HOME SWEET HOME - AFTER A 5-DAY GETAWAY TO MYANMAR

I safely arrived home at 1:00 a.m. after the AirAsia's KUL - JHB flight was delayed (again). I must say my trip this time had made me travel longer distance and further away from my comfort zone. You may ask: of all the places, WHY Myanmar? FIRST, I need to complete all the 10 ASEAN countries and Myanmar is the last one in my bucket list. SECOND, I think Myanmar has been an underrated spot to be visited and not many Malaysians are interested to get there, especially with the political conflict happening at the border at present. Curiosity always killed the cat and I did more research and found that Myanmar is actually an interesting place and it is safe for a solo traveler.

YES, the initial plan was for me to travel solo, as usual. I already bought my plane and bus tickets and accommodation as well for one person and my visa to visit the country had already been approved. Out of the blue, someone sent me a message on Whatsapp asking whether I would be going anywhere during the long school break. With a heavy heart, I had to tell Mr. Mutalib Amat Sairin [an ex-student of SMK Taman Universiti SPM batch 2009], everything had already been planned and it was already too late. Furthermore, he had not applied for any work leave, and did not even have an international passport yet. To cut a long story short, after about three weeks, on the early morning of Friday the 13th - it was a Black Friday alright, we met at KL International Airport and were eager and excited to explore Myanmar.

Here's the summary of my travel schedule:

ROUTE 1:

Friday, 13th December

left Kuala Lumpur [9:15 a.m.] - arrived Yangon [10.15 a.m. local time]

ROUTE 2:
Saturday, 14th December
left Yangon [9.00 p.m.] - arrived Bagan [5.00 a.m.]

ROUTE 3:
Sunday, 15th December

left Bagan [7.30 a.m.] - arrived Mandalay [11:30 a.m.]

ROUTE 4:

Monday, 16th December
left Mandalay [9.30 p.m.] - arrived Yangon [5.00 a.m.]

ROUTE 5:
Tuesday, 17th December

left Yangon [11:15 a.m.] - arrived Kuala Lumpur [3.45 p.m.]

I think my school holiday is officially over.
It is now time to get back to work.
Hopefully I will have the time to remember all the names of the temples and pagodas visited during my stay there.
Do come back for stories and amazing photos as my travel partner was using a hi-tech gadget when we were there.

the whole village sent us off at Yangon International Airport

*FOOTNOTE: my PC is sent to the computer shop to be repaired. At the same time, I still have to write about my trip to Hat Yai early this month and all the photos are in the PC. As for now, I am using my laptop to continue blogging but it feels awkward as I am so used to doing my work on a bigger machine. I will try my very best to do whatever I can while waiting for my computer to get back to me.