Blog updates

Spent quite a bit of today sitting with a coffee on the riverbank catching up with blog etc. I've put some more funny stories up re: Myanmar and some pics and stuff about Laos.

Still Laos, but where next here?

Before the blurb, here's some images of people in a local Mong village :







Yesterday I got up at 5.30am to see the monks walking down the main road, getting their alms (is that how you spell it?), then heading on the trek. In the evening I bought a duvet cover (yes, excatly, but hey it was fab, hand made, and $15, AND my sister was taking it wither her ;->). This is one of the things I find hard when moving around - it's the main time I buy anything at all for my flat, and I see loads of handicrafts I'd like back home, but this time I'm not heading back in a few days so I just can't do that.

Luang Prabang is also a handy place to get a visa for onward travel if you are in SE Asia, and hanging around for a few days. Visas for Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand can be arranged, sometimes withing a day, but often going via Vientiene. By the sounds of it, Luang Prabang is a better place to hang around while someone stamps your visa. I arrived too late to put my passport in last night, and had several options for where I went next, so I decided to hang around another day... here were my otions :

- head to Nong Khiaw just north of here with my sister - a planned destination, but it's not the best route for me
- wait for a day and head to Phonsavan (Plain of Jars) with Luc I met in Myanmar, then head to Vieng Xai myself near the Vietnamese border, then back to Luang Prabang via NOng Khiaw
- wait for a day and head up to Luang Nam Tha with another Irish girl Claire, and two scottish blokes she's travelling with just now
- or hire a bike for a week and do the trip myself (tempting if I Knew nothing was going to go wrong!)
- bugger everything, stay here and speak to the Red Cross

I could quite easily find myself here in a few weeks deliberating, and still not quite being ready to pack my bags and move on. Despite this, I handed in my passport to get me visas, and bought my bus ticket to Phonsavan leaving tomorrow (1st Nov) - maybe on my own, or with Luc. The $175 US for a week's bike hire was fighting to stay in my wallet - far more expensive, but would mean I would have the joys of travelling on more roads the Lonely Planet said to be careful about, and be free to go at my own pace, without bumping around for days on public buses, and be constricted by their timings. I'll head back via Luang Prabang in a week or so to collect my passport.

Another big thing is nagging my head too. I headed to Luang Prabang in a hurry to see my sister, and overlooked a place called The Gibbon Experience, which I've heard great things about - three days dangling from suspended cables, staying in tree houses, while looking for wildlife. Unfortunately it's back by the Thai border, meaning two days there and two days back, on the frickin' boat again. I'mkeen to go!

All this is without even considering how long it will take to get down through souther Laos....I can feel a flight coming on and having to miss out this section!

As it turns out, my Myanmar companion Luc just strolled up to my while I sit on the riverbank typing this (no wifi tho!) and he is hanging around for an extra day to get his Vietnam visa...another lesson in waiting around to see what others are doing!!! It's Phonsovan on my own tomorrow.

Luang Prabang stuff

Monks on parade at 6am :


Mini Monks on parade at 6am :


Slippers on display in the night market :


On the boat to the Sae waterfall :


The view from my guesthouse over the Nam Khong river :



When I got to Luang Prabang I liked it immediately. The central part of it is compact - you can walk round it quickly in an hour. It lies at the junction of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, at the foothills of the surrounding mountains. There are paddy fields on the other side of the river, the streets are small, clean and surrounded by lovely temples (even if you are like me and don't go and visit them). If you want to do something a little more adventurous, there's a plethora of travel and tour companies tempting your wallet for anything from motorbike rentals, waterfall visits, day trips, to treks, rafting, mountain biking and climbing.

When I arrived I had a massage at the Red Cross and was already tempted by their notice asking for volunteers wishing to dedicate a few days over a 2 week period to help them out with English and a couple of local projects. Later the first night I was speaking to a Canadian who runs White Elephant Tours about climbing, and before I knew it he said to me to see what I thought of the place over the next few days, and if I liked it, he would speak to me about a potential role, as he was looking for someone to help him with his projects...Vang Vieng is meant to be the outdoors place here, so if I like it here this much....!

Previously I was looking for somewhere to stop off for a few weeks to chill out, and this could well be the place. There is enough to wander around in town, you can hire bikes, and there is loads to do around if you get bored, and the night market has some beatiful handicrafts (mainly silk) without the hard sell of places like Chaing Mai, and I'm sure most of this stuff is made by the people actually selling it. Unfortunately my calendar isn't quite as big as I would like as I have to try and do as much of Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as Laos, before mid December - I could easily kill that time just in Laos. The Red Cross thing is very tempting as it would let me have more interaction with the locals. I've spent days just wandering around, going to a couple of photo exhibitions that are on, and generally slowing down to the pace of the place.

Yesterday my sister, hubby and I took a small day trip through a couple of villages of the Mong Laos people. There are three main types of Laos people very basically divided into whether they live in high or middle mountain, or the cities. After my time in Sabah, it's this stuff I really enjoy - wandering around the basic villages, interacting with the people, seeing their way of life, and hoping to walk away with some half decent photographs. Our bus was mobbed as we passed a school, and the people in the other two villages were happy to share their time with us, surely helped by the fact our guide was of Mong origin as well. From these we did a pretty uninteresting trek to the Tat Juang Si waterfall for a swim. It's large muti tiered waterfall, 30km out of town, with a swimming area at the bottom. There's also enclosures with a tiger and bears that are being rehabilitated.

