We had another run in with the taxi driver on the way to Bangkok Airport. He acted surprised when we pointed out that his meter wasn’t working and pretended that it was broken. We then had to agree a fare with him, far in excess of that which would have shown on his meter of course.

The flight to Yangon was with Air Asia and took an hour and a quarter . There were few other planes on the tarmac at Yangon and so immigration and baggage retrieval was fairly speedy. We were met by our driver who introduced himself as Mr Win. Our bags were piled into the back of his mini bus but before we could leave he recommended that we changed some dollars into the local currency. He and Keith went back into the terminal to join the long queue at the exchange counter. It was more than half an hour later when they finally emerged carrying a brick sized pile of notes. The currency is the Kyat and the largest denomination note dispensed at the exchange counter is the 1000 Kyat note which is worth about £1.

It was dark by the time we drove into Yangon. We were surprised by the number of cars on the road and as we approached the city centre we were caught up in rush hour traffic jams. Most of the cars were old but not as old and decrepit as the overcrowded local buses. The air was thick with fumes. Mr Win seemed to have a bad cough and we could see why . Motorbikes however he told us are banned from Yangon’s roads. It was a 10 mile journey to our hotel and Mr Win chatted away en route.

The Park Royal Hotel was sumptuous by local standards and full of posing foreign businessmen and officials. We had a quick shower in a plush but aging bathroom and set out to look for somewhere to eat. We had located a possibility from the Lonely Planet guide but when we reached the road on which the restaurant should have been, we found an unlit shadowy road down which we were a little nervous to venture. The whole area was very dimly lit however, and after watching other people take this turning we decided to risk it. Very soon we came to “149 Food and Drink”. It looked to be just what we were looking for and there were even a couple of other tourists there. We found a table under a huge spreading tree and ordered a couple of draught beers. The menu was in English and very extensive but when we came to order we found that it would have been easier for them to tell us what was available rather than what wasn’t. The food was OK, the beer cheap and the staff really friendly. Most of the other tables were occupied by groups of men drinking beer and Johnny Walker whisky. We were still getting used to the male attire here which is the “longyi“, basically a long sarong type skirt which the men are constantly tying and untying. We were getting the impression of a leafy but decaying city and looked forward to exploring properly in the daylight tomorrow .

We didn’t sleep too well. We had to be up early on Wednesday, the first early start for weeks, and some joker who had stayed in our room before, had set the alarm for 4.45am which also switched all the lights on in the room. The breakfast buffet was fantastic, with food from every part of Asia plus the usual European and American offerings.

Before setting out for our day’s city sightseeing Miss Judy from the travel office passed over all the vouchers and flight tickets that we would need on our trip and introduced us to our guide for the first leg, Mr Sai. Mr Win was driving again and took us first to the central Sule Pagoda where we had a walk around and took photos of some of the historic buildings here, many of them British. Near the river we poked our noses into the Strand Hotel, Yangon’s answer to Raffles, and similarly colonial in style. Next Mr Sai took us down to a jetty on the river. This was fascinating . Boats were being loaded for journeys upstream. The cargo was manhandled by teams of men who ran backwards and forwards loaded with boxes and sacks. They each had a stick which was marked for each load they carried and they were paid accordingly. Mr Sai told us they could earn a couple of dollars a day, which was a good wage. It was noisy and quite dangerous and we had to skip out of their way and also look out for barrels which were rolled at speed down the gangways. They were very good natured though. Keith was sporting his Man City shirt and throughout the day, wherever we went, it attracted attention. The English Premier League is very popular here and everyone wanted to discuss it with us.

Our next stop was at a colourful fruit, fish and flower market. It had the largest selection of dried fish we have ever seen, the smell of which was barely camouflaged by the flowers. Again we were constantly stopped by people wanting to talk about Man City. Next on the itinerary was a visit to the National Museum. This was an old fashioned display of all things Burmese. Most exhibits were unimaginatively displayed in dusty cabinets but they were all labelled in English.

For lunch we were taken to a central restaurant catering for foreign tourists and afterwards wandered around the nearby Scott Market. This sold mainly gold, jade, pearls etc. When it became clear that we weren’t in the market for this type of thing Mr Sai suggested an hour’s rest before going to Yangon’s number one attraction, the Shwedagon Pagoda . We were very hot and tired by now and so appreciated being able to go back to our air conditioned room and make a nice cup of tea, in true British style.

The Shwedagon Pagoda was very impressive. It wasn’t just one pagoda but a huge area of Buddhist temples and pagodas of all types and sizes. Set on a small hill the pagoda can be seen throughout the city and as the sun sinks the amazing main golden stupa is an incredible sight. The roof has 60 tons of gold on it and more is being added all the time. Wealthy and religious benefactors have, over the years, built other shrines on the same site. It was busy with visitors, many Europeans and Americans but also many Asian Buddhists and a lot of monks. It was a wonderful place to be as darkness fell.

We though we’d try another restaurant which we had spotted the previous evening. This was a local pavement establishment. There was no menu and we were offered a choice of fried noodles or fried rice. We chose the latter with a big bottle of Myanmar Beer. We were already missing the spicy food we had become used to in Thailand and found this a little bland. We bought another bottle of beer to take with us as the hotel bar prices were extortionate, and returned to our room to make the most of its comforts before venturing away from the capital tomorrow.