Melaka and Kuala Lumpur

Melaka

We travelled the 5 hours from Singapore to Melaka on a very comfortable bus. Travel days like this with the help of Netflix just feel like a sofa day, it’s amazing how quickly the journey goes. After a short Grab ride we arrived at our hostel to find it all locked up. We rang the buzzer but nothing, then noticed a sign on a door with a number on, so I sent a whats app and received a voice recording back saying she had left and would be back in 4 hours! I replied saying that we had a booking and we wanted to check in, she gave us a code to get into the building so we could leave our bags and then said she would message us when she was back. So annoying, but at least we got to drop off our bags so we could explore the town. Melaka is actually a really cute little town with a lot of history. It was first colonised by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the British, then during world war 2 occupied by the Japanese (like most of south east Asia) and then the British again. When Malaysia finally got its independence in 1963, Melaka’s location was the main attraction as it was a very important port for trading between the east & the west. However, the British moved this to Singapore so Melaka (known also as Malacca, its British name) froze in time preserving all its heritage, and up until 2008 when it got its UNISCO status, was a very sleepy quiet town. 

After a couple of hours we got a text from the hostel lady and headed back to collect our key. She wasn’t exactly the friendliest of ladies and we seemed to be a annoyance to her, we usually don’t stay anywhere that has less than a score of 8 on booking.com however the good rated accommodation was a little pricy and we wanted to save a bit of money between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The room was only £7 a night and included breakfast. We seemed to be the only people staying in the hostel which was ideal for us as the rooms were basically cubicles with thin walls with the bed being up a ladder, so you got some space underneath. On the first morning I realised no one was at reception again, so I messaged her asking if she would advise where we get our breakfast. She replied saying the free breakfast is only at weekends, there was no mention of this on booking.com and even on our key it said free breakfast, after a little message exchange she gave up and said please wait I will come. She then plonked a couple of rice packets and teabags on the table and left. Now fried rice is beautiful usually but this was pretty spicy and really fishy, we have noticed they cook with a lot of fermented shrimp paste in Malaysia. So we drank our teas and ended up chucking the rice and heading to the nearest coffee shop for some breakie. The following days she delivered Roti Carnai which is a roti with a curry dipping sauce really tasty local breakfast, something we enjoyed in Langkawi too. 

During the days we mainly spent our time wondering around the old town and taking it easy in coffee shops, we enjoyed a walking tour and visited the Nyonya and Baba house, Kirsty (Chris’ sister) had recommended this to us. We enjoyed exploring the well-preserved historic Chinese house, learning about the straits Chinese. We also tried the local dish of chicken and rice balls.

In the evenings we enjoyed beers in the bars on the river front and strolling through the night market down Jonker Street and trying all the local street foods. I have really enjoyed the Asian night markets, they have such a great atmosphere and this one did not disappoint. We tried a few new things, Puta Pining which is a rice flour steamed cake with coconut and gula melaka, which is a sugar made from the coconut palms. You had to order 5 at a time but when we first saw them a kind lady gave us one of her five and we loved it so much we got the full set the night after. We had some BBQ local sausages, Portuguese egg tart, popiah which is a local spring roll, and pineapple tarts which apparently were introduced by the British. They were a bit dry really so it’s a shame they are British legacy, we don’t have the best reputation for food around the world as it is. 

Kuala Lumpur

The journey to KL was only 2 hours from Melaka by bus and a bargain of £2 each. The bus dropped us at an terminal outside of the centre and we had planned to get the local bus but were told by a tout the bus didn’t take cash and that we would need to purchase a card. He tried to sell us one for 25RM (£5) we thought this was a bit odd, but realised when the bus arrived we couldn’t pay cash and we did need one of these cards and went back into the terminal to purchase one. No one knew what we were on about, so we thought it would be easier to get a grab. The driver was the friendliest guy ever and gave us loads of tips of where to eat and shop. We arrived at our Space Hotel and checked into our capsule, we were pleasantly surprised that the capsule was inside a little room so we had privacy and could leave our bags out without having to lock them away each time like we did in Singapore. It was a pretty cool hotel with the theme running throughout. The reception was on the 3rdfloor and our capsule on the 2ndwith a slide running between floors. Being the big kids that we are, we had a go straight away, I somehow managed to give my knee a friction burn and Chris hit his ankle, we didn’t dare go on it again! 

