Inlay Lake - Last stop in Myanmar

Day 1 – Hell Journey!

After yet another great breakfast in our hotel in Bagan it was time to move on yet again, this time to Inlay Lake.  We had booked a coach that conveniently was going to pick us up from our hotel.  It turned up and it was a minibus which was Ok as we thought this was going to transfer to a large coach at the depot.  Picking up a full van load along the way with our luggage strapped to the roof, we got to the coach station after a short while.

It soon became clear that we were not going to be transferred but were going to travel the next 5 hours in this cramped van.  We also agreed to switch to the even more cramped and bumpy back seat as one couple asked if they could swap with us as one of them was feeling ill (we won’t be doing this in a hurry again!!).

So we set off towards Inlay lake and the journey wasn’t too bad apart from having no leg room, the guy next to us being about the same size as me and after about 3 hours we stopped at a roadside café for lunch, for some reason we were given 40 minutes even though 20 would have done (especially given the food options).

It was after lunch that things got worse, I think driver was keen to get off duty quickly, so he sped up whilst the road conditions got worse.  Massive pot holes and snaking s-bends throwing us around and regularly getting Shell and I air borne, us being in the back seats over the rear axle of the van.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the travel time had been correct (we stopped once but it was to let a few people off at a hiking point – thinking that was it only to be told we had another hour of this torture to go), but we had to suffer another 4 hours of this, Shell now convinced the girl who was ill definitely was now not looking green enough to have warranted to have switched seats with them.

Eventually shaken and stirred and enduring a 9.5hr journey which we were told would be 5, we arrived at Inlay Lake and checked into our hotel.  Once again the hotel staff were very nice and friendly and our room was very pleasant and large with a balcony (some more home laundry to be had here!).

Inlay Lake is 22km long, roughly 11km wide and is beautiful, flanked by high hills either side of it.  The lake is very calm and dotted with floating vegetation and busy fishing canoes. The lake shore and islands include 17 villages on stilts.

Once checked in we had a little mooch around the main street and noticed that yet again it had a slightly different more laid back feel to it.  We found a beer station along the street that contained more locals than tourists so we stopped there for a bit of refreshment before going out to eat.

We went to a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel and a couple of people we met at the bar, which served traditional Shan food (Of the region).  The price was amazing at around £1.50 each for about ten dishes, however once it turned up it was very different (Not in a good way), raw vegetables (a couple that we had never encountered before) and 3 types of strong dried fish, one of which I can only describe as a very strong fishy marmite containing hundreds of chilli’s.  Also some of the most foul tasting fish sauce dip we had tasted, but to our credit we tried at least a teaspoon full of everything and agreed it was nice to try something different, but we would not be having a return visit.

After our bumpy ride all day we thought we would have an early night, however we did have one problem with the room, the only English TV channel we wanted to watch had a fuzzy picture and no sound.  Fortunately the hotel staff were really efficient and one guy came up to fix it, then after about half an hour of getting nowhere another two turned up and about 15 minutes later we had our film channel back – yes we are sad but sometimes you just want to watch a bit of TV – it turned out to be ‘Bad Santa’ in case you were wondering!!

Day 2

I think we had a small lie in followed by a breakfast, which was a more sparse and disappointing affair compared to our Bagan Hotel, cold fried eggs, cold noodles and sweet toast just doesn’t cut it anymore!

One embarrassing moment, my underwear which had been drying on the balcony (courtesy of Shell’s hand wash parlour) had fallen off into an area I could not access, so I had to ask the receptionist to retrieve them for me – much to Shell’s amusement, at least they were clean!!

As we had four days here we were not in a rush to go straight on a boat excursion on the lake, instead opting for a walk in search of it instead. 

We headed out in the direction that I thought it would be, which was up the main thoroughfare which the long-tail boats were charging up and down.  We followed this past some temples and through small little villages on Stilts, which were far different from the town.  It was nice to see daily life going on, washing being done, small little schools and even a man drying out chicken skins.  

Eventually we came to a dead end where we couldn’t go much further, we hadn’t reached the lake but it had been nice anyway.  We sat down by the riverbank and ate oranges that we had commandeered from the breakfast table and watched the long-tail’s going past and local people washing themselves and their clothes in the water.

It was now around midday and the sun there seemed to be hotter than anywhere else than in Myanmar so we headed back to the town for some thirst quenchers, back to the locals bar.

After we felt sufficiently refreshed we then though it would be a good idea to check out the boat trips for the next two days, but as we were walking along the main street a woman (Shel pointed out to me after the meeting that she was a woman, not a man as I had thought) started selling us her company’s boat trip.  As she seemed so nice and the price seemed reasonable we enquired about a canoe trip we fancied and we were quickly shown to her office where we were sold, day one – hike & canoe trip, day two – all day long-tail trip around the lake – I thing they worked out about £ 7.50  a trip.  She even told us the best place in town to get our laundry done at about 75p per kilo.

