Hi to all our readers.
Yesterday was a long day but a good day. It was always going to be long but a couple of "things" happened that stretched our pilgrims, but to their credit, all went to sleep happy last night. 
Waking up in the Northern Hemisphere has its advantages if you are not an early bird like me. Firstly its still semi dark here as I type and I think rousing the pilgrims in 15 minutes may take some rousing of Biblical proportions. Some arrived at the airport yesterday morning at 3 am having not just slept that night but having had little or no sleep on New Year's Eve. That was fine, they made up for it during our flights......they din't even snore loudly. Amy hit the spot early on the "What did I leave behind?" scale forgetting a passport on a window sill, a watch going through customs..... with Helen a distant second leaving behind a bag with monies, passports.
We hit speed hump at perth airport with the airline informing us there was a new regulation for travelling with minors to Myanmar. Anyone under 18 had to have copies of birth certificates/ verification from embassies etc. Thank goodness for over taking paperwork..... a copy of our risk managemnet with all details and schedules convinced the airline to check us in. It ws a very nervous wait of nearly an hour before we were allowed to proceed and an even more nervous watch and see when we arrived at Yangon going through Immigration.... which happened without a hitch until we discovered that two bags had gone missing in flight. The two losers Chris and Thalia thought is was wonderful when the airline compensated them with $100US so they would have clothing etc for the next day until the bags arrived, and they offered to buy dinner, but then one bag turned up because a fellow traveller's child had picked up the wrong bag and the airline decided that Chris' guitar was not really a necessary bag, so the $200US was returned and the trip paid for dinner. th guitar arrives at the hotel today
Mr. Chit, Saw, our guide form last year met us and newly revamped airport....Wow. And we adjourned to the hotel for a hilarious wait for delicious food. Grace set the kitchen on fire, i think, with her ability to eat so much of every body else's food before her dish arrived.... which was the simplest dish(plain rice) but it came out nearly last.
Must go.....time to wake up the pilgrims and I have a meeting with Fabian, our Yangon contact.
Much prayer went into yesterday and God has been good. Looking forward to a great cultural day today.
A big blog tonight and photos.