Entry and experiments with the power supply
Travel preparations
This time we really want to make a journey off the beaten track. The undiscovered corners of Southeast Asia are rare and North Korea is probably still at the top of the list. In view of the recent nuclear bomb test, however, this year we are opting for the somewhat less dangerous variant, Myanmar, the good old military dictatorship.
Already with the topic what we may take with us and what we better leave at home, divorce months before the journey the spirits. Mirko even goes to the utmost and writes to the Burmese Aviation Authority and the Burmese Ministry of Transport. But they can’t give us a definite answer as to whether we can take our drone with us. All we definitely experience is a „maybe“ and a „Customs has its own rules“. In order not to spoil the holiday mood on the first day, we leave our drone at home with a heavy heart.
It is also difficult to find information about the „what“ and the „how much“ you are allowed to bring here. Until a few years ago, smartphones were banned here, and the Foreign Office website warns against bringing card games. It’s supposed to say prison time on it. Do you think that’s still relevant? After a long time back and forth, we set off with 41 kilos of total luggage, of which 23 kilos are of course pure electronics. If you don’t dare, you won’t win.
At the hand luggage check at the Transitgate in Bangkok I am relieved of my power bank. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to travel any further because there is no capacity information on it. Well, I say the last 3 times when exactly the same Powerbank stepped on Thai soil and travelled through exactly the same transit gate, nobody was interested in that yet. But the most important Buddhist rule to know as an Asian holidaymaker is: „Nothing is as constant as change“. Here everything can change from one day to the next. Timetables, customs controls and evenly also rules for the import of Powerbanks. My personal Asian serenity is probably more due to the fact that I have two spare power banks in my luggage. In Bangkok we now have 5 hours time before the next plane takes us to Mandalay. Fortunately, there are long corridors with expensive shopping miles and food stalls. Today, however, I decide against a new Rolex and prefer a few greasy pretzels instead.
But my pedometer almost freaks out and tells me today at least 3 times that I have already reached my daily goal. With a whole hour delay we finally continue towards our destination airport in Myanmar.
First stop: the royal city of Mandalay
Arriving in Mandalay the entry is really much easier than expected. Everything is very quiet and orderly and the border guard even smiles at me. This has never happened to me in Asia before. Normally, the customs officer class is uniformly grumpy and serious worldwide. Here the clocks seem to tick differently. He even encourages me to smile in my photo for the entry. The hand luggage check also works smoothly and customs consists, contrary to our expectations, of only one small man who collects our completed customs slips on which we have noted that we have nothing to declare. Hm, if only we had known that before.
After we have bought a working SIM card with internet reception we go to an exchange office. When we get there, the first tourist dramas are already taking place at the counter. Apparently they just ran out of money and have to leave early today. A middle-aged French travel group is not quite as enthusiastic about this and persistently talk in French about the two exchange office owners. As if they would suddenly get money again. Well, the French are a strange people.
Things are no better for the other three exchange offices. As more tourists gather there and demand determines supply, the exchange rate is changing rapidly. This is the first functioning market economy I see in my life.
So we decide to go to the next ATM machine, which we find only a few meters away, there should finally be a few Kyat to get. Unfortunately, we are unsuccessful here too. Mirkos EC card doesn’t work at all and for me the machine makes noises as if it were printing the money fresh, but doesn’t spit anything out and then interrupts the process again. To be honest, I’m pretty glad my card’s even coming out. That would have been a great start for Myanmar.
Fortunately, we took enough foreign exchange in dollars and euros in cash. Next we need a taxi. Outside we are also directly intercepted by two guys who first check out our smartphones and think they are good and then arrange a taxi driver for a small tip. Okay, rookie mistake, I know.
Strange is that our taxi has the steering wheel on the wrong side although here is actually right-hand traffic, the steering wheel is also on the right side. This is because all cars are imported from Japan and there is left-hand traffic. What is directly positive about our car are the seat belts. You won’t find them in other Asian taxis. Of course, this does not mean that they will also be used.
