The other day was in the park with his daycare group to play at the playground.

While he was there he was bitten by some unknown insect and the morning after his whole face was swollen.



Fortunately he was happy enough and it didn't require any visits to a doctor.

Last weekend it was our Niece Emma's first birthday.

This was celebrated with lots of cakes and a jumping castle on which Aiden had lots of fun.

I just updated the map of the countries I have set my foot in...now 66 countries.

Africa	Rene(68)	Kim	Aiden	Lucas
Kenya	YES
Tanzania	YES
Uganda	YES
Egypt	YES
Tunesia	YES
Morocco	YES
Gambia	YES
Senegal	YES
South Africa	YES	YES	YES	YES
Zimbabwe	YES	YES	YES	YES
Zambia	YES	YES	YES	YES
Europe
Turkey	YES
Spain	YES	YES
France	YES	YES
Swizerland	YES	YES
Austria	YES	YES
Greece	YES	YES
Italy	YES
Lictenstein	YES
Vatican	YES	YES
Yougoslavia	YES
Croatia	YES	YES	YES
Slovenia	YES	YES	YES
Bosnia	YES	YES	YES
Montenegro	YES	YES	YES
Poland	YES
East Germany	YES
West Germany	YES	YES	YES
Belgium	YES	YES
Holland	YES	YES
Denmark	YES	YES	YES
Sweden	YES
Norway	YES
Finland	YES
Portugal	YES
Luxenbourg	YES
San Marino	YES
Monaco	YES	YES
Cyprus	YES
Hungary	(YES)	(YES)	(YES)
United Kingdom	YES	YES	(YES)
Americas
USA	YES	YES
Canada	YES
Mexico	YES	YES
Chile	YES	YES
Peru	YES	YES
Bolivia	YES	YES
Argentina	YES
Brasil	YES	YES
Asia
Japan	YES
Russia	YES		< Home 28. July 2001 10:48 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Mandalay . . . 28. July 2001 10:48 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet mandalay Share When I initially arrived in Yangon / Rangoon, I wanted to fly up Bhamo - one of the bigger towns north of Burma. I also considered exploring Myitkyinã - a town further north of Bhamo. My Lonely Planet guide indicated that the only border crossing into China was to the east of Bhamo. My initial plans to Burma also included exploration of western China. However, I was disappointed by the military turning me back, despite the fact that my Lonely Planet guide said I could cross into China at Ruili. I decided instead to fly to Mandalay, not only because it was cheap to do so, but it saved me a 20-hour bus ride there from Yangon. I heard about a song for sailors. “To be a real sailor, the sailor would have to have been to Mandalay way upriver” I quite liked Mandalay. The photo below, is of Mandalay Hill. During World War II (20 March 1945), the British and the Japanese fought one another to gain control of the position on this hill. The photo to the left is taken from the hill itself facing east - as you can see, it has an aerial view of the whole city, and puts any oncoming enemies at a disadvantage. Control of Mandalay was important during the war, as the soldiers were able to set up artillery and attack anyone approaching the fortress. This hill was of big strategic importance. The building you see near the shrine is a monument to the British regiment who managed to take control of this hill from the Japanese. At the eastern part of the delta, a lot of logging takes place. There was a train line built that used to cart all the trees/wood for export to Thailand. The moat around the fortress is man-made. Although man-made, comes from the local river. The original fortress was burnt to the ground. The whole fortress covered an area of 2.5 x 2.5 km The design of Mandalay was quite colonial, and surprisingly, most of the streets were at 90º to one another. Overall, I found Mandalay the most expensive city to travel to in Burma. No matter what one does in Mandalay, be it explore Mandalay Hill or the city itself, the locals always had “special” foreigner prices. It really annoyed me. I tried to use local currency as much as possible. However, FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency) was more valuable and worth more to the locals. FEC is also used in China, and one tries to use local currency as much as possible. Any item you buy has 2 prices - and obviously it is cheaper to use local currency than to use FEC. I must admit, even Mandalay Hill was not that nice for the price I paid to explore it. It was also expensive just to go into the fortress. Surprisingly, I could not find maps of the area that was not more that 40 years old. 28. July 2001 10:47 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Burma Religion & Politics . . . 28. July 2001 10:47 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet politics Share Politics . . . There is a lot of politics going on in Burma that an outsider should not get involved in - Burma is one of those countries where political opinions are best kept to oneself. In Burma, use of the Internet and mobile phones is illegal. This is the government's way of controlling the information entering the country. Even access to equipment such as laptops is illegal - the country is so poor that many could not afford such a piece of equipment. I saw many young women queueing for their rations. They were standing so close together that I thought they were lesbians! *laugh* The girls stand close together so another person cannot jump the queue by pushing in. The girls here are very young, some have barely reached puberty and are doing some very hard work. There is a lot of critique by Amnesty International, of Burma's use of young girls to provide maintenance for the roads.