TIME STAMPS 0:55 Looking for the Breakfast Balcony 4:26 A Quick Breakfast Summary 5:43 RECAP-Arrival at the Breeze Guest House 8:35 Why stay at the Breeze? 10:57 Heading Out to Look for Dinner 11:22 Other Room Adventures 15:52 They let me change rooms. 18:42 Life of a Food Seller 20:13 Being a Foreign Visitor in Mawlamyine 21:10 So Quiet Along the River 22:54 Poor Riverside Urban Planning 27:22 Strand Masjid (Strand Mosque) 27:48 Dinner at the Market 37:10 Keep Your Eyes on the Road 39:43 My New New Room at the Breeze Guest House
You are happier than a majority of men your age. Why? Because you are free to do whatever you please and whenever. No usual wife, kids, mortgage, car loan, financial problems, schedule, bosses etc etc. Also, you are one of the most genuine UA-camrs... you take much care in producing good content unlike most who produce crappy videos say for huge China audience and get 50k views easily. You have a lot of our respect and appreciation. Hope your effort will generate a lot more views and support you in your free and good life.
you are a natural story-teller and teacher. i love the matter-of-fact and always positive manner that you describe your experience. wonderful channel! 🙂
Hello Legend Doug. Nice seeing you. Had been disturbed not seeing or hearing from you for days now. Thank God you're up in your feet. Glory, Glory, Glory.
Didn't even know Mawlamyine exist till you mention it. The place looks awesome and much slower pace than Yangon for sure. Can't wait to see more of Mawlamyine through your videos.
I ended up thinking of Mawlamyine as a sleepy kind of town. And it is sleepy except when you are trying to cross Lower Main Road and you have fifteen motorcycles coming at you from ten different directions. 🙂 There is a lot more to the city spread out to the south away from this downtown market and riverside district, but it does have quite a slow pace for the fourth largest city in the country.
The Breeze Guesthouse...never actually stayed there, but have rented a motorcycle, gone on an island tour and done my laundry through them several times. Strange thing happened on my last attempt at doing laundry there. All of sudden they became rather rude and said they couldn't do it. I was baffled by this. The same old chap who was the tour guide one and a half years earlier and so warmly welcomed me then and always took my dirty laundry off me, this time gave me the cold shoulder. He said they weren't doing laundry for outside guests anymore.
Hello Senior Legend Doug. I was the very first one who must have criticise the lengthiness of your videos, but now can benefit from your lengthy #Vlogs and explanation. Great job Sir.
I'm usually pretty content when it comes to stuff like that. All the rooms have quirks when you stay in low budget accommodation, and I just live with the quirks or try to fix them. In this case, when they offered me a much nicer room, it seemed wise to accept, so I upgraded. I was very happy with my new room. 🙂
Hi Douglas Pls care with those direct heaters @9:20 as they may be more hazardous during thunderstorm or any short circuit while refreshing unlike those conventional heaters.I suggest you power off during bath if water may still be warm.
Thank you so much for your wonderful, honest and insightful videos. I am not the mayor of Mawlamyine/ Mawlamyaing :) but, as a Myanmar expat in the UK, I would like to help you with the confusion of how the name of this city sounds out. Three things. 1. As you know, in English language the ‘y’ can be both consonant and vowel. The ‘m’ and ‘y’ together here should be pronounced as in consonant blends such as ‘b’ and ‘r’ in ‘British’, but not as a word ‘my’. Many westerners mispronounce Myanmar with the ‘y’ being used as a vowel. It is understandable. 2. In our country, both spellings ‘ine’ and ‘aing’ are used for the same sound, phonetically [aɪ]. 3. The city is formerly called Moulmein, a name changed by the British in the colonial days probably because they struggled with Myanmar pronunciation, similarly Rangoon for Yangon. May you be blessed with good health, safe trips and joy. With deep appreciation. Take care. 🙏🏻
Thanks for the insight. It helps. It's probably not as difficult as I'm making it out to be, but I continue to struggle (but in an entertaining way 🙂). I've even eaten the same dishes multiple times in Mawlamyine, and I ask the person what the food is called, but no matter how many times they say the name - even if it is just one short word - I can't understand it. It just won't penetrate my poor brain. I'm such a dummy. I actually would take a minute or two in my room at the guest house to master the pronunciation of Mawlamyine before I went outside. I wanted to get it right. But by the time I left my room and got to the street, I'd already forgotten, and when I started talking, I was just as lost and confused as before. I don't know why I had so much trouble with it.
Learning a new language is hard for me too. Dialects don’t help either. Some people are fortunate that they have a bigger and better language centre wiring in the brain than others. Apparently most learning occurs when the brain is at rest, which is why sleep is important. 29:52 I think it might be ‘keema’ that you were first told. A different name for this kind of stuffed palata in Myanmar. Minced meat or chicken is keema in Indian. 33:49 The chef was saying ‘kebab’. In Myanmar, kebab is a sautéed meat or chicken with onion, Indian spices called masala and chilli. Not a grilled meat on a skewer.
Thanks! I just watched a video from a UA-camr living in Toronto (Camera Conspiracies), and it looks like Toronto recently got its first serious snowfall of the new winter. I'm surprised so much snow landed so early. How are you handling the cold weather?
@@PlanetDoug Yeah winter came so early this year i still need to get winter tires for my car. I hate the cold but i do like the Christmas season even tho i am Buddhist. Your videos are awesome i learned so much about Burma. thank you. Have a safe trip. :)
Pun-Tay-Kaut-Swe or Pun-Tay fried noodle(prob known as Mee Goreng to our Malay friends), and stuffed chicken Prata. You were dining at a Halal food stall.
I found food stalls serving this type of fried noodle and chicken palata all over Mawlamyine. It turned out to be very common. And I ended up having it for dinner more often than I probably should have. That much oily fried food is probably not that good for you. 🙂 But I found it to be very tasty, and since these stalls were everywhere, it was easy and convenient for a quick dinner. My favorite food stalls serving this food are all right beside or near a large mosque, so it is logical that they would be halal.
Sad to hear it, Yeah Mawlamying is really not developed as you can see and the hotel tourism is not there unlike big cities like Yangon or Mandalay. Keep it safe and hope you are well. Positive energy :)
There are also very nice hotels in Mawlamyine, so it's a fine place for regular tourists with a higher budget too. Even as I walked down the river to my guest house, I passed all kinds of hotels that looked new and modern. And even the budget Breeze Guest House was quite nice, I thought. I just had some issues with the first room. But they moved me to a different room, and things were great after that. 🙂
Seeing Doug's video now and did some searching on the Internet and I could see that Mawlamyine really had many more hotels and much more developed than it was 10 years ago when I was there.
Hi Doug, you ate the Chinese muslim style fried noodle (sorta like Mee goreng) Mawlamyaing is Burmese way of spelling and prononciation Moulmein is British way of spelling and prononciation Train rides can be fun but yeah, they are not properly clean or maintained by Mya nma Railway Be careful of the street food tho, you might get food poisoning.
Are you going further south along the coast, it’s a very underrated and undiscovered area imo, with lots of islands also scattered along a very long coastline.
I don't have any plans to head farther south than Mawlamyine. That could change, but my plan was always to swing down to Mawlamyine and then reverse course and head back north.
I don't have any plans to head farther south than Mawlamyine. That could change, but my plan was always to swing down to Mawlamyine and then reverse course and head back north.
DrM A. , BEDBUGS seem to appear a huge issue in Myanmar, tourists beware！Last week in Mandalay and Yangon I’ve made the effort to post regarding my experience. Sure enough, Agoda didn’t post it!, my feedback disappeared. Safe travels everyone (:
Mawlamyine seems like a nice place and the Breeze Hostel looks like a very fine place, apart from the odd passage to the breakfast balcony. The meditation course sounds fantastic! For any bug bites causing itchiness, get Tiger Balm and rub the ointment over the bites. That'll stop the itching and the bites heal more quickly too. TB also smells lovely and minty. Rub it on your nostrils when you feel nauseous or flu-ey too. I hope they have Tiger Balm out there - should be available at a chemist or medicine shop. The sky is such a beautiful blue.
I always forget about Tiger Balm, which is odd, since it is everywhere. It probably would be effective to reduce the itching of bed bug bites. I've never thought of that. I'll try it the inevitable next time I have to deal with the hungry critters.
@@PlanetDoug I get nasty fleabites from cats and dogs - Tiger Balm took off the itchiness and spread of red bites or sores. Sometimes the velvety sets in theatres or concert halls have chairs that are flea infested!
Even if Tiger Balm isn't available as a brand in Myanmar, such balm is everywhere and it is all rather similar. This is because Tiger Balm actually originates from Rangoon and it is made by a Chinese Burmese family....then they moved to Singapore. They are the Haw Par (Aw) brothers.
@@szehoong , thanks for the history of the Haw Par brothers. I didn't know they were from Burma. The word 'haw' means tiger in Hokkien which is spoken by the people in Fujian, in southern China where the original tea came from.
@@yananneteoh9818 ...you're welcome. I discovered this when my Burmese staff gave me some ointment after I hurt myself and it feels and smells like Tiger Balm. Then I did some research and found out that the balm came from Burma. Interesting story if you read up on the Aw brothers.
