Author Archives: jennings@princeton.edu

Arrived Singapore a bit late and had to hustle through a very large–but very modern–airport with a very nice and very adventurous American woman (she’d worked at NGO’s in Afghanistan and Africa, among other places). Arrived at gate with minutes to spare. On the plane we were served yet another breakfast, which we ate outContinue reading “Yangon!”

Breakfast at Winner Inn was fine: everything a bit different, squat sour bananas, tiny ripe strawberries, etc. I didn’t yet know about Mohinga, so ate more or less Western (avoiding the technicolor margarine). Marissa C. met us while we were still in the breakfast room, and we were soon in a taxi, headed for theContinue reading “Colonial Rangoon”

The first of our horrendously early days. We rose at 4:30 for a 5 AM cab to the airport for our flight to Bagan. The domestic terminal is chaotic: everyone goes through the same departure doors from the departure lounge, so it was impossible to tell which flight was ours. And this despite the factContinue reading “Bagan”

Andrew had very nicely treated us to something special to thank Sue for organizing the trip (and I tagged along). Balloons over Bagan picked us up at 5:15 and we drove to a large field near Nyaung U in their trademark vintage Chevrolet buses. There was coffee and cookies waiting for us as we piledContinue reading “Baloons Over Bagan”

We shared a car with Liz and Matt; Nanda drove us to the airport, and we got on our short flight to Mandalay without mishap. We found a cabbie to take us in for the government regulated rate of 12,000 Kyat. He was very sweet and spoke a bit of English and was a decentContinue reading “The Road to Mandalay”

Mi Mi had wanted us to start our tour at 8 AM so that we could see not only Amarapura and Inwa but Mingun as well, but we pleaded for time (and our sanity) and started at 10. Our guide, Arthur (Win Myint), couldn’t have been better. He is a very tall, slender man, withContinue reading “Amarapura and Around”

We declared a badly needed rest day, since we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 12:30. We had a very leisurely breakfast at the huge buffet, then went up to pack and loll about. I hired a cab that ran me to a cell phone shop in search of MRD sim cards, sinceContinue reading “Kyaing Teng Ho!”

Breakfast at the Yaw Lee Chain was interesting: Shan noodles or eggs. Sue and I had the noodles, which were fine if a little bland, and Andrew got eggs, which were over too easy and had to be sent back for more cooking to meet his exacting hygienic standards. That set the standard for subsequnetContinue reading “Lahu Lunar New Year”