11-12 (Thursday)
After breakfast I took a cab to the Internet. When I got back to the hotel U Tin Wint was already there talking to Joyce and waiting to take us to the airport. He seemed sorry to see us go.
We had to wait for the counter to open before we could pay our departure fee of $10 US each. We looked around in some of the gift shops then went to the "lounge" for free drinks and cakes while we waited on the plane.
We met a German doctor who actually was born and raised in Myanmar. She was back in Myanmar trying to set up some clinics and other ways of helping her people. Her husband (a German) is an eye doctor. The people are so poor that they can't afford medicine but even if they could there is none to be had.
We saw an English newspaper that said 60,000 people had signed a petition to free Aung San Suu Kyi. Those people must have been very brave to sign
Yesterday at lunch I asked May Thu why foreigners aren't allowed to go north of Mandalay. She said that's where they grow all the opium and the government doesn't want foreigners seeing it. Mostly it's grown in the Golden Triangle area. You can go to visit the Naga tribes but I think only at their New Year's festival. They were headhunters for many years. During WWII when our pilots were flying the hump their chief told them to protect the pilots and not take any heads. If you go for the festival it is expensive and you have to sleep in a "camp" Be prepared for it to be cold at night. Sounds like Irian Jaya conditions. I would love to attend this some day if I can ever scrape together the money.
Everyone in Myanmar hates the government. The army officers only make $50 a month so they are constantly taking bribes.
Once again we had a fabulous meal on the plane from Yangon to Bangkok. Chicken so tender you could cut it with your fork. Rice, spinach, a wonderful bean salad, red wine and bread pudding for dessert. The flight was an hour.
We got off the plane cleared customs and started looking for a cab to the train station. Some guy with long painted fingernails came up to us and wanted us to use his transportation. I had all the luggage so I told Joyce to go down and find out how much and if his transportation had a meter. He wanted 800 baht which was a little more than $20 US. Forget it. He may have thought he spotted 2 fools but it wasn't us. We got a metered cab and paid $8 US to the train station. We thought we were going to be taking the 7:30 train. When I went to the ticket window the guy said "Do you want to leave right now?" I told him we did and asked if he had any 1st class tickets left. It just so happened he did but not on the 7:30 train. Our ticket cost $36 US. We bought our ticket at 5:30 and were pulling out of the station at 6:00. We even had time to run and buy some water from a stand on the platform. Our compartment only had 2 beds. Both people sit facing the front of the train on the lower bunk. When it's bedtime the top bunk flips up. There were pillows and mattress pads on shelves hanging from the walls. We are planning to spend two nights in Chiang Mai but have NO idea where we're going after that.