You hear his office door open, as you punch TripHash.com/travel-blog into your terminal. He saunters over, a stack of papers in his right hand, several manila folders in his left. He swings around the corner and peers over the side of the gray fabric-clothed cubicle. An empty chair...
Loud, incessant rattling ricochets about the room. At times, it sounds like a car trying to start with a dying battery, other times, like a battalion of rickety military tanks lacking mufflers arriving at your doorstep. You toss from side to side, hoping to ignore the clattering racket but such is a hopeless endeavor until finally, after a good half hour, a deep clunk emanates from the wall and everything goes silent. Read More →
Warm air blows your hair from left to right. The violent sounds of a crashing surf synchronize perfectly with your visuals straight ahead. Behind you, a sprawling development of villas and a beach-side bar with but a speckling of customers. A diminutive, older security guard chats with a coconut seller whose ramshackle stand is within the confines.
What makes this Chaung Tha, and not Miami, Cancun or Bora Bora, is what makes any certain place special, the unique idiosyncrasies. Is a beach community or experience only to be determined by sand quality or water clarity? If so, Chaung Tha fails. But you are here to understand a place which has been quite popular with the citizens of Myanmar, and that colour is much more interesting than the sand colour. Read More →
You are on the new Golden Myanmar Airlines jet watching the shadows of clouds speckling the stupa-pocked landscape below. You had planned to stay in Bagan several days but decided it was quite prudent to depart early. The escape had to be done via bus, train or plane. And given the costs, moreso the time investment of one hour or so versus 12, the plane seemed to win. The plan had you flying from Yangon—arriving in the late afternoon—snagging a taxi for a reasonably lengthy trip from the airport to the Dagon Ayar Highway Bus station (located on the western edge of the city) and hoping to find a bus that will run you to Chaung Tha Beach.
It would have been quite nice to know bus schedules going in but these things are constantly changing and so a roll of the dice was the best option. Further, even if the bus schedules were online, the terrible state of internet in Bagan would’ve rendered it meaningless anyhow. Read More →
“Excuse me, excuse me,” she yells, a short-stubby woman running after you as you leave the airport serving Bagan, Myanmar. You have decided to forego the taxi cabs and take a walk on this pleasant day into Nyaung-U, the nearby town.
“Yes?” you respond as you turn to her.
“You come, you come, follow,” she says. You comply. Read More →
One of the best things about Nyaungshwe, the town just north of Inle Lake, is the open air market: woman hawking freshly-caught fish, men pounding red hot steel into knives and produce sellers sitting behind their watermelon piles. Read More →
The engine coughs and catches, cackling loudly, like a badly maintained Harley Davidson motorcycle. The noises echo amongst the houses bordering each side of the Nyaungshwe canal, and are only “quieted” by even louder long-tail boats roaring on past. Read More →
The hotel is new, like many buildings going up to support the increased tourism in Myanmar’s Inle Lake region. However, unlike many other areas in Myanmar, it seems the hotels here give you a decent value for your money, serving you a cold fruit juice and a refreshing towelette at check-in to help cool you from the elevated temperatures outside.
You climb to the rooftop of the hotel and watch a group of red-robed Buddhist monks walking along the road. After they pass, you scan the horizon. This elevation only further confirms the previous notions that Inle Lake is in the midst of a lot of tourism-related development. Read More →
The first things you spot, after departing Heho Airport—the gateway airport for Inle Lake—are the great looking avocados stacked neatly by a pair of woman in the dusty parking lot. The driver turns to find that you have stopped following him and watches with an amused look as you negotiate for some fruit. Read More →
The first thing you notice is the really old-looking carpet as you walk towards immigrations at Yangon International Airport in Myanmar. The strong feel is of a place forgotten by time, and is, fittingly what has been proffered as the appeal of Myanmar as a whole. Strangely enough, despite the design choices, the international terminal started operating in 2007.
Myanmar immigrations officials sit at old desks retrofitted with a camera and a glowing, anti-viral device from Samsung. They urge you to step forward, and then to step back as they attempt to compose a proper photo. They quickly look over your visa paperwork, which is now up to $50 per entry, while scribbling information. Read More →
The first thing you notice are the hundreds of cargo ships, scattered across the color wheel, speckling the water below. The second thing you notice, before and after the tremendously expedient trip through Singapore’s immigrations and customs, is the verdant patches of plant life tucked and nestled around each bend at Singapore’s International Airport. The architecture of sharp angles, beautifully selected materials and high-tech wizardry, like the ceiling which is covered in glass skylights that tilt to pefect angles ensuring pleasing, diffused light around the clock. Read More →
You’ve landed into Colombo, Sri Lanka; it is 3:30AM; and it is raining a fair amount. You have no waterproof clothing, no umbrellas, no bag covers and a fair amount of time before you are supposed to check in to your guesthouse. You had planned on spending this chunk of time finding and enjoying a beach in nearby Negombo, but it seems that plan is no longer.
You can take a train along the coast, towards Hikkaduwa, or head inland, towards Kandy. Those should take several hours. You know from a previous time* that the train along the coast is quite nice, but you did that in perfect weather as the sun was setting. You check the weather and find it is raining everywhere, part of a significant storm system. You could wait in the airport, but the amenities—outside of the littany of washing machine and refrigerator shops—are few. You could head to the guesthouse and wait, but will anyone be up at 4AM to let you in? Read More →
Torrential rains soaked your morning departure from Maafushi, and, if being soaking wet boarding the ferry wasn’t a fine enough experience, torrential rains soak you again upon your disembarkation from the delinquent government ferry now hitched at a dock on the southwestern corner of Male. Wading through tumultuously flowing streets amidst thick sheets of rain, you trudge across town with your bags, stop for a quick bite to eat at your restaurant in Male, board the airport ferry and speed-walk through the airport to make your pre-arranged appointment.
The appointment: arrive at counter #45 in Male’s Ibrahim Nasir International Airport at 11:45. From there, you are to meet a representative who is to arrange a motorboat transfer to luxurious Lankanfushi island, home to the resort of Gili Lankanfushi. Read More →
Maafushi grows larger. The rain is starting to let up, although the grey clouds remain. A similar gathering to that found on Guraidhoo awaits the arrival of the government ferry. The Maafushi coastline looks more promising than that of Guraidhoo, but your expectations are now quite minimal. Read More →
The air is clean, the sun is strong and the city of Male is humming with activity. Colours are splashed all about; you walk the stone-laid streets towards the harbor. There are several methods of getting around the Maldives—a country comprised of many atolls, or circular-shaped island chains: by boat (which is typically a ferry or motorboat) and by plane (generally seaplane).
