Return from Myanmar

We are back in Bangkok now after 12 days in Myanmar. We had a nice visit there and found people to be warm and friendly. Tourists are restricted to only certain parts of the country, so the view of the country that we saw may be very different than other parts of the country. We did not see much evidence of the represive government in the places we visited. People laughed, joked, played guitar music and sang, most people seemed to have enough to eat, shelters to live in, and work to do. It is a very 3rd world country by our standards. Electricty comes and goes throughout the day at unpredictable intervals and is off at least as much as it is on, many homes don't have electricty. Most of the roads aren't in very good condition. The cars are ancient and falling apart (by my standards), people still get around the smaller cities by horse cart, ox are used for plowing the fields. Buddhism is a strong influence in the country and there are monks and temples everywhere. We enjoyed our visit, but we are very happy to be back in Bangkok tonight, which feels like a return to civilization. Tomorrow we fly out to northern India to begin our next adventure.