Roads. Roads! Roads. Bagan taught me that roads here are basically cow paths and mostly dirt and unsigned even when they're nicely written out on maps (although most free maps in Asia are shitty) (Highly recommend bringing in a good road map like what I got from Kinokuniya before you get here). 

The road to Mandalay was a nightmare. It was 18,000 kyat for 2 people to ride on the Pyi Awe Tay bus-- which meant you got a (presumably) nice coach seat on a half-sized bus. What we didn't know was that these buses also pick up locals on the way. In fact, there are seats attached to the side that fold out so that folks can sit in the center aisle. Those are the seats sold to the locals. There's more standing room by the door, so a lot more folks piled in over there. So while my pretty tall 6ft 2in friend had no leg room, it was a cramped and hot journey (we were pretty spoiled on the ride over on JJ's from Yangon to Bagan). Oh, and it was a super bumpy journey (friends on other buses told us that locals couldn't handle the ride either and got very carsick).

Stopped at random places on the way to Mandalay (one was a crappy bus depot and another was like a sort of restaurant across from a gas station). Was pretty hungry at this point (regretted my decision to not buy more Tim Tams when I had the chance) and tried some packaged foods that the lady was selling (obviously made earlier that day). There was a fried cracker made from chickpeas (mostly flavorless-- it was alright) and a fried doughnut with what looked like shredded old coconut (but it tasted odd-- though I saw the same stuff drying in Mandalay in the sun so maybe that's what coconut tastes like once fermented?).

Getting in was no problem. Other than making sure I had a ticket out of Vietnam before my visa expired, the check in process at Changi (Singapore) was painless. Danang and Ho Chi Minh, on the other hand, were just awful. (Arguably getting into Hanoi was painful because of the Visa on Arrival process, which although it was faster because I brought a filled-out Visa Application form with me, still required like a 30 min+ wait-- but otherwise quite easy to get through Hanoi.)

Danang was running late by the time we got there, and they kept letting the folks that needed to board ASAP through the line.  Ultimately that meant that I was standing at the front of the queue for about 25 minutes (it might have been longer).  The line didn't end there-- there were only 2 X-ray machines for the whole airport. Ugh.

Ho Chi Minh's line wasn't too bad, however, for Vietnam Airlines you queue in front of the booth instead of having one line that feeds to multiple booths. After much waiting (because they also needed to verify my visa to Myanmar), I finally got my boarding pass, and then I assumed it would be smooth sailing. Alas, the immigration queue was not much better. Again the same system-- each line only fed into the booth it was in front of. Worse yet, families in a rush tended to cut the queue (they didn't realize how long it actually was) and so a few of us had to keep telling folks to go behind (a "perk" to being close to that area for a long time). More waiting to get through security (only 2 X-ray machines for each half of the terminal-- so 4 X-ray machines total). Once through, we rushed to find some breakfast and our gate.

In short, these airports seem fairly new, and no one has really engineered the system to be efficient. They've definitely got enough staff and enough space.... Just be sure you're early (or really maybe being late is better if they actually bring you to the front of the queue). Utter chaos.