First of the year
Get up, get out, get to the plane. Stay on the plane for several hours, find your way through customs and get into the city. This was the start of what turned out to be a 33 hours day with probably just 10 mins sleep on the plane. On the plane there were several monks, all with smartphones and an urge to post everything they saw on facebook of course. Really shouldn't affect the flight of course, but weirdly enough I felt like there was no chance anything could happen to the plane with these monks on board, and (just like every other flight I've ever taken) nothing did happen.
My friend in Bangkok had asked me to meet her at Siam, which I of course had no clue where was, but jumping on the shuttleboat from the hotel, walking a few meters to the railway and finding the right one was easily enough. Thing is I could either be there 55minutes before or 5 minutes after we'd agreed, so I opted for the earlier. She met me on time along with her mother, we had a juice and then moved on to see more of the city. Getting a private guide and being able to get all the local information from her was priceless. Learned a lot and gained a new closer friendship. At night I more or less collapsed at 9:30, slept for a few hours until Drew called me from the airport. Instead of going back to sleep, I got up and waited for him and we went out had a quick snack and started our trip.
Next day in BKK was "reserved" for going to the tailor. Rajawongse turned out a bit more expensive than we'd thought, but hopefully the quality will make it worth it. We were able to grab a viewing of Terminator : Genesis at their 4D cinema which really do offer a new dimension to the cinema-experience. Probably during the last half hour of the movie it'd started raining, and when it rains, it rains hard. We were however able to get to the railway without getting a drop on us, and by the time we got to the pier it'd already stopped raining. Found another shuttleboat and got to a new and very fresh area called Asiatique where there were lots of stores and eating places, all surprisingly affordable priced, but I think that might change during the next few years.
Day 3 started early, another great breakfast at Ramada Plaza before heading for the airport. A short flight and then off to country 44; Myanmar.
A bit of a haggle with the taxidrivers before we got what we wanted in the shape of Myanmar's largest taxidriver whom we really didn't get what was called. He spoke little english, but he took us where we wanted to go and was friendly enough. First stop was Kuthodaw pagoda and the world's largest book. Thankfully I'd read what the book actually was, if not i'd probably walk out of there thinking I hadn't seen it as well.
A few other temples, more barefooted walking and some skirtwearing which was mostly in the way, but that's just how you need to dress at these temples. Highlight was probably reaching Sagaing hill with it's amazing overview of the countless pagodas below.
A stop at U Bein brigde which was ok, but I am sure would have been so much more it the sunset was better. This made for a very active day, but still we did get through more or less everything we wanted, making it perfectly ok to leave the city after less than a day. The boat was unfortunately cancelled due to low waterlevels, but the bus surely enough runs. 4,5 hours should still make a fully doable trip and we'll reach Bagan earlier than expected.
