Singapore Bird Park

Jurong Bird Park is one place that I haven't been to for a long long time. I don't even remember how it was like when I went many many years back. So I decided to visit it again.

I actually went on the 14 February 2014 (Valentine's Day). Sorry for the late blog post because I have been busy for quite a while.

So on that morning, I went to Boon Lay Bus Interchange where bus 194 or 251 is. You could take either to the bird park.

Entrance to Jurong Bird Park

If you see this road (Bird Park Drive), it means you are at the right place. I got tickets for 2 because I went with CT of course. The tickets cost SGD25.00 each, but if you are visiting the park on your birthday, you get to enter for free (For Singaporean and PR only)! Also, if you are a Singaporean or PR, you get 15% off the tickets on any other day as well (I am not sure if this promotion is still available).

Before I begin blogging about my tour in the Bird Park, this is the link to the map of the park:
Jurong Bird Park Map

Right after the entrance

Right after we entered the entrance, we spotted the first attraction.

Penguin Coast

Yup, it's the Penguin Coast. So the first bird we see for the day was penguins. I was expecting to see some emperor penguins but sadly they only have king penguins.

King Penguins

Oh well, king penguins look similar to emperor penguin except for the size, so I wasn't that disappoint.

As we exit the Penguin Coast, it was the Macaw Island. There were displays of macaw for picture taking.

There is a shop nearby too.

Right next to it, there is a good spot for photo taking too.

As we followed down the path, it was the Flamingo Pool.

Flamingo Pool

The flamingo sure looks pretty. By the way, do you know why the flamingos are pink in colour? It's because of their diet!

Their diet contained a pigment called Carotenoids which was broken down in their body to give it's colour. If not, flamingos are white.

After watching the flamingos enjoying their food, we decided to take a break as well and eat our lunch too. We brought our own lunch!

Lunch "Box"

Because the usual lunch box is too mainstream, we used a box literally to put our food.

Menu for Lunch

Yup, so these were what we prepared for lunch. Everything was homemade by CT!

Playground at Birdz of Play

Birdz of Play is just located beside where we had our lunch so we actually went to have a look. It definitely looks fun for the kids but no, we did not play with it.

Next, it was the Wetlands.

Saddle-billed Stork

Grey Crowned Crane

What you can find here are the saddle-billed stork and grey crowned crane. The crane looked very hostile, it always seems to be waiting for a chance to attack me whenever I tried to take picture of it.

We headed to the Riverine next since the arrow pointed us to it.

There wasn't much to see there though. So I am going to skip this part.

The next section was the Southeast Asian Birds. Here are just pictures of a few of the birds inside

I don't know the name of most of them because they are free to roam inside the place, the information board about the bird wasn't near them. I do know that the peacock doesn't want us to see it's face. It fan it's tail when it see us approaching, and it keeps showing us the rear view. I know peacock fanning it's tail is part of the courtship ritual, but showing the butt... I am not too sure about that.

Exiting Southeast Asian Birds, we went passed the Flamingo Lake. Instead of the pink flamingos, the flamingos here were white in colour.

Pelican cove is just down the path.

Pelicans

The pelicans were so huge, they looked rather scary. I thought of getting closer to them for a better look at them, but I had second thought about it. I value my life!

Waterfall Aviary

I guess Waterfall Aviary is one of the highlights of Jurong Bird Park. The waterfall here is the world's tallest man-made waterfall, which is pretty cool! As we went along, there are bronze figurines along the sides, I couldn't help but to take a photo with it.

I'm going to skip the part inside the Waterfall Aviary because I don't have any decent picture to post. I took quite a lot of photos in the aviary but the settings on the camera went off without me noticing. All the pictures I took in there have very high noise. So I decided not to put any photos in there. There isn't much to see in there as well, except the scenic view of the waterfall. So you are not missing much.

When we were done at the aviary, it was almost 1500hr, so we decided to head over to the Pools Amphitheatre.

Pools Amphitheatre

Birds n Buddies is showing at that time. There is an earlier timing for the show at 1100hr as well.

