Literally in Burma

Our last two days in Burma consisted of walking around Yangon's centre, seeing the Shwedagon Pagoda (which would have been impressive if not for the scaffolding all around it), and meandering around one of the lakes. 

Yangon is nothing special, but Burma is. It's a tease. It has the rich exoticism of India with hugely beautiful and moving architecture, punctuated by British colonial architecture and the friendliest and most welcoming people I've seen in Asia. 

It's mad. Absolutely bonkers, with its British cars that drive on the right (H&S nightmare #1), people that just sing in front of you with no shame, red marks from spat-out bitter leaf staining the ground, Burmese R&B songs on the radio complete with rap breakdown, and the only place in the world where I spent two weeks there and saw a total of three convenience stores. 

I loved it there. More than Thailand. But you can already see it changing with the influx of more tourists. In Yangon fewer people wear the traditional longyi around their waist, and dyed hair is everywhere, along with adverts for skin-whitening creams. I dread to think what it'll be like in a decade. So if you're considering going, do it soon, because Burma won't be Burma for too much longer. 

Inle Lake

After Bagan, we took a fun nine-hour day bus to Inle Lake. Inle is beautiful, up in the mountains, with wide valleys. The trek from Inle-Kalaw or vice versa is very popular, but it takes three days and we didn't have the time to spare. I've heard very good things about it though. 

Inle is very touristy. The town on the northern shore - Nguang Shue - is already full of Western restaurants, but the great thing about Burma is there's still no McDonald's or any large Western chain. I think the country will be unrecognisable in ten years if I go back. 

We took a boat trip on our first day there. It cost US$18 to hire it for the day, but the driver just took us to shops and sales-driven 'workshops' that were just souvenir shops on water. It was quite disappointing. 

Having said that, the scenery is beautiful, and you can watch the fishermen balance on their poles in the shallow water and sweep their willow nets under the surface, coming back with fish. It reminded me a lot of Lake Titicaca as well, with the floating houses and children playing in 'rather unsanitary' waterways. 

Ironically, I think that's the most tourist-centric thing I've ever done, and it was in Burma. The undiscovered land. Go now! It's changing rapidly even as we speak. 

From Inle, we took a night bus to Yangon. We went for a VIP bus, which I thought wouldn't mean a thing, but it was very comfortable. Large seats, three to a row, reclining, with a leg support, and they brought water and one lot of snacks round. There was a toilet onboard, which there wasn't on the day bus from Bagan to Inle, but it was hideously cramped. We stopped for food and a toilet break about two hours into the trip, but that was it. Overall a much better experience than I expected from Burma's buses! 

Balloons Over Bagan

Bagan, Burma's shining jewel. It's much more set up for tourists than Mandalay, and there's Western food everywhere. With that comes higher prices, and a charge of US$20 just to enter the area. 

But the stunning landscape of temples is so worth it. You can explore it by bike, which you can rent from your accommodation or a plethora of agencies, and you don't need to go far from any of the three villages surrounding the main temple area to find what makes Bagan magical. 

Some of the temples are beautiful in their own right, but when you find one that you can climb and you look out over the spires, stupas, crumbling walls and towers of the sandstone pagodas appearing from the scrubland, backed by mountains and the winding Irrawaddy River, that's the sight you won't forget. 

My friend Laura and I decided to splash out on doing one of Bagan's most famed activities - a dawn hot air balloon ride over the temples. The day we booked was cancelled because of rain (trust us to choose one of the only wet days in SE Asia's dry season) but thank god they had spaces available the following day because we did get to do it. 

It was a 40-minute balloon ride over the gorgeous view, and the air was swirling with mist, which made everything mysterious. 

We landed and were greeted with a breakfast buffet and champagne. Not bad! 

The Classic Balloon Flight costs US$320 with Balloons Over Bagan. 

After getting back to the hostel we rejoined Natalie and we took a taxi to Mt Popa, a fascinating extinct volcano that rises sharply from a flat plain, and is capped with a temple. As with all Buddhist complexes you have to take your shoes and socks off to climb it as a sign of respect, but Mt Popa is especially dirty, due to monkey poo. What a lovely thought. 

We did climb it, but the view of Mt Popa itself is much more impressive than the one from the summit. 

The next day we took a day bus to Inle Lake, which took nine hours and was booked through our hotel. It was comfortable enough and had air con, but no toilet. The bus did stop several times en route though. 

Going to Bagan was an unforgettable experience. It may not be original to say this, but I loved it. Touristy places are touristy for a reason! 

Mandalay to Monywa Day Trip

As I write this post I'm sitting at the bow of a boat heading down the Irrawaddy River, with the sun just dipping behind the clouds on the horizon, bare desert to my left and tropical grasslands to my right. Not bad for a mode of transport. 