Feeling very pleased with ourselves we then felt we could take the rest of the day off, so we headed to a bar on the other side of the estuary and had a couple of beers whilst we watched life go by and were lucky to see a gaggle of pink lady monks. After a while we headed back to the hotel to relax and research a better place to eat that evening (I may have even done some blogging – but have got a bit behind so cannot remember).

In the evening we first of all deposited 3 kilo of dirty clothes at the laundry before heading for some pre-meal drinks at our now local bar.

Whilst supping a couple of pints Shell caught the eye of an old woman who was busy feasting on some deep fried food and after a few shared smile she came over to say hello to Shell.  However as neither could speak a word of each other’s language they ended up just holding hands, smiling a lot and speaking to each other in their own languages.  Fortunately, a big contingent of her family were sat behind us (her family owned the bar) and they ended up translating for us, it turned out she was 90 and was pretty much the head of the family, she just comes to the bar for company as all her family work so she gets lonely.  She then said something to them that roughly translated was that Shell was lovely and she wanted to give her a blessing and now she was also her daughter (A bit of welling up from Shell).  Shell did ask if she needed any money, but was told that she wants for nothing as the family look after her, she in fact wanted to buy Shelley some food – that’s how nice these people are.

During these interchanges I went to the toilet, which is as usual round the back, passed the kitchen and somewhere in a dimly lit corner.  I of course got the directions wrong and found myself going up some stairs around a tree and pretty much ending up in someone’s bedroom, lucky for me there was a big rooster there which took offence to my presence and whilst retreating I found the loo.

We then thought it was time to leave for dinner, but not before another visit from Shell’s new Bessie and a bit more hand holding smiling and kisses.

Shell had done some pretty good Trip Advising and the restaurant we went to was definitely the best food we have had in Myanmar, so good in fact that we ordered the extra dish the waiter told us we would not need.  As usual the staff were lovely and even all got together in a line when I asked for a photo of a couple of them (Unfortunately due to crap camera it was too dark to appear here), we then went back for the night.

Day 3 – Shell & Glenn’s Teaching Academy

Up early again and after another uninspiring breakfast we made our way to the tourist office to do our morning trek and were promptly handed over to a young guy of around 14 – 18 (it’s hard to tell) and we were off.

A short walk up the road and we were taken to a hut which apparently did the best fried tofu in town, but despite telling him we had just had breakfast we were sat down at a low table and two large bowls of tofu and a pot of green tea (not my favourite brew since the infamous puking episode of Gambia 2008!).  However we consumed a couple of pieces not to be rude and he bagged the rest for the trek.

We then took a pleasant walk into a nearby village and then up past a small monastery before heading into a small cave system.  We picked up some torches from a Buddhist monk near the entrance and were shown round some dark chambers that contained different Buddhist statues where the monks came to meditate.  Someone smacked their head along the way (Shell not Glenn for a change), before coming to an exit which had some Stupa’s there with a check list written on the wall of when they were last painted (a bit like when the loo’s were last checked!!).

After that we then headed off for another local village, but it was at this point our guide wanted to quiz us on some English.  Apparently he had only being doing this job for 4 months and had a complaint from some tourists that he could not understand them.  It then turned into an English lesson from Glenn & Shell (maybe not the best choice in the world), but we were happy to help him.  Explaining everything from past & Present tense, to Shell teaching him how to pronounce th with your tongue on the tip of your teeth, to me giving him practical uses for the phrase ‘just in case’, which he was lapping up (No I didn’t teach him any swear words!).

Although we were finding this quite rewarding, our guide had forgotten that he was supposed to be showing us stuff, we completely missed the village we were supposed to go to and we had arrived back in 3 hours instead of 4.  Never mind he seemed like a nice chap so we let him off with it and won’t be making a complaint, so what can you do at 10.30 after a short trek – go for a beer!! After a couple we did some shopping and then went back to the hotel to wait for our afternoon excursion. 

We were met around two by the woman that had sold us the trips and were taken to the quayside and put on a long-tail boat that whisked us down the channel and onto the lake.  We went a short way on the lake before heading down a small channel to a small stilted village where our guides family live.

 

Mooring up next to her family’s house we were then transferred to a small wooden canoe. I had already decided that if this small woman was doing the rowing I would offer to take over at some point, but this was not going to be an option as I was immediately handed a paddle, well I say a paddle it was more like a pregnant pool cue (most likely just a token to make it feel like I was taking part!)

We then headed down some pretty by-ways with stilted bamboo houses everywhere and then moored up at a wooden monastery that she said would be nice to visit.  When we got inside there were loads of guys renovating the place (apparently their labour is free of charge for this), we had arrived just before their tea break so we sat down with them and had some tea and biscuits before leaving a small donation and heading back to the canoe.

