SE Asia 2017

December 2017

Itinerary Link

2017 SOUTHEAST ASIA

As we’ve mentioned elsewhere we like to take advantage of relatively cheap cruise prices and add additional travel before and after the cruise. The cheaper prices tend to be at certain times of the year and certain itineraries, so it’s not impossible that we book a cruise that we have previously been on and that’s what happened in December, 2017. We booked a 14 day cruise on the Celebrity Millennium from Singapore to Hong Kong, a cruise we had been on several years before. In addition to an attractive price the package offered free tips, free drinks and $350 to spend on board. And the cruise afforded us to opportunity to add on some interesting destinations.

Usually we do our independent travel either before or after a cruise, but, in this case, yk decided to do both. Before the cruise we would visit Myanmar and after the cruise southern China, two places we had never visited.

MYANMAR

yk had booked a round trip to Hong Kong on China Air, to be followed by a flight on Myanmar Air to Mandalay where we were to meet the father of a friend who was joining us on our tour of Myanmar. Several days before the flight, however, we were informed by Myanmar Air that our flight from HK to Mandalay had been canceled. We were given the choice of a refund or a flight to Yangon followed the next day by a flight to Mandalay. We had little choice.

As we were checking in at LAX, I was amused to see what a Chinese family had decided to bring back to Hong Kong:

In Hong Kong, we had to pass through immigration, pick up our bags, and check for our flight to Yangon. We had purchased visas on line, so entry was no difficult. It was at the Yangon airport that I first saw the interesting script of the Burmese language.

The airline provided a bus to our hotel near the airport where I was reminded that hotels in SE Asia generally forbid bringing durian into the hotel.

MANDALAY

The next morning we flew to Mandalay (population: 1.3 million),We were picked up by our guide and brought to our hotel where we met our traveling companion, our friend Kristy’s father.

We stayed at a nice hotel on the Irrawaddy river which featured a rooftop restaurant offering a lovely sunset view.

Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar and the de facto capital of the northern part of the country.

Due to our detour to Yangon, we had only a day and a half in Mandalay. Our first stop was a golden Buddha statue. For decades the faithful have come and attached gold foil to the statue. Photos indicated that over the years the statue has more than doubled in size.

In the temple area were numerous shops selling, among other things, gold foil. In the shop area we passed a large number of children in period costume, presumably for some kind of ceremony.

The following day, our only full day in Mandalay, we took a small ferry to an island in the river, where we had lunch followed by a horse cart ride to several temples on the island.

We ended the day at a large temple on a hill overlooking the city.

THE ROAD FROM MANDALAY

We had arranged for our tour guide to take us to Bagan(, about a 4 hour drive, but he wanted to make two stops first. One was an outdoor gem market. If you wanted to get any of your purchases cut, the service was available.

The last stop in Mandalay was supposed to lunch at a monastery, but, after waiting around for a while we decided to pass on it.

The drive to Bagan was uneventful until we reached a river crossing. The bridge over the river (upper left in the picture) was closed for repairs and traffic was detoured to a shallow ford through the river. Unfortunately, a bus had broken down on the far side of the river blocking traffic in both directions. Only scooters could cross.

After waiting a half hour or more, with our tour guide fretting about how he could ever get us to Bagan, some heavy construction equipment was brought from the work on the bridge and pushed the bus out of the way. We made it to Bagan.

BAGAN

From the 9th to the 13th centuries more than 10,000 temples and pagodas were built on the plains of Bagan. More than 2,000 remain to this day. They range from small stupas:

to large temples, sometimes with frighteningly steep steps:

with Buddha statues:

and, at times, painted interiors:

We ended our visit to Bagan with tea at a small village.

Bagan post

YANGON

After our stay in Bagan we flew to Yangon on Air KBZ.

Yangon, where we had spent an unplanned night at the beginning of our visit, is the largest city in Myanmar with about 5 million residents. It struck me a rather dreary city except for the Shwedagon Pagoda, a huge awe-inspiring temple.

more photos

36 Hours in Yangon suggested by NY Times. The Guardian’s articles.

SINGAPORE

After two days in Yangon we flew to Singapore where we were to board our cruise ship. We spent one night with our friend Kristy and boarded the ship the following day. Since the ship was staying overnight, we had time the following day to explore the Singapore botanical garden.    Singapore post