Le Planteur Restaurant, Yangon

Fine Alsace Wine

We’ve been in Burma for two weeks. While we’ve had some excellent local food in Mandalay and Mrauk U, after two weeks there are some things we yearn for: a fine wine, the perfect baguette, rich dark chocolate. So here we are in Yangon. A good friend from Bangkok recommended Le Planteur and a couple we met in Mrauk U from Singapore also sang its praises. While the prices for the prix fix menu are rather dear, US$68 or $78, we decided to have a decadent lunch there. My experience all over the world has been that superb restaurants are often a (relative) bargain at lunch time. We were not disappointed.

In addition to the regular prix fix menus, Le Planteur also offers a vegetarian selection for US$44 and a Business lunch for a mere US$25. We found a wonderful Alsace Riesling, dry and delicate, to complement our seafood meal.

Amuse Bouche

Jumbo prawns appetizer

Delicious grouper in truffle sauce

We opted for the three course Business lunch. The food was perfectly prepared. In addition to the three courses, there was a group of three appetizers served as we perused the menu, then an amuse bouche, followed by our three chosen courses.

The third course is a selection from the dessert cart, and they encourage you to choose three or four items to sample. The servings are small, just right for a sampler. And after that, the chef brought us Swiss chocolates… the perfect end to a wonderful meal.

Dessert!

Swiss chocolates

Our compliments to the chef!

Contact information:
Le Planteur Restaurant
No. 22B KayarAye Pagoda Road, Yangon
Telephone: 541 997

http://www.leplanteur.net

If have reservations for dinner, they can pick you up in one of these beautiful antique cars, gratis.

Complimentary antique taxis

Technorati Tags: Burma, fine dining Yangon, Le Planteur Restaurant, Myanmar, restaurants in Yangon, Yangon

U Bein's Bridge

We are here in Mandalay now. It’s early in the morning and I’m afraid I just woke Kathie up by dropping my mouse on the teak floor here. It’s almost time to get up, though. We’ll have a somewhat early breakfast and then meet our driver at 8 am to tour the Ancient cities outside of Mandalay. I’m not sure which one makes the most sense to go to first thing. For picture taking it’s always great to be there at sunrise (which we’ll miss) or sunset (where we cannot be all day long). While traveling, I have to take the pictures while I’m there and it’s not always the best time of day, however, I’d like to chose as well as I can for where we’ll be at sunset. That may be U Bien’s bridge, although it is one of those photographic landmarks that everyone takes pictures of (at sunset) and so there may be a better choice.

We left Bangkok yesterday very early in the morning and flew to Yangon and then to Mandalay. In Yangon we met our tour agent from Santa Maria tours, who gave Kathie all of the vouchers for our hotels and all of the airline tickets we’ll need while we’re here and Kathie gave him a bundle of brand new, crispy US dollars to pay what we still owed. We’d made a down payment earlier in the year with an electronic money transfer to their account in Bangkok.

While Kathie was doing that, I went to the money changer window and changed three hundred dollar bills to kyat. The rate yesterday was 780 kyat to the dollar, which is the best they can offer right now, but sadly the dollar continues to drop!! I walked away from the window with 234,000 kyat. Thankfully, they have 5000 kyat notes now so they didn’t all have to come to me in 1000 kyat notes. I’m not sure how I would have counted that.

Then we needed to walk from the international to domestic terminal. The last time we were here 2 years ago, there were throngs of young men willing to wheel your luggage over and guide the way, but this time we were on our own. We could have gotten a car for 2000 kyat, but thought it was close enough to walk. It was, but it was about a 10 minute walk in traffic. There is a sidewalk, but it’s about a foot off the ground. Kathie hoisted her luggage up onto the first one, but had a helluva time getting it down, so we both walked in the street after that. We finally made it and then sat in a dank terminal for about an hour waiting to board our plane.

The plane was an ATR 72/210, which is a small turbo prop plane made in Toulouse, France. It’s probably at least 20 years old and the interior shows it, it’s fairly beat up, but comfortable enough for such a short flight. It took an hour and 10 minutes from Yangon to Heho with a 10 minute stopover to drop off and pick up passengers and then another 25 minutes to Mandalay.

I know that people talk about seeing patchwork landscapes from the airplane, but flying into Heho (near Inle Lake), which was our plane’s first stop before Mandalay, the patchwork colors ranging from yellow/orange to green, was exceptionally beautiful. I took a few pictures, of course!

