Back to Yangon

I flew from Mandalay to Yangon on Wednesday, September 20th. As this was my last stop in Myanmar, and I was feeling good about my post-travel job prospects, I decided to splurge a little on a three star hotel. I chose the Hotel Grand United on 21st Street. Since this was the low season, the room price wasn't too bad at US$40 per night.

It started pouring the minute I landed at Yangon airport. The taxi ride into town was in heavy rain, and it persisted until the late afternoon. Thankfully, this hotel's wifi was quite decent, so I watched Netflix while waiting for the rain to stop.

As soon as the rain stopped at around 5pm, I went for a walk around my hotel. What a fascinating area this turned out to be. The hotel is in Chinatown, and I wandered transfixed at crumbling building facades, temples, market stalls, and all manner of street food. I was particularly excited about the street eats along 19th Street. In the evening, the street seemed to transform into a walking street with tables everywhere. The specialty appeared to be barbecue. There were lots of display cases with skewers of meat and vegetables. I resolved to dine there the next day; I had dinner plans for today.

When I first arrived in Myanmar, I reached out to Michael, a fellow UCLA MBA living in Yangon. We agreed to meet for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We had a pleasant time getting to know each other, and after dinner we went for drinks at a club at the Park Royal. It was surreal watching a Filipino cover band play Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall. While the cover was technically good, the diction wasn't, and it was jarring to watch the singers' gyrating hips while they performed it. I don't think they got the context of that song. I goaded Michael to get up on stage and voice the "you can't have pudding if you haven't had your meat" part. I bid farewell to my new friend after a few drinks and headed back to my hotel.

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