I wanted to upload some pictures but again it doesn't work. It seems like Thailand doesn't want me to help me out either.
I'm in Bangkok for a renewal of my entry to Burma. I don't need a visa this time (having a 6 month one) but i still have to leave the country after 10 weeks...).
Yesterday the airport was the quietest I'd ever seen. There was 1 person in line before me at immigration. But here in Khao San (or just off Khao San where i am) it seems like there is nothing going on here in Bangkok. There are slightly fewer tourists but there are still plenty of people. And i wonder... After all, most countries have issued a 'don't travel unless you have too' warning. Seems like there are a lot of tourists who really have to travel....
Oh, time's up
Sunday 16 May 2010
Our Thyingan disaster....
We'd decided to go to Chaung Tha beach during Thinggyan. Yangon was very very hot and besides, there isn't much to do in Yangon in general when you have a few days off, but during Thingyan it is even worse. Besides getting very very soaked, there is nothing. So a few days at the beach would be really nice we thought. Since we'd be 4 adults (Pap and Jet were over for as holiday) and a toddler we, hired a mini van and driver (cars always come with drivers in Yangon) because it would be much more comfortable than the bus. And we could stop anywhere we'd want, driver anywhere we'd want and in general be more comfortable. At least, that is what we thought...).
We started out 2 hours later than planned because the driver changed the seats so they faced all in the same direction. This was something i had asked him 2 days before but he didn't start on it until the morning we had decided to leave. And then he ran into a problem. So with a 2 hour delay we were finally on our way. Since it was the first 'real' day of Thingyan it was very difficult to get out of Yangon since it was party time everywhere. That cost us quite some time. But all in all, things progressed fairly smoothly. It would normally be a 6-7 hour drive to Chaung Tha and we figured we'd be there late in the afternoon.
Just after Pathein trouble started. Our driver obviously didn't know that the normal road to Chaung That was blocked due to a bad bridge. We'd been on that road for about half an hour but there was nothing to be done than to turn back towards Pathein and go over the only other available road. This was a dirt road through the hills and had obviously been used already for quite some time (so our driver should have known about the road being blocked). They were paving the road everywhere but it was a really bad road where it hadn't been paved yet (which turned out to be almost everywhere still). We hadn't gone far on this road when we ran out of gas. Luckily our car was gas and petrol so there should be no problem. Yeah right. In hindsight my dad thinks that the driver just ran on gas all the time back in Yangon so the petrol system had gotten disused and dirty... But we didn't know that at the time.
The driver started to work on the motor. This was at about 4:30 in the afternoon. 2 hours later almost he had the car going again... By that time it was dark and soon after we'd started out again, we decided to turn back towards Pathein. None of us did know how long the dirt road lasted and how bad it would get. and it had already gotten worse since we started driving again. Traffic was scarce and we didn't want to get stuck half way with nowhere to go.
On the junction to Pathein we decided to go to Silver Beach instead of back to Pathein. We were assured we'd be able to get a room there so it would be better than going back to Pathein. We did arrive in Silver Beach fairly quickly (8:30-ish). The first hotels we tried were all full so we we decided to first have a bite before looking further. We were all rather tired having been in the car or waiting for the car since 8:30 that morning.
By the time we'd found a hotel it was 10:30 and we were ready to put up with anything (or so we thought). We ended up in rooms that were terribly dirty and the fan/aircon that was promised turned out to be the sea breeze that blew in through lattice work above the windows. Unfortunately, that breeze never got to you when you were in bed breezing at ceiling height!
The next day we decided to go to Chaung That after all. There wasn't a hotel room available in Silver Beach under $100 which we thought a bit steep. (mind we paid $70 for those two dirty rooms we really thought disgusting).. So we piled back in the car. The driver had gone to the village that morning very early to have the car checked and according to him, the car was fine now. So we went back to that really bad road. And bad it was. Before long we were all orange because of the dust. Dad even looked 10 years younger with a yellow-orangy hair colour... The dust came into the car in clouds sometimes so thick that we had to stop the car since we literally couldn't see anything. It had been a wise decision to turn back the evening before
since the road really did get much worse. And our car started to have trouble again.Before long we were really stranded. A mechanic working on a stranded road paving machine helped out for a little while but when the car stalled almost immediately again when we started to drive uphill, he was called back by his supervisor. In the end, we were towed to the junction with the 'normal' road to Chaung Tha by a big truck. There we could get immediately onto a passing bus which we did and at 7:30 that evening we were having a well deserved meal in the restaurant of a hotel. That didn't mean that we had accommodation. Oh no. We still had to figure that out. We ended up with KK, Xenne and I staying in a very hot room at that hotel (the fan didn't really do much), while Papa and Jet went to the hotel we stayed in last year. KK and I thought they'd had the better deal but the ext day we were told it had been much worse that our room. Their place had been dirty and hot while ours was just hot. Besides, they hadn't even been given any breakfast. That is a place we never go back too, that's for sure.