Once we got to Mandalay, a representative from Santa Maria met us and we were brought out to our taxi waiting for us. The drive from the airport to our hotel, Rupar Mandalar, took about an hour. From the airport to the main drag, it’s just a long straight road with barely any traffic. All along the road are banana sellers and we saw a few farmers with their oxen carts or herding a couple of white bony cows down the road.

Once we turned left from that road, the traffic increased, but we weren’t slowed down terribly. We made it to our hotel, the Rupar Mandalar in about an hour. Now that we’ve been here for a couple of days, we hear from everyone that this is the best hotel in Mandalay and I can see why. The rooms are completely built of teak wood as is all of the furniture. The dining chairs are very heavy to move away from the table to sit down, and quite comfortable. The food is prepared well, mostly Chinese dishes, but also Italian and Thai. The breakfasts are really wonderful, all of the juice is freshly squeezed and the buffet includes noodle dishes to traditional American breakfasts with someone cooking eggs to order and a very tasty Chinese noodle soup with beef and watercress.

The next day we had a driver arranged to take us around to the ancient cities, including Amarapura, Ava and Sagaing. We both enjoyed Sagaing the best. We ended the day taking pictures at sunset at U Bein’s Bridge. The sunset was one of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen and I think I got a few good shots from the 407 I took!

Yesterday we went on a day trip to the old colonial hill station Pyin U Lwin. We walked through a market and then went to a place called Pacific Curio where we each bought something, Kathie bought an old Naga weaving for her friend Bobbie and I bought a 150 year old reclining Buddha made with iron wood. The shop is owned by Soe Moe, who is renowned for finding tribal handicrafts. He was there with his son and grandson. He told me he taught 2nd grade for 18 years but then decided to do this and this shop in Pyin U Lwin is filled floor to ceiling with his purchases. Our driver said he also has a shop in Mandalay.

After lunch we spent about an hour and a half at the National Kandawgyi Gardens, which was established in 1915 (according to the Lonely Planet guide) by an English botanist named Alex Rogers. The sign says is was established in 1924. As it was Sunday, the park was filled with families from Mandalay enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. Kathie and I spent most of our time there in the orchid garden, where I took pictures.

It’s a 1.5 hour drive to and from Pyin U Lwin (pronounced Pin oo lin) and we got back to the hotel before dark. Today we are going to spend a relaxing day at the hotel, probably going swimming in the large pool in the afternoon and catch up on reading before heading to Bagan early tomorrow morning.

Technorati Tags: Amarapura, Burma, Mandalay, Myanmar, Pyin U Lwin, Rupar Mandalar, Sagaing

In the city, the bank-run exchanges have recently had the best rates, about 10 kyat per dollar more than the black market rates. So far, such bank-run exchanges only exist in Yangon. There have been long lines of locals trying to exchange dollars for kyat. Recent exchange rates have been around 800 kyat to the dollar. Typically, exchanges set their rates twice a day.

These bank-run exchanges will exchange not only dollars, but also Euros and Singapore dollars. 
 However, this has not eliminated the need for crisp, unmarked US dollars. You still need US dollars to pay for hotels, flights, and admission fees.

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We also used our agent to book at boat for us between Sittwe and Mrauk U. There is a public (government) boat that runs several days a week, but is not practical if you have a schedule to keep. There are a number of different kinds of boats one can take – a speedboat that is both very loud and rather dangerous (like other speedboats on rivers in SE Asia), tiny uncovered boats, and fancier, covered boats. Because we are staying at the Princess, we decided to splurge on the Princess boat.

On our first trip to Burma, we found that the agent could get us better prices for Balloons over Bagan.

Of course, travel agents can also arrange guides for you. We opt not to do that, as we seldom use guides, and when we do we’d rather hire one on the spot after we’ve had a chance to interact a bit.

Also on our first trip to Burma we arrived in Yangon on a national holiday, so Scott’s Market, the recommended place to exchange money was closed. Our agent changed money for us at a rate equal to that available at Scott’s Market.

Because we are heading to Mandalay soon after we land in Yangon from Bangkok, we may ask the agent to exchange money for us when they meet us at the airport to give us our tickets and vouchers and to get paid.

Technorati Tags: Bagan Burma, Burma, independent travel Burma, independent travel Myanmar, Mrauk U Burma, Mrauk U Myanmar, Myanmar, Pagan Myanmar, travel agents Burma, travel agents Myanmar

Once Burma opens up, it will change rapidly. Indeed, the release of ASSK this year seems to have spurred an uptick in tourism. In making my travel arrangements for November, I found that I couldn’t always get the hotels I wanted because they were full… and that was in May!