And on the lighter side :


In the wonderful Vietnam Bar :



Getting back from the Vietnam Bar in the tuk-tuk :

Thailand To Laos, then Huay Xai to Luang Prabang

I had an early morning and headed from Chiang Rai on the 6am bus to Chiang Khong on the Thai borderm thinking there would be a rush for the boat, leaving between 8 and 9am. The border crossing here is so easy.... a stamp from the Thai immigration, then a 20 Baht boat across the Mekong, then you arrive at the Laos immigration....gazebo. Immigration grab your attention as you almost stroll freely into the country, you fill out a form, hand them $35 US (this differs depending on your country), then generally hang around and have a bit of banter with the immigration officers. While they hand your form into the uniformed guys, you leave your bags around, stroll up to the boat ticket office he sends you to, then saunter back in a wee while to get your passport back. When you do, you walk 20 yards up the street and get stamped into the Check In counter, boat ticket already in hand. They hand out 30 day visa automagically now, so no worries about a paltry 15 days anymore and extending it. In saying that you could easily loose a month in Laos. As I type this I've been inLuang Prabang for almost a week, and still never quite feel like leaving.

I'm sure you pay a little bit more for the boat this way, but it beats trying to make your own way to the jetty (2km South for the speedboat, 1km North for the slow boat).

There was a great crowd on the boat, and we scored lucky and had some space to wonder around. I've heard of stories when you are crammed in here, but not in our case.

I stopped for the compulsory slow boat night in Pak Beng, a tiny little town where there's not much to do except eat, drink, and refuse all the offer of opium you get. I bumped into a great crowd in the tiny restaurant, andit turned into a pretty late night, all fired by the free whisky the Americans handed out. It was here I met my friendly Mancunian, with a past more potted that the roads in Myanmar. He made a nice habit of breaking up the conversation about China dominating the world, with such retorts as 'Yeh, but I don't give a f*!k, that's hardly going to affect me selling crack on the streets in Manchester'...and to the comment about what happens when I Chinese company takes over his work : 'Yeh, but I've not worked a decent day in my life mate'. Well that's one way to put the silence on a loud American (ok, it didn't but it was a good try).

The second day of the boat was a bit more exciting, with several card games going on, drinking games, and general chatting. I didn't do that much though, just counting down the hours of more 'beautiful riverside scenery'. It was beautiful, but a few hours would've done rather than 14.

It was this day that brought a big group together on the boat, and for the following few evening we made an assualt on Luang Prabang....

Time to hit the border

Having ran out of gas on the Thai/Myanmar border, tomorrow it's time for me to hit Laos. I hope to catch a bus at stupid AM, catch the boat across the river, then spend 2 days cruising down to Luang Prabang to hook up with my sister. I wanted to head north but timing dictates otherwise for the moment. I fancied the speedboat option and doing it in a day, but there was the matter of warnings about accidents, death and capsizing by hitting logs etc.....

More soon..... time to step back in time a little bit after sitting on my arse online for much of today. I moved my flight to Aus from mid December, but the first one I could get was 6th Frickin' February.....so that's me in Asia til then! Bummer ;->

(actually it is a bit for my 'planning' but hey ho...now 5 or so weeks in Aus, 7-8 in NZ from mid March, then 5 weeks to whistle stop if from Japan to South Korea through China for my Bangkok flight home...if it happens like that!)

Golden Triangle motorbike trip

Mum - don't read this ;->

Long Blog..but a funny one.

Last night I landed in Chiang Rai after a night in Bangkok in transit from Myanmar. I was keen to have a great night out with Tracy, and unfortunately we stumbled into a good bar after eating in the oh-so-touristy Cabbages & COndoms restaurant in Sukhumvit. I went there last year too, but the meal was absolutely fantastic. Anyway, amongst all the women for sale in the area, Tracy opened a door to a pub and it looked quite cool. I was short of cash as the ATM didn't work, so I found out they took credit cards. All ok. Subsequently we found out they only took them for bills over 2000 Baht, so there was only one thing to do. A British guy who helped design the bar started speaking to us and promptly took us up to the 'ice room' and gave us few vodka shots from the solid ice bar... I'll have to look up the Titanium Bar in BKK up as we were still trying to suss out what kind of bar it really was.

Anyway, result accomplished, but a bit too much. I had set my alarm for Tracy's flight, heard it and groaned (surely loud enough for her to wake up), and then I woke up 20 minutes before her flight was due to leave the airport, so she stumbled downstairs to rebook a her flight to Cambodia.

I made it to Chiang Rai and am staying in a cool hostel - Chat's House. I hired a bike today and covered 283km on a whistle stop tour of the north of Thailand up and around the Golden Triangle. I decided to go north from Chaing Rai to to Mae Salong - a small Chinese town (although I never witnessed much), but I somehow felt obliged to buy some Ginseng Tea (to make my pack even heavier), and my heart went out to a wee girl who approached me with something else to hang off my wrist. Unfotunately she broke the first one when tying it onto me, but provided a replacement free of charge (two for 5 Bahts - not bad), so now my wrist jingles every time it moves (No comments!). I then went up Doi Tung and the road running alongside the Thai-Myanmar border...... despite Lonely Planet recommending not to do it on your own...soemthing like '...you may be mistaken for an FBI Drugs Enforcer'. Jeez, the said to be careful in Myanmar, so I skipped that bit. At the summit of Doi Tung I had to switch to the reserve tank of gas. They guys said around 60km on reserve, only 20km to go to Mae Sai, so no worries there. Hmm...did I turn the switch the right way on the tank when filling up? That was a trauma as the guy at the rental place said to throw in around 6 litres...it's just that the attendent spoke no English, and I didn't know how much a litre was so I just handed over 120 Baht....safe in the knowledge I'd have 60km to find a gas station.....

So, around 10km after flicking the switch, the bike died again. Half way up a hill. The only one on my now downhill run to Mae Sai. I had already been waved through 3 army checkpoints, and I had just went through a really narrow, not main, road. Only 1pm, so no fear, only around 11 km to Mae Sai, so if I had to.......

