Eks, I'll look for my emails from him. I originally got to him by making an inquiry through the Pandaw email. He was gracious enough to respond to me.

Thanks, Kathie. I am already going back and forth about cabin choice.

I am thrilled--the idea of going to Burma is just beginning to sink in! My friends have no idea of the excitement in store for them!

We've all but decided on the cabins on Pandaw. And we will go to Inle Lake after the cruise. To get there, should we fly from Mandalay to Heho?

After Inle, if we cannot depart Burma from Mandalay, we will return to Rangoon and probably have to spend one more night.

After Burma, my friends/I want to go to Shanghai. Is it possible to reach Shanghai without traveling through Bangkok? (I do see flights via Kunming and through Guangzhou, but both seem to require overnighting in those respective cities. Kunming sounds pleasant--spend a day or two there? I am unable to access actual airline schedules so far in advance).

My friends seem to have no interest in Bangkok, by the way.

Sorry to be all over the map again. I love to plan trips, except for the flight details!

Eks, for flight schedules, since you are planning for next March, look at flights on the same day of the week for this March.

To get to Inle, you will fly Mandalay to Heho. When you are done there, fly to Rangoon (the flights from Mandalay to points in Thailand all seem to have been discontinued). You should be able to fly to Bangkok the same day - no need to spend the night. For the dates I was checking for November, Thai has three flights a day from Rangoon to Bangkok, and Bangkok Air also flies that route. There are connections from Bangkok to Shanghai. Bangkok is really the easiest transit point as far as I know.

If Shanghai is you destination, go there. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Spending a night or two in Kunming (a huge industrial city) will not enhance your trip and will create one more stop, unpacking and repacking and take away from what you and your friends want to do.

Unlike Kathie, I rather liked Kunming. Of course, I did arrived in sunny Kunming from cold and rainy Chengdu! And they were busy knocking bits down to put up more glass and concrete. But there's certainly enough to do for one or two days, if you include a trip to the stone Forest (Shiling).

Oh, dear..I see yet another dilemma brewing! A lot will depend on the flights..I cannot thank you enough for being so generous with your help and advice and just general support..

Now we have 28 days instead of the original 21 (friends agreed to extend trip) If I skip Kunming, perhaps something like this:



JFK-Bangkok (via Seoul) must overnight in Bangkok 1 night

Bangkok-Rangoon-3 nights (relaxing is essential after those flights)

Pandaw--14 nights

Mandalay-Heho Inle Lake--3 nights

Heho-Rangoon-Bangkok..... probably have to overnight again in either Rangoon or Bangkok; maybe spend 2 nights in Bangkok (must ask friends to reconsider)

Bangkok-Shanghai

Shanghai--4-5 nights..maybe side trip to Hanghzhou by train..friends will love the train

Shanghai-Seoul-JFK

Begin trip report.

The whole key here is for me to finally nab a free FF ticket! This would be the first time and I am very nervous!

Sounds great, Eks! You'll cover a lot of ground without your itinerary being too broken up.

I'm sure Gpanda would say that the last item is out of order. It should be no later than upon your first arrival in Rangoon.

So good that you have a whole extra week! I always feel that if I'm going to spend hours and hours flying, I need plenty of time at the other end to justify the misery.

Good luck with the FF tickets. If you book well ahead, and are flexible with dates and routings, it should work out. But I once tried for a business class FF on Qantas direct from Sydney to LA, a full year ahead, and had to overnight in Hawaii instead, so you never know.

I'm not a real fan of Shanghai, except for the excellent Art Museum, so 4-5 nights sounds long to me. I'd recommend an overnight in Hangzhou, and a day trip to Suzhou, but you might want to check out Gpanda's thread: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...side-trips.cfm.

Kathie: You can tell Mr. Panda that they do not have internet in Burma! So I will have a breather before I have to buckle down (!)

The 4-5 nights in Shanghai does sound long, especially since I spent about a week there in 2007. But I wanted to build in time for any flight problems. I read the Panda Shanghai thread. We can always take a daytrip, or even overnight, to Hangzhou. One of my friends has a strong interest in shipping and trains; he may want to investigate a trip along the river, or even a train trip to nowhere! I guess I need to start another thread about this once I get the Burma part set up.

