Greetings from Balmy Yangon

Got this e-mail from Cathy. Sounds like they're doing great. I tried to edit for weird cut and paste glitches but I may have missed some.

Hello!!

its wed am here and i just got done sitting on the street taking photos of people on their way to work. it is amazing how many people they can cram onto a bus or truck or anything with wheels!

everything has been great so far.. no problems at all. i met up with christina in singapore no problem and we flew to yangon. singapore airlines is fantastic.. gourmet food and stunningly beautiful flight attendants dressed in purple. so we were supposed to be picked up at the airport by a man from our hotel but he did not show up. we stood around for a while then got swamped by the inevitable crowd of folks that seem to meet every plane, train and bus in every country "hello hello where you from? taxi taxi??". compared to other places it wasnt bad here at all though and we got a taxi to take us to our place and the man that was supposed to pick us up even paid for it.

yangon is awesome. its like an older more decrepit version of bangkok. it is teeming with activity and street life. little plastic chairs and tables set up all over the place serving all kinds of utterly amazing food.

chris... you would be in heaven. mom... WAY too spicy for you.

i've tried all kinds of things and so far the only thing i didnt like was the grilled chicken skin. it looked good until i bit into it then i gave it to a skinny dog. yesterday we wandered all over the place and walked through some fascinating food markets which happened to be next to a garbage dump. all kinds of fresh fish and veggies and other colorful things that i could not identify. so far i've been eating a lot from street vendors and feel great... i hope it stays that way.

people here have been very nice. they either don't pay much attention to you or smile and say hello. there does not seem to be any resentment towards tourists. last evening we went to the Shwedagon Paya which is a HUGE temple (actually many many temples and dozens and dozens of glittering buddhas. it was bigger and glitzier than anything we saw in thailand. also the monks are more friendly here. i did not think they were supposed to talk to people, especially women, but we had a couple of young ones (maybe14?) following us around the Paya pointing things out to us and acting more like teenage boys than monks.

christina is still sleeping (she does like to sleep late) but that is good because it gives me time to walk around and take photos. today we will try to arrange our train ticket up north. still not sure exactly where we will go from here but we think train to mandalay then hire a driver to take us to hsipaw then train back to mandalay then boat to bagan then hire driver to a few other places then back to yangon for new years. we're actually seen quite a few christmas trees and references to christmas and new years. christina wants to get a room at this 5 star hotel for new years eve which could be fun and it is only $90/night (very cheap for a 5 star hotel, esp split in half) it is so cheap here... tiger beer is about 50 cents, a good meal is $2-3 and a decent place to stay around 10-15/night. its hot and humid but not too bad. i am shiny faced and fuzzy haired though and expect i will remain that way for the entire trip.

that's all for now! i hope all is well and pls give our fat spoiled dogs a pat on the head from me. i have already made a couple dog friends here.

i love you and miss you! chris i wish you were here... you would love yangon.. like bangkok but not quite as hectic and the old coloniel looking architecture. i will take lots of photos, dont worry. :-)