Myanmar

our trip went so well - no advance reservations - and yet everywhere I
wanted to stay had room, every train had seats, everything went great. I had
a hard time deciding on a plan before we left - but this is what we did -

day 1 - arrived in Yangon, had grilled meats on 19th st, walked around
day 2 - went to the train station at 5am for 6 am train to Thazi
arrived in Thazi 8 pm, stayed at Moonlight Guest house

day 3 - went to train station at 530 am (by horse cart), took train from
Thazi to Kalaw, arrived at noon, stayed at Dream Villa, wandered around.

day 4 - back to train station at 11 am (so nice) took train to Shwenyaung,
then taxi to Nyaungshwe (Inle lake), stay at Aquarius.

day 5- take boat around Inle Lake, then at 630 pm take overnight bus to
Mandalay, arrive 430 am, find a hotel that lets us into a room at 430 am,
collapse in bed. after we wake up we toured Mandalay. (day 6)

day 7 - get to the train station at 330 am!! train leaves at 4 am for
Hsipow. arrive in Hsipow at 9 pm, stay at Lily's

(here is where we make the only choice I slightly regret - I wish we had
spent the day is Hsipow)

day 8 - catch minivan back to Mandalay, arrive at bus station at 330 pm,
catch another minivan to Bagan

arrive in Bagan at 9pm, stay at Floral Breeze

day 9 - tour Bagan, a million stupas.

day 10 - take bus at 9 am to Yangon, arrive 9 pm, stay at May Shan.

day 11 - tour the biggest pagoda in Burma

day 12 - fly Yangon-KL-Singapore, go to apt, get luggage for US, get to
hotel at 11 pm, get up at 330 am to get on standby list to fly to HK and
then SF.

so the journey was the destination, we spent most of the time on the road,
covered a lot of ground. loved the trains w the open windows, could hang out
the window and watch the countryside go by. The most disrupted sleep
vacation ever.