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Farangs, Day 34 — Noon in Rangoon
Bangkok, Thailand |
Bangkok, Thailand
Itinerary: Today, we transfer to the airport for our flight to Rangoon. Upon arrival, we will visit the Kaba Aye (World Peace) Pagoda and the Mahapasana Cave, where the sixth Buddhist synod took place. We will also see Botataung Pagoda, Rangoon’s oldest Chinese temple and have a walking tour of Chinatown.
In the afternoon we will fly back to BKK for our farewell dinner. Overnight at the Best Western Premier Amaranth Suvaranbhumi Airport Hotel.
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After flying from Bagan to Rangoon and a long drive into the city, stopping at the appropriately named (priced) Treasure Land and then Scott Market, we had the chance to visit one last pagoda–Sule is named for the minister who built it and is Rangoon’s original pagoda. Some of us decided to stay out of the heat and humidity in the comfort of our air conditioned coach, as well as not having to clean up dirty feet, again. The others didn’t spend very long in there.
The airline changed the time of our flight from Rangoon, which meant we would not get into Bangkok and our hotel until late that night. Roger decided we should have a farewell lunch in Rangoon instead of the farewell dinner we were supposed to have in Bangkok. He took us to Le Planteur which serves traditional “western” haute cuisine with a SE Asian influence.
The wine, food and the presentation was wonderful and the atmosphere was festive, including Turin showing us various ways he could wear his longyi. In Burma, longyis worn by males are called paso, while those worn by females are called htamain.
Thank you, Thai Airways, for delaying our departure from Rangoon. Good job, Roger, getting us into Le Planteur.
Le Planteur has three old British cars, 1947 Vauxhall, a 1954 Morris Oxford and a 1953 Austin Somerset (which wasn’t there when we left so I didn’t get a picture of it). They use them to ferry customers to and from their accommodation, if desired. When Trish and I were children, these cars looked so modern to us, and way beyond our family’s affordablility.
On the way to the airport we stopped by Nay Pyi Taw to see the white elephants. We’d been told the history of the significance of white (albino) elephants and the legends around them and were looking forward to seeing them. It was horrifying, to our western sensibilities, to see these magnificient animals chained to the floor, only able to move a few steps around the bolt, swaying back and forth, back and forth. Looked like stress movement. We couldn’t stand it and had to get out of their fast. If we could have, I don’t think there wasn’t one of us who wouldn’t have snuck back there that night and freed them. A sad ending to our trip to Burma.
After waiting several hours at the Yangoon airport, we had an uneventful 90 minute flight to Bangkok. The food box had a delightfully fresh shrimp and fruit salad plus pineapple cake.
Arriving at the hotel around 11:30 p.m., we said goodbye to everyone, retrieved our stored luggage, did some rearranging, set the alarm for 3 a.m., and fell into bed.
