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Leaning over to check how fast we're going - 150 km/h - I notice for the first time that the taxi driver has fallen asleep at the wheel. Behind us, the road stretches out straight and long, and I wander how long it's been since he nodded off. We nudge him gently, with a cautious hand hovering over the steering wheel in case he wakes with a start. Instead, he wakes slowly, almost lazily, and then grins sheepishly as he winds the windows down and turns the radio up. This proves insufficient stimulation, so he speeds up even more - 175 km/h. "To keep awake", he replies to our raised eyebrows, as if it's perfectly reasonable and should have been obvious. A surprisingly-cold wind shrieks through the cab in close-fought competition with the latest Thai pop sensation, as we hurtle through Bangkok's pre-dawn darkness toward the airport. Assuming I survive the taxi ride, I will soon be in the air, heading toward a South-East Asian country I have always been fascinated by - Burma/Myanmar...

Burma One: On the road to Mandalay...

Michael Meadows
2007-01-23 12:03:47

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increasingly-impressive (and weighty!) stupa. Legend also has it that the top of the spire is encrusted with more than 5,000 diamonds and 2,000 other precious stones. It is little wonder it is so venerated by the Burmese - the foremost of the three most important Buddhist temples in the country. While we are there, hundreds of people (only a handful of them tourists) throng the courtyard around the stupas and kneel serenely before the lurid glow of the neon-lit shrines.

Later that night, we decide to check out a curious-sounding establishment we'd read about in the LP guide. The 'Silver Oak Cafe & Restaurant' innovatively combines a pub, rock club, icecream shop & beauty-parlour - all in one convenient location! So if one were so inclined, you could get a haircut, while licking an icecream and occasionally taking a swig of your big Mandalay Beer, all set to the soundtrack of the surprisingly-good covers performed by the club's house band! We amused ourselves there for a couple of hours, providing the bar-girls with plenty of laughs as well, as we tried to get our tongues around the Burmese language.

Not expecting Yangon to have much in the way of nightlife, we weren't all that surprised when the Silver Oak closed at 9.30pm, and we were ushered gently into the street. Rats the size of rabbits skittered over our feet, as we picked our way through piles of rubbish & broken pavements in the direction of home. Happening to stumble upon the ABC Country Pub on the way - still open at the ungodly hour of 10pm! - we decided to celebrate this daring licentiousness with one final drink before bed. =P However, we were then invited by 'Jonny' (we weren't able to pronounce his Burmese name to his satisfaction) - one of the ABC waiters - to join him at a nearby club once he'd knocked off. Suspecting something fishy, but unable to resist the unlikely opportunity of partying the night away in Myanmar, we ...