Myanmar - south to Mawlamyine

Mawlamyine is the fourth largest city in Myanmar and was visited by Rudyard Kipling in 1889. Written into his poem about Mandalay "by the old Moulmein pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea there's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o'me". It was also the British colonial capital between 1826 and 1852 so there were many colonial buildings to discover, as well as Ogre Island and the Death Railway.

Mawlamyine

Myanmar - a little town called Hpa-an

Hpa-an (pronounced pa-an) is a famed for its karst scenery, rivers, rice fields and caves. It is a beautiful setting and I am sure, if the air was clearer, is would be spectacular. We only had 2 days here, which in our opinion is about right unless you want to climb Mt Zwegabin and stay at the monastery at the top. As it was topping 36 C we ruled the 2 hour climb out and focused on doing a trip to the famous caves.

The caves of Hpa-an

Myanmar - The Golden Rock (Mt Kyaiktiyo)

The Golden Rock is one of the three main religious sites in Myanmar (ther other two being the Mahamuni Paya Buddha in Mandalay and the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. Some people think it is a bit over rated, whilst others admire its beauty. But as we were heading past we thought we would stop off on the way to Hpa-an and judge it for ourselves.

The Golden Rock (courtesy of google)

Myanmar - Lake Inle to Kalaw by train

We had an extra day in Nyaung Shwe  than planned and so we booked our bus down to Bago to head south and picked up a tuk tuk to the station at Shwe Nyaung (yes...be careful not to mix those two up!) to catch the 9.40am train to Kalaw. The ride had been highly recommended by the man in seat 61 and we were not sure where we would have the chance to travel by train, so as we had time to kill and we could pick up the bus in Kalaw we jumped on.

The train from Inle to Kalaw

Myanmar - exploring Inle Lake

Lake Inle is well established on the tourist route and is a good stopping off point between Yangon and the north, or vise versa.  The lake itself isn't the largest in Myanmar, that title goes to Indawgyi, but Lake Inle's charm comes from the various villages and the unique way people and nature come together.

One legged fishing

Myanmar - Kalaw to Inle Trek

The Kalaw to Inle lake trek is one of the most popular walks in Myanmar and for good reason. Kalaw sits at about 1300m in the Shan state of Myanmar with a variety of hill tribes in the surrounding area. The walking routes are easy and the town itself is well set up, with a spur train line and a range of VIP and standard buses stopping there before Lake Inle.

We decided to do a 3 day/2 night trek to Inle, but you can also do it in 4 days/3 nights, 2 days/1 night or even 1 day, but most choose the classic 3 day/2 night option as it allowed us to take a fairly leisurely pace across the 5 or so hours of walking per day.

Myanmar - a day at an elephant sanctuary

Having the chance to spend time with elephants was high up on things that Julia wanted to experience whilst on our travels. There had been options in Bali and Thailand but we felt they were heavily commercialised and more of a whistle stop experience rather than getting to enjoy some quality time with these gentle, majestic creatures.

A day with the elephants

Myanmar - Beautiful Bagan (Part 3)

Our third and final day was extra special as we had booked a hot air balloon ride over Bagan with Oriental Ballooning.

Up, up and away

There are currently 3 companies that offer hot air balloon rides over Bagan; Balloons over Bagan, Oriental Ballooning, Golden Eagle, reassuringly owned and run by Brits and Swiss. With a maximum of 21 balloons that can fly on any one day we had booked ahead as the places seemed to be selling out around a week in advance. That said, demand may now be much higher since the ban on climbing most of the temples was announced.

Big balloons!

Myanmar - Beautiful Bagan (Part 2)

For our second day we picked up another e-bike (blue this time!) and headed off down the main road connecting Nyuang-U with Old Bagan to see a few of the temples on this route before heading towards New Bagan to discover the temples of the Myinkaba area. 

Blue bike day!

