Art By Tali Landsman

Arriving In Mandalay, Myanmar  - Trip Notes  I did not know how much I had yearned to be here, until we arrived.... From Bangkok, it was a short one and a half hour flight to Mandalay. The airport is small, and since we applied for e-visas in advance, it was a quick and simple process to get through immigration. At one of the airport banks, we changed $500 US dollars and got an inch thick wad of Burmese cash. The thick stack of cash brought to mind the image of a mafioso, intending to pay a bribe or to make some shady deals... The heat is overbearing and feels like someone's left the oven door open. Jules and I looked at each other and jokingly said: "Pardon me, can you please turn the oven a bit lower please?..." Our taxi driver, and everyone else I saw, was wearing traditional Burmese clothing of an ankle length sarong and a shirt. We had booked a small boutique hotel in the center of the city called 'Bagan King.' We booked it because I read that some of the big...

A Few Days In Bangkok, Thailand  From Manila, it was a short flight to Bangkok. We had booked a small boutique hotel (called Casa Nithra) on Thanon Samsen, up the road from the hedonistic 'Soi Ram Buttri' road and the cheap shopping and Indian tailors on 'Khaosan' Road. A walk up and down these roads will get you to pass by dozens of good massage places, where you can be massaged while sitting in an outdoor lounger and engaging in people watching.  Or perhaps you might prefer to be massaged indoors, in an air conditioned room, where they will give you loose pajama-like clothing to change into, wash your feet, lay you on a mattress on the floor, pull the curtains around you, and proceed to pull your limbs and crack your bones until you move beyond the threshold of pain, into a wonderful feeling.  After only two Thai massages (220 Thai Bahts each, or about $7), my aching leg muscles from the previous week's hiking in the rice terraces of Banaue were completely healed....