Their site asked for a credit card. Since Burma is well known for NOT taking CCs, is this a govt owned hotel? Just wondering.

Even government hotels can't take credit cards. Maybe I should say that especially government hotels can't take credit cards. Some hotels will take a credit card and run it through Thailand, SIngapore or Hong Kong. When I made a reservation two years ago, one hotel asked for a credit card to hold it, but then specified that I couldn't use a credit card to pay for the hotel!!

I recommend Star Beans as a restaurant to go to for lunch. The owner is a chef (and actually comes from Min Thu's village). It is right next to Moon restaurant but a little further away from the road. The food is just great. I ate there almost every lunch while I was in Bagan.

Thanks Joan...I will look it up.

Another question for the itinerary. After reading people's comments about Kakku, I thought it might be interesting to do that before going to the hotel at Inle Lake, although the ride would be longer. I mentioned that to Zaw at Santa Maria and he said it could be done for a bit more money as the ride is longer. He had written the itinerary as going to Pindaya and the caves instead. For those of you who have experienced one or both of these, did you find them interesting, or would recommend one location over the other?

We opted not to viti Pindaya, but visited Kakku instead. We did it before going to our hotel on the lake. It worked out well for us.

Thanks Kathie. I will do some more reading on each. Anyone else have a recommendation on these sites?

We went to Pindaya. It was OK but I think Kakku would have been better.

The more I read, that's what I am thinking too. Thanks, gmoz