My friends and I are going to Bagan, Burma's shining jewel of temples. It's an 11.5 hour trip from Mandalay, and it cost us US$40 per person including a light breakfast and dinner. You can choose allocated seats online at nmaihka.com, but the boat we're on is so quiet I was able to stretch out over four seats and have a snooze following our  4.45am wake up. 

The alternative was a 7 hour bus, without a toilet and along Burma's less than perfect roads. We have two long bus journeys coming up so we decided to spend the extra money to have a more comfortable day. And although the boat takes all day, we've seen sunrise and sunset, and had a great view of the riverside dwellers throughout the day too. 

But anyway, I want to recommend something, because we had a fantastic day yesterday. 

Mandalay is fine, but there's not a huge amount to do, so we wanted to take a day trip to somewhere I'd read about months ago. It's a small town called Monywa, about three hours west of Mandalay (it's not too far distance-wise, but the poor quality of the roads means that getting anywhere takes a long time). The main thing I wanted to see was the Thanboddhay Pagoda, but there are several other things in the surrounding area that are worth seeing. 

There is a local bus from Mandalay to Monywa every hour on the hour from 5am to 5pm daily, but it's not air conditioned and takes three and a half hours, so we asked a taxi driver how much it would cost for him to take us. He quoted us 80,000 kyat for all of us, and we decided just to do it for the comfort. I'm so glad we did. We got so much for our money. He picked us up from our hostel at 8am sharp and announced he'd brought a friend along whose English was better and she'd guide us for the day. 

He gave us all a bottle of water each, and when he heard that Laura loves watermelon he stopped at a roadside stall and bought us one. He'd planned an entire itinerary (which he probably does for all the tourists to be fair) and made us very comfortable. 

Even driving there through the semi-desert was part of the experience. Visiting Burma is like stepping back in time. Huts line the streets, farmers guide their sheep and oxen on the roadside with bamboo sticks, you overtake the occasional ox-drawn cart, and at one point we saw a community building a tarmac road with their hands and basic tools. This is a truly fascinating country. 

Our driver and guide were lovely people, and were so keen to show us their country and teach us about Burmese culture. At the first temple we stopped at along the way, the guide asked my friends if they wanted to try the Thanaka that Burmese women have applied to their faces for thousands of years to protect against the sun. It's made from grinding a particular wood with water until it becomes a paste, and then applied to the face. It's very distinctive, and along with the longi (a finely crafted sheet of material that both men and women wear around their waist, kind of like a skirt) and the red bitter leaf that men chew and spit out, leaving red marks on their teeth, it's a fashion not yet diluted or polluted by Western aesthetics. 

Our first main stop was the standing and reclining Buddha of Monywa. They are truly magnificent, and unbelievably huge. You can climb the steps inside the standing Buddha and see the view, which we didn't have time to do, but with its height I'd imagine you can see from India to China. 

After a hearty lunch that resembled Burmese tapas (costing just 4,000 kyat per person), we went to the main event. Thanbodhay Pagoda, which resembles a palace more than a pagoda. Its reds and golds, pillars and over 500,000 Buddha statues make for a stunning wander round the complex. There's a viewpoint to the left as you walk in the main entrance, which looks like a helter-skelter. Unfortunately only men are allowed to climb it (yay equality) but the view over the temple surrounded by trees is absolutely amazing. That's what I went there for. 

We finished the day by visiting a lacquerware workshop, and in a very surreal moment, sat down amongst 1940s British biscuit tins and ate the watermelon our driver had bought for us that morning. 

As with the vast majority of Burmese people I've come into contact with, they were extremely accommodating, polite and keen to impress. Although it did cross my mind that this might be a scam and they were taking us to be sold into slavery, it turned out that they were just generous. Just another thing to add to my list of experiences here. 

Into Burma

Oh wow. Wow wow wow. If you have any doubts about whether to come to Burma (Myanmar) or not - do it. It's such a brilliant assault on the senses. It's as dusty as Peru, with people even friendlier than Thailand, exotic food, busy roads with no traffic lights, and beautiful sights all over the place. 

I really didn't know what to expect, with the country having been closed for so many decades, but having the influence of British rule and the countries it borders - Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. That's a sexy blend if I've ever seen one. It feels mainly like a mix of India and Thailand. I've never been to India, but this is how I imagine parts of it to be. 

As my friends and I left Customs at Mandalay Airport after a ratger shaky flight we were suddenly swept up by tours accosting us to choose their taxi service. It was a big shock, as we needed to change money, find an ATM and try to buy a SIM card too. We fought our way through the crowd and got the arrival admin done. 

As for getting a Burmese SIM card at Mandalay Airport, it was actually very simple. There are two companies with stands in the arrivals lounge - Telenor and Ooredoo. Ooredoo was cheaper, and we got a SIM card with 500GB of internet for a month for 6600 kyat. We're only here for two weeks, so that amount of data should be fine. 

