The other day a friend of ours, Liz, treated me to a birthday extravaganza. This was literally months in the planning which was done with Lindsey. Two other friends of ours went along for the ride initially but had no idea of the plans. The first step was a crossword puzzle which when completed had to be viewed with a black light to reveal our first destination. Liz hired a driver for the day which is a new feature on Grab (the Asian version of Uber). You basically pay by the hour and can have a decent size and quality of car. You literally order a driver for 8 hours or so minutes before you need them, quite amazing.

That should be ‘Yangon by e-bike’.  Last year in October we rented e-bikes at Ankor Wat in Cambodia.  They were fairly low powered and ideally had to be charged during the day to keep them going well.  We both loved riding around on them and Cambodian driving though seemingly nuts is actually quite calm so it was a great experience. Continue reading “Yangon by bike…” →

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the lovely colonial architecture of downtown Yangon.  That is not what we are going to talk about today.  Today we are going to get a little tour of the architectural crimes against humanity that are infecting our neighbourhood. Continue reading “From the Sublime to the Ridiculous” →

As we’ve said before, this August and September has been so much more relaxing than last year’s August and September.  A good part of this is that by the time we left Yangon in June we had our house pretty much sorted out with all the essentials. Continue reading “Home Improvement” →

It has been pretty rainy since we arrived back in Yangon.  Much rainier than we remember it being last year.  A few times now I have had to wade through water that has overrun the road on my walk home from school. Continue reading “Colonial Yangon” →

We’ve been back now just over a month.  Comparatively with last year, the process of coming to Yangon and starting work has been a breeze.  It was so nice to come back home where all of our things are, including Nell!

Continue reading “Roads, Rain and Re-entry” →

We’ve been back to school now for two and a half weeks.  This year is my 20th year working in a school-where has the time gone?  That’s us on the first day up there-it was raining which was a shame, but no one made us wear matching grey t-shirts (that showed every drop of sweat) this year! Continue reading “Back to the Routine” →

In my last post, I alluded to some airport turmoil we experienced this summer.  I have to preface this by saying all’s well that ends well, and in the end nothing was really traumatic (see the happy family photo above???) but I am happy not to have to go to an airport any time soon. Continue reading “Travel Travails” →