Palace and Hill in Mandalay

What a day! Bagan in the morning; Mandalay in the evening.

Pagodas of Old Bagan

Our hotel is amazing once more. The place is enormous and also dated in a delightful way, such as the chairs upholstered in purple velvet. We are on the shores of the Irrawaddy River, that flows south past the dining patio. Margaret and I had a nice easy 9 am start this morning, but there […]

Kakku and the Heho airport

It was a great decision by Margaret to have someone handle the driving for us today.

From simplicity to extravagance

Our final day of the three day trek.

All Day Trekking

Hein brought up the Rohingya. NONE of us tourists were about to be the first one to speak the word.

Trekking from Kalaw

We walked to Hin Kha Gone and Myin Taik villages, through areas with the Paulaung and Dannu people.

The Golden Rock at Kyaiktiyo Pagoda

The lobby of the Golden Sunrise Hotel was dark and silent at 5:30 am, but as promised, our boxed breakfast was there waiting for us on the counter. So kind of them. Fried egg sandwiches and bananas. I whooped to Margaret, “They remembered us!” and accidentally woke the attendant who was sleeping in the […]

Bus to the Golden Rock

Our day was primarily travel. We are aimed for the Golden Rock, or Kyaikityo Pagoda, well outside of Yangon. We are planning a trip up the mountain to see the balanced rock at sunrise. In the meantime, our goal was simply to get here. From what I read prior to the trip, there is little […]

Chasing a train and kissing a camel

I like what I did with yesterday’s theme: boiled it down to two highlights. Today I’ll do the same. While the day was long and filled with adventure, the two things we will remember the most are running after a train (and the 30 minute stop at a tiny town) and camel affection at the […]

Shwedagon Pagoda & Chinatown

We walked a good portion of Yangon today, but the highlights were the Shwedagon Pagoda complex and the street vendors in Chinatown. This morning after a lovely breakfast at Ten Mile Hotel, we took a cab into the city from the area around the airport. It was a long drive and I was grateful that […]