Hey Doug! Remember me and my comments of your time in KL.......I think I also dropped some comments on your first entry on Myanmar. I stayed at the Breeze House on my 1st night in Myanmar too but I only for that night.....I moved to Cinderella Hotel which is superior in many ways. My room at Breeze was ensuite and had air-conditioning and had no windows just like your Room B.....in fact it is just down the hallway near towards the car parking area. Just like yourself, I too are sensitive to bed bugs and coming from a family without experiencing bedbugs at home......I kinda freaked out when I first had bedbug experience when I am 30. Anyway, I do think your analysis of the bedbugs is correct....I dun think you got bitten in the train but in the 1st room. And the same guy who manned the counter wasn't friendly at all to me.....perhaps cause I am Asian and Breeze House caters mostly to caucasian tourist (back then I heard raving reviews and that it was cheap at USD 5 a night). This is about 10 years ago. I do enjoy the slower pace of Mawlamyine oh and Mawlamyaing is actually the older Romanised version of the name in Burmese. Do enjoy the city and of course in a lazy afternoon and while enjoying the river breeze on top of the hill where the pagoda is - I could imagined that Rudyard Kipling doing that more than a century ago!
I remember reading that the food served at the Cinderalla was quite good. I kept intending to drop by there to check the place out, but so far, I haven't made it. Yes, I know those rooms at the Breeze - including the one that you stayed in. I thought I might eventually change to one of those just for the convenience of the private bathroom and the comfort of the air conditioning. But I got used to my tiny Room B. Mawlamyine seemed cooler than Yangon at night, and my fan was enough to keep me cool. It's tough to say what caused the unfriendly treatment you received at the counter. The three older men usually staffing the front desk definitely created an unusual vibe. I found it quite amusing. I often thought one older man was angry with me and hated me for some reason, but that was just his manner. He just looked angry all the time and never smiled. And in many of my interactions with this trio of seniors, I came away thinking I had done something wrong or they were in a bad mood. And they operated at a glacial pace and often seemed to have no idea what to do and often got things wrong. A few times, in mid-transaction, they'd just give up and wave me away and tell me to come back later. It felt a little bit like a sitcom situation. The funny thing is that there were also two or three younger guys hanging out in the lobby area who did much of the work around the guest house. And these guys were great. They would leap into action and get things done and they smiled and made me feel welcome. There was one young man in particular who would listen as I tried to pay for more nights at the guest house or do something else, and when the older men had no idea what to do, this young man would jump in and take over and he was super-efficient and knew everything. I ended up peeking into the lobby before I tried to do anything, and if it was just the trio of older men there, I would go away. But if I saw this young man, I would then go into the lobby and go straight to him first. Unfortunately for future guests, this young man disappeared partway into my stay. I asked about him, and he was off to Singapore for a better job and a higher salary.
@@PlanetDoug wow.....what a detailed analysis of your experience with the counter people! So I guess they aren't what I perceived them to be then...my bad! But I do agree with what you say about them being inefficient as I stayed there with 2 of my Burmese staff so I have no problem at all as far as communication goes.....nothing was lost in translation. There's lots of young chaps in Mawlamyine who make good and intelligent workers. I really admire their work-ethics ....although some aspects need to be polished but some of them are indeed diamond in the rough. So Doug.....are you still there in Mawlamyine? I would strongly suggest you go visit the largest reclining Buddha at Mudon which isn't far away as you've mentioned and also the Burmese Death Railway place at Thanbyuzayat and lastly the lazy town with a magnificent 'floating' pagoda (on stilts actually) at Amherst (Kyaikkhami). When you are back in KL, do give me a holler! We should go for a cuppa and lots to talk about....see you and enjoy your time in Myanmar!
I think it's time you get yourself an ultrabook or something that's very light and has a great battery life. There's a ton of options right now but since you're constantly travelling, it'll be hard to shop at a major retail online store and have it shipped to you. So you may have to take a look at authorized electronic/computer store in a city where you are. There are ultrabooks with 16+ hours battery life that it will complete your video upload almost certainly and lighten your travel load a great deal.
I'm definitely going to be buying a new laptop very soon. I was looking into it while I was in Kuala Lumpur before, but I never pulled the trigger. Now I really have no choice. This one is on its last legs. As for what will work for me, I'm not sure. I'm definitely open to suggestions. I have a general grasp of the specs and features required for video editing, but I'm far from an expert. I'll probably end up buying it in Kuala Lumpur after this trip to Myanmar.
Here's my laptop recommendation with dedicated graphic for around $1200.00. They can be a lot cheaper if you only plan to use integrated graphic (surfacebooks come to mind) but I'd imagine you'll want a dedicated graphic for light video editing. Also, while at it, you might also think about consolidating a bunch of 32, 64 gig thumb drives into perhaps two 512 gig thumb drive (one current use, one backup) for easier management and less hassle. Alternatively, two 4 to 8 tb external rugged hard drives to consider if you have so many vid files. amzn.to/2KxsAH7 amzn.to/2qYXRfc bhpho.to/2OqB4km bhpho.to/2rM1Fkf
Thank you for very much for those suggestions. It helps me out a lot just to have a place to even start thinking about laptops. You're right that even with my simple video style, I'd like to have a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. That means I'd be able to edit 4K video if I wanted to. Both of my cameras can shoot in 4K, but I never do because my laptop can barely process 1080p. With a new laptop, it would be like upgrading both cameras as well. The Asus looks very attractive. Going over the specs, I can't see anything to complain about. You're right that I'd probably go for the mid-range spec model with no ScreenPad. I would never reach the point of a power user that would have a use for the ScreenPad. I don't even use regular touchpads. I turn them off and just use a mouse. It's a bit of an open question whether I'd need all the power that a premium laptop like that offers. Even a much less powerful machine would be a massive step up from the laptop I'm using now. It almost feels like the Asus Zenbook is overkill for the little videos I make. But who knows? Maybe I'd grow into it. 😀 Thanks again.
You're very welcome. I'm glad I can help with suggestion a little. If you happen to be debating over different models in the future and looking for some inputs, let me know and I'll give you my honest opinion.
Bed bugs! One of those worst things for travelers going back to a permanent abode. For you, it’s just that day’s bite. If it is prevalent on the trains, they probably had it or still have it. It is almost impossible to get rid of them without shutting operations and a thorough fumigation, but then again if it is in the trains, there is a high likely hood that guest will bring it back eventually. Careful, some hostels use heavy chemicals that have even killed travelers. I always like rooms with windows.
Hello Douglas! Good video as usual. I hear you complain about your laptop many times but you keep buying new GoPro accessories instead. 😊 That aside, Mawlamyine has a beautiful water front. You're right. The shophouses ideally should be built next to the water front and the road behind them. Is that how water front built in Canada?
The way things have turned out on this return trip to Myanmar, I definitely would have been better off investing some money in a new laptop. But, of course, that's a much bigger expense. I thought I'd put off the purchase of a new laptop until after this trip, but that might have been a mistake... 🙂 I think it is different in different cities, but my feeling is that Canadian towns developed in a slightly different way so that some parkland and grassy areas were maintained by the rivers and lakes. My hometown is on a lake and a river, and the main downtown roads are set far back from the water with lots of parkland in between. It's very nicely developed in that way. Of course, Canada has the advantage there of being quite a large country with relatively few people, so there is more space overall to work with.
You should try out Aye Chan Mya Guest House, on Lower Main Rd. It's super clean and has single rooms for 8000 kyat. Ask for the room with window. Room 107 I think. The most clean place I've stayed in, in Myanmar. With Ooredoo just like any other operator, just top up at any small street shop, and download Ooredoo's app. Then you buy the package you want from within the app. Easiest way to go...
Looks like a nice place. Thanks for the tip. And I've since downloaded the Ooredo app, though I haven't used it yet. Turns out there is a dedicated Ooredoo outlet right around the corner from the Breeze, and buying data packs from them has been fun. And they give me a free Ooredoo T-shirt as a bonus gift each time. 🙂
We myanmar people sometimes confuse some name spelling in English. We don’t have any exactly spelling in some city names for English. So you will have that problem in myanmar.
‘Here’s Douggy !’ The carpet is a bit like the overlook hotel! Such accurate reporting and very entertaining. Myanmar is still my fave country for loads of reasons but it is true pedestrians are not catered for at all. Positively dangerous ‘pavements/sidewalks’ - you need your wits about you all the time. And the no lights on motorbike thing? I saw the same a lot. I just don’t get why a rider wouldn’t switch them on for their own safety!
I think I had the GoPro on its "wide" setting at that point, too, so the hallways had even more of a spooky Overlook feel to them in the video. I've chatted with people in different countries over the years about the habit of not turning on a motorcycle's headlights. And the answer I've gotten most of the time is that they thought the lights would drain the battery. It makes no sense, but that's what they thought. In most cases, though, I think the headlight is just broken and they didn't have the money to get a new one or just couldn't be bothered. Whatever the reason, you quickly learn to be careful in Mawlamyine. Those motorbikes surprised me coming out of the blackness many times. I think it was a shock because I'd actually look carefully in both directions and then back again in the original direction, see nothing, and then start to cross the street. And then a motorcycle explodes out of the darkness, and I just never saw it coming. Gotta be on your toes. 🙂
Yes, I'm quite happy in Mawamyine. I'm always happy to be on the water. There isn't a large amount of boat traffic in the river, but there are just enough boats and enough water around to keep life interesting. And it's great to have the ridge running right through the middle of the town, so you can climb up the short distance to the beautiful pagodas there and get nice views of the whole area.
