Le Planteur Restaurant, Yangon   We’ve been in Burma for two weeks. While we’ve had some excellent local food in Mandalay and Mrauk U, after two weeks there are some things we yearn for: a fine wine, the perfect baguette, rich dark chocolate. So here we are in Yangon. A good friend from Bangkok recommended [...]

We are here in Mandalay now. It’s early in the morning and I’m afraid I just woke Kathie up by dropping my mouse on the teak floor here. It’s almost time to get up, though. We’ll have a somewhat early breakfast and then meet our driver at 8 am to tour the Ancient cities outside [...]

We arrived in Bangkok late last night after what seemed like even longer flights than usual, even though they were the same. We’re both unhappy that United still hasn’t retrofitted all of their 777s business class with the full lay down seats and that since they have begun the retrofit project, we’re not longer getting [...]

When we were deciding where to go on our first trip to Burma, I kept seeing photos of places with unusual Buddhist iconography and every one of them was at Inle. That was enough to convince me it had to be on our itinerary for our first trip. We found Inle to be just magical. [...]

There are changes afoot in Burma as regards changing money. There has long been “official” rate of exchange fixed between 6 and 8 kyat to the dollar and the black market rate, which floats, and is currently over 800 kyat to the dollar. It has not been legal for foreigners to exchange money at banks [...]

We received our visas today. It took two and a half weeks this year to get our visas back from Washington, DC. When we went in 2009, it took a week to get our visas back.

 Burma is expecting the largest number of visitors ever this year. So expect your visa to take longer than [...]

Money-wise, Burma seems to operate in an alternative universe – one where there are no ATMs, no credit cards accepted, no traveler’s checks. It is truly a cash economy. There is a dual currency system: US dollars are used for paying hotels, flights, and entrance fees and the local currency, kyat (pronounced “chat”) is used [...]

Travel agents in Burma are able to get better prices for you on hotels and flights and reliably book both. While we are normally completely DIY travelers, there are a few more things a travel agent in Yangon can do for you. I don’t normally book airport transfers or a car and driver or a [...]

Few places are so compelling to me that I feel I must return soon. But Burma was that kind of place. Relatively untouristed, it is on the verge of great growth as a destination for adventuresome travelers. Once Burma opens up, it will change rapidly. Indeed, the release of ASSK this year seems to have [...]

In the process of researching Assam, I kept my eyes open for other options. One that immediately popped up was Darjeeling.