Halfaboy

Locals are also more and more flying.

I know a lady working in Bangkok. When she goes to Surin she takes a flight (around 950 Baht) which is only slightly more expensive than a ticket for a coach.

So far Bruno's was not mentioned.

Is this place 'out' ?

L'Arc is fine. Could not find their business card otherwise I would have mentioned this place. Really recommended.

In these days many people like to go with minibuses.

Works fine with me.

Unfortunately all info is in Thai and google translate is in this case not much of a help.

Sorry, cannot get it working.

Oke one more try to add the picture....

His new place is deep into Soi 27.

I will add a picture form the new place (currently being constructed).

_{This morning I walked through the first part of Soi 27 (Naklua Road till 7/11 at the first corner) but did not notice anything new.}

Would not be surprised to hear that Peter (former boss ‘For Ever Music Bar’ – Naklua Road and on Soi 33) would have taken over.

Whilst today all the furniture was removed he was sitting in the place to supervising all the activities.

Peter has an extensive restaurant experience in Germany.

Try this link ....

http://en.leica-camera.com/Stores-Dealers/Leica-dealer-locator

Have fun !

No need to do this organised. You can do this alone very well and much cheaper.

Spend some time on preparing your trip (visa, flights, routing, hotels etc.).

No need to go to special places as everything is worth to be pictured.

Some tips: go to Mandalay and have a walk along the Irrawaddy jetty, visit markets and temples there. There are a massive amount of very interesting things to see and to make pictures of. Don't expect everything comes to you. You must put some efforts in it. Once done this you know how the system works and you can go to other places.

In the past years I have made thousand of pictures during my trips through Myanmar.

Have fun !

To be included is the expected fx-rate in case money needs to be transferred from- (and later backwards to-) your country.

Modify the spreadsheet so that any number for fx-rate (buying and selling) can be included. Another modification I suggest is the option to play with the period. Also do not forget the initial settling costs. These are the costs to make your condo your home (art, pots and pans etc).

Not sure what you mean with 'real estate fee'. Is this the maintenance fee ?

Good luck !

There seems to be a law that does not allow banks selling repossessed houses etc for a rice below the outstanding mortgage. Hence the apparently the high asking prices (in some cases).

Maybe another board member knows more about this.

Is you info coming from sources as TAT or ATTA ? If not, can you refer the source ?

Yes, also curious to know ....

Looking forward hearing about your trip (and experiences).

If he had to close down he has very bad luck again. If I am well informed he opened a super duper Italian restaurant in Pattaya some years ago. It was in Soi 18 (off Naklua Road). It never came off the ground and I'm sure he lost a lot of money. After that he moved on to Bang Saray.

Hope that the news is not correct.

I'm usually not looking for cheap but I'm more after quality. Even 'good' wines sometimes do not taste well. Maybe it's the storage temperature or maybe the bottles have been keep in a 'standing' position (so that the cork was dried out).

Also keeping the wine at home is a bit of a problem (as long as you don't have a special fridge to keep the wine).

All recommendations are welcome.

Wondering how many owners will be affected ....

It's not clear to me where the villagers are afraid for. Is it the possibility of spillings of drilling mud, a blow out once the well is producing, subsidence in the far future, noise pollution or maybe something else. Will the company be drilling for oil or gas and at what depth is the reservoir expected.

A well organized PR campaign would do a lot of good work in my opinion.

Found pictures from my 2013 visit to Myitkyina.

For your pre-fun some impressions of the airport. Took the pictures when waiting for my plane to Bhamo.

Enjoy....

Must have been an unforgettable event.

Thanks for sharing !

Mandalay is a great place to spend a couple of days. There are lots of interesting places to visit. The problem is that you have to find it out yourself. I have been there a couple of times and had enough time to look around.

The first three times I rented a very small car to travel around. Daily rate was something like 15 US$ (for the day and including driver). This however is history. These cars do not exist anymore.

Understand that you want to go by train to Myitkyina. Make sure that you are allowed to do this. In the past this was not allowed as the train went through restricted areas.

Cannot advise on the trip by (fast) boat from Myitkyina to Bhamo as I did not do this.

My trip started in Bhamo and I did the whole trip by the vessel as pictured in my first post. For this vessel there is no particular timetable as they just sails between Mandalay and Bhamo and departure (and arrival-) times are depending on things as the height of the water in the river (the first part is at some places very shallow and you will touch bottom many times) and the speed of the current. I don’t think that will apply to a fast boat. Take earplugs with you as the sound of the engine may be very loud. Note that there is a toilet aboard but this is a ‘rather basic facility’. For bookings the receptionist form the Friendship hotel can be very helpful.

If you want I can add pictures of a fast boat and an impression (from my vessel). In total I must have some 1000 pictures.

For boats there are the following options to leave Bhamo (note that this info is from 2012):

1. Express boat to Mandalay. Duration 1 day (5.00 – 23.00 hours). Costs 65 US$.
2. Ferry (fast). Takes (depending on season) 3 days and two nights. Costs 9 US$ deck place and 54 US$ for cabin (to be shared with somebody else).
3. Ferry (slow) takes 7 days (I heard). Costs etc unknown.
4. Taking various (express-) boats and hop from one place to another. I.e. from Bhamo to Schwegu (check name) for 2 US$, duration 5 hours. Take a motel and continue later on.

My ferry was a somewhat old and rusty barge with an immersion of 2 m. It has a below deck cargo holding (also used by passengers), a lower deck (for cargo, passengers, a small shop and a restaurant), a middle deck for cargo and passengers (also providing entertainment in the form of videos and music) and a upper deck for the first class passengers and their cabins (including 2 toilets and 2 showers exclusively to be used by first class passengers). On top there is the steering house.

On the middle deck are areas for passengers which were marked by lines. Each passenger was allocated an area of around 2 m * 60 cm per person. Main group of passengers consisted of ‘poor’ Myanmar people.

There are two main 6 cylinder MWN engines for propulsion and 3 engines for power supply.

There were 400 passengers and loads of cargo which was all loaded by manpower.

Food: Believe it or not, despite the poor looking kitchen facilities aboard the food served was very tasty and not too expensive. All meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) were 500 Kyatts, which is around 40 Eurocent or something like 50 US$ cent. Despite these prices almost all passengers had their own food with them. In the evening hours when the boat stopped for the night many passengers went ashore to cook their own food for the next day. So maybe the prices were not that low for them.

My accommodation: I had booked a first class cabin for single use. There were two small beds, a sink, a tap, a mirror, life protection gear, fan and so on. The mattress however was a hard as steel, the fan was not working at night as there was no electricity and the tap did not provide any running water. Furthermore I was kept awake by loud snoring passengers from other first class cabins. Note that you have to take your own sheets with you.

Passengers of the 12 first class cabins had the exclusive right of using two dedicated toilets and two showers. All were locked and on either side of the ship in the gangway keys were hanging on a piece of wire (this to prevent the ‘ordinary’ people using our facilities).

All keys were clearly labeled (in Burmese) so for me it was not clear which keys was for which facility.

For the other 375 or so passengers (on lower decks) were two toilets and one shower available.

Going with this ferry gives you lots of opportunities to make pictures, not only from the riverside but also from other passengers. I had some small giveaway things with me and became therefore very popular with other people aboard.

Note that if you take this vessel there will be only very short stops just to let people leave the ship and to pick up new passengers.

For above text I went again through a tripreport I wrote for another (in the mean time closed) forum and all sorts of memories came up again. I made around 1000 pictures and looking again at them gives me many warm feelings.

Have a nice trip !

^{This boat is another (but not recommend) option.}