Back to Bangkok to Prepare for Myanmar

I awoke the next morning to leave on the ferry/van combo back to Bangkok. I checked out of my little bungalow and was told to walk a half mile to the taxi stand. No problem. I was use to carrying my backpack and I always felt like it was a great workout when I could get a nice walk before sitting for a few hours. I got to the taxi stand and there were no taxis. I had a half hour to spare so I waited. After 10 minutes, a man came by and said "no taxi here today. Rain coming. You walk." Darn! I had 20 minutes to get to the port. It started to rain.  I looked at the others waiting and we all decided to be start walking. I was leading the pack and went up over a hill and around a corner. Over the week, I had witnessed that everyone honked as they came over the hill. I heard no honks and turned to look behind us. Nothing was coming as I walked up the hill. I was over to the side and being careful.  I looked up and a motorbike was passing a truck coming up the hill. The motorbike swerved towards me. I tried to move quickly to the brush and tripped over tree roots. Oh nooooooo!!! Everything else was in slow motion. I lost my balance and the weight of my backpack threw me forward. I thought I was going to make a "graceful" recovery. My hands hit the ground but I still had my feet on the ground and was in a downward facing dog pose and moving forward. The couple behind me screamed. I lost balance and fell face first onto the dirt road. My backpack was still moving forward. It came to a stop over my head. I laid there a second waiting for the truck to hit me. Suddenly, it swerved around and flew down the road. The couple and the motorbike all came to help me. As I sat up I looked at them and laughed. I wiped out and was covered in a wet dirt. I looked at my watch, thanked them and said "hurry, we only have 8 minutes to make the ferry." Ahead of us was a taxi. We grabbed it and asked if he could get us there in time. We arrived at the ferry with a couple of minutes to spare. I was a mess. The couple was nice enough to help me clean up. As we sat there we all got to laughing and wished someone had taken a photo. It was a classic Michelle moment!

The ferry left port, the rain got heavier and the waves were huge. Our little boat rocked as we went up over the huge waves. Then the lightening started. I saw the look on the faces of the Thai girls sitting across from me. They were getting sea sick. Great....here comes the puking. I adverted my attention towards the sea. I noticed the lightening was getting closer and got a little concerned. The guy across from me started to sing the theme song of Gilligan's Island as our boat was tossed in the waves.  The good thing about the storm was it made a one hour trip only take 35 minutes! We arrived at the dock and gathered our belongings. It was taking everyone a long time to disembark. Then, I saw the problem. The boat was  pulled up to a dock but the dock was a good 3.5 feet above the boat. Everyone was throwing there bags to the dock and trying to crawl up to the deck. I had a bad feeling about this. The couple that saw me wipe out looked at me and promised to help. I heaved my bag to the deck, reached for his hand and crawled up. Whew! I was thankful I did not end up in the sea!
The van to Bangkok was uneventful and I was thankful. I successfully negotiated for a taxi and made it to Khao San Road. I had decided it was the best location to get things prepared for my trip to Myanmar. I was also ready for some street food. Yum, yum!

I was excited to go to Myanmar but needed to get my visa before I finalized my plans. I had used a travel agency to get my visa while I enjoyed the islands. I had an appointment at 5:00 PM on Monday, May 20th to pick up my passport and my Thailand visa was expiring on May 21st. I was anxious to get confirmation of my visa. There are several regulations around Myanmar travel so I had to prepare a little.

1. All tourists are required to fly into the country which meant I needed to buy an airline ticket. I had been tracking prices on AirAsia and the tickets from Bangkok to Yangon were cheap ($145 USD). There were seats available and I was fine waiting until I got my visa verified.
2. Myanmar has very limited ATM machines (12 in the entire country) and tourists are required to take USD. You have to bring all of the cash you plan to spend with you into the country. The bills must be "clean, green" and newer than 2006. All of the information I could find said that your bills could not have any tares, writing, folds or discolorations. It was also suggested that you bring $100 bills as they have a higher exchange rate. So, I started going to the ATM daily to remove my maximum daily allowance.  Then, on Monday I would go to a bank to change it all from Thai Baht to USD. The country only deals with USD and kyat (Myanmar money) and no other currencies.
3. All hotels and trains have to be paid in USD. Everything else is paid in kyat.
4. To change USD to kyat, the guidebook (Lonely Planet) recommends changing money at your hotel or the black market for the best exchange rate. The black market rate was 850 kyat =$1USD where the airport was 8 kyat = $1USD. That was going to be a fun experience. I was looking forward to it!
5. I got a lot of mixed information on hotels. Everyone on blogs were recommending to pre-book your room due to the increased number of tourists and a shortage of hotel rooms. So, I booked my first 3 nights in Yangon.

I planned to spend the next 2 days reading and relaxing in Bangkok. I explored Khao San Road and enjoyed the street food. Yummy! It was cheap and good. I even found an AMAZING vegetarian and vegan restaurant (ETHOS). Delicious breakfast and loved the falafels too! I had decided that I would do a little sightseeing using the river ferries. I loved the ferries! It was a fantastic way to see the city. I spent the day hoping from one sight to the next. I got down to Asiatique Riverfront and spent some time window shopping waiting for the sun to set and the lights of Bangkok to light up the sky. It was a beautiful view in the evening from the boats. Probably my favorite sight in Bangkok!

 

Monday arrived and I got my Thai baht changed to US dollars. I haven't seen them for awhile and forgot how plain they are compared the colorful money I had been using in SE Asia. Yes, the greenbacks felt like home and I knew exactly how much money I had but I remembered them as more green color and the $100 bill seemed to have more black. I found it strange. Eventually, I decided it was because I don't use $100 bills at home! I bought supplies (shampoo, soap, bug spray and sunscreen) and then headed to the travel agency to get my passport. I was ecstatic when I saw my Myanmar visa! I was approved and could book the ticket.

I returned to the hotel and bought my ticket through AirAsia ($145), booked the hotel room and a bus to the airport. Then, it was time to pack. Myanmar here I come! I have no idea what to expect. Myanmar (Burma) tourism has been limited historically due to the political situations. Tourism really increased the past two years but is still significantly less than the other SE Asian countries. Increased tourism means the country is changing quickly.....what will happen and how hard is the travel? I look forward to this next adventure.