Kolkata-Yangon

Ok so we arrived in Yangon last night from Kolkata after 4 fairly frustrating days that make you wonder why you go to India in the first place and even more why you plan to return. Anyways, Kolkata was a big city with lots of big city stuff and doing things in India, let alone a big city, doing anything at all just takes soooo long. We of course didn't help ourselves by sleeping in until 10 in the morning and one night staying up late partying the night before our last day in town but still it could have been easier. So we went back to the consulate in the morning with 4 photos and got that done. fine. we then returned to get food and rest a bit in the hostel before starting to walk out and do things. pass the many pee walls, sweet, and off to find the tourist office. got a map and found out that they don't have the nightlife brosure anymore but we sit inside for a bit and enjoy the a/c. Then we keep going and begin the search for Cail's sitar. There are a bunch of shops along this one road so we go into many of them to see what they all got going on. get a wide range of prices on sitars that look the same from far but when you look closely they are quite different. ok this one was a quicky, that one too a long time etc... decided on one that gave us tha package deal but they don't accept credit cards. so off to find a bank machine that my card works at. ok return and the process begins with the purchase. someone is sent to get the case, chai is served, they have to pack it all up and such. fine, sweet, got that done. Now we got to ship this thing. so i haul it on my head like any Indian would do, got so many looks and eventually arrived at the post office, just another amazing colonial building that is now some slow Indian system. Ok so this thing cannot be shipped by boat as it is too long. great, so it had to be shipped by express mail. fine, oh but wait, as with all other Indian post, it needs to have some sort of custom made cloth diapers to be made to cover the whole thing. So gotta pay that guy to make this crazy cover, slightly misshapen of course so that took a while. He even put a little patch over this tiny space. oh well shipped, done, sweet. back home, rest before out to dinner. we went out to a nice place but unfortuanetly were shuffled into the back cafeteria style area so it kinda lost a bit of feel to it. but it was a nice dinner with cocktails even.

The next day we awoke, a little too late because i let Justina sleep in. But she looked so cute so i couldn't wake her. we phoned the rents one last time as we didn't know what kind of situation it would be in Yangon and did some emailing before going to pick up our Burma visa. Done, sweet. after that we did some walking around to get a few things, pharmacuticals and the like and then returned to rest as we were plannig on going to the club that night. So on the way to dinner, we stoped at the club to ask them about details. opens at 9pm till 4am and i need to get some shoes if i want to come in. ok then. Had some dinner at this bar/restaurant that had a live band. When the english act started at 9pm, this lady with an outfit that some would deem a little too much in Canada, sang Venga Boys, the song about eating pizza. Lifa, we thought of you. Got back to the hotel, asked the dudes there about shoes but all their feet were obviously too small for me so i went out to search for some. Found some for $5, done sweet. The club was fun, seeing the Indians there do things that most Indians don't even think of was interesting. We tried to invite this group of 3 girls who were dancing on the edge of the dancefloor to come on it but they said that they couldn't because their dad was watching. mmm... i see.

Well the next morning was a little slow but we got out and began the day. More frustrating stuff, went to HSBC bank, an INTERNATIONAL bank and of course, no we don't cash travellers checques. Went to the AMERICAN EXPRESS bank, and no we don't do that either. WOW. Went to the GSI to get some maps and then to the post office to ship some stuff, more diaper packaging. Didn't have enought to pay the packing guy and as we returned to the hotel, it started to pour rain so we dolled out jackets and got soaked. It was amazing to see how much of the place was flooded after 10 minutes of rain, and i can see how in the rainy season, rickshaws are the only way to travel. Went to the money exchange guy who could cash out checques and give us US cash and that was another 45 minute process. Well we arrived back tired but wanted to go check out a movie. So we got in a cab and did the whole meter now thing to get to the shopping mall. Dinner at Subway, pretty much the only thing that went well during our whole Kolkata experience, it was that good. bought tickets to the movies but wasn't until 10:45om so we returned to the hotel. of course the caby on the way back ripped us off by taking us on this huge roundabout way. why can't people just be fair here. 24rps there, 90 back, yeah that makes a lot of sense. Packed up and returned to the theatre. Got through half of the movie, well it was intermission after 1.5 hours, but as it was all in Hindi and there was clearly no Bollywood dancing that was gonna happen we went home. Had to walk as all the cabbies were asking 300rps. Woke the next morning and caught the taxi to the airport. Hotel guys says it takes 1hr, of course it takes 30min. And here is the kicker of India. Just as you are leaving there coutry they are ripping you off. We are still getting out bags out of the cab and we are thrust this coffee in our faces then the guy runs away. Oh that's kinda nice, a free coffee as we are leaving. Nope as we go to walk in, they demand 20rps. Man just makes you want to loose it. Sure doesn't leave a good impression that's for sure. Well we are now in Burma, that was bit of a long one and no pics, that doesn't work here. We have to work out our plan as there are so many places that are either off limits or only accessible by an expenive flight. Ahh, military juntas.