Where is this place anyway?

Surprisingly - or maybe not - many people don't know exactly where Burma is. Basically, it's a country about the size of Texas located between Thailand and India.

In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many colonial-era names, including the name of the country to 'Myanmar' and the name of the largest city from Rangoon to Yangon. While some of these name changes are closer to their original Burmese pronunciations, many opposition groups and countries oppose their use because they recognize neither the legitimacy of the ruling military government nor its authority to rename the country or its towns.

So I have chosen to continue to use the name "Burma."

I'm leaving in three more days. I just got back from the bank, where I had to withdraw new, clean, unmarked US dollars as there are no ATMs or credit cards in Burma and only new bills in pristine condition are accepted. Bills starting with the serial number 'CB' also need to be avoided as merchants are suspicious they may be counterfeit. But this is a paranoid country - in 2005 the military began secretly constructing a new capital 200 miles north of Rangoon and moved the government there...at the advice of a fortune teller.