slight retraction

Well, it turns out you can access hotmail in big, bad Yangon if you follow the gamers and find a shadier looking net cafe which has a proxy server. I need to keep reminding myself that anything that looks legit is most likely run by the government and therefore dodgy as hell. Strange place. There's a technology time lag of about a decade and I doubt that there will be any communication between my gadgetry and the machines of this country.

My long held plan to catch the train to Mandalay has, alas, run aground. In the first, the railways are owned by the govt and deserve a big fat boycott. There are special foreigner prices on the train and it costs about three times as much to train as to bus. And finally, I made my way to the station to make some enquiries and floundered. I made lots of friends at Yangon Station but alas, the dream of a common language did not materialise and, unable to find out anything at all, I'm resigned to the bus.

I fear too that I won't be able to stay till the end of my Myanmar visa, and not just because the place has put me a little on edge. I perhaps could have worked out before I arrived that there is absolutely no way of obtaining cash here. Credit cards are accepted at one 5 star hotel in Yangon and they offer cash advances at 7.5% interest (plus local bank charges)... There are no ATMs and no Western Unions and lots of extra special prices for foreigners... So it might be back to Thailand sooner than I had thought.

On the sights and sensations front, I did visit the Schwe Dagon Pagoda which was dazzling. Literally, because it is covered in gold. I discovered that because I was born on a Saturday, my Burmese lucky animal is that dragon and this pleases me no end. Right! Off on the road to Mandalayeeo.