OMG ... the room experience sounds absolutely horrid. Unfortunately, I disagree with your view on the riverside planning and the road. At least with the road there, there remains public access to the beauty of the water. In Sydney, where it is flipped, the mega rich own land down to the water’s edge, the public are denied access, and we cannot enjoy the beauty of what you are currently enjoying.
Luckily, I was only in that room for one night. The new room they gave me was much nicer in every way. It was still a small single with a shared bathroom, but I'm fine with that. I felt a bit weird going on about all the bad things about my first room, because I'm normally fine with most of them. I'm used to a small bed, a low ceiling, a bit of banging and crashing noise, thin walls, etc. That's somewhat normal for a budget hotel room. But this room managed to combine all of them in a really uncomfortable way with the addition of being unable to close the windows and having an open screen right into the room that allowed anyone in the hall to just look inside. And then there was the possibility of the bugs. The combination of all these things was just too much, even for me. 🙂 I agree with you 100% about the public access to the water. I guess I didn't express my thoughts very well. In my head, I was thinking that all of that space taken up by the road should be public grassy parkland. There should be the sidewalk along the river that I was walking along but then another ten or twenty meters of public park space running the whole length of the river. And the road should be on the other side of THAT. But I guess the words coming out of my mouth didn't match what was in my head. That happens quite a bit, I'm finding, when you walk along and talk into a camera. 🙂🙂 In most cities with riversides I've seen, there is usually a busy road and then just a narrow sidewalk next to the river. I was thinking it would make more sense and just be a lot nicer to have a wide park stretching that entire length instead of roads taking up all the best space. I wasn't thinking that all of the riverside should be private property.
You must have met someone else. That wasn't me. I took the bus from the airport to Sule on October 3. I haven't been to the Yangon airport since then. 😀
Hi Douglas Do you agree with hotel regarding the last utilities readings to avoid paying accumulation although we know your hotel is acting on good faith but human error can't be disputed.
Thanks for the comment. It's been a while since I even watched this video. I don't remember talking about utilities at the hotel or payment for them. So, I don't really understand your question. Can you explain a bit more what you are asking? 🙂
@@PlanetDoug Hi Mr Douglas This isn't the video am refering to.Error on my side. Pls give me time and will revert with correct video. Tks for your interest
To discuss the river, you would build on the edge cause it isnt flooded....well you build for when something goes wrong....our building regulations in Canada are actually high but they are extremely helpful. A example is Haiti, in Canada we build for that sort of a earthquake....they didnt and now look at their country....totally destroyed and now has been basicly sent back to the stone age.
I always try and have a shower before sleeping in a new hotel bedroom and I have never had a bed bug problem, maybe I’ve just been lucky! I find as I get older I don’t seem to get bites as much as I used to, just the odd one, maybe it depends what blood type you are, who knows.
I've run into bed bugs quite a few times in my life. They're probably the worst thing to encounter for me. I can work around most of the other issues you encounter when staying in budget hotels. But even a hint of bed bugs will have me packing up and looking for a new home very quickly. At least with mosquitoes and fleas and other critters, you usually can see them or feel them or even hear them before you go to bed or while you're trying to sleep. Bed bugs are the ninjas of the insect world. They usually bite me and then are gone. You don't feel them or see them. You just wake up covered in bites and wonder what the heck happened. 🙂
Roy Goad 30 years of visits to Asia including Indian sub continent Iv had very few bed bug bites.Stayed in some flops too especially early on.I just touched wood.Ill be off again in NZ winter.As for mosquitoes they seem to prefer girls!.I take the usual precautions but even so have had dengue fever twice.
Thanks! I do find that I'm drifting towards slightly better hotels. When you are trying to make videos about your experiences, you kind of need electricity and reliable Internet and even a bit of space and comfort and more than one electrical outlet. That helps a lot. But things also seem to have changed compared to what I think of as the "old days." I remember budget hotels being very good value, maybe the best value. You'd look for a room for $5/night or less, and you got a lot for your money. Budget hotels still exist, but they don't seem to be the best value anymore. A room at a nicer place might cost double a budget hotel, but you get maybe five or ten times more for your money. The best value seems to be at a higher budget now. You pay a bit more, but you get a LOT more in return. I've noticed that trend.
The Cycling Canadian pre wifi and charging and a bag half full of gadgets/wires a sweat box with a bed and fan was ok for me.Now I’m looking at the router the power plugs etc,it’s a maker or breaker now .
Question: Do u like join other tourists to roam around? I never stay at those cheap hostels but I heard its the norm that those ppl staying at a place will go out in groups to explore the places.
No, I don't generally join other people to go places. I like to head off on my own whenever possible. Before this period of my life, I was often cycling, and that meant I'd end up in cheap hotels but with no other foreigners at all. I'd rarely come across other tourists because I'd be in some random town that I happened to be cycling through. It wouldn't be on the tourist trail at all. And when I went out on foot, I liked to grab my camera and walk the streets and markets and take pictures. It's just a lot easier to do that when you are on your own. I think the habit of getting together and going out as a group is more common for younger people. I guess I'm not in that category anymore. I'm that single solitary male lion out roaming the savanna on his own. 🙂
Going to the movies seemed to be a very popular pastime in Mawlamyine, and the movies they played stayed for very short times - just two to four days at most. So I think they need to show a variety of movies from different countries. I didn't know that that movie "War" was from India. I just watched the trailer for "War." Now I wish I had gone back to that theater to watch it. It's not exactly high art, but it would have been fun to watch that with a local Myanmar audience. I think most people from the West would be surprised to see the very high production values, action sequences, big-budget stunts and CGI in movies coming out of India. They're quite something to see.
I haven't brought a sleeping bag to Myanmar on these trips. But I always have my own sleeping sheet, which is kind of like a sleeping bag. It's just a cotton sheet that I folded over and sewed up a bit. I love having my own sheet, and I use it all the time.
Experience talking there, I see you don't add condiments to you dishes which may cause you to be sick. Sorry to hear about bug bites! :-( Have a good day!
I couldn't quite figure out what you meant here. Are you saying that adding condiments might make me sick? Or are you saying that adding the condiments actually helps prevent someone from getting sick? As I mentioned in one of my videos, I usually don't add condiments simply because, for me, the meals are already spicy and flavorful enough. For my taste, I don't really need to spice it up or add more flavor. The basic meal is already more than spicy enough. And I'm so bad with food that any attempt on my part to make a meal taste better just makes it taste worse. So I leave all the cooking and spicing up to the cook. 🙂 I find I tend to avoid the little extra dishes that come with the meal, too. I might have a plate of noodles at a street stall, but if they serve a little dish of sliced onions and some other vegetable (cold) on the side, I'm reluctant to eat it. I don't know if it makes any difference or not, but I can't help feeling those little dishes of sliced onions are less safe than the hot/fried noodles.
No, I didn't go to Mottma. I'm not sure what town that is. I wasn't able to find it on Google Maps or even on the Internet after I read your comment. Does it have an alternative spelling?
Ah! Thanks. Now I found it. I didn't realize that little spot right across the river had such a history. I didn't go there. The closest I got was passing through on the train. Before the bridge was built, the train stopped in Moke Ta Ma and then people had to take a ferry across the river to Mawlamyine. But that isn't necessary anymore, so I didn't see much of the town.
@@PlanetDoug Mottama is Martaban and when I am in Mawlamyine, I missed that town too considering that I went there by car. I didn't know its historical significance until I am back in Malaysia.....perhaps the next time then.....
I'm working with Dell. I think your computer have battery problem. If your computer age still less than one year, you can contact Dell Technical Support to replace the battery without any charges. If already more than one year, then you need pay for the battery.
Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. Yes, there is definitely a battery problem. The battery is completely dead. It won't hold any kind of charge anymore - not even for a millisecond. I tried to get a new battery while I was in Kuala Lumpur and in Yangon, but no one could supply it. I went to dozens of computer shops and computer repair shops, and they all said my computer was too old. No one had a suitable battery. They couldn't even order a battery for this model anymore, they said. At this point, it probably doesn't matter. I plan on getting a new laptop in the nearish future. I'm not sure spending money on a new battery (if I could find one) makes sense now.
@@PlanetDoug if you are unable to find exact battery pack replacement, you might be able to find a repair technician in Yangon to open up the depleted battery pack and replace the 18650 li-on battery cells for most older laptops.
Give me the Service Tag or Express Service Code of your computer. It's located at bottom of your computer. Let me try to check whether the battery still available or not. If available then you need to replace battery only. If not available then need you may consider to replace entire computer.
