Panorama Yangon (Rangoon)

... minutes of walking the rice patties I was soaking wet from head to toe while the brothers were dry as a desert. These Burmese people get hot but they do not sweat anywhere as bad as us westerners:)<br> <br>The track into the deep country of Myanmar lead us through leach infested water,snake infested high grass, and mud as deep as two feet deep all of which we had to walk through to get to our destination. Oh yea, I should not forget to tell you that we had to avoid ...

... It is instead the locals with their traditional look that dominate the street view: Many of the men wear traditional skirt-like longyi, while the women cover their cheeks with some kind of a silver-coloured make up. Locals also like to chew betel nuts and that makes them spit the red betel nut juice on the streets frequently. When you wander around the centre, you also can&#8217;t see many glass buildings or any fast food chains. And Yangon is after all the capital ...

Hey dudes and duderino's, Hope your all doing good where ever you are!<br><br>Well after spending 3 1/2 weeks in Myanmar..........i'm really gonna struggle to write this blog .............we had so many amazing, mindblowing , jawdropping experiences and met too many amazing people that i dont know where the hell to start.<br><br>In fact to even start to describe our time there using my limited vocabulary skills is a pointless excercise................my feeling about the country has ...

... the time for the taxis, and so was the exchange rate. It was nice to know we weren't as taken as we thought we had been. We exchange our money with a chinese guy with whom my chinese traveling companion had a long conversation, and oddly enough I felt that it was the best exchange rate. If you have to travel in Myanmar, make sure it's with someone's Chinese. We walk around the area, taking delight in the failure of the British Empire ...

... of the cab pulled a face and said "dirty money" when I gave him a $1 USD. Mr Zew hooked us up with a cab and was trying to sell us his travel services on the way to our hotel. It would have cost us $850 CDN to have a car and driver for the places we want to go to in Myanmar. We pulled up to the location of the hotel we selected - Haven Inn and Mr Zew pointed to a gutted building that is being renovated. He said that our hotel is not open and tried to direct us to ...

... adventure to Myanmar. The country is one of the worlds worst military junta's, but filled with some of the great sites in Asia. It also has some of Asia&#8217;s warmest, brightest and friendliest people, all kept firmly pressed down under the thumbs of the generals who run the country.<br><br>I have to tell you that the four of us have traveled together on other occasions including a bicycle trip around the Greek island of Crete and a bike tour through the Greek ...

... on the internet or reading in our room. We had the news channels on mute and would turn up the volume every time the Thai news came on. It was a dismal end to our time in Burma, otherwise it had been a great trip. Yangon, the capital of Burma, is a strange place. They do the best they can do with what they have. The power comes off numerous times every day. It doesn't faze the locals, we have even come accustomed to it. The generators come on and life goes on, though ...

... The Burmese people desperately need the tourist pound. Anyone thinking of going will have an amazing time but should research carefully how to spend their money to ensure it is directed to the pockets of locals and not to military. There is a lot of controversy about if you should or should not visit but positive tourism can have a constructive impact. Apart from feeding the local economy and offering a chance to educate people about life outside of Burma the ...

... in the aisles, frequently breaking down along the way. It is illustrative of the effects of government on development, and the impact of tourism on the economy of small countries. But on the other hand, the lack of highly frequented tourist routes has positive impacts on our experiences as well. As I mentioned before, Burmese people could not wait to talk with us, and other tourists were curious to know what had brought us to Myanmar, meaning we easily made ...

... difference between funds declared on entry and funds leaving. This seemed odd - I thought they wanted money to be spent. Perhaps they feared foreigners were financing subversion! Apparently I could not be truthful about carrying funds for another tourist - that was forbidden. <br><br> <br><br> We counted our cash and were significantly over the maximum. I experimented with a variety of hiding places, pretty much convinced I should just smuggle ...