Blogs from Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 2

We all travel for different reasons. Some of us are attracted to famous places, and sights. Others are attracted to food and culture. And yet others want to get away from crowds, find quiet corners of the world, and just relax. Turn off all of the electronics, veg out, so to speak, and just enjoy nature and solitude. But those places are harder to find. On my last trip to eastern Europe, we found both Poland (Warsaw) and Hungary (Budapest) to be relatively quiet, uncrowded, with lots of locals enjoying themselves, especially in the evenings. Going further out, places like Botswana, Antelope Canyon (AZ), Nepal, southern Chile, Medellin (Columbia), and some of our National Parks, provide a break from people, noise, high rises, and commercialism. I am decidedly in the middle, having seen and visited the ... read more

BAGAN Although the bus to Bagan was a large coach with recliner type seats, I could not reach the foot rests and kept slipping off the seat. Thanks to the chilly air conditioner I shivered through most of the evening. I transferred to a small van when we reached Bagan. We passed a dozen lit pagodas in the next fifteen minutes. I arrived at my hotel after midnight. I was so happy to have a bed to stretch out on. I slept late, had a good breakfast and sat outside under an awning to use the computer and skype. A driver took me to a small settlement to find an ATM and buy some fruit and bread. On our way I saw tourists on bicycles, motor scooters and on foot. There were sprawling fenced hotels rubbing ... read more

Yes, I still watch some Andrew Zimmern or Tony Bourdain on the Travel Channel or CNN. My personal opinion is the shows have become stale, mundane, and almost boring. But once in a while, they hit a double, though I prefer a home run. Zimmern, you can tell, has been placed on a dietary restriction of sorts. He is superimposed on the place he is visiting, not really there. I can only assume his physician told him that 300 pound TV stars who eat anything and everything will not live very long. Bourdain has become rather mainstream, from his faux macho and fearless American persona. But I do agree wholeheartedly with his biggest travel tip: When he goes abroad, he looks for neighborhoods that are "in the center of things" so that he can explore his ... read more

A relaxing 2 day cruise on the RV Kindat Pandaw downstream on the Ayeyarwady River transported us from Mandalay to Bagan - famous for the 3800 Buddhist Temples and Stupas in the area. On arriving in Bagan the vistas were amazing with numerous brick-built Stupas, with many different shapes, tall and thin, short and squat, bell-shaped or pointed, scattered apparently randomly across the countryside. As we slowly made our way along narrow sandy tracks on a horse and carriage we watched Stupa after Stupa pass serenely by and occasionally a special dazzling golden pagoda would be spotted in the distance. We would stop at occasional temples where 13th Century Buddha Statues would be found within small central chambers. In addition to the culture we also visited a local village, colourful markets, a lacquerware workshop, watched hot-air ... read more

Wednesday 17th January 2018 Alarm goes off at 5:30am and by 6:15am we were sat in the breakfast room having some tea and toast whilst awaiting our transport to the bus station. At exactly 6:30am our taxi arrived and we loaded up and headed off out of the city to the Aung Mingalar Bus Station. It’s rush hour so you can never tell how long a journey may take, fortunately it was a traffic flowing day. Arriving at the bus station we were so pleased we asked to be dropped off at our bus companies office....it is a massive place and we would never have found it on our own. Retrieved our tickets and went to the check in counter - that’s when things got a little bit concerning. ? It seems that our company JJ ... read more