There are some labels on the laptop, but they are completely worn out. There used to be information on them, but they've been wiped completely blank over time. There is no way to read anything on them, so I can't find anything like a Service Code or Service Tag. But the laptop was a pretty standard one from Dell a few years ago. It's an Inspiron 11 - 3147. As I mentioned, I brought it in to Dell and to a lot of other computer shops in KL and Yangon, and everyone took one look at it and said there was no way to get a replacement battery for it. So I stopped looking. Maybe I got incorrect information. 🙂
I do get sick fairly often, but it's never as extreme as anything I'd call food poisoning. I think it's just that my stomach is very sensitive. I'm just mildly ill almost all the time. It's the bane of my existence. But as far as actual food poisoning goes with bad bacteria (or whatever causes actual food poisoning), I haven't had much trouble with that. Knock on chicken palata. 🙂
You renew your tourist visa or just overstay. I know you don't like to overstay, probably you find a way to renew it without going out of the country? I just look up online on cities of Myanmar. Yangon & Mandalay is distant first & second. Perhaps the sleepy vibes is causing declining populations of Mawlamyine?
The plan was simply to fly to Bangkok, get a new visa, and return. But the way things turned out, I decided to go the overstay route and exit overland. The owner of my guest house told me that it was considered almost routine to overstay your visa and simply pay the $3/day "fee" at the border. All the language surrounding this process made it sound standard and normal - more like just getting a visa extension at the border as opposed to doing anything illegal. So I decided to go that route. 🙂
I've really been wondering about that. Bed bugs are generally nocturnal. You don't see them during the day. Yet, on a recent visit to Bangkok, I booked a room in what turned out to be a terrible place. I arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and after I unpacked, I settled down on the bed to do something on my computer. And, to my amazement, I saw a bunch of bed bugs all crawling toward me from the edges of the bed. It was the middle of the day, and yet, there were so many bed bugs in this room that they marched toward me like a hungry army. I leaped out of that bed like I had been shocked with a million volts, and I saw bed bugs on the wall and all over the bed and sheets. I packed up and got out of that hotel as fast as I could and found a room somewhere else. It was the only time I've ever seen bed bugs during the day, but it did happen that one time. So it's possible (based on my experience) for bed bugs to be active on that train even during the day. It's unusual, and it's weird that I would never even see them over a 10- or 11-hour journey. But it's possible, I guess.
@@PlanetDoug you were lucky to spot bed bugs early. Usually I am too lazy to research room during daytime, but in evening when bed bugs come out it is too late to change somewhere. I normally I book for one day first to see if there is any problem with the room, then I can extend if no problems are found. But some bed bug bites are part of travel.
You're so right. It was still early in the afternoon, so I had lots of time to get out of that room and find another guest house. It would have been a bigger problem if I'd arrived at night or something. It was still an unusual experience, though. Even arriving early as I did, it was weird to see bed bugs out and active during the day time. Normally, it's even difficult to find them at night. You just wake up in the morning covered in bites, and you never see them or feel them when they're biting you. I guess that's a mixed blessing, because you still manage to get some sleep. Also, at least as far as I understand it, bed bugs don't transmit any diseases through their bites. So they're just a massive annoyance and not a serious health concern. Still, the presence of bed bugs is the one thing that will get most people to leave a hotel and find somewhere else instantly.
Mawlamyine or Moulmein as in my Geography and History lessons in the 70s, is a nice city. There are roads named after cities of Asia in Malaysia like Burma Road, Moulmein Road, Bangkok Road, Jalan Ceylon and even one called Jalan U Thant. I thought the tourism industry must be quite developed in Mawlamyine as it was a capital city during the colonial period but it is not so by the look of it. The guest house looks impressive from outside. You can always ask if there are other similar rooms for you to view before you check in, especially during low season. The palata is quite similar to the ones in Southern Thailand which is usually sold by the Muslims. It is quite different from the martabat in the restaurant in Malaysia. The one you had must be very delicious from the way you enjoyed it. Beautiful blue sky and cool looking brown river. Your narrations of the experience in the guest house and walking around gave the viewers a hint of life in a less developed part of the world; bed bugs, motorists coming in without signal, lack of convenience store and the lack of public space in front of the riverside. Nice video overall.
I think you could say that Mawlamyine is off the beaten track for tourism. I guess most visitors to the country would naturally travel between Yangon and Mandalay (with Inle Lake and Bagan situated nicely between them). To go to Mawlamyine as I did, you have to really want to go there because it is in the opposite direction from all the other attractions in the country. There IS the steady flow of backpackers coming in and going out overland through Thailand, but their route seems to be MaeSot to Hpa An to Yangon. It's a lot easier, it seems, to travel to Hpa An than to Mawlamyine from the border. Yes, the Breeze looks impressive from the outside - an old colonial villa, as they called it. It's a great (low budget) place overall, and they do a roaring business as guides and travel agents for guests staying at other hotels. The owner offers a day trip out to Ogre Island just off the coast, which is very popular. They also rent scooters and bicycles and arrange onward travel by bus and share taxi. The Breeze has the reputation as the place to go to get your bearings as a tourist and get organized. They also run two different money-transfer operations there, and locals showed up all day to conduct business. It was a bustling and interesting place to stay (at least once I found myself in a livable space 🙂).
I don't know the full history of the house, but they called it an old colonial villa, so I imagine it was built for a British official or someone like that.
Planet Doug you never had any contact to the staff at the breeze and Ivan the owner of the Breeze. It is always shortwhile to talk to the owner and Antony and his brother at the reception. Why do you not mention Somosas or the typical Myanmar soup Mohinga for breakfast. Sorry you did not catch the friendlyness of the people. You also did not catch sites of the town: the food available the restaurants and pubs along the river and the night market with ist huge varaity of its hundreds of divernt dishes. The trees with giant bats. The train station, the Mawlamyiane Hill with its temples. The bridge. The trips to Mudon, Mottama, Ha'pa An, Tha man ya where one of the most famosu monks of Myanmar U Vindaya hosted a pilgrimage monastry for more 50000 people vistiting every day (he passed away 14 years ago) The biggest Buddha in the world 180 meters and now building the 250m .... Don't try to missioniize other people. US_American Teachings are not beneficial for those who want to learn foreign cultures. Buy the lonely Planet and never do such a boring story again.
You go to a cheap one to save money, if you spent a little more money you will get a better place to stay. do not complain.You are so cheap to stay in a cheap place.
Hello Legend Doug. Nice seeing you. Had been disturbed not seeing or hearing from you for days now. Thank God you're up in your feet. Glory, Glory, Glory.
I've noticed that about a lot of popular travel vloggers on UA-cam. They manage to live a much more luxurious lifestyle than I do. I guess they're smarter and more organized than I am. 🙂 I don't have much money, so I naturally look for budget accommodation. But it's also a bit of a habit for me. I started backpacking around the world quite a few years ago, and at that time, the world was a different place. As a backpacker, you just normally travelled rough. You took buses and trains long distances and you looked for hotels under $5/night. And I think that habit has stuck with me. Even if I had more money, I think I'd still live my usual rather simple life.
Well I think what you do is pure and very normal and I am sure a lot people will appreciate what you have to represent us. Yes there are some UA-camrs are super popular and wealthy. They make a lot of breads as they travel or vblog buy there are many who fake and make what’s only beauty for viewers eyes. Even deceptions too. Sir it is not you aren’t smart in my mind, maybe you do things Little different. One thing I noticed is as much as I like ur videos, they tend to be little too long sometimes. I mean I suggest you do contain shorter cliffs instant of focusing on one thing and giving too much details. Maybe that is means reason as you know most people have 20- 40 minutes to watch cliff. Other words, people are too impatient these days unfortunately.
TIME STAMPS
0:55 Looking for the Breakfast Balcony
4:26 A Quick Breakfast Summary
5:43 RECAP-Arrival at the Breeze Guest House
8:35 Why stay at the Breeze?
10:57 Heading Out to Look for Dinner
11:22 Other Room Adventures
15:52 They let me change rooms.
18:42 Life of a Food Seller
20:13 Being a Foreign Visitor in Mawlamyine
21:10 So Quiet Along the River
22:54 Poor Riverside Urban Planning
27:22 Strand Masjid (Strand Mosque)
27:48 Dinner at the Market
37:10 Keep Your Eyes on the Road
39:43 My New New Room at the Breeze Guest House
You are happier than a majority of men your age. Why? Because you are free to do whatever you please and whenever. No usual wife, kids, mortgage, car loan, financial problems, schedule, bosses etc etc. Also, you are one of the most genuine UA-camrs... you take much care in producing good content unlike most who produce crappy videos say for huge China audience and get 50k views easily. You have a lot of our respect and appreciation. Hope your effort will generate a lot more views and support you in your free and good life.
you are a natural story-teller and teacher. i love the matter-of-fact and always positive manner that you describe your experience. wonderful channel! 🙂
In Aussie there’s a Moulmein,I remember a Bago road too.
Hello Legend Doug. Nice seeing you. Had been disturbed not seeing or hearing from you for days now. Thank God you're up in your feet. Glory, Glory, Glory.
Thankyou Doug, Don't let the bed bugs bite/look forward to the next video, take care
I like your humbleness and respectful yo others and being positive. Ur vidoes are different from most youtubers who show only luxurious
Didn't even know Mawlamyine exist till you mention it. The place looks awesome and much slower pace than Yangon for sure. Can't wait to see more of Mawlamyine through your videos.
