First of all let’s get two things straight. The first is that Khmer is pronounced Kmai so Kuh-mai and second of all I know Myanmar is spelt My but it looks better even though they both rhyme. Anyways first we were in Cambodia in the Khmer Empire. We stayed a night in Phnom Penh and then we flew out to Bangkok to have a layover for five hours there and then fly to Yangon in Myanmar. So we get to Phnom Penh International Airport and go to the Air Asia booth (7 times low-cost airline world champ!!) and then the person asks us if we have got our Myanmar Visa yet. Well Jay had been told and had read that we could get it at the airport in Myanmar, but the Air Asia people are trying to get him to do something I don’t know what though and so we make it through security to our plane and land in Bangkok.
That’s when the problem becomes real!
Turns out that if Myanmar rejects our Visa at their airport then Air Asia has to fly us back for free!! So of course they say NOPE gotta miss your flight no refunds and stay in Bangkok for two nights!!! So we take a bus into the Bangkok train station and I have to say Bangkok is a pretty clean and nice city! We took the SkyTrain which is basically an above-ground in the air train and took it twice to the main street where our side-street hotel was located!! So we climb down and head to the main street where people are walking everywhere and cars and motorcycles are driving all over the place! Imagine Toronto but with twice the traffic and half the apartments!! Anyways we walk say 500m up the sidewalk then have to turn around because we are going the wrong way and walk 1km in the opposite direction and got some directions and found we had to go on the OTHER SIDE of the road!!!! So we crossed and went up Street 15 and headed to the very end and were told AGAIN we were going the wrong way but this time they said we had to go to Street 13!!! By this time I was ready to give up but we made it to Street 13 and went down like three quarters of the way and were just about to give up when Jay yelled out “I SEE IT!!!” and WOW it was such a miracle!! Anyways we got up to our room on Floor 5 of 8 and then threw ourselves down on the sheets for like 1.5 hours.
The next day we went to the Myanmar Embassy and signed up for a Visa to be collected at 3:30pm. Once it was that time we headed down and WOOHOO!!! We had a Visa for tomorrow!!!! With time to kill we headed down to the workout park and my record for chin-ups is 7! After that we went to the Old Market but didn’t buy anything there. One cool shirt I saw said: Six Pack: Coming Soon like a movie!! Well for mine it would say: Six Pack: Already on stomach!!!! Anyways we again didn’t eat anything and went to bed as soon as we got inside our room! The next morning we woke up and went to the pool on the roof for like two hours. Then we headed for the Airport! We only had two hours so we didn’t stop to rest! We just headed into McDonald’s (first time on trip!! 3 months!) and I got double patty egg McMuffin with a ‘small’ (realistically HUGE) Strawberry Fanta! After our ‘breakfast’ we got onto our plane and flew to Myanmar! When we touched down we were surrounded by fields and I am so excited to explore the country but I have to go as we leave the plane in a minute!! See you all later!
Myanmar… Watch out!!!
Sullivan