Myanmar’s (military dictatorship) government continually brands its country as “The Golden Land” in brochures, billboards, and other advertisements around the country. At first I thought this was mere puffery from a government anxious for an increase in tourism.  But after traveling across the country, we’ve learned that it’s actually an apt tag line: Myanmar is […]

One aspect of life in Asia that I had not expected has been the far closer connection between home and work. In the US many people seem to talk about, and value, having a personal life that is separate enough from their work that they can escape work at end of the day. But in […]

When people recall Myanmar, more than likely they are visualizing Bagan. Bagan is the showstopper of Myanmar. Some may say that Bagan is a “trip of a lifetime” witnessing close to 50km of temple/pagodas across watercolor painted skies or one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world. For me, it is the visual impressions that will leave […]

Within a few hours of our arrival in Myanmar, we had already become accustomed to a sound that would follow us around the country: “Ptoo!” The Burmese spit all the time, and it takes some dexterity to avoid the results when walking down a crowded street.   While we had encountered a lot of spitting […]

Inle Lake is one of Myanmar’s premier attractions and it doesn’t take more than a few minutes on the lake to understand why.  The lake by itself is beautiful, a wide expanse of still water surrounded by mountains and hills.   But in addition to the natural lake there are fishermen in long, narrow boats […]

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Myanmar for me was seeing the small quirks in the country’s culture.  It appeared that due to its relative isolation, the country has a number of cultural differences that we haven’t found in any of the other countries that we’ve visited. One of the first quirks we came […]

Lonely Planet books have been our guides for most of our trip and we’ve found their recommendations to usually be on the money. Every now and then, however, they get one wrong. The Golden Rock is one of those times. Lonely Planet listed it as a “You haven’t been to Myanmar until you’ve been here” […]