Burmese Days and Myanmar Nights

I've finally managed to whittle down my Burma trip pictures from over a thousand to 75. Which is a lot, I know, but it's my blog and I'll post 75 pictures of Burma if I want to. The trip was really fantastic – we spent lots of time with our friends Megan and Quinn and their son Cooper, who live in Yangon (that's the former Rangoon for you Austin Powers fans). We flew up to Bagan, where more than 4,000 temples dot the countryside, and then on to beautiful Inle Lake, were we spent a few days floating between little villages on stilts.

The whole country is really wonderful (well, save for that whole oppressive government thing). But the people are incredibly friendly and the kids are especially sweet, waving and grinning and mugging for the camera. There isn't a fast food joint or an internet connection in sight – and, because we went during the low season (but luckily just before monsoon season), not many tourists either.

Let's go to the pics… We started off the trip on the Rangoon Hash House Harriers run, which took us through some of the villages around the city. It was amazing…


A lot of Burmese cover their faces with Thanaka, part makeup, part sunscreen.



Hey, who's this cute kid? Cooper came along for the ride:






The next day, we visited a monastery to watch the young monks have lunch.






Then on to the Shwedegon, the massive golden pagoda in the center of the city.



Then cold beer and sunsets across the lake from the pagoda.


Finally, on to Bagan! We started with the market, then hit up the temples.
















Then, on to Inle Lake! Beautiful.





Our boat!


We got stuck, so this man hiked up his longi and waded out to save us.


Our hotel was a series of bungalows on legs in the middle of the lake:


The local market was amazing…
















I'm now obsessed with 3-in-1 coffee. How have I never knowingly had it before?

Back to the lake…






We wrapped up our mid-country adventure with 6am round of Shan noodles at the local market.

And then back to Yangon for one last night, where we finished things up with a proper tour of all the finest drinking establishments. Disco lights everywhere! Good times.

And in the meantime, the cats were busy devising new ways to look cute. (What? I haven't posted a cat picture in a really long time! Stop mocking me.)