Gate 20

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try to get a transit visa so you don't have to sleep in Guangzhou airport overnight. (BTW there are at least 4 steps left out of this diagram, including getting your boarding pass for the connecting flight, filling out a transit visa request, promising you've never been arrested in China, and retrieving your luggage long after it came off the carousel.)

But first, a few more monks. (Sorry, Declan.)

I was assigned a seat next to a barefooted monk on my flight to Yangon. Monks aren't allowed to touch women, even accidentally. So he had to be moved. I wound up with a bare-footed baby next to me instead.

My Grab driver had golden owls! I took this as a good omen. The Airport Hotel was wonderful, if you don't mind an occasional plane flying overhead! I even spied a bottle of our favorite Myanmar wine and persuaded the cute server to open it for a glass. He made a big show of chilling it, letting me sniff the cork, and pouring a taste with great flair.

Quick pool retrospective: Myeik, Yangon, Guangzhou (no photos allowed but huge and indoor)

No, you were watching 10 to Million Myanmar in your room, wondering what the question was. (Heartbreakingly, the answer was Donald Duck.)

But back to airport hell. The first issue with Guangzhou is you don't want to inhale. Gasp.

The second is figuring out the lines and paperwork to get the mythical 72 hour visa free transit. I had prebooked a hotel (for free) with my airline ticket.

I knew from Pam's terrible experience that I might get stuck in the airport, at the hourly hotel, trying not to inhale.

So I was determined to figure this out. Down to the basement. Upstairs by 7-11. Through the long hallway toward Parking 2.

It was all made worse by not being able to connect to any of the free wifi zones. And having way too much luggage, now heavier with all the tea and goodies I'd been buying, trying to spend my last remaining kyat. (Done!)

And then, like a rat in a maze, I found it! Gate 20!

I had to stand in another two lines, showing off my voucher, for which I got another sticker: the magic valet will find you and transport you to the Holiday Inn.

If you've never traveled in Asia, you may not realize that Holiday Inns are 5-star hotels here. I won the prize! Too bad I have to leave in 12 hours for the airport.

 In case you need to breathe....There's a big picture window but you can't see anything.

They do have cool labeled mood lights all over.

And matador art outside my room. And fake orchids in the revolving door. It's a little like Vegas in China, complete with buffets filled with seafood and a chocolate fountain.

Guanghzhou is the home of Cantonese food! I meant to take a day trip to Shenzen when I was in Hong Kong, but I'd already left PRC and didn't want to pay for a second visa. 

Ironically, China Southern won't let you use your iPhone even in airplane mode. Even though you're flying over Foxconn, where they're made. But that's a story for another day. Time for a swim. See you on the other side.

Part 2: in which I try to leave Guangzhou, after a huge group has our biometrics scanned at the entrance door

The Great Railway Bazaar

We spent yesterday running important errands and eating delicious food, with plans to take a sleeper train up to Mandalay Friday night.

The train station was hot and sprawling, with few signs in English. Burmese is mysterious and to my eyes, indecipherable.

 In Myanmar, people like lines. British legacy, perhaps.

After standing in several different lines, they told me I had to come back tomorrow (Friday) for sleeper class tickets. 

When I returned today, they said the sleepers to Mandalay were all sold out. 

Me: but you told me to come back tomorrow?!

Guy behind the counter: You want tickets for tomorrow?

A friendly tout who spoke better English directed me to an agent who sold VIP bus tickets. An hour later, they were procured.

Along the way, I picked up healthy street food: tofu stuffed with shredded cabbage and chiles. They cost 100 kyat each or less than 14¢ each.

Travel plans finally accomplished, I set off for Myanmar's last synagogue, built in 1896 in the British Colonial era.

 Inside, it reminded me of a synagogue I visited in the East End of London, from the same era.

The chandeliers are a bit sparklier.

Moses Samuels, whose family came from Iraq, promised his father he would keep the synagogue open as long as there were Jews in Myanmar. Many families left when the Japanese occupied Burma during World War II. Today, there are perhaps 20 Burmese Jews left in the country, including Moses' son Sammy, who keeps the synagogue open. I'm sorry not to have met Moses. He is remembered well.

When I was in Havana in 2009, Janet and I visited a synagogue, which was also fascinating. The woman we met had family from Chicago.

That extra bit of shalom sparkle.

And so we wander. Contentedly. 

Next stop: Pyin oo Lwin. By overnight bus.

Burmese Days

I made it! I was supposed to go to Burma in 1999, but there was a hostage crisis at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, so we went to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos instead. 

This is Sule pagoda, right in the heart of everything.

It's hot and sticky, after hours cooped up in planes and airports. Everyone was out at the park, taking pictures. This monument above honors Burmese independence from the British in 1948, a year after India and Pakistan left the empire.

Yangon City Hall looks like it belongs in LA, or perhaps Shangri La, aside from the peacocks. 

By contrast, High Court building is in an old British style.

Yangon is nothing if not polytheistic. Although most people in Myanmar are Buddhists, the city is home to Hindu temples, 

Anglican, Methodist, and Catholic churches, 

a synagogue, and many mosques.

The traffic is dreadful. I was pleased to figure out how to cross the street without getting run over, by following local women and monks.

This is the block by our hotel. We're on a quieter side street. Still, I'll be happy to get out of the city.


Lots of cool decorative touches. Because of Myanmar's location, it combined the crafts of Southeast Asia with the garish colors of South Asia.

I took $200 out of the ATM. It was distributed in a giant stack of 5000 kyat notes, work around US$4 each. This isn't even all of them.

I had a cup of tea and a bowl of noodles at the cafe downstairs. The little boy whose family owns the place thought it was hilarious that I said "Mingalabah" to him. Total cost: 80¢.

****

Finally this picture is for my mom. I really wanted to get a fresh orange juice in the airport in Guangzhou just to see how the machine worked. But it only took cash (Chinese yuan) or a few mobile payments I don't have. I'll get one on the way home.

This is the first holiday trip in years that I haven't overplanned (which doesn't mean I haven't been up late reading guidebooks and bus schedules for months). We have two nights here and Yangon and the rest...we'll see.