Wow.. access it seems

It seems like we have access to our blog today. So nice. We did arrive yesterday in Yangon. The plane was a bit more full. At least 35 people! But then again, air asia had canceled their flight and Myanmar Airways was 'full' (read: canceled). Even Bangkok air was full but we don't know if that was a real full or a cancellation... Anyways, we did arrive. 2 westerners on the plane and both (Sandra and another girl) both work in Yangon. Even now in downtown Yangon there are very few westerners to be seen but we have seen at least 4 tourists... (in almost 2 hours downtown).

It was nice to be back home. Though we did go to KK's teashop first. Sandra had no more kyats so she got a taxi from the airport to the teashop where she left the business of paying for the cab to Kyaw Kyaw. We stayed a while in the teashop, drinking in Burmese ambiance again (very nice after a week in Khao San Rd) and drinking nice burmese tea (also very nice after 3 weeks of noit having any). The apartment was much as we'd left it. Though much drier (1 wall that had had a serious bout of stains thanks to the rainy season) and again quite dusty (something you can't really tackle here).

We'll go off for some serious shopping now. There's not much in the house and so we need to stack up. Fruit and veggies to begin with. Cheese, bread and niceties after... It is hot and dry so lots of fluids as well (water we have but KK likes a beer every once in a while and Sandra loves to drink milk at the moment. In large quantities).

Back to Burma tomorrow

We've finally gotten our visa. That is, after we had the invitation letter from the school were Sandra taught, it was done in a day. it took us a little while to convince the person who was helping us that it didn't really matter so much that the invitation letter was a copy send to us by email. He was complaining the email address wasn't visible. Sandra said that it had come as an attachment which she had printed. After all, they already have several original letters in our file. it isn't like it is the first time we were there. And he didn't like it that the signature was UNDER the name instead of above and asked Sandra if she knew who's signature it was. She said that she assumed it would be the signature of the person mentioned as writing the letter but since it was a fairly unreadable signature.. how did she know. The guy eventually went of to consult someone else (read: higher in the hierarchy) and it was decided it was OK. So in the afternoon we went back to get our stuff. Happiness. Until we tried to book tickets back to Yangon. Tomorrow we'll fly with Air Bagan who is one of the few that still fly every day 9even though there is hardly anybody on the plane). The Air Asia flight for tomorrow is canceled (again) and apparently they don't need to book you on another flight. Glad i hadn't booked that one yet. We did meet some polish women who wanted to be on that flight. They are staying in the same guesthouse and we saw 1 of them at the embassy on wednesday. That girl hadn't been back when i spoke to one of the group members today and they still don't know if they have gotten a visa or not. They already applied 10 days ago. Tourists are really being frustrated getting into the country. Tourist visas are given to only a very few people.. hence all the cancellations. Although Myanmar Airways doesn't say they've cancelled flights. But in the systems for travel agencies the flights come back as 'fully booked' ;-) Yeah right....

Anyways, we'll be flying back tomorrow. Not sure when (and if) we're able to update our blog. Apparently it is made almost impossible to get through proxies and all that. So email and blogstuff can be hard (they aren't particularly fond of gmail/yahoo and hotmail over there....). But i'll try my best.

Embassy fustration......

Sandra & I thought that after getting our 'patience and acceptance' -training in the Ukrainian and Russian train stations that we were pretty advanced really. After all, if you've experienced several times that you want to buy a ticket for a train that is about to leave in 3 hours (or so) and you've been standing in line for that ticket for 2,5 hours when the ticket seller decides to get his or her coffee/tea/lunch break, you know you'll have to accept and change your plans. Or when it takes you at least 10 minutes just to get a small piece of paper with the 4 train times that you've requested in your best russian and the lady just isn't very willing to write the times down and just thinks that you should be able to AND understand AND remember them even though it is pretty obvious your russian is rudimentary... Well, let's say it this way, it is a good exercise..