Amazingly, after pushing uphill for a few hundred metres, I tried to start the bugger again, and it kicked in, taking me an extra few hundred metres to the next checkpoint. Of course, none of the young army kids spoke any english..at least no more than to establish I was from Scotland, and to determine what the women were like there, and what I thought of Thai woman. Luckily our Thaiglish hand signals worked, and they pointed me back the way I came assuring me there was a village that sold gas on a turn off, just along the road. And it was. At the top of the hill, I signed to a woman on a balcony (aka slapped the gast tank of the free wheeling dirt bike), who pointed to the house across the road, just before I freewheeled past the 'petrol station'. It reminded me of the black market sellers in Myanmar, the petrol flowing from a tube from something that definitely did not have a gauge on it. At least here they didn't need to suck the tube first to get it out the carton. The smiling guy (some more hand signals later) filled me up with his version of 70 Bahts of fuel (I kinda think it wasn't 70 Bahts worth, as I said Mae Sai a few times, and we could see it at the bottom of the mountain) and I was on my way again!

Oh it could have been so much worse - the whole thing only costing me around 40 minutes. Needless to say when I got to Mae Sai, I chucked in a shit load more petrol...as long as it was more Bahts than the first time I would be ok... My confidence dented, I never took the mere 2km detour to actually see the border crossing with Myanmar, but I guess I had been riding within metres of Myanmar for 30 minutes all on my own (bar the odd soldier in his sandbag sheltered checkpoint), so I hot footed it to the Golden Triangle.

I found the cheapest woman in Thailand up there at the viewpoint. The Golden Triangle village was busy with people, restaurants and guesthouses, but the hilltop viewpoint had noone except me, a few empty stalls, and these stunning three girls who approached me the minute I got off the bike and took my camera out. I had a good chat with them, took a few pictures, let them practice their English by asking about 'my' bike and the normal sort of things. Luckily, the 5 year olds were only after a few Baht for me taking their pictures.

I got off the bike in Chiang Rai ten minutes before the hire place closed, big smiles on my face, looking forward to some food and a beer. Of course, when I asked for a bit of refund for the petrol in the tank, they didn't understand me, and just answered in that Asian way : "Yes, Yes, Yes" which usually means - "Who the f*ck are you kidding?" I walked into my accommodation and bumped into Luc who was one of our crowd in Myanmar. He was meant to have passed through a few days earlier, but hit flew north in Myanmar to cross into Thailand, only to find the border closed, and with just enough money to fly back to Yangon, then to Bangkok...how annoying must that have been!

Yeh - that's right (frantic sign language) - enough to get me to Mae Sai :



Just round the corner from the 'petrol station' :




..but I made it to the Golden Triangle - one picture, 3 countries - Thailand, Myanmar and Laos :



And the cheapest (cutest?) girls in Thailand - only 5 Baht for a few pics :

Myanmar - a 50's film set, but the nicest people

More monks than tourists, more water than I've ever seen (some people call them floods), more like a 1950's film set than a country, the most blatent locals's versus foreigners travel pricing I've seen, the hardest travelling I've done yet (we opted not to fly except once) and the friendliest people in South East Asia.

Some pics in the meantime - text to follow - been sitting in this cafe for too long and I can't be bothered buying another coffee! Pictures alone (especially these ones, don't do the place justice) :

A traditional 'canoeist' on Inle Lake. These guys row with their legs (and not only when tourists are looking!) :

A young girl who sold me a bracelet made of watermelon seeds (currently loosing a seed a day!) with her traditional make up on :

A traditional fisherman on Inle Lake :
Friendly monks commuting on Inle Lake :

Our stop off for our rented pickup. With only 2 gallons of rations a day, they are forced to buy on the black market at twice the price :

The flood that caused us to rent the pickup - two stuck trucks, but amazing what they'll do to get ice (not the contents of the pickup - ice blocks!) :

Anyone for a 'chee root'? Local cigarettes with tobacco in leaves :

Despite what the guidebooks say you can get your digital memory cards copied onto CD here. Erm, I chose not to... :
Great lighting at 7am at our roadside stop between Bagan and Inle Lake :
Locals crossing the teak bridge at Mandalay:

A scene through the walls in Bagan :
Me hanging off the back of a local pickup as we left the bus to wait for the stuck trucks to be cleared.

Myanmar Overview

More monks than tourists, more water than I've ever seen (some people call them floods), more like a 1950's film set than a country, the most blatent locals's versus foreigners travel pricing I've seen, the 'hardest' travelling I've done yet (we opted not to fly except once) and the friendliest people in South East Asia.

For those of you that can't be bothered to read the detail (if I get round to posting it) I'll attempt to 'summarise' Myanmar, or Burma as it is still more widely recognised as. Knowing my summaries, you'd be as well grabbing a coffee.

As you enter the city, it looks like a fairly normal city in this part of the world, but as you get closer to the centre, you seem to be transformed into more of a timewarp, which is quite bizarre. The buses are from the 50's, there are kids 'selling' birds in a cage (which is really just paying to set them free to gain karma points with Buddha), people selling all kinds of goods layed out on the pavement (like used radio controls, hifi parts and cables), and a line of people fixing things with old sewing machines, right next to the bustling traffic. In the central area some streets seem to be dedicated with shopfronts selling the same goods - like the paper street, the hardware street, the fabric street etc. All of them are characterful with mass batches of all kinds of paper stacked high to the ceiling, with kids playing badminton in the street as the traffic squeezes past. What never stopped to amaze me is what kind of stuff some of them were selling. Some men had a small stand selling various types of copper wire, there were used cellphone batteries and cellphones from yesteryear, and all sorts of street food vendors. It was a total assualt on your senses, but without quite being the 'vision of hell' that is Delhi (that's one of the guy we met's quote as I've never been to India). It was as close to what I imagined some of the capitals of India would be like, but without the down and out sqaulor I've heard stories about.

