Day 54, Asia, January – March, 2015
Day 1, Yangon, Myanmar (aka Burma)
Hello family, friends and Budget Globe Trekker subscribers.
Happy belated 2015. Apologies for a very long….hiatus. It’s been a long while! I am writing to you from Yangon, the former capital of the “Golden land” Myanmar (aka Burma). For some reason, I preferred to call Myanmar as Burma. Perhaps it is easier to say comparing to the tongue twisting Myanmar.
It is hot….and very hot….and humid in Yangon at the moment. It is currently 93°F (34°C) today and the heat keep rising.
I think I am in love with Myanmar. It has a mixture of the tropical culture and a touch of colonial life style as remnant of a former British colony.
Myanmar is fairly new to the tourism industry (just open up around 2-3 years at the time of my visit in 2015) after a long period of trade embargo with the West. Therefore, the backpacking scene nor infrastructure is not yet as abundance as let’s say Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam. I’m talking about $10 USD hostel bed here hehehehe. However, for the few days that we’ve been in Yangon, we found Burmese people to have been very nice, kind and in some case, go out of their way to guide us to our place of choice when we got lost. The taxi driver do literally drop you in front of the door of the attraction, no matter how crowded it is (ie. Shwe Da Gon Paya/pagoda on full moon day – a national holiday).
It does remind me of the old Saigon of Vietnam in the early 80’s – 90’s. Coincidentally, I just left Vietnam after some 50 plus days and I’m looking forward to my new destinations.
Stay tune for more updates as I trek the mystic land of Myanmar and beautiful pictures of its attractions and landscape.
XOXO,
Aisa
Budget Globe Trekker 
PS: Was leaving work very late last night & it was full moon with clear sky. The moon was far but very bright! The drive home had such a beauty surreal view. Wish I wasn’t tired & could just drive on to enjoy the moonlight. :~)
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Hi Aisa,
Glad to hear fr. you! Reading this blog & viewing the pictures, making me itching for traveling so much!!! Unfortunately, I doubt with my current condition, that’ll be possible anytime soon. 😦 Do be safe while you explore the Golden Land of Burma! Hugs…
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Hello from Bagan, city of temples,
I know….if would have been more fun having you on the trip with us. We can only pray that you quickly recover so we can do trips together again soon. In the mean time, just settle with armchair traveling and live vicariously through our traveling experiences.
We just came back to the hotel from our sunrise trip. We woke up at 4:30 AM to get ready and our pre-booked horse cart pick us up at 5:15 AM when it was still pitch dark and dropped us off at one of the temple. It was so dark that we had our head torch on and of course, we looked ridiculous in our pictures with it but it was the evil necessity as we climbed the narrow stairways of the temple to get to the temple’s top. The driver said the temple doesn’t have many people and indeed it was. We had the temple to ourselves for the first hour and it was fun awaiting for the sun to arise.
Today is Tino’s birthday so I was able to wish him a happy birthday – and the first person to wished him so, from the top of the temple, awaiting the Bagan’s sunrise.
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Hi again,
You used “us” & “we”. Who are/is traveling with you on this trip? Thought you go alone.
Talking about sunrise view, I don’t recall the last time I saw one. Not a morning person anymore so I mostly see sunset view, but on rare occasion only.
The aerial land views make me remember my Seattle trip. At the time, I also took some poses fr. my air plane seat. :~) Speaking of which, just a few days ago, suddenly, I want to make another trip to Seattle. :~) Wish I can just drop everything I go! HaHah….
Oh, Tino’s birthday was just yesterday? So closed to yours!
TINO, if you are reading this, HAPPY Belated birthday!! =)
Alright, I’d better get back to work now. Keep me posted with your journey, my dear.
Hugs…
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Wow…you still remember Tino’s birthday? Yup, you got that right. He joined me for this leg of the trip, lol….Envy?
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