October 2016 Travels in Review In October I resumed my solo travel life, exploring central Mexico, while Alejandro returned to work life in Tulum (Oh, yes, in case you missed it, we broke up in late September due to irreconcilable differences.) I had started my central Mexico explorations in September in the Baroque cities of …
Category Archive: MYANMAR
PHOTO GALLERY: Train Journey Over Gokteik Gorge – Myanmar
PHOTO GALLERY: Train Journey Over Gokteik Gorge – Myanmar One of my favorite experiences in Myanmar during my month-long visit in early 2013 was taking a day-long train journey across the Shan Plateau and Myanmar’s famous Gokteik Bridge. The bridge was built by the British in the late 1880s during their occupation of Burma. Upon …
PHOTO GALLERY: U Bien Bridge – Myanmar
PHOTO GALLERY: U Bien Bridge – Myanmar U Bien Bridge is the world’s longest teak wood bridge. It’s one of the most famous, popular and photographed destinations in Myanmar. Located just 7 km south of Mandalay, U Bien Bridge runs for 1.2 km across a sprawling shallow lake in the midst of scenic countryside and …
Travel Tips: Five Delicious Traditional Foods of Myanmar
Travel Tips: Five Delicious Traditional Foods of Myanmar When I traveled around Myanmar for one month recently, one of my great daily joys was eating traditional Burmese food. To be more accurate, I ate a variety of Burmese, Shan, Indian, Nepali and Chinese foods. Throughout my visit I continually discovered new delicious foods to try. …
Cultural Insights: Quintessentially Burmese Customs
Cultural Insights: Quintessentially Burmese Customs Every country has some customs, daily habits and/or traditions that are unique to their nation. Those unique traits are partly what makes traveling the world so intriguing. While traveling around Myanmar in 2000 and again in 2103, I couldn’t help but notice several curious customs that I had not seen …
Travel Tips: Downsides of Visiting Myanmar
Travel Tips: Downsides of Visiting Myanmar Myanmar is a noticeably more tiring and difficult country to travel through than most of its neighboring SE Asian countries. Most of the issues are due to poor infrastructure. Myanmar is just catching up to the modern world, and albeit quite rapidly, it still suffers from many difficulties of …
Travel Tales: Stories from the People of Myanmar
Travel Tales: Stories from the People of Myanmar During my recent 2013 trip to Myanmar I discovered that Myanmar is actually a huge melting pot of more than a dozen different nationalities, including various tribal people, Indian, Nepali, Bangladeshi, Thai, Chinese and Burmese. Although I’d visited Myanmar once before and had noticed Indian and Chinese …
PHOTO GALLERY: Market Scenes in Myanmar
PHOTO GALLERY: Market Scenes in Myanmar Myanmar’s traditional open-air markets are very colorful, bustling chaotic affairs. Vendors sell everything from fresh fruits & vegetables to meats & seafood to household goods to cooked meals. Market sellers, delivery men and rickshaw taxis bustle about, trying to earn a daily living. This gallery presents 18 Burmese market …
MYANMAR PHOTO GALLERY: Journey Along the Ayerarwady River
MYANMAR PHOTO GALLERY: Journey Along the Ayerarwady River The grand Ayerarwady River is the Nile or Amazon of Myanmar. It’s swift brown waters run nearly the entire length of the nation, eventually emptying into the Indian Ocean near Yangon, Myanmar’s capital city. For most of its length, people go about their traditional daily lives in …
Travel Misadventures: Panic at Midnight
Travel Misadventures: Panic at Midnight Instantly, I let loose an deep, gut-wrenching, morbid scream as pure panic swept over my body. I quickly swept the giant creature off my body. I was astounded that such a loud and clearly petrified scream did not bring one single person to investigate. Not one single guest in all …