Going down more little channels we were shown their farming techniques, where they get all the floating plant life and attach it to Bamboo poles and then plant their crops in them.  Whilst doing this work they can only work off the canoes as these flotillas would not support their weight, but they were growing crops such as tomato’s and other veg.  The other impressive thing was these crops were not one persons but shared but the community.

Returning back eventually to the family home we were then invited into the stilted house (Shell was pleased as she said she wanted to see inside of one) to meet the family and sit down and have Green tea and biscuits with them.  Our guide was also trying to explain the in’s and outs of the local Myanmar lottery (at least that’s what we though all these numbers scribbled on pieces of paper meant), it appeared she was bemoaning her luck.  I also had a piece of the local sugar candy, which also explained why the two children in the room were bouncing off the walls!

It was then back in the long tail  to return home but on our way back we stopped to watch the traditional fishermen, this was very nice as we spent about half an hour just watching instead of just seeing the ‘posing tourist fishermen’.  From what we can gather they have a very large net which they corral the fish into by smashing their oars on the surface of the water, then they close the net so it forms a large circle (I guess they cannot net in the normal way because of all the reeds). After this they then take a large conical type of net/cage and place it inside this net and poke around with tridents until they hit fish, and this is repeated over and over until I guess they think there is no more fish in their net circle.  It was fascinating to watch and their skill was unbelievable managing to balance at the end of a boat, rowing with one leg (apparently they are all taught to do this from an early age – it gives their arms a rest) whilst holding a large net/cage in their hands.  We even managed to see one of them snag a fish before we left, we could have spent hour watching them.

Heading back we were then taken to the ‘posing tourist fishermen’ as sunset to watch them doing acrobatics on one leg with the net/cages, although it was just a big tourist attraction and we preferred watching the real thing, you’ll have to admit it makes for a pretty stunning photo!

We then headed back to the quay and went and collected our laundry, unfortunately they had mislaid one of the bags we had bought it in and after 15 minutes it could not be found, but they then gave another better bag as a replacement.

As it was nice to get fresh smelling clothes we went back and gave them another kilo’s worth so we had all our clothes done.  We then headed to our local for a couple before going for dinner, this time next door to the previous night’s establishment, again the food was pretty decent and we even treated ourselves to a long island iced tea (there’s only so much fizzy lager you can drink!).  We then headed home for a bit of movie action before bed.

Day 4 – Tourist Traps!

Once again we were up early and were met by the lady we booked our trips with who escorted us to the quay to board a long-tail boat for our day long tour of the lake.

It soon came apparent that our boat driver had very little English and was going to whisk us round a very tried and tested tourist route (the first time we had come across this in Myanmar).

The first stop we were dropped off at a very pretty wooden  (a bit like U Bein Bridge)  and we assumed this is where one of the local markets was.  Without any guidance from our driver we walked along the jetty towards town.  There was no sign of a market but we saw people with various shopping baskets and thought our best bet was to follow them, fortunately this proved to be the right move.  Around half a mile down the road we eventually found a market, it was a mixture between tourist tat and a proper local market so we spent some time looking around and sat down in a local café to have a coffee before returning to the boat.

After this our next few stops were a selection of local cottage industries specialising in overpriced tourist souvenirs.

Firstly we were pulled alongside the silver shop where they demonstrated how they processed and made silver jewellery – no sale!

Next it was the cotton shop, where they had the long-necked women (similar to the African ladies) who were a traditional Myanmar tribe, but were just hanging about for photos and a large clothes shop – no sale!

After this it was the paper making shop, where some young girls immediately started pummelling some wood pulp with paddles as we entered the paper shop, stopping whilst we were in there and starting promptly again when we came out of the shop  - no sale!

We then headed on further and were dropped at another local market (we assumed due to the lack of a guide).  Firstly it looked as though it was going to be more tourist tat so we passed through some stalls towards the back of it and found a local bar where we thought we would take some time out from this shopping tour.  It was quite interesting in there and we had a couple of beers whilst seated quite close to a couple of Buddhist monks who had popped in for lunch.

When we left we walked a bit more and actually found a proper local market further along which was very interesting and we both managed to get some very good photos of local life.  Shell also manage to get herself a nice silver/tin bangle (it will turn her wrist green!) haggling down from around £6 to £ 2.50.

Returning to our boat we were then whisked to the local silk store where it was demonstrated how they made a type of silk out of lotus flowers and then made clothes with it, followed by looking round a big silk clothes shop – no sale!!

It was the local blacksmith’s next, so we watched a couple of guy’s bashing molten metal, briefly passing past their ware’s before returning to the boat – no sale!!!

