We are flying from Heho to Yangon, from where we will take another short flight to Sittwe. As our aircraft looses altitude to land at Yangon we are able to get a few photos of rural Myanmar from the air.

Sittwe is a port at the northern end of the Rakhine State on the west coast of Burma, only 60 miles from Bangladesh. Once a capital of Burma (while under British rule in the early 19th Century), its grandeur seems to have been lost, based on the very short time we are there. The main allure it has to travelers like us is its position at the mouth of the Kaladan River, where the river meets the Bay of Bengal. After overnighting here we will be cruising up that river to another more interesting former capital of Burma, Mrauk-U.

UPDATE: as of 8/30/2012 access to Sittwe and Mrauk-U by foreigners has been suspended until further notice due to recent clashes between ethnic groups in the area.