Luckily that day we could get two very nice rooms in the place where KK, Xenne and I had stayed. And we had 2 very pleasant days there. Xenne loved the beach and the water and had a great time. And then it is easy for the adults to have a good time too.
Of course we had to drive back. There was nothing for it. We dreaded the bad road but miraculously we made it over that road in record time. We'd left Chaung Tha at 9 am and were at the junction at the other side of the bad road at 11:15. We'd really started to think we'd be back home soon and have a nice shower (being all sweaty and dusty again). Things didn't turn out that positively. The car had already had a motor that overheated once on the bad road. We'd thought it was from all the steep hills and dust and general state of the road. Not so, before long we were stopping every half hour for a half hour break to cool the motor... At 4:30 we stopped at the same restaurant we'd had lunch on the way up. We decided to have a drink while we waited. At 5 we piled back in the car. The driver started the car but nothing happened... At 7:30 we were willing to do anything to get away from there. We were 1,5 hour away from Yangon and had no means of getting there. We couldn't hire a taxi since there were none, there was a pick-up truck available but no driver and the owner didn't want our driver to driver his car... At 8 we finally managed to get a truck to tow us to Yangon. And that wasn't easy either. Not that there was anything wrong with that truck but the car's battery was empty and so we had no lights... We must have gone 15 mile per hour or so arriving in Yangon at just before midnight... The driver of our car decided to stop at a gas station. according to him the car would be fine when he had gas again. When the gas station opened again 10 minutes later, we pushed the van over to the pumps, he filled the up the tank and tried to start the car. Again, nothing. At 12:30 that morning we decided to hire another taxi who happened to be at the same gas station. We put all our stuff in that small car and managed to worm ourselves into the car too and drove back home. Here KK had to climb over the fence since everybody had gone to bed already but finally at 1 am that morning after a 16 hour drive that should have lasted only 6 hours, we did have a glass of beer or wine and we could relax...
What an awful trip that was. Luckily, Xenne did most wonderful. Although he still has a habit of saying things like 'car no gas', 'car broke' and, 'papa fix car'. I wonder where he got that from...
We started out 2 hours later than planned because the driver changed the seats so they faced all in the same direction. This was something i had asked him 2 days before but he didn't start on it until the morning we had decided to leave. And then he ran into a problem. So with a 2 hour delay we were finally on our way. Since it was the first 'real' day of Thingyan it was very difficult to get out of Yangon since it was party time everywhere. That cost us quite some time. But all in all, things progressed fairly smoothly. It would normally be a 6-7 hour drive to Chaung Tha and we figured we'd be there late in the afternoon.
Just after Pathein trouble started. Our driver obviously didn't know that the normal road to Chaung That was blocked due to a bad bridge. We'd been on that road for about half an hour but there was nothing to be done than to turn back towards Pathein and go over the only other available road. This was a dirt road through the hills and had obviously been used already for quite some time (so our driver should have known about the road being blocked). They were paving the road everywhere but it was a really bad road where it hadn't been paved yet (which turned out to be almost everywhere still). We hadn't gone far on this road when we ran out of gas. Luckily our car was gas and petrol so there should be no problem. Yeah right. In hindsight my dad thinks that the driver just ran on gas all the time back in Yangon so the petrol system had gotten disused and dirty... But we didn't know that at the time.
The driver started to work on the motor. This was at about 4:30 in the afternoon. 2 hours later almost he had the car going again... By that time it was dark and soon after we'd started out again, we decided to turn back towards Pathein. None of us did know how long the dirt road lasted and how bad it would get. and it had already gotten worse since we started driving again. Traffic was scarce and we didn't want to get stuck half way with nowhere to go.
On the junction to Pathein we decided to go to Silver Beach instead of back to Pathein. We were assured we'd be able to get a room there so it would be better than going back to Pathein. We did arrive in Silver Beach fairly quickly (8:30-ish). The first hotels we tried were all full so we we decided to first have a bite before looking further. We were all rather tired having been in the car or waiting for the car since 8:30 that morning.
By the time we'd found a hotel it was 10:30 and we were ready to put up with anything (or so we thought). We ended up in rooms that were terribly dirty and the fan/aircon that was promised turned out to be the sea breeze that blew in through lattice work above the windows. Unfortunately, that breeze never got to you when you were in bed breezing at ceiling height!
