We have a very early start this morning, getting up at 4:30 AM (and we did not get to bed the night before until after 1:00 AM. After a quick shower and breakfast, we have loaded up the small rental car - and we are fortunate that we are able to fit in five people and all our luggage. We are traveling light - one bag between two people, so it works.
The roads are empty this early in the morning, so it takes us an hour to get to the airport, including topping up the petrol tank. Then checking in - no problems, just takes some time given the number of people and the connecting flight. By the time Jacqui comes back from dropping off the car, we do not have much time, so we head straight to the terminal. But first - the infamous immigration line at KLIA. It takes us forever to clear immigration and now we have to run to go and catch our plane.
After a smooth flight, we arrive at Changi Airport in Singapore - pretty much our favorite airport. It is simple, compact and very efficient. We have some time to relax in the Singapore Airlines lounge, so we take advantage of it and get some breakfast. Then it is off to board our Silkair flight to Yangon. The flight takes almost three hours, but we switch our clocks back one and a half hours, so we land at 11:35 AM. We still have a full afternoon.
The Yangon airport has not changed since we last visited over five years ago. Same old buses that took us from the plane to the terminal. Then the immigration formalities. They have about three people checking your passport and visa. They each take a close look, check something on the computer and then hand the passport down the line. We all pass this scrutiny, and then it is to the foreign exchange counter.
The government, in its infinite wisdom, has instituted a program were each tourist much exchange $200 into Foreign Exchange Certificates (each equal to one dollar). As the FEC's are worthless outside Myanmar, in effect they are forcing you to spend that amount of money in the country (and the government gets their hands on some hard currency). Well, we get our first introduction to the way things are done in Myanmar - the women behind the counter tells us that we really will not spend that amount of money during our stay and that we can pay her a some coffee money and she will allow us to exchange less and still get through. It is very open and she has a number of other officials watching over her. In the end, we reduce the amount that we need to convert from $1,000 to $500 for a fee of $20 (which was bargained down from $50).
Then to another checkpoint, where a man checks our FEC exchange receipts. Not a second glance despite the amount not matching the official requirement per passenger. This is followed by a long wait for our bags. They come out sporadically and we get one piece at a time. In the end, we are just glad that all our bags showed up. Now the final step to enter Myanmar - customs. We have to fill out forms with all the valuables that we have, stating that we will take them out with us. They are afraid that we might sell them on the street and make a tidy profit. The funny thing is that she reduces the amount we declare and we are not sure if this is a "nice" gesture to give us some flexibility or a means for them to catch us on the way out with, say, too much jewelry (the export of which is carefully controlled). Anyway, after a quick glance from the man into one of our bags, we are on our way.
After some hassles and bargaining, we have two taxis (old Japanese cars that would be banned from the streets there) and are on the way to our hotel - the Traders in downtown Yangon. After a few hassles checking in (some how we have like 3 times the number of reservations that we need), we finally get our rooms. Not too bad, but nothing special. We are pretty hungry by now (the food on the plane was not too our liking), so we head down for lunch in the hotel.
After lunch we head out for a quick look around. We decide to head to Scott's Market to check out what is available. We spend a couple of hours wandering around and we come away a bit disappointed. From five years ago, the quality seems to have deteriorated, the variety standardised down to a few types the prices gone up exponentially.
We spend the rest of the evening in the hotel. A drink in the lounge and the relaxing in the room after the long day.