I ended up thinking of Mawlamyine as a sleepy kind of town. And it is sleepy except when you are trying to cross Lower Main Road and you have fifteen motorcycles coming at you from ten different directions. 🙂
There is a lot more to the city spread out to the south away from this downtown market and riverside district, but it does have quite a slow pace for the fourth largest city in the country.
@@PlanetDoug - just my kinda place :)
The Breeze Guesthouse...never actually stayed there, but have rented a motorcycle, gone on an island tour and done my laundry through them several times. Strange thing happened on my last attempt at doing laundry there. All of sudden they became rather rude and said they couldn't do it. I was baffled by this. The same old chap who was the tour guide one and a half years earlier and so warmly welcomed me then and always took my dirty laundry off me, this time gave me the cold shoulder. He said they weren't doing laundry for outside guests anymore.
Hello Senior Legend Doug. I was the very first one who must have criticise the lengthiness of your videos, but now can benefit from your lengthy #Vlogs and explanation. Great job Sir.
great video, as usual! the room looked pretty small! but u still appreciated! i think being contented with whatever circumstances! 😊😊😊
I'm usually pretty content when it comes to stuff like that. All the rooms have quirks when you stay in low budget accommodation, and I just live with the quirks or try to fix them. In this case, when they offered me a much nicer room, it seemed wise to accept, so I upgraded. I was very happy with my new room. 🙂
33:22
The food is very appetizing from the way you chew. Great talent Legendary Senior Doug.
I was also very hungry, and when I get a plate of good, simple food, I'm a happy man.
You are a very interesting man. I simply cannot stop watching you.
PS I am currently at the Breeze!
We still would love to see you walk around with a longyi/Sarong around town and see how the local people react... please do it. :D
Hi Douglas
Pls care with those direct heaters @9:20 as they may be more hazardous during thunderstorm or any short circuit while refreshing unlike those conventional heaters.I suggest you power off during bath if water may still be warm.
Nice video, Thanks
Another good vlog, keep it going, I like your vlogs as said earlier, can't stop saying that
So beautiful my home town
Thankyou my city beauty
Nice video
Nice sir.....salute.
Thanks for u.
Thank you so much for your wonderful, honest and insightful videos. I am not the mayor of Mawlamyine/ Mawlamyaing :) but, as a Myanmar expat in the UK, I would like to help you with the confusion of how the name of this city sounds out. Three things. 1. As you know, in English language the ‘y’ can be both consonant and vowel. The ‘m’ and ‘y’ together here should be pronounced as in consonant blends such as ‘b’ and ‘r’ in ‘British’, but not as a word ‘my’. Many westerners mispronounce Myanmar with the ‘y’ being used as a vowel. It is understandable. 2. In our country, both spellings ‘ine’ and ‘aing’ are used for the same sound, phonetically [aɪ]. 3. The city is formerly called Moulmein, a name changed by the British in the colonial days probably because they struggled with Myanmar pronunciation, similarly Rangoon for Yangon.
May you be blessed with good health, safe trips and joy. With deep appreciation. Take care. 🙏🏻
Thanks for the insight. It helps.
It's probably not as difficult as I'm making it out to be, but I continue to struggle (but in an entertaining way 🙂). I've even eaten the same dishes multiple times in Mawlamyine, and I ask the person what the food is called, but no matter how many times they say the name - even if it is just one short word - I can't understand it. It just won't penetrate my poor brain.
I'm such a dummy. I actually would take a minute or two in my room at the guest house to master the pronunciation of Mawlamyine before I went outside. I wanted to get it right. But by the time I left my room and got to the street, I'd already forgotten, and when I started talking, I was just as lost and confused as before. I don't know why I had so much trouble with it.
Learning a new language is hard for me too. Dialects don’t help either. Some people are fortunate that they have a bigger and better language centre wiring in the brain than others. Apparently most learning occurs when the brain is at rest, which is why sleep is important.
29:52 I think it might be ‘keema’ that you were first told. A different name for this kind of stuffed palata in Myanmar. Minced meat or chicken is keema in Indian.
33:49 The chef was saying ‘kebab’. In Myanmar, kebab is a sautéed meat or chicken with onion, Indian spices called masala and chilli. Not a grilled meat on a skewer.
26:20 Ooredoo Telco is from Qatar, they expanded to Myanmar few years back.
i am Burmese watching your video from Toronto, Canada. Nice Videos.
Thanks! I just watched a video from a UA-camr living in Toronto (Camera Conspiracies), and it looks like Toronto recently got its first serious snowfall of the new winter. I'm surprised so much snow landed so early. How are you handling the cold weather?
@@PlanetDoug Yeah winter came so early this year i still need to get winter tires for my car. I hate the cold but i do like the Christmas season even tho i am Buddhist. Your videos are awesome i learned so much about Burma. thank you. Have a safe trip. :)
Pun-Tay-Kaut-Swe or Pun-Tay fried noodle(prob known as Mee Goreng to our Malay friends), and stuffed chicken Prata. You were dining at a Halal food stall.
I found food stalls serving this type of fried noodle and chicken palata all over Mawlamyine. It turned out to be very common. And I ended up having it for dinner more often than I probably should have. That much oily fried food is probably not that good for you. 🙂 But I found it to be very tasty, and since these stalls were everywhere, it was easy and convenient for a quick dinner.
My favorite food stalls serving this food are all right beside or near a large mosque, so it is logical that they would be halal.
Yes, it's look like typical Mee Goreng in Malaysia without vegetables.
Man bed bugs is a big problem, I throw my whole furniture and changed with new one but still having a bed bug till I moved out yanks God I'm saved
I stayed at the Breeeze too,few yes ago.
Sad to hear it, Yeah Mawlamying is really not developed as you can see and the hotel tourism is not there unlike big cities like Yangon or Mandalay. Keep it safe and hope you are well. Positive energy :)
There are also very nice hotels in Mawlamyine, so it's a fine place for regular tourists with a higher budget too. Even as I walked down the river to my guest house, I passed all kinds of hotels that looked new and modern. And even the budget Breeze Guest House was quite nice, I thought. I just had some issues with the first room. But they moved me to a different room, and things were great after that. 🙂
Seeing Doug's video now and did some searching on the Internet and I could see that Mawlamyine really had many more hotels and much more developed than it was 10 years ago when I was there.
You know I lived close to there and alot of the places always have that nice light green color paint inside walls.
Hi Doug, you ate the Chinese muslim style fried noodle (sorta like Mee goreng)
Mawlamyaing is Burmese way of spelling and prononciation
Moulmein is British way of spelling and prononciation
Train rides can be fun but yeah, they are not properly clean or maintained by Mya nma Railway
Be careful of the street food tho, you might get food poisoning.
There’s a new Mawlamyine Strand Walking Street that just opened recently, would love to see you there vlog it.
Are you going further south along the coast, it’s a very underrated and undiscovered area imo, with lots of islands also scattered along a very long coastline.
I don't have any plans to head farther south than Mawlamyine. That could change, but my plan was always to swing down to Mawlamyine and then reverse course and head back north.
I don't have any plans to head farther south than Mawlamyine. That could change, but my plan was always to swing down to Mawlamyine and then reverse course and head back north.
clear blue sky..
Oh, for the Bed Bug issue, try to get Anti-Cockroach aerosol spray (eg; Baygon for Cockroach). It will kill them instantly.
DrM A. , BEDBUGS seem to appear a huge issue in Myanmar, tourists beware！Last week in Mandalay and Yangon I’ve made the effort to post regarding my experience. Sure enough, Agoda didn’t post it!, my feedback disappeared. Safe travels everyone (:
Mawlamyine seems like a nice place and the Breeze Hostel looks like a very fine place, apart from the odd passage to the breakfast balcony. The meditation course sounds fantastic! For any bug bites causing itchiness, get Tiger Balm and rub the ointment over the bites. That'll stop the itching and the bites heal more quickly too. TB also smells lovely and minty. Rub it on your nostrils when you feel nauseous or flu-ey too. I hope they have Tiger Balm out there - should be available at a chemist or medicine shop. The sky is such a beautiful blue.
I always forget about Tiger Balm, which is odd, since it is everywhere. It probably would be effective to reduce the itching of bed bug bites. I've never thought of that. I'll try it the inevitable next time I have to deal with the hungry critters.
@@PlanetDoug I get nasty fleabites from cats and dogs - Tiger Balm took off the itchiness and spread of red bites or sores. Sometimes the velvety sets in theatres or concert halls have chairs that are flea infested!
Even if Tiger Balm isn't available as a brand in Myanmar, such balm is everywhere and it is all rather similar. This is because Tiger Balm actually originates from Rangoon and it is made by a Chinese Burmese family....then they moved to Singapore. They are the Haw Par (Aw) brothers.
@@szehoong , thanks for the history of the Haw Par brothers. I didn't know they were from Burma. The word 'haw' means tiger in Hokkien which is spoken by the people in Fujian, in southern China where the original tea came from.
@@yananneteoh9818 ...you're welcome. I discovered this when my Burmese staff gave me some ointment after I hurt myself and it feels and smells like Tiger Balm. Then I did some research and found out that the balm came from Burma. Interesting story if you read up on the Aw brothers.
Hey Doug!
