Myanmar with Peregrine Travel

I traveled to Vietnam several years ago with an eco-friendly small-group tour company, Peregrine Travel (Melbourne, Australia; visit www.peregrineadventures.com. Book in the U.S. through Adventure Center, 1311 63rd St., Ste. 200, Emeryville, CA 94608; 800/227-8747, www. adventurecenter.com). In November ’06 I took their 12-day “Burma Unveiled” tour. The tour price was $1,375 plus $20 for the tips kitty and $1,100 for round-trip airfare from San Francisco to Yangon on Singapore Air.

I like Peregrine’s style of travel. They use local agents (for this trip, it was Journeys in Burma) and funnel money toward the indigenous economy. Our well-traveled group of 15 comprised mostly Australians, with two Canadians, three Brits, a Swiss and myself.

The accommodations were excellent. We stayed in a standard tourist hotel in Yangon and, elsewhere, in bungalows that were modern, bordering on luxurious (at least, for me; I usually am housed in something more basic). We had swimming pools in Yangon and Mandalay. At Inle Lake, we were in floating cottages with verandas.

Our itinerary covered Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake. We traveled by aircraft and boat. We were supposed to have taken the night train from Yangon to Mandalay, but the Myanmar government had “suspended” the train’s service. (Note: for 2007, this tour includes a flight from Yangon to Mandalay; the train trip is discontinued. The tour price, not including international air, is $1,454.)

We spent three days in each place, except Yangon. At each stop, there were day trips to various towns, temples, pagodas, markets and small economic enterprises, aka “factories.” It was a crash course in Burmese life and culture, but I learned little about the outlying tribes who are in conflict with the central government.

People appeared poor, and there was some begging, but it was nothing like what I’ve seen in India. I saw few new highrises and no new cars (except one at the Yangon airport), and everything was cheap; I spent less than $500 on food and gifts (meals each averaged $5). American dollars were almost universally accepted, although we often got kyat in change.

A high point of the trip was Inle Lake. We rode longboats with what seemed like washing-machine engines across to Indein, where there was a festival at the monastery. I was invited to sit and join in eating sticky rice, dried fish and sweet cakes with coffee (which was mostly milk and sugar) while people talked and chanted.

The books I read for this journey were Amy Tan’s “Saving Fish from Drowning” and George Orwell’s “Burmese Days.”

JO RAWLINS GILBERT

Menlo Park, CA