After our escapades in Inle Lake, and nearly a week of traveling together, Cam, Sarah, and I parted ways. I was heading South to Yangon, my last stop on my four month trip. Before Yangon, I wanted to get a bus to go to Bago, a small little town on the way to Yangon. I…
After we returned to town from our second day on Inle lake, we came across a young monk’s initiation parade. After some research, I found that amongst the Shan people, boys between the ages of 7 and 14 are initiated every year into local temples in an elaborate three day ceremony. People dress in elabrote…
Where We Stayed: Little Inn $10/nightWhere we ate: Sunflower Restaurant (they have wine, too!) After Cam, Sarah, and I got “stranded” in Bagan due to the new years water festival, our only option was to book a flight to our next destination, Inle Lake. Though it wasn’t in any of our planned budgets, it ended…
Where we stayed: Eden HotelWhere we ate: The Moon Thingyan or the Burmese Water Festival, takes place toward the end of the hot, dry season and to start off the Myanmar New Year. The idea is to wash away all the previous year’s bad luck, and it’s also a great way to cool down, though…
After my adventures with Zar Ni in Mandalay, I headed to the next, and perhaps most famous town on the Burma tourist trail: Bagan. I arrived in the dead of the night, around 4 am, but luckily I was able to find accommodation. A note to travelers: if you arrive in the middle of the…
On my first full day in Burma, while I was strolling up the stairs at Mandalay Hill, a young Burmese guy approached me and started asking me questions. At first I thought he was asking for money in exchange for being a “tour guide,” as this often happens at tourist sites. But he insisted that…
Updated September 10, 2022 For the last few weeks of my trip I traveled around Burma on my own. My first impression upon landing in Mandalay (or driving from the airport) was “wow, the land is sparse.” It felt like endless open, dry space for miles…every once in a while a horse cart would trot…
It’s been a fantastic year. I leave you with the words of Pico Iyer: We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in…