The air distance from Yangon, Myanmar to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is 1,023 kilometres. We were able to buy airline tickets for $23 per person. After all additional baggage fees, surcharges, and taxes were added in, the grand total still came to only $65 each. Go figure. In past years we have passed through Kuala Lumpur several times. I spent one day years ago passing through by train when travelling with Tanner, and was not left with any particularly good impressions then, and Stan and I have since landed at the KL airport terminal on at least four occasions to wait for connecting flights. We decided this time to make a point of visiting this city. What an excellent decision that was. We spent five days exploring, and have both come to the conclusion that of all ... read more

We took an eight hour bus overland from Bagan to Nyaungshwe and Inle Lake, which gave us more opportunities to see the rugged, mountainous terrain of Myanmar, and glimpses into Burmese culture. Inle lake will undoubtedly go down as the most beautiful place we visited in Myanmar. It is a huge lake which has numerous inlets on which communities have lived, and continue to live, as they had for generations. The streets are waterways, where all transportation is by boat. We passed children boating to school, and mothers paddling to pick up their children after school; vendors selling their wares on the waterways, and workers going about their day to day tasks, along with many taxis transporting tourists like ourselves. It is the land of houses built on stilts, to adapt to the water levels that ... read more

When we arrived into Mandalay from Bangkok, its tiny airport reminded me a little of Regina's airport years ago, before any of its renovations. Hot, dusty, dry, and impoverished, the city itself felt a little desolate, at least at first, before we rented bicycles and toured around. When we did, we noticed immediately the vibrancy of its people, particularly when we went through the market areas. Without a doubt, a favorite memory for us will be the "music caravan" experience. The music caravan consisted of three trolleys of very old school stereo music equipment - huge speakers, CD players, microphones, and such - which were being pushed through the streets by at least a half dozen men. One of the men - the singer - was singing a Burmese tune in Kareoke style - to a ... read more

My last travel entry, written just before we left home for Bangkok, definitely carried undertones of concern about arriving in Bangkok, the vibrant city we have come to love in our previous travels, being a little worried that it would be consumed by the political tensions and protests that were highlighted daily in the media reports. These fears were dispelled immediately. We had easy transport to our hotel, as no roadblocks were in effect after midnight when we arrived - but we did speak with other travellers later who had experienced some traffic delays due to protestors' route closures. The protest march we observed in our neighbourhood was peaceful - although we avoided the huge rallies - but we did ride the sky trains directly over the protests in the daytime and all seemed peaceful. We ... read more

A few years ago there had been a very clever advertisement directed at travellers who have completed their careers, and finished raising their families, but have not in the process lost their youthful spirit of adventure, and are now set to pick up where they left off - way back when they had no responsibilities - and continue their global wandering. It featured a plane taking off into the sunset and was accompanied by the caption "Remember when the kids wanted to run away from home?" We thought about finding that image and posting it on this final blog entry, but decided instead to use one of our own photos, captured as we flew our own skies, into the new sunsets and sunrises that await us. And we are not running away from anything. Instead, we ... read more