Riding a balloon over the 2,000 temples of Bagan, Myanmar has been on my bucket list since 2010, when my maiden voyage to the then-pariah country ended in near-death food poisoning.
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Is This Asia’s Most Relaxing River Trip?
A slow boat down the Irrawaddy River between the city of Mandalay and Bagan, which is famous for its 2,000 temples.
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Sailing Toward Nirvana
This is Paradise, or as close as I’ve ever come to it.
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Myanmar, I Hardly Knew Ye
I expected my driver to be shocked and amazed when I told him I’d visited his country more than five years prior, but all he seemed to care about was my nationality.
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Tourism and Voyeurism in Myanmar
Democracy, freedom and where to draw the line between tourism and voyeurism in Myanmar.
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Mandalay’s Crown Jewels
A trio of dazzling hamlets–one a hillside studded with pagodas, the next an ancient settlement with its very own “leaning tower” and the third a monastic base with an eponymous, ramshackle bridge–awaits you just an hour outside Mandalay.
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Machismo, Gold and Grit
The swanky Las Vegas hotel which apparently lifts its name from Mandalay will be the furthest thing from your mind as your vehicle pulls in.
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Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda
Around 500 years before a certain Messianic baby was born somewhere in the Middle East, legend has it that two Burmese merchants visited India, gave the Buddha honey cakes and took a few of his hairs back with them. Their reward? A 30-story, solid gold pagoda.
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