Alamanda Inn

A few weeks ago I finally made it to this place. We were in the neighbourhood and had wanted to eat at a place not too far away but that place had closed due to lack of business. Then someone in our group mentioned going to the Alamanda Inn for a bite. And iI must say I was pleasantly surprised. Of course we were in good company but the food was great and the ambiance is excellent. We stayed much longer than we had planned and were eventually the last to leave.  

I really like this place and I'm sure we'll be back here sometime soon. The prices are not much more expensive then anywhere else when you have good western food (there are cheaper places but then the food is usually less good as well). 

They have their own website Alamanda Inn and even a facebook page but I found the facebook page remarkably empty and of no help at all. This might change over time though.

 

 As always, my pictures don't do the place justice. I think it might be time for a new camera.

Great location, ok food

General Aung San's workplace

 Yesterday we had a  birthday party at this place. The food was good, the company better and the location really nice. After dinner, one of the party members suggested we'd have a look upstairs because General Aung San used to work here. So, upstairs we went. Me, I'm just a sucker for old buildings and history so I enjoyed our 10 minutes looking around.

I just like this room

From outside the building is fabulous. Unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice by any means.

Beautiful colonial building that my camera can not capture

Downstairs

Upstairs

I did and still do find the menu uninspiring. I saw a lot of Thai dishes, some western food a bit of Indian. Almost as if they can't make up their minds. That said, we ordered a couple of Indian dishes and it was nice.



 Adress: 290, U Wisara Road
Kamayit Township
Yangon

Tel: 09501 534 242


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ATM's

ATM's outside of Ocean Northpoint

These nice, sleek machines have been out there for a while now. I haven't tried it myself yet since you need a bank account with the bank that provided the machine. You can't use any ATM to use your bank account, not yet. Apparently, they are doing their best to get the systems connected and hopefully it will also soon be possible to have access to a foreign bank account since that would be great for tourism.

So far, I have never seen anybody use any ATM. Not these at Ocean, not anywhere else. I'm now thinking that it might be useful for us since it happens every once so often that we wonder whether we have brought enough cash along. Inflation is a nasty thing...

Some people...

Monday evening we came back with a flight from Air Asia. It wasn’t too crowded on the flight.  I hadn’t seen a flight this empty for a long time. The flight was uneventful. All kids fell asleep during and right after take off so I had time to read a book.

When we got to Yangon I saw three guys. They were in their mid twenties I guess.  Apart from them being the tallest people aboard, they had the distinction of wearing their sporty pants so low on their hips that, that at least for one, it was almost below his buttocks. Honestly!

I do understand that this is fashionable. I, for the life of me can’t understand why anyone would want to wear their pants like that. Let’s face it, it is very unattractive and it can’t be comfortable either. I do think this might have to do with a different generation and all that. I know that my parents weren’t too charmed with my choice of clothes either when I was young.

Of course I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and had to say something about it. That they walk around like that in their home country or even in some parts of Thailand, ok that is one thing. But Myanmar is still a very conservative country. Yes, you can see this look here in Yangon amongst the youngsters as well but mostly in nightclubs (the few we have) and among the rich.

They seemed fairly offended (then again, I didn’t really like having to look at their buts hanging out and they walked right in front of me). When I saw them later I noticed the pants had been hitched up. I tried to explain why I said something but no reaction apart from a contemptuous look. Ok, fair enough, so I left it at that.

It did however trigger for me the old question about how offending one can be as a tourist to the country and culture that one is visiting.  

A few years ago I was in Bagan at the market. A tourist with an enormous camera was pushing aid camera almost literally in the face of a young girl who worked there and who was wearing Thanaka (the local ‘suncream’/moisturizer/make-up). She was very clearly uncomfortable. The camera was obviously good enough to have made the same photograph from a much more relaxed distance.

This kind of behavior seems to arrive more and more with the influx of tourists. For example: they forget or don’t want to know about the Myanmar usually swimming fully clothed. I haven’t seen it yet but I wonder how long it will be before there will be tourists who will sunbathe topless. Like someone said, a few years ago in a travel documentary when she was asked to put her top back on which she took off again the moment the policeman’s back was turned: “I have paid for this holiday so I do what I want.”

Inappropriate dress, pushing cameras into peoples' faces, inappropriate behaviour,  and so on... The lovely extras that come with tourism. 

I hope that those three guys will be a bit more culturally sensitive. The sentiment is not often voiced so bluntly but often enough acted on already.

Kyats to dollars

Sometimes it amazes me how fast Myanmar changes in many ways.

I happened to be at the airport a few times lately. You can now rent a phone card at the airport for $2 a day and yes you can call and be called from abroad.

The 2 exchange counters now have opening times that actually match with most of the incoming flights. There are also many more flights. Some companies like Air Asia have expanded to 3 flights a day. Other companies open new lines or are completely new to Myanmar. You can now fly  to more destinations from Yangon than I have ever known before. And you can fly to Mandalay as well, It is getting almost busy at the airport. There are more counters for immigration and they are manned.