I realised that the show didn't change much from my impression when I went in my younger days, so it was pretty nostalgic to watch it over again. At the same time, the elements of surprise wasn't there for me since I know what they are going to do next.

After the show, it seems like everyone had the same itinery. All of them, including us, went for World of Darkness. Okay, maybe it's because it was just located behind the spectator stand of the amphitheatre.

World of Darkness

I couldn't take any decent photo inside since it's so dark and flash shouldn't be used as well. Regardless, there were still people using flash.

Boobok Owl

Oh well, me being mischievous, I took a picture of this sign. It's suppose to be Boobook Owl.

As we exit the World of Darkness, it led us back to the Penguin Coast and I realised there is another part of Penguin Coast that we missed earlier.

We headed to Hawk Walk for the next show called Kings of the Skies.

Kings of the Skies

This show features the ferocious birds such as vultures, eagles and hawks. It's pretty awesome to see those birds in action, so if you are at the bird park, make sure you don't miss this show. Their show times are 1000hr and 1600hr.

Guess what happen after the show? It started raining, so we have to seek shelter at the Dino Dig.

Dino Dig

This place is just a small sheltered area and we knew that it would not protect us from the big rain coming our way, so we quickly look through the park map to see where we could go for better shelter

Lory Loft

We found Lory Loft. This place provided a decent shelter for from the rain and we haven't visit here yet, so it's like 2-in-1 for us.This place is pretty cool. It is an enclosed area filled with lories and the best way to attract them....

Lory Feeding for SGD3.00

is to feed the lories! This SGD3.00 was definitely well spent.

Feeding the lories

Look at the lories flying so near to us. They would just flock around you and it was a nice experience.

Fighting for food

Well of course, some lories would end up fighting for the only cup in my hands.That's common right?

We ended up spending quite a lot of time with the lories since it was raining outside as well. By the time the rain starts to get smaller, it was about 1730hr and the park close at 1800hr. We were left with 30 minutes to visit the remaining places.

So we rushed through the remaining places like Royal Ramble and Scarlet Ibis.

Royal Ramble

Scarlet Ibis

So nicely timed, we reached the exit at 1800hr sharp where the park keepers escorted us out and it started raining heavily again.

Exiting the park

Because it was raining so heavily again and it's still early for dinner (I made reservation for dinner at 1900hr), we chilled at the entrance of the park for awhile since we had walked the whole of the day.

The sky was nice to us though. It stopped raining about 1830hr so we took a stroll up the hill beside the bird park. The place we were going might be a known place to those around my age and older, but not to the younger generation. It was the Jurong Hill.It was really popular in the 1970's to 80's and it was evident from all the trees planted there. The Queen of England and Crown Prince of Norway during that era were some of them who planted trees in the garden. But now, it is definitely a quiet place now.

Anyway, the main point is we were there for the Hilltop Restaurant, which also has been there for many years.

Hilltop Restaurant

I only remembered their tepanyaki when I was much younger. They have western, Japanese and Indonesian cuisine which I got no recollection at all. It might have been an add on over the years or it was just me being ignorant. Regardless, because I only know they had tepanyaki, so I booked it.

This spiral building has been inside my mind all these years. It is like the icon of the place. I remembered it because it is the only place I have ever been that I have walk down a spiral slope to get to the place (there is another entrance though). Good way for me to remember the place.

Entrance to Hilltop Restaurant

This is the entrance that welcomed us when we reach the end of the spiral. We received a nice welcome from the staff and they led us to our seats.

Menu of the tepanyaki

Well, it was V-day anyway so we ordered quite a lot of food, but I am not going to go through all the food that we ate. The main highlight about the food I think would be...

Sake (Salmon) Sahimi

Chef cooking Hilltop N.Z. Special Steak

salmon sashimi and the N.Z. Special Steak. To be honest the rest of the food tasted rather salty for my taste bud, only these two tasted good. The salmon was fresh and each slice was cut with the right thickness to fit my mouth. The steak was decent as well. I ordered it to be medium rare by the way. I am not sure if the other steak would taste good or not, but since this one I ordered was decent, I reckon other steak should taste just as well. I will confirm my answer if I ever have a chance to eat there again then.

