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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

What do people really know about travel to Burma? I received an email from a friend today asking about travel to Burma, as a colleague of his thought he wanted to set up a business meeting there. The email made me realize how few people know much about Burma. Here is what I told him: [...]

I have been reflecting on my “lessons learned” while booking our first trip as we are preparing for a return to Burma. Planning a trip to Burma isn’t like planning for a trip to any place else. All of the conveniences that I have come to rely on to book international travel – buying plane [...]

There is a previous post here by Cheryl on buying some new flip flops for travel. Both of us ordered a couple of pairs that looked good on the web, but… even though I ordered a brand I’ve had good luck with, I found that they make two widths of footbed, one that fits me, [...]

As a child, I remember seeing a photo of the temples of Bagan at sunrise, peach-colored mist rising among the towers…