Tag: Culture

Colonial Echoes in Pyin Oo Lwin

by pennypostcard • October 5, 2026 • 0 Comments

Continuing with some posts I never had a chance to publish before we departed Rangoon in August… This past June, I flew with J and my mom to Mandalay, 400 miles north of our home in Rangoon, for a two-night visit. We had just spent a few days only slightly west of Mandalay in Bagan sightseeing with a guide and driver. We had arranged the same for Mandalay, hiring an established tour guide and known embassy contact who I’ll call T.

T’s company had taken me to Mandalay earlier in the year to conduct a prison visit with a U.S. citizen during an overnight trip I made with a member of my consular local staff. Unfortunately, between the consular access visit and meetings with schools and other local contacts, I hadn’t had a moment for sightseeing. I very much wanted the opportunity to return to Mandalay and actually see the city.

Foreign Service, Travel, Burma

City of 10,000 Temples

by pennypostcard • October 4, 2026 • 1 Comment

Before much more time passes, I want to finish the posts I began writing while we were still in Burma. It was only several weeks ago, in mid-August, that we departed Rangoon. But with every week that passes, fresh adventures take priority and memories can grow dimmer or change shape. I’d like to capture as much of the magic I found in Burma before the details fade for me.

So backing up a little bit, during the June visit of my mom and her friend and co-worker J to Burma, which I touched on previously, we took a couple of domestic trips within Burma. The first was to the ancient city of Bagan. Colleagues had told me Bagan was not to be missed, which turned out to be absolutely true.

Burma, Foreign Service

The Beginning of the End

by pennypostcard • July 25, 2026 • 2 Comments

In May, we entered the last quarter of our tour. All of the storylines — my work, our lives here, and what’s next — started to converge, signaling that the beginning of the end was underway.

Burma, Foreign Service

Thingyan (Water Holiday)

by pennypostcard • July 2, 2026 • 2 Comments

Thingyan is one of Myanmar’s most important holidays and marks the traditional Burmese New Year. Celebrated over several days each April, it is a time of renewal, reflection, and community.

The festival is best known for its joyful water-throwing traditions, in which people splash each another with water as a symbolic act of washing away the misfortunes and impurities of the past year. In real life, this looks like a street festival in which everyone is happy to be thoroughly drenched. Beyond the festivities, many Burmese people observe Thingyan through acts of merit-making, including visits to pagodas, donations to monasteries and charitable causes, and time spent with family. Traditional music, dance, and foods are also central to the celebration. Combining both exuberant public festivities and deeply rooted spiritual practices, Thingyan reflects values of generosity, reconciliation, and hopes for a prosperous and peaceful year ahead.

Burma, Foreign Service

A Rolling Portrait: Yangon Circular Railway

by pennypostcard • May 16, 2026 • 0 Comments

In March, the embassy’s Community Liaison Office (CLO) organized a weekend day trip to ride the Yangon Circular Railway.

Often called the “Circle Line,” the train travels on an approximately 28-mile (45 km) loop track around the city. It is supposed to be one of the most atmospheric and socially revealing railways in Southeast Asia. It’s not only a commuter railway and a relic of British colonial infrastructure, but also an informal street market, a lifeline for people who need to travel inexpensively, and a beautiful way to understand how the city is laid out.

Foreign Service, Travel

Finally, Bangkok for Tourism

by pennypostcard • May 14, 2026 • 0 Comments

One of the amazing delights of serving a tour in Rangoon is its proximity — via a one-hour flight — to Bangkok. Similarly to how we viewed the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent (located within driving distance of my first posting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Bangkok offers shopping, international cuisine, real banking and medical care. It’s also a genuine reprieve from the stresses of Rangoon, such as burning garbage and electrical outages.

On our prior trips to Bangkok, we have been most interested in what it offers that isn’t otherwise available to us. With that said, Bangkok is a world city with plenty of things that make it special and worth visiting, not just in comparison to Rangoon but independently. In February we finally took that kind of trip to Bangkok.

Burma, Foreign Service

A New Normal

by pennypostcard • April 18, 2026 • 1 Comment

As I mentioned in a previous post, February was the month where life started to slowly feel like it was getting back to normal again for us in Burma. We returned from our R&R in Vietnam and Indonesia with some fresh perspective and gratitude, ready to hit the reset button.

