Travel, Miles, & Luxury

Monday, October 29, 2012

Myanmar Trip -- Part IV

View from the room

Nice touch

Fruit plate

Turndown service

Yangon

Since I only had a very short time in Yangon, I tried my best not to pass out from exhaustion on the comfortable hotel bed. I summoned some strength and headed out to explore. I started by walking over to Bogyoke Market which is a giant market selling all sorts of goods.

One interesting thing about Myanmar is that US dollars are widely accepted. I didn't even exchange my money the whole time I was there. The only thing is that the dollars must be in perfect condition. There can't be a single crease or tear. Luckily, I had read about this before I left, and had gotten some clean bills from the bank.

Bogyoke Market

I then headed over to the Shwedagon Pagoda, a must-see for anyone visiting Myanmar. It is an extremely impressive structure. It is made up of about 60 tons of gold along with over 5,000 diamonds and rubies. It costs $5 to enter the pagoda and you have to take off your shoes and socks.

At one point, a long row of people started rushing at me with brooms. I guess this is how they clean the floors.

As I was walking around, a guy approached me who spoke pretty good English and started telling me some interesting facts about the pagoda. He offered to take me on an in-depth tour of the pagoda for $5 and I agreed. He was an extremely funny and informative tour guide. He said he did tours in both English and Japanese, but preferred doing tours for English-speaking Europeans and Americans. He said he does a lot of tours for Japanese businessmen, but doesn't like them because they're always in a hurry to get to meeting and never take the time to fully experience the pagoda. He also had his own catchphrase, "Holy Murray!" I'm not exactly sure if he was saying "Holy Murray" or "Holy Mary" or something else, but he used in the same sense someone would say "Holy Cow" and said it at least every 10 minutes.

If you're going to Myanmar, I'd highly recommend him. He'll take you on a tour of just about any part of Myanmar, not just the pagoda. If anyone is interested, e-mail me and I'll send you his contact information.

I know my pictures don't do it justice, but the pagoda is especially spectacular at night because the diamonds and rubies start to shimmer.

I was at the pagoda for about 4 hours, and the change in time zones was really catching up with me, so I headed back to the hotel and immediately fell right to sleep. The next day I woke up early and walked some more around town.

They don't have KFC here, but they do have TFC

One really cool thing they have in Yangon that I wish we had in the US is timers on their stop lights. You can see exactly how long until the light is going to change.

I'm extremely glad I got to visit Myanmar, even if it was only for a very short time. It's very different from anywhere I've ever visited. It is a country that has been closed from foreign interests for many years so the culture has been isolated and therefore is quite different from many other places. There are no American chains and few people speak English. However, they are now opening up the country more and more and there is a lot of excitement and development going on, especially from Japanese and Chinese companies. For anybody who has not been, I'd highly recommend visiting Myanmar soon as I'm sure it will become a much different place in the coming years.

Click here for Part V -- Malaysia Airlines (RGN-KUL-SIN)

Myanmar Trip -- Part III

Part I: Planning/Asiana Business Class (SEA-ICN)
Part II: Asiana Lounge ICN/Asiana Business Class (ICN-BKK)
Part III: Thai Airways Lounge BKK/Thai Airways Business Class (BKK-RGN)
Part IV: Myanmar/Traders Hotel
Part V: Malaysia Airlines (RGN-KUL-SIN)
Part VI: Singapore Airlines Private Room
Part VII: Singapore Airlines Suites Class (SIN-LHR)
Part VIII: SAS-Air Canada Lounge LHR/Singapore Airlines Lounge LHR/Air Canada (LHR-YUL)
Part IX: Montreal Marriott Airport
Part X: Encore Wynn Las Vegas

BKK Airport and Thai Airways Lounge
I landed in Bangkok around 1 am and had a fairly long layover. I decided the layover was too short to get a hotel and none of the lounges opened until 5 am , so I just traipsed about for a few hours. Bangkok airport has free WiFi, but only for one hour. You have to go to one of the information desks, write down your name and passport number in a book, and then they give you a passcode that's good for one hour of free WiFi. Beyond that, you have to pay. I went to one information desk, got my code, and had a pleasurable hour watching some YouTube videos. But then my hour was up, so I went to a different information desk, wrote down a fake name and passport number, and enjoyed another hour of free WiFi. The fourth time around, I got my code and just wrote my name as James Bond and my passport number as 007007007. The lady at the information desk didn't seem to notice.

