More exploring today and gettting to know the city. It was fun to start our day in this residentail area by eating street food with the locals. I had the best breakfast wrap ever, all made on the street in a propane heated wok. I did, however, have to put aside my Canadian manners and fight for my place in line. One difference here is that we washed down breakfast with a Starbucks coffee - the first real coffee we have had in seven weeks! While exploring the city...

Shanghai - what a contrast to the last places we have been! Much of this city has been constructed in the last 10 - 20 years and there is some stunning architecture. But they have also maintained some of the old buildings in a vibrant market area and a beautiful traditional garden called Yuyuan Garden which dates from the 1500's. We are staying in a private condo (which we found on the internet). It was quite an adventure to find it last night, as by the time w...

Our last day in Myanmar. Today we flew from Inle Lake to Yangon and are back to our grand old colonial hotel, the Yuzana, and have been upgraded to a huge suite! For dinner we went to a beautiful old colonial home which once held the office of Aung San, the father of Nobel Peace prize winner and beloved leader here, Aung San Suu Kyi. So...our impression of Myanmar - an incredibly rich country that has everything - except good governance. It has every kind of t...

Today we got more exercise than we bargained for! We hiked for 7 1/2 hours high up into the hills above Inle Lake to see three Pa-O villages. The hike was not as scenic as our Kalaw trek, except for the great views of the lake on our way down, but the villages were very interesting. The Pa-O are a wealthy hill tribe that was smart enough to be the first of the rebel tribes to sign a peace treaty with the government and was given special concessions because of tha...

Another great day on Inle Lake. We first went to a market which was much larger and more interesting than yesterdays. There were flowers, vegetables, meat (including ears, the tail, the hooves, and many internal parts), and chicken, as well as blacksmiths working, petrol sellers siphoning off gas into jerrycans and bottles, and people making and selling betel nut - a popular item here. There were also many interesting faces as the hill tribe people come down to t...