After a little nap we want to explore the city and hunt something to eat. During our evening tour through Mandalay it is immediately noticeable that there is one thing not here and that is street lighting. From 7 pm it is pitch-black on the streets which of course does not prevent people from driving without lights, why do you finally have a horn. As in other Asian countries, the horn is the most important component of any vehicle. Without it, every ride has a direct total loss.
There are no street lamps, but there are small neon signs and colourful, flashing Christmas lights and LED lamps in all shapes and colours and at the two speeds „Epilepsy Plus“ or „Epileptic Death“ on every corner. Flashing lights on houses and facades seem to be just as essential as horns on vehicles. Will the buildings collapse directly if you remove the filigree composition of power cables and light chains?
First we want to go to the night market in Mandalay, which is not very far away according to the reception. But when we get there we are a bit confused, because the night market stands are built up in the middle of the street, but the normal traffic simply pushes unperturbed through the maze of stands. The mopeds just keep going and you really have to be careful not to get run over. „business as usual“, that is.
On this Asian night market we are the only tourists far and wide and somehow it dawns on me that we are also the only pedestrians. In general we seem to be the only white people in this city, because everywhere we are looked at a bit strangely and I get the feeling that nobody speaks English here either.
Our adventure into the undiscovered corners of Asia has begun and to be honest we landed right in the middle of it. Hunger drives us about 30 minutes later into a restaurant on the corner. It is packed, which indicates that Tripadvisor is right with the good ratings. At Shwe Kaing there is BBQ and that is of course to Micko’s taste. He’s got pork kebabs and squirrels on a spit. I prefer the vegetarian variant and go with water spinach, various cabbages and something that looks like car tires, probably a mushroom. At 26 degrees and a humidity of „wet towel“ the first Myanmar beer is a real treat. I could swear God himself brewed it and served it to me at the table.
Mandalay also seems to be dog-friendly somehow, the Burmese don’t like their dogs as a main course like the Laotians and the Cambodians, but really as a pet. Of course there are also hundreds of street dogs in Mandalay and they are not only inventive but also pretty smart. The practical table trash can in the restaurant for bones and other waste proves to be a small buffet for the common street dog, which is of course also gratefully accepted. Self-confidently 3 street dogs patrol successively the garbage cans under the tables on the curb.
Sometimes you just have to set priorities
When we arrive back at the hotel and want to pursue priority 1, namely „charge all electronic things“, we have to realize to our horror that it is not as easy as we thought. There is only one small, measly socket in our room and it is not even close to the bed.
After we connect various multiple chargers and laptops, it suddenly gets dark in the room and we have actually already paralyzed the hotel’s own power supply on the first day. Congratulations, not everyone can do that on the first day in Myanmar. First Mirko has to enter the country with 20 kilos of electronics in his luggage. Of course, we have no doubt that we may have dragged too much electronics to Southeast Asia. I’ll tell you what: It’s not our fault there aren’t enough sockets here.
After a 30-minute search for the fuse box in the corridor, we decide to visit the night doorman. It would be hard to imagine what it would mean for the holiday mood if the electronic devices could not be charged directly on the first night.
Due to a lack of English, our conversation consists more or less of „okay, okay“. But as if by some miracle he seems to understand our concern and after another 10 minutes the fuse box is found and the power supply is restored. Hallelujah! We are obviously still in the learning phase regarding the Burmese power grid. And apparently there was a good reason why there was only one measly power outlet in our room.
In my mind’s eye, I can just see the power plant on the other end of town starting up again. The present night watch in the power plant is probably wiping a medium sized sweat pearl from its forehead.
Finally, we decide to charge only 2 things at a time. I don’t think I need to mention that deciding which 2 things to charge takes at least another 30 minutes and results in a heated discussion with very rational arguments. Shortly afterwards we find another power outlet in the bathroom, which immediately restores the holiday mood.