I just learned yesterday from reading a thread here that you cannot do open-jaw FF tickets. Is this true?

I was hoping to get JFK-Seoul-Bangkok and Shanghai-Seoul-JFK on Korean. Does that sound impossible? I am going to call them the very first minute--have to figure out when that will be.

"You can tell Mr. Panda that they do not have internet in Burma! " Not exactly true, sorry! At least, when I was there access to a number of sites was blocked, and speed could be glacial, but I spent time in Internet cafes in Yangon, Inle Lake, and Mandalay. Yahoo and hotmail were blocked, but I was able to access my email on ekit.com.

"he may want to investigate a trip along the river" I haven't checked lately, but you used to be able to do an overnight on the Grand Canal.

"you cannot do open-jaw FF tickets. Is this true?" I imagine it depends on who your FF miles are with, but I have had open-jaw FF tickets with AA. I have also gotten two One World awards with them, which were essentially RTW tickets on FF miles. I think that you would have to call them, and pay the associated fee, rather than booking on the web.

I have gotten open jaw ff tickets with United in the past. Check with your airline.

This gives me new hope! I have the FF miles on Flying Blue, which is Air France/KLM/NW. I will ask them. Not much use in Asia but they are partners with KoreanAir and Continental.

Pssst. Let's tell Panda that there is no internet in Burma!!


We are going to give our Pandaw deposit later today. Which brings up the subject of travel insurance. My friends are insisting that if I cannot go for any reason, they need to be able to cancel the entire trip--I have no idea if insurance would cover this but I have to investigate so let me know if you know about this..

I/we would like to have the kind that will take me/my friends to Bangkok or Singapore, or better still, back home, if something dire happens. I remember the diver's insurance mentioned here--or can I get this all in one package (med- evac, cancellation, etc)

I do believe that DAN offers a number of kinds of travel insurance. I only get the med evac by being a member, so I can't comment on any of the rest.

Take a look at some of the insurance websites - www.insuremytrip.com is one that is often recommended. Read ALL of the fine print. Every policy is different.

BTW, eks, if you're still thinking about Kunming after Burma, I am catching up with some blog posts from traveling friends, and I see that they flew Kunming to Mandalay on China Eastern MU2029 in Jan. '08 (meckleyearth.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html).

Thanks, Thursday. This is good to know. Right now I am recovering from having paid my Pandaw balance! I have to sit down and work out the exact number of days in each place.

Kathie does make a good point about the hassle of packing and unpacking, etc. (reference to Kunming). My friends can get a little frazzled when they travel. If I can work out the more direct Shanghai connection, I might leave Kunming for a trip when I can visit Lijiang, etc. It would be a shame to be so close and have to rush away.

It makes me so nervous to have things on hold until the date I can call for the FF tickets.

"It makes me so nervous to have things on hold until the date I can call for the FF tickets." Well, it is more than a year away, right? Lots of time to sort things out. Although I might have some shaky feelings about the cost of the boat! You just need to be flexible about your flight dates and route (and we'll send good thoughts your way if you let us know when you're calling).

Update: If you are not all totally sick of this thread by now: I can try for those tickets in late April, 10 months to the day before the flight.

. Many thanks for sending the good thoughts my way,Thursday!

Here is the scoop: I cannot fly home from Shanghai and would have to fly home from another SE Asian city. (Complicated explanation having to do with different zones) Hong Kong will work. So in order to save all that $$$, of course I will add HK to the plan at the end! Just think of the endless planning threads that will ensue if I get lucky enough to score those tickets! Think, too, of the thrilling Trip Report!

Seems like you're starting to suffer from my disease - trip creep! (Related to feature creep, which sets in when I buy things like cars and computers.) WRT the TR, maybe you should write all of it before you start posting this time? lol. Gpanda may simply not notice that way...

Hey - I see that Preview just showed up! Yeah!!

LOL Thursday. I get fits of 'tripcreep' too. Incurable as far as I know.

I would think that you will not be disappointed - rather the Pandaw will provide you with one of the most memorable journey experiences you are ever likely to have. Perhaps you should just book it and then report back on how it went. Myself, I will be on the Pandaw in August on the Road to Mandalay in Stateroom 301. I will love every moment, especially as the sun sets over the river, and I have a cold beer in hand. Enough of the questions, just enjoy!