Day 2 - January 7, 2008 - Mandalay, Myanmar

Day 2 - January 7, 2008 - Mandalay, Myanmar

Had a tasty included breakfast downstairs at 8:00 AM. Toast + bananas + 2 fried eggs + coffee + juice.

Set out on the Lonely Planet downtown walking tour. On the way we checked out 2 other hotels that turned out to be too expensive, without a good view or vibe.

Many monks were out collecting alms both on foot and on buses. It's scene we would see repeated all over the country each morning.

The Clock Tower was impressive but the famous Zegyo Market was closed (on Monday's) so we gave up on the rest of tour and returned to the hotel although we did buy an English textbook from book shop on the way back. Sun-Ling wants to learn the Myanmar letters and numbers.

Tried calling the Chinese Consulate to get info on Chinese visas but they did not answer. A digression. When I resigned from Intel, my Chinese Resident Visa was canceled and replaced with a 30-day, single entry, Tourist Visa which was duly canceled when we left Kunming. Thus to get back into China I would need another Tourist Visa. Sun-Ling's Chinese Resident Visa was not canceled but it was set to expire in Feb 08, so she needs another Tourist Visa when we enter China again in March.

Back the hotel and next door to Shwe Pyi Moe Cafe, a branch of the well known tea house, for lunch. Tea + fried eggs + nan and beans + spongy cold noodles for 850 Kytat (about 75 cents). Back to hotel for a nap.

Spent the afternoon strolling around our part of town on foot and doing some trip planning on the roof top terrace (only 26 days left on our 28 day visa).

Many of the houses in this section of town are older wooden structures on stilts.

Near the hospital that's close to our hotel, we saw several big piles of what looked like donated clothing from overseas. Some had been washed and were hanging on racks (for sale?), the rest were still in piles on the sidewalk. Hmm. Guess that's one way the clothes we donate to charity end up.

Other local color that I noted in my journal:
-broom salesman with inventory
-betel nut seller and cart
-ice cream seller and cart
-3 ducks chasing 2 boys

Spent 200 K on a tasty street-side snack and 300K on another bottle of water.

Inspected the bikes for hire at our hotel. They look OK.

Had dinner at a nearby "tea house". Rice + mushrooms + watercress w/tofu + cauliflower + soup for 1400 Kyat.

Beer! After our meal at the tea house we had 2 draft Spirulina beers at a beer house we passed on the way back to the hotel. The owner spoke some English and was very friendly. He brought us some free peanuts. We bought some grilled new potatoes and grilled quail eggs.

The drafts were a bit less than a pint, maybe 300 mls, and were 400 K each - not a bad price. The beer itself was golden brown, a tad weak, but still tasty.

A regular, an Indian guy with jet black hair, wearing a western styled leather jacket, about my age, came in and sat down. He ordered a pint of Grand Royal Whiskey. They brought him the pint, a medium empty glass and big glass of water, and he proceeded to make a succession of whiskey's and water. He was still at it when we left.

Last stop of the evening was our local Buddhist Temple. No shoes of course, but it was a very dirty walk up to the altar - dirty as in dirt - as one can bicycle in, drive a car in, and the whole town is quite dusty in the dry season. Many people are praying either in front of the Buddha Image or in the meditation room behind. There was also a room with fans and mosquito nets. I guessed that this was a "comfortable" meditation room but not sure. [To clarify the drive-in part. One can drive their car into the temple compound almost to the inner area, removing their shoes as they get out of the car.]

Back at the Royal City, the hot water, a combination of solar and gas powered, seems to be on the fritz. Arrggh. We finally get hot water after 10 PM.


The clock tower


Morning commuters


Shwe Pyi Moe Cafe


Broom Seller


Typical House


Snack Vender = Spicy + tasty!

Day 1 - January 6, 2008 - Mandalay, Myanmar

We are headed back to Myanmar (Burma) in November provided we get all the paperwork straight so, to get myself in the right frame of mind, I'm going to start typing up my journal from our January 2008 visit. It's going to be a quick job so please excuse typos and mangling of tenses.