Like Sabah in Borneo though, you have so switch off your western thoughts that everyone is out to scam you as people will say hello all the time, some just wanting to spend time and practice their English. I was walking with one guy for five minutes, just waiting for him to ask if I wanted to change money, but it never happened. When I said I had to go and meet my friends, all he said was 'Thank you very much, I won't keep you, have a nice day'. In saying that, the first thing I did when arriving was change money on the black market just for the curiosity factor (more in another post).

The only easy way to travel around the country is to fly and pay the tourist prices - anything from $50 to $90 for a one way flight. That's not too bad compared to some but it's easy to get used to rock bottom Air Asia, or Fly Asian Xpress flights for me! If stuck for time, it's the only way to go, but you'll miss seeing the real rural Myanmar during the 15-20 hour cross country bus journey (at least that's their stated times - see other posts for more detail!). And you'll also miss being woken up at 2am by the squealing local music via the loudspeakers before stopping at the particularly unhealthy looking road side cafes (and that's not even going near the toilets)...but don't let that put you off, our journey's made our trip, where we decided our travel plans on the spot, and met a great bunch of other travellers in a predicament during another flood. If you travel in Myanmar, you earn your tourist points - it's no Thailand.

I arrived in Myanmar, Tracy heading there a day before me to grab some independent adventure. When I arrived we decided to head away the following day, as we had to head back to Yangon (or Rangoon in old speak). We should have decided to follow the travel agent's advice, but were determined to leave that day.

We wanted to get to Bagan and do the fairly typical Yangon-Bagan-Mandalay-Inle Lake-Yangon circuit (although it's usually done in the other direction). The travel agent said Mandalay and Inle Lake was flooded so Bagan was a good idea..... unfortunately when we went to to bus station to buy our tickets for that afternoon, all seats to Bagan were sold out, so after changing some money, and being ushered off the street to hide the deal ('put your dollars away, the Kyat will be here in a minute, you know what I mean?'), we decided sod it - Mandalay is the only place we can go, the bus is running, it must be ok now...... and then the fun began!

A few days around Inle Lake

We were bowled over at the reception we got from the family running the Teakwood Guesthouse. Despite thinking we would move accommodation, we decided to stay there, wading in and out of the accommodation, on the worst flooded street in town.

We spent a few days generally chilling around the town. We took one afternoon trip on traditional a traditional canoe around the north of the lake, rowed in the traditional manner of rowing with their legs, while standing on the back of the canoe. We were taken to a realxing village and shown around the local's making sweets and cakes using soy beans for the local market day. All these were made in a very laborious manner, crushed by hand, stirred, and fried on the most basic fires. We watched two woman making traditional cigarettes, and invited to try our own hand at it. This was really enjoyable, as there was never any hassle to buy anything, and we were free to interact, and take photos, especially of the wee kid who seemed to unravel every batch of cigarettes his mother had just tied together.

The next day we took a full day boat trip where they took us round more villages, and watched families and kids more at home on the water, in their stilt houses carefully balanced on the lake. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of selling as we were dropped into tradtional weavers, silk weavers, blacksmiths and silversmiths. Despite this it was fascinating watching the traditional methods of weaving on looms, and heating up metals on hand pumped fires, kept alive by bellows. The market we were dropped off at was full of 'you buy, cheap, cheap' hard sells.

We had a great few days here, all hanging out together, reading books and catching up on journals, with the off rum encouraged night. My nightly bills were generally 12-16000 Kyats, doubling Tracy's bills that had no alcohol. I had bought a bottle of 'army rum' for around 50 pence, but it was more than adequate to spice up a night for all of us. We managed to dodge the water most of the time, despite wading in and out of our accommodation. As we were contemplating the end of the world here together (we thought we saw a bright star that could only be considered a meteor), Tracy was lead to alternative, non flooded toilet facilities by the waitress.... at one point, she thought she was being taken to the waitresses house, only to be pointed to the dark flooded field across the road. One night Dominic and I stayed out a bit later, caught up in a conversation with Israelis he had met, but we overstayed the town's welcome and had to make our way back in complete darkness as a powercut hit, illuminated only occassionally by my camera flash and our mojito induced alcohol vision.

As the Germans departed on a two day trek, we Dominic, Tracy and I decided on another day here and delayed our flight back to Yangon (or Rangoon in old speak). Yes, we were flying as it the only alternative was a 20 hour bus trip, dodging the floods.

Bagan to Inle the slow way

We got up at 4am to hope we'd get a seat on the bus at 5am, as we knew there were a few more people leaving from our accommodation. As we were taken a few metres down the road, I hopped off and grabbed a couple of tickets, just before all the locals piled on. There were 7 travellers on the bus this time, and quite a bit more cramped that the Yangon to Myanmar bus. What we didn't realise was that we had just met our travelling partners for the next few days - Carolin and Claudius, a brother and sister from Germany, Dominic from London, and Luc, a French/Canadian.

We once again passed through some eye opening village by the roadside, and were woken up as the bus stopped at the usual delightful (ahem) roadside stops. The first one was a delight though as the light from the sunrise crept through the trees, illuminating parked bikes, and the sellers by the bus window, trying to sell fruit and snacks from their baskets carefully balanced in their heads. Every time we stopped the bus got fuller, now with people sitting on plastic stools down the aisle, and luggage and more bodies up on the roof.