We took a shared taxi (4000K per person) to our accommodation, which is Rich Queen Guesthouse. It's nice and comfortable, with a free breakfast, but the wifi isn't very strong (as with all Burma) and the showers are cold. But it's a good base to explore Mandalay. 

We took a taxi out to U Bein bridge for 18,000K each return, and our driver stopped at a couple of nice sights along the way. It was like paying for a personalised tour. 

The first place we saw absolutely blew us away. After the manic day, and the shock of arriving in a place so different from anywhere we'd been before, stumbling upon this peaceful temple caught us all off guard. It was a pure white stupa gleaming in the sun against a bright blue sky. 

Maybe because it was unexpected, but we were really moved by it. And going on to watch the sun go down over the river behind the impressive U Bein bridge really made our day. 

Today we continued the madness by visiting a couple more temples in the city and walking along the moat of the Royal Palace to Mandalay Hill, which we climbed to watch the sunset over the city and the river behind. 

We arranged with a taxi driver to pick us up at 8am tomorrow, and he's going to take us out on the three-hour journey to Monywa for 80,000K. I've been keen to go there since I saw a photo of the main pagoda there, so I'm really glad were going to be able to. 

Early night tonight, to prepare for more adventures tomorrow. I love this country so far. Burma, the world where Buddhist monks wave to you on the street; people carry enormous baskets on their heads; payphones are tables with a landline phone on it, operated by a human who you hand the money to; India-inspired music fills the air; and everyone greets you with a smile. What a country. 

Hello 2015 - Full Moon Style

Life has gotten so much better since my last slightly deflated post. My two friends who are travelling with me for a month have arrived and we've been having a whale of a time traversing Thailand together. 

It's so nice after so long to have permanent company, and to get a private room, and to be able to have a conversation brimming with in-jokes that isn't over Skype. Plus I hadn't seen either of them for 11 months so this is a fantastic place for a reunion. 

I had my fill of Bangkok after eight nights there, and was definitely ready to leave, so arriving on Koh Samui after a 15 hour bus and ferry journey was very welcome. 

We rang in 2015 in true Thai tourist style by going to Koh Phangan for their Full Moon party on Haad Rin beach. I don't know if I'm ashamed of this or not, but I loved it. I've never been to a beach party before, so it was all new to me. But as soon as you pay the 100 baht entry and start walking through the small town, bustling with alcohol-filled bucket vendors, clothes shops, restaurants, food stalls, and neon-paint slathered partygoers, the atmosphere is electrifying. The crowds were intense though, and getting anywhere was a struggle. 

We found a bar on the beach playing music we liked and spent most of our time there, but we did go over to the countdown for midnight. They had fireworks going off all night, normally from handheld launchers that sent fireworks careering in all directions and exploding far too low to be safe. 

We did the whole excited countdown and cheering, waving our £3 buckets of gin and tonic in anticipation. Hilariously, we were standing near to a pyrotechnics display that read 'Welcome to 2015', and as soon as it hit midnight and everyone cheered it lit up and sent hot sparks over the crowd. Everyone's screams of New Year joy quickly turned to a scramble to avoid being burnt. 

Oh Thai health and safety. 

It was a fantastic night. So good we did it twice, for the normal Full Moon party on 4th January. That one was much less crowded, but still a lot of fun. 

One thing I would say, if you're staying on Koh Samui and getting a boat over for the party - don't get a return speedboat ticket for 1000 baht, because we had to wait two hours in a crowded line to get one of the infrequent speedboats back, and it took us three hours from joining the queue to actually getting back to our hostel. 

The second time we did it we got the last 200 baht ferry across at 6.30pm and then bought a 500 baht ticket from one of the private speedboat companies whose touts hang around the ridiculous lines. We had to wait for the boat to fill up before it left, but it was much quicker than waiting. 

The day after the Full Moon party we took the bus and ferry to Koh Phi Phi. This was a much nicer island than Samui, and although it was still very touristy and crowded (the town is literally walkable in 15 minutes) it's more of an actual paradise, with sweeping beaches and forested mountains. 

We walked up to the viewpoint on one of the mountains and got a view of the symmetrical crescent moon bays from above. And of course we took a day trip snorkelling and visiting Maya Bay, the stunning location for The Beach. We finished that day by listening to Pure Shores watching the sunset from the deck of the boat. Absolutely fabulous. 

We then flew here to Chiang Mai, where torrential rain hampered our efforts to find an ethical sanctuary to play with elephants, and instead we did a Thai cooking course last night. It was actually a lot of fun though, and included a recipe book, so I'll definitely try out some dishes when I get home. 

Now tomorrow. Here's something I've been very excited about. Myanmar! Or Burma, as I call it, because the new controversial government changed the name. 

I can't wait to get there and see a country only just opening itself to tourism. I'm sure there will be challenges, but overall I think it will be a fantastic experience to visit it before tourism takes its ugly hold on the nation. 

And if things go wrong, it's all part of the experience... Wish us luck!