Slow down. Set your watch back thirty minutes from Bangkok time and your mind back a century. The Buddhist of Burma believe that to hurry is to show a lack of trust in fate--a sure sign of insufficient merit for the good lie. Here in this human sanctuary speed has been filtered out of time. It is always now and it feels like forever. In the short eternity of your alloted seven days, you'll experience many moments that aren't in pace with the rest of the world:

A horse-drawn cart becomes the most sensible means of transport to the Mandalay airport. A passenger-tricycle driver carries a vase of fresh cut flowers in a vase affixed to his handlebars. The driver of your jeep righteously refuses to exceed the legal limit of twenty passengers. The black market whiskey buyer suggests that you go into the government-run Tourist Burma Office to be sure his money is not counterfeit. A book vendor refuses to sell his favorite books. Temple roofs are a filigree of floral swirls in tin.

In the midst of the babble of a temple market countless Buddhas sit in serenity. And always the stares are punctuated with smiles so genuine you feel as though you must have met before.

Don't take your time; leave it on the plane when you fly into Rangoon.

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