November 5 Fly to Rangoon

We were up early to catch a 7:20 flight. We flew to Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon) to experience Myanmar (formerly Burma) for the first time. It was a 3 hour flight with a 1.5 hour time zone change so we landed before 9:00 local time. We visited 2 of the major temples in the morning and then visited Shwedagon in the afternoon. We had driven by Shwedagon in the morning and had seen an avenue leading to the temple through a park. We returned to the park and walked by a segway stand where you could rent your own Segway. I rented 2 Segways so we could ride to the picturesque avenue, but Joan refused to ride one( I tried twice to ride my Segway but stepped off both times as I was unbalanced and twice got whacked painfully on the shin by a whirling Segway. Thus has ended my Segway career -Tim went on his own - J) But the renter came with me and wouldn't let me go off the paved path. What a waste! I walked to the avenue and met 2 monks who wanted me to take their picture so I did.

Then I caught up with Joan and we went into the temple. What a temple – golden spires and domes everywhere, thousands of people everywhere, monks in purple and orange everywhere. It was a true experience and we never stopped gawking in the 3 hours we were there. We need to go back tomorrow.