Day one

We had watched some of our favourite YouTubers in Kuala Lumpur, which helped us plan what we wanted to do and see, we also got some personal recommendations of bars to try out from friends that have been here too. A couple of food spots we wanted to try that the Best Ever Food Review Show had recommended were in Chinatown, so we headed there on our first day. We tried the Kim Soya Bean, soya bean pudding which was like solid warm milk with a brown sugar syrup – it was pleasant and super cheap but I wouldn’t say it was that memorable. The next dish we tried was the famous chicken rice clay pot at Hong Kee, which is a street side stall with tables and chairs on the pavement. We had a large one between us and it was more than enough, there was a sticky sweet sauce coating the rice and the chicken. The rice along the bottom was nice and crispy where it had stuck to the bottom, with a great smoky taste from the wood fire. The chicken was juicy and tender, except you have to be careful eating it as every bite has bones on it. Its super hard to get chicken out here that hasn’t just been put on a chopping board whole and hacked up. With a couple of fresh juices and this large clay pot was a cheap dinner at only £6.50. Wondering around China town is interesting as it is full of stalls selling fake watches, clothes and bags and loads of people just hanging around, we presumed they were look outs. 

Day two

On our second day in the city we headed out to get some breakfast and found a local restaurant, ordered some banana roti’s and Teh Halia which is ginger spiced tea. The sweet banana roti worked really well with the spicy curry sauce, a great local breakfast. The ginger tea was like chai tea, a milky sweet black tea with the warmth from the ginger spice, again it was lovely, and what’s better is it was just over £2 for the both of us! After breakfast we strolled around the jungle, yes there is a jungle in the middle of the city had that been preserved, actually there are quite a few. It was up a hill and I soon got too hot and bothered and didn’t fancy another jungle trek today, so we headed out when we got to the 421 meter tall KL tower. You can go up the tower, but we decided on a few bars we would visit at sunset, so decided to save the money and skip the observation decks. We then headed through some shopping malls and bought a few new outfits, I wanted to get some more tops that cover my shoulders as with us being in mainly Muslim countries its best to dress a bit more reserved. We then set our eyes on the Petronus Towers in the distance, our next destination. These towers were the tallest in the world until 2004 when quite a few others took over the title, but they still hold the title for being the biggest twin towers in the world. They are 451.9 meters tall which is actually 34.9 meters taller than the twin towers were in New York and 141.9 meters bigger than The Shard in London. We stopped for some lunch at the Traders Hotel, they had a little café at the bottom of the hotel with the view of the park and the towers. After lunch we made our way through the park, stopping to take pictures of the towers along the way, the closer you get to them the more spectacular they are – the detail is beautiful. We made it to the photo point of the towers and snapped a few photos, they have such a unique design and are mesmerising up close.  

Then we headed to the vertigo bar in the Bayon Tree Hotel, I always find the best way to take in a city is to get up high, have a sunset cocktail, and watch the sky line go from day to night. On the lift on the way up the lift operator was welcoming us but only spoke to Chris and only shook his hand, I haven’t noticed it as much as I thought I would but as Malaysia (and Indonesia) is a majority Muslim country they will often only address the male. The views of the bar did not disappoint, as we got there early we got a great table with a view of both the KL tower and the Petrous towers. Always budget conscious we ordered the ‘happy hour’ special which was two fruit margaritas for 55RM which is £11, such a bargain, we had a second round. They gave us some nuts and we sat enjoying the view, when the sun went down, and the buildings were all lit up it was beautiful. Chris loved this view with the mountains in the background. We had planned to get some dinner, but we filled up on nuts so just headed back to the hotel. 