Around 11.30am, we had our first unscheduled stop of the day as we headed through yet more floodplains on either side of the road, just receded enough, so the road could be made out. Again there was evidence of villages all but washed away in the downpours of recent weeks. Our holdup was not our bus though, it was two trucks stuck in the mud, their heavy loads of watermelon and other fruits weighing them down. The only things that were getting through the gap were motorbikes, pickups, and pushbikes.

We had no idea how long the delay would be. After 90 minutes or so, the driver indicated it may be 2 or 3 hours. In Myanmar, this could be tomorrow. He wasn't keen to backtrack and take the other road, as we only had 10km to Thazi, around the middle of our journey. We still had 5 to 6 hours to go, so at best, we'd get to Inle Lake in the middle of the night, potentially being dropped at a road junction, having to find transport for our last 12 km.

It was at this time, the seven of us got chatting about where we'd been, our future plans, and generally watching the trouble some cars had getting through, the local boy paddling his sinking traditional canoe by the roadside and other roadside entertainment. The prospect of the delay was starting to get real and we all hatched a plan to offload our luggage, and flag down a passing pickup to get us to the next town. I had a bit of a dilemma here as I felt we were just throwing our western money to solve a problem the locals took in their stride, likely on a daily occurence.

Quite quickly, the large wads of Kyat notes in my pocket won over. They were here going through their daily lives, and I had to see as much of Myanmar as feasible in a mere 12 days. THe bus driver helped us stop a passing pickup. As usual, all the passengers got off, waded through the flood, and at the other side, we onloaded our luggage and us on the roof, and hanging off the back, locals laughing and waving as we passed through. It could have been worse - there were 90 litres of Myanmar beer on the roof, so if we got stranded.....

Before we knew it we were in Thazi and being comandeered by a local, overly keen to help us with our transport problem. We very conveniently got dropped off at his restaurant, and ate while he negotiated a price with a driver to take us to Inle Lake. Starting at $9 each, and finally settling at $12 after bouncing to and from $18, we were on our way to Inle Lake - another 4 hours away.

We were asked to tell all the people from our country about the restaurant by the grandmother, instructed to tell the police about our transport issue incase the driver got stopped and questioned, scoffed down some treats that were brought out to us (no doubt helped by the restaurant owners cut of the $78 deal), and we were on our way to stock up with black market gas to take us to our destination.

This part of the journey was the best. We made 5 instant travelling companions (one was only going half way, and only spoke to odd word), all amused at our journey, and agreeing that despite the problems, and some uncomfort, this is what made a trip. The scenery got more mountainous as we crossed over to Kalaw, and reminded me a great deal of Sabah. Locals laughed and waved as this pickup, with the unusual western passengers passed through towns and villages. As we passed Kalaw, darkness and the temperature fell, and we put on tops and trousers. At around 8.30pm we got closer to Inle Lake, curious by the reflections on the fields next to the road - the Lake wasn't meant to start yet.

We rolled into town, the place was flooded.

We had all agreed to pitch up at the accommodation booked by the Germans, and weren't sure whether to laugh or cry as we drove through the water, and had a canoe presented to take us across the driveway. It was cold, we were tired and gasping for a beer. This was our place for the night.

More Myanmar stories to come...

More Myanmar stories will come when I have a moment. I'm off down to check out the Chiang Rai night market and break my slave to technology mantra. It's a lot more chilled out here than Chiang Mai.
Myanmar stories to follow.... the sleepy 8 hour boat journey to Bagan, the 1000'sof stupas there, all to ourselves. Getting pissed with the locals (cheap Rum again - like the Perhentians!) and a free Myanmar language class. Bus to Inle Lake - Darren follows more floods as earthquakes hit Chiang Rai (my next destination)...two trucks stuck, only pickups getting through, and 7 travellers with a shitload of Kyats in their wallets....paid out only to get to our destination in 'locals-style' in the dark...to our......da da daaaa....flooded hotel. Inle Lake chills and boat trips. Israeli politics discussions in Yangon, and more exotic stories.............

Bagan

As soon as the boat stopped at Bagan, we knew we were in for a bit of R&R here. Despite the landing area (note, not a pier, a landing area) having a couple of motorised modes of transport for the more plush hotels, it was just a collection of shacks selling stuff, and a load of horses and carts waiting to get as much as they could for taking us to a guesthouse. Two woman, an Italian, and Australian travelling together and rescued Tracy and I's lack of hardened haggling, and we were off on our bumpy ride up the road for arond $0.50. Splashing out, we decided to have our own rooms, at around $3 each per night...with private bathroom.

Like Cambodia, you usually pay for flights, boats and accommodation in dollars, and everything else in Kyats (although most will happily take dollars for stuff). We didn't do too much the first day except have a stroll around the main streets, bewildered by another step back in time - the main transport being horse, carts and pushbikes, the rest being made up of motos and large trucks.

At night we were joined by the two woman for a pizza and more travel and life chat. I love meeting different folk when travelling as you tend to have pretty interesting chats about local and internation travel, and anything else that crops up. We finished the first night with a beer in the 'local' having a brief chat with an artist. Of course, we had been sucked into buying the 'hand painted', sand based buddha paintings on the first temple we visited. The local artist said they were genuine, but we still had our 'I reckon they were screen printed' doubts, as everone seemed to be selling them. Despite me paying $34 for two, and the two woman finding them for $7 each, we put it down to experience. At least we gave the seller a bit of entertainment with a ten minute game of paper, scissors and stones to find out which of us would be able to buy the one we both liked. Of course after I parted with my cash, he popped round to a mate's to find a similar one in different colours for Tracy, happily taking $20 for hers.

The second day here were hired a horseman for the day to be taken around some of the stupas around the area. Like a lot of these things, the general setting was pretty amazing, but once I had seen a few of them, anymore would have been too much. After spending a pretty trivial sunset on our own a the top of the stupa, with thousands more spreading as far as the eye could see, we made a call to leave the following morning to get to Inle Lake, bypassing a couple of other local attractions.

