Yesterday, I hopped the train to Kanchanaburi, 100 miles northwest of Bangkok. Train rides are usually low stress transportation, often with a lot of personality. And the ride to “Kan” is a lot of personality.
It is easy to have fun in Bangkok. We started off at a hotel on the city’s Chao Phraya River and got around town in a wooden water taxi that linked to Bangkok’s “BTS,” an above ground train system that is immaculate, fast and cheap.
Inle Lake is on Burma’s short list of best places to visit and home to various ethnic communities, small farms, and lots of wildlife. It has the added benefit of being at 3,000 feet elevation so its climate is much cooler than our other whistle stops.
We arrived in Bagan by way of a four hour, somewhat bone-jarring back road drive from Mandalay. The drive gave us a view of the gorgeous Burmese countryside — carts pulled by horses and Burma cows, herds of long-eared, black-headed goats, and thatched houses along mile after mile of bright green farmland.
We are hot and sweaty and happy. After a couple of transition days in Bangkok, we started our Burma journey in Mandalay, located in the flatland middle and close to other places we wanted to see.
Mandalay is actually not very interesting.
(Stock photo)
When I decided to leave a great job and a wonderful San Francisco apartment last year to travel solo around the world, the first reaction I got from most people was “wow, you are courageous.” I think this was actually a polite way of saying “wow, you are a little crazy.”
Riding a horse is a way to experience exhilaration and peace and connectedness all at the same time. I rarely feel more me than when I am on a horse.
On Sunday, I took a bus from my new home in Marin County to San Francisco International. I was not on my way to Armenia or Guatemala. Yet.
Camino Milagro 