Dark Ruby: Travels in a Troubled Land

In 1995 the author visits Myanmar for a second trip and compares this to her previous visit in 1982.
On this second trip she intended to go further afield, to visit places she did not in her earlier trip, and to make more connection with the locals.
Mixed results, or mixed levels of success followed. Hamstrung by travel restrictions (although these restrictions were largely dressed up as not being restrictions, but just travel made difficult by the foreigners pricing, or plain lack of available travel - for example the boat trip from Mergui to Rangoon, which costs around $10 for a local, has foreigner price of $167) and put off by the pursuit and (admittedly ineffective and minor) harassment of the secret police, the author still managed some fly in fly out trips to the more obscure cities. For me, it seems she went to some obscure, but ultimately uninteresting cities, and missed out on some of the more interesting (albeit more touristy) places - remembering they are visited by tourists for a reason.
She did however miss few opportunities to pour scorn on other travellers & tourists, and was quick to dismiss a city or town on the basis of one less than ideal interaction - she writes Mandalay off before arriving, and when she is unable to obtain currency from her credit card she leaves he following day. Why she considered it a good idea to rely on cash withdrawals on a credit card, only she could answer, but to me it seems like very poor planning.
It is a short book at 200 pages, and for me it has some interesting parts, some irritating parts and some parts which get a bit slow. The good bits are interesting, other times I though she tried a bit hard to be the hardcore traveller going places no-one else did, and, as I mentioned above ridiculing other travellers.
Three stars, but only just 3.