In search of an Empire.Siam,Burma and Singapore.

[drron]

Until this time my interactions with the locals had all been positive,even with the fellow who didn't want me to take photos of the women's hospital.But now a young fellow and 3 young boys attached themselves begging.Very persistent.I did not have any money on me so turned down the first side street to get away-fortunately it led directly to the hotel's road.Still some interesting buildings.This is a serviced apartment block-

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And the WWF digs,looks pretty comfortable-

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Sunday morning and we set out to walk to Scott's market.But first a few more shots around the hotel.Interesting Christmas decorations-

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And water life-

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Looking back to the restaurant-

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And around the side the old bus-

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[drron]

This will be the last post for the night as speed is dropping and photos taking forever to copy.Might be the last for a couple of weeks as I feel the internet on the boat may be painful.Only free wifi at the bar and lounge also making it more difficult.

So when I got back to the hotel on Saturday evening we experienced Myanmar as it is with several blackouts.One lasted 20 minutes and the TV has not worked normally since.The only channel where we have both picture and sound is the BBC.So off we went to dinner passing by the Christmas tree-

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The view from our table-

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Started with an Amuse bouche which was described as minced chicken,apple and something else in Burmese-

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Tasty though.I had a coconut and tomato soup.Fairly bland-

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Then an interesting momentwhen we were served a sorbet between courses.The 2 tables around us had been complaining about the food and service.They both missed out on the grape sorbet.

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Mrsdrron had a very interesting and tasty vegetarian main.Mushroom lasagne with dried tomato jam but the leaves were made from rice paper-

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We were told the chef was Mexican so I thought the Chicken Adobe would be a safe bet.Well he must have left Mexico a long time ago and the chicken was tough.

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Mrsdrron finished off with some coconut chocolate chip icecream.I had the chocolate tart which was meant to come with a lemongrass foam but instead came with chocolate icecream-

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Mrsdrron had a glass of the local Sauvignon blanc and I a can of Myanmar beer.Came to $US109.Worth it?Definitely not.

 

[drron]

So I do have internet on the Ayarwaddy river.But it is way slower than dial up but here we go.At the next corner is a typical Southern Antebellum mansion except we are in Burma-

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Next door a Tudor house-

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Next we arrived at a new shopping mall.Two small department stores but the rest small "fashion"stores-

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Down in the basement was a supermarket.They were doing I presume the end of year stocktake.Many young women counting items then writing it down longhand-

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Now these young women had no problems with being photographed but just like yesterday a much older woman at the wine section would not let me photograph a bottle of Penfolds Thomas Hyland shiraz costing 21200 Kyats.Today our guide said many older people are still afraid the old government will come back to power so still act like the restrictions are still in place.Has now happened 4 times and always a much older person.

 

[drron]

We now set off walking to Scott's Market.Sometimes a little difficult as many footpaths have seen no maintenance since the British left.That was some time ago.First crossed the circle line then came across a huge wattle tree-

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A magnificent old building but not used.On the footpath though a family was living.Ablutios in the stormwater drain-

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Entrances to Pagodas all the way-

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Then we came to YGHYangon General Hospital.A huge building with character-

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[drron]

The roof of YGH was obviously getting a little old.You may also notice patients and washing on the verandahs-

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Whilst over the road the neurology ward was behind razor wire and barred-

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Again not allowed to film the school next door but could take photos of their temple-

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The Anglicans are still doing well-

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With a huge bottlebrush on one side-

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And finally our destination,Scott's market-

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[RooFlyer]

G'day mrs.dr.ron and dr.ron

Not sure where you will be on Christmas Day - it will certainly be a new experience - but have a great day . Your recounting of culinary experiences of Bangkok has (sigh) put it on the list to be re-visited.

Cheers!

 

[drron]

Scott's market behind the façade is a maze of metal sheds,alleyways,tourists,hawkers,shops that really don't have a great variety and round the side food.

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Didn't find anything worthy of purchase,passed on the deep fried crickets and went next door to the airconditioned Parkson mall-just a department store,supermarket and some fast food.Had lunch in the local coffee shop chain.Avocado melt on baguette-hold the avocado-and chicken satays-liberally coated in chilli.A group of 5 British folk were hogging the comfortable loung with 2 lying down asleep.They had all their luggage with them.There were 2 empty coffee cups in front of them when we arrived and the same 2 cups there when we left.
Interestingly they were also doing the stocktake in the supermarket but this was much more upmarket as they actually had typed lists of items.

Very tired so went to get a taxi back to the hotel.Told it should be 2500-3000K.The first guy asked 2500 so in we got.Nice flow through ventilation so easy to take a few pics-

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When we got to the hotel I gave the driver 3000K and told him to keep the change.Obviously a much larger than usual tip as his face lit up and he kept saying 500,500......
So it was nanny nap time.Dinner was fresh fruit and some cakes we bought.

