11-7-19 - Welcome to Bagan!
/Day 144. Kyle & Leanne joint blog. Bagan, Myanmar.
Today is a travel day from Yangon to Bagan. The flight is later in the day so our original plan was to get up early and see the last of Yangon before heading to the airport in the afternoon. Upon waking and looking out the window, we find that it is pouring rain. It rained yesterday morning but it was a lighter rain; this rain is a torrential rain Thailand style. We decide breakfast at the hotel and a leisurely morning in sounds pretty good. We have seen most of what Yangon has to offer and given us a good sense of the city and the Myanmar culture and history. In addition, we have four more days in the country in Bagan. So slug plan that is exactly what we do.
We are booked on a direct flight leaving at 15:30 and arriving at 16:50. An easy puddle jump but Kyle’s research has revealed that flying on the domestic airlines within Myanmar can be somewhat unreliable. True to form, he gets an e-mail informing them that we have been rebooked on the same airline but leaving at 15:00 with a connecting flight and arriving at 17:00. About an hour later, another e-mail informs that the flights have been cancelled altogether and we have been rebooked on another airline. This one leaves at 14:15 and goes via Heho and gets in at 16:20. Although “rebooked” might be too strong a word as they say that they have no confirmation number or booking code for us so we should arrive at the airport early, show the new airline our tickets on the old airline and effectively hope and pray there is room and they let us on the flight.
We arrive at the airport two hours early per our instructions when bag check-in for our flight commences. We look at the check-in board and there is no Air KZB even listed. Kyle asks at the information counter and is informed that the airline’s check-in desks are 24 and 25. Two desks for the entire airline – that’s it. In contrast, Yangon Airlines which our original flights were on has 15 desks and signs everywhere.
We are expecting a huge line to have already formed as that is typical in our other flights but as we approach the two desks, there is not a single person in line. At this point, it appears either no one is flying to Bagan or everyone knows better than to fly to Bagan on THIS particular airline. In a moment of panic, Kyle insists that they must have had a crash last week and everyone else knows it would be insane to fly on them this week. He is frantically searching Google for recent Air KZB flight crashes but finds nothing. “At least, the airline is not named Air KGB,” he sighs.
We approach the counter and the agent is sitting watching a movie on her iPhone on the counter. It takes a couple friendly “Hello!” to shake her out of her iPhone trance and ask how she can help us. I explain the flight cancellation and show her the old ticket and she immediately recognizes it and goes to work on our new tickets. Kyle thinks that it might be the case that the only passengers they get on Air KZB are ones from the cancelled flights of other airlines. Either way, we leave armed with our tickets.
The airport is the laxest security screening and checkpoint we’ve encountered so far. Take laptop out? No. Take power banks out? No. Take toiletries out? No. Take shoes off? No. Take stuff out of our pockets? No. Take anything at all out of anything out? No. Ok. Kyle drops his backpack on the conveyor belt and goes through the people x-ray with iPhone, wallet and coins. The machine beeps and the sole security agent takes a wand and lazily waives it over him. “Ok, good to go, have a nice afternoon.” Apparently not enough people fly domestically to warrant even a minimal security concern.
We have sailed through ticketing and security and arrive at the gate at 14:45, an hour and half early for our 16:15 flight. The kids disperse to find food for a late lunch and we settle in to wait. Around 15:45, the kids point out that we should be boarding by now for a 14:15 flight. Kyle goes up to the gate and notices that the gate monitor is still showing the prior flight that was supposed to leave three hours ago at 13:50 as still not having boarded yet. Not a good sign for our flight. Kyle inquires and the agent says “delayed.” “How long is the delay?” Kyle asks to which she responds with a shake of her head and says “just delayed.”
16:15 comes and goes and the prior flight still hasn’t boarded either. At 17:30, the announcement comes over the speaker and people start getting up to board. Our excitement is short lived as it is the prior flight finally boarding not ours. Kyle goes up to counter to inquire again about our flight and this time the agent says, “two hours.” “Is that two hour delay from (16:15) or two hours from now (17:30)?” She smiles and says “two hours.” Ok, two hours it is.
