Southeast Asia 2009/10

Hi everybody. Welcome back to my blog. It's been almost 8 months since my last post but that's going to change soon.
On Nov. 17, I begin another 4 month adventure. This trip marks 12 years of seasonal travel for me since 1998. This year I am exploring SE Asia for the fourth time. I will be visiting Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam but I begin my trip in Bangkok. I'm only staying a few days there to get a visa and a flight to Myanmar. Flying into Myanmar is much more expensive than flying into Bangkok. After about 3 or 4 weeks in Myanmar, I will be dividing my last 3 months between Laos and Vietnam. I have been to Thailand and Cambodia before but this year's countries are all new to me. I really like this part of the world. The people, food, weather and economical prices make this a great region to travel in. Although it doesn't have the big game parks like Africa, I'm still looking forward to spending a lot of time in national parks. Finding wildlife here in the rainforest will be much more challenging but I'm up for it. Besides the national parks, I will be visiting ancient temples like Bagan in Myanmar ( a smaller, version of Ankgor Wat in Cambodia), trekking, caving and maybe a few beaches. I also look forward to exploring the tunnels of Vietnam. This region (though maybe not Myanmar) is firmly on the backpacking circuit but I will be doing my best to get off the beaten track and into remote areas.