Chan arrived this morning with a well running Town Ace! We weren't sure how much sleep he got but the vehicle sounded much better! We headed towards Bagan but first made a detour to Mt. Popa. Mt. Popa is an old volcano. We hiked up Popa Taung Kalat, a 2400 foot volcanic plug with a buddhist monastery and the home to 37 nats (spirits) on top: 777 steps and a lot of monkey scares later, we made it! After climbing back down Chan took us shopping for some fruit (4 papayas for 1000 kyat, or $1.25) and then we headed towards Bagan. Bagan is an OLD city. From the 9th to the 13th century is was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan. During this time over 10 000 Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and temples were built ... read more

Today was a fantastic day! Our night in the Lucky Bright Hotel was quiet and the breakfast they served was big and delicious. We booked a driver and his boat to take us around Inle Lake for the day. Our boat was 14 000 Kyat for 5 people - just under $20 dollars. The boat itself was super comfortable. We had huge chairs with cushions on the seats and blankets to keep us warm. It was really chilly on the lake in the morning so the blankets were really useful! To start the day we drove almost an hour from Nyaungshwe to the south end of the lake. On our way we saw fisherman net fishing. The fisherman on Inle Lake are known for their distinctive rowing style. This involves standing at the back of the ... read more

We had to push start the Town Ace this morning. Hmmm... The countryside in Myanmar is georgeous. People are smiling and waving everywhere. Chan took us on a detour today. We went to the new Capital. Yangon isn't technically the capital city anymore, Naypyidaw is. It was quite shocking. A ghost town with no traffic and a 7 lane super highway. The government put roughly 4 BILLION dollars into a brand new government building with 24 hour electricity and housing for all of the employees. The streets are manicured and pristine. Its very sad. Chan took us to one of his favorite places in all of Myanmar to eat. It was in Tatkok and it was amazing! We had traditional Myanmar food again and the all you can eat side dishes were unbelievable: lentils, soyabeans, curries, ... read more

The New Year weekend was the ONLY long weekend my school would be having all year so I felt like I should take advantage of the extra day and go somewhere. Beijing is relatively close to Dalian and other than for the volleyball trip in November (in which I didn’t really see anything but the inside of a gymnasium), I hadn’t been to Beijing City in years. We took the train (soft sleepers – the highest class!) from Dalian to Beijing on the Friday after school. On Saturday morning we were picked up by our hostel (Happy Dragon Courtyard). I had pre-arranged a tour to the Great Wall of China that day since I figured we would all be up early anyway. For 260RMB we were served breakfast, taken to the wall, given our entrance ticket, ... read more