Hey, Why Are So Many People Going to RGN?
Jun 3, 2012, 10:32 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA
Posts: 232
Hey, Why Are So Many People Going to RGN?
I wrote this from NH Flight 1006 HND-LAX, which, with the help of a crazy Pacific tailwind that at one point was pushing the aircraft along at more than 770 MPH over-the-ground, will land almost 50 minutes early at LAX, completing my 71 hour takeoff-to-touchdown adventure to Yangon. Just now getting around to posting it almost a week later, though...
Folks--if you’re on the fence about pulling the trigger on your booked RGN trip, I can wholeheartedly say go for it. My experience was effortless, interesting and fun.
I don’t usually post much in the way of trip reports, but judging by the view count, I know that tons of people are lurking in the main RGN thread and I think there are some helpful tips I can share that might make your journey a little better--I know the few that I picked up from those that went before me were definitely helpful.
Besides, chatter has died down lately and this’ll be a bigger post to chew on!
On the outbound, I booked a United award in business class IAD-LHR (UA), LHR-BKK (TG), and BKK-RGN (TG). Not much to say here, other than the United lie-flats continue to make up for any shortfall in their soft product, that’s for sure. All three flights featured an empty seat next to me, which makes a world of difference. Also equally helpful for my enjoyment of the journey were the showers I took in the London Lounge (SAS/AC-branded *A Club in T3 of LHR) and Royal Silk Lounge at BKK.
On arrival in RGN, as people have said, there’s definitely the “infrastructure” at RGN to transfer without a visa, but it’s not possible in practice--there was a security guard posted at the bottom of the staircase that was labeled “transfer.” So until all this recent visa on arrival news gets sorted out, still plan to use an expediting agency or the longer but cheaper process at an embassy/consulate. I live in Washington, DC so I chose to go the embassy route and easily got mine done in 5 business days for $20, no questions or hassle whatsoever.
The Yangon international terminal is quite nice. Surprisingly nice, in fact. Five jetbridge gates, glass curtain walls, spotlessly clean, etc. It’s as modern and well-equipped as any terminal you’ll find in plenty of “first world” countries. And hell, I flew out of the decade-and-a-half-and-counting “temporary terminal” at Dulles, so maybe the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority could learn a thing or two from the Union of Myanmar.
It was also quite busy. Many, many families pressed up against the glass waiting for someone to emerge from immigration/customs and tons of people in the departures hall too--I landed around 9 a.m. and there are a lot of flights that depart in the 9-11 a.m. timeframe, including the return leg of the Thai A330 I came in on.
The immigration process was easy because I was one of the first to the counters for “foreigners.” The other options were “diplomats,” “Myanmar” and “seamen,” the last of which I didn’t quite understand. They take a photo of you on arrival with a webcam-style camera. But basically it was a wordless and quick process. Your airline should give you an entry form that has a departure card portion that you’ll need to hang onto for your exit trip through immigration.
There are several moneychanging booths at the airport. They don’t open until 9:30 a.m., so I waited around for about for those to open. Thanks to your earlier posts in the thread, I had some exchanged some crappy $20 bills for some (literally) mint condition ones from a helpful Travelex booth at IAD. I only changed $20 at the airport, and the current rate there was 825 Kyat to the dollar. I’m sure this rate could be bested somewhere else--but I wasn’t too concerned about getting the best rate (the next booth over had 835 on its display, actually), as I didn’t intend to spend much while in Yangon. I literally spent a grand total of $55, including four cab rides, visits to the Schwe Dagon Pagoda, Zoo, Sule Pagoda, lunch and dinner.
I took someone else’s advice in this thread and ignored the taxi touts in the arrivals hall. They’re actually not too pushy, so don’t worry about giving them the brush-off. I walked the 30 yards down a small slope to the main highway-ish street the airport sits on and easily found a cab for 6000 kyat to take me to The Strand hotel.
The first guy I found quoted 7000 so I think 6000 was a reasonably good deal, especially since there was pretty heavy traffic in the city and it took almost 40 minutes to get to the hotel. One note on the cabs--they’re mostly tiny Nissan compacts and similar makes, unairconditioned, and no seatbelts to speak of. Consider it part of the adventure! In the end, I gave the guy 7000, he was quite nice and his English was pretty good.
I should say this--almost EVERYONE you’ll encounter has at least some English--and I got into some off-the-beaten-path spots in my day there. It’s really quite impressive (and helpful!). And being 6’2” and in a polo shirt, let’s just say that nobody that approached me ever tried anything BUT English. I saw maybe 3-4 other Western tourists throughout the whole day. The Louvre, this is not, kids.
I wasn’t staying at The Strand, I just wanted to check it out--seeing its promised colonial charm etc. It was perfectly fine, and the lobby did indeed harken back to the British days, to be sure. More importantly, the lobby has a servicable and FREE open wifi connection. You can also change dollars at the jewelry shop inside the lobby.
After a quick check of my email there, I headed to the small impromptu market across the street (and basically all the streets are lined with stalls and carts and people with their wares of all kinds out--everything from fruit to bootleg DVDs to cell phones, you name it) to poke around.
I headed on foot up to the Sule Pagoda, which is in the center of a traffic circle, halfway between the The Strand (which is along the river) and the “downtown” area where the Traders Hotel etc. are. This Pagoda was smaller than the Schwe Dagon (obviously) but was still impressive and was only 2000 Kyat to visit. Worth doing if you’re already walking by.
After that, I decided to head to my hotel, the East, to see if I could check-in a little early (it was around 10:45 a.m. and the listed check-in time was Noon). It had started to rain, so I was eager to ditch the single backpack I had packed. This is a good time to suggest bringing a compact umbrella. It can, and will, start raining on a moment’s notice in Yangon, quite heavily at times.
Here’s my biggest recommendation of the post. Stay at the East hotel! It’s only $58 on Agoda.com, which allows you to pay and confirm it online through them. You then show a little voucher they email you and you’re all set at check-in, which took no more than 60 seconds.
There are nicer hotels, to be sure--The Traders is basically what seemed to me after a cursory tour of their lobby like a Hyatt plopped down in Yangon and The Strand has throwback charm, but have gotten very expensive due to the the supply-demand of the spike in tourism in Myanmar. Some of these are going for $200+/night or more now.
But the East is above average, and considering the price, a great choice. Approximately 10 storeys tall with a modern lobby, air conditioning and elevator, I think it’s newly renovated from a previous hotel, within the last couple of years--not all taxi drivers know it by name, so you can just say “across from Traders” which they all know. The rooms are not huge, and most people on Tripadvisor complain about the “leather ball curtain” separating the tiny bathroom from the main room, rather than a door. Traveling alone, this was a non-issue for me, but if you’re with a friend it’s something to consider.
Otherwise, it’s got pretty speedy (relatively speaking, about 30K/sec average with 50K/sec bursts) free wifi in all the rooms, a free full breakfast, with Myanmar and Western options, free unlimited bottled water (there’s a stocked fridge full on alternating floors), snazzy proximity keys to open the doors, etc. Like most places in Yangon, it has its own generator to deal with power failures, of which there were two while I was there. The power came back on within 30 seconds in each case, so this is something they’re used to dealing with.
I’ve got a couple more of these booked in Jan/Feb/Mar of 2013, so if I do overnight in Yangon for them, I’ll definitely be staying at the East.
After checking in, I wanted to make the most of my one day, so I headed straight back out. Everyone says the best time to go to the Schwe Dagon is at dusk, so I hoped to kill the hours until then, do that, then call it a day.
From the East/Traders, you can walk about 5 minutes to the big market, which is brimming with stalls and people, along with all the adjacent streets. Don’t expect much in the way of touristy souvenirs here, this is much more local clothes, food, and the like.
I grabbed a quick lunch in the market. I couldn’t tell you what, or where I ate. It was chicken and rice, pretty delicious, and I think cost 2000 Kyat with a huge bottle of water. It’s about 30 hours later now as I’m writing, and I’m suffering no ill effects, so I suggest digging into the local food.
After that, I decided to check out the Zoo, which got crappy reviews on Tripadvisor for being old and probably awful for the animals within, because it was nearby.
Well, no surprises here: the Zoo is old (built during the colonial era, roughly 100 years ago) and is awful for the animals by any modern estimation--the cages and enclosures are just from an earlier era of Zoos and the creatures there didn’t look especially hearty at any of the exhibits. The place was huge and basically empty, which added to the weirdness. You can buy food to hand-feed to the elephants, hippos, a single giraffe, and black bears. There’s tons of other species there, as well--you can easily spend 2 hours or more walking around.
I had some moral qualms about contributing to this whole operation, but the 2000 Kyat I spent to get in and then 3000 or so that I spent on feeding animals is not going to bring the place to its knees had I started a boycott. Ideally, more and more tourism can improve the living conditions here.
Afterwards, I was fading fast, so I decided to just head to the Pagoda, even in bright daylight. After a 1500 Kyat cabride, I was there. You have to take off your shoes and socks before entering any of these pagodas (there’s a “suggested donation” for someone to hang onto them at a stall) and the entry itself is $5, in either USD or Kyat. I won’t go into much detail here--because if you’ve got any time in Yangon, this is definitely your #1 stop, and I can’t say I disagree, it’s a really neat place.
At this point, I was done for the day, headed back to the East, had dinner at their lobby restaurant for a grand total of $14, and slept until the next day.
I left for the airport quite early--around 7:45 a.m. I wanted to be sure to have time to deal with any issues that might arise with my cheap ticket. Traffic is much lighter in the early a.m., and it was just a 15 minute taxi ride for 6000 Kyat. Be mindful, the driver first tried to drop me off at the older, domestic terminal, which has obviously been around for decades. Be sure to get dropped at the international terminal. You’ll be easily able to tell the difference and they’re right next to each other in any case.
There are two security checks at RGN. One very cursory one with xray for bags and walkthrough mag before getting to the ticket counter area, then another more TSA-like experience after immigration before you head to the gate itself. In between is all the lounges/shops/etc.--once you head to the gate area there are no amenities aside from bathrooms, so linger until you have absolutely have to go to the gate.
The ticket counters for my Bangkok Airways flight at 10:55 a.m. didn’t open until 8:30 a.m. There were absolutely no issues checking in or comment made on my cheap fare. They were able to print the BP for my first onward connection, a Thai flight from BKK to HND, but were not able to print the ANA flight from HND to LAX.
Immigration was no sweat. They take the departure half of your card, stamp you out, and that’s it. No questions whatsoever about the short stay, no checked bags, etc.
My first leg was in Y (but they served a meal and there was nobody in my row of 3 on the A319, so it didn’t feel like U.S. domestic, that’s for sure). But for all of you guys flying out on the morning Thai flight in business, there is a lounge that serves most of the airlines there, although not Bangkok Airways. However, I was able to find a $8 lounge at the far end of the departures area that has hot food, drinks including beer and reasonably speedy wifi internet. This lounge is operated by Myanmair Air, but anyone can enter for the $8 fee, and there were few people inside--I thought it was well worth it.
There are also a bunch of souvenir stands in the post-immigration departures area, if you just want to pick up a small souvenir. I’m sure the prices are much higher than in the city, but again, everything’s relative here--I picked up a carved wooden elephant for $3.
What I’d call a monsoon swept through just before it was time to board, but the ground crew surely was used to it--they have canopies over the baggage loading ramp vehicles and kept at it through the downpour, which was gone as soon as it had came.
The flight to BKK was easy, another quick shower at a different Royal Silk Lounge was great, boarding the flight to HND was uneventful, and the 777-300 on this route was one of the few TG has (I think they’re leased from another airline) with the herringbone-layout lie-flat seats, with just 4 across the cabin. Much better than their angled seats on other 777s.
If anyone’s connecting late at night at Haneda, do what you can to get your boarding pass printed at BKK or earlier in your journey, the staffing at the transfer desk by ANA was somewhat hit and miss--a group of about 4-5 of us had to wait for an employee to show up to print our boarding passes before we could go through transfer security.
HND’s a spotless airport with high-end shopping and the ANA lounge is predictably nice. Another shower there and it was off to NH Flight 1006 to LAX, which boards quite close to departure--11:40 p.m. for a 12:05 a.m. push-back.
As a last note, I was actually sitting a seat in front of a fellow RGN Flyertalker on the BKK-HND leg, and then across an empty center business seat from him on the HND-LAX leg, so I’m able to share someone else’s quite-different experience with this fare.
Hiro (aka Flyguy on here) routed on the morning Thai flight from RGN and said he was asked some pointed questions about his fare by a supervisor at the TG check-in desk at RGN that was called over by the initial agent he dealt with. He largely “played stupid” with her questions, blaming any irregularities with the fare on his travel agency, and was definitely allowed to board, he was told that perhaps some staff would meet him to ask more questions at BKK. This didn’t materialize. Then in Haneda, he was paged over the gate-area PA system in Japanese, but he figured that responding to the page couldn’t really be a great idea and they’d find him when presenting his BP if something was truly amiss. He jumped in the middle of the pack to board and there were no comments when he handed over his BP.
I’m not sure if they paged me or not, as I wasn’t in the gate area until boarding was well underway. For what it’s worth, my particular ticket was NH-plated.
The ANA 777 was fine, had an empty seat next to me and a quick 9 hour journey. Immigration and customs at LAX didn’t seem to be fazed by my 71 hour visit to Myanmar or the lack of checked bags.
That wraps it up. I hope this helps everyone that’s looking forward to their own visits to Myanmar and I’ll likewise be looking out for others reports soon so I can plan for my early 2013 visits to the region.
Folks--if you’re on the fence about pulling the trigger on your booked RGN trip, I can wholeheartedly say go for it. My experience was effortless, interesting and fun.
I don’t usually post much in the way of trip reports, but judging by the view count, I know that tons of people are lurking in the main RGN thread and I think there are some helpful tips I can share that might make your journey a little better--I know the few that I picked up from those that went before me were definitely helpful.
Besides, chatter has died down lately and this’ll be a bigger post to chew on!
On the outbound, I booked a United award in business class IAD-LHR (UA), LHR-BKK (TG), and BKK-RGN (TG). Not much to say here, other than the United lie-flats continue to make up for any shortfall in their soft product, that’s for sure. All three flights featured an empty seat next to me, which makes a world of difference. Also equally helpful for my enjoyment of the journey were the showers I took in the London Lounge (SAS/AC-branded *A Club in T3 of LHR) and Royal Silk Lounge at BKK.
On arrival in RGN, as people have said, there’s definitely the “infrastructure” at RGN to transfer without a visa, but it’s not possible in practice--there was a security guard posted at the bottom of the staircase that was labeled “transfer.” So until all this recent visa on arrival news gets sorted out, still plan to use an expediting agency or the longer but cheaper process at an embassy/consulate. I live in Washington, DC so I chose to go the embassy route and easily got mine done in 5 business days for $20, no questions or hassle whatsoever.
The Yangon international terminal is quite nice. Surprisingly nice, in fact. Five jetbridge gates, glass curtain walls, spotlessly clean, etc. It’s as modern and well-equipped as any terminal you’ll find in plenty of “first world” countries. And hell, I flew out of the decade-and-a-half-and-counting “temporary terminal” at Dulles, so maybe the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority could learn a thing or two from the Union of Myanmar.
It was also quite busy. Many, many families pressed up against the glass waiting for someone to emerge from immigration/customs and tons of people in the departures hall too--I landed around 9 a.m. and there are a lot of flights that depart in the 9-11 a.m. timeframe, including the return leg of the Thai A330 I came in on.
The immigration process was easy because I was one of the first to the counters for “foreigners.” The other options were “diplomats,” “Myanmar” and “seamen,” the last of which I didn’t quite understand. They take a photo of you on arrival with a webcam-style camera. But basically it was a wordless and quick process. Your airline should give you an entry form that has a departure card portion that you’ll need to hang onto for your exit trip through immigration.
There are several moneychanging booths at the airport. They don’t open until 9:30 a.m., so I waited around for about for those to open. Thanks to your earlier posts in the thread, I had some exchanged some crappy $20 bills for some (literally) mint condition ones from a helpful Travelex booth at IAD. I only changed $20 at the airport, and the current rate there was 825 Kyat to the dollar. I’m sure this rate could be bested somewhere else--but I wasn’t too concerned about getting the best rate (the next booth over had 835 on its display, actually), as I didn’t intend to spend much while in Yangon. I literally spent a grand total of $55, including four cab rides, visits to the Schwe Dagon Pagoda, Zoo, Sule Pagoda, lunch and dinner.
I took someone else’s advice in this thread and ignored the taxi touts in the arrivals hall. They’re actually not too pushy, so don’t worry about giving them the brush-off. I walked the 30 yards down a small slope to the main highway-ish street the airport sits on and easily found a cab for 6000 kyat to take me to The Strand hotel.
The first guy I found quoted 7000 so I think 6000 was a reasonably good deal, especially since there was pretty heavy traffic in the city and it took almost 40 minutes to get to the hotel. One note on the cabs--they’re mostly tiny Nissan compacts and similar makes, unairconditioned, and no seatbelts to speak of. Consider it part of the adventure! In the end, I gave the guy 7000, he was quite nice and his English was pretty good.
I should say this--almost EVERYONE you’ll encounter has at least some English--and I got into some off-the-beaten-path spots in my day there. It’s really quite impressive (and helpful!). And being 6’2” and in a polo shirt, let’s just say that nobody that approached me ever tried anything BUT English. I saw maybe 3-4 other Western tourists throughout the whole day. The Louvre, this is not, kids.
I wasn’t staying at The Strand, I just wanted to check it out--seeing its promised colonial charm etc. It was perfectly fine, and the lobby did indeed harken back to the British days, to be sure. More importantly, the lobby has a servicable and FREE open wifi connection. You can also change dollars at the jewelry shop inside the lobby.
After a quick check of my email there, I headed to the small impromptu market across the street (and basically all the streets are lined with stalls and carts and people with their wares of all kinds out--everything from fruit to bootleg DVDs to cell phones, you name it) to poke around.
I headed on foot up to the Sule Pagoda, which is in the center of a traffic circle, halfway between the The Strand (which is along the river) and the “downtown” area where the Traders Hotel etc. are. This Pagoda was smaller than the Schwe Dagon (obviously) but was still impressive and was only 2000 Kyat to visit. Worth doing if you’re already walking by.
After that, I decided to head to my hotel, the East, to see if I could check-in a little early (it was around 10:45 a.m. and the listed check-in time was Noon). It had started to rain, so I was eager to ditch the single backpack I had packed. This is a good time to suggest bringing a compact umbrella. It can, and will, start raining on a moment’s notice in Yangon, quite heavily at times.
Here’s my biggest recommendation of the post. Stay at the East hotel! It’s only $58 on Agoda.com, which allows you to pay and confirm it online through them. You then show a little voucher they email you and you’re all set at check-in, which took no more than 60 seconds.
There are nicer hotels, to be sure--The Traders is basically what seemed to me after a cursory tour of their lobby like a Hyatt plopped down in Yangon and The Strand has throwback charm, but have gotten very expensive due to the the supply-demand of the spike in tourism in Myanmar. Some of these are going for $200+/night or more now.
But the East is above average, and considering the price, a great choice. Approximately 10 storeys tall with a modern lobby, air conditioning and elevator, I think it’s newly renovated from a previous hotel, within the last couple of years--not all taxi drivers know it by name, so you can just say “across from Traders” which they all know. The rooms are not huge, and most people on Tripadvisor complain about the “leather ball curtain” separating the tiny bathroom from the main room, rather than a door. Traveling alone, this was a non-issue for me, but if you’re with a friend it’s something to consider.
Otherwise, it’s got pretty speedy (relatively speaking, about 30K/sec average with 50K/sec bursts) free wifi in all the rooms, a free full breakfast, with Myanmar and Western options, free unlimited bottled water (there’s a stocked fridge full on alternating floors), snazzy proximity keys to open the doors, etc. Like most places in Yangon, it has its own generator to deal with power failures, of which there were two while I was there. The power came back on within 30 seconds in each case, so this is something they’re used to dealing with.
I’ve got a couple more of these booked in Jan/Feb/Mar of 2013, so if I do overnight in Yangon for them, I’ll definitely be staying at the East.
After checking in, I wanted to make the most of my one day, so I headed straight back out. Everyone says the best time to go to the Schwe Dagon is at dusk, so I hoped to kill the hours until then, do that, then call it a day.
From the East/Traders, you can walk about 5 minutes to the big market, which is brimming with stalls and people, along with all the adjacent streets. Don’t expect much in the way of touristy souvenirs here, this is much more local clothes, food, and the like.
I grabbed a quick lunch in the market. I couldn’t tell you what, or where I ate. It was chicken and rice, pretty delicious, and I think cost 2000 Kyat with a huge bottle of water. It’s about 30 hours later now as I’m writing, and I’m suffering no ill effects, so I suggest digging into the local food.
After that, I decided to check out the Zoo, which got crappy reviews on Tripadvisor for being old and probably awful for the animals within, because it was nearby.
Well, no surprises here: the Zoo is old (built during the colonial era, roughly 100 years ago) and is awful for the animals by any modern estimation--the cages and enclosures are just from an earlier era of Zoos and the creatures there didn’t look especially hearty at any of the exhibits. The place was huge and basically empty, which added to the weirdness. You can buy food to hand-feed to the elephants, hippos, a single giraffe, and black bears. There’s tons of other species there, as well--you can easily spend 2 hours or more walking around.
I had some moral qualms about contributing to this whole operation, but the 2000 Kyat I spent to get in and then 3000 or so that I spent on feeding animals is not going to bring the place to its knees had I started a boycott. Ideally, more and more tourism can improve the living conditions here.
Afterwards, I was fading fast, so I decided to just head to the Pagoda, even in bright daylight. After a 1500 Kyat cabride, I was there. You have to take off your shoes and socks before entering any of these pagodas (there’s a “suggested donation” for someone to hang onto them at a stall) and the entry itself is $5, in either USD or Kyat. I won’t go into much detail here--because if you’ve got any time in Yangon, this is definitely your #1 stop, and I can’t say I disagree, it’s a really neat place.
At this point, I was done for the day, headed back to the East, had dinner at their lobby restaurant for a grand total of $14, and slept until the next day.
I left for the airport quite early--around 7:45 a.m. I wanted to be sure to have time to deal with any issues that might arise with my cheap ticket. Traffic is much lighter in the early a.m., and it was just a 15 minute taxi ride for 6000 Kyat. Be mindful, the driver first tried to drop me off at the older, domestic terminal, which has obviously been around for decades. Be sure to get dropped at the international terminal. You’ll be easily able to tell the difference and they’re right next to each other in any case.
There are two security checks at RGN. One very cursory one with xray for bags and walkthrough mag before getting to the ticket counter area, then another more TSA-like experience after immigration before you head to the gate itself. In between is all the lounges/shops/etc.--once you head to the gate area there are no amenities aside from bathrooms, so linger until you have absolutely have to go to the gate.
The ticket counters for my Bangkok Airways flight at 10:55 a.m. didn’t open until 8:30 a.m. There were absolutely no issues checking in or comment made on my cheap fare. They were able to print the BP for my first onward connection, a Thai flight from BKK to HND, but were not able to print the ANA flight from HND to LAX.
Immigration was no sweat. They take the departure half of your card, stamp you out, and that’s it. No questions whatsoever about the short stay, no checked bags, etc.
My first leg was in Y (but they served a meal and there was nobody in my row of 3 on the A319, so it didn’t feel like U.S. domestic, that’s for sure). But for all of you guys flying out on the morning Thai flight in business, there is a lounge that serves most of the airlines there, although not Bangkok Airways. However, I was able to find a $8 lounge at the far end of the departures area that has hot food, drinks including beer and reasonably speedy wifi internet. This lounge is operated by Myanmair Air, but anyone can enter for the $8 fee, and there were few people inside--I thought it was well worth it.
There are also a bunch of souvenir stands in the post-immigration departures area, if you just want to pick up a small souvenir. I’m sure the prices are much higher than in the city, but again, everything’s relative here--I picked up a carved wooden elephant for $3.
What I’d call a monsoon swept through just before it was time to board, but the ground crew surely was used to it--they have canopies over the baggage loading ramp vehicles and kept at it through the downpour, which was gone as soon as it had came.
The flight to BKK was easy, another quick shower at a different Royal Silk Lounge was great, boarding the flight to HND was uneventful, and the 777-300 on this route was one of the few TG has (I think they’re leased from another airline) with the herringbone-layout lie-flat seats, with just 4 across the cabin. Much better than their angled seats on other 777s.
If anyone’s connecting late at night at Haneda, do what you can to get your boarding pass printed at BKK or earlier in your journey, the staffing at the transfer desk by ANA was somewhat hit and miss--a group of about 4-5 of us had to wait for an employee to show up to print our boarding passes before we could go through transfer security.
HND’s a spotless airport with high-end shopping and the ANA lounge is predictably nice. Another shower there and it was off to NH Flight 1006 to LAX, which boards quite close to departure--11:40 p.m. for a 12:05 a.m. push-back.
As a last note, I was actually sitting a seat in front of a fellow RGN Flyertalker on the BKK-HND leg, and then across an empty center business seat from him on the HND-LAX leg, so I’m able to share someone else’s quite-different experience with this fare.
Hiro (aka Flyguy on here) routed on the morning Thai flight from RGN and said he was asked some pointed questions about his fare by a supervisor at the TG check-in desk at RGN that was called over by the initial agent he dealt with. He largely “played stupid” with her questions, blaming any irregularities with the fare on his travel agency, and was definitely allowed to board, he was told that perhaps some staff would meet him to ask more questions at BKK. This didn’t materialize. Then in Haneda, he was paged over the gate-area PA system in Japanese, but he figured that responding to the page couldn’t really be a great idea and they’d find him when presenting his BP if something was truly amiss. He jumped in the middle of the pack to board and there were no comments when he handed over his BP.
I’m not sure if they paged me or not, as I wasn’t in the gate area until boarding was well underway. For what it’s worth, my particular ticket was NH-plated.
The ANA 777 was fine, had an empty seat next to me and a quick 9 hour journey. Immigration and customs at LAX didn’t seem to be fazed by my 71 hour visit to Myanmar or the lack of checked bags.
That wraps it up. I hope this helps everyone that’s looking forward to their own visits to Myanmar and I’ll likewise be looking out for others reports soon so I can plan for my early 2013 visits to the region.
Jun 4, 2012, 12:04 am
#2
Join Date: May 2006
Location: BKK.DPS
Programs: P THAI,Diamond HYATT
Posts: 3,290
YOU DID VERY WELL, getting in and around Yangon is tricky for the novice, you negotiated a good exchange rate, scored a hotel with a generator for $58, and saw more than most in one day in town. Mind you, I would have skipped the ZOO, but I did think your cab fare of 6000 from the airport was good, but what impressed me you were able to score it again on leaving..Next time spend 3 days and go up country, you will love it
Jun 4, 2012, 8:20 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: YYZ-HKT-CWL
Programs: aeroplan E .HH.
Posts: 994
Great TR. thanks Awaiting TG ticketed Reports
Will check out East hotel wonder what walk in price would be? Still awaiting TG ticketed reports. Mrs n I have visited Rangoon before and also hung out in Strand,s lobby ^^
Jun 4, 2012, 12:21 pm
#6
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: anywhere and everywhere
Programs: UA GS, AS MVP 100K, DL Diamond, Marriot Lifetime Titanium, AmEx Centurion
Posts: 5,518
I have 72 hours booked for my first trip (I booked 4 of these) in a few months - what would you recommend for a good 3 day Itin out of Yangon? I've been there before, so don't really need to spend more time there.
Jun 4, 2012, 2:37 pm
#7
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 681
Thanks for the detailed report! Glad you managed to avoid any, um, unpleasantness with the ticket. I'm headed there at the end of the month, also on an NH plated ticket. Did you mean that the other Flyertalker, Hiro, also had an NH ticket and was questioned by TG at check-in/Yangon...or was his ticket TG plated?
Jun 4, 2012, 5:13 pm
#8
Join Date: May 2006
Location: BKK.DPS
Programs: P THAI,Diamond HYATT
Posts: 3,290
Brilliant and brave, 4 buys, You will end up with a healthy balance for next to no cost. I am hideing a city, so half expect to be pulled up but so far so good. I absolutely love Bagan, it deserves a day and half, then out of which I take people to Mt Popa and for a beach I have never seen anything as white as Ngapali.
Jun 4, 2012, 5:37 pm
#9
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: anywhere and everywhere
Programs: UA GS, AS MVP 100K, DL Diamond, Marriot Lifetime Titanium, AmEx Centurion
Posts: 5,518
Brilliant and brave, 4 buys, You will end up with a healthy balance for next to no cost. I am hideing a city, so half expect to be pulled up but so far so good. I absolutely love Bagan, it deserves a day and half, then out of which I take people to Mt Popa and for a beach I have never seen anything as white as Ngapali.
Jun 4, 2012, 11:55 pm
#10
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 158
Thanks for sharing your experiences and tips, DCA1983! That was an enjoyable read. Looking forward to my RGN trip in November on an NH ticket on the same routing, though my first segment's on TG, so I better be prepared to answer some questions and have some back-up plans just in case! I plan to spend about about 10 days to see more of the country.