15

I see your temple-ful of rat poo and raise you a mountain-load of monkey poo at Mt Popa, where you are also required to go barefoot. They even have foot baths at the ends of the path.

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thank you everyone for your replies. sounds like barefoot is the way, but may find exceptions that allow socks. i do like malvolio's suggestion of using a note written in burmese explaining my situation. guess we will see which triumphs--buddhist compassion or buddhist custom!

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On Mount Popa I did see a few old women being carried in large sheets of cloth by 4 people holding on to each corner. Maybe you can arrange something like that. It looked really uncomfortable, though, especially on the narrower stairs.

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#6 - yeah having a ball - just arrived in Mandalay - one of my top 2 "always wanted to go to" places! Fancy hotel has not just TV in English (well one channel) but also WIFI which appears to run at a reasonable speed in the evening - that's a first!

Maybe it's a NZ thing - but I don't get the angst about the bare foot thing. Your feet get dirty - but they get dirty wearing sandles in dusty roads anyways - what's the difference? I've seen some of the most biazrre tourist behavour I've ever seen - like wet wipes for the feet. wearing socks with sandals - plain weird. Your feet get dirty - get yoru self a fish spa and pedicure when you get back to Bkk I figure.

Went up Mt Popa yesterday -the stairs were pretty clean and I saw no monkey poo - contributed abotu 500k t othe various floor sweepers.

The biggest issues with bare feet is that it's bloody hot in the sun and bloody slippy in the wet.