Now getting a bit tired of this we asked the diver to drop us off at a restaurant for a spot of lunch.  When we got there we found that we were at the most expensive restaurant in Myanmar and although the view was nice we just had a couple of drinks and polished of the complimentary crackers. At this point I thought I’d lost the camera, but after checking I found it to have slipped out of my pocket into the well of the boat and was not wet!

As we were fed up with shops we told the driver we were happy to go to the cigar factory and the go back early.  We drew up alongside the cigar factory and watched a young girl producing cigars, whilst given the opportunity to smoke a couple of different flavours with the sales girl (one was star anise – Interesting!!).  We could have been tempted to buy a couple but we were told they would only be sold in boxes of 20 – No Sale!!!

Just as we were going to head off home one of the people on the cigar jetty said are you not going to the Jumping Cat Monastery, so we thought why not?  Apparently in the near past the monks had taught cats to jump through hoops (well I suppose it make a change from chanting!).  Although I was disappointed I was not going to see feline acrobatics when we got there it was a lovely wooden monastery on stilts complete with some chanting monks and locals which made Shell very happy.

We then returned home a bit early, ignoring the tourist fishermen along the way (already have the shots!).  The trip was very scenic and interesting it may sound like we didn’t enjoy it but there were just too many tourist shop and when you are travelling you are not buying holiday gifts only practical things.

Once disembarked we went and collected our second batch of laundry before returning to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

A couple of quick ones in our local before heading back to our favourite restaurant in Myanmar, the one we had gone to a couple of days before.  Yet another lovely meal before going back for an early night as we were moving on to Thailand the next day and had 3 flights to negotiate

All we can say is thanks Myanmar for a wonderful time, beautiful people and so far the best country we have visited, I hope you do not get ruined in the years to come with the increased tourism.

India in a nutshell

To our pain we discovered that India was a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it!. Starting off in Delhi which even Delhians? will tell you to get out of as quickly as possible,  was a necessary evil (best price air fare) but probably put the  kibosh on the whole experience for Glenn. Constantly on your guard for fear of being ripped off, short changed or fed random and wrong information really does take its toll (lets not talk about the pollution!) . However when you do meet genuine people they are kind, want to share India's delights and are very helpful. It’s a shame there aren’t more of them!. You need light and dark on any trip and I guess India gave us a good contrast on other places we were yet to experience (Myanmar). Here are some of our stand out experiences (good and bad, light and shade!) 

1. The Taj J
2.  Babu!!!!!!!!!
3. Glenn’s face when he got his second bindi of the day (including the pic again as I love it so much! 
4. Sitting at a traffic light for 90 seconds in a rickshaw whilst being accosted by an old lady begging… for 90 seconds!, I would have happily given her money but had none and she was on my side and Glenn decided to go deaf, blind and bloody dumb and not help me out! 
5. Negotiating with the tour operator and t
6. Jodhpur loved it, Jaipur not so much, too big!
7. Drinking a cold beer and overlooking a lake in Udaipur
8. Glenn getting ill and shedding about a stone!
9. How much more expensive its become!elling them that Nepal ‘who you’ve cut off fuel to’ was cheaper, easier and nicer to travel around (Glenn not Shel!)
10. The Food!, although Glenn grew tired of it I could eat curry morning noon and night!.
11.  The golden temple, Amritsar and learning more about the lovely Sikh religion (we we could stay longer)
12. Train journeys!!
13. Special Lassi’s in Pushka
14. Someone trying to shove a birdcage up me arse just to get a quick feel! , feel free to pinch but bird cage, really? how rude!

Top Tips

1.       Lone female travelers? NO!

2.       Plan in advance if you don’t want to be ripped off by travel agents (we heard that they buy up all of the foreigner tickets in advance to force you to buy from them)

3.       If you are struggling, go to a well-dressed local and they will be helpful, honest and kind x

4.       Don’t let this put you off, just be mindful and prepared!

Our new fwiends summed up India for us, it’s a brilliant place spoilt by the people!. But not all, don’t let the few taint your experience!. However, I don’t think we will be visiting India  as a pair soon and to be fair I’ve got it out of my system for a while but it’s a stunning place, lots to see, eat , smell and experience, just make sure you pack a lot of patience, grace, humour and Imodium! 

Bagan - Temples, Temples & More Temples

Day 1 – Boat to Bagan

Despite being advised against it by our friend Karen who had not enjoyed the experience we decided to take the boat from Mandalay to Bagan (couldn’t bear another bus!) , and so were picked up (far too early as usual) from the hotel by taxi and whisked down to the docks.

We boarded via very narrow gang planks again and quickly nabbed a couple of the reclined deck chair type things on the top deck, which were covered by a canopy. Being early in the morning and on the river the first few hours were fairly cold, even though we were supplied with blankets (Silently cursing Shell for advising me not to wear my hiking boots).  However, we were also supplied with breakfast including tea’s & coffee whilst watching temples going by on the river banks, so it wasn’t that bad.

