From Burma to Myanmar

What a ride! In a death-defying taxi with no windows, I was flown along the roads in a howling gale. Horrible. I sat directly behind the driver hoping he would act as an air bag when the inevitable collision came. In that position I couldn't see the worst that was happening around us, like pedestrians peeling off our fenders.

Lydia Laube is no stranger to near-death experiences. She encounters many on the five journeys she takes to discover Myanmar, or Burma as it was known on the first three of these.

As ever Lydia chooses the route less travelled to reach and explore this wondrous land of pagodas and paddy fields. Under Myanmar’s magic spell, she pays homage to the world’s biggest python, visits the world’s largest book and falls in love with a little horse called Madonna.

From Burma to Myanmar is Lydia Laube’s ninth travel book. Her first, Behind the Veil, was published in 1991. It has been an Australian bestseller, reprinted eleven times and translated and republished in five other countries.