Myanmar Golf Tour - Yangon 2013 May 6-10

It was pure coincidental that GE13 was held just a day before our departure. So some of us must have fly off with a heavy heart, not knowing the full outcome of the election, thus some anxiety about what would happen later. Some stayed up till late at night to follow the updates and few even woke up earlier than usual to hear the latest results before making the journey to the airport at 4am. By that time, it was clear that the BN has won but it is still not known by what margin.
But the plane wait for no one, so here we are welcome on board flight AK1427 departing LCCT at 0655 and ETA 0800hrs at Yangon International Airport.

Day 1. Mon 6th May  ...

Pau and Myanmar Noodles

Unlike previous tours where we normally have 6-8 golfers, this time there were 12 of us for this trip. Ubah.la!
As soon as we arrived, we asked our tour agent to take us for a quick savour of Myanmar food. To our surprise, we were taken to a Tim Sum restaurant where we had Pau and Tim Sum Myanmar style. Not exactly what we had expected, but at least we had a bowl of Myanmar noodles that tasted a bit like our Penang Laksa!

Then, our city tour began. We had a brief stop at the Kabaraye Pagoda, drove past Aung San Su Kyi house, which was completely enclosed in a high wall. Seen nothing, to be exact. Since the weather is extremely hot, above 36C I presumed; we stopped for about 5 minutes at the Chauktatgyi where the biggest reclining Buddha is located. It was such a relieved to checked into East Hotel, away from the scotching sun outside.

East Hotel

Although an old 3star hotel, the rooms are relatively clean and spacious enough for twin shared. The odd thing is that the toilet has no door! Yes, no door! The hotel is sandwiched between 2 cinemas facing Trader Hotel across the road. However, the location is quite ideal since it is within walking distance to the markets and night stalls, which only operates between 6-9pm.
   Since we still have some time before dinner, what should we do next? Well, you guess it right...massage. Unfortunately, our tour guide is a new horn to the trade. As a result, we spent almost 2 hours circulating the city in the busy traffic looking for one and finally ended up in a spa at City Golf Resort. Sgh.... The massage was below par....

   For the evening, we were taken to Sakura Tower Restaurant, which is located on the 20th floor of the office block nearby the hotel. The food was more like French Cuisine but the view of the well lit Shwedagon Pagoda at a distance provided the right ambient for a quite dinner. At least that make up our first day in Yangon.






Day 2. 7th May...
After a quick helping of bread, butter and jam and 2 cups of coffee (unfortunately this will be the type of breakfast served during the next few days..), we were ready to tee off at the Royal Mingalardon GC, which is about 45min drive from the hotel.

The gang of 12...



The moment we stepped into the changing room, instantly you can tell this is a premium golf resort.

We were not disappointed. The fairway and greens were in excellent conditions. However, this is not an easy course because it is long. The total yardage from Blue Tee is 7218 yds, as compared to KRTU which is only 6807 yds (6224m). There are 4 par4s, which are more than 450yds. Hole #7 at 492yds, hole#13 at 473yds, hole #15 at 452yds and hole#18 at 488yds. You think this will favour the long hitters? Well, look at the results below.

Like all previous oversea golf tours, we have organised daily competition based on stableford points. This time the total purse money is 50,000kyats to be awarded to the top 5 winners.

Dennes with his broad smile after receiving the winning cash. He is thinking of a good massage later.

Khoo giving away prizes to the other winners

RMGC results.....

				Day 2: 7 May
				Royal Mingalardon GC
	Name		H’Cp	1st Nine	2nd Nine	Total	Position
1	Dennes Chin		12	18	18	36	1
2	Gan KH		26	19	14	33	2
3	Lee CP		14	18	14	32	3
4	Jimmy Goh		16	12	17	29	4
5	Khoo SH		33	13	13	26	5
6	Alex Geok		18	10	14	24	6
7	Liaw YS		24	11	13	24	7
8	Low YM		13	11	12	23	8
9	Michael Lee		20	9	12	21	9
10	Francis Wan		26	12	9	21	10
11	Lim KS		14	12	8	20	11
12	Cheong F S		20	9	10	19	12

What next after golf?





 

your toes are.....yak..


  Our tour leader, John must have felt very embarrassed after yesterday's ordeal and done his homework last night. He took us to a beauty and spa center, where every one was very satisfied after 2 hrs of foot and body massage. All agree that we must come again tomorrow.








Course Evaluation....

