Myanmar with Odysseys Unlimited

My husband, Earl, and I toured Myanmar with Odysseys Unlimited (Newton, MA; 888/370-6765), Nov. 27-Dec. 10, 2012. There were 24 members in our group.

The listed price for the tour, including round-trip air from San Francisco to Bangkok, was $4,800 per person. However, we paid $4,070 per person because we arranged our own air with China Airlines (Taipei, Taiwan; phone 886 2 412 9000 or, in the US, 800/227-5118).

We also turned down the suggested travel insurance, opting for the “Betty James Travel Insurance” (so called by Wayne Wirtanen in his column “Eye On Travel Insurance,” Sept. ’10, pg. 54).

Myanmar is a fascinating country. It was harvesttime, and our guide stopped for us to see how crops such as peanuts, cabbage and dry-farm rice were processed. A walk through a small village near Bagan was enlightening, as was an excursion onto a freighter at a dock in Yangon; people rented marked spots on the metal deck for the ride to their homes in the delta south of Yangon.

Myanmar welcomes visitors, and I suggest traveling there soon because some of the tourist sites are becoming congested. The country does not have a developed infrastructure to handle more and more people. 

The Kandawgyi Palace in Yangon was a nice hotel. Our guide told us the main stupa at famous Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon will be covered with bamboo scaffolding in 2015 for major restoration.

The Pristine Lotus Spa Resort at Inle Lake was very nice. We enjoyed our two days at the lake seeing the leg-rowers and houses on stilts. Our guide warned us before our visit to “Jumping Cat” monastery on the lake that the cats no longer jump.

BARBARA McINTOSH

Roseville, CA