Monday, December 27, 2010

5. Street photography & check-point photography

2008 Myanmar Travel - North Myanmar Travel.
From one town to another, there may be check-points to collect tolls. One check-point was manned by soldiers with guns. Most check-points were manned by people in civilian clothing. At one check-point, I took a picture of a billboard selling Ko Ko motorcycles and it had a picture of a "crocodile" similar to the "crocodile shirts" selling in Singapore. The check-point man in this rural town demanded to know why I was taking photographs. I could not understand him. "What is his objection?" I asked my guide. My guide spoke to him saying: "He has permission to take photos." So, there was no more problem.

2010 Europe Travel - Italy/Switzerland & Switzerland/France border check points warning

In developed countries like border crossings between Italy and Switzerland and Switzerland and France which I had been last week, the tour manager specifically warned us not to take any picture or crack jokes. Otherwise, the tour bus and baggage would be thoroughly inspected, delaying our travel by several hours. So, this was not a situatin unique to Myanmar.

4. Dr Sing's 2008 Myanmar travel and tours

I am Dr Sing Kong Yuen.

I have started a travel agency, Design Travel Pte Ltd, which is licensed by the Singapore Tourism Board in Dec 2010. The previous licence for Asia USA Realty (S) asiahomes.com Pte Ltd has been returned to the STB as the name related to property is not appropriate for a travel agency. Therefore, Design Travel Pte Ltd is now the licensed agency to conduct all tours and travel to Myanmar.

Is Myanmar safe for Singaporeans who seem to have an unfavourable impression of Myanmar? There are rarely any tours advertised by the Singapore travel agencies and newspapers for this country. My exploratory visits in late 2008 confirms that it is one of the safest countries for tourists and Myanmar has several thousands of tourists and pilgrims from Thailand and China. Europeans esp. Germans love to visit this country esp. Bagan. Yet Singaporean tourists are very rare. It is one of those strange facts of life.

My blog is at:

http://myanmar-singapore.blogspot.com/2009/03/asiahomes-start-up-travel-agency.html

For those interested in Myanmar travels and tours, please contact me at +65 9668-6468or judy@asiahomes.com. The website of Design Travel is not ready yet. Will use this blog to keep in touch.

3. Lotus weaving village in Lake Inle

2010/12/25 ヨガプロジェクト E-mail from Japan to Judy



Hi Judy,

I wonder if you are still doing the tour to Myanmar and we could see the lotus weaving factory by Lake Inle?
I love lotus and would love to see how they do, that is my biggest interest.

Let me know if you are still doing this tour.

Thank you so very much!


LAKE INLE
http://www.asiahomes.com/book3/20090407Tour_Singles_Singaporeans_Lake_Inle.htm

株式会社ヨガプロジェクト
筧 三佐枝
〒550-0015
大阪府大阪市西区南堀江1丁目16-23
Mirabell North 401
tel 81 6 4980 4624
fax 81 6 7173 8695
::::::::::::::::

REPLY DATED DEC 28, 2010

Yes, we are still doing the customised tours. Pl let us have more info about your number of people, time and dates of travelling so that we can make arrangments and plan ahead.