11/27 & 28: Flying Hither, Thither and Yon

11/27:

We were flying back to Yangon this morning from Nyaung Shwe to complete our clockwise tour of Myanmar but there was one last souvenir I wanted to buy first if I could. Steven had gotten up later than I and said he had no interest in going to Mingala Market located at the entrance to town so I rode back there by myself. The market was flooded with locals as traders from the lake had brought in fresh fish and produce from the floating gardens.

I finally found what I was looking for after wandering around the combination produce, household goods, clothing and handicraft market.

We took the hour long taxi ride back to the town of Heho, the closest airport to Nyaung Shwe, but the taxi ride back was much cheaper than the ride into town since there was no monopoly on the return journey. 

We checked in for our Air KBZ flight at the airport as you can’t check in online for their flights. It was so strange only ever having to present the printed ticket confirmation to receive our boarding passes – never a passport. We did get cute little color coded stickers so that Air KBZ personnel knew we had seats on the Yangon bound flight. I thought we had been transported back to kindergarten!

The 1 hour flight back to Myanmar's capital city of Yangon from Heho got us back at 12:30. Thankfully, the taxi ride back to the same hotel we had stayed at on our initial trip to the city, only took 30 minutes as traffic wasn't as bad this time as when we had arrived 2 weeks earlier. We made arrangements with the driver to pick us up in the morning at 6 for our flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. That taken care of, we checked into the hotel and left almost immediately so we could wander around Yangon a bit more.

Steven and I remarked to each other how odd it was that we had not read about or could find any infrastructure in Yangon – no ‘Parliament,’ no national buildings or monuments indicative of a capital city.

Thanaka products for sale, i.e. the yellow powder commonly applied to mostly women's faces throughout Myanmar.

We returned to nearby Bogyoke Market to pick up some last minute souvenirs – a lovely hand woven table mat from the Chin state store we’d been to previously, a tiny jade elephant to remind us of the thousands of jade products we’d seen in all the pagodas and shops all over Myanmar, a small wooden ball ornament that brought back memories of all the boys we’d watched play ball and some gifts but I won’t reveal those!

It was fun knowing our way around that part of Yangon so well that we had no need for a map. We felt like residents who had been away on a vacation and had come back home and not tourists fumbling with maps for once!

There was a strong cafe culture in Yangon as you can tell from our stroll down the street above where mostly men enjoyed whiling away some time drinking coffee while sitting on tiny plastic chairs. Those of you who know me well understand that my beverage of choice is a hot 'cuppa' tea and not coffee. Steven likes coffee but has never expressed any interest in spending time at a coffee shop and watching the world go by. Alexander and Andrew: I know that's far more your style of traveling but Steven and I tend to like being on the go. When we do sit down, it's to eat, not to drink.

11/28:

I was surprised at how few drivers had any lights on their cars either late last night or again this morning when it was still dark out on the way to the airport. 

It was only a 25 minute ride to the Yangon airport in the early morning hours compared to over twice that coming from the airport 2 weeks ago. We weren’t able to check in online last night for our Air Asia flight to Kula Lumpur as the whole area of Yangon that we were in had no wifi. Luckily that wasn't an issue.

 Hokey pictures at the Yangon airport!

I could not believe that there were ads on even overhead luggage compartments and tray tables on our Air Asia flight. What is this world coming to when even that space is not sacrosanct? Too bad the airline didn't spend some of that ad revenue on handing out complementary wet wipes, snacks and beverages like Air KBZ did. We sure had gotten spoiled!

The sign welcoming us to Malaysia! I wondered what new adventures awaited us in Kuala Lumpur, its capital.

Posted on 12/10 from Agra, India.