Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy: One Woman’s Mid-life Travel Adventures on Myanmar’s Great River

As she approaches her sixties, Ma Thanegi decides to satisfy a lifelong dream. Jumping on any boat that would let her onboard, she begins a leisurely exploration of Myanmar’s thirteen hundred-mile long Ayeyarwaddy River. Always hungry—for food, conversation, and a good story—Ma Thanegi clearly savors and vividly describes every adventure she encounters, whether she is traveling into the Cyclone Nargis-stricken delta region, feeding a dragon, or careening down the rock-infested white-water gorge of the Ayeyarwaddy’s First Defile. You’ll love accompanying this opinionated and delightful lady on an odyssey that takes her through much of Myanmar—never without great passion for her country, a wicked sense of humor, and her tube of red lipstick.