Day 1 - January 6, 2008 - Kunming, China to Mandalay, Myanmar

Got up at 8:00 AM. Packed and headed over to McDonald's for usual b-fast: Egg-Mcuffin, waffles. 2 hash browns, and two cups of the "gourmet" coffee. All for 25 RMB (about $3.50 US).

Mailed book to to Melanie in Shanghai. Checked out.

10:10 AM. A very short - 15 minute, 17 RMB - ride to the airport. Kunming is fairly compact.

No hassles checking in or de-immigrating, although we "lost" our water bottle. Not allowed if containing water. Hmm.

Walked around a bit at the gate. Mostly souvenirs for sale.

It was announced that our China Eastern flight - MU2029 - was late so we would be served our meal at the gate. And it was a meal. At the gate. We lined up for our utensils, plates, and a tray, and received a meal with lots of meat, fish balls, cauliflower, and rice, and ate it right at the gate in those gate chairs. But not the meat or fish balls.

However, the flight was only 5 minutes late and we received another meal on the plane during the 2-hour flight. Strange. But I'm always ready to eat.

The plane was small - about 20 rows of 4 - and half full. I had a window with a magnificent view of The Hump. The Himalayas were awesome.

The Mandalay Airport - code MDL - is about 45 kms from town. I'm always nervous when visiting a "one party" country for the first time, but we had no problems with immigration, checked bags, or customs. In fact, I tried to declare my $2100 US dollars as $2000 is the "undeclared" limit, but the woman behind the counter just laughed.

"Two thousand one hundred dollars. Don't worry.....RMB?....Don't worry....Camera. OK."

The whole experience was very laid back.

We met a woman, Unni, from Norway in the immigration line and shared a taxi, $6 each, to the Royal City Hotel. Unni had recently been to Romania and had way more than $2000 to declare. We pumped her for information on Turkey, Iran, and Syria. All highly recommended by Unni.

The ride was worth $6 says Sun-Ling. Lots of local color. Bullock carts piled high with hay. Overloaded buses. And as we reached the city we saw a funeral procession, two blocks long with 50 vehicles, for a famous Buddhist monk. First, older monks in sedans. Then younger monks in pickup trucks. Then several decorated floats, one with lots of flowers that carried the body. Then many buses full of the remaining mourners.

After an hour's ride we arrived at the Royal City Hotel: No. 130, 27th Street, Between 76th and 77th Street. A modest but very clean 7-story, narrow, hotel. We get a back corner room, #203, at $19 per night with breakfast included. Awesome.

The weather was sunny and dusty at 26 C.

The Royal City Hotel does not change money, but pointed us to the Unity Hotel, Central Hotel, and Seven Diamond Travel Agency, all across the railroad tracks in the central downtown district, about a 5 block walk.

We changed money at Seven Diamond Travel at 1250 kyat per dollar. Kyat is pronounced "jet" or "chat" depending on your tongue shaping abilities. Haha. We changed $100 and now have125, 1000-kyat bills. Yikes! That's a pile.

Walked back to the RCH. Bought a 1L H2O @ 300 Kyat (about 25 cents) on the way back. The route took us by the Mandalay Place Moat. John said knowingly, as he had read the Lonely Planet Myanmar, "That moat was rebuilt several years ago with slave labor." Sun-Ling quickly replied "All moats are built with slave labor." Good point...... The original moat was most likely built with forced labor also. But not to make light of the folks who were recently forced to work on the moat.

Also checked out ACME Internet Cafe - 1000K per hour.

About 4:30 we walked up to the roof top terrace. We could have ridden the elevator but there was no electricity. More on that later. Wow! Great views to Mandalay Palace and Mandalay Hill, and a mixture of Hindu Temples, Churches, Mosques, Clock towers, and Buddhist stupas, and modern buildings that make up the skyline. Wow!

Spent an hour watching the city as the sun went down. An odd kite or two, a little fire across the street, a small religious procession with triangle and gong, the neighborhood kids, some electricians up in a utility pole, and a multitude of clocks that struck 5PM more or less at the same time.