Finally, one of the Thai Airways lounges opened and I headed over. The lounge is nice, but only has one shower. I had to wait a while to use the shower and couldn't take my usual super long shower because there were a lot of people waiting.

Thai Airways lounge

Food

Lounge shower

Thai Airways: BKK-RGN

TG 301

Duration: 1:25 hrs

Class: Business

After shoving a bunch of lounge snacks into my face, I boarded my flight to Yangon. I had been on planes/in airports for the past 40 hours or so with very little sleep, so I was very happy that this would be my last flight for a while.

BKK Airport

Thai Airways business class seat

Legroom

The flight was very short (just a little over an hour), but a meal was still served. Can you imagine being served a meal on an hour long flight in the US? Most US airlines don't even serve drinks on a flight that short. You can view the menu here.

Roast duck

Shortly after finishing the meal, we began our descent into Yangon.

Landing in Myanmar

If you look closely, you can make out some of the pagodas

Click here for Part IV -- Myanmar/Traders Hotel

Myanmar Trip -- Part II

Asiana lounge

Blurry picture of lounge food

Lounge food

After getting some food in the lounge, I headed out to catch my flight to Bangkok. On my way to the gate, I passed by this interesting store.

Asiana: ICN-BKK

OZ 743

Duration: 5:34 hrs

Class: Business

This flight went by fairly quickly. It was about 5 hours long and the service/food was very good. You can view the menu here.

Prosciutto ham with parmesan cheese and melon

Garlic bread

Beef tenderloin steak with kimchi bacon roll and pumpkin

Cooked medium rare

Cheese plate

Green tea and ice cream

After dinner, I fell asleep and woke up just outside of Bangkok. Another good flight on Asiana. Stay tuned for Part III.

Click here for Part III -- Thai Airways Lounge BKK/Thai Airways Business Class (BKK-RGN)

Myanmar Trip -- Part I

DEN-SFO-SEA-ICN-BKK-RGN-KUL-SIN-LHR-YUL-ORD-LAS-DEN

Planning
I came across a mistake fare that would allow me to fly in international first class for about $260. I booked it, and then went about preparing for the trip. My flight was departing in about 3 weeks, so I needed to quickly get a visa to be able to enter Myanmar. I sent in my passport to the Myanmar embassy in Washington DC. They said processing time was 10 business day so I thought I had enough time.

As my departure date neared, my passport still hadn't arrived and I started getting more and more worried. I even thought about paying $300 to get an emergency passport. Luckily, my passport arrived at my house literally the day before my trip. So everything worked out in the end.

SEA British Airways Lounge
After some uneventful United flights, I arrived in Seattle and headed to the lounge. Asiana uses the British Airways lounge here which is quite nice. They have all the typical snacks and drinks as well as soup.

British Airways lounge Seattle

View from the lounge

Soup

Asiana: SEA-ICN
OZ 271
Duration: 11:30 hrs
Class: Business

After some nice time in the lounge, it was time to board my flight. I was in business class, and Asiana has a very nice business class product. The seat is comfortable, but not fully lie flat. The service is very good. My only complaint is the entertainment system which had very limited content.

Business class seat

IFE

Plenty of legroom

Amenity kit

Headphone jack and USB port

Power port

Pre-departure beverages

Hot towel

After takeoff, the flight attendants passed out menus and the meal service began. You can view the menu here. The food was all quite good. One of the appetizers I ordered wasn't available. The flight attendant was extremely apologetic. I was like "no problem....the other option looks good too." She responded by saying, "this is unacceptable that we are out of your first choice." I'd never seen somebody so sorry. I almost thought she was going to turn the plane around back to Seattle to get my first choice.

