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| Central Yangon |
Due to the time of year, and the relative level of development as a tourist destination Myanmar has reached, there were very few available hotels in Yangon. We had had to stop at a house on the way where the owners had a phone and would rent it out to those needing to call - as I say this is not a developed place - so as to call ahead to find a room. Everywhere except a rather expensive place for a backpacking trip -
The Panorama Hotel - were booked out.
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| Across the way, a typical residential building |
However on arrival I managed to negotiate a cheaper price and late checkout due to our early morning arrival time. As a result, our first view of Yangon was from a 9th floor hotel room in late morning.
Yangon is a medium sized city but in comparison with nearby capitals has the feel of a provincial town. It is crowded but not particularly hurried. Due to the fact that it is undeveloped, there's great charm in its architecture. I hope that is not lost in the inevitable coming phases of its opening to the world. There are numerous century or decades old buildings that are in bad states: Myanmar, please restore them - don't knock them down.
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| Down the street |
My task was then to find a hotel more befitting a backpacker budget. Luckily, taxi fares are absurdly cheap, so with the help of one son we visited all the Lonely Planet listed reasonable places in central Yangon - only two had a room so we took the best of those - The May Fair Inn. Even given the taxi prices, we decided to walk there - and see the city on the way. It was only a kilometer or so.
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| Across Yangon |
After check-in, we walked to Vandoola Park that was nearby - popular with locals for family picnics and hanging out.
Myanmar is getting quite popular now but we were still rare enough to have a few requests for pictures to be taken with us - especially my daughter - all in a relaxed and positive spirit.
It's a rather diverse populace in terms of ethnicity - there are many "South Asians" - presumably Bengalis from Bangladesh amongst the anyway diverse Myanmarese. There was no sense of conflict between the groups, rather, there was pervasive positivity.
