Twenty-Eight Hours Was Rough, but the Destination Looks Like it Was Worth it.....

We left Houston in overcast, rainy weather and 12 1/2 hours later arrived in Moscow, which was pretty much as I would visualize Russia in November--overcast, dreary and covered in snow.

We had a couple welcome hours layover outside the plane, so we walked around the terminal and decided to have a Russian beer.  Ended up finding an Irish Pub that had Guinness, Budweiser, and a local Russian brew so we gave it a try.....

Not impressed but at least I can say I've tried Russian beer.

At one point, one of the airport workers referred to Devin as "cowboy," which probably made both their days.

We now refer to him as "Comrade Cowboy."

The next leg to Singapore was 11 1/2 hours and I actually was able to sleep some.  We had another layover at Singapore and mostly just walked, walked and walked to stretch our legs.  The final three hour flight to Yangon seemed to take forever but we finally made it, cleared customs and got caught in a traffic jam to the hotel with all of us crammed into a tiny taxi,

But we made it.

After checking in, we cleaned up, had lunch and walked up the hill to the Shwedagon Paya, the most important religious site in Myanmar--the photo at the beginning of this post.  It rises 350 feet above the highest hill in Yangon and is considered the oldest Buddhist temple in the world--dating back to the 6th century.

We knew shorts weren't allowed but decided to purchase a wrap-around cloth that men often wear wear here that covers the waist to the ground.

Alida is really good at putting up with us but at this point the three of us had on Luckenbach, Shiner and Houston Dynamo shirts, long skirts, and of course one cowboy hat.  But at least we got into the pagoda and could look around.

After a fairly long walk back to the hotel, I showered again and took a nap.  Devin came by later and we all pretty much decided to skip supper and just sleep off the long trip.  Tomorrow morning early we leave and fly to Mandalay--the old colonial capital of Burma--for a couple of days.  So far we've only met one other person we know but will probably mostly be keeping to the four of us anyway.

Off to a good start......