Smoked duck and scallop

Korean seafood pancake -- about as good as it sounds

Korean pumpkin soup (Hobakjuk)

Roasted chicken breast

Fresh fruit

Korean traditional cookies (lame dessert)

We were flying over Russia for most of the flight which provided some great views.

A few hours before landing, the flight attendants served the pre-arrival meal. Even though I was sitting in the back of business class, the flight attendant took my order first to make sure I got my first choice this time.

Marinated shrimp and scallop

Egg fried rice with shrimp

Fresh fruit

After a long, but very comfortable flight, we landed in Seoul where the trip was only beginning. Stay tuned for Part II.

Click here for Part II -- Asiana Lounge ICN/Asiana Business Class (ICN-BKK)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Romance at 30,000 Feet

I was on a United flight from Montreal to Chicago today. When the flight attendant came around to offer drinks, he informed the woman sitting next to me that the pilot wanted to buy her a glass of wine. At first, she was a little confused, but she graciously accepted. The flight attendant came back 5 minutes later with a napkin and a pen and said the pilot wanted her to write down her phone number. She responded by saying that she had Canadian phone service and would have her cell phone turned off for the week she was going to be in the US. Five minutes later the flight attendant came back yet again and said the pilot wanted to meet her for a drink in the airport bar when we landed. The lady said she had another flight to catch and didn't have time.

I think it's kind of weird and unprofessional for a pilot to be flirting with a passenger. Also, I feel bad for the flight attendant who had to serve as the pilot's messenger boy. I wonder if the pilot has successfully met girls this way. Maybe he has a girlfriend in every city?

Friday, October 19, 2012

Musings from the Middle Seat...

I was on a redeye flight from San Francisco to Newark the other night. I had booked a seat in Economy Plus in the exit row, but when I got to my gate they told me an error had occurred in their system and my seat had been reassigned to a middle seat at the back of the plane. The gate agent rebooked my seat in Economy Plus. When I boarded the plane, there was someone sitting in my seat. He was booked in that seat too. I asked the flight attendant for help and she told me that they must have double booked our seat. She said there were no seats left in Economy Plus. I had to sit in a middle seat next to two sweaty fat guys at the back of the plane near the lavatories. Normally, I wouldn't care too much, but this was a long 5 and half hour transcon redeye flight.

To keep myself somewhat sane during the flight, I decided to make a log:

11:30PM - (settling into my middle seat, my home for the next 5 hours)

11:32PM - (looking at boil on seatmate's neck) Well, that's quite intriguing.

11:50PM - I think I can survive this. They're playing Moonrise Kingdom. I heard it was a good movie.

11:55PM - The lady in front of me has hair like Marge Simpson. I can't even see the TV monitor.

12:04AM - What the hell is going on in this movie???

12:32AM - Seatmate in the aisle is snoring.

12:36AM - ...now the other seatmate in the window is snoring

12:42AM - The snorchestra grows increasingly louder

12:43AM - Contemplating in-flight suicide using overdose of mini liquor bottles and airborne pills (a well-known deadly concoction)

1:40AM - Sooooooo tired!

1:45AM - Create makeshift shiv out of pen and pencil sharpener

1:48AM - Begin carving tallies of the minutes I've been on the plane into my tray table

2:37AM - Try to convince myself I'm in Cancun

2:40AM - Start to become delirious and lightheaded from constant flow of gas from my seatmates

3:40AM - Need to use the restroom...trapped behind wall of fat

3:58AM - Fall asleep for 5 minutes and dream that I'm in Singapore Airlines first class

4:03AM - Quickly awoken and jolted back to reality by aftershocks from seatmate's fart

I spent the rest of the flight in a coma. When we arrived in Newark, I kissed the ground thankful to be off that plane.