Today I want to talk a little about transportation and getting around the city. If you're lucky, and wealthy, enough you may get a nice car and a driver. However, my husband is a humble school teacher and we do not have such luxuries.
You can drive yourself around, but I suggest you get a feel for the traffic before attempting this. As far as I can tell, there are no traffic laws. It's a free for all and everyone just pushes their way through.
Crossing the street is a real life game of Frogger. This is not a joke. Most everyone here is a Buddhist and will not kill a cockroach, but it seems they will happily run you and your child over while trying to cross the street.
There are a few crosswalks downtown, but no one knows how to use them.
Before coming we looked up taxi fares in Yangon on numbeo.com. The problem with this website is that it uses a fare calculator based on a price per mile. The taxi fares here are not based on mileage. They are a set fee.
According to numbeo.com the taxi fare from our neighborhood to the school is $15.00. In reality it's only 4,000-5,000 kyat ($2.60-$3.30 usd).
You can flag a taxi down on the street, there are so many. I found pulling up my destination on Google maps and showing that to the driver
works really well, if I'm not going to a well known location.
This doesn't always work for me when I'm going home because taxi drivers don't want to go to my neighborhood.
This brings me to Grab. Grab is an app, much like Uber. I've used it in Malaysia and Thailand and it's exactly like Uber, private drivers in personal cars. In Yangon it's part of the taxi service. I use Grab when I can't explain where I want to go, or if I want to go home since flagging a driver down on the street, they almost never want to drive to my neighborhood.
There are problems with Grab and taxi drivers. Flagging a driver down on the street and telling them where you want to go, agreeing on a price. You get in the car and after awhile you realize they have no idea where they are going.
Grab is sometimes the same. Although the app offers a map the drivers can't or are not willing to read the map and you could find yourself and hour the wrong direction. This can be especially difficult if you are not familiar with where you are going.
A few times, when I had nothing better to do, I have let the driver go the wrong way. wait for him to ask directions from fellow drivers, and gotten a tour of the city.
The other night we were on the other side of town trying to use the Grab app to get a taxi. We tried for 30 minutes before we got a taxi. We watched him on the app drive 15 minute the wrong direction from our pick up location before cancelling our booking. We then tried for another 30 minutes to get another taxi. Finally we got one and headed home. Sometimes drivers on Grab will pick up your booking then sit where ever they are, finishing lunch or chatting with friends before deciding they don't want your booking after all and cancel on you. This can be really frustrating.
That being said, Grab can be really useful when you are new to town.
There are busses. I have only familiarized myself with the few I need to get where I want to go. They are 200 kyat ($0.13 usd). Some are nicer than others with air conditioning. Others are older, dirtier, and do not have A/C.
If there is a line to get on the bus, don't be surprised if everyone crowds and pushes their way on. Old ladies will elbow you in the face to get on. Once on it can get very crowded. You will get up close and personal with a lot of strangers. If you're sitting toward the front of the bus, you should give up your seat if a monk gets on. To get off a crowed bus you can try and worm your way to the exit, but if all else fails you can use brute force. There have been many a time I have tried to get off with my son. Him in front of me, my arms protectively around him. Shoving my way through with the sounds of "OOF" and even an "OH SHIT" around me.
I'm a big girl and still pretty strong from all my days working horse and loading hay bales.
I'll also share my minimal bus knowledge. Bus 58 from Botataung goes to the Sule square, near the Sule Pagoda and Junction City. This bus goes one direction in a circle. From the Sule Pagoda, bus 36 takes you to Myanmar Plaza. You can also find most of the other buses at the Sule Pagoda.
Bus 79 from Botataung goes directly to Myanmar Plaza, but it's an older bus and does not have A/C. There doesn't seem to be any kind of schedule. The buses just come when they come.
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