Burma

17 October, 1978. Mandalay airport.The gaps between diary notes are becoming longer and longer; it’s been five weeks since Quetta, maybe six. And plenty has happened: a great first class train ride to Lahore; Lahore's Fort and tomb of Jahangir, meeting Helene in Delhi, seeing the rest of Delhi's wonders, including the Qutb Minar, the tomb of Humayun, the Lodi Gardens; buying two miniatures.  Then flight stops at Agra, Khajuraho, and Benares; a week with Helene in Kathmandu Valley; and two more weeks sitting on her asses at Pancho‘s house, sleeping until 10, listening to his music, reading his books, only occasionally venturing out on a minor excursion. And now, back on the trail again, we’re kind of slowly shaking off the laziness, not yet much excited about moving, disliking the discomfort of travel, secretly wishing we were in a nice snug house of our own. I predict we'll be in great shape in a few more days – it’s tough to shift lifestyle so rapidly!

Burma! We have all of six days to see it all, thanks to Burma Airways neat scheduling, not to mention arrival on Sunday (diplomatic shops closed -> problems on getting cheap kyats), Monday a holiday (Festival of Light), and no planes from Pagan to Rangoon (airport flooded).  Never mind – we'll do all right. We started off by selling our two bottles of whiskey for a profit of $18. (the Kathmandu airport had no Johnny Walker, no cigarettes.), then changed another $20 at 15 kyats to the dollar (as opposed to the official 6.6).  All trains and air tickets have to be paid in hard currency, but the rest of our kyats will keep us in food, beer, and whatever. At this rate, beer costs about $.30 a bottle..

We decided not to stop at Calcutta on the way: the city was flooded, bridges were out, and the route to Puri was under construction. Maybe will hit them on the way back… 

The best we’ve seen of late by far was Khajuraho, followed closely behind by the Taj and Fatehpur Sikri.  Rangoon ain’t much, and Mandalay has not much more to offer. But soon we fly to Pagan for two days of temple hopping, and I predict good times, especially with the moon full.

Boy, I couldn’t be in less of a mood to write notes.