Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

Do you know those questions, 'who would you most like to have dinner with'? Well, Aung San Suu Kyi is at the top of my list. Today, being International Women's Day seems to be a perfect day to tell you why! Yangon Street Art Having just returned from a holiday to Myanmar we have got to know, Suu, the most famous woman never to have held office, a lot better than we would otherwise have done. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD) and between 1989 and 2010 spent fifteen of those twenty-one years under house arrest in Rangoon (Yangon). She is a charismatic figure, loved by her people, hated by the military regime who have been running the country. Recent democratic elections have given hope of a change. But the world waits to see how this might be. I am drawn to Suu for many reasons, and I guess the bottom line is that I can't help wondering at every stage of trying to understand her life, would I have been ...

We're just gearing up for the start of the 2016 Australian Winter football season. Move over cricket, here come the soccer players! After what seems to have been the shortest pre-season ever,   it didn't help being away for all the warm -up matches,  yesterday was Round One of the Victorian Women's National Premier League. So it's football boots on and off we go! Ha! Well, that's, of course, the right royal "we", I'm just the crazy soccer Mum. This season looks to be calmer than last year when our family were either  playing, coaching or assisting with seven matches over the course of a weekend. No wonder I'm crazy, just keeping everyone fuelled for optimum performance was a challenge and my workout! The photo I'm sharing this weekend is from Myanmar when we stumbled upon a village soccer tournament. What do you see? Village football Yangon, Myanmar I love seeing the Beautiful Game being played around the...

Bagan, Myanmar Pagoda Climbing  It is pretty hairy climbing some of the ancient monuments in Bagan, it's not for the faint-hearted! The steps are crumbling, it's a vertical climb or descent, in the tenth to twelfth centuries there was little thought to safety rails you know!  We  discussed whether it was appropriate to climb, on so many fronts; safety, erosion and sanctity of the site. 'It won't be long before they rethink this', we say! Little did we know that in less than two weeks later, the Myanmar authorities would issue a blanket ban on climbing all pagodas effective March 1st, 2016. They didn't like the " disgraceful behaviour, " citing inappropriate attire, and dancing and sleeping on the monuments as the problem - and that wasn't us!   The Ministry of Culture did a U-turn the following day, to allow five pagodas to be exempt. Bagan: temple climbing We talked about the dilemma that we faced when visiting Uluru, Austral...

It is somewhat of a relief to leave bustling Mandalay behind. It has not quite lived up to it's exotic sounding name of Kipling mystique. Instead of an Orient full of tropical splendour, we find a grimy, congested place full of camera-ready tourists in search of the said delights. Mandalay Hill at Chinese New Year is not a place of calm! So today we set off in search of what the guide books promises as the 'enchantingly beautiful parts of the wider Mandalay area.' A small noisy wooden boat packed with a mixed bag of tourists takes us across the romantically sounding Ayeyarwady (the Irrawady of old) river straight into a hustle of exuberant pony and cart drivers. They've not got the memo that our adult kids are traveling with their parents AND a tour guide. Assuming them to be part of the 'gappy' university brigade, they are hustled elsewhere and initially find themselves on the wrong horse and carriage. Our tour guide rushes off to retrieve them and eve...

‘This is Burma and it will be quite unlike any land you know about”  Rudyard Kipling, Letters from the East 1889 The last time I was in Burma was in 2007 on our Honeymoon.  We won a trip to the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in the school raffle.   We weren’t married, but with twenty-two years together,  we felt we deserved a honeymoon.  Indein Village ruins at Inle Lake A wedding in China was on the cards.  And as we already had three children,   it seemed totally appropriate  in our back-to-front lives,  to have the Honeymoon before the wedding.  Fisherwomen at Ngapali Beach Where to have a honeymoon was always going to be a tricky decision.  We've had a fortunate life, full of international moves, exotic travels and adventures.  Choosing somewhere new, exciting, gorgeous, and not too far away  from our then Hong Kong home was proving tricky...  A FREE ho...

We loved our holiday in Myanmar.  Here is the itinerary put together for us by our Travel Agent.  We took 5 internal flights; Myanmar is surprisingly large, three times the size of Great Britain.  You will note we had lots of early starts and so we really enjoyed the three days relaxing at Ngapali Beach.  Our absolute highlights were Bagan and Inle Lake. Feb 6th: Arrival Yangon. An evening visit to the famous Shwedagon Pagoda Sunset at the Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon Feb 7th: Yangon sightseeing Tri shaw ride in Yangon Feb 8th: Yangon-Bagan (Flight 06:20/07:40 am) Bagan Sightseeing Sunset in Bagan Feb 9th: Bagan sightseeing by bike Feb 10th: A visit to Mt Popa & Evening sunset boat ride along the Ayeyarwaddy River Feb 11: Bagan - Mandalay (07:35/08:05 am) Sightseeing Mandalay Feb 12: Visit Amapura, Sagaing & Inwa Feb 13: Boat trip to Mingun Feb 14: Mandalay HeHo (09.30/10:...

Greetings from Myanmar - the land of the many golden stupas and pink people power!  We're at the end of a two week family trip and have now returned to Yangon, and are back with occasional WiFi - Yay!  Myanmar is a fascinating place, it's exploding as a tourist destination and rightly so. An exotic destination emerging from it's forbidden years for those supporting Aung San Suu Kyi's tourism ban and it's booming. Last night we compared Beautiful Burma with our previous holidays in China, Vietnam and Cambodia and it comes out tops for shear diversity.  Burmese ladies at a donation ceremony in Mandalay I remember finding Vietnam a rather depressing country on our various visits.  Sure it's beautiful but you sure do travel with the weight of history. Our guides seemingly placing every historical detail in context to 'the war.' Cambodia by contrast has had equally, if not worse atrocities which are more privately born. In China , things ar...

Magnificent Myanmar! Wordless Wednesday Shhhhhh, LET'S GET WORDLESS!  Marionettes in Bagan Bagan Buddha Watermelon face at Popa Mountain resort Pomelo seller in Yangon Donating to Buddha in Bagan Fan making factory - used for wedding ceremonies Off to watch the football in the village