I have made my way from Saipan to Bangkok to get a visa for Burma, now officially Myanmar. Once I get the visa I will fly from Bangkok to Mandalay, where I finished my Burmese travels last year. My plan this year is to travel to parts of Burma that I didn't get to last year and then cross the newly opened land border from Burma to India. I plan to travel through northeast India and Bangladesh and then make my way across Nepal from east to west. At least that is the plan.
From Saipan I took an early morning flight on the 11th, leaving more than an hour late at 3:45 and arriving in Incheon in Korea after more than four hours at about 7 a.m. local time. I slept as we flew northwest over the Pacific, eventually flying over Kyushu, and awoke just before we reached the lights of Pusan below. I could make out the hills of the Korean peninsula below as we flew northwest over it just before sunrise.
After landing in Incheon I just barely made my connecting flight to Bangkok, scheduled to leave at 7:30 but taking off at 8. I slept some more and spotted the Mekong as we flew over it in Laos. Interestingly, the plane did not take a direct route to Bangkok by flying over China. Instead, after flying over South Korea, it flew over the sea, skirting the east coast of Taiwan, and did not fly above land until reaching the coast of Vietnam near Danang. The plane arrived in Bangkok about 11:15 a.m. local time, after a more than five hour flight. While I had just barely made the connection in Incheon, my backpack hadn't. After dealing with the baggage issue, I headed to my guest house and took a late afternoon nap. My backpack finally showed up about 9:30 that evening. I was glad to see it and went to bed soon after 10.
The next morning I took the boat down the Chao Phraya River and then walked to the Myanmar Embassy, getting there about 10:30. The line for visa applications reached out onto the sidewalk. It took me about twenty minutes to get inside and another hour to reach the little window, where I was given a number. My number was called after another half hour or so. The man at another little window briefly looked over my passport and application. I paid him the fee and he told me to come back the next day.
I walked a block or so and then had lunch across the street from a very colorful Hindu temple originally constructed in 1879. A bare chested brahmin priest appeared to be blessing a new red sedan bedecked with flowers. After lunch I walked around inside the temple, much cleaner than any temple I have ever seen in India. To my surprise, almost all the devotees were Thai. (The priests were Indians.) Thais were bringing metal platefuls of offerings of fruit to the priest to be placed before the image of Uma in the sanctuary. I struck up a conversation with a Tamil from Chennai who has come to Bangkok to work in the temple as some sort of helper. He asked me about getting sponsored for a visa to the United States.
From the temple I walked to the riverside Oriental Hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon reading and people watching in its plush lobby, with a short walk to see its old section, dating from the late 1800's. Joseph Conrad may have stayed there, and is thought to have at least dined there. (He may have slept on his ship on the river.) Somerset Maugham did stay there decades later. At dusk I took the boat back upriver under a beautiful sky.
The next day was full of errands and a trip back to the embassy to get my visa. Only a fifteen minute line this time. Just after dark I walked along Khao San Road and the street just north of it. There are huge amounts of tourists here, and the street just north of Khao San Road is getting quite upscale. Quite a change from my first time here in 1992.
From Saipan I took an early morning flight on the 11th, leaving more than an hour late at 3:45 and arriving in Incheon in Korea after more than four hours at about 7 a.m. local time. I slept as we flew northwest over the Pacific, eventually flying over Kyushu, and awoke just before we reached the lights of Pusan below. I could make out the hills of the Korean peninsula below as we flew northwest over it just before sunrise.
After landing in Incheon I just barely made my connecting flight to Bangkok, scheduled to leave at 7:30 but taking off at 8. I slept some more and spotted the Mekong as we flew over it in Laos. Interestingly, the plane did not take a direct route to Bangkok by flying over China. Instead, after flying over South Korea, it flew over the sea, skirting the east coast of Taiwan, and did not fly above land until reaching the coast of Vietnam near Danang. The plane arrived in Bangkok about 11:15 a.m. local time, after a more than five hour flight. While I had just barely made the connection in Incheon, my backpack hadn't. After dealing with the baggage issue, I headed to my guest house and took a late afternoon nap. My backpack finally showed up about 9:30 that evening. I was glad to see it and went to bed soon after 10.
The next morning I took the boat down the Chao Phraya River and then walked to the Myanmar Embassy, getting there about 10:30. The line for visa applications reached out onto the sidewalk. It took me about twenty minutes to get inside and another hour to reach the little window, where I was given a number. My number was called after another half hour or so. The man at another little window briefly looked over my passport and application. I paid him the fee and he told me to come back the next day.
I walked a block or so and then had lunch across the street from a very colorful Hindu temple originally constructed in 1879. A bare chested brahmin priest appeared to be blessing a new red sedan bedecked with flowers. After lunch I walked around inside the temple, much cleaner than any temple I have ever seen in India. To my surprise, almost all the devotees were Thai. (The priests were Indians.) Thais were bringing metal platefuls of offerings of fruit to the priest to be placed before the image of Uma in the sanctuary. I struck up a conversation with a Tamil from Chennai who has come to Bangkok to work in the temple as some sort of helper. He asked me about getting sponsored for a visa to the United States.
From the temple I walked to the riverside Oriental Hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon reading and people watching in its plush lobby, with a short walk to see its old section, dating from the late 1800's. Joseph Conrad may have stayed there, and is thought to have at least dined there. (He may have slept on his ship on the river.) Somerset Maugham did stay there decades later. At dusk I took the boat back upriver under a beautiful sky.
The next day was full of errands and a trip back to the embassy to get my visa. Only a fifteen minute line this time. Just after dark I walked along Khao San Road and the street just north of it. There are huge amounts of tourists here, and the street just north of Khao San Road is getting quite upscale. Quite a change from my first time here in 1992.