(I look like my mum in this :) )

Eventually the mist burnt off and it started to get warm again so we bought some beers on board and spent the morning relaxing and reading until lunch was served (Chicken Noodles).

The rest of the day was spent in similar fashion, relaxing, drinking beer, catching up on my blog and Shelley even finding the  back of the boat for a bit of sunbathing (And stealing forty winks whilst I was not watching!).  We even got dinner, if your idea of dinner is quarter of an egg sandwich, although this was all included in the £ 25 fare and was a lot nicer than our last coach transfer.

All in all it was a very pleasant journey and we could only deduce that Karen is either A) A moany Bitch or B) Was on some sort of government boat and not the one we took.  We will have to confer with her when we meet her back in blighty. Or, when she comes to visit us next J

The journey took around 9 – 10 hours and we arrived in Bagan around 5.00pm.  When disembarking it was a bit of a free for all with porters wanting to grab the baggage from the boat and taxi touts waiting for us on the banks.  We knew the hotel was around ½ a mile away so after a horse and cart taxi offered us the trip at half the motor taxi we decided to go via dobbin (We hadn’t used this mode of transport yet!), however we were pleased that dobbin was a decent sized horse.

We arrived at the hotel and were met by the nicest friendliest staff imaginable (the people in Myanmar are wonderful) and before going to our room we booked a scooter for our temple adventures for the next few days. 

After checking out our room (which was very nice) we headed out for a little explore and went for dinner in a restaurant that the hotel recommended.  I had to pop next door to pick up some tailor made ciggies as we were running out of filters – under 50p for twenty lucky strike!!  So we had some Myanmar Beers and a couple of Thai curry’s before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Day 2 – ‘Bagan Fwend’s’

The day before we had agreed that we would not do the sunrise at the temples this morning and instead have a bit of a lie in and take advantage of the hotels more accommodating breakfast times.

We read the reviews on Bookings.Com which all banged on about the breakfast being the best in Myanmar at this hotel (Inwa Motel) and they were not wrong. The breakfast was served on the roof terrace and included eggs to order, brown bread (everything up to this point had been very sweet white bread), very nice noodles, pancakes, proper coffee, fresh fruits, etc Two lovely serving staff – who enquired how long we were going to be there and told us they looked forward to seeing us the next morning and I actually think they meant it!

Anyway breakfast done it was time to do some Temples!!  In the Bagan region there was at the last count over 2,000 + temples (Shell’s too lazy to check the book properly for exact numbers at the moment!) so we were going to have our work  cut out, especially as foreigners can only drive E-bikes which have a charge range of 50km.

So we picked up our new mode of transport from the reception. Unfortunately, the bike is really only big enough for one (western) bum so Shell had to sit on the bike rack. We were amazed to find that the scooter made actually no sound at all, not even a milk float type sound, so after a while I took offence to this soundless machine and started making my own engine noises to make up for it!

I think we visited about 3 of the two thousand temples which were very nice and contained some magnificent Buddha statues, again having a bit of trouble in the soft sand tracks with the bike (fortunately no hot exhaust pipe for Shelley to burn herself on).  We then rode around for a while and managed to track down the temple you can climb to up to watch the sunset and sunrise over all the temples and also took the opportunity to do some on the move video as we rode around the temples.

Feeling like we had seen enough temples we decided to go for a bit of lunch in what was called restaurant road.  After lunch we were heading back to our hotel when we saw a ‘Wetherspoon’s’ pub along the way so we thought we would check it out, to be fair it was like no Wetherspoon’s you had ever seen, the bar owner had just used the name.  Inside it was quite a cool little traveller’s pub with traveller’s graffiti all over the walls and playing some good tunes.  Whilst we sat there we got chatting to a couple on the next table, David and Katherine who had just finished travelling for 5 months in India and were on the same type of trip as us and were very likeminded.  So we spent quite a while chatting to them and getting a few travelling tips, then agreed to meet up later in the evening.

We went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before going to watch the sunset,  however we cut it a bit fine and I had to give it full throttle (34mph downhill) to reach the sunset temple, we felt like vampires trying to get their before daybreak!!  I think we made it with about two minutes to spare, we scrambled up the temple to where hoard’s of tourists already had taken their spots.  The view was fabulous and we took too many pictures of temples in the two minutes we had before the sun disappeared from the horizon. 

We the headed back to our hotel, worrying whether the bike would run out of charge before we got there whilst trying to avoid the many potholes (Shell complaining because she was on the rack!) to get ready to go out with our new fwiends.

