Trip Planning

What goes into self-planning a trip to Myanmar?
Lots and lots of internet research!!! 
Myanmar is a country that is changing so fast, that all guidebooks are woefully out of date.  Yes, guidebooks are usually a couple of years behind.  I heard once that it's a 2 year process to publish a book? Don't quote me on that though.  Anyhow, so I've been spending inordinate amounts of time combing the internet for blog posts and trip reports from 2014. 
Despite ragging on guide books, we still will be bringing one, mostly for the maps and blurbs about the various historical sites. 

A big difference between this trip and the India/Nepal trip is the cost.  Myanmar is not a cheap country to visit, when compared to other similarly less developed countries.  We are trying to keep our costs down by minimizing internal flights.  Internal flights are ~$120 USD one way, so you can see how fast it adds up!!!  Alternate forms of transport are bus, very rickety trains, and boats (sometimes).  I am not too keen on taking too many 10 hour bus rides.  Yes, buses are a good way to see the countryside and how the locals live.  But, they're crowded, loud, and there's nowhere to walk around.  The trains actually sound worse, as the tracks are apparently very poorly upkept.  Taking a boat is an option for some legs, except it'll take almost twice as long as a bus.  And we are on a rather tight schedule. 

So, we shall see how the balance between budget and comfort ends up!!  I'm leaning towards more comfort because I'm getting old and soft in my old age ;)

Revival!

This blog is being revived! Only 5 yrs later ;)
This time the destinations are....... Myanmar and Taiwan!
This is not to say that I've been stationary for the past 5 years. No, just means that I've stuck to holiday vacations vs. adventure vacations.
This time around, trip planning has been +++ stressful. Perhaps it's trying to balance full time work, summertime excursions, and the boyfriend. Such first world problems, I know.  I almost feel like I'll be less stressed once we're on the plane.

I'll post more updates with our plans etc...  Right now it's my bedtime for another 'week' at work!

Final (late) Blogpost

So K and I made it back a while back. So this is the final blogpost

India and Nepal were very different from what I am used to here at home. But it was an excellent experience, definately need to go back!

अपडेट...

so it has been a while! Last time I wrote, I was still in Pokhara. Since then, we've been to multiple cities! It was an uneventful bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu. 7 hours or so. We spent 3 nights in Kathmandu, seeing the sites. Went to Patan, Swayambunath, Bouda and Bhaktapur. The architecture is amazing!!! I have tons of pics, will upload like crazy in a few days!!! [aside: everyone here in Nepal/India LOVES Bryan Adams. Seriously. I've heard his song being played everywhere!! the one thats like 'everything I do, I do it for you...' Its playing right now in the internet cafe lol]
Trip from Kathmandu to Lumbini (birthplace of the Buddha) was a bit more *exciting*. Nepal was having many bandhs (read:strikes) on the day we were travelling. The trip was supposed to take 9 hours, but instead took over 12 due to all the road blocks!!! There were two issues going on. The President and Vice president were just elected in Nepal, and the VP was callous enough to take his official oath in Hindi, and dressed in Indian clothing. So many many people were very offended, thus the strikes. ANother issue was that students wanted decreased bus fares, and so they were blocking roads too. Anyhow, it was a long long journey. Lumbini was pretty cool though. Theres tons of different temples there, all in the different styles of each country that built the temples.
From Lumbini, we went to India. It was a 3 hour bus ride from the border of Sunnauli to the nearest railhead at Gorakpur. From there we took a train to Varanasi. I think it was 6 hours or so. Since we booked our tickets the day of travel, all the AC cars were booked up, so we went in non-ac, which was pretty gross. It is MEGA humid in this part of the world!!!
Varanasi..... dusty, dirty, loud, crazy.... It is quite the place. There was a big Shiva festival going on, with tons of pilgrims dressed in orange, yelling 'bolbum' or something like that. They get the Ganges water, and RUN through the streets to the temple with it. Seriouisly, they will run you down!!! It is true what they say, everyone in Varanasi will try to rip you off. Except for our awesome hotel. But everyone else will try to take advantage of you.
Our last day in Varanasi, we went up to Sarnath to visit Karma and Tashi (the monks we met earlier on in the Jeep to Gangtok). It was nice visiting them again. They took us on a tour of Sarnath and then Tashi took us back into Varanasi so we could catch our train up to Agra. We went to a McDonalds, and I got the McAloo Tikka burger:p K got the Veg Surprise burger lol.
So the train up to Agra was 5 hours late. An 11 hour train ride that is 5 hours late... Go figure, its India!! And yet again we managed to not get an AC berth, so yet again it was a sticky-gross night in the non-AC car. Oh and I managed to get the flu sometime in here...
Anyhow, now we are in Agra, but tomorrow is our last day here. We take the train up to Delhi tomorrow evening. We were lucky to arrive here during the birthday celebrations of Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal. Due to these celebrations, entry is free!!! Normal entry is Rs750 (about $15 CAD I *think*, to put into perspective, our accomodations cost Rs 300 per night) So K and I have been to see the Taj about 4 times :D I highly reccommend it to anyone!!!
thats the past few weeks in a very small nutshell!!
till next time,
D

Round Rotis and Husbands

Today was a roti rolling day। At work, I helped Amaa and Uma with rolling rotis. I am not very good at making them round. They were rather square/rectangular/long. When I got home, I found out that we were having roti as well! (we usually eat rice) So of course I volunteered to help. My roti rolling skills have improved, I did even manage to roll ~2 round ones! Anyhow, according to the people here, having the ability to roll round rotis means that you will easily find a good husband. So my roti rolling abilities show that I will not find a Nepalese or Indian husband.

नमस्ते!

दंयका इस अवेसोमे!!!! इ लव एअतिंग रोटी! व्हो नीड्स अ हुसबंद अन्य्वाय्स? यम! इसं'टी थिस थे कुलेस्ट थिंग एवर?????

Nepalese of the Male Variety

Funny anecdote....

Getting clothing made is quite inexpensive here, under $2 to get a shirt made. So Kat and I are trying to take advantage of such an opportunity. So we were at a cloth shop (theres tons everywhere) looking at cloth, and the salesman starts asking K if she'll take his friendship. And then he says he wants to marry a foreign girl. And then asks if she'll marry him :p Of course, K said no, and said that she already had a boyfriend. So he asks if she has any friends who'd marry him :p lol....
And then at another fabric store K was getting a pair of pants made, so on the receipt she wrote her cell phone #. And lo and behold, the stringy haired salesman texted her the next day and asked for her friendship. And sent a lovely poem haha. And phoned multiple times...

Good times good times, since all I do is sit here and laugh :D

Bikes, Cars, and Walls

So as you might know, I rented a bike and ride it to and from work everyday. And lately it has been raining crazily when I need to go out. So, the other day I forgot my poncho and only had my umbrella. So I biked back up from work, with my umbrella (and got soaking wet still). Some of the roads here are potholes connected by street. Well, going down one of those roads, I managed to run into a parked car:p

The other day I managed to hit another parked car and a wall. All in the span of 5 minutes or so. So beware, all you pedestrians.....