So I have basically a week off at the end of April, and I just booked a ticket to Myanmar (formerly Burma). I’ve been jonesing to get out of Vietnam and check out somewhere I haven’t been before – the only trips I’ve made since I’ve been here have been two trips to Cambodia – and I’d already been there twice before (once in 2001 and once in 2004) anyway.

So after playing around with a bunch of fares and flight schedules of the various discount airlines, it turns out I can fly from HCMC to Bangkok for about $150, and then on to Myanmar for another $180. I don’t think $330 is too bad for an international trip!

I fly to Bangkok on the evening of Friday, April 25th, and will just spend the night in an airport hotel as my flight to Yangon, Myanmar is early on the morning of the 26th. I fly back to Bangkok on Monday, May 5th, an back to HCMC later that same day.

I do have to get a Myanmar visa, but I am hopeful that won’t be too difficult. It should be an interesting trip!

[By the way, I know all about the human rights situation in Myanmar, etc., and I thought long and hard about going there. But a lot of the articles I read said that one of the reason the average Burmese (Myanmarese?) is suffering right now is because there are very few tourists going there - so the hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc., aren't making any money. The articles do encourage you not to stay in government-owned hotels or to use the government-owned tourist agencies - because that money just goes straight to the military junta, but that if you avoid that you're really just helping out ordinary Burmese who could use a few bucks. So rightly or wrongly, I'm going to go check it out.]