We met them at ‘Wetherspoon’s’ but it was a bit pricy so we headed off on our scooters in search of a cheap beer station, eventually finding a empty bar away from restaurant road.  David and Katherine were supposed to return their bike at 9.00 but unfortunately as we were getting on so well 1 beer turned into a lot of beers and I think we kept the bar owner up for far longer than he wanted (we were the only customers in there!).  I think we finally called it a night around midnight and agreed to meet up again the next night, so returned back to the hotel, can you get breathalysed on an E-bike?? Will we make the sunrise tomorrow?

Day 3 -  Temple’s at Sunrise

Possibly for the first time in our travels I actually woke up to the alarm and made Shell get up for the sunrise visit to the temples (Around 5am).  Unfortunately as we had come in a bit worse for wear the night before we had forgotten to actually find out when daybreak actually was.  It turned out the reverse of the sunset the day and we were early! So whilst freezing our nuts off driving in the dark we found a restaurant that was open so we stopped for a coffee to warm us up, however it was warm but I think it was brewed with grit in it!

So this time we arrived in very good time and waited for sunrise,  it was very atmospheric with the temples shrouded in mist (apart from a Japanese tourist yelling up to her friends from the bottom of the temple), we had to wait for some time but eventually a raft of hot air balloons came into view which made the scene even more impressive (Although the photo from our crappy camera most probably does not do it justice.

We then returned to our hotel for another great breakfast, before trying to do some admin for onwards travel.  The problem we had was the poor internet we had in the hotel so after a while we had to give up and try and find an internet café (the one down the road was on holiday in Yangon!). So we spent the next couple of hours riding round trying to find one.  Once found we spent another hour and a half booking two flights to take us to Thailand, the internet café only being marginally better than our hotel and the delay in booking meaning the flight prices had increased.

We returned to the restaurant road for a bit of lunch but have come to the conclusion that the food in Myanmar is not up to that much, a mix between Indian and Thai but not doing either that well.

After a pretty frustrating day we returned to the hotel to relax and watch a film, we were just getting settled for the night when we got a call from reception and found that David & Katherine had tracked us down (our new fwiends) and were ready for an evening out.  As we were leaving early the next morning we arranged to meet them  a little later to give us a chance to get ready and pack for the next morning (given our track record I felt thought this was a better idea than packing at 6.30  in the morning with a hangover!).

Again we spent a very enjoyable evening with them both, both couples blowing our budgets for the day on a number of beers.  As they too are doing a travel blog we swapped these details so we could see what each other are up to in the coming months (theirs is a lot more professional than ours!).  Hopefully our paths may cross again in Indonesia as it appears we may be there at the same time.  Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.

Although Bagan was very nice I think 3 days was enough, unless you have some extreme temple fetish!!

Mandalay

Day 1 – The  Road to Mandalay

Up early to enjoy the last of our veranda and beach view, we then had breakfast before packing once again (I swear our case’s are getting fuller!).

Checking out we waited in reception for our coach to turn up whilst catching up on E-Mails and the like.  We started to wonder where our coach was and then a taxi driver turned up for us at around 11.10, he was going to take us the 1 ½ hours to a town called Pathein where the coach station was.

It started off quite nicely but when we got around a mile or two down the road and we were going up and down the hills the driver suddenly turned into Mikka Hakenan, practically taking the corners on two wheels, overtaking on blind bends and being in the middle of the road on the rise of the hills! Shell – ‘I don’t like this’  I didn’t either but wondered if this was normal or he was just giving Babu a run for his money in the ‘crap dangerous driver’ stakes.  Anyway after around 5 – 10 miles of this Shell looked terrified and I couldn’t take much more either so I asked him to slow down as I lied I had a dodgy stomach, at which point he slowed right down, not sure whether he was taking the piss but it made the rest of the journey much nicer.

We arrived in Pathein around 12.30 and checked into to our appointed coach waiting area. As our coach was not due to leave until 3.00 we left our bags with the coach people (Who told us to return by 2.00) and headed off to find some refreshments to calm Shell’s nerves down after our rally experience.  After going up and down the road for a bit we eventually found a beer station in a small courtyard and ordered a few beers.  Shortly after we sat down we suddenly became local stars for the kids that were hanging around, wanting loads of pictures with us doing peace signs with them.  Shell also got quite a few pictures with the girls giving her smackers on the cheek.  I tried to start up the Myanmar Hammers Supporter club by getting them to do photo’s with me doing the crossed arms hammers sign!

After a few beers we returned to the coach station and waited for our bus to board, I took this time to find some snacks for our 15 hour journey.  I purchased some local sweets which the area was famous for (Rice, Coconut, Sesame, Other Stuff – Disgusting!!) and some sort of Puff Pastry Cakes (Not Bad) and a bag of oranges.

