April 1, 2007
Arieh here. I am afraid there is nothing to tell you that touches on the title. We will not be in Yangon where there is a seder at the Israeli embassy. We will not be in a little town in northern Burma (north of Myitkyina) where we had the possibility of being at a seder conducted by the Church of God. And, as far as I can tell, we will not be in the company of any Jews in order to Break Matzah together (which we don't have anyway). However, we will be celebrating Val's birthday tomorrow on April 2nd.
Burma has been more difficult to get around in than I remember from 24 years ago. The we flew everywhere we wanted to and it seemed to work pretty efficiently. In and out in the one week allowed. This time no one seems to be able to get us tickets to leave anywhere until we actually get to the city we want to leave. Thankfully, it is now working out and we are finding the tickets (with persistence on my anal part) and today we actually have a ticket leaving Inle Lake 3 days before we are scheduled to leave.
We left Myitkyina today and I'll let Val tell you about our visit there. I want to tell you about Mandalay International Airport where we waited in between flights for 2 hours. The flight from Myitkyina to Mandalay is one hour and was uneventful, other than clearing customs before we left. Yes, that's correct. It was as if we left a foreign country before we flew to Manadaly. At Mandalay airport, 45 KM from Mandalay, we saw one other airplane on the tarmac at this INTERNATIONAL airport. ONE. Our plane (and the one other) was a propeller plane with seats for 72 and we were driven by bus to the terminal. Inside was this gleaming new, potentially air-conditioned, large cavernous arrival area. 6 or 7 conveyor belts for luggage the same as any modern airport we have been to this last 7 months. At other airports in Burma we have picked our own luggage out of the carts. Here, by golly, it was coming off of one of the conveyor belts. The lights were mostly off (to reduce the heat and eliminate any need for A/C). The 6 conveyor belts currently are there to handle the 10 scheduled airplanes (of which 2 were cancelled today) that arrive every day.
We had a two-hour stopover. We collected our luggage and then had to carry it upstairs to the Departure area. Fortunately we did have tickets for the second flight. If not, there was nowhere to buy them at this International airport. We would have had to drive into Mandalay (remember those 45 KM?) and fly the next morning, even though there were empty seats today on our 30-minute flight to Inle Lake!
So, now you know about Mandalay airport and our getting there. Let me tell you about the trip we did not take to get to Mandalay. We had wanted to take a 6-hour boat ride from Myitkyina down the Irrawaddy river and then fly from Bhamo to Mandalay. There is a flight one day per week. The timing would have been good, except the government airline (Myanma Air) doesn't tell the customers if they will actually fly until ONE day before the flight is supposed to leave. So, we canned that and also discovered in Myitkyina that no one would take us down the river now in the dry season. So, no trip down the great Irrawaddy river.
HOWEVER, we met some Belgian kids who actually did manage to sail down to Bhamo and beyond, almost to Mandalay. And with one set of parents and a guide, no less. The river trip down to Bhamo should be 6 hours. It took them 2 days. Engine problems, I believe. From Bhamo to Mandalay it was very slow on the river and they spent 2 days instead of one getting to the next town of Katha. (This is the town upon which George Orwell based his novel "Burmese Days". I just finished reading it again and some things never change in some parts of the world.) From there is was another day to Mandalay by bus. Not a trip for Val and I.
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