 

[drron]

On both mornings we were awoken at 0430.The first day because of loud music from a party across the road and this morning with the guests below us leaving early.A bit strange but all the guests on the 0945 flight to Mandalay were switched to the 0600 flight and those on the 0600 flight(us) were switched to the 0945 flight so only had to leave hotel at 0745.So being awake we got to see the sunrise colours-

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Down to breakfast.They have a young woman playing a traditional harp-

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Some of the selection-

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This morning I had rice noodles in a spicy fish soup-

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When leaving a couple left by themselves in the old bus.Turned out to be on the ship with he being a knight of the realm-

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We shared a van with an English couple,very nice they are too.Passed a School bus-

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Lots of traffic and got to the airport~ 0900.The domestic terminal isn't that great but some magnificent wood inside-

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[drron]

A couple of stalls selling trinkets-

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Naturally through security I set off the alarm.Just walked straight to the footprints on the floor,spread my legs and arms,got a very perfunctory wand and collected my things.They had asked for computers out,I left mine in it's bag.no problems.After security a little food outlet.I really wanted to try the chicken funcy rice but had to go to the lounge.Rather basic.A roped off area which was basically the same as where we were-

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As you can see a very exclusive lounge.Open to anyone wanting to pay 5000K.Then out to the plane by the luxury airport limousine bus-

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Great door lock!
Then our plane.One day I will learn to hold the new camera properly-

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And another domestic airline-

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[drron]

VJ801. RGN-MDL. ETD-0945. Rolling-1004. Take off-1015.
ETA-1105. Landed-1129. At pad-1132.
At least TKWIW-

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Decorated for the season-

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Would we be making an early exit?

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Take off was delayed for a different bird.It's take off was aborted-

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Attractive FAs.Meal as usual for a LCC with a Tuna roll-

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The airline started operating in 2011.The ATR 72-500 were probably not new-

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After the meal the fellow behind me lit up.All the FAs descended upon him and then another announcement that this was a non smoking flight was made.Then the approach to MDL and the new expressway-

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[rogerkambah]

Once again a very interesting and impressive TR drron

 

[amaroo]

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Looks like a classic "white knuckle" flight. Hope mrs drron is feeling better!

 

[drron]

Looks like a classic "white knuckle" flight. Hope mrs drron is feeling better!

amaroo - that was me holding the emergency exit in place ! It was quite loose, I could move it a couple of inches with my hand :shock: so I was holding it in place for take off :shock: Ann.

 

[RB]

amaroo - that was me holding the emergency exit in place ! It was quite loose, I could move it a couple of inches with my hand :shock: so I was holding it in place for take off :shock: Ann.

Looks like Sri Lanka will not be too much of a challenge after this warm up! Enjoy Xmas

 

[amaroo]

amaroo - that was me holding the emergency exit in place ! It was quite loose, I could move it a couple of inches with my hand :shock: so I was holding it in place for take off :shock: Ann.

LOL the famous drron shorts/pants threw me off. Enjoying the TR ... Merry Christmas!

 

[drron]

The bus from the plane was a lot younger than that at RGN.We were met as we entered the airport and escorted through.Belmond picked up the bags.Even so all carryons had to be xrayed to exit the airport.Goodness knows why.It was a beautiful day with temp~27C.The taxi company was interesting-

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We then got allocated separate busses.Bus 1 & 2 were the English speaking busses with 10 pax each.Bus 3 were 12 German speakers and there were 4 people who were announced as people who didn't want to speak to the others-they wanted private tours.As the bus proceeded to the "pier" I got a few shots.Lots of sunflowers-

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Lots of stupas old and new-

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Local commerce-

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And as we arrived a pagoda-

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Then the river life down and upstream and our first sight of the Orcaella-

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And across the river the local dry dock and the Sagaing foothills-

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[drron]

Time to board.A rather steep descent.Nearly as much difference in water heights from dry to wet season as the Amazon-

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And our cabin-

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Then the view from our cabin-

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[drron]

After unpacking we had a beautiful lunch in the restaurant.Buffet style with both western and Asian dishes.The Asian dishes were presented without heat but with bowls of chilli and hot sauces to add as you wished.Talked to several of the other guests over lunch.It became apparent there was a major breakdown of communication between Belmond's head office,their administration,ship's crew and guests.Originally this cruise was meant to leave Mandalay,go upstream to Bhamo and then down to Bagan.The itinerary was changed at the end of August to Mandalay,Pyay,Bagan-all downstream from Mandalay.At least 8 guests boarded unaware of the change of itinerary,one an Australian lawyer who was extremely upset having paid for private tours in some upstream "ports".

Our history was that we had booked because of the itinerary.In July mrsdrron found a review of this trip in December 2013.The ship had got stuck on a sandbank for some days and the cruise was a shambles.She got in touch with the reviewer who had just negotiated a settlement with Belmond.So mrsdrron got in touch with our TA asking what was going to happen if the same thing happened this year.She eventually got a reply from Belmond on 29/8 saying the itinerary was changed to Mandalay-Pyay-Bagan.This was < one week from full payment and we were to se off for our Japan cruise the next day so we were unaware of the implications.It was only when we got back at the end of October we researched the itinerary(the original was still showing on the Belmond website).
We were disappointed and asked our TA to ask Belmond what compensation would be given in view of the changes.The answer from Belmond essentially said stiff cheese.This infuriated mrsdrron who sent a terse email to our TA insisting she fight for our rights.When in Bangkok we finally got an email saying we would get complimentary wine-granted to all pax.Felt there should have been some OBC.

Despite all that the ship,the crew,the guides,the food and the Burmese people are such that this has gone well and truly into the background.The on board experience is excellent.So with all that out of the way we set off for Mindon.We had to go downstream a little then do a U turn to head off in the upstream channel.So river life and views-

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[drron]

The river continued-

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[drron]

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