Back to Yangon

We’ve been enjoying our travels in Myanmar so much but this chapter of our adventure was fast coming to an end.

We left Inle early having said goodbye to our boat and the driver who’d taken such good care of us over the last few days and set off by car to the airport.

People in the villages we drove through en route to the airport were getting ready for another day too, though what this man is taking to market, I have no idea – rice cakes of some kind?  How did he get onto his bike and how on earth is he going to get off?  Though one thing;s for sure, he’ll have a soft landing if he fell over!

A but further along, the young monks were out looking for breakfast.

They walk barefoot like this for up to ten miles each morning, gathering their food for the day.  I noticed this lady had taken her shoes off whilst she gave them rice.

This lady too.  Sanda thought that both women would do this every day as a means of gaining kharma.

Monks go out in search of breakfast each day because they are forbidden to eat after noon.  I imagine these young men get pretty hungry!

Soon, we’re at Heho airport.  The car park is a little less busy than Heathrow.

The terminal building a little smaller and hardly recognisable as such, with few signs around.

 

Inside, there’s the usual hubbub as young men dressed in assorted football-related shirts take care of our luggage, weigh it, label it and so on.  Meanwhile Sanda checks us in and gets the boarding passes.

We’re all set. RGN here we come!

Each one of these small flights we’ve taken has left and arrived on time.  This one was different.  It left Heho and arrived in Yangon half an hour early.  My hero was curious about this, being a public transport professional – running a few minutes late is something to be managed but running early? A definite no-no!

Anyway, our flight was smooth and trouble free and the entertainment was fun.  A group of French women were travelling with us, sitting across the aisle from my hero and I.  As the snack was handed round, it appeared to be simple enough fare; a croissant and a small Danish pastry,  It was handed to us quickly, with a brief description which my hero interpreted as “tuna croissant”.  What?

Bearing in mind the strange pastry which had been given to us on one of our earlier flights which had some kind of meatpaste in the centre, I thought it was perfectly possible that this was going to be interesting.  Judging from the expressions on the French group’s faces, I think they found it anything but!!  For sure enough, though it was a perfectly ordinary croissant for the first two or three bites, the next couple had about a teaspoonful of tuna inside, after which it was a plain croissant again.  Clearly it didn’t meet French quality control though actually, however strange it seemed, it was perfectly ok.

In around an hour we were in Yangon.  This is baggage collection.  A short time after I took the picture, a man with a trolley arrived and handed out our suitcases one by one on receipt of the luggage check.

From there, it should have been a thirty minute drive to our hotel but Yangon traffic being what it is, it was almost lunchtime when we checked in.  Sanda went off to catch up at home whilst we caught up with all kinds of things, including  my blog.  After so many days of flaky internet, the pair of us feasted on it for the afternoon!

Though dinner was good, we are looking forward to a change from banana blossom salad and chicken curry.  Burmese food is interesting but lacks the fragrant heat of Thai cuisine and the depth of flavour associated with Chinese cooking.  Or maybe it’s dumbed down for western tourists? 

We retired to our lovely room and checked our email before switching the light out – because we could