to stay, and increased their price to 1050, trying to get us to stay. As we were walking back, our original money exchange buddy (who always seems to be around) offered us 1080 kyat per US dollar, if I exchanged a $100 US bill. I told him yes, so we went back to his shop. The big boss was there with his family, they had a young kid, just over a year old, very nice people. Very friendly. I got my kyat, and dad also changed $50, but they would only give him 1070 kyat, because the bills are smaller. This is the third time I exchanged money at the shop, they have good money and haven't had any problems. He sells t-shirts in his shop, but I'm sure it's just a front for his black-market business. LOL.

We went back to the internet, and it was working a tad better, so we used it some more. Still haven't been able to update any journal entries, however! Too unreliable. A few emails is the best we can do.

After we left the internet, kids were begging for food on the streets. We ate back at the hotel about 9:00, and to bed shortly after 10:00.