Back in Bangkok

Darci, Harjot and Marci - Congratulations on the wedding! Sorry we couldn't make it.

Somehow, even though we have spent another four nights in Bangkok, there is not much to tell since mostly what we have been doing is researching our options in regards to both our visit to Myanmar and the possibility of going to New Delhi for Darci and Harjot's wedding.

Monday we thought we would try our options at a recommended local travel agent and eventually found out that we cant get an airfare from Bangkok to Yangon and then on to Delhi. I even tried checking out Biman Air (Bangladesh national airline that I used in the 80's for a Bangkok-Rangoon-Dhaka-Calcutta-Bombay-Amsterdam cheapie flight) but there website sucked and had no multi-stop booking.

The Meadows, Harjot and us at i2 Club 2005

The agent did have some info on airfare to Myanmar but they don't do visas so we will have to go to the embassy ourselves. At least we had good duck fried rice and Pad Thai lunch (although interestingly we could only have one large Singha since there was a sign on the wall that they couldn't sell beer between two and five PM...) We ended up having Hilton cocktails and appetizers for dinner, to lazy to head out.

On Tuesday we walked to the Myanmar Embassy with a brief stop at the ubiquitous but icy cold 7-11 to cool off and it was total pandemonium (not a MCF, but a BCF....that's Burmese Cluster F**k, then again it could be a Myanmarian Cluster too!). There were way too many people, no instructions and unhelpful and officious civil servants. Eventually we figured out that there are multiple forms to fill out that each require a photo. Then you stand in front of a weazley little man who ignores you for a while before telling you that there are no more tokens for today so come back tomorrow. Great! It's now 11:00am and they are on token 4 and they hand out fifty a day. Frustrated, we head to the Internet for more India and Burma research and finally realize that we can’t make India work between trying to change our frequent flyer return again and lack of a house sitter.

That afternoon we took the BTS skytrain and the MRT subway to IT city which is this insanely large mega-mall with tons of cheap computer hardware and software. This was terribly exciting for Cindy but I did manage to get a couple things and had a Sushi lunch to boot.  Of course late lunch meant that we ended up blowing off dinner yet again, instead having appetizers and cocktails at the executive lounge in the Hilton. To avoid dealing with the Burmese bureaucrats and sitting at the embassy all day Wednesday, we decided to pay extra to expedite the processing of our visa, ultimately a much easier path.

Having figured out the Burma thing, Wednesday we thought we would give STA Travel the business and see if they could help with an itinerary. We took the BTS up there and of course it ends up that they can’t give us the same fare as on the Internet. Then it was back to our favorite Internet Cafe for a Marathon Internet session booking airfare, backing up photos and researching Burma travel and hotels. Happy Hour at the Hilton was followed up with a seafood dinner on the waterfront at Yok Yor and tomorrow we head off to Myanmar.