To end up, we were back in the local 'bar' chatting to our artist friend, and his mates, having a right good laugh for a couple of hours. They told us some local lingo (largely around telling women whether you liked them, or loved them), we looked at their English lessons, and we tried the local 'Chee Root' cigarettes - Myanmar tobacco wrapped in some kind of leaf - all totally above board, but what most men smoked here. We took a couple of group photos, laughed a lot, then retired too late, knowing we were up at 4am to hope we got a space on the 5am bus to Inle Lake.

Mandalay to Bagan by boat

As we were pretty much surrounded by waterin Mandalay, we didn't stay around for long, leaving there after only one full day. We took the 8 hour boat trip south to Bagan to see the stupas and temples there, which Lonely Planet compared to Angkor Watt. The journey was pertty uneventful, and you were often too far away from the bank to really see life on the riverbanks. The best thing about the trip was that you were forced to sit and do nothing for a whole day, except eat, write....or drink the bottle of Rum you bought the night before.

The one thing that stood out at me was the boat had 95% tourists on it and it felt like I had left the Myanmar we had grown to enjoy. When the boat temporarily docked at a couple of towns, several locals stood on the pier trying to sell you crafts or bananas, and asking for money. I found it quite hard from our elevated position on the boat, looking down on them, cameras poking around. At least when we travelled by bus, we were the only tourists on it, and you never felt you were throwing your money at things just to make life easy for yourself. One travelling partner put it in a pretty realistic manner a few days later though - we're here for different reasons, some travelling, and some living, with different purposes, and different backgrounds. I guess sometimes you just have to make yourself as aware as you can of the surroundings, and get on with your travel plans. Despite this, you still have to laugh with the happieness of the locals like one of the kids diving underwater as soon as he saw your camera. then creeping up slowly. I know some people don't want photographed, but this guy was just having a laugh with us.

Mandalay

We bought bus tickets to Mandalay, against the travel agent's advice. It was all going well until we got to the outskirts and woke up to grade 1 currents running under our bus. It was quite depressing to see as whole communities had washed away, all heading towards the main road. The floods in some areas were well above the start of the roof of some of the shacks we saw, and the flood plains extended as far as the eye could see. Yesterday buses weren't getting through so this must have been the floods receded a bit.

Amazingly the bus made it through to Mandalay which wasn't flooded in the city. It has pretty much been cut off for a few days though, and any of our planned day trips outside the city were well off the agenda. We subsequently heard that at least 100 people lost their homes, and several died but I'd have to verify that. The airport had been closed off as first it was under water, and then you couldn't get to the city. We spoke to one guy later who had flown to Mandalay, but it took him over 4 hours to get ferried from the airport to the city, and the army were helping out at times.

We managed to take in a day trip out and around some of the usual sites - yet another pagoda, yet another stupa,yet another buddha, and an amazing old teak bridge - the longest apparently amazing one in the world.

We decided to hot foot it to Bagan the next day on the boat. I had heard Mandalay wasn't too exciting on it's own, and we weren't too impressed compared to Yangon, especially without the day trips around.

One thing we had to see was a show from the Moustache Brothers before we left so we went there in the evening. These guys are in their 50's now, but previously spoke out about the government regime here and promptly got arrested, and thrown in jail for 7 years. They finally got out after some famous comedians spoke out about it, and they featured in a Hugh Grant film as he comments on them while answering a call in a call centre ('Love Actually' maybe?). After that they kidded on their performance wasn't a performance as they didn't wear costumes. Now it is so well known about they are tolerated.

To be honest I don't know what the fuss is about. Apparently the show has been the same for years - we sat there and wandered what the hell we were watching - everyone bemused in the audience. It was manic, with a lot of mention of how many government organisations are apparently watching them, some traditional dances from their partners, and other random stuff. Quite an experience, but it wasn't quite the comedy we expected!

Myanmar - the internet lives on!

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to access the internet in Myanmar, from a few select places, on dial up.

So far we've done a whistle stop tour - one night in Yangon, an 18 hour bus trip to Mandalay for a night, then an 8hr boat trip to spend one day in Bagan. There's some method in our madness though, as the whole of the area around Mandalay was yes...you guessed it, flooded out. The Bagan buses were sold out for the day we wanted to travel, so against the advice of the travel agent, we grabbed the only bus to Mandalay. As we survived the 'interesting' road stop cafes, we arrived on the outskirts driving through the floods -flooded plains as far as the eye could see. We're still not sure how the bus made it through. Anyway, we saw the Moustache Brothers show, then got the bus the next morning to Bagan. We saw one temple too many here and are getting up at 4am to try and hot foot (well, bus) to Inlay Lake to have a few days chilling out there.

It's a great place here, but not quite sure in what way. It's like stepping back in time, with ancient 1950's buses overloaded with people and goods, horse and carts dashing around (and not just for the tourists), people mending watches at their roadside stalls, and most of the population travelling around on bikes. There's definitely some poverty though which has been quite sad at times coming on on the western gravy train.

Anyway, more soon. Get here while you can though - it's definitely an experience!

Myanmar : Game on (now that I'm not flooded)

Yesterday I got my Myanmar visa with no glitches, and no queuing, so fly there in a couple of hours to meet Tracy.

I got back to the hotel yesterday to go for a relaxing swim, but the daily storm passed through for the next 6 hours. I've never quite seen a lightning storm quite so big before - you could feel the flashes of lightning, followed by the cracks of thunder just milliseconds later. The road outside had at least a foot of water on it, and the hotel foyer had to be pumped out, with sandbags protecting it. Some poor soul in the restaurant missed her flight to Sri Lanka as it took hours to get across town, then all the taxi stopped running. Still, at least it gave me time to pick her brains on Myanmar as she lived there the last two years, and it now looks like I have done some research.