But apparently fate thinks it is time for the follow up course. Embassies! First of all, it took us easily 2,5 weeks to get kyaw Kyaw's visa for Thailand. Not that this is a particularly difficult visa to obtain normally but KK had 2 visa extensions in his passport from our time in Chiang Mai this winter. Eventually we managed to get through to someone and if Sandra could provide her medical papers which had to prove that we all went to Bangkok for an ultrasound and that indeed she was pregnant, we got the ok for the visa. Of course the visa could only be given AFTER KK had purchased a flight ticket and had shown them the original and given them a copy. Not something that we ever had to do before. Besides, we got the ok on wednesday when on thursday all hell broke loose in Yangon downtown and it was impossible to book that ticket. We left Yangon that day with Sandra's parents and phoned the embassy on friday exmplaining the matter. No problem. So when we came back we called. First we didn't get anyone on the phone but finally we got through at about 13.45. She talked to some guy, explaining that we wanted to fly either friday evening or saturday morning (Sandra's parents left Yangon on friday morning and would fly on from bangkok on saturday evening). It was all no problem, we just had to give them the tickets and we could pick up the visa at 1 on friday afternoon. Sandra asked him if it was ok if they would hand in the tickets on friday morning just in case we couldn't make it (we also had an interview with the french consul that afternoon) and it was clearly stated that it wasn't a problem. And of course we believed it. After all, the visa was already given the OK. But on friday things turned out completely different. It would only be ready on monday and suddenly the guy kept insisting that he had said that we should have been at the embassy at 2 pm. Well, Sandra is many things but stupid isn't one of them. She would have picked up on something like having to be at an embassy at 2 with tickets bought when one is calling at a quarter to to ask about a visa and possible flight times. But the guy kept insisting and of course there was nothing to be done. Sandra & I flew on saturday morning, KK came on tuesday morning.

Ok, that was one embassy.

Normally when you needed a visa for Burma you wnet to the embassy in the morning and picked up your visa in the afternoon of that same day. So Sandra & i went to the embassy on friday morning. Sandra had just piked up her brand-new passport and we were there early. There were only 3 applicants. So we thought it would be a breeze. Not really. The staff remembered us but nowadays you need an invitation. Even for a tourist visa. And of course we didn't have one. They've taken the application for evaluation and we will know on wednesday whether we can get in or not. So Sandra has asked the school if they are willing to issue that invitation so there is less problem. Besides, she prefers to get a business visa again since risking an overstay might be more problematic now. KK had a ticket for 2 weeks so he's flying on monday. Not so nice since calling has always been a hit-and-miss affair and it'll be worse now. And how well the internet is working... who knows...

So basically we're stuck here for a while. KK can't come here and we can not go there...

Relax time

We arrived on Koh Phangan on friday late in the morning and decided to ko to Haad Yao where we're now in a little wooden bungalow on a tiny hill overlooking the bay. Well, that is not really correct, we had a bungalow (not of wood) that overlooked the bay but the resort below ours is contructing a new builing and of course this construction was right next to our place. So we managed to get ourself an upgrade. We still see the sea and we also have a nice view of the swimming pool. So we're not complaining ;-) Unfortunately the weather isn't particularly cooperating to make this a really nice holiday. Yesterday it was raining most of the day. This morning it was raining as well. Now it seems like the sun makes a very tentative appearance. There was something very itchy in the water the day before yesterday. Not jellyfish but something similar. So we're very happy that we have the pool. Sandra & I were ok when we went for a swim. Kyaw Kyaw went a little later and he and several other people reported the itchiness. Suddenly the pool looked even more attractive. Especially since we've almost have it too ourselves. Mmm.. the sun seems a little more obviously present now. Time for a swim....

To the beach to the beach

We're off in an hour to take an overnight bus and then tomorrow the speed ferry to the beach Koh Phangang or something like that. It is between Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Beach and more beach for some serious R& R. Probably the last down time for a good while to come. Sandra has packed so many books that Kyaw Kyaw is complaining about having to lug that stuff around all the time (he doesn't let Sandra carry it anymore). Me, i think that Kyaw Kyaw and i will leave Sandra to her book devouring and explore the island a bit. Go for walks, go for talks.... Or maybe i'll work on my tan. I'm sure we'll have a good time. I'm so glad Sandra has to wait in Thailand for her new passport. The last one was completely full.