After the main meal, we were brought to the other side of the restaurant for dessert.

Complimentary Dessert

The desserts are complimentary so feel free to pick any (just one) from the selection. I didn't manage to get a nice picture of the dessert I ordered though. I ordered for Vanilla Ice Cream. Well, it was a complimentary dessert, so don't expect it to be a big portion or taste very good. It was decent for something free.

I definitely had a great day, hope my review gave you a good guide of the place. Feel free to contact me if you have any queries. Cheers.

Address:
Jurong Bird Park
2 Jurong Hill
Singapore 628925

Hilltop Restaurant
2 Jurong Hill
Jurong Bird Park
Singapore 628925

For more and better view of pictures, visit Flying Panda Facebook Page

SEA Games 2013 in Myanmar

So I went to Myanmar in December last year. I did quite a lot of travelling there. I went to Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin. Of course, I went to Naypyitaw as well because the opening ceremony for the SEA Games was held there.

I reached Naypyitaw on the 9th day of my trip at Myanmar.

A little bit of background of Naypyitaw:

Nyapyitaw is the current capital of Myanmar. It is the 3rd largest city in the country. The government ministries are all shifted to Naypyitaw because it is more strategically located. The city is divided into different zones: Residential, Military, Ministry, Hotel.

Bus terminal in Naypyitaw

Because Naypyitaw is a very new city, the infrastructure and roadworks are totally different from the the other places that I have went in Myanmar. Naypyitaw is definitely cleaner and more organised. And for the same reason, is is so clean that they have nothing there. All I see there were residential area, governments offices and hotels. I can count the number of shopping malls there with 1 hand. This is definitely not one of the spot that I would go to if SEA Games wasn't held there.The places are so well divided that all I saw in one zone were all hotels, and the next zone all the residential houses, and so on. The hotels are not even strategically located in the city for easy access. Why would I even want to stay there?

About the place, it is definitely neat and tidy, but there is nothing to do there and everywhere is inconvenient from the hotel. I wouldn't anyone to go there unless u have something to do there, like SEA Games this time.

Ticket Sale Centre

Before that we had already purchased the tickets for the opening ceremony, so we just need to collect our tickets from the sale centre.

Tickets for foreigners

Tickets for locals

The tickets that we got were the first class seats. We got mixture of locals and foreigners in the group so I got to see the difference in the tickets. The first class seats for foreigners cost USD50.00 while local can get it for 5000Kyat  (~USD5.00). That is like 10x the price for foreigners! Well, I could understand that they wanted to give some privileges for the locals so I am willing to pay for the high cost.

We still cannot get into event area with just the ticket itself . We still need to get a clearance pass from the Accreditation Centre. It is located near the event area (Wuuna Theikdi Stadium).

Accreditation Centre

When we reached there, we were shocked by the amount of people queuing to get their clearance pass.

Long queue at Accreditation Centre (Day 1)

There was a super long queue waiting to make their clearance pass and it was moving so slowly. Everyone there was complaining, but we still have to suck it up and queue in order to get our clearance pass. After an hour or so under the hot sun and complaining, we decided to come back the next day early in the morning before they open to queue.

We left the place and went to a restaurant which I don't even know where is was to eat. The food there was decent because it was a restaurant after all. We had our dinner and we just head back to rest for the day since there wasn't anywhere else that we could go and it was rather inconvenient.

So, the next day, we woke up early in the morning and went back to the Accreditation Centre hoping that the queue wouldn't be so long. But guess what, there was a long queue already! So we quickly joined the queue before it gets any longer. Somehow I overheard that foreigners were able to cut queue and make the clearance pass first, so I decided to give it a try and it was true! Thinking of the time I had wasted queuing, not knowing that we could actually cut queue sucks.

Long queue at Accreditation Centre (Day 2)

Anyway, that was the queue when I left the centre. It was horrible. Imagine that night itself was the opening ceremony and so many people still couldn't get their clearance pass even though they have the tickets. I would be cursing and swearing if I couldn't get the pass.

Clearance pass!

