Blogs from Yangon Region, Burma, Asia - page 5

Time to continue on with my Asian tales write ups, although I've been a bit slow at getting around to them, I'll get them done evenutally. After leaving HK I flew to Bangkok for a few days to meet up with a friend for some more travels. I’d been to Bangkok many years ago and was left undecided about the place, so I thought a second chance was in order and also I would be spending some time with someone who once lived there, which would hopefully give me a different perspective. However, I can’t say that after a second visit the city grew on me anymore, there is just something about Bangkok I am not too keen on. Ah well, it’s just not the city for me, I know many people love it there. The ... read more

Tata ! Bon avant toute chose nous sommes désolés du retard qu'on a pris sur le blog mais Internet au Myanmar c'est aussi fiable qu'une prostituée thaïlandaise et aussi lent qu'un éléphant sous opium... xD Donc pour résumer nous sommes partis de Kawthang avec un vieux bus sur des routes un peu flippantes (chemins de montagnes et petits ponts en bois) pour arriver à Myeik après 10 longues heures de trajet... Nous sommes restés un jour dans cette ville le temps de louer une petite moto et de visiter un temple, un centre commercial et une plage bien vaseuse. Ce fut une journée très agréable et le lendemain nous avons repris un bus direction Dawei. La nous sommes restés un peu plus longtemps (3 jours). Nous avons encore loué une petite moto semi-automatique et avons été ... read more

I awoke this morning feeling liberated with all the space in our room and the 15 foot ceiling. Breakfast was the full-meal deal and all you can eat. After stocking up for the day we headed out in search of the circular commuter train. Circular in the sense that it does a big loop around the city. We couldn't find anywhere to pay so just hopped on figuring someone would eventually come by. People are very friendly and were able to indicate to us where to get off. Our first objective was to find the night train to Mandalay ticket office. The smell of garbage and raw sewage, the noise of traffic and beeping horns, the assault of bright colours, abject poverty and the need to watch the uneven sidewalk and dance to avoid oncoming foot ... read more

There are many types of human chaos, but two seem to present themselves more often than others. The order of the day is the glaringly mechanical - planned, systematic, convenient and commercial, predictable, pre-packaged and microwavable, calculatingly manufactured for the optimization of human life; and then there is that lesser known chaos - the organic mass of humanity, flowing in no predictable order - a pattern that, try as you might you may, fails to establish. At times there is something to be said for chaos, and of the two, it has become the second that draws me in for more, pulls me around the next corner - and so it is with Yangon. It is scarcely imaginable that 5-million people make their home in a city where downtown is home to three-story buildings engulfed in ... read more

Day 21-Sunday-January 31 This morning we checked out of the Sule Shangri-La and got on the bus for the airport at 8:30 to catch our flight at 11:00 to Inle Lake. Inle Lake is located in the heart of the Shan Plateau. It is a beautiful highland lake, 2,950 feet above sea level. The lake is 13.7 miles long and 6.2 miles across, and inhabited by many different ethnic nationals of the area. The Intha people are the lake dwellers who are unique for their leg rowing. Leg rowed traditional boats are the main ceremonial attractions of Inle Lake. The Intha people are hard-working. Cigar-rolling and weaving are the women's work. One tradition says that the Intha people living on Lake Inle are the descendants of those who fled from Dawei, about 500 miles to the ... read more