En route for Heho airport, we passed the gangs of workers still hacking cliffs to bits by hand and others still making the road, also by hand! We stopped briefly at a paper and umbrella “manufacturing” workshop.
Then we arrived at Hehohehoheho airport! OMG. Travelling in Myanmar has it’s moments. We will have five hours in Yangon before our flight onward to Singapore. Plenty of time. Find our bags. Get them into the international terminal. Two hours check-in. Good organisation. Well done Trailfinders and APT! There are 8 of the 16 on this part of the trip going on to Singapore.
… except our plane is in Bagan with flat tyres. This means a three hour delay at the very un-exciting Heho airport. Oh well, 8 of us are in the same boat – so to speak. We get a free lunch courtesy of Yadanarpon Airlines – or is it Myanmar National Airlines? No it’s Air KBZ … BUT, do we want it anyway? We have no idea which street vendor is being requisitioned to cook it for us. My guess is that we will all be passing on this gastronomic experience.
Actually, I have to say it was surprisingly good! Anyway, then it was everyone onto the tarmac to find their bags!!
“That’s mine”, “No it’s mine”. “No you’re both wrong, it’s mine!” (Actually, it was ours!)
Apparently, our plane will arrive at 2pm. But, of course it didn’t. The plane arriving at that time was going to Lashio. Some place in the sticks north-east of Mandalay. So Yan, being the good guide and organiser that he is, commandeered it! I’ve never seen anything like that before. All the passengers on the plane who thought they were just one hop away from home were kindly requested to get orf! Get orf and wait for the plane from Bagan – the one with the dodgy tyres! I have to say they didn’t look overjoyed at the prospect of an overnight stop at Heho! Of course that would only happen if Air KBZ really couldn’t mend the punctures!
Coincidentally, the airline’s motto is “Flying Beyond Expectations!” I guess that just about covers it! The “electronic” information board had to be seen to be believed. Here HE is!
“The flight leaving for London is now ready for boarding at gate 2.” They only have two gates. Both unlocked, unguarded and, in the case of gate 1, unused. Other important announcements were made on bits of paper taped to the windows – Like this one…
Bear in mind we are travellimg on 10 February!!
Anyway, avoiding all eye contact with a bunch of disgruntled Lashionians, we boarded our plane. No-one had the correct board in pass. Glenda had one belonging to some random bloke. No-one was allocated seats next to their partners. One stewardess was trying to get people into their allocated seats. Another was saying just sit anywhere. It was comical in a time-very-sensitive sort of way. Lots of us were due to miss onward connections from Yangon.
We eventually got airborne, with the captain steering round a road block of angry previous occupants of OUR plane. Fifteen minutes into the flight we were served the meal that the LashIo passengers had been eagerly anticipating. So, not only had we nicked their plane, but we were eating their afternoon tea as well!
Rumour had got out that a plane had been hijacked at Heho. A pair of previously good friends had already announced they would not be paying the ramsom. Thank you Barry and Sybil! Clearly they hadn’t got the message that it was us in charge of the errant plane. That we had not been on the receiving end!
Apart from that (and two missing shuttle buses in Yangon plus a local woman who refused to get out of our private shuttle), the trip to Singapore was pretty uneventful really. Everyday stuff! Just stay cool!!
So that’s the end of the Myanmar trip which happened 13 days ago! The Australian sector will be teported in less detail…
Now…
A wealthy American guy walks up to a pretty girl in a bar and says “Would you sleep with me tonight for a million bucks?” “I guess so” she says. Would you do it for one dollar?” “What sort of a girl do you think I am?” “We’ve already established what sort of girl you are! Now we are just haggling about the price!”
Just as well we didn’t go to Heho afterall- I don’t think my heart would handle that stuff up too well ! But you made it in the end- never heard of hijacking a plane to make an international connection before- only in Myanmar!! Australia will seem pretty tame after all that excitement.