Does Dust Count as White? A hundred miles or so north of Yangon, where I am now, Myanmar’s big fat dry belly begins. In towns like Magwe, Meiktila, Taungoo and Mingyan (rhymes with ‘engime’) palm leaves sway in the light breeze,but during Christmas season – the heart of the dry season – they’recaked in dust. If you squint, it almost looks like snow. … Continue reading →

Boat Collisions & Rat Sex Some read novels by Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway less for the great writing but the envy of experiencing exciting transitional times in transitional lands at ages long past. That’s happening now in Myanmar. One of my favorite places seems even farther back. The last time I visited the Rakhine ancient kingdom of Mrauk U (Monkey-Egg, no one … Continue reading →

I have a new favorite city A scrappy port town near Bangladesh, where the wide muddy Kaladan River mixes with the Bay of Bengal, Sittwe is not loved by most visitors. Getting here means a full-day boat ride from an already-isolated port town Taunggok – or an hour flight from Yangon or Thandwe, which I opted for. A couple hotels, powered round-the-clock by … Continue reading →

Myanmar‘s Great Sun-And-Sand Destination Meets a New Sort of Traveler I noticed the guy long before we met. A gray-haired accented foreigner with a baseball-style bamboo hat with a tiny Swiss flag sticking out the top. At the Thandwe Airport, where foreigners looking for ‘escape’ flies in for a few days to the Ngapali Beach resorts. Locals were meeting him warmly with embraces, … Continue reading →

Earlier this year, Yangon opened up a fancy new international airport for the big jets to come and go, but the old one — now handling domestic flights — is my favorite. I showed up this morning for a flight to Sittwe, an old port town on the Bay of Bengal, and a man in an orange vest got my bulging bag and … Continue reading →

I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE BAND Last time I was in Myanmar, the frequent music videos I’d see on TV, or playing on TVs in overnight buses or market stalls, caught my eye and ear. I called a rock journalist of a local paper on my last day and asked him to tea and to shop-around at local CD stores. I wanted to … Continue reading →