Yangon

After a very early taxi ride to the airport and a short flight we arrived in a completely different world. Very wide avenues, not much traffic and most of it in very old and battered cars with a few WWII vintage buses and some trikshaws thrown in. It is easy to see that this city was rebuilt by the British, and not much has been done since, but it's just fascinating and we are having a great time.

The biggest surprise was Udi, Yogi's friend, who surprised Yogi in the airport. We all went together to our guest house and then took a walk with him in the downtown and visited the Sula Paya - a very large buddhist stupa which also functions as the main traffic circle of the city!

By then it turned too hot to be outside so we returned to the hotel for a rest. We had 2 rooms in the hotel - each with drk wood floors and walls and an A/C and a fan so it was relatively comfortable. The main problem is the lack of any window so it's hard to tell what time it is. The people are very nice, served us breakfast as we arrived and arrnaged our plane tickets to Mandalay for today. We had originally planned to take the night train but it seems the night train has been cancelled a while back...

The highlight of the day was the visit to the Shedawgon - a huge complex of buddhist stupas and pagodas. It's just unbelievable - all gold gilded or plated, a gazilion Buddhas in any possible size and color and tons of nats (the Myanmar spirits which are part of their version of Buddhism) all over the place. Was just stupifying.

We had a nice conversation with a n 85 year old monk who told us parts of his life story - he used to be Christian (went to the Missionarie's school), then became a Buddhist and also was an office in the Army. He was really charming. When asked about current conditions he complained that he cannot get chocolate and that the butter and jam are not as good as they used to be!

Finally we met Udi at the Sakura Tower - the tallest buidling in Yangon and had dinner with him on the top (20th) floor. This was a fancy restaurant and the food was rather awful... Not clear what we'll eat from now on as Yango is supposedly the gourmet capital... But the view was worth it - and we had a lot of fun.

We tried to read email but are unable to access it. The cellphone does not work either, so I think our main mode of communciation is this blog. Anybody who reads this might drop Avi a line and remind him that this is the way to know that we are well and enjoying ourselves! I am not sure if we will be able to read comments but it might be worth a short as I don't think email will work at other places either.