Myanmar

At our fancy hotel in Bangkok I was arranging a transfer to the airport for our 7am flight and met an Aussie guy who is travelling with a French girl and they are also going to Myanmar. What a small world I thought.

When we got to the airport this morning our flight was full of people that we saw yesterday while getting our visa's at the embassy, apparently everyone waits until the last minute. When we arrived in Yangon we were met by someone from our guesthouse at the airport and found out that the Aussie guy and French girl had also booked into the same guesthouse as us.

The guidebook said that the exchange rate at the airport is terrible, we later found out that this was outdated and inaccurate information. We asked at our guesthouse who told us that he could only give us 820 Kyat for each USD but we should be able to get 840+ from people in the market. On the way to the market we passed a bank and I looked in at the rate and it was 863 Kyat for 1 USD. I only changed $50 worried that it wasn't a good rate as my guidebook said the rate was 1200 Kyat to 1 USD, I didn't want to change too much in case it was a terrible rate. Several men approached me as we walked toward the market asking if we wanted to change money. I bargained with them until one of them agreed to give me 900 Kyat for each USD. I was still a little nervous and unsure of changing money on the street so I compared the money he was giving me to what I got from the bank and checked every bill to make sure that it wasn't ripped. I also counted every bill myself to make sure that it was all there and it was. The wad of of 1000 Kyat notes was very thick with 90 of them in all and the guy who changed the money held out a rubber band to me so I could bundle them all together. Somehow when he put the rubber band on he managed to palm some of the bills as when I counted it later back in my room there were no longer 90 bills in there! I had a chance to look online and see that the official rate is in the mid 860's and changed the rest of our money at the bank.

We went to a local tea shop where the tea is free and you are presented with a plate full of savory and sweet pastries to choose from and you pay for only what you eat. We were excited little piggies and ate much more than we should have but wanted to try all of the different delicious foods.

As we walked around the streets of Yangon we saw very few other tourists and those that we did see all said "hello" to us. All of the local people were also smiling at us and saying "hello" and it wasn't followed up with "would you like to buy...". It was a really refreshing change especially for a large city like Yangon.

We spent most of the day wandering the streets looking at the way people live and soaking up Myanmar. For sunset we made our way to the Shwedagon Pagoda. It was absolutely beautiful and we sat and watched as the sun set and the colors all around us changed with the changing light.

We had an opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with several monks who were interested in us and telling us about themselves, it was really nice.

So far I really like Myanmar and I'm looking forward to what else we will see.

Check out all of today's pictures in the slideshow below: