Good Morning Yangon

At 2am we arrived at Yangon Bus Station which is far from the city center. As we couldn't check into our dorm bed anyway we decided to sleep in the bus operators waiting room. Will went to the loo and the bus driver said I could go upstairs and sleep, I waited for Will and then we went up. When trying to go upstairs the guy started speaking Burmese at me and showing a poster written in Burmese. I honestly didn't have a clue what he was saying until I went upstairs. It was clearly for ladies and children only! Exhausted Will didn't care and just found a spot anyway on the lino floor. I wouldn't say it was the best sleep but it was better than none. At 7am we got up to an empty room and headed to our hostel.

We got the local bus to the hostel and it was sooo packed but I love travelling with the locals. They are sooo smiley here it makes me so happy. On the way from the bus we stopped at a local Tea house for breakfast of dumplings, somosa, puri and lots of tea. The streets were packed with locals as it was independence day. The main street was flowing with market stalls and hundreds of Burmese. Luckily when we arrived at the hostel we were able to check in so after a quick shower I felt normal again.

It was our last day so we were determined to enjoy it! Luckily it wasn't as hot as in Hpa An so walking around wasn't as difficult. We had a fab noodle soup for lunch, had a few goodies from the bakery and walked around the colonial area of Yangon. Of all South East Asian cities, Yangon has the highest number of colonial era buildings. Hundreds of late 19th century structures remain on an area of several square miles in the downtown area. It was really interesting but by about 3pm the heat and tiredness were hitting me hard. Will found a barbers so had a quick hair cut and his first clean shave which gave me time to have a rest. We then jumped in a taxi and went to our last tourist stop for the day, bogyoke market famous for its textiles and where we were hoping to by the last few presents we wanted. Annoyingly the taxi driver didn't actually tell us it was closed until he took us there and we were leaving the car. Quite annoyed and in need of a sit down we went to the near by glamorous shopping mall and had a coffee.

For a while myself and Will have been eyeing up Xaomi Products. We have the Xaomi MI Band 2, but I lost mine in India and Will's has broken slowly over the last few months. The mall had a Xaomi Store! We were like kids in a candy store looking at all the cool gadgets. We aren't one to buy things generally but when we got home we were planning on getting new bands and I was actually going to get the brand new Amazefit watch for Will's birthday but I didn't have enough time. After A LOOOONG time in the shop going back and forth we bought the watch. In the UK its £80 and it was only £40 so we couldn't resist the bargain. So we are now proud owners of the Amazefit!! We were both very excited. We were honestly in the shop for 1.5 hours trying it on, deciding whether we really wanted it and finally setting it up.

To celebrate our last night we went to the top of Sakura Tower, enjoyed a £2.50 Singapore Sling and the gorgeous view of Yangon City. At that moment in time nothing could have ruined how perfect it was. Or so I thought... As you know we booked our flight home but the cheapest was to fly direct to Milan and then go to Manchester. As we are going via Milan we decided to book 3 nights in Milan to enjoy a holiday within the holiday but we are massively low on funds so we booked quite a cheap airbnb. Guess what... While enjoying our night of cocktails I recieved an email from the host saying he is booked up and can't host us. This booking was an instant book and so the payment had already gone through! Basically it turns out he has 2 listings of the property and hasn't actually updated the sexond/ isn't aware of Instant Booking. We instantly started looking for an alternative but everything was looking to be €50 a night. Now for the normal Jo reading this you're probably thinking, that's what I would expect. It was giving us a heart attack thinking about it. We got on the phone to airbnb and they said they need to talk to the host before they can help us, they said they would be in contact in 2 hours. It was now 7pm in Yangon. Having slept on a lino floor last night the plan was to go to the hostel soon and have an early night. At 9pm obviously they didn't call back and so I messaged on the support app. I was then quoted 4 hours. This would take us to 1am Yangon time. We were getting very panicky and unfortunately we really let it get to us and it did ruin the very end of the night for us.

Anyway looong story short I couldn't sleep a wink and at 3am a couch surfer got in touch and said if we are still desperate for a place to stay he can host for one night. Relief!! I then reduced the search for just 2 nights stay and found a room for £80 for 2 nights and just went ahead with it. At 5am Will woke up saying he couldn't sleep and I was able to tell him the good news that all was sorted! Proud of my nights work but absolutely exhausted I attempted to sleep. We had made plans to go to the Market in the morning before the flight but there was no way we were in a fit state.Read more