I started with an outline of where we wanted to go.

First on our list was a visit to Mrauk U, a concentration of Buddhist temples near the border with Bangladesh. These temples are from a different era than the Bagan temples, but like Bagan, this was once a capital of a kingdon.

Second on our list was the Ancient cities area outside of Mandalay. I also wanted to visit Pyin U Lwin, where there is a botanical garden as well as remnants of an old British hill station.

Third, we wanted to stop and visit our friend MinThu, who had been our horsecart driver and guide in Bagan.

And last, we wanted some time in Yangon.

With this outline, I contacted our travel agent, Zaw, at Santa Maria Travel in Yangon.

One of the problems with planning a trip is that the airlines don’t publish accurate schedules. The schedules change seasonally, and the airlines feel free to make last minute changes as well. The best you can do is to use an agent in Yangon who knows what the past patterns have been and to cross your fingers.

While we thought it made sense to go to Mrauk U first, Zaw advised me to put it at the end. Getting to and from Mrauk U is complicated. You have to fly to Sittwe, and from there it is a long (4-6 hours) boat ride to Mrauk U. If there is a flight in the morning, you can make the trip in a day. If not, you must spend a night in SIttwe. Likewise, on the return, you hope for an afternoon flight to be available so you don’t “waste” a day in Sittwe. But you can only catch a flight to Sittwe from Yangon, so we would have to schedule a day in Yangon before we fly to Sittwe.

Ultimately, we re-ordered our itinerary, flying to Mandalay the day we arrive, then to Bagan, then a day in Yangon before going on to Mrauk U. When we return from SIttwe, we’ll have two days in Yangon. We wanted one more day in Yangon at the end, but our hotel was not available for another night.

So while our itinerary required a number of compromises, we now have a plan that should run smoothly as long as the flights

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I received an email from a friend today asking about travel to Burma, as a colleague of his thought he wanted to set up a business meeting there. The email made me realize how few people know much about Burma.

Here is what I told him:

Yes, we were in Burma in Nov, 2009. Fascinating country. So fascinating, in fact, that we are going back there this November. I think it will be very difficult for your colleague to hold a meeting there this December.

1. All of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand have economic sanctions against Burma. About the only major country that does not have economic sanctions against them is China.

2. Because of the economic sanctions, one cannot use credit cards within Burma. A few high-end hotels will take credit cards (by running them through Thailand, Singapore or Hong Kong) but will add an 8-20% surcharge for this. To pay for things, you have to hand-carry US dollars into the country (crisp, unblemished or they will be rejected). Some travel agents in Yangon have overseas bank accounts set up and you can send a foreign wire transfer to them for a deposit. But – you cannot tell the bank that the deposit is going to Burma or they cannot legally send it.

3. Burma has suddenly (with the recent release of ASSK) become a popular spot for more adventuresome travelers. While the tourism numbers are still very low, their infrastructure is stretched as far as it can go for this high season (Nov, Dec, Jan). We had difficulty getting the hotels we wanted for November when we were making reservations in May, and I hear from other travelers and from my agent in Yangon that the high end hotels are all basically full for this high season.

4. Visas: Burma has no visa on arrival. You must get a visa in advance. If there is any hint that a person is affiliated with the news media (for instance) the visa will be denied.

5. Internet access: High-end hotels have internet access, often wi-fi, though it is very slow. The problem is that the government blocks access to email accounts. Between the two of us, we probably have half a dozen email accounts with different providers. The only account we were able to access was a gmail account because the locals have devised a work-around to avoid the government blockade. Even with a personal VPN we were not able to get to our accounts. So none of the attendees would be able to access their work email while in Burma. The government changes its blockades as people devise new work-arounds (e.g., the use of proxy servers) so when we go back this time, we don’t know if we’ll be able to access a gmail account or not. In any case, one should just assume you will not be able to access email.

6. Satellite phones are illegal in Burma and may be confiscated.

There are lots of oddities in traveling to Burma. You pay for hotels, flights, admission fees is US dollars. You pay for purchases, taxis, food, etc in the local currency, kyat (pronounced “chat”). The official exchange rate is about 8 kyat to the dollar. Foreign aid, money to NGOs. etc comes in at this exchange rate. The actual exchange rate is currently about 700 kyat to the dollar. As a traveler, you exchange money on the “black market” (jewelry stores, hotels, etc). Indeed, if you ask to exchange money at the airport exchange counter, they will tell you not to exchange money there. And it is illegal for a foreigner to exchange money at a bank.

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Sikkim exceeded our expectations. It’s a beautiful country, and the people are justly proud of its natural beauty. They are looking to position themselves as an eco-tourism destination. Unlike the rest of India, you don’t see trash by the side of the roads. All of my reading about the history of Sikkim enhanced my visit there. The Royal Guesthouse in Gangtok is filled with photos of the royal family. I felt like I was visiting the ancestral home of an old friend.

If I had it to do over again I’d add in more time in Gangtok. I would have visited the orchid garden and wandered the downtown area more. I might even have added a day to Pelling, as it is such a beautiful, idyllic setting.

I’d skip Darjeeling, not only because of our bad experience at Glenburn, but also because I found Darjeeling to be an unattractive town after spending time in Sikkim. While the setting and buildings of Glenburn were lovely, the problems there were such that I wouldn’t return.

I’d add another day to Kolkata and another Calcutta Walks tour. The Oberoi Grand was lovely and the location is perfect. Calcutta Walks was able to give us an experience of Calcutta that would have otherwise been impossible in such a short time.

You can read the full report on the Fodors community site here.

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So it is time to buy those tickets. I went to the Jet Airways web site and input the flight information. This required a multi-city itinerary, as we need to fly from Bangkok to Kolkata, change planes and fly onto Bagdogra where ground transport will take us to Gangtok. Ten days later, we fly from Bagdogra to Kolkata, and three days later. We fly from Kolkata back to Bangkok.

I found the Jet Airways website easy to navigate. I always wonder whether I will be able to buy intra-Asia tickets online, as sometimes there are issues with credit cards. I do have a back-up plan if my credit card is not accepted, I have a travel agent in Bangkok who I have used for purchasing tickets when needed. But this time, it all went smoothly, I booked and purchased our tickets, and the electronic ticket was delivered to my email in pdf format. Jet Airways requires a printed copy of the e-ticket to enter the airport.

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I planned to make the wire transfer out of the bank at my brokerage (E*Trade). I conduct virtually all of my business with the brokerage and bank online. I found the web page about wire transfers, international transfers cost $25, which seemed quite reasonable. It looked like I could make the arrangements online. For security purposes, I had to request an authorization code they emailed to me. As I moved through the process, I suddenly realized they wanted to transfer money out of my brokerage account rather than my bank account.

I went back and couldn’t find a link to make the transfer from my bank account. I could always transfer money from my bank account into my brokerage account, if necessary. So it was time to talk to someone. I had a very helpful conversation with a service rep. He said I couldn’t make that transfer online from my bank account, but he could do it for me. As I started to give him the details, he stopped me and said, I can only make this transfer if this transfer is into a foreign bank account with your name on it. Oops – this wasn’t going to work. In order to make an international wire transfer to an account I did not own, I would have to create a signed set of instructions, have my signature notarized and mail it to them. I decided to talk with my local bank.

My local bank (US Bank) said, sure, they could do it. Their price was higher, $50. But I just needed to bring in the instructions and they would do it. I asked about a premium on foreign exchange and they said there would be none. Mentally, I was comparing the cost of putting a transaction like this on a credit card, vs. the wire transfer. The amount of the transfer was about $1600. My Visa card would charge 3% ($48) or my American Express card would charge 2.5% ($40) so the cost of the wire transfer ($50) was fairly comparable. However, when I received the statement from my bank on the actual cost of the wire transfer, the exchange rate I received was 1.65% ($27) over the listed exchange rate on the day it was made.

Also, once I got the confirmation from Glenburn on the amount received, some bank that it passed through added an additional charge of $7. So all told, it cost $84 for the wire transfer, which works out to 5.25% of the amount transferred. The cost of the wire transfer worked out to be about twice the cost of putting it on my credit card.

When I make the final payment in October, I think I’ll do it through E*Trade so I have a direct comparison of costs.

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We received 10 year visas. When I get a new passport in two years, I will send off both my new and old passports to Travisa and have my 10 year India visa transferred into my new passport for a $25 fee.

Because we are going to Sikkim, we also need Sikkim permits. I asked them about this in an email and discovered that we could have arranged to get our Sikkim permits at the same time. We did not do this, so we plan to get our permits at Rangpo on our drive to Gangtok, but I hope this is useful information for other travelers.

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