January, 2016

My latest adventure found me in Myanmar – formally Burma until 1989. The country lies between China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh and Laos, and has a proud but somewhat violent history…..and while I knew a bit about it, I wasn’t prepared for it’s stunning landscapes and beautiful people. Myanmar is still a developing country and sometimes I shook my head in amazement to see that some parts seemed to have completely missed the industrial revolution. The Burmese are hard workers but certainly seemed to be always smiling, and the kids! oh my, the kids were all absolutely beautiful, and so ready to shoot the biggest and warmest smile straight at you without warning.

This adventure – and it really was – had me travel by train for 18 and a half long hours where I was sure I was going to die. Due to my opinion and imagination, the train was built around the same time as the pyramids and has been operating nonstop ever since! We were bouncing around our sleeper cabin like lotto balls in an air lottery ball machine, and a couple of times I physically completely bounced off my mattress. But it was an experience I will never forget and brought me to Bagan which will remain one of the highlights of my travels, anywhere. I spent a perfectly dusty day riding a bicycle (first time in 30 years) around some of the 2000 odd pagodas that dot the area and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.

I also travelled along the “Road to Mandalay” which is actually a river, not a road. I spent 12 hours ferrying down the Ayeyarwady River, 3 hours in a taxi in a traffic jam without moving, walking barefoot over god-knows-what in various religious locations around the country, was photographed with half the population (I’m sure I must have been trending somewhere!), drank quite a large amount of rum (first time in 25 odd years), went days without a hot shower, and -gasp- went 3 days without internet connection. Aaaaannnddd loved every minute of it.