Day 3. 8th May...
Today we will be playing at the YCDC golf Club. Unlike RMGC, the changing room was in a deplorable condition (we only found out after the game that there is another changing room upstairs!); reminds me of Bentong GC. As we were about to gather for a group photo, we had another shocking news. No camera allowed at this course! I think this could be the only one course in the world that does not allowed photos to be taken! How ridiculous! Just as we were about to tee off, 2 workers came running after us and told us that we cannot go because 3 of our members did not wear belts. Another condition?  Although we tried to argue that we were not told of these when we made the payment, the staff insisted that we must go and buy the belts from the golf shop. The argument went on for a while until we were so annoyed that we wanted to get a refund and play somewhere else. Finally, they came back with some old belts and we were back to our game. Before you are thinking of coming here again,  be reminded that the club had also just increased the green fees and buggy fees. Buggy alone now cost 50% more than that of RMGC! Does not make sense!
  Despite the annoying episodes, surprisingly most of us played very well. Even Khoo played  to -1   and couldn't believe it when the results were announced. Truly his record performance so far.
3 cheers also to Gan, who volunteered to reduce his HCP to 20 after his achievement yesterday.


Captain Dennes giving away prize to the Champion at YCDC GC



the other winners...

Some lucky chaps....

YCDC Results....

			Day 3: 8 May
			YCDC GC
		H’Cp	1st Nine	2nd Nine	Total	Position
1	Lim KS	15	21	17	38	1
2	Khoo SH	32	16	21	37	2
3	Francis Wan	27	19	17	36	3
4	Gan KH	20	16	19	35	4
5	Alex Geok	19	18	17	35	5
6	Lee CP	13	16	18	34	6
7	Jimmy Goh	15	17	17	34	7
8	Low YM	14	12	21	33	8
9	Dennes Chin	10	12	20	32	9
10	Michael Lee	21	14	16	30	10
11	Liaw YS	25	12	16	28	11
12	Cheong F S	21	13	15	28	12

Same Spa center....

manicure after massage

guess who are having facial treatment...clue?? the shirts

 Course Evaluation....

Visit to Shwedagon Pagoda....
No visit to Yangon is complete without a visit to the 2500 year old Pagoda, one of the best in Myanmar heritage.

Day 4. 9th May...

This will be the last golfing day for our trip, so we reserved the best for the last. Pun Hlaing Golf course is about 45min drive from the city. It is designed by Gary Player, who commented on his website that "Of the many golf courses I have seen in the world, Pun Hlaing Golf Club has to be in the top five. It reminds me of Augusta, Georgia". Pun Hlaing Golf Club has enjoyed the title of "The Pride of Myanmar" since its inception in 2000.

True to its acclamation, this is a beautiful course that all enjoyed playing.
Almost every holes are guarded by water either on the left or right side of the fairway, so precision is key to good score. In my flight, it was an exciting dual between me and Dennes. We were scoring neck to neck on the first nine and had an equal score of -1. We had the same score for hole 10, but I hit a bad tee off on the next hole where my ball sliced into the water hazard. My recovery 3 wood hit a tree in front and recoiled 50yds backwards. At the end, I finished the hole with a triple bogey. Undeterred, I bounced back and finished the game with  birdie on the last hole. By the time we finished the 18th, Dennes was  on top by only 1 point. This guy is hard to crack!!!!
   Whilst we were facing off 1 on 1, we could see that our flight mate, Jimmy was trying equally hard. But that was his mistake of playing to our pace so a melt down is unavoidable.
Unknown to us, our new champion, Mr Low was also charging to the leader board especially on the back nine where the rest find it more challenging. He came back with 38 points and commented that this course suits his style of play. Of course, he can talk like that la....

my luck today..

What is Khoo trying to do???

PHGC results......

				Day 4:  9 May
				Pun Hlaing GC
	Name		H’Cp	1st Nine	2nd Nine	Total	Position
1	Low YM		15	18	20	38	1
2	Dennes Chin		11	19	16	35	2
3	Lee CP		14	19	15	34	3
4	Liaw YS		26	19	14	33	4
5	Alex Geok		18	21	8	29	5
6	Lim KS		12	15	13	28	6
7	Michael Lee		22	13	13	26	7
8	Cheong F S		22	14	11	25	8
9	Jimmy Goh		16	15	10	25	9
10	Gan KH		19	12	12	24	10
11	Francis Wan		26	11	11	22	11
12	Khoo SH		30	11	8	19	12

PHGC winners...

Khoo giving away prize to PHGC Champion

PHGC - 1st Runner-up

PHGC -2nd runner-up



PHGC - 4th

PHGC - 5th

 Grand dinner....at the White Rice Restaurant



A token of appreciation to our guide, John and the  2 drivers

 Day 5. 10th May...



Another holiday finally came to the end at 0600 hrs in the morning. I am sure all of us had good fun and sweet memories. Mr Liaw can't wait to sign up for the next overseas golf tour, which will definitely be planned during early part of 2014. Till then, take care.

And here are the overall performance for the Yangon experience...

Photos....
Our Thanks to our team photographers Francis and Lim, who has been snapping away during our trip to capture our memories at its best moment. However, Lim sent his apology because all his photos has been corrupted due to virus in the SD card.
Please click the following link to view....
https://plus.google.com/photos/104292982523298197489/albums/5876569709575303905?authkey=CK7llaKpt7rzjQE&cfem=1#photos/104292982523298197489/albums/5876569709575303905?authkey=CK7llaKpt7rzjQE