There are mosques but no call to prayers. Hmm. Later we find out that there are no broadcast call to prayers in any town we visit on this trip.

Then out for dinner at Marie-Min Vegetarian restaurant, recommended by LP and just down the street. We have 2 chapati, aubergine dip, tofu and watercress, potato curry, samosas, 1 L H2O - all for 7400 Kyat, about $5 - on the 2nd floor balcony.

The restaurant has an antique shop on the 1st floor with an additional 2 floors across the street. Lots of boxes, puppets, and Buddhist figures. The eggshell lacquer box - $22 - caught Sun-Ling's eye but no deal.

Then on to ACME Internet Cafe where we spent 1500K to surf the Internet for 45 minutes each. Even though we had read that it was nearly impossible to get to websites outside Myanmar, I was able to reach Facebook, Gmail, and Flickr. Sun-Ling got to Hotmail and Yahoo mail - all through Firefox with a proxy of some sort. It was very slow but I did get several gmails out and one short blog post to meckleyearth.

Back to the hotel. A quick trip to the rooftop. The electricity in Mandalay appears to be sporadic. We heard many generators. The city is NOT lit up at night.

SLHOTD: Funeral procession
JHOTD: Clearing Immigration and Customs.

The Hump


Royal City Hotel - Room #203


Mandalay Palace Moat


Electricians up a pole


Watching the fire across the street


Mandalay at night

The Procession

DD.965 - Amarapura, Myanmar

DD.965 - Amarapura, Myanmar, originally uploaded by meckleychina.

As our blue Mazda truck-taxi stopped at a RR crossing, I jumped out of the back to get the shot of the narrow gauge train lumbering through. Some of the passenger cars are really rolling back and forth. Take a look.

Into the Jaws of Ike (UPDATED)

A few years ago, the Chinese Embassies and Consulates in the United States stopped accepting visa applications by mail. You must now appear in person or use a visa service. So you may have guessed by now that there is Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas and we sent our applications and passports to a visa service there earlier this week... Oh my... I'll keep you posted. Our fingers are crossed.

UPDATE: Made contact with the visa service. They went back to work on Monday the 22nd and they have our passports and forms. Woohoo!

Brother Daniel

Daniel S. Meckley
1961-2008

My younger brother Daniel passed away last week. He was 46. We will miss him.

Daniel and I almost share a birth date. His was born on September 20th and I on September 21st. One of my earliest memories is crossing the street in downtown Newport News, Virginia with my Grandmother,Great Aunt, and little brother Jim, on our way to the old Riverside Hospital to pick up my Mom and new baby brother Daniel.

Growing up, our birthdays would often be celebrated on the same day. We each had our own cake and presents but not own "day". No matter. It was fun and special to share a day. And as we moved into our twenties and thirties, the shared celebration was a good excuse to get together at Mom and Dad's for dinner and cake even though I had moved to North Carolina.

There were no September birthday get-togethers for the last 5 years or so. My wife and I were living in Florida and then China - too far to travel. Daniel, wife Cathy, and dog Chewy moved to Richmond. However, now that we were back in the States, we had planned to meet at the Outer Banks this month to renew the birthday ritual. In fact, I talked about it with him on the phone the day before he died.

Now, we won't have that birthday celebration and it will be a tough weekend of September 20/21.

Recently Daniel had not been well and was on oxygen and using a cane. In fact, he had medical problems all his life. As a family we learned two great lessons from this. One, parents' love can be spread equally among their children even though sometimes their attentions are not. Two, Daniel - kind, and generous to a fault - never complained about his illnesses; not because he was stoic, but because he accepted his lot in life. "You get what you get" said the Pastor at his funeral.

There are plenty of good memories. I'll relate just one here.

Daniel always had a way with the ladies. When we were kids, I called the neighborhood moms Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Register. He called them Billie Joe and Myrtle and drank coffee with them.

And finally to quote my niece.

R.I.P. Uncle Daniel
Say hi to the Chewster for me.