Myanmar (Burma)

March 20, 2015

Burmese Days: Mandalay

Our arrival into Mandalay was at 3am when our night bus dropped us randomly in the middle of no where and we jumped in a taxi with our fingers crossed that there was someone awake at our guest house. Since we were arriving so early we of course couldn’t check into our room but our guest house kindly let us crash on their couch for the morning. All through our trip in Myanmar, we have experienced this fantastic hospitality and understanding from all of our guest houses. Its another reason why I think the Burmese people are some of the friendliest I have ever met.

Since most of our first day in Mandalay was spent sleeping its not surprising the first agenda on our itinerary was walking up Mandalay Hill for a sunset view. The walk up the hill is a long one but thankfully not too steep. Its a really interesting journey through covered walkways lined with markets, stopping off at different pagodas and view points on the way. It seemed like every time we reached the top of one set of stairs we thought we were there, but it just kept going and going. Finally we made it and we were rewarded with a fantastic view and another stunning sunset.

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March 18, 2015

Burmese Days: Inle Lake

The drive from Bagan to Nyaungshwe (the gateway to the lake) was a long, bumpy, hot and sticky one as there were 12 of us crammed into a minivan with no air con. While it wasn’t the most comfortable, I was glad it was during the day so I could look out the window and see what Myanmar life was like outside of the bigger cities and main tourists drags. Even with the interesting views, I was glad to arrive in the afternoon at Nyaungshwe – a town on the edge of Inle Lake that we were going to use as a base for our exploration.

In my last post I mentioned how relaxing Inle Lake was meant to be and our first day definitely confirmed that. We hired bikes and rode along bumpy roads past bamboo shacks on stilts, rice paddies and local countryside to Kaung Daing. It is home to some hot springs where we planned to relax our muscles after a long bike ride. I was expecting natural hot springs for some reason and when we arrived at a swimming pool and spa complex I was a little disappointed. That was until I submerged into the hot spa and felt instantly better.

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March 17, 2015

Burmese Days: Balloons Over Bagan

One of the best experiences I have ever had whilst travelling was taking a sunrise hot air balloon flight over Bagan. At $320 USD each, it certainly blew our backpacker budget but it was worth every single cent. We did our flight with Balloons over Bagan who have been doing it in Bagan for 14 years, however there are now two other companies that fly as well. I highly recommend anyone travelling to Bagan (or anywhere else offering hot air balloon flights) to do it!

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March 16, 2015

Burmese Days: Bagan

We survived our first overnight bus of the trip and arrived in Bagan at about 5am. Luckily, we could check into our guest house early so we could catch up on some sleep and then start the day once the heat of the day (its about 39-40 degrees at about 1pm) had passed.

We wandered down into the main street to find some lunch and were happy to find we were close to lots of amenities and restaurants. When I say main street – I mean about 30 restaurants and shops off a dirt road. We found a nice garden cafe run by a french woman and sat in the breeze while I ate my first Myanmar meal – chicken curry. It was quite tasty but I don’t think that Burmese cuisine is going to be my favourite.

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March 9, 2015

Burmese Days: Yangon

When we decided to visit Myanmar (or Burma as it was formally called) I did a bit of a Google search, saw a few pictures, read a couple of blogs but left it at that. I wanted to walk into this country without any expectations and discover it for myself. It is only recently that Myanmar has opened up to tourism and there are still large areas of the country that are off limits to foreign visitors. It feels a very new experience to be able to be here, travel the country as it opens up and before the visitor count grows.

Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted with smiles from our hostel pick up. He was wearing a traditional Longyi (a long skirt similar to a sarong) and seemed genuinely excited to be talking to us. It was such a nice welcome to what only has been an extremely friendly time in Yangon.

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