I'll be out of touch with the electronic world until at least the 22nd, then I fly up ot Chiang Rai on myown to venture over to Laos, and hopefully meet my sister within a week of that.

This week should be a great adventure. I just hope I have enough dollars as you can't get cash there.

Destination Myanmar (or how not to go about getting a Myanmar tourist visa in one day in the Bangkok embassy)

Yes I'm finally starting to 'travel' rather than bum around for bum-arounds sake.

Some people think I'm having a real adventure. Today I went to the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, I escaped when it closed at lunchtime to call my mate to let her know the hassles I was having with my visa (no mobile now only texts incoming, the Malaysian credit has ran out, and I can't top it up online), then I got a cab back to the embassy. I left there at 4pm. On the way home it pissed it down as soon as the Bangkok Skytrain deposited me at the station. I walked a few hundred metres and I had to squeeze the water out my clothes. And my money. And my travel notes. I think I may have left my bank card at the internet place I was using to call my mate. I went and got the Skytrain back to the internet place, but no joy. I haven't cancelled it yet though as usually I put things in a safe place then they turn up (like my travel speakers I thought I'd left in Labuan, but I realised several days later I had wrapped them up in my clothes to protect them....a 'safe' place). I wanted to get hammered, but my mate had went out with here mate, and I didn't want to get accosted in some random bars that are a couple of blocks from this neighbourhood, by some goergous woman, who turns out to be a man, and that takes all my money that I can't access cos I've lost my bankcard.

Ahh....the joys of travelling.

So...the Myanmar Tourist Visa. Lonely Planet says 'takes at least a day'. Get there early. Now my mate had interpreted that as you could get it in a day (no fault in that). Get there early, should really say..."If you want more chance of getting your Myanmar Visa within a day, than you would have of knocking up Claudia Schiffer, arrive there by 6am".

So here's the scoop if you want your Myanmar visa from the Bangkok embassy within a day. First of all, think you won't. Don't book your flights until you know you are getting your visa the next day (a few did - ouch). "At the time of writing..." if you want your visa in a day, camp out from about 6am - it opens at 8.30am, but just now, they only issue 20 visas on the same day. If you get there well before it opens, today, number 20 got served at around 2.40pm. I was number 46. I turned up 8.35. At 9.40am I passed over my papers to the guy at the desk, passport photos attached, all completed. He glanced them over, and I was thinking "Shit, this is no big deal". He then handed me a chit of paper with 46 written on it. I sat down. Of course the numbers on the display go up super slowly but you don't want to leave and come back just incase there is a spurt of activity. At 1pm it closes for lunch (of course). At 9.15am I got a text from Tracy "How's it going?". Of course when I tried to text back, my Malaysian Celcom credit had ran out, and there was nothing around the embassy. She was waiting to hear to book flights for tomorrow. Lunchtime came, I cabbed it up to the Siam Centre, grabbed an internet cafe, called here, rushed lunch and headed back.

I soon found out after asking that they only issue 20 visas within the same day. At number 46, I later found out that they only issue 50 numbers a day before sticking up a sign saying 'come back tomorrow'.

Eventually I got served at 4pm. I had been there since 8.30am. The guy took a slightly longer cursory glance at my papers, took the 825 baht fee, plus of course another 210 bhat for the 'express' next day service, and my passport, then handed me a chit, 90 seconds later - 'come back tomorrow - 11 to 11.30am and get your visa'.

I needed a cold beer. Of course while you try and do this independently, and treat the place like a normal country, there are scores of tour guides and people coming in, handing over batches of 20 passports, then coming back to get served.

But...I'm looking forward to it. Common myths say be careful, but everyone Tracy has spoken to that has actually been there has said it's one of the friendliest places they've been, people running up to them to give them their dropped $500 note (erm, rather a shitload of money to folk there), and very picturesque - I can't wait.

Tracy leaves to Yangon tomorrow and I fly in the next day, colming back Sunday 22nd. I'll have no online or phone comms while there for (if you know about the place) obvious reasons, but I look forward to giving an update post trip.

Hopefully after that I'll be back in The Atlanta Hotel for a night, then maybe biting the bullet and flying to Chang Rai, then over the border to Laos to hopefully meet up with my sister for a few days.

Welcome Worldwide Readers

Just a quick welcome to my recent 'readers' from Spain and Ghana! I'm guessing the Ghana crowd are from Raleigh so I hope your expedition is going well and you are enjoying it as much as I did!

Perhentian Kecil pictures

Here's a selection of pics from the Perhentian islands (apologies for the formatting!).

Me on the Long Beach :

A deserted Long Beach :

View from Mohsin chalets :

You transfer from the 'big' boats to one of these to get you to the islands :

How clear (and warm) is this water?

Painting Perhentian Style (guess this was more profitable than taking us climbing) :

Almost guaranteed a good night on this (although one bottle is very small!) :

..and we all had a good night (hopefully the folk not on the monkey whisky too!) :

And that was the Perhentians....hopefully I'll be back sometime...

From the Perhentians to Bangkok

Just a quick update as just arrived in Bangkok. I've spent a few days on Perhentian Kecil just before they pretty much close up for the season. A few days more would have been good but I had to get up to Bangkok to try and get a Myanmar visa on Monday.

