A Weekend at the Lakes...

Within two minutes of stepping off the bus from Yangon, I'd hopped in a tuk tuk driven by a young teenager who looked like he'd stepped straight out of Quadrophenia. White jeans (with a generous splattering of mud), leather jacket, subtly styled hair. A very cool customer indeed. The tuk-tuk was jam packed with fruit, veg and even one woman's baby, perched atop the produce!
 

I was last to be dropped off but found my chosen guest house pretty quickly and had a serious nap before going out to explore the town. Like Yangon it was almost devoid of travelers and seemed very ghost town-esque. I wandered around the markets and the outskirts of town and started the very serious task of figuring out Myanmar food. Here was my first encounter with the set meal. 3 dollars down and with roughly 10 plates on the table I was feeling overwhelmed. With 3 of them figured out to be dried fish I put them to one side and started on the others - soy bean, veggies, chilli, curry, fried peanuts, rice and soup! All followed by my favourite - a dessert of pure sugar all ground up in a little sweet, which they claim is actually good for you!! The day ended pretty uneventfully, I fell in to a deep sleep before 10 knowing I had an early start

 

The next morning, before I'd even had chance to wipe the sleep from my eyes, I was asked to join a couple of French ladies on a boat trip. We set off with a lovely Italian bloke and headed out for Inle Lake. Although it was a day peppered with glorified tourist shops, the boat trip on the lake was more than enough to keep me smiling. We saw Myanmar's Venice, complete with leg paddling fishermen, people brushing their teeth in the river and a monastery with cats which (apparently) jump through hoops. Although they were all sleeping when we got there...
 

We got back fairly early, and unsure what else to do I fell back on the British staple - beer. Thankfully, Italy was a pretty perfect drinking partner. We got a table and a huge jug of beer in a local restaurant. After another jug the next stop, naturally, was a haircut for Italy. He bargained and haggled his heart away whilst I made friends with the hairdresser's son - through the universal language of games on my phone. We finally made it back to the guest house and was treated to a night cap of tea and nibbles with the owners and what I'm absolutely sure was a rendition of a You Me At Six song from a group of street roaming teens before another much needed rest. More earling mornings were to follow...




Delicious Indian food - no dried fish! : )

Goodbye Bangkok, Hello Health!

I've had my Summer adventures and have been back in dreary old England exactly a week, although this little blog of mine has been unloved and neglected hopefully that will change! In my defence, logging on in Burma was completely impossible thanks to Google's super tight security and Burma's iron clad phone network. I'm hoping for a little video edit of the first three weeks, but, for now, here are my notebook scribbles after 24 hours in Burma...

I said goodbye to Soph at Bangkok airport early Sunday morning. With almost no sleep, the chaotic airport was nauseating so we zipped up our hoodies and camped out underneath the airport escalators. Anxiety started to set in as Myanmar flights, and flights throughout S.E Asia in general, started flashing red. Cancelled. Cancelled. Cancelled. The prospect of more time in the oh so sinful Bangkok did not sound good, my body was craving rural countryside and early nights, so when boarding opened I was incredibly relieved!

The plane was incredible - huge and almost empty! Most of the other travellers were either Burmese or, quite strangely, European families and this made me even more confused about what to expect. I got two seats to myself and the flight was smooth enough to catch up on a bit of lost sleep.

I had fun playing spot the stupa as the plane landed...

Immigration was a doddle too, no hassle, no fuss just a smile a stamp and a thank you! Ten minutes later I was stood surrounded by a crowd of very eager and very chatty taxi men. I picked the nicest and off we went to the football stadium, which, of all places, had an outer ring of long distance bus-booking companies. It seemed luck was on my side as I was able to book a bus for that night to Inle Lake.

With my backpack stashed with the bus company, I was free to explore and had a thoroughly bizarre few hours.Within the first hour I was subject to the people of Yangon's strange penchant for daytime Karaoke clubs, complete with dark rooms, flashing lights and the classic ballads being belted out. Just around the corner, I saw the aftermath of Asian driving gone wrong - an upturned 4x4 had skidded off of a bridge and landed, wrong way up, on the railway tracks! Enough to have me worried for the night bus ahead.

I then took a stroll to the independence monument, a place where many of the pro-democracy protests were violently ended in the past. It now seemed to be a peaceful date location, with lots of young couples hidden away under big umbrellas!

Then to the first of many temples - the Sule Pagoda. It was undeniably beautiful, with four entrance (for each direction) and roof top shrines dependent on your day of birth. Unfortunately, like many
things in Asia, it has become a bit of a money-making business. With charges for everything from entrance, to taking off shoes to watering a little Buddha! I spent quite a while dodging the showers and was given a lesson about my special number, amulet, animal and planet from the monks' English teacher (21, emerald, guinea pig and Venus, for anyone who's interested!).

Here is my lucky guinea pig : )

As I left the temple, I bumped into one of the only other youngish solo travellers on the plane - James, a blinged up Liberian guy. With time running out he convinced me the best thing to do before a night was drink beer, so away we went. As I slurped up the last of my Dagon beer (no competition for Beer Laos!) and headed for a taxi, the lovely but somewhat over the top James announced his love for me, kissed my hand, and left me very bemused and a little amazed!

In the tuk-tuk to the bus station I rediscovered the best part of travelling alone - all of the food the locals give you! A Burmese mum handed me the most delicious coconut dosa (the same thing Soph and I had been trying to track down for weeks!!) I then slept for most of the bumpy ride with my head on a sackful of rice, much to the delight of the Burmese!

My bus was a pleasant surprise, for once it really was "VIP", complete with juice, coffee and cakes! All was going well until a man gestured to a free double seat, pushed down the central armrest and made me a pillow with 2 extra blankets. Sounds comfy right? Oh, no! The arm didn't go fully down meaning there was an awkward ridge in my back, the makeshift pillow wasn't enough to absorb the bouncing from he dirt road, and worst of all, I didn't want to move and offend him! This lasted about ten minutes. I the shuffled and rearranged throughout the night until suddenly it was 5am and a toiletries kit was thrust in to my hand - luxury indeed! : D

I finally stepped of the bus into the village of Shwe Nyuang (the closest stop to Inle lake) just in time to see the sun rise over the paddies. The bumps, bruises and chaos of Bangkok was definitely far behind!

More to come soon : ) xxx