Time to Recap, Reflect and Write

It's hard to believe that one week ago today, we were leaving our hotel in Yangon for the long trip back to Scottsdale and home. The night before, we had dinner at Le Planteur, which is the best restaurant in Myanmar and one of the best in Asia. We had planned this occasion months earlier and after sticking to pretty much to a regimen of local cuisine, we were eager to dine in the lap of luxury. 

The setting is in this old colonial house with a long lawn that extends to the banks of Inya Lake. We were fortunate to have a table at the edge of the lawn with a clear view to the lake. I had the price-fix menu and Kathy the vegetarian one. The wine list was expansive and mainly French. We had a wonderful Gigondas to accompany our meal.  Here's a look at the menu's. As you will see, fine dining in Myanmar comes at a very reasonable cost. 

  

The meal certainly lived up to its billing. Every course was wonderful and the service was attentive without being intrusive. The pace was leisurely and it gave us ample opportunity to reminisce about what we had experienced over the last twenty-three days.  Myanmar had more than exceeded our expectations.

We had traveled over 600 miles on the Irrawaddy River from Yangon to Mandalay. Then we flew to Inle Lake, in the Shan Region, to spend three more days, before flying back to Yangon, to spend four more days on an intense, immersive, photographic adventure with our wonderful guide Win.

Even with the time we had spent in the country, we had barely scratched the surface of this land that is as large as Texas and that is currently going through momentous change as it transitions to democracy from decades of dictatorship.

In the ensuing posts, I will do my best to give you a look at the people, places and things we encountered and did during our time in the country. The posts will range from the gridlocked streets of Yangon to the quiet and tranquil villages we visited....

 And to the many the many stupas and pagodas we saw that dot this Buddhist land and also take a look at the impact Buddhism has on the people. The more we travel Buddhist countries the more confused I become. The realities of life for these people make Buddhism very different from the depictions of the Dali Lama we see and the many books I have read on the subject. Yet the religion plays a part in most people's lives far more impactful than religion in the secular west.

Stupa

Pagoda

There is so much to share, we hope you will enjoy our travels. We did try to start the trip out correctly, by visiting the Sule Pagoda, in the heart of Yangon, and making merit by honoring our birth days, there are eight in Myanmar. ( Mine was Wednesday morning as opposed to Wednesday evening. Which is a good thing since Kathy's is Saturday and she is a tiger while I am a tuskless elephant and they get along well.) We did that by praying to the buddha at our birth day shrine, pouring water on the Buddha and ringing the gong for all to receive Buddha's blessing.

It must have worked because the rest of the trip was wonderful.