Formerly Rangoon, Burma

We've actually managed to find an internet in this wonderful chaotic city! Excellent! But email access is blocked! Not so excellent! The Burmese love football especially the Premier League and Man United! So we were able to find somewhere to watch the football. I realised that I was supporting England when I was disappointed about the bloody awful penalties! And Rooney and his red card!! All we had was Burmese commentary so not sure why he was sent off. So now, it's Portugal for the World Cup!!

Anyway, had a great first few days here. People are very friendly and we are pretty much celebrities, even though foreignors do come here. Burma was an English colony up until 1948, but people's English is still surprisingly good - even the younger generations'. It is raining season here too - pretty much raining all afternoon and evening which means we have to get up and out before 9am. It's the type of rain that's warm and refreshing, but soaks you in about 3 seconds flat! Possibly our best investment yet - we bought a couple of umbrellas!

Yangon, formerly called Rangoon during colonial times, is a multi-ethnic, frenetic city with lots of crumbling colonial buildings, gold glittering stupas, treacherous (for me, anyway!) wonky-slabbed pavements (sidewalks), and streets teeming with people, and markets with vendors and food stalls. Changing money is interesting here: since the government charges a tax for every transaction, you get more for your US$ on the black market - normally from touts on the streets or at the local tourist market. The men wear a sarong-type skirt called a Longyi, made out of a tube-shaped piece of fabric which they wrap around and tie in a knot at the belly. Business men dress a little smarter and usually sport a crisp white shirt with their longyi! Women and children wear a strange kind of face makeup called thanakha - a cakey creamy yellow that hardens and apparently protects them from the sun - even though there's only rain at the moment! * Mush