I'd suggest that the three must-sees are Bagan, Inle, Yangon... Mandalay only if you have time. (we skipped it the first trip, did go the second trip.) I consider 10 days to be a minimum for a first trip.

I have two trip reports here, and photos (which I find very helpful in deciding where to go) are at www. marlandc.com 2009 covers Inle, Bagan and Yangon; 2011 covers Bagan, Mrauk U, Mandalay and Yangon.

I'd include Mandalay, if only to use it as an overnight stop before catching the train to Pwin Oo Lwin for a couple of nights...

http://www.seat61.com/Burma.htm#Mandalay - Pyin Oo Lwin

Lovely train ride, and Pwin Oo Lwin is a v.pleasant place to idle away a bit of time...

http://wikitravel.org/en/Pyin_U_Lwin

Personally I would try to fly International to Mandalay and then work South
Mandalay and surroundings 3 days
Bagan 3 days
Inle 3 days
(and if you want some R&R then fly to Ngapali Beach for 3/4 days)
and finish off in Yangon before International flight
Yangon 2 days
SS

Thanks for the itinerary suggestions. Now, can somebody help me get time off work for this trip?

Seriously, it sounds like I need 10 to 12 days minimum to see Burma. I'd prefer to fly to Mandalay and depart from Yangon or vice versa.

I appreciate everybody's help.

Ok, we are booked on the Pandaw Chidwin 7 day cruise Monwya to Homalin. We will have a couple of days in Mandalay before the cruise, then fly to Yangon after the cruise and will have a couple of days there. So, satoric or smeagol, if you'd like to meet for a lunch or dinner, let me know and let's see where we overlap and what we can arrange. Smeagol, we will also be in Bangkok for a week and will be meeting up with Hanuman there and will meet Bob and Karen at the very end of our trip, just before we fly home.

Kathie, what are your dates in !Myanmar and Bangkok? Yes it would be great to meet up. ��

We will arrive in Mandalay on Nov 4 and have two full days in Mandalay before boarding our ship on Nov 7. We fly to Yangon on Nov 14 and have the next two days in Yangon before flying to Bangkok on Nov 17. We then have a week in Bangkok before flying out early the morning of the 25th.

I do hope we will be able to meet somewhere in SE Asia this year!

We spent three weeks in Burma and I have lots of info on my blog about the trip.

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/search/label/Burma

I'd also recommend flying into and out of different airports, we went into Mandalay and out of Yangon. I do think it's worth paying attention to the people mentioning the "off season". We went to Burma during the high season in February and I have to say I wouldn't go back at this time of year. Burma attracts a lot of package tourists form Europe and they all seem to come in the high season Nov-Feb. If we went again we'd consider October, or another lower season date. I think it could be an advantage to travel on the possible dates you mentioned, there will be far fewer tourists.

Kathie - exciting to hear you and Cheryl are heading back...