Day three

Our last day full day in KL & Malaysia. We headed to the central market which is an indoor market selling local crafts and souvenirs, we bought a couple of personalised luggage labels and then found a place for us to get a local breakfast. Chris had the banana roti again and I opted for a tosai which was like a thin pancake but had a slightly different texture to the roti, maybe rice flour. It was served with 3 different curry sauces, all were pretty mild, it was nice but the banana roti with the curry sauce was the better option. The teh halia were great again. We then headed to the train station to catch the train to the Batu Caves, the train wasn’t for another 45 minutes so rather than hanging around we decided to get a Grab. The Batu Caves is a popular Indian Hindu temple in the limestone caves on the edge of the city. This Indian Hindu temple is one of the most important Hindu temples outside of India. You have to climb 270 steps to reach the cave temple and outside guarding the stairs is a 42.7 meter high golden statue of Murugan (the God of War and Victory Commander of the Gods), and also A LOT of monkeys. People are so stupid around these monkeys, anything for a photo, I can’t imagine how many people get bit by them. We climbed the colourful steps and reached the temple. We have seen a lot of temples whilst we have been in Asia and this is unique being set in a cave but not the most spectacular, we have seen, so we didn’t really stay very long.

We then got the train back and headed to the National Museum, wandered to the 85 foot flag pole (one of the tallest in the world) which is where they declared independence in 1957. We then headed back to the central market to get a coffee, however, all I could taste was durian so it really put me off – I really can’t stand the stuff! In the evening we headed to another sky bar, this bar is actually a helipad by day, and then at night they put tables and chairs out and it becomes the most amazing bar. Having 360 views of the skyline was pretty awesome, but it was a lot busier than the bar we went to the evening before. Although the prices were the same the service was not comparable, however, it is one of the coolest bars we have been to. For dinner we headed to a place to get nasi kandar which is basically rice and curry and then had an early night and made a few more plans for Indonesia. 

Bye Malaysia

Next were flying to Surabaya on the island of Java (Indonesia) to get up close and personal with some volcanos. This will also be the first time either of us have been in the southern hemisphere. We worked out the cheapest and easiest way to get to the airport was to take a bus, we booked our tickets online the night before. We arrived at the bus station and showed our tickets and the man said we needed to print them and to head upstairs to do this, so I left Chris with the bags and headed up to find the ticket office, the place was massive and I spent ages looking for the ticket office. In the end I found it, but it was closed and our bus was leaving in 10 minutes so I showed the men a picture of the closed office and he got quite aggressive with us and told us without the piece of paper he had no proof and we needed to print it. what I hadn’t understood is that we needed to just get the email printed off and not actually find the ticket office to pick up tickets. Chris went and got this sorted and we got on a slightly later bus. 

Malaysia isn’t quite what we expected the people weren’t as friendly as most of the countries we have visited with the exception of our Grab drivers – they have been awesome. The food was good but not incredible. Don’t get me wrong we have enjoyed each place we have been, but for each country there are always one or two things we loved about it. We have liked things about Malaysia, but there’s nothing we ‘loved’.

We’ve now travelled over 12,500KM since arriving in Bangkok in February!

Lisa & Chris xx

Singapore

After a short flight, we arrive at our hostel in Singapore early afternoon. Singapore is so expensive, this is the first time we’ve had to stay in a shared dorm, but we had our own little capsule with a blind that pulls down, so we did feel we had a little bit of privacy. It was just over £25 for a double capsule – in most other places we’ve paid up to £15 per night for a private room. The biggest pain was the lack of space for our bags, we had lockers under the bed, so anytime we wanted anything we’d have to get our bags out, open them in the communal space and then immediately put them away. We’ve been lucky with our accommodation so far though and knew we would have to go back to basics in the expensive cities, and the best thing is that this hostel was in a great location. We couldn’t check in until 3pm, so headed to the Market Street Interim Hawker Centre for some lunch.

After checking in, we headed straight to Marina Bay Sands, which is the most iconic building in Singapore (the one that looks like three building with a surfