Somerset Apartments, Thong Lo

The last week of the holiday was spent in Bangkok, this time in the trendy residential neighbourhood of Thong Lo in a serviced apartment sun by the Ascott/Somerset group. Thong Lo has no hotels, but quite a few new residence towers, cafes, cocktail bars, restaurants and the usual Bangkok street stalls that David loves so much. 

Our apartment block

The pool

A bit messy now, but here's the sitting room

Bedroom

Our street in Thong Lo

Tea at The Savoy, Yangon

Not the best cuppa I have ever had in my life, but I loved the setting.

 "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"

Food and drink, Myanmar

I don't feel that I have much of a sense of the food in Myanmar. We did try a few things that were interesting: samosa tok, mohinga (thin rice noodles and fish broth), dosai)

Dosai

Stuff that was a bit like bird seed...

Cocktails at the Strand Hotel with Chris Candlin

Currency this summer

US dollar, Thai baht, Myanmar kyat, Malaysian ringgit, Hong Kong dollar and Japanese yen

Bogyoke Aung San Market, Yangon

We really enjoyed this market. It's the place to go for lacquerware, fabrics, gems and all sorts of other curios.

Main entrance

Eco bag with Burmese letters

I bought a map in the market to help us plan the next trip!

Lacquer bowls

Somerset Maugham and George Orwell both travelled here and wrote about Burma. We bought these books here.

Jade bowls

Lacquer boxes

Lacquer cocktail stick pot

Central Yangon (Rangoon)

After our visit to Shwedagon Pagoda, we popped back to the hotel to change and then got a taxi to the centre of the city to take in some of the other highlights. The roads were surprisingly good, the driving not too crazy, the taxis have seat belts and the drivers are very nice and very honest. The fares were only ever a few thousand Kyat (about 1000 Kyat is a dollar). The roads were pretty congested and we spent a lot of time in taxis, but the views outside were fascinating.

Approaching the Sule Paya

Sule Paya

Independence Monument

Law court

City Hall

Mahabandoola Road

A street off Mahabandoola Road

A street off Mahabandoola Road

Friendship Restaurant, Dagon Road

We ordered some kind of noodle dish. Also on the menu:

• Chicken bottom
• Crap thumb

Hmmm

Myanmar 2: Shwedagon Pagoda

Wow. I was completely blown away by Shwedagon Pagoda. Honestly, how had I not heard much about this before? It's one of the most incredible places I have ever visited.

Myanmar (Burma) 1: The Savoy Hotel

This was our first visit to Myanmar. We are actually planning a much longer trip at some point in the near future, but we wanted to at least have a quick taster. It's only a one hour flight from Bangkok, so we basically had a little 2 night hop. It was quite easy to arrange: we managed to get our visas via a travel agent in Nana, Bangkok; we booked cheapo flights with Air Asia; and we booked a lovely hotel online through Agoda. Actually, the hotels were pricey - that was quite a surprise. There were a few posh ones in Yangon (Rangoon), but we opted for a nice British colonial boutique hotel called the Savoy which was absolutely gorgeous. It was built in the 1920s and was beautifully maintained and contained lovely antiques and art and a lovely pool. The other guests there were all diplomats. I'd definitely stay there again.