Day 1 Fully loaded we were glad the weather was good and it wasn’t a far walk to the guesthouse where we were meeting our jeep and driver. We’d called in the day before and asked if we could extend the trip to 15 days as 14 would give us 4 days back in UB … More 16 day nomads – days 1 to 3: Gobi Desert
Flight 9: Yangon to Bangkok was a bit rough. We were slightly delayed as the plane was late arriving, then they got us all on, we were just waiting for cargo to be loaded and said sorry because they have been on the ground for 25 minutes they have to complete some immigration thing. All … More Mongolia – The halfway point: Ulaan Bataar
We had tickets for a 9:30am bus to Yangon bus station. Whilst at breakfast the hotel owner came over to say hello and chatted to us about where we had been and what we had seen. We told him we were sad to be heading back to Yangon and leaving the country soon but were … More Yangon – take 2 & goodbye Burma
We could have left Kalaw on a 8:30pm bus which with a 10-12 hour journey time would have us arriving at a reasonable time but we had chosen the 5:30pm bus for a couple of reasons: it gave us enough daylight to get down the bulk of the mountain road and with the constant wet … More A dip into Bago
Kalaw is high in the mountains, we’d passed through it on the way to Inle Lake. In the dry season it is where you come for trekking but this being the wet season for us it was basically a hop down the road to somewhere different that takes a bit of time off the long … More Still wet – Kalaw
It’s a long bus trip from Bagan to Inle Lake – 10 hours although we had a good run and got in 30 minutes early. The bus left at 6:30am and was to pick us up from outside the hotel. We thought this was a benefit of being on the route to the small bus … More Inle Lake in the wet season
There is only one reason to visit Bagan; temples. Just a few of them. We were picked up from the hotel in Mandalay by our complimentary pick up service. Emma got lucky and bagged the front seat and Marie bundled into the back for another taxi sandwich. Again the shared taxi was basically a ute … More Temples, temples, temples – Bagan
The hotel were kind enough to let us refresh by using the staff shower for which we were very grateful as sitting on a night bus covered in a thin film of traffic scum and when you have been sticky and sweaty all day would not have been nice for us or the other passengers … More Mandalay (with Sagaing, Amarapura and Mingun)
We arrived at the hotel in Yangon and into organised chaos, a narrow but tall colonial building with steep narrow staircase packed to the rafters with foreigners and numerous young men wearing longyis (the traditional skirt/sarong that most men here wear) and white shirts scurrying around the building as they performed their dual role as … More Yangon – take 1
Burma is a bit different. It is known by 2 names, Burma and Myanmar. Currently its land borders are closed so you have to fly in. It has 2 international airports but international flights only actually fly to/from Yangon (also known by its former name, Rangoon). Visas have to be gained in advance but recently … More Burma: “it is quite unlike any place you know about” (Rudyard Kipling)
Marie & Emma's Travel Journal 