As we reached the halfway point of our tour and I was finally able to leave my walker and cane behind for good, we focused on making memories and ensuring my accident neither became the legacy of our time in Rangoon nor overshadowed the time we had left.

Foreign Service, Travel

Pool Villa Life, Part II

by pennypostcard • March 25, 2026 • 5 Comments

Before too much more time elapses, I want to finish sharing my thoughts about the third part of our January R&R — in Bali, Indonesia.

Foreign Service, Travel

Holiday in Hanoi, Part II

by pennypostcard • February 19, 2026 • 1 Comment

January found V and me on R&R in Vietnam, a country we had never visited before. Our first stop was Hanoi—the country’s vibrant capital. Its streets buzzed with the cacophony of commerce and the chaotic crush of cars and motorbikes. It felt so different from Rangoon—more optimistic, more productive, life moving in fast-forward motion. I had only been out of the hospital for a month after being hit by a truck eight weeks prior, and I was still using a walker. But I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying Hanoi as much as I could.

[This post is the second in a series. To read the post about the first half of the trip, please click on the link.]

Foreign Service, Health, Leadership & Work Culture, Travel

Postcard from Singapore

by pennypostcard • January 26, 2026 • 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I began 2026 with a work-related trip to Singapore to attend a consular leadership development course called the CLDC—it was my first CLDC and my first time ever in the country. It was also the first time since returning home to Burma from the hospital in Bangkok in December that I had traveled anywhere on my own; it felt not only like an exciting professional opportunity, but also a chance to road-test my healing body.

Burma, Foreign Service

Postcard From the 16th Century Bayinnaung Kingdom

by pennypostcard • November 30, 2025 • 1 Comment

Before too much more time elapses, I decided to deviate briefly from the heaviness of the present-day story about my recent truck vs. pedestrian accident and highlight a trip V and I took in October to the ancient city of Bago, about two hours northeast of Rangoon.

I’ll give an update on my hospitalization in Thailand and recovery from the accident soon.

Burma, Foreign Service

Celebrating Thadingyut (သီတင်းကျွတ်ပွဲတော်)

by pennypostcard • October 9, 2025 • 4 Comments

Last weekend marked Burma’s sacred holiday of the Full Moon of Thadingyut (pronounced like tha-TIN-jut). The date of Thadingyut varies each year because it follows the traditional Burmese lunar calendar, which is based on moon cycles. Usually Thadingyut falls in October, but it can also occur in late September.

We had a three-day weekend in honor of the occasion. While most local people celebrated by visiting family around Burma and observing Buddhist traditions of thanksgiving, I took the opportunity to relax. I had a nail appointment, spent several hours swimming, and caught up with friends throughout the weekend — a Friday evening out at a new American-style 1950s diner; fabric shopping on Saturday afternoon with colleagues to commission a Burmese dress set, followed by an embassy Oktoberfest gathering that evening; and a Monday afternoon luncheon hosted by our neighbors next door. But the most special part of the weekend for me and V was finally visiting Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon’s golden temple, on Sunday evening.

Burma, Foreign Service

Diamonds in the Rough

by pennypostcard • September 27, 2025 • 1 Comment

In this assignment —my fifth— I find myself surrounded by so many diamonds that it can be hard to spot the rough beneath them. Yet the rough is always there, sometimes hitting harder than expected—especially when you’ve been focused on the sparkle.

Burma, Foreign Service

Cooking Outdoors: Nangyithoke

by pennypostcard • August 30, 2025 • 1 Comment

Our second weekend in Rangoon, we attended a cooking class sponsored by the embassy’s Community Liaison Office (CLO) at a local organic farm. We were excited for a chance to learn how to cook Nangyithoke, a Burmese chicken thick noodle salad which originated in Mandalay.

The CLO warned us to bring insect repellant — and for good reason, as it turned out; the farm hosts its cooking classes in a beautiful outdoor kitchen.

Burma, Foreign Service

Breaking the Ice

by pennypostcard • August 25, 2025 • 1 Comment

In early August, our first weekend in Rangoon struck the perfect balance of downtime at the pool, making new friends, and exploring a few sights outside the embassy grounds. Thanks to the embassy’s hard-working Community Liaison Office (CLO), V and I were able to enjoy a guided shopping trip before we’d even figured out how to order a taxi on our own.

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