The next day we decided to go to Chaung That after all. There wasn't a hotel room available in Silver Beach under $100 which we thought a bit steep. (mind we paid $70 for those two dirty rooms we really thought disgusting).. So we piled back in the car. The driver had gone to the village that morning very early to have the car checked and according to him, the car was fine now. So we went back to that really bad road. And bad it was. Before long we were all orange because of the dust. Dad even looked 10 years younger with a yellow-orangy hair colour... The dust came into the car in clouds sometimes so thick that we had to stop the car since we literally couldn't see anything. It had been a wise decision to turn back the evening before
since the road really did get much worse. And our car started to have trouble again.Before long we were really stranded. A mechanic working on a stranded road paving machine helped out for a little while but when the car stalled almost immediately again when we started to drive uphill, he was called back by his supervisor. In the end, we were towed to the junction with the 'normal' road to Chaung Tha by a big truck. There we could get immediately onto a passing bus which we did and at 7:30 that evening we were having a well deserved meal in the restaurant of a hotel. That didn't mean that we had accommodation. Oh no. We still had to figure that out. We ended up with KK, Xenne and I staying in a very hot room at that hotel (the fan didn't really do much), while Papa and Jet went to the hotel we stayed in last year. KK and I thought they'd had the better deal but the ext day we were told it had been much worse that our room. Their place had been dirty and hot while ours was just hot. Besides, they hadn't even been given any breakfast. That is a place we never go back too, that's for sure.
Luckily that day we could get two very nice rooms in the place where KK, Xenne and I had stayed. And we had 2 very pleasant days there. Xenne loved the beach and the water and had a great time. And then it is easy for the adults to have a good time too.
Of course we had to drive back. There was nothing for it. We dreaded the bad road but miraculously we made it over that road in record time. We'd left Chaung Tha at 9 am and were at the junction at the other side of the bad road at 11:15. We'd really started to think we'd be back home soon and have a nice shower (being all sweaty and dusty again). Things didn't turn out that positively. The car had already had a motor that overheated once on the bad road. We'd thought it was from all the steep hills and dust and general state of the road. Not so, before long we were stopping every half hour for a half hour break to cool the motor... At 4:30 we stopped at the same restaurant we'd had lunch on the way up. We decided to have a drink while we waited. At 5 we piled back in the car. The driver started the car but nothing happened... At 7:30 we were willing to do anything to get away from there. We were 1,5 hour away from Yangon and had no means of getting there. We couldn't hire a taxi since there were none, there was a pick-up truck available but no driver and the owner didn't want our driver to driver his car... At 8 we finally managed to get a truck to tow us to Yangon. And that wasn't easy either. Not that there was anything wrong with that truck but the car's battery was empty and so we had no lights... We must have gone 15 mile per hour or so arriving in Yangon at just before midnight... The driver of our car decided to stop at a gas station. according to him the car would be fine when he had gas again. When the gas station opened again 10 minutes later, we pushed the van over to the pumps, he filled the up the tank and tried to start the car. Again, nothing. At 12:30 that morning we decided to hire another taxi who happened to be at the same gas station. We put all our stuff in that small car and managed to worm ourselves into the car too and drove back home. Here KK had to climb over the fence since everybody had gone to bed already but finally at 1 am that morning after a 16 hour drive that should have lasted only 6 hours, we did have a glass of beer or wine and we could relax...
What an awful trip that was. Luckily, Xenne did most wonderful. Although he still has a habit of saying things like 'car no gas', 'car broke' and, 'papa fix car'. I wonder where he got that from...
7-4-2010 - Wednesday
Wow, the Science Fair is over (that was today), International Day is over (last Saturday) and soon it’ll be Thingyan (Myanmar Waterfestival/New Year). We do celebrate this at school as well, so it’ll be a wet affair on Friday afternoon I’m sure. All in all a very, very hectic week. But with a week and a half of holiday coming up, I’m not complaining…..
The intention is still to go to the beach. Not sure whether we’ll succeed though. Thingyan is THE most expensive time of the year (like trying to book a great destination during Christmas back home). Many places are book full and prices are double what they normally are. Still, we keep looking and hopefully we’ll find a good and affordable place.
I am actually too tired to really write anything remotely interesting. Today we did 2 periods of normal class stuff, English and Math, after which the whole Science Fair Frenzy started. It was fun, don’t get me wrong and the kids had some really great projects (especially my kids of course), but by the time we had put the tables back where they belonged it was time for the kids to go home. After which we still had a 1 hour training (part of a 4-hour intense training course for special needs kids). By the time I left school, it was pretty late….
What about Xenne you ask me... Well, he is doing great as always. He becomes more and more fluent in all 3 languages although it is obvious that he is most fluent in
For the rest, it is regularly 38 to 40 degrees here. Stifling hot. We’re extremely lucky that we still have electricity most of the time and always in the evening (knock on wood). And we have green mango salad on a regular basis since they keep falling on the roof and drop to the side of the house where they are collected and made into a salad….Yum....
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