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My First day in Yangon was spent in bed again, thought I was over it but by mid morning I was feeling queezy again, and decided to take a nap and didn't wake up until about 6.30.
Not sure what I was expecting Myanmar to be like really but I remember being slightly surprised when I arrived earlier at the airport. Ok the airport reminded me a little of Guernsey's old airport and Imagration was a bit strange, they allowed locals that were supposed to be collecting passangers into the baggage collection area. I have never seen this before in most places people have to clear customs before they are allowed anywhere near any local people. I guess this means that there are easier options for smuggling stuff into Myanmar.
I had tried to book a hotel ahead of my arrival, but I had received no confirmation so after speaking with one of the hotel reps, bagged myself a room including a free taxi into town, before I had left the customs area.
That meant that I was completely surprised when I came face to face with a chap holding a board with my name on it. Obvioulsy they dont confirm reservations round here. Decided to go to the new place anyway, and after a little bit of a language barrier managed to convey to the chap holding the board that I was going to stay somewhere else.
Was really surprised that there was absolutely no hassal when we came out of the exit, this has never ever happened to me before in asia. I mean there are usually tons and tons of taxi drivers that wont take no for an answer, here I only got offered 2 taxi's and when I said no thank you they actually listened to me!!
Downtown was about 20 mins away, we did get pulled over by the police though. As far as I could work out the guy driving wasn't the registered driver of the taxi, which isn't unusual in asia as far as I am concerned. They told me that he would have to pay about 1.5 dollars in fines and that he would have got more if he had run a red light. One thing that was funny was that the driver was trying to give the police man a bribe and he wasn't interested - now this did surprise me.
At the hotel it struck me the most so far was that every Local that I had met so far, were so nice and always smiling and giggling.
Later that day when I eventually got up, I managed to force down some rice, whilst I was chatting to sweede that I had met at the airport. Turns out that he had spent the afternoon at a monestry joining in with one of their english lessons. He had met a monk in a pagoda and got inviting along. Must admit I am completely jealous because If I had gone out earlier I would have probably joined him. But nevermind something more for the list of things to do whilst in Myanmar, fingers crossed I may get a similar chance soon.
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