Some nice pictures from last week

I actually wanted to make sure i could sort the pictures and make some nice comments to accompany them but everything i see on my screen is in Thai and i can make nothing of it. I asked Sandra but she hasn't a clue either so we both consider it more safe to just leave this and go on with it. So, my appologies for the disorder of this entry. But at least you can see some pictures. Of course quite a few pictures of Sandra's parents and Kyaw Kyaw. Me you can find in one of the pcitures we took at Kekku and the woman in black with the colourful headgear was our guide there. She's Pa-O and this is their traditional outfit. We also visited Bagan and Inle Lake that week. And had a stopover in Meikhtila because of the horrible roads we werre faced with. Just to give you an idea i included a picture of a river bed we needed to cross. It was empty and Jet & I wanted to stop the car so we could take a good picture. But both Kyaw Kyaw and the driver said a hasty 'NO'. On the other side they explained why. 2 men we had seen on the other side had told them to hurry since the dam that was very very close by could be opened at any minute. The bassin was too full. Only thing.. the government usually didn't inform people beforehand. You just had to be sure you were out of the way... We were really relieved to hear this story only when we were on the other side. Safe and sound....

What a day....

Sandra wanted to meet Kyaw Kyaw at the airport as promised so we had to get up real early. The room was already stifling hot like it has been ever since we arrived in Bangkok. The heat seems more oppressive here then in Yangon. Anyways.. we made our way to the airport. I find the new airport not particularly nice and neither does Sandra. We found out that the flight was on time and that the exit gate was C. So that is where we installed ourselves. The plane landed, people kept coming through the gate but no Kyaw Kyaw. Heck, even not a very burmese face. But since the planes haven't been exactly full (heck even the air asia flights keep being canceled due to lack of passengers) i wondered if we would really see so many 'burmese' faces. At 10 i got restless and Sandra wasn't very happy either. We'd had already so much trouble with the Thai embassy in Yangon that we were wondering if he had gotten his visa after all. Even though they had promised to arrange it this time. And since the internet is still down over there and we had tried but failed to reach him yesterday, there was no knowing whether he had been on board at all.

At around half past, Sandra made her way to the departure hall where most flight companies have an information desk. Alas, not one for the company KK was flying with. But the general info desk gave us a phone number that we could call. It was all rather depressing. So we went for a drink. For one think, neither of us had eaten anything yet, second food is quite expensive at the airport. So we sat, let our imaginations run wild for a while (especially given teh situation of last week) but finally decided to wait until tomorrow to see if he would fly in then. For all we knew, the embassy might have given KK a hard time since he handed in copes of the flight tickets that at that time were still for the saturday morning. Or something silly like that (like they had done before). So we took the express bus back to Khao San rd. There we went for a bite. Well deserved since it was well into the afernoon. At around half past 2 we came back to the hotel. Where the 2 ladies from the reception/travel agency told me that Sandra's husband had arrived and was asleep in our room. Imagine that! Turns out that he had taken another exit gate since that was where most people went. He didn't see us and thought we'd still be at the hotel. He had arrived at around 11 already. We had been worried for no reason.....

Finally able to access my blog again

I know I know it has been a long long time since i updated this blog. I tried several times since i have much to relate but the internet lately was so slow in Burma that i had to give up. But now that we're in Bangkok again i hope i'll have some serious time to put into this blog. At the moment it seems i have to put up with Sandra's effort to try to get through the backlog in her mail so i think this update will still be a short one. Anyways, Sandra's parents were visiting last week and we did a week tour of Burma. It was safer to leave Yangon so that's what we did as soon as we could. It was great seeing them again and i know that Sandra loved it. Kyaw Kyaw was finally introduced properly. He likes them and they like him so Sandra was even happier. We all had a great week even though we had real trouble with the car and the roads. And of course the political situation kept us all occupied. But all in all it was a pleasant trip. I'll post pictures soon.

Time goes really fast and the timer on the computer tells me time is almost up. Better post this real quick before i'm cut off.