Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
photo from Burma
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meckleychina/2227588739/
Impressions from Burma
is the encounters along the way that fascinate us, take us by
surprise, touch our hearts, and put us in awe.
In the 11th century King Anawrahta set out to make Burma the center of
Theravada Buddhism. This is still very much evident today. We have
seen more buddhas and stupas in than our whole lifetimes' combined,
not even counting those we pass by en route.
The Burmese are a gentle people. They work hard, and unlike the
Chinese, they know when to stop. This makes it pleasant and easy to
travel here. Relative to the level of development, there are
comparatively few thefts, scams, begging, and peddling, except for the
painting and postcard peddlers in Bagan.
For the level of development, or the lack of, we consider Burma clean,
though it has a fair amount of trash. Toilets do not smell (this is
huge for Sun-Ling); trash is gathered and burned, largely at the
individual level; horse carts wear diapers in town. The Burmese are
clean. Men, women, and children, can be seen at every body of water,
at all times of the day, bathing, doing laundry, and scrubbing
sandals.
We would be lying if we said Burma has no roads and no electricity,
but it would not be that far from the truth. Without a doubt that
responsibility lies with the government. Nevertheless it makes us
wonder why the UN has to build foot bridges in villages where people
are goldfoiling buddhas beyond recognition in fantastic temples.
By the 3rd week we have lost most of the weight we have gained in
Shanghai over the past two years. If it were not for antibiotics, we
could have died too.
We are now trying to work Burma in for our trans- Eurasia trip next year.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Going to Burma
Good weather in Kunming
stayed up until after 6.
We had a wonderful overnight (2-night) visit to the Stone Forest and the nearby town.
KM has been fun too, fantastic food.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Most Recent Post
Uzbekistan: Elsewhere in Tashkent
We spent some extra time in Tashkent, because we wanted to catch the Persian New Year, Nowruz , in Tashkent, known as Spring Equinox to the ...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
Polonnaruwa is an archeological site in north central Sri Lanka. Between the 11th and 13th century Polonnaruwa was the capital of the island...
-
The day before Easter we took the regional FSE train from Martina Franca to Bari, the 2nd largest city in southern Italy (after Naples) with...
-
Everything happened smoothly with our Galapagos trip. We had really good weather, two full days of sun and a couple of partly cloudy day in...
-
Dubai, the most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an enigma for us. Dubai is now among the top 5 most visited cities in t...
-
Abus Dhabi seems more familiar than Dubai. There is a recognizable downtown. There are city parks connecting downtown to the sea. There are ...
-
Founded in the fourth century BCE, Anuradhapura was the first Sri Lankan capital. Today there are still a dozen giant stupas, some dating ba...