We dragged ourselves out of bed for another sunrise and headed to Budeli, one of the temples that can be climbed from the outside, and perched ourselves very precariously on one of the very tiny steps to watch the sunrise over Bagan. 

Myanmar - Beautiful Bagan (Part 1)

We had decided to travel from Mandalay down to the infamous Bagan by boat. 12 hours floating down the river, sitting back in the sunshine and watching the world go by, we enjoyed seeing both sunrise and sunset on the water.

Sunrise on the river

It was a wonderfully peaceful journey, with views of the farmers, small villages and fishermen quietly going about their daily lives on the river banks.

Myanmar in 2015 - Mandalay

With Myanmar having only really opened up to tourists properly recently, this country had been on Chris' hit list for a while. Since VISAs have become easier to get and wider areas of the country have opened up, there have been more tourists flocking to see this 'new' and 'trendy' destination. So we were keen to find out what all the fuss was about.

I am not carrying you across this whole bridge!

Thailand - Bangkok... the big BKK

Our flight arrived late into Bangkok, and as we walked through arrivals, waiting with warm welcoming smiles and a big hug was Julia's old family friend Ann. Such a great sight after a very long evening and journey for Julia following her food poisoning episode (which sadly still hadn't come to an end). 

We jumped into Ann's car and were driven by an airline pilot of all things!; Ann's good friend Oui to her beautiful home in Sukhamvit, an area to the east of central Bangkok. With it being past midnight, Ann kindly showed us to our home for our stay in Bangkok; a little villa in the back of Ann's garden, in front of her pool, which was an amazingly homey and had a HUGE comfy bed - a real treat after all the bamboo bungalows.

Meeting Ann

Thailand - The Andamen islands

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel through the Andaman Sea islands all the way from Malaysia. We liked all the islands, but some stood head and shoulders over the others for us. Of course everyone is different and therefore, may have a different opinion, but we were looking for somewhere with a bit of character, great beaches and peace and quiet. Here is our take on the Thai Andamen sea islands...

Our favourite
Our overall best island was Koh Bulone Leh. It didn't have the best beach, but it made up for this with a great vibe, down to earth locals, and Su's cinnamon buns! The island had a good mix of ultra cheap to good higher end places to stay, food was good and prices were reasonable. There were a couple of nice bars as well to have a nice drink in the evening, without feeling the pressure to party party party.

Thailand - Railay - spectacular karst landscape... and a beach or two

Mixed among the karst landscape of the Krabi region Railay is a climber's and beach lover's mecca. Railay, also known as  Rai Leh is only a short boat (there is no road) ride to Krabi so it seemed like a perfect place for one final beach fix before heading north to Bangkok.

Railay is a peninsula of sorts, with 2 and a half beaches and some quite amazing karst scenery dividing the beaches. I say 2 and a half because you can't really call Railay East a beach as it is mostly mangrove and where the long tails arrive/leave. However the other two beaches, one of which is consistently touted as one of the best in the world, are stunners, which invariably draws a crowd of families, package tourist the Phi Phi crowd and those, like us.

Phra Nang

Thailand - Koh Lanta - the last of our island adventure

With time against us to make it to Bangkok before heading on to Myanmar, we decided to give some of the other islands a miss as we needed to keep moving. This sadly meant we didn't make it to Koh Ngai or Koh Rok, two of the other Trang islands that would have made for great stops to explore. Koh Ngai is similar in feel to Koh Kradan and looked beautiful from the boat, and Koh Rok is well known as a great snorkeling spot.

Our next stop was the subtantially larger Koh Lanta. Taking around one hour to drive from the north to the south, it was world's away from the small islands we had become accustomed to. If you'd come from Phi Phi, Phuket or Koh Tao, Koh Panyang etc. I think you would find Koh Lanta to be quiet and a welcome calm, but as we had been spoilt with the beauty and the peace of the small southern isles we found Koh Lanta to have less clear turquoise waters than we had been previously enjoying (yes we have now become what you would probably term beach snobs!).

Over to Lanta