Remember me and my comments of your time in KL.......I think I also dropped some comments on your first entry on Myanmar.
I stayed at the Breeze House on my 1st night in Myanmar too but I only for that night.....I moved to Cinderella Hotel which is superior in many ways. My room at Breeze was ensuite and had air-conditioning and had no windows just like your Room B.....in fact it is just down the hallway near towards the car parking area.
Just like yourself, I too are sensitive to bed bugs and coming from a family without experiencing bedbugs at home......I kinda freaked out when I first had bedbug experience when I am 30. Anyway, I do think your analysis of the bedbugs is correct....I dun think you got bitten in the train but in the 1st room. And the same guy who manned the counter wasn't friendly at all to me.....perhaps cause I am Asian and Breeze House caters mostly to caucasian tourist (back then I heard raving reviews and that it was cheap at USD 5 a night). This is about 10 years ago.
I do enjoy the slower pace of Mawlamyine oh and Mawlamyaing is actually the older Romanised version of the name in Burmese. Do enjoy the city and of course in a lazy afternoon and while enjoying the river breeze on top of the hill where the pagoda is - I could imagined that Rudyard Kipling doing that more than a century ago!
I remember reading that the food served at the Cinderalla was quite good. I kept intending to drop by there to check the place out, but so far, I haven't made it.
Yes, I know those rooms at the Breeze - including the one that you stayed in. I thought I might eventually change to one of those just for the convenience of the private bathroom and the comfort of the air conditioning. But I got used to my tiny Room B. Mawlamyine seemed cooler than Yangon at night, and my fan was enough to keep me cool.
It's tough to say what caused the unfriendly treatment you received at the counter. The three older men usually staffing the front desk definitely created an unusual vibe. I found it quite amusing. I often thought one older man was angry with me and hated me for some reason, but that was just his manner. He just looked angry all the time and never smiled. And in many of my interactions with this trio of seniors, I came away thinking I had done something wrong or they were in a bad mood. And they operated at a glacial pace and often seemed to have no idea what to do and often got things wrong. A few times, in mid-transaction, they'd just give up and wave me away and tell me to come back later. It felt a little bit like a sitcom situation.
The funny thing is that there were also two or three younger guys hanging out in the lobby area who did much of the work around the guest house. And these guys were great. They would leap into action and get things done and they smiled and made me feel welcome. There was one young man in particular who would listen as I tried to pay for more nights at the guest house or do something else, and when the older men had no idea what to do, this young man would jump in and take over and he was super-efficient and knew everything. I ended up peeking into the lobby before I tried to do anything, and if it was just the trio of older men there, I would go away. But if I saw this young man, I would then go into the lobby and go straight to him first.
Unfortunately for future guests, this young man disappeared partway into my stay. I asked about him, and he was off to Singapore for a better job and a higher salary.
@@PlanetDoug wow.....what a detailed analysis of your experience with the counter people!
So I guess they aren't what I perceived them to be then...my bad! But I do agree with what you say about them being inefficient as I stayed there with 2 of my Burmese staff so I have no problem at all as far as communication goes.....nothing was lost in translation.
There's lots of young chaps in Mawlamyine who make good and intelligent workers. I really admire their work-ethics ....although some aspects need to be polished but some of them are indeed diamond in the rough.
So Doug.....are you still there in Mawlamyine? I would strongly suggest you go visit the largest reclining Buddha at Mudon which isn't far away as you've mentioned and also the Burmese Death Railway place at Thanbyuzayat and lastly the lazy town with a magnificent 'floating' pagoda (on stilts actually) at Amherst (Kyaikkhami).
When you are back in KL, do give me a holler! We should go for a cuppa and lots to talk about....see you and enjoy your time in Myanmar!
I think it's time you get yourself an ultrabook or something that's very light and has a great battery life. There's a ton of options right now but since you're constantly travelling, it'll be hard to shop at a major retail online store and have it shipped to you. So you may have to take a look at authorized electronic/computer store in a city where you are.
There are ultrabooks with 16+ hours battery life that it will complete your video upload almost certainly and lighten your travel load a great deal.
I'm definitely going to be buying a new laptop very soon. I was looking into it while I was in Kuala Lumpur before, but I never pulled the trigger. Now I really have no choice. This one is on its last legs.
As for what will work for me, I'm not sure. I'm definitely open to suggestions. I have a general grasp of the specs and features required for video editing, but I'm far from an expert.
I'll probably end up buying it in Kuala Lumpur after this trip to Myanmar.
Here's my laptop recommendation with dedicated graphic for around $1200.00.
They can be a lot cheaper if you only plan to use integrated graphic (surfacebooks come to mind) but I'd imagine you'll want a dedicated graphic for light video editing.
Also, while at it, you might also think about consolidating a bunch of 32, 64 gig thumb drives into perhaps two 512 gig thumb drive (one current use, one backup) for easier management and less hassle. Alternatively, two 4 to 8 tb external rugged hard drives to consider if you have so many vid files.
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Thank you for very much for those suggestions. It helps me out a lot just to have a place to even start thinking about laptops. You're right that even with my simple video style, I'd like to have a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. That means I'd be able to edit 4K video if I wanted to. Both of my cameras can shoot in 4K, but I never do because my laptop can barely process 1080p. With a new laptop, it would be like upgrading both cameras as well.
The Asus looks very attractive. Going over the specs, I can't see anything to complain about. You're right that I'd probably go for the mid-range spec model with no ScreenPad. I would never reach the point of a power user that would have a use for the ScreenPad. I don't even use regular touchpads. I turn them off and just use a mouse.
It's a bit of an open question whether I'd need all the power that a premium laptop like that offers. Even a much less powerful machine would be a massive step up from the laptop I'm using now. It almost feels like the Asus Zenbook is overkill for the little videos I make. But who knows? Maybe I'd grow into it. 😀 Thanks again.
You're very welcome. I'm glad I can help with suggestion a little. If you happen to be debating over different models in the future and looking for some inputs, let me know and I'll give you my honest opinion.
23:39
You're quite right in the commercial sense of it.
19:07 that market is gone now Mister.
Trinx bikes are pretty good, but XDS is even better.
Bed bugs! One of those worst things for travelers going back to a permanent abode. For you, it’s just that day’s bite. If it is prevalent on the trains, they probably had it or still have it. It is almost impossible to get rid of them without shutting operations and a thorough fumigation, but then again if it is in the trains, there is a high likely hood that guest will bring it back eventually. Careful, some hostels use heavy chemicals that have even killed travelers. I always like rooms with windows.
Hello Douglas! Good video as usual.
I hear you complain about your laptop many times but you keep buying new GoPro accessories instead. 😊
That aside, Mawlamyine has a beautiful water front. You're right. The shophouses ideally should be built next to the water front and the road behind them. Is that how water front built in Canada?
The way things have turned out on this return trip to Myanmar, I definitely would have been better off investing some money in a new laptop. But, of course, that's a much bigger expense. I thought I'd put off the purchase of a new laptop until after this trip, but that might have been a mistake... 🙂
I think it is different in different cities, but my feeling is that Canadian towns developed in a slightly different way so that some parkland and grassy areas were maintained by the rivers and lakes. My hometown is on a lake and a river, and the main downtown roads are set far back from the water with lots of parkland in between. It's very nicely developed in that way. Of course, Canada has the advantage there of being quite a large country with relatively few people, so there is more space overall to work with.
You should try out Aye Chan Mya Guest House, on Lower Main Rd. It's super clean and has single rooms for 8000 kyat. Ask for the room with window. Room 107 I think. The most clean place I've stayed in, in Myanmar.
With Ooredoo just like any other operator, just top up at any small street shop, and download Ooredoo's app. Then you buy the package you want from within the app. Easiest way to go...
Looks like a nice place. Thanks for the tip. And I've since downloaded the Ooredo app, though I haven't used it yet. Turns out there is a dedicated Ooredoo outlet right around the corner from the Breeze, and buying data packs from them has been fun. And they give me a free Ooredoo T-shirt as a bonus gift each time. 🙂
We myanmar people sometimes confuse some name spelling in English. We don’t have any exactly spelling in some city names for English. So you will have that problem in myanmar.
Moulmein,same place!
‘Here’s Douggy !’ The carpet is a bit like the overlook hotel! Such accurate reporting and very entertaining. Myanmar is still my fave country for loads of reasons but it is true pedestrians are not catered for at all. Positively dangerous ‘pavements/sidewalks’ - you need your wits about you all the time. And the no lights on motorbike thing? I saw the same a lot. I just don’t get why a rider wouldn’t switch them on for their own safety!
I think I had the GoPro on its "wide" setting at that point, too, so the hallways had even more of a spooky Overlook feel to them in the video.
I've chatted with people in different countries over the years about the habit of not turning on a motorcycle's headlights. And the answer I've gotten most of the time is that they thought the lights would drain the battery. It makes no sense, but that's what they thought.
In most cases, though, I think the headlight is just broken and they didn't have the money to get a new one or just couldn't be bothered. Whatever the reason, you quickly learn to be careful in Mawlamyine. Those motorbikes surprised me coming out of the blackness many times. I think it was a shock because I'd actually look carefully in both directions and then back again in the original direction, see nothing, and then start to cross the street. And then a motorcycle explodes out of the darkness, and I just never saw it coming. Gotta be on your toes. 🙂
Canada-cold country. Lol. Like i commented in one of ur previous videos, we perceived Canada as a cold country. Heard much about it when I was little.