As we boarded the coach at 3.00 we were clearly the only westerners on the coach, it clearly wasn’t a tourist bus, however the driver and assistant/flight attendant were very helpful.  We thought we had prime spots  at the front of the coach but this in fact meant we had less leg room as the drinks refrigerator was right in front of us.

Anyway we set off at a better pace than the previous drive but we found the roads to be fairly bumpy and the coach to be very bouncy (I think it maybe better to be in the middle seats), this took its toll on me and I was regretting the recent beer intake.  After about an hour into the journey I was bursting and when I was considering my options 1.  Try and find an empty drinks ,   2. Wet myself, fortunately the bus stopped to drop something off/pick someone up so I took this opportunity and the driver helped me find a small roadside café where I could relieve myself.

Now I could join Shell enjoying watching the countryside roll by and reading our books until it got dark.  There very some very nice scenes of paddy fields with little palm thatched stilted houses all along the way (reminded me of Vietnam war films).

When we finally stopped for food/comfort break the driver/assistant made sure we knew what time we had there.  Unfortunately after passing a few nice looking places to stop where the coach actually stopped was the equivalent of a UK truckers café,  the food didn’t look that enticing and as all the menu was is Burmese I had no idea what I would be ordering, so I opted for a bag of corn flavoured corn crisps from the stall next door.  Shell had already decided that she was not going to chance eating bearing in mind we had a long journey with no guarantee of when a comfort break may be. She was also getting a little fed up with Burmese food at this point: greasy and stodgy!.

Back on to the coach and we travelled into the night, during the evening we watched some series that Shell had downloaded onto her Ipad which killed some time.  We also consumed some oranges in lieu of water as we didn’t want to be caught short like I had earlier, although there were a couple of comfort breaks during the evening.  We then did our best to try and get some sleep… we didn’t really manage it!

Day 2 – The road to Mandalay – IS VERY BUMPY!

We were due to arrive in Mandalay at 6.00am so during the night we tried to get some sleep but it was hard with the bouncing of the bus and it being a bit cramped, although Shell claims to have heard me snoring and I saw her doing some good fly-catching impressions!  So after a night of fitful naps we actually arrived and hour early at 5.00, it’s a good job Shell managed to get us a 6.00 check-in with the hotel the prior day.

Getting off the bus we thanked the Driver very much for looking after us and he in turn pointed me in the direction of toilet (I think he thinks I have a weak bladder – not a beer problem!) and we found a cab, who was asking 8,000K to our hotel and Shell did well to haggle down to 5,000K even though we had no idea how far the hotel was.

Arriving at the hotel even earlier than we expected we were still welcomed in and checked in without a problem and shown up to our room.  After a quick inspection it was nice, big and clean, we both went back to bed to catch up on our missing sleep.

After waking again around midday we decided to have a look around the town, firstly getting some refreshment at a nearby bar. We then headed off in the direction of the daily market, which was full of all sorts of produce and very busy with traffic so after a fairly quick look around and picking up some safety pins from one of the stalls we thought we would check out the Mandalay Palace.

However on the way there we got some hunger pangs as we had not really eaten for 24 hours so we decided to search out a restaurant, after a lengthy hunt we eventually had to plump for a Chinese.  The food was fairly decent and the owner had good English so we took some tourist advice off of him for the next day.

The food had the effect of making us tired so instead of visiting the palace, we picked up some beers for our room fridge and headed back to our hotel to relax for the eventing – sightseeing can wait until tomorrow

Day 3 – Mingun, U-Bein and more…

Making up for wasted time sleeping yesterday, today’s plan was to get an early boat trip to a place called Mingun which is an ancient city about a 45min boat ride away (we like boats)

Arriving at the port we were directed to a ticket office where upon arrival we saw people handing over passports in order to get their tickets!. Given my track record of losing things (Shel not Glenn!)  we keep everything locked and tied back at the hotels. The only form of I.d I used to carry around was my driving licence which was lost back in Bangkok, we could be in trouble here!. Given we had got up early for the trip I was loathed to give up without at least trying to blag our way on so wrote 2 fictitious numbers  (in pink pen!) on the back of my guide book and handed this over to the ticket bloke together with a card for the hotel we were staying at. IT WORKED!.

We scrambled across 3 other boats over (very) thin planks to reach our boat which I managed without falling in!. The journey was pleasant and we got chatting to a few girls who gave us some good tips on the other places we would be visiting in Myanmar. On arrival we paid an entrance fee and set off on foot to look at the ruins and temples.

The island was a pleasant escape from the City - From our brief tour the previous day we decided that we didn’t like Mandalay as much as Yangon as it was too spread out and a little dirty with taxi drivers trying to blag larger fares - There were no vehicles in Minghan , only carts pulled by cows which offered to taxi you to and from the temples, we declined (may have had something to do with Glenn’s new cow phobia!). 