Yup, that's the clearance pass that I finally got. Anyway I heard that in the later part of the day, because the accreditation centre couldn't handle the crowd, they allowed them to watch the opening ceremony as long as they have their tickets. They just kept changing their rules and regulations.

So while going to the opening ceremony, the roads around it were all closed. We had to take a shuttle bus to go in and dropped us off somewhere near the stadium.

Flying Panda with Wuuna Theikdi Stadium

As we go walked along, there were so many families and friends happily going to watch the ceremony. Myanmar hasn't host SEA Games for more than a decade, and I am pretty sure the locals were all excited about it.

We were given a goodie bag when we enter the stadium.

Goodie bag

The goodie bag include some fruits (orange and apple), cakes and biscuits. Audiences were not allowed to bring in any form of bottle or cans by the way. They were so strict about it because I saw the security confiscated all the drinks that the guy in front of me brought. So you know, since water wasn't allowed to be brought in, we thought water will be provided.


Yes, and they did provide water, like this...

There was plenty of water, but no disposable cups. Everyone had to share the 2 red cups there and I was like "WHAT?!?!" So what I did was to go outside and get 2 cans of 100plus from the vending machine and it was selling out fast. I was lucky to get 2 cans. After drinking the 100plus, I used it as my personal cup and filled it with water. I am not sharing the cups with everyone else!

The interior of the stadium before the ceremony starts

Anyway we got to sit on the 3rd row from the front because ours were the first class seat. Compared to the rest of the seats, our seats were somehow better than the normal ones, so I am fine with that.

We waited for the ceremony to begin.

Starting of the opening ceremony

I won't go into details of the ceremony since you get to watch it online or on tv. I would say the ceremony was done quite nicely. I like the performance except for the fireworks and sound system. We couldn't see the fireworks at all because it was right above us! That really pissed me off, really. I paid so much money to watch the ceremony and I couldn't enjoy the fireworks. I bet they only thought of the VIPs who sit in the middle of the stadium when planning this. Next was the sound system. It was really bad on our side. Although we could hear the music very loud and clear because the speakers were just in front of us, the speakers for the commentator weren't the same speaker as those playing the songs. We couldn't hear what they were talking at the stage.

Fireworks at the end of the ceremony

 Although, I kept complaining, the performance were good and I still get to see some fireworks near the end of the ceremony because it went off at the other side.

Group photo before we leave the stadium

Just before the president leave, we decided to take a quick group photo and left the place before the president.We were glad we did that. After that, it was a very bad jam.

I didn't managed to watch any games after the ceremony though, because I left for Yangon the following morning. I had a flight to catch.

Overall my experience at Naypyitaw wasn't really pleasant. It will not be a place for me to go again, unless I really have to go there. There isn't much to do there and I was bored. The SEA Games opening ceremony wasn't very fantastic as well. I expected better for a first class seat. Some of my friends who got the first class seats for local, they had a better view and sound. Also, they had coffee and tea served for them. We paid 10x more than them but we didn't get any of those stuff. It was a really bad impression for the foreigners. I really hate it. They were very biased. Nonetheless, they did a good job in their security. They really put in a lot of effort in security that they neglected other aspects of the ceremony.

Anyway, the next SEA Games is going to be in Singapore. I will try my luck to get tickets for the opening ceremony as well. Then, I can compare the difference between the 2 countries.

For my reviews on other parts of Myanmar I went before SEA Games:
Yangon,
Bagan,
Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin

For more and better view of pictures, visit Flying Panda Facebook Page

Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin and Back to Yangon Myanmar

This post is a continuation of a previous post:
Yangon Myanmar (Part 1)
Bagan Myanmar (Part 2)

Day 6
We left for Mandalay in the morning after all the pagoda viewing the day before. Same thing happens, the hotel arranged a mini bus to fetch us to the bus terminal for us to catch the bus. The journey from Bagan to Mandalay is about 4 hours ride.

We wasted no time at Mandalay the moment we arrived, booked a taxi again and head off to the hotel to check in. We stayed at Hotel Yadanarbon. It was a pretty new 3 star hotel, but their service and accommodation is good. Their location is very accessible as well.

