Offwego to Burma
 

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and answered silly questions. I've made virtually no solid plans but I've got my uber crispy C-notes, a rough idea of where I want to go and three weeks to figure it all out. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting along the way.

This will be the first trip in over a decade that I haven't brought a laptop along. Freakishly freeing! :)

Have a great time Lori, looking forward to the details.

Lori, have a wonderful time. I'll look forward to your report!

Have a nice trip, Lori. I look forward to following along.

Craig, don't you have a report to write?? :)

I'm multitasking...

Have a great trip. I'm sure you'll fall in love with Myanmar. Are you taking a pen and notebook?

No pen and paper but have an itouch and a camera :)

21st C girl

Trip to Burma was amazing. I booked everything through Santa Maria and was very happy with that decision. Had I to do it over, I would forgo their drivers and hire my own on the street. I found local drivers to speak better english, be more willing to go off the tourist trail and infinitely cheaper.

Favorite part of the trip was Inle Lake. Bagan was underwhelming and glad I didn't spend more time there; maybe I'm templed out from living in Siem Reap too long, not sure. I did find it super annoying being tormented by sellers at every temple, so I mostly went to the smaller, and so then less fantastic sites.

I found the food in Burma to be pretty bad in general which is strange since there are good Burmese restaurants here in Siem Reap...I managed to lose weight on the trip, so I reckon that's a bonus! :)

I did not find it to be as cheap as I was expecting.

Doing the "loop" of Yangon, Inle, Mandalay, Bagan was a good entry into the country although I did feel a bit "herded" and somewhat detached from the man on the street. I am looking forward to going back on my own and getting into the more remote areas. Investigating a river trip; the times I spent on a boat this trip were particularly wonderful.

We saw the Moustache Brothers in Mandalay; highly recommended. If you go, smuggle in some western magazines such as Newsweek, Time, etc; very much appreciated by them.

I was stopped in the street by policemen making note of my passport number and noting where I was going. Upon entering certain office buildings, a note was made in a book about why I was there and who I was seeing. All this I found amusing. Wonder what they do with all those composition books full of random data about where foreigners go? I also found it interesting that the propaganda billboards are translated to English.

Pics here:
http://tinyurl.com/loripicsburma

Thanks to everybody who gave tips, if I can answer any questions I'm happy to.

Forgot to mention that I had no trouble getting on the internet anywhere except Inle but I stayed in a hotel that stated they didn't have it, perhaps other places do. In Yangon and Mandalay I could get on Facebook and Yahoo without problems. In Bagan I could get on gmail only. Speed was very slow but I'm used to that :)

Great Pictures and thanks for the infor on the internet. Did you have your own laptop or use the internet cafes?

Lori were you expected to carry your passport with you at all times in case anyone stopped you?

I'm so glad you enjoyed Burma! Lovely photos you took.

It's interesting how you felt about Bagan. I loved Bagan, and we're making a short stop there again this trip. The temples are very different from Angkor. In contrast to Siem Reap, it felt to me like there were very few sellers. Of course, we also had a horsecart driver who took us to less visited temples, and at the popular temples took us to a side entrance so we avoided all that at many temples.

Inle is really special. Did you get to the Southern part of the lake?

And I agree about Burmese food. I think it has to do with what ingredients are readily available.

Very nice photo Lori - you're gifted!

Toatlly agree with the food. The only thing I really remember enjoying was a spicy shrimp dish we had at Inle Lake!

We did not get swamped by sellers at the Bagan temples at all. Could have been our timing or the fact that like Kathie we asked to be kept away from the popular places at busy times. I remeber going to one place that had lots of stalls but they were empty the sellers had not arrived yet! Consequently we hardly bought anything!

Am going to look at your photos as soon as I get the chance!

One word, Lori - Chindwin.

BTW, You were only atopped in the street because you look <i>suspicious</i>. The rest of us had no such problem.

Hey Dogster where have you been?

Here:
triffitt.wordpress.com

Wow , thats who are are. Impressive work.