The Journey Begins - 1/1/12

We started our Southeast Asia journey with mixed emotions. We felt both excitement and anxiety for the unknown in terms of daily living conditions away from the familiar comforts of home. One main focus has been maintaining our good health. Both of us hit a snag towards the end of January, but we now head into February strong and geared for the charm and adventure of Cambodia and Vietnam! Continue Reading

Yangon, Myanmar

With our Myanmar Visa’s in hand, we were finally ready to begin our next journey throughout Burma. After making speedy travel plans, we set off for Yangon (capital city, also “Rangoon”) at 5am in the morning without much of a plan and no real guidebook. We later realized this was a bit of a mistake, although prices have risen significantly since the latest Lonely Planet. Once we entered Burma (after paying the $10 gov’t entrance fee), we quickly realized we were decades behind other developing countries in Southeast Asia. Simple communication with the outside world had us scraping for internet access in the early morning. The government must slow down access starting in the afternoon.

Our day in Yangon was filled with wondering the streets, meeting people with bleeding red mouths, and Brett accidentally eating chicken toenails. Surprisingly, Burmese people in the tourism industry speak decent english, so we were able to make travel arrangements for Bagan at Vega Travel. We wondered how much affluence is contributed to British Colonialism vs. will to progress vs. job necessity. Continue Reading