Mandalay Clock Tower
Visit to the bustling Zay Cho Market
Nuns heading out for alms.
Local transportation in Mandalay.
Another monastary,
Visit to the Jade Market.
Really delicious and authentic local Myanmar cuisine at Aye Myit Tar!
Western food at Central Park restaurant. Really good too!
On the final day, we visited the World's first and only Jade Pagoda while on the way to the airport. The whole pagoda was built out of jade!
The airport was about another 20min drive from the Jade Pagoda, which itself was almost 45min from the city. That is how far the airport is from the city. A security check was required before entering the check-in hall.
Boarding pass issued with invite to a cafe for JCL pax. There is no colour differentiation for Business and Economy Class passengers on MI's boarding passes. Due to some customs issues on some export tax receipts (Notice: Get an export certificate from the shop for all stones/jade purchases, no matter how cheap they are, even for USD$5, or risk customs not allowing you to bring them out of Myanmer. There was no notice on this in souvenir shops or online for that matter…)
FIDS. International flights are displayed in yellow.
Departure hall was rather basic with a few shops.
Our A320 operating the flight to Yangon and Singapore. The flight operates a triangular routing of SIN-MDL-RGN-SIN on a single flight number.
31 December 2017
SilkAir
MI 522
Mandalay (MDL) - Yangon (RGN)
A320
9V-SLQ
Business Class
Flight Time: 50M
Boarding has already commenced and we were one of the last few to board.
My seat at the last row of the 12-seater Business Class cabin. A pillow and thick blanket were already placed on the seat. The seat is a standard recliner with adjustable headrest, mechanical recline, leg and foot rests.
Welcome drinks of water or juices were offered. I had an apple juice. Newspapers and magazines were also offered.
A quick visit to the lavatory before departure. The Business Class lavatory was stocked with basic amenities such as toothbrushes, mouth wash and hand lotion.
Pillow and blanket.
Inflight magazines SilkWinds, KrisShop and SilkAir Studio. Starting Jan'18, SilkAir Studio has got its own IFE guide.
Doors closed and safety video played. Flight time was approximately 50min.
Pushback.
It was only a short taxi to the runway where we departed from the intersection of the more than 4km Rwy17.
In Business Class, i-Pads and earphones (similar to SQ economy ones) were provided allow access to SilkAir Studio. Decided to watch Kingsman.
On this short sector, only beverages would be served in both Business and Economy (pre-packed orange juice were distributed in economy). This is in contrast to Myanmar National Airlines where a snack box and beverage run was provided, even in economy. Guess this was due to no catering uplift in Myanmar for the entire 3 sectors of the flight. Our beverage order was taken before departure and promptly served after takeoff.
In Business Class, snacks were available upon request. Crew informed that the snack choices were potato chips, pretzels or nuts. We requested for both chips and pretzels. Service by the crew in Business Class, though not as polished as SQ, was still very friendly, attentive and warm in a casual sort of way.
Cruising above Myanmar. Not sure of our cruising altitude or position as no flight info is available on MI's IFE system.
Hot towels were distributed as we started our descend into Yangon.
Descent.
Landing on Rwy21 slightly ahead of schedule. "Mingalabar, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Yangon…."
Taxied and parked at the gate. Transit passengers heading to Singapore are required to disembark with all hand luggage and collect a transit card from the ground staff. With our early arrival, we would have almost an hour's transit stop in Yangon.
Disembarking. A couple of unoccupied seats on this sector.
Will be back on this aircraft in less than an hour's time.