We went for lunch at a nearby roadside stall after settling down our luggage in our room.

Mote Hin Gar

We had Mote Hin Gar. This is similar to the Mee Siam that we have in Singapore, but I prefer this to Mee Siam if I were to choose. The soup broth is what won me over, and I can request them to add more soup too.

Following the tradition of the past few days, my first stop is a temple again. But this time, there is something slightly different.

Mahamuni Buddha Temple

I wore a Longyi over my shorts to visit the Mahamuni Buddha Temple. Shorts are not allowed into the temple. Do I look like a Burmese when I am in a Longyi?

After that, we visited the U Bein Bridge.

U Bein Bridge

This place is a famous tourist attraction because this bridge has been here for a very long time and it  is made up only with wooden logs and planks. The bridge links to the other side of the river. I didn't go all the way to the other side of the river though. A tourist told me it took her about 30 minutes from one end to the other and that deters me from walking. The distance is a little too far.

Mote Own Naut

There was a lady on the bridge selling Mote Own Naut. It is a local delight using rice cake and coconut shreds with sugar.

On the way back from the bridge, we stopped by the Ayeyarwady River because it doesn't look like a river.

Ayeyarwady River Bank

The river was dried up because it was winter and the land was used for agriculture during that season. Because the land is fertile and wasn't owned by anybody, the locals will "chope" the land by growing crops on it. So the more area you can plant in the shortest time, the more land you can have during the season. But I heard things are getting better as the government intervene to settle the land dispute issues.

Heading back to the hotel, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant because I have been having too much Burmese food and my tummy wasn't really used to it. So at the restaurant we ordered something more familiar like the western food. I shall not post the photos here because they are food that we can get anywhere. I just want to post photos of Myanmar food.

Day 7
A week just passed by so quickly when we were travelling. Our itinerary for the day was to visit the royal palace and head up to Pyin Oo Lwin.

So we had our complimentary breakfast in the hotel to kick start our day and head of to the Golden Palace Monastery.

Golden Palace Monastery

This place was actually an apartment for the king in the palace. After the king's demise, the place was thought to be haunted by the late king's spirit. So the new king ordered the apartment to be relocated here and turned it into a monastery.

Sutaungpyai Pagoda

The Sutaungpyai Pagoda is located up on the Mandalay Hill. It is a popular tourist attraction as well, probably because of it's location.

The Mandalay Royal Palace

Finally, we arrived at the Mandalay Royal Palace. This whole place is a replica because the palace was destroyed during war time. The only thing that isn't destroyed is the watch tower.

Watch Tower in Mandalay Royal Palace

This watch tower is the only building that is original in the palace. From the top of the tower, we could see the whole palace from a bird's eye view

Mandalay Royal Palace from the watch tower

The view was really nice as I could see the whole palace from there.

After all touring around Mandalay, it is time to head up to Pyin Oo Lwin (also known as May Myo). The city is similar to Genting or Cameron Highland in Malaysia. It is located on a highland and car ride from Mandalay takes about 2 hours.

Because of the high altitude, the city is a lot cooler.

But before we head up to Pyin Oo Lwin, we made a detour to see CT's relative staying in a village along the way. Their address is pretty isolated so it took us quite awhile to find the place.

Wedding Bullock Cart Service

Her relatives are doing wedding bullock cart service for the locals. It seems rather interesting because there isn't anything like that in Singapore. Her relatives were very nice as well. Because I seemed interested in the bullock cart, they actually went through the trouble to bring out the cart and dress up the bull for me to see.

After the family visit, we continued our journey to the highland. We checked into Kandawgyi Hill Resort and we head down to the city center for lunch.

Purcell Tower in the city center

It is quite obvious to identify the city center in Pyin Oo Lwin. They have a clock tower called the Purcell Tower. Always use that as a guide and you will never really get lost in the city center. As Pyin Oo Lwin is located relatively near to China borders, there were quite a number of Chinese restaurants around, and we went into restaurant called Lay Ngoon Restaurant (利源饭店). I shall skip the food here as well since it is not Burmese food, the food is good though.

After filling up our tummy, we headed to back to the hotel. Guess what mode of transport did we take?