Mawlamyine look very clean and nice . Are you happy in mawlamyine ?
Yes, I'm quite happy in Mawamyine. I'm always happy to be on the water. There isn't a large amount of boat traffic in the river, but there are just enough boats and enough water around to keep life interesting. And it's great to have the ridge running right through the middle of the town, so you can climb up the short distance to the beautiful pagodas there and get nice views of the whole area.
OMG ... the room experience sounds absolutely horrid.
Unfortunately, I disagree with your view on the riverside planning and the road. At least with the road there, there remains public access to the beauty of the water. In Sydney, where it is flipped, the mega rich own land down to the water’s edge, the public are denied access, and we cannot enjoy the beauty of what you are currently enjoying.
Luckily, I was only in that room for one night. The new room they gave me was much nicer in every way. It was still a small single with a shared bathroom, but I'm fine with that. I felt a bit weird going on about all the bad things about my first room, because I'm normally fine with most of them. I'm used to a small bed, a low ceiling, a bit of banging and crashing noise, thin walls, etc. That's somewhat normal for a budget hotel room. But this room managed to combine all of them in a really uncomfortable way with the addition of being unable to close the windows and having an open screen right into the room that allowed anyone in the hall to just look inside. And then there was the possibility of the bugs. The combination of all these things was just too much, even for me. 🙂
I agree with you 100% about the public access to the water. I guess I didn't express my thoughts very well. In my head, I was thinking that all of that space taken up by the road should be public grassy parkland. There should be the sidewalk along the river that I was walking along but then another ten or twenty meters of public park space running the whole length of the river. And the road should be on the other side of THAT.
But I guess the words coming out of my mouth didn't match what was in my head. That happens quite a bit, I'm finding, when you walk along and talk into a camera. 🙂🙂
In most cities with riversides I've seen, there is usually a busy road and then just a narrow sidewalk next to the river. I was thinking it would make more sense and just be a lot nicer to have a wide park stretching that entire length instead of roads taking up all the best space. I wasn't thinking that all of the riverside should be private property.
Not sure that I met u on bus from Airport to Sule on 8 Nov 19 but anyway I follow ur journey trip in Myanmar
You must have met someone else. That wasn't me. I took the bus from the airport to Sule on October 3. I haven't been to the Yangon airport since then. 😀
Hi Douglas
Do you agree with hotel regarding the last utilities readings to avoid paying accumulation although we know your hotel is acting on good faith but human error can't be disputed.
Thanks for the comment. It's been a while since I even watched this video. I don't remember talking about utilities at the hotel or payment for them. So, I don't really understand your question. Can you explain a bit more what you are asking? 🙂
@@PlanetDoug
Hi Mr Douglas
This isn't the video am refering to.Error on my side. Pls give me time and will revert with correct video.
Tks for your interest
To discuss the river, you would build on the edge cause it isnt flooded....well you build for when something goes wrong....our building regulations in Canada are actually high but they are extremely helpful. A example is Haiti, in Canada we build for that sort of a earthquake....they didnt and now look at their country....totally destroyed and now has been basicly sent back to the stone age.
I always try and have a shower before sleeping in a new hotel bedroom and I have never had a bed bug problem, maybe I’ve just been lucky!
I find as I get older I don’t seem to get bites as much as I used to, just the odd one, maybe it depends what blood type you are, who knows.
I've run into bed bugs quite a few times in my life. They're probably the worst thing to encounter for me. I can work around most of the other issues you encounter when staying in budget hotels. But even a hint of bed bugs will have me packing up and looking for a new home very quickly.
At least with mosquitoes and fleas and other critters, you usually can see them or feel them or even hear them before you go to bed or while you're trying to sleep. Bed bugs are the ninjas of the insect world. They usually bite me and then are gone. You don't feel them or see them. You just wake up covered in bites and wonder what the heck happened. 🙂
Roy Goad 30 years of visits to Asia including Indian sub continent Iv had very few bed bug bites.Stayed in some flops too especially early on.I just touched wood.Ill be off again in NZ winter.As for mosquitoes they seem to prefer girls!.I take the usual precautions but even so have had dengue fever twice.
nice
Thanks. 🙂
..love your casual videos..stay in a not so budget hotel for a better experience.. ;)
Thanks!
I do find that I'm drifting towards slightly better hotels. When you are trying to make videos about your experiences, you kind of need electricity and reliable Internet and even a bit of space and comfort and more than one electrical outlet. That helps a lot.
But things also seem to have changed compared to what I think of as the "old days." I remember budget hotels being very good value, maybe the best value. You'd look for a room for $5/night or less, and you got a lot for your money.
Budget hotels still exist, but they don't seem to be the best value anymore. A room at a nicer place might cost double a budget hotel, but you get maybe five or ten times more for your money. The best value seems to be at a higher budget now. You pay a bit more, but you get a LOT more in return. I've noticed that trend.
The Cycling Canadian pre wifi and charging and a bag half full of gadgets/wires a sweat box with a bed and fan was ok for me.Now I’m looking at the router the power plugs etc,it’s a maker or breaker now .
Question: Do u like join other tourists to roam around? I never stay at those cheap hostels but I heard its the norm that those ppl staying at a place will go out in groups to explore the places.
No, I don't generally join other people to go places. I like to head off on my own whenever possible. Before this period of my life, I was often cycling, and that meant I'd end up in cheap hotels but with no other foreigners at all. I'd rarely come across other tourists because I'd be in some random town that I happened to be cycling through. It wouldn't be on the tourist trail at all. And when I went out on foot, I liked to grab my camera and walk the streets and markets and take pictures. It's just a lot easier to do that when you are on your own.
I think the habit of getting together and going out as a group is more common for younger people. I guess I'm not in that category anymore. I'm that single solitary male lion out roaming the savanna on his own. 🙂
Good to see Indian films are screened even in a smaller cities of Myanmar. WAR is a Indian film from Bollywood.
Going to the movies seemed to be a very popular pastime in Mawlamyine, and the movies they played stayed for very short times - just two to four days at most. So I think they need to show a variety of movies from different countries. I didn't know that that movie "War" was from India.
I just watched the trailer for "War." Now I wish I had gone back to that theater to watch it. It's not exactly high art, but it would have been fun to watch that with a local Myanmar audience. I think most people from the West would be surprised to see the very high production values, action sequences, big-budget stunts and CGI in movies coming out of India. They're quite something to see.
they got a nice inside mall there did you go see it?
Do you travel with sleeping bag? Probably better to avoid those bed sheets.
I haven't brought a sleeping bag to Myanmar on these trips. But I always have my own sleeping sheet, which is kind of like a sleeping bag. It's just a cotton sheet that I folded over and sewed up a bit. I love having my own sheet, and I use it all the time.
Experience talking there, I see you don't add condiments to you dishes which may cause you to be sick. Sorry to hear about bug bites! :-(
Have a good day!
I couldn't quite figure out what you meant here. Are you saying that adding condiments might make me sick? Or are you saying that adding the condiments actually helps prevent someone from getting sick?
As I mentioned in one of my videos, I usually don't add condiments simply because, for me, the meals are already spicy and flavorful enough. For my taste, I don't really need to spice it up or add more flavor. The basic meal is already more than spicy enough. And I'm so bad with food that any attempt on my part to make a meal taste better just makes it taste worse. So I leave all the cooking and spicing up to the cook. 🙂
I find I tend to avoid the little extra dishes that come with the meal, too. I might have a plate of noodles at a street stall, but if they serve a little dish of sliced onions and some other vegetable (cold) on the side, I'm reluctant to eat it. I don't know if it makes any difference or not, but I can't help feeling those little dishes of sliced onions are less safe than the hot/fried noodles.
dude, the waterfront road allows public access to the river
28:33 It's Pan:se(Pan Thay) Fried Noodle
Did you go to mottma it is very close to where you are and was a old port city part of the silk road
No, I didn't go to Mottma. I'm not sure what town that is. I wasn't able to find it on Google Maps or even on the Internet after I read your comment. Does it have an alternative spelling?
@@PlanetDoug Moke Ta Ma
Ah! Thanks. Now I found it. I didn't realize that little spot right across the river had such a history. I didn't go there. The closest I got was passing through on the train. Before the bridge was built, the train stopped in Moke Ta Ma and then people had to take a ferry across the river to Mawlamyine. But that isn't necessary anymore, so I didn't see much of the town.
@@PlanetDoug Mottama is Martaban and when I am in Mawlamyine, I missed that town too considering that I went there by car. I didn't know its historical significance until I am back in Malaysia.....perhaps the next time then.....
I'm working with Dell. I think your computer have battery problem. If your computer age still less than one year, you can contact Dell Technical Support to replace the battery without any charges. If already more than one year, then you need pay for the battery.
His computer is 4 years old now
Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. Yes, there is definitely a battery problem. The battery is completely dead. It won't hold any kind of charge anymore - not even for a millisecond.