We finally board our flight at 18:30. It is a small plane with 2 seats on each side of the aisle but thankfully is a step above a prop plane. We take off and Leanne is seated next to a Burmese woman who she chats with during the flight. We are stopping in Heho but don’t have to get off the plane as it will continue on the Bagan. We’re not really paying attention when the plane slams down on the runway, going and the plane dips down to the left. It literally feels like the plane is tipping over on its side. Flashes of torn apart wings, scattered cargo and bloodied screaming people running everywhere flash before Kyle’s eyes. Kyle indicates that in 48 years of flying, that was perhaps the scariest landing he’s ever had. As if that weren’t enough, we have to take off and land in Bagan with the same plane and pilot.
As we are on the runway, we are informed that we need to shut our phones off because the plane is refueling. Huh? We have only been flying for an hour and only have 30 min flight to Bagan so apparently the plane can’t make it 90 mins on its existing fuel tank. Obviously this plane is smaller than it first appeared. The flight attendant taps Kyle on the shoulder and says “please turn your phone off.” “It’s ok, it’s in airplane mode, see?” he responds. “No, phone must be completely turned off.” Huh? My listening to downloaded music offline in airplane mode is going to cause the plane’s refueling to fail? Now I’m completely worried and starting to understand why there was only two desks and no one in line at Air KGB. I mean Air KZB.
Thirty minutes, a few prayers and a dramatically improved landing later, we touch down at Bagan airport at 21:00 (9pm). We exit the plane on the runway and walk towards the airport building. Apparently there is no concern about us walking down the middle of an airport runway as we are the only plane in sight. Upon entering the building, there is a waiting area cordoned off with a sign “luggage waiting.” Looking around, we realize this is the smallest airport we’ve ever been in. There is not even a luggage conveyor belt. Instead a door opens and the airplane employees start wheeling the passenger’s bags in one by one.
We collect our bags and purchase our archeological passes for the week which at USD $175 is not cheap for a country where you can take a 45 min taxi for $5.25. “What an archeological pass?” Ashley asks and Kyle responds, “it’s a way to make money off of tourists.” We get money from the ATM and looking around realize we are the last remaining passengers…in the entire airport. Kyle gets out his phone to order a grab taxi which worked in Yangon but too his dismay does not service Bagan. The airport starts to click off the lights so we head outside. The hotel is only one mile from the airport so worst case is we are huffing it with the luggage. As we walk outside, it is completely deserted when a taxi pulls up out of nowhere. If you give me the choice or a winning lottery ticket or a taxi materializing out of thin air in a deserted tiny airport in Bagan, Myanmar, I’m taking the taxi. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. It works out perfectly as the taxi takes half off us to the hotel, turns around, comes back and gets the other half of us.
We check in the hotel and the clerk tells us that dinner is served until 21:30 (9:30pm). We look at our phones as it clicks from 21:29 to 21:30. Oh well, at least they have room service. We retire to our rooms and Kyle pulls out the room service menu (which is actually a 1-pager printed on a color inkjet printer). Not much to choose from but they do have a cheeseburger and fries which Kyle orders. 30 minutes later the order is delivered by two smiling, friendly employees. Kyle signs the bill and settles down to eat.
The precursor to this story is a Kyle McDonalds drive through story from ten years ago. He was coming home from work at midnight and stops at the McDonalds drive through. He orders his normal two cheeseburger meal, ketchup only on the cheeseburgers. He gets home, settles on the couch and takes out his dinner. Upon unwrapping the cheeseburger, he finds two buns with a giant slab of ketchup. That’s it. No burger and no cheese. Who is in the heck would drive all the way to McDonalds to order two pieces of bread with ketchup? Apparently, cheeseburger with ketchup only (e.g. no mustard or pickles) was translated way too literally by the drive through employee.
So now you know what’s coming here. The cheeseburger consists of two buns and two pieces of cheese and no burger. “OMG, they forgot the burger!” Kyle exclaims. He calls room service back and says “I just ordered a cheeseburger but you forgot the burger.” “No, not forget burger, that is cheeseburger,” he responds. “How can it be a cheeseburger if there is no burger?” Kyle asks. “Please hold.” Someone else comes on the line who speaks better English. I ask the same question. “Oh, you want meat burger,” he says. “No, I want a cheeseburger. The picture on the room service menu shows a burger with cheese on it. That’s what I wanted.” “Cheeseburger comes with no burger; Meat burger comes with burger.” Kyle is ultra-confused now. “How can it have “burger” in the name “cheeseburger” if there is no burger?” Talk about a circuitous conversation. He ends up apologizing and sending a meat burger with cheese which low and behold is the cheeseburger pictured in the menu. At least Kyle can finally get to sleep J