Sitting on Horse Carriage

Yes, we took the horse carriage back since we didn't have a chance to do it at Bagan. Their carriage is nicer here as well. I took the seat behind the carriage so that I could enjoy the scenery there at the same time.

After resting for a while, we headed back to the city center because we were thinking of renting a bicycle to explore the area, so we took our own sweet time and walk back to the city center. It took us about 40 minutes to reach but it didn't felt long because we have company.

Renting a bike there is very cheap, it cost about 2000Kyat for 24 hours. After that while we are cycling back, we went for dinner.

Myay-oh Mee Shay

Myay-oh Mee Shay simply means Claypot Noddle. I don't see a lot of noodle in the claypot, but instead, there were a lot of ingredients in it. I really feel that spending money on food in Myanmar is totally worth it. It is always filled with the generous portion of ingredients.

Later that night, back at the hotel, the reception called us to ask what we would like for breakfast. It was either the western breakfast or the Shan noodle. My choice was quite obvious, it was the Shan noodle since I always wanted to try the different Burmese cuisine.

Day 8

Shan Noodle

It looked like the noodle salad (mentioned in part 1 of my trip) to me, except the fact that this one is warm and noodle salad is cold. Anyway, it was really tasty.

We visited the Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda after breakfast

Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda

This pagoda is located along the way if you are heading to the China borders. The story I heard about this pagoda is pretty interesting. 

The Buddha statue in this pagoda was meant to be transported to China, but it got into some accident at this very place, so the transportation was delayed. On the same night of the accident, the monk who was escorting the statue had a dream saying that the statue did not want to leave the country. That is why a pagoda was built here and the statue is placed in it.

Interesting right?

Anyway, did I mentioned that there are waterfalls in Pyin Oo Lwin? If I have not, yes, there are waterfalls. The best waterfall there is the Anisakan Fall, but it takes about another 2-3 hours of car ride to reach that place and it is not suitable if you have elderly in the group. Because of the long journey, we had to skip that one and make do with the nearer Pwe Gauk Fall.

Pwe Gauk Fall

Although it might not have been as grand as Anisakan Fall, it was still a pretty sight. 

Water powered carousel

 Near the fall, there is a carousel powered by the gushing water from the fall. You don't see this everyday do you? Especially when you come from a more developed country.

Fried Pork Lard

We bought some snacks while viewing the scenic view of the waterfall. The pork lard taste like any other cracker that I have eaten. If I wasn't told, I wouldn't realise that it was lard. I wonder how much fats does 1 piece of it contain.

It started raining after a while at the waterfall, so we cut short our stay and went back to the hotel. It wasn't raining in the city though. On a side note, there is a place called the Shan Village on the way to Pwe Gauk Fall. I didn't manage to check it out, so maybe if anyone of you is going there, you can include the place in your itinerary.

Remember the bicycle that we rented the day before? We went cycling around exploring the area since we got spare time.

Amusement Park

There is a amusement park near the hotel that we were staying. We decided to give it a miss due to the time constraint. 

天然宫

Randomly, we chanced upon a Chinese temple. I haven't seen a Chinese temple since the first day in Myanmar so I find it quite interesting and I went in. There were statues from Journey to the West and a dragon head similar to the one at Haw Par Villa but a lot smaller. The temple also has an old folks home inside, so the whole place is huge.

After that we returned our bicycles and took a taxi to the National Kandawgyi Gardens which is just next to our hotel. There is a camera tax of 1000Kyat to take photos in the garden for your information.

Map of National Kandawgyi Gardens

Inside National Kandawgyi Gardens

This place has the same concept as Singapore Botanical Gardens. So there were a lot of flowers, swans, and ducks. Soon after we entered the park, it started to rain here as well. It was annoying that we had to seek shelter because of the rain. As the rain got smaller, we decided that we shouldn't be wasting time hiding inside shelter, so we headed for the watch tower in the garden so we can see the whole place from the top. It was still drizzling though, but we just walked in the rain.

Watch Tower in National Kandawgyi Gardens

There is an admission fee to the tower. We can choose to take the lift up or walk up the stairs. Me being stingy on the money, we took the stairs. Taking the lift cost more. 