I tried to get a new battery while I was in Kuala Lumpur and in Yangon, but no one could supply it. I went to dozens of computer shops and computer repair shops, and they all said my computer was too old. No one had a suitable battery. They couldn't even order a battery for this model anymore, they said.
At this point, it probably doesn't matter. I plan on getting a new laptop in the nearish future. I'm not sure spending money on a new battery (if I could find one) makes sense now.
@@PlanetDoug if you are unable to find exact battery pack replacement, you might be able to find a repair technician in Yangon to open up the depleted battery pack and replace the 18650 li-on battery cells for most older laptops.
Give me the Service Tag or Express Service Code of your computer. It's located at bottom of your computer. Let me try to check whether the battery still available or not. If available then you need to replace battery only. If not available then need you may consider to replace entire computer.
There are some labels on the laptop, but they are completely worn out. There used to be information on them, but they've been wiped completely blank over time. There is no way to read anything on them, so I can't find anything like a Service Code or Service Tag.
But the laptop was a pretty standard one from Dell a few years ago. It's an Inspiron 11 - 3147.
As I mentioned, I brought it in to Dell and to a lot of other computer shops in KL and Yangon, and everyone took one look at it and said there was no way to get a replacement battery for it. So I stopped looking. Maybe I got incorrect information. 🙂
greeting from indonesia
what street was that place you ate at?
the noodle could be called "pann thay" noodle. chinese muslim flavour? i could be wrong haha
in burmese, noodle is called " kout swe"
8:17 yes indeed very doubtful and suspicious attitudes, it was since 1964
I miss mawlamyine
How do you not get food poisoning?
I do get sick fairly often, but it's never as extreme as anything I'd call food poisoning. I think it's just that my stomach is very sensitive. I'm just mildly ill almost all the time. It's the bane of my existence. But as far as actual food poisoning goes with bad bacteria (or whatever causes actual food poisoning), I haven't had much trouble with that. Knock on chicken palata. 🙂
Fourth largest city of Myanmar
You renew your tourist visa or just overstay. I know you don't like to overstay, probably you find a way to renew it without going out of the country?
I just look up online on cities of Myanmar. Yangon & Mandalay is distant first & second. Perhaps the sleepy vibes is causing declining populations of Mawlamyine?
The plan was simply to fly to Bangkok, get a new visa, and return. But the way things turned out, I decided to go the overstay route and exit overland. The owner of my guest house told me that it was considered almost routine to overstay your visa and simply pay the $3/day "fee" at the border. All the language surrounding this process made it sound standard and normal - more like just getting a visa extension at the border as opposed to doing anything illegal. So I decided to go that route. 🙂
Thankyou i am mawlamyine
new species were discovered: bed bugs which come out daytime.
I've really been wondering about that. Bed bugs are generally nocturnal. You don't see them during the day. Yet, on a recent visit to Bangkok, I booked a room in what turned out to be a terrible place. I arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and after I unpacked, I settled down on the bed to do something on my computer. And, to my amazement, I saw a bunch of bed bugs all crawling toward me from the edges of the bed. It was the middle of the day, and yet, there were so many bed bugs in this room that they marched toward me like a hungry army.
I leaped out of that bed like I had been shocked with a million volts, and I saw bed bugs on the wall and all over the bed and sheets. I packed up and got out of that hotel as fast as I could and found a room somewhere else.
It was the only time I've ever seen bed bugs during the day, but it did happen that one time. So it's possible (based on my experience) for bed bugs to be active on that train even during the day. It's unusual, and it's weird that I would never even see them over a 10- or 11-hour journey. But it's possible, I guess.
@@PlanetDoug you were lucky to spot bed bugs early. Usually I am too lazy to research room during daytime, but in evening when bed bugs come out it is too late to change somewhere. I normally I book for one day first to see if there is any problem with the room, then I can extend if no problems are found. But some bed bug bites are part of travel.
You're so right. It was still early in the afternoon, so I had lots of time to get out of that room and find another guest house. It would have been a bigger problem if I'd arrived at night or something.
It was still an unusual experience, though. Even arriving early as I did, it was weird to see bed bugs out and active during the day time. Normally, it's even difficult to find them at night. You just wake up in the morning covered in bites, and you never see them or feel them when they're biting you. I guess that's a mixed blessing, because you still manage to get some sleep. Also, at least as far as I understand it, bed bugs don't transmit any diseases through their bites. So they're just a massive annoyance and not a serious health concern.
Still, the presence of bed bugs is the one thing that will get most people to leave a hotel and find somewhere else instantly.
Congratulations Myanmar 1-0 from Malaysia.
Mawlamyine or Moulmein as in my Geography and History lessons in the 70s, is a nice city. There are roads named after cities of Asia in Malaysia like Burma Road, Moulmein Road, Bangkok Road, Jalan Ceylon and even one called Jalan U Thant. I thought the tourism industry must be quite developed in Mawlamyine as it was a capital city during the colonial period but it is not so by the look of it.
The guest house looks impressive from outside. You can always ask if there are other similar rooms for you to view before you check in, especially during low season.
The palata is quite similar to the ones in Southern Thailand which is usually sold by the Muslims. It is quite different from the martabat in the restaurant in Malaysia. The one you had must be very delicious from the way you enjoyed it.
Beautiful blue sky and cool looking brown river.
Your narrations of the experience in the guest house and walking around gave the viewers a hint of life in a less developed part of the world; bed bugs, motorists coming in without signal, lack of convenience store and the lack of public space in front of the riverside. Nice video overall.
I think you could say that Mawlamyine is off the beaten track for tourism. I guess most visitors to the country would naturally travel between Yangon and Mandalay (with Inle Lake and Bagan situated nicely between them). To go to Mawlamyine as I did, you have to really want to go there because it is in the opposite direction from all the other attractions in the country. There IS the steady flow of backpackers coming in and going out overland through Thailand, but their route seems to be MaeSot to Hpa An to Yangon. It's a lot easier, it seems, to travel to Hpa An than to Mawlamyine from the border.
Yes, the Breeze looks impressive from the outside - an old colonial villa, as they called it. It's a great (low budget) place overall, and they do a roaring business as guides and travel agents for guests staying at other hotels. The owner offers a day trip out to Ogre Island just off the coast, which is very popular. They also rent scooters and bicycles and arrange onward travel by bus and share taxi. The Breeze has the reputation as the place to go to get your bearings as a tourist and get organized. They also run two different money-transfer operations there, and locals showed up all day to conduct business. It was a bustling and interesting place to stay (at least once I found myself in a livable space 🙂).
Gee that’s like an old Malaysian house.
I don't know the full history of the house, but they called it an old colonial villa, so I imagine it was built for a British official or someone like that.
Try to give info about the place instead of giving mush review of your room
Planet Doug you never had any contact to the staff at the breeze and Ivan the owner of the Breeze. It is always shortwhile to talk to the owner and Antony and his brother at the reception. Why do you not mention Somosas or the typical Myanmar soup Mohinga for breakfast. Sorry you did not catch the friendlyness of the people. You also did not catch sites of the town: the food available the restaurants and pubs along the river and the night market with ist huge varaity of its hundreds of divernt dishes. The trees with giant bats. The train station, the Mawlamyiane Hill with its temples. The bridge. The trips to Mudon, Mottama, Ha'pa An, Tha man ya where one of the most famosu monks of Myanmar U Vindaya hosted a pilgrimage monastry for more 50000 people vistiting every day (he passed away 14 years ago) The biggest Buddha in the world 180 meters and now building the 250m .... Don't try to missioniize other people. US_American Teachings are not beneficial for those who want to learn foreign cultures. Buy the lonely Planet and never do such a boring story again.
You go to a cheap one to save money, if you spent a little more money you will get a better place to stay. do not complain.You are so cheap to stay in a cheap place.
Hello Legend Doug. Nice seeing you. Had been disturbed not seeing or hearing from you for days now. Thank God you're up in your feet. Glory, Glory, Glory.
I like your humbleness and respectful yo others and being positive. Ur vidoes are different from most youtubers who show only luxurious
I've noticed that about a lot of popular travel vloggers on UA-cam. They manage to live a much more luxurious lifestyle than I do. I guess they're smarter and more organized than I am. 🙂 I don't have much money, so I naturally look for budget accommodation. But it's also a bit of a habit for me. I started backpacking around the world quite a few years ago, and at that time, the world was a different place. As a backpacker, you just normally travelled rough. You took buses and trains long distances and you looked for hotels under $5/night. And I think that habit has stuck with me. Even if I had more money, I think I'd still live my usual rather simple life.
Well I think what you do is pure and very normal and I am sure a lot people will appreciate what you have to represent us. Yes there are some UA-camrs are super popular and wealthy. They make a lot of breads as they travel or vblog buy there are many who fake and make what’s only beauty for viewers eyes. Even deceptions too. Sir it is not you aren’t smart in my mind, maybe you do things Little different. One thing I noticed is as much as I like ur videos, they tend to be little too long sometimes. I mean I suggest you do contain shorter cliffs instant of focusing on one thing and giving too much details. Maybe that is means reason as you know most people have 20- 40 minutes to watch cliff. Other words, people are too impatient these days unfortunately.
I may come to Burma and I am wondering if we can meet up there and grab cup of coffee!