Monthly Archives: July 2012

We had been warned about temple fatigue early in our trip: Bagan, arguably Myanmar’s #1 attraction, is all temples, all the time and we wouldn’t want to burn out before we got there. I am intimately aware of the phenomenon, … Continue reading →

We left Pyin Oo Lwin via a very cramped pick-up truck for the two-hour ride down to Mandalay. R was all for taking the pick-up for soaking up local flavor, but I had my doubts, which were confirmed as soon … Continue reading →

Sorry for the lag in entries, for all our loyal readers (Nick!). We got all caught up in real life but we’ve got the photos and we wrote the blogs entries, so we’re going to keep chugging away at this … Continue reading →

Pyin Oo Lwin is a little slice of heaven in the dusty expanse of Myanmar. It is called a hill station even though it sits on a plateau as opposed to a hill, but the function is the same: greener … Continue reading →

Our schedule was fairly tight, since we only had about 16 days to see the whole country, so we were back on the road the morning following the hike. We decided to head back towards Mandalay via Pin Oo Lwin, … Continue reading →

The hillside village trek is the reason why we came to Hsipaw. It is one of the most northern towns that a tourist can reach without government guides, special permits, and a lot of spare time and money. We had … Continue reading →

Sometimes we write these blogs out of order, so I don’t know if we’ve already covered just how hot it is here.  It’s so hot that it makes you wonder whether you’re a part of some Buddhist parable where a … Continue reading →

We chose to take the overnight bus from Inle Lake to Mandalay, thinking that we’d save the cost of a night’s hotel room- that and night buses are kind of the only thing going. Imagine our surprise when the bus … Continue reading →

We had heard and read criticisms of Inle Lake for being too touristy and lacking authenticity (eg, busing in long-neck women to weave colorful shoulder bags for tourists to buy) and we were a little hesitant to spend some of … Continue reading →

I don’t hate lakes, but I was ready to skip this one. We had been given half-hearted recommendations by other tourists and on travel blogs, most of which said that Inle Lake is nice enough but that there is not … Continue reading →