Scenery from the watch tower

It was suppose to be cooling at the top, but because we were wet, we ended up shivering in cold. We just took a few snapshots of the place and we quickly head back to our hotel to wash up before checking out.

We took a taxi back to Mandalay which took only about 1.5 hour. Comparing to the 2 hour ride up, going down the hill is definitely faster, but scarier as well when you see how the driver drove. Reaching Mandalay we hopped on to coach heading to Naypyitaw. The journey is about 5-6 hours long.

Day 9 & 10
For the next 2 days, I was in Naypyitaw preparing to watch the opening ceremony for SEAgames. I shall not make this post any longer talking about it here. I will blog about the SEAgames in a separate post soon, so look forward to that.

Day 11
I went back to Yangon early in the morning because I have a flight to catch the next day. I would love to stay and watch some of the games before leaving Naypyitaw, but because I have something on in Singapore, I had to leave.

It was late afternoon when I reached Yangon. So I just headed to the Chinatown to spend the remaining time I have in Myanmar.

Oil painting with the artist

I saw this little boy (14 yeard old) doing oil painting. He was rather talented because all he needs is just a few minutes and a painting is done. I decided to get 2 paintings from him to support him and it only cost 1000Kyat each.

Along one of the alley, something really caught my attention. It's Wet Thar Dote Htoe! It means Pork on Stick

Wet Thar Dote Htoe

I always liked this kind of thing. Although I haven't get pass the hospitalization experience when I just landed on Myanmar, I still decided to try it even though I wasn't sure if it was safe to eat or not.
So to eat this,

1. All you need to do is to find a seat around the stall. 
2. Then you just pick whatever you want to eat, dip it into the soup to heat up.
3. Keep all the sticks that you have taken
4. Pass the sticks you have to the lady and ask for bill after you are done eating
5. The bill will base on how many sticks you have eaten

Following that night, we decided to drop by Strand Hotel for a drink before going back since it was our last night there.

Strand Hotel

Of course, the photo was taken during the day. I wouldn't be able to take such a shot if it was at night.

Strand Hotel in Yangon is not affiliated to other Strand Hotels around the world. It got it's name because it is located at Strand Road. It is one of the most iconic and luxurious hotel in Myanmar. It's founder was the Sarkies Brothers (the same people who built Raffles Hotel in Singapore)

Living in Singapore most of my time, the drinks there were rather standard. Of course, the price there is more affordable than Singapore. We had a couple of drinks and we went back for a good night rest.

Day 12

Since it was the last day of the trip, we went to have a more luxurious breakfast at Royal Rose Restaurant. Being greedy, I ordered Shwe Taung Kaukswe (Golden Mountain Noodle) and Kaw Yay Khauk Swe (Burmese version of Lor Mee).

Kaw Yay Khauk Swe

Shwe Taung Kauk Swe

Surprisingly I had good appetite that morning. I finished everything that I ordered. Another reason why I could finish them all was probably the food was delicious. I even ordered a roti prata after finishing up the 2 dishes.

Inya Lake

We went to Inya lake after a good breakfast because it is a popular spot for couples. Yangon University is also located just beside the lake, hence many events, such as kayaking, from the school were also organised here. This place is similar to Pandan Reservoir or Bedok Reservoir in Singapore, so there isn't anything to that really caught my attention. But well, it is a good dating spot I guess.

For the remaining time, we decided to roam around the city center again to do some last minute shopping. There wasn't much time either because we still had to go back to wash up and pack our luggage. The journey to the airport was about an hour, so we had to leave for the airport quite early.

The End...
Well, that sums up my 12 days trip in Myanmar. It was a pleasant trip and I would probably visit Myanmar again. However, the country is not really tourist friendly. Most people only understand Burmese. Accommodation and transport fee for tourist isn't cheap either. Even so, I would still recommend to travel to Myanmar now before it starts developing and lose it's origin.

One last important point, be careful of what you consume there. Don't end up in the hospital like me.

For more and better view of pictures, visit Flying Panda Facebook Page