Our First stop was at a temple that claimed to have Buddha’s footprint so we could add it to our collection of Buddha’s tooth and hair. After a few more temples and seeing the world’s largest bell (without a crack!)  we climbed a massive Paya which did have a huge crack through it caused by an earthquake. It was quite a few steps up and we were feeling pretty smug when we started over taking lots of people (our Nepal training kicking in) and reached the top where we got great views. Rewarding ourselves with a quick beer afterwards, we then boarded the boat back to the city.

I’d read about a monastery (Shwe in Bin Kyaung) that was made from wood and  looked pretty impressive, wanting a change from Golden Pagoda’s Glenn found a route close to the port which kept us off the main roads and followed a canal all the way down to the Monastery. After initially fighting through a cloud of mosquito’s and the stench of sewage the pathway then changed to shacks where we were able to witness local village life of people doing their laundry in the canal, kids playing, people cooking and almost everyone waving at us as we strolled along. We also passed a couple of impressive wooden bridges, one appears to the laundry bridge, (see pic).

Reaching the Monastery we found that other than one other person, we were the only tourists there and were able to wander around, take in the great architecture and soak up the peace and quiet. Glenn managed to help us avoid an embarrassing moment when he rounded a corner and looked down to see a Monk taking his daily bath, I quickly retraced my steps!.

The plan was to then find a recommended restaurant, we did, it was closed, we found a beer station instead!, what can you do?. It was getting close-ish to sunset where we wanted to see the famous U- Bein bridge so after asking at the beer station, and being surrounded by about 8 men babbling at us, trying to guide us and not having a clue what they were saying, we opted to head down where we saw a motor cycle taxi stand where we hoped to pick up a taxi-car. No joy with the car we finally agreed a price for a bike/driver each and hopped on the back for the journey to U-Bein. The guys were really sweet and drove cautiously, mine even stopped to re-tie my helmet when he realised I was only holding on with one hand… the other holding on my helmet as the strap was broken (by me, but I  opted not to share this info!).

U-bein Bridge is a long rickety bridge made out of teak (much like Laundry Bridge) and is said to be the longest wooden bridge in the world (1.2k long). Arriving, we set off across the bridge passing monks including pink monks where we managed to get a couple of sneaky snaps for you (see pics, stunning aren’t they!)

About half way across we left the bridge and climbed down onto an island where we managed to negotiate a boat for the sunset, sharing the price with a lone female traveller from Canada. We went out across the water and waited for sunset, lovely and peaceful until we came cross 2 boats of Germans chatting away together, smoking and buying alcoholic drinks from a passing rowing boatbar thing (can’t blame them). Glenn was unable to make much conversation with our boat companion as she had a slight moustache problem (poor thing) so we sat watching the sunset in silence and then headed back to shore.

Back on shore, we negotiated a taxi ride back to the hotel but now starving,  we explained that we wanted to eat first and headed to one of the shacks on the shore for some food. The woman who served us appeared to be the matriarch, bossing her team of family members around and politely but firmly informing us that we had 3 choices of food, 1: Fried Rice with chicken, 2: Fried noodles with chicken and 3: something neither Glenn or I could understand but it probably came with chicken!. Just as we were about to finish the taxi drove by with a fare in the back explaining he would be back to collect us. Its quite a drive back to the main city so knew he’d be ages but as there was now no other taxi’s around we had no other option but to wait it out whilst being bitten alive by mosquito’s.

The restaurant now closing and taking pity on us managed to negotiate two young guys to take us back on their bikes. This time my helmet worked (glenn’s didn’t) and we set off back to the hotel again with both bikes taking care as we sped through taking the sites of the city in, loved it!. Would recommend it as an alternative and cheaper way to get around!.

Arriving back at our hotel and high after the journey we decided to go and look for some beers. Finding a local shop that sold them we sat down outside where the owner proceeded to introduce us to his entire family, Gran, Wife, Sister and Niece.  What a wonderful kind and warm family they were (which we later discovered was typical of Myanmar people).  I asked for a picture of them (at which point Gran sped off as she had a flannel on her head) and noticed that the niece was shying away so beckoned her forward to join in and started chatting to her. After this she took a real shine to me and proceeded to bestow me with little gifts: elastic hairbands, a diamante hair grip and beaded bracelet.  She then set off at a march down the street and returned with a puppy to show me I’d found a silk scarf Id had which she shyly took from me before running off not to be seen again. We finished our beers, I vowed to wear the bracelet for the rest of our trip (broke 2 days later)  and headed off back to the hotel where we both agreed that today had been one of the best days of the entire  trip and actually, we really quite liked Mandalay J

…If you are ever in Mandalay and see a young 17-18 something year old shy girl (above first left) wearing a purple scarf and holding a puppy, say hello from us (and don’t tell her I broke her bracelet!)