Travel Tip from the Travel Bishop

If you travel frequently or are an expatriate, then the RBI Premium Lifestyle Membership programmes are really worth considering. They do provide a great value for money option to traditional medical and travel coverage. How? By promoting offshore trust memberships as an alternative to traditional International Medical Insurance.
A superior all-inclusive lifestyle membership programme provides members with a range of membership privileges including, but not limited to :

    free worldwide medical insurance coverage
    free dental insurance coverage
    free worldwide travel insurance coverage
    free MediPay Visa card
    free personal electronic health records

USD 1800 for annual membership gives USD 500,000 coverage
Add your spouse for USD 700 annually.

For Travel Plus membership only, the annual fees are as low as USD 595 with USD 500,000 coverage.

These lifestyle programmes provide a very affordable alternative for individuals or families looking for travel and medical coverage through a membership scheme.

Take a look at RBIPremium

As Burma opens up, visits to WWII battlefields and memorials, for so long inaccessible, tempts veterans, relatives and families, history enthusiasts and the curious.Here are a few of the newly available options, all including Yangon.

4 day/ 3nts to Moulmein and Thanbuyazat

8 days/ 9nts Moulmein, Thanbuyazat, Meikthila, Mandalay

12 days/ 11 nights Moulmein, Thanbuyazat, Meikthila, Mandalay, Magwy, Prome

Extensions including Toungyoo (1942 battle site) and Bagan

Here's an informative article from "The Irrawaddy" magazine.
Booking in advance for visitors to Myanmar (Burma) used to be a government restriction, now it has rapidly become a necessity because of availability, especially for rooms and domestic flights.New, modern bus transport has already been put in place and signs are that the country will cope with a tourism demand that even outweighs that of the previous decade's regional examples - when Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos opened their doors a little further ajar to beckon the inquisitive tourist.There are few frontiers really left, with Mongolia and Bhutan now seemingly joining the fold.However, for now Burma is the hot destination - book early.

Read on http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23002

Travelling on LH via FRA - Airport strike until 24 February 2012

The air traffic controllers union (GdF) has announced a strike at Frankfurt airport until Friday, 24 February 2012, 11:00 pm (German local time).

Lufthansa regrets any inconvenience caused to passengers by the strike measures of GdF union against the airport operator Fraport and will do its utmost to minimise the impact on passengers and operations in Frankfurt. Passenger support and service has paramount priority.

Despite the strike action Lufthansa expects to operate all long haul flights this week as scheduled.

Lufthansa will publish the impact on flight operations for the next days as soon as possible in order to provide a stable flight schedule and planning reliability for its passengers, as we have done over the past few days.

An interesting slant here on what might become of the wonderful vintage architecture in Yangon (Rangoon)
given the econmic leap of the last 8 months.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8acdba9a-15dc-11e1-8db8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1n0rdEmqt

Only 5 weeks to go for the annual Rugby 7's tournie in Hong Kong.
Still some package availability remains from Bangkok. Check out the pricing and availability.

I made yet another trip from Wong WianYai to Mahachai and Maeklong Maenam on the Maeklong Railway last weekend, along with some American visitors.
For the tourist it's "The Train to Nowhere" but that description hardly does it justice.

FAQ of the week
In  Burma, what's the situation with exchanging money -are there any ATM machines?
Are USD acceptable?

The kyat has been the currency of Burma since 1952 although the US$ is still popularly used by visitors to Burma. It's best to prepare enough US currency to cover your spending during your trip, as there are no ATMs inside Burma. There have long been reports of poor exchange rates at the airport and government banks, so many tourists change dollars to kyat on the street.
However, the situation is improving with the government granting permission to six banks to officially exchange money at market rates. Banks along Thain Phyu Street have exchange counters and are popular long queues  Currency exchange counters are gradually being opened elsewhere but private banks are still best.The current rate is about 830 Kyat to the US$ while street traders are offering 825 Kyat to the dollar. Banks and traders will also accept euro notes of all denomination for exchange but the rates tend to be less advantageous than USD. Yangon Airport has two exchange counters - one before customs and the other in the main arrivals hall. Both offer decent exchange rates.
In terms of currency usage, the Kyat is more convenient when paying for meals at restaurants and buying things at local markets and souvenirs shops. If you pay in dollars, you can expect to receive your change in the local currency. However US currency is generally required for entrance fees, airport tax and also for hotels and travel agencies.   AND REMEMBER- No "small head" USD bills.

Myanmar begins to open doors to foreign journalists
http://www.mmtimes.com/2012/news/612/news61211.html