Merry Christmas from Red Mountain Winery! We rented bicycles to ride the few kilometers out to the winery for some proper wine tasting. I think our day is pretty self explanatory. Hope you had a good one wherever you were.

The full day boat tour of Inle Lake was one of the highlights of my trip here. I loved observing their lifestyle centered on boats and being around the water. For the 100,000 or so inhabitants along the shores of Inle Lake, it appears they have mastered the ability to live on, and off the water's bounty. For generations, they have found a way to maintain floating gardens that grow tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, beans, cauliflower, cucumbers, and peas year round. ...

The small town of Kalaw is the starting point of a mostly downhill, 3 day trek to Inle Lake. The walk offers a unique look into the farming methods and lifestyles of several ethnic groups including Palaung, Danu, Pa-O, and Taung Yoe hill tribes. The often talked about Karen tribe, also known as the "Long Necks" due to the heavy brass rings the women wear, were nowhere to be found along the trail. Unfortunately, many have taken refuge in Thailand to escape persecu...

Spread out over a large plain bordered by the Irrawaddy River, Bagan is an ancient city that went through a massive building spree between the 9th and 13th centuries. Over two thousand temples and pagodas still stand today making it Myanmar's equivalent to Peru's Machu Picchu or Cambodia's Angor Wat. It's probably Myanmar's top tourist destination. And this brings me to the next thing I learned about Myanmar. Not all hotels are approved to host foreigners creatin...

It's December 11, 2015 and it's been a long time since I've posted anything. At all. In summary, my blogging absence can be directly attributed to living in Peru for 2 1/2 years, spending time in places I blogged about before, and simply not giving a **** about providing updates. With the growth of Facebook and the instant gratification that comes from social media twits and tweets, etc., it seems like detailed blog entries that require time and effort to compose...