Very sad to be leaving Myanmar today. Yet again it was a gorgeous morning on Ngpali beach and we got up early to have a last walk and feel the warm sea wash over our feet and say goodbye to the Mermaid sitting out on the rocks. We landed back in Yangon to a friendly […]
I’m not sure what wakes me first our villa’s invisible Gekko squawking or the wedding music from the village next door. It is wedding season here in Myanmar – just after the Buddhist Lent – and they blast local music from a loud speaker from daybreak to midnight and a wedding can last a couple […]
Today we discovered we could float. The sea is so salty that we could lie on our backs, with the sun on our faces and feel the gentle waves roll underneath us – heaven. We woke early – again – and went for a run along the beach to the very far end passing four […]
We were told that there was a fishing village located just along the beach from our hotel that was worth visiting and the best time was to go between 7am and 7.30 am when the boats returned with their daily catch. As we woke early we headed along just before 7am expecting to see a […]
We have stayed in some amazing beach front villas over the years and seen some beautiful beaches so it was going to take a lot to impress me but this place had done just that. The arrival at the airport was seamless and we didn’t even have to collect our own luggage just had to […]
We were picked up just after 5am by the driver from Oriental Ballooning which is operated by British pilots. It was pitch dark when we arrived in a field and were offered tea or coffee and pastries. We were then introduced to our pilots and they called out our names so we knew who we […]
Dinner last night was amazing. It wasn’t really a sandbank but more of a sandberg – a sandy island with cliffs about 6ft tall. The backdrop of the temples, the clear starry night and eating dinner with our bare feet in the sand surrounded by candles and torches was very special. Chef and his staff […]
The trip today was changed at the last minute as they felt that the planned trip which involved a 2 hr sail up and back down the river to Sale – a little community of temples and monasteries was too much sailing and not enough sightseeing. They therefore decided that a 2 hour bus trip […]
We decided to skip the meditation session on the Sun Deck at 7am and have a lie in – which we definitely needed as we had a late one in the bar and didn’t get to bed til 1pm. After breakfast we were still tired so went back to bed and also missed the cooking […]
An early start this morning as we were off the boat by 7.30 am for a visit to Sin Kyun village. The Sanctuary company, who own our cruise boat, have adopted this village and paid for a school to be built and for a English speaking teacher from Mandalay to teach English, Myanmar and mathematics […]
Today we head towards Bagan on the Ayarwaddy (Irrawaddy) River on the famous Road to Mandalay – made famous by Rudyard Kipling’s poem, Frank Sinatra and the Orient Express (now Belmond) cruise ship and is one of world’s most iconic journeys. However we are doing the trip in reverse. This morning started with a half […]
We had a 2 hour drive today into North Eastern Myanmar to the British summer capital at Pyin Oo Lwin. We stopped on the way at the flower market where you could buy an enormous bunch of chrysanthemums – in any colour – for only 50p. The locals buy the flowers to give as offerings […]
We arrived early afternoon into Mandalay and thanks to our flight being slightly delayed ended up having a whirlwind tour of the city – although we weren’t expecting anything other than a airport to hotel transfer so we were really delighted to get to see three of Mandalay’s top attractions so we weren’t complaining. We […]
We set off early today to catch the end of the Thaung Tho village market which sits at the end of one of the many tributaries leading off the lake. This market specialises in selling bundles of firewood cut from the local forests and delivered by ox and cart. The market starts at 4am and […]
Today has been action packed and a photographer’s dream. We started by taking our long boat to the local market at Nan Pan. Despite being busy with tourists and having to navigate past a row of souvenir stalls, leading from the boat parking lot to the market, I have to say that once we were […]
Before leaving Kalaw we stopped by and walked around their weekly market which was fascinating. Yet again we saw vegetables, plants and herbs that we had never seen before and David got some amazing photos of the farmers that come from the local villages to sell their produce wearing their local dress. He was like […]
Today we had our second Eco-Tourist experience (the first being in Rwanda). We were dropped off at the side of a twisting mountain road that, for an hour, had taken us up and down through beautiful dense tree covered mountains. We were introduced to our trekking guide and started our 2 hour long walk down […]
Our 7am flight to Heho airport in the Shan State of Eastern Myanmar, stopped off first in Mandalay. We were met by our lovely new guide, Mai and when she discovered we were Scottish quizzed us about the recent referendum. She said she had followed it on Facebook! We were heading to Kalaw, which was […]
We had an early start – 8am – and our first stop was the Botataung Paya temple which you can walk inside. Probably just as well as it was chucking it down with rain. Inside was like being in a gold plated maze and was a bit disorientating. We bumped into lots of smiling families […]
Thanks to a delayed flight from Bangkok and the fact its a full moon today and therefore a local festival/public holiday we didn’t get to visit Shwedagon pagoda as planned. Instead we stopped to see Chaukhatgyi Payi, a 65 metre long reclining Buddha, which was so enormous that when we first walked into the open […]
3 1/2 weeks touring round Myanmar (Burma) - November 2014