I did a dive on the island and saw a blue spotted Ray, turtle, and many more. We went snorkelling the following day and saw a load of stuff, despite the visibility not being too great - razorfish, and then went swimming with a turtle and ray...particularly the turtle - didn't want to freak out the ray after recent news! Absolutely amazing. We met a decent bunch on the island which meant more folk to eat and drink with, and share the boat trip costs for snorkelling trips. We stayed on Long Beach and also walked over to Coral Bay to snorkel around there. Climbing was planned for one day, but some late night booze put paid to the others, but hey, we managed to get swimming with the turtles. I never realised there was rock climbing on the Perhentians, but someone has bolted a few sports routes on the sea cliffs from french 4a to 7b. I made a few enquiries about doing a divemaster there next season...'just in case'. I was also told you can stay there off season for next to nothing sometimes if you are willing to help repaint the places.

I seem to be having a few issues about leaving stuff around recently. I've left my travel speakers somewhere (Labuan I think) which is really annoying. I left my shirt somewhere yesterday, but amazingly found it again on the beach today, next to the taxiboat station we used yesterday! How many places would you manage to that in nowadays! There were only a handful of folk on the island now though. Apparently it can be great surf there off season - 3-4metres, but no-one has cottoned onto it yet!

I'm already experiencing some of the 'issues' of travelling with company. Its great to catch up with folk though, but I was on the budget side and Tracy was on the 'lets get up there with least hassle', so our procrastination ended up in us paying £150 to fly from KL to Bangkok at the airport. Kerching!! I preferred the 'up through the thai border' option but the guidebooks warn you about the area so I had quite a bit of convincing to do for that option!

Anyway, Tracy's mate Jeff very kindly picked us up from Bangkok's flashy new mega airport and took us into town to find accommodation, so we have a night in a hostel at Sukhumvit before heading to rather quirky Atlanta Hotel tomorrow.

Hopefully Monday will see me get a Myanmar visa issued so we can head off there for 7-10 days on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Brunei Pics

Well my last few posts have been a bit all over the place, but here we go... Here's a few of the contrasts in Brunei - a shot of a delapadated house in Kampong Ayer in the centre of BSB, the girl who welcomed me to Brunei in perfect English, the river taxis, a shot of the mosque I never saw, and my boatman for 30 mins (pointing..."School, School, house, fishing, school...lots of schools in Brunei...ad infinitum).

One of the ongoing Raleigh goodbyes

Well, you just can't escape Raleigh folk, but I guess now everyone can be called friends rather than referring to them as 'Raleigh folk' - the Raleigh bubble has burst just now, but we're all spreading ourselves across Asia for the moment. Here's me just after having my few welcoming drinks in KL with Mia, and waving her and Kevin off on the bus to Singapore, with some ex-participants - Mia's blog post.

A few pictures of Mount Kinabalu

A couple of view of the Petronas Towers, KL

As the heading describes...

Multi Sport Holidays and flying are hard

You see, flying sucks really. Yes it's quick, but around here, the bus is often quicker. Airlines (and your back) just aren't geared for having a multi sport holiday in tropical climates...you know, the ones that as soon as you move your little toe, you've lost 2 stone in sweat...and that's without a backpack on. Air Asia is great, but 15kg? Are they taking the piss? When are airlines going to start flying with a 'total weight' allowance. I mean, medical conditions aside, there's a lot heavier people getting on those flights that me.....

At the end of the day, the easiest way is to have a diving holiday, a climbing holiday, a real holiday, or a trekking holiday. Trying to mix and match them all in one, where the percentage of days spent doing each are so small, makes it hard to justify carrying the gear. That is, until I walk out some beach hut, and lift the mask and snorkel out my bag without having to try and hire one.

Rant over.

A few days in Kuala Lumpur

Well it's my last night in KL, and I think I've done the city. I've spent too much replacing my camera, and a wee hard drive to replace the overweight DVD's I've lugged around (how's that for an original excuse to purchase a new toy!). This is way too tempting a place to wander around if you're anything like me - loads of toys to buy, and I'm meant to be in backpackers mode!

Over the last few days I've wandered around Chinatown, been in the Malaysia Natural History Museum (hey it was free, and I was wandering past, but I guess I'll never bea museum type person), Merdeka Square, went for a mini jungle walk in the city, went up KL tower, and wandered around a few malls. The other night I went to Luna Bar, which sits on the roof of the Pan Pacific building, on the 34th floor. It must be one of the best views (bar mountain ones) I've had when I've went for a piss....although I'm sure there must be some weirdo's in the hundreds of floors in the surrounding buildings with binoculars. Initially you feel like you are going to splat some unfortunate sod walking along the street below you. Definitely one of the best views from a bar I've seen. Check out that link.

So has my rose tinted glasses been removed for KL, or are they still there? Well...at the end of the day it's still a big city, but like London, don't be tempted to jump on the metro, mono or bus all the time as everything is walkable. I ended up wandering around the 'rainforest in the city' by mistake today, but that's what I like to do in cities - there's a lot to see in the centre, but to be honest, I'm not and probably never will be too fussed about some historical building or museum. The one thing that is great about KL is the location - you can fly anywhere from here, or escape up the coast, or into the highlands from here. Admiteddly I've not done any of that yet, but I'm enjoying the time just vegging out and not rushing around - I kind of promised myself I wouldn't do that.

Anyway, Tracy arrives first thing tomorrow, then Tuesday morning we head over to the Perhentian Islands which I'm really looking forward to. I have another box packed, ready to be shipped tomorrow and I've had to be harsh. I'm convinced there's not 9kg in there though, but the camelbak, the strong headtorch, and several other things I've not used much. I wish I had a lighter harness with me though as it'll hardly (but hopefully) be used. I've kept the helmet, harness, rock shoes, underwater flash (if I can get a new housing!), mask, snorkel, and I've got way too many, but necessary, chargers!

I better go and find out how my Canon S80 works - not exactly a dinky camera, but came highly reviewed both online and from a mate....not had the chance to upload any more pics though!