Days 13-18: Burma

Ahh, Burma... How I love thy beaches but despise thy roads. We finally made it into Burma, escaping the frigid air of Yunnan for the warm Burmese winter weather. We had a lovely home-cooked Indian dinner waiting for us upon arrival, and then set out the next morning for Ngwe Saung beach. Ngwe Saung is around 120 miles from Yangon, I think, and last year that trek took us around 7 hours. But they were repairing the road, so it should have taken less time this year, right? Wrong. The lack of machines and therefore repairs done mostly by hand apparently move so slowly that the road gets worse faster than it gets fixed - they finally got a few steam rollers, though, so maybe that'll speed things up. In addition, the taxi transporting us had a natural gas tank that provided enough fuel for 100 miles of driving only, and there aren't any natural gas stations outside of Yangon, at least in that direction, so there was a leaky jerry can full of gasoline sloshing around in the backseat as we went over bump after bump for most of the journey. At least the fumes serve to muddle your brain so your fear of spontaneous combustion is lessened a bit. We made it in one piece, and got to enjoy several days on what has got to be one of the world's most beautiful beaches, lounging, swimming, and chasing little red crabs with beady white eyes. Then back in the death-mobile for one more sloshy-gas-container ride on the way back to Yangon, where we enjoyed some delicious meals at Sabai Sabai (my favorite noodles in the world, wide Thai rice noodles with soya and tofu), Manis (spaghetti carbonara with fiery stewed Indonesian beef), and had drinks at the Strand, one of the beautifully maintained colonial-period mansions around the city. We also paid a visit to the Shwedagon pagoda again before leaving town, stopping to pour cups of water on the emblems for the days of our birth - one cup over the Buddha for every year of your life, and then one on the animal deity - mine, the naga (Saturday), is a snub-nosed serpent which is very wise, and also a lucky deity to have. Dusk at the pagoda is quite spectacular, as the lights come on and illuminate the gold that covers everything in sight as the sun sets behind the temples. A beautiful end to another lovely visit to Burma.