Murphy pays a visit >> Travel: Laos, Myanmar, Thailand 20

Oct 17: Night, Bagan

After a week 'vegeing' in Bagan, we are looking forward to be on the move again. Bagan is a great place to relax.

Making arrangements to fly from Mandalay to Chiang Mai, however, is anything but relaxing. Our Mandalay to Chiang Mai plan has been torpedoed by a series of unfortunate events. We now have to go back to Yangon instead.

While in Mandalay a week earlier, we dropped by a travel agent's office and asked about flights to Chiang Mai. When the nice lady behind the desk found out that we would be staying in Bagan for several days, she assured us that we could easily book our flights there.

We should not have taken her friendly advice. Ah, hindsight...

On our second day in Bagan, we checked with the ticketing office in New Bagan and was told they could not accept any booking because the computer system was down.

We gave up and went back to our hotel in Old Bagan.

Our hotel manager said he would try to buy the tics for us. The next three to four days went by, but he could not confirm our flight. Finally, two days before our planned departure, he told us apologetically that there were no more seats for the Mandalay-Chiang Mai flight we wanted, but he could secure seats on the next flight a few days from now if we also flew from Bagan to Mandalay.

We were not planning to waste our US$-FECs on a flight when we could spend our money on a local bus ride from Bagan to Mandalay. Anyway, up to that point, no one ever mentioned the two flights in the same sentence!

Needless to say, we were somewhat put out by this chain of events. The manager then told us that there were flights from Yangon to Chiang Mai, but, of course, that would entail an even longer trip back to the capital first. The good news was, he could book our Yangon-Chiang Mai flight; no need to fly from Bagan to Yangon first!

So, in the end, we regretfully told the manager that we would not be able to enjoy his hospitality much longer as we would now have to take a much longer bus ride to Yangon. He, ever smiley, booked our Yangon-Chiang Mai tickets and even got one of his staff to run down to the village square to buy our bus tickets.

Budget (for two in US$ or kyat as indicated)

Room >> US$8
Flight (Yangon to Chiang Mai) >> US$178
Bus to Yangon >> K8,000
Lunch >> K1,150
Tea >> K1,000
Biscuits & nuts >> K400
Dinner K2,000

Next...
A ride in the dark