Around Mandalay in the Heat

Despite our misfortunes, we had a great day yesterday touring the surrounding villages in the Mandalay area. We were also able to find a new camera that should hold us over temporarily so we've put that little indecent behind us.

We had a FULL day starting at 8AM to 8PM touring the countryside, monasteries and many of the ancient ruins from kingdoms before. We had almost all of the ruins to ourselves to explore, with not another tourist in site. We were also fortunate to meet many locals and spent the last two nights practicing English with very excited monks. They especially treasure Americans and the English because we are native speakers and not many Americans or English travel to Myanmar.

We have definitely had some very memorable experiences so far that we will elaborate on more when we leave. Its quite difficult to access our blog and this is actually the first time in 5 days that we have seen the home page. We have been posting entries via emailing an automated address that posts stories on our blog. All of blogger.com is banned in Myanmar and we have to use proxy servers to check for comments. Right now we are connected to a server in Saudi Arabia.

If you need to contact us try emailing us at kevin34@gmail.com. We use this email address when we are using internet cafes and don't know about the security. While we are in Myanmar we recommend emailing us over leaving comments on the blog.

We will be in Mandalay for one more night and then tomorrow we will be heading to Pyin U Lwin for the day with our wonderful guide (more on him later). Afterward, we will take a night train to Bagan, which is known for its ancient pagodas (payas) which are said to rival those of Angkor Wat.

Unlike Yangon, we have had great weather; blue skies and a whole lot of sun. This could possibly be the hottest place we've been to so far on the trip, right up there with the Togians which were on the equator.

All is well.

Kevin and Jackie