When we flew to Bangkok on Wednesday, I even found an exchange after immigration when leaving. I was in shock. I asked them if I could change my kyats for dollars and they said yes. wow, that is a huge change. Of course people could always change their money before, but on the black market. That or you would find someone who could exchange with you. We've done this quite a few times before when people needed dollars. So to have an official counter that was very nice to see.

The airport and Myanmar in general are finally picking up on the tourists desires.

An enjoyable trip around town

Yesterday we took the new teacher's around town. We started of in a very Myanmar  way. Breakfast in a teashop. For some it was their first taste of Mohingha, the most Myanmar of dishes and one that every teashop serves.

We saw a few pagoda's, the big reclining buddha in Yangon and even the recently opened for real Bogyoke Aung San Museum.It was great fun and very interesting. Especially Aung San's museum. It is small but we all considered it the highlight of the day. They even have his service car tucked away in a tiny shed. I wanted to post some pictures here but my card reader is refusing to help me out. I will post them soon.

After lunch we went to Bogyoke Aung San Market for a quick look around. It is a market best visited by oneself since there is so much to see. We rounded of the day by visiting a long-established but still to many people unknown DVD-shop where you can spend a lot of money on DVD's you always wanted to have but never found before. I drooled over a box-set of Star Trek and I couldn't resist Lassie and The Muppets  in space.

Taxis

(Found this in my 'drafts' box. The joy of regular interruptions with the connection and/or electricity)

I actually wrote this last year during the rainy season and never got around to actually posting it. And it is still as valid as it was last year... Taxis haven't improved much. Though it is slightly easier to get a Parami Taxi (very decent with drivers who actually can drive. And Xenne loves to have these taxis). But the antique, striped-down to metal casing-and-wheels-kind of car is also still around much more then they should...

Let me tell you about the average Yangon taxi… Where do I begin? The other day, we came back from downtown. It had rained so here and there it was rather wet. I hadn’t given it much thought since the downpour had happened an hour or so before. We were halfway home when suddenly I feel a lot of yucky-icky wet-something over my feet. I look down and gaze straight at the street. Between my, unconsciously strategically positioned feet, there was a neat, round whole in the bottom of the car. I checked KK side and he too had the same extra aircon…. I was luckier than I though. Apparently there was no puddle on his side.

Taxis here range from decently luxurious (aircon and everything working) and we all prefer those if we get them. Unfortunately, there is never a taxi like that around when you need one. The majority though is of an altogether different kind. I’m by now so used to not having a handle to turn the window down that I automatically search for it in the ‘i-dump everything here place’ between the 2 front seats. You attach it to the little ‘pin’ that sticks out and you can actually lower your window or turn it up depending on your need. Sometimes this doesn’t help though. And then you just push down the window. The taxi driver can always literally pull the window back up later when he has time.

The seats range from ‘have been around since the first days of automotive travel to a little more recent, say 20 years ago. And as for the interior… I’ve been in taxis more than once where there was nothing left of the inside of the doors apart from the metal casing. You just lean out of the window and yank or the driver gets out and opens the door for you…. If doors don’t really budge when they should, I already give a big shove without even thinking about it…

The part that I like (or sometimes definitely not like) is when the most striped-down taxi wants double the price for a trip because I’m a westerner. I do know that the taxi drivers rent the car from the owner and that they have to pay all costs as long as they are driving the car. And a Junior driver (no matter if he is in his 60s or 20s) starts with the oldest car in the owners fleet until he has proven himself. But hey, I don’t have a money tree in the backyard either. Now it is even worse. It is rainy season and my my, prices have already gone up again… Which is especially nice when you have negotiated and get into the car, only to find that the driver hadn’t closed his windows when it last rained… I’ve had a few wet bums lately and I’m sure to have a few more before this season is over… But I am forward now to check the bottom of the car. Just in case we hit another puddle…

Mosquito time

And they are enjoying their meals that's for sure. I don't like using mosquito killer much but we had no option. There were just too many around.

Even here at school, this first period I have gained 3 or 4 more bites on my feet and ankles. Apparently, these mosquitoes are into foreign food. And the bites are itchy! I am very undignified when I start attacking my ankles in a frenzy but that can't be helped.

It must have been all the rain that came down at the beginning of the week. Which was followed by some fairly warm and decently dry days. A perfect hotbed for mosquitoes.

The side effect of the spraying last night was that we caused a massacre among the big black ants in one of the downstairs room. After sweeping the floor we literally had a pile of them.

Family or not?

For most people a who is who in a family is often not that clear unless you ask further. If I say that someone is my aunt, you do not know whether the lady in question is  a sister of my mother or father or whether she is the wife of a brothers of either my mother or father (though nowadays of course in quite a few countries, she could be married to a sister). 

Here in Myanmar, relationships are even more complicated.  Many women are addressed as ‘Aunty’, ‘Uncle’ is widely used to indicate an older man.With siblings it can be very complicated too. It took me a little while before I caught on. Someone mentioned he had 7 sisters (or brothers). Ok, active parents but not impossible.  Then you hear of a child playing with his sister who is about the same age. “Twins?” , you ask. But no, that is not the case.Here cousins and even second cousins are referred to as brothers and sisters. Many a time, some cousins live in the same household. It takes you a while to figure out which child belongs with which parents. I have even heard people from the same village, age-mates, referred to as “my brother”.

It can make for interesting exploring if you have the time. In other cases it can be really frustrating if you have no idea what the relationship really is. 

A while ago I had parent-teacher conferences. In comes the mother of a child with a lady introduced as “Aunty”. I know this child lives together with grandparents, an aunty and uncle and their child (referred to by him as his sister), and his own parents at least. So another aunty, well I didn’t think much of it. Halfway through the meeting, I do have a funny feeling that this lady is no ‘Aunty’.  Indeed, we find out later that all that time we were talking to the tuition teacher. The mother spoke no English so couldn’t even correct the wrong assumption even if she would have wanted to, the tuition teacher obviously had no intention of making her role in the family clear. It made for some awkward moments since the child was not doing well in school. Without a Myanmar translation for the mother (which we did only ever so often since we were talking to an Aunt) we don’t know if everything came over all right.We did learn an important lesson though and from the coming year tuition teachers, Aunties or not, are no longer allowed to attend parent-teacher consultations.

My favorite restaurant in Yangon

Posting on going out triggered this post. Last month, instead of going out with my colleagues we had a family dinner at this restaurant.

Xenne loves it because he has space to run around  and eat spaghetti (he ALWAYS chooses this), we love it because of its nice surroundings, good food, and very good prices...

The place is called HAPPY NOODLES and is just off Inya Road. They moved about a year ago to this location and I for one, think the place has gotten even better..

The pictures are just from the garden. The house is beautiful as well (colonial style) but I didn't get a chance for a picture since Xenne got his hands on the camera.

I love the different styles of noodles from the within Myanmar. I used to eat the same one since I liked it so much but lately I venture out a bit and each and every one I try (in the vegetarian version) I enjoy very much. Definitely worth going to if you ever happen to be in Yangon.

language and misunderstandings

It makes me laugh sometimes and sometimes it is highly frustrating... language and cultural differences...

A year or two ago, I did a unit at school about water and water conservation. One of the things i asked the students to keep track of was how often they went to the toilet I was rather surprised when one of the students responded with: " 1 time a day, right after lunch"...  He (and i found later many with him) thought that going to the toilet meant doing a number 2, the rest didn't count as going to the toilet. We had some fun over that one.

Another difference that comes up regularly is the afternoon/evening-confusion. Myanmar refer to anything after 3 pm as 'evening'. This causes much obvious confusion with westerners when they are told they have an 'evening bus' or something similar. :luckily, I am more aware of it nowadays and usually double check, just to make sure whether they mean their 'evening' or my version of it. 

Beer doesn't count as drinking alcohol (or at least 1 beer doesn't), leaving early can be anywhere from before daybreak to somewhere around 10, "it doesn't take long" is a very elastic expression, and "It takes 3 hours" usually has me add at least an hour or 2 to the total to correct for lack of awareness of time.

Unesco World heritage Sites

Finally have some time to keep the blog updated and can't think of a single thing to write. Not that there is nothing going on... every week some VIP or delegation visit this country. It seems like the world is falling over itself to come and have a look and see what this country is really about. But this blog is not about politics. It makes for interesting conversations though, especially if you run into people at the embassy It used to be the odd tourist there who wanted information about this country, now it seems to be people from world organisations (business or otherwise).

I did read in the Myanmar Times the other day that there are three sites here that are hopefully becoming UNESCO world heritage sites. A site near Pyay, one in Sagain, and I forgot the third one. Surprisingly, Bagan was not yet on that first-up-for-application-list. It is the most well-known site in Myanmar and of absolutely breathtaking beauty. I have been to the site in Pyay but it wasn't a good day to visit it being very hot and dry that day. I hope that Myanmar will get funds to maintain and develop these three sites better. It isn't much fun as a tourist to look at a heap of dirt and having to guess what it is supposed to be, especially not with a temperature of about 38 Celsius.

I do think though that one day in the not so distant future, Bagan will compete with Ankhor Watt as one of the most impressive sights in South-East Asia. At the moment it is relatively unknown. I do know people who have visited both destinations and they all agree Bagan is superior. I haven't been to Ankhor yet so can't say which one I prefer. No matter, I do know that every time I visit Bagan, I seem to have forgotten just how beautiful and impressive it really is.