I visited Myanmar last November and it became one of my two top trips of my travels. As a child at school in Robin Hood country, the British Empire and Ex British Empire were taught in history and geography lessons. The magical names of Rangoon, Mandalay and the Irrawaddy river sparked a lightbulb so that, one day, one had to visit. Decades later……….
The people, to travel by oxcard down a “grass” road to see amazing pagodas without another tourist in sight, to see schoolchildren learning English and Math neatly dressed in school uniforms….to travelling for a day with the amazing Dr Hla Tun from the Orient Express Road to Mandalay River Vessel visiting Orphanages and having a little peak into another world with him. Memories that will be etched in my mind for ever. Wonderful to see the huge new airports of Mandalay and Rangoon (Yangon) but sans computers, to the little airports such as Heho (for Inle Lake) where a bull horn announced the flights. It was travelling as one enjoyed in the 60’s. I feel so privileged to have travelled to a destination before it becomes yet another destination that enters the 2lst century.
Judy Paar in Malibu, California
