Bhutan
Flag of Bhutan
The religion is Buddhism. The royal family introduced the idea of measuring happiness instead of income, an idea which has spread worldwide.
What to see?
Hillside forts.
Festivals with masked dancers.
(Burma) Myanmar)
MYANMAR (Burma)
Like Bombay becoming Mumbai, Burma becoming Myanmar is confusing to tourists. In this country's case the naming system is futher complicated by the fact that not everybody recognizes the new names.
Wiki explains:
The person you are most likely to know of is Aung San Sui Kyi. The coup in 2021 has put this place off limits for tourists, and left people from that country now overseas worried and unable to go home to their families.
On the other hand, most countries are inaccessible, and the coup has brought the country to the attention of the media, so why not look at the tourist attractions we might one day be allowed to visit.
Aung San Suu Kyi, like other Burmese names, includes no surname, but is only a personal name, in her case derived from three relatives: "Aung San" from her father, "Suu" from her paternal grandmother, and "Kyi" from her mother Khin Kyi.[18]
The Burmese refer to her as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Daw, literally meaning "aunt", is not part of her name but is an honorific for any older and revered woman, akin to "Madam".[19] Burmese sometimes address her as Daw Suu or Amay Suu ("Mother Suu").[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]
Tourist Sites
Capital city.
Mandalay
Temple of the largest book - inscribed on the stupas, white buildings. What is a stupa? The stupa ( from Sanskrit for heap) is an important form of Buddhist architecture, though it predates Buddhism. It is generally a sepulchral monument—a place of burial or a receptacle for religious objects. At its simplest, a stupa is a dirt burial mound faced with stone.
The Rudyard Kipling poem recalls the statue and reminisces about the Burmese girl he met there, and the palm trees and the bells and bay and the dawn from China across the bay.
| Description | English: Ku Tho Taw Pagoda & Sandar Muni Pagoda, Mandalay |
| Date | 9 September 2018 (according to Exif data) |
| Source | Own work |
| Author | Heinz_Htetz |
Jade market
Teak monastery.
Pottery city.
Laos
Lao food is very similar to that eaten in the northeastern Isaan region of Thailand: very spicy, more often bitter than sweet, and using lots of fresh herbs and vegetables served raw. Some of the raw vegetables can be used to cool your mouth when the chilis are overwhelming.
Rice is the staple carbohydrate. The standard kind is sticky rice (ເຂົ້າໜຽວkhao niaow), eaten by hand from small baskets called tip khao. Using your right hand, never your left, pinch off a bit, roll into a ball, dip and munch away.
The national dish is laap (ລາບ, also larb), a "salad" of minced meat mixed with herbs, spices, lime juice and, more often than not, blistering amounts of chili. Unlike Thai larb, the Lao version can use raw meat (dip) instead of cooked meat (suk), and if prepared with seafood makes a tasty, if spicy, carpaccio.
Another Lao invention is tam maak hung (ຕໍາຫມາກຫຸ່ງ), the spicy green papaya salad known as som tam in Thailand, but which the Lao like to dress with fermented crab (ປູດອງ pudem) and a chunky, intense fish sauce called pa daek (ປາແດກ), resulting in a stronger flavour than the milder, sweeter Thai style. Other popular dishes include ping kai, spicy grilled chicken, and mok pa, fish steamed in a banana leaf.
Laos also boasts a range of local desserts. Kanom kok is a small, spherical pudding made from coconut milk, tapioca and ground rice. Sang kaya mayru is a pumpkin filled with a sweet custard and then steamed. The pumpkin itself is also sweet, and the resulting mixture can be quite delicious. Sticky rice with mango or durian is also a popular snack.
In addition to purely Lao food, culinary imports from other countries are common. Khao jii pat-te, French baguettes stuffed with pâté, and foe (pho) noodles from China are both ubiquitous snacks particularly popular at breakfast. Foe can refer to thin rice noodles (Vietnamese pho), and to the wide flat noodles that would be called guay tiow in Thailand.
Drink[edit]
The national drink of Laos is the ubiquitous and tasty Beerlao, made with Laotian jasmine rice and one of the few Lao exports. It maintains an almost mythical status among travellers and beer aficionados. The yellow logo with its tiger-head silhouette can be seen everywhere, and a large 640 ml bottle shouldn't cost more than 10,000 to 15,000 kip in restaurants. It's available in three versions: original (5%), dark (6.5%) and light (2.9%). The brewery claims they have 99% market share.
Rice spirit, known as lao-lao, is everywhere,
Beerlau is rice beer. The Beerlau website's history page describes Laos as a luscious landlocked land, forgotten jewel of Far East Asia..
WARY WARNINGS - STAY SAFE
The warnings on Wikivoyage include dengue fever, drinking only bottled water, avoiding drugs - which can incur the death penalty as in other neighbouring countries including Malaysia and Singapore, and more.
Interstingly women must not touch monks (and vice versa), some of them won't talk to tohers, although they speak the language, and they don't accept money, only food which women place on the ground in front of them, so monks demanding money are imposters. Enough to dent my desire to go there immediately and be happy that I am forced by Covid-19 to postpone my next trip indefinitely and stay safe at home and to simply enjoy the pleasure of reading all about the attraction and admiring the photos and dreaming of the food, which I shall hunt out online.
Sounds very similar to the temples of Cambodia, and the communism of Vietnam, and the cuisine of Thailand, not surprisingly when the history of the countries is intermingled.
Laos Dress
To end on a happy note, from a woman's point of view, in addition to the calm yet exhilarating colours of the gold temples and orange robed monks, the national dress for women of sarongs and conical hats is most appealing.
The shawl is called a sbai.
SINGAPORE
Singapore has several restaurants which serve Lao food or a mixed menu of food from Laos and another country. When the dining restrictions are lifted I shall eat at a Lao restaurant or get a member of my family to collect a take away to try it out.
Useful Websites
BHUTAN
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bhutan
BURMA / MYANMAR
MYANMAR (Burma)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi
LAOS
https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Laotian+Food&find_loc=Kampong+Bukit+Panjang+67%2C+Singapore
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Laos
http://www.authentic-beerlao.co.uk/
Other beerlao websites for other countries.
Australia delivery
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_ER_1000004677_BEERLAO/beerlao-lager-330ml
Other beers and beer places in Singapore.
https://www.ramblingfeet.net/singapore-craft-beer-bars-map-review/
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places, landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.
Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.
Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.
About Angela The Speaker & Trainer
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.
Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:
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