Myanmar Nov 2017: Off to Mandalay

The departure time 0f 1:10 am was made less of a pain by having a delicious meal with Ingrid at her house close to the airport the evening of departure.  It was still boring waiting the two plus hours before take off but that is not to be avoided. It was interesting watching for the Singapore aircraft and wondering if we would be late leaving because it did not arrive until about 45 minutes before we were due to leave. However they were very efficient fueling up and getting us all on board and we left exactly on time. A tiny Aisan couple of mother and daughter did their best to sabotage this smooth process. They each had a huge suitcase to lift into the overhead lockers and which were too heavy for them to lift by themselves especially as they weren't tall enough to lever them in over the lip of the locker. Then somehow a neck cushion filled with tiny polstyrene beads was broken in the struggle and rained down over everyone below. The case was so heavy that even the stewardess had trouble trying to get it out of the way and the inflow of passengers seized up. Eventually there were three airline staff trying to sort out the log jamb with urgent public announcements telling everyone to take their seats. We still took off on time -just.
We had a five hour stop over in Changi Airport so the fact that it is huge with lots to look at and lots of restaurants to choose from helped. The flight from Singapore to Mandalay was longer than it appeared because there was a 1.5 hour time adjustment backwards which meant we were in the air for over 3 hours. We were lucky because the flight was going on the Yangon afterwards and we were glad the route wasn't the other was around.
Our hotel is down town which we wanted and let me just say we are pleased that they have given us the best room in the hotel. Mandalay reminds us of Bangkok when we first went there in the early 1980's. However the pavements may be broken up but they are swept clean and hosed down every evening or morning. Many peple will  return a smile when we are out walking and we have not once been hustled to  buy something. The taxi drivers are keen for the work but accept a brief shake of the head. We spent this morning walking down to the Jade Market by the river. This was fascinating with hundreds of people milling around the market showing their little pieces of stone to the buyers and hoping for a sale. There also were hundreds of sellers of sometimes tiny pieces of polished jade looking to make a sale. We then found the more salubrious downtown area which had traffic lights with walk signs and a couple of large emporiums. One was quite new and only really occupied on the lower part of it's five floors. This afternoon we have relaxed to recover from our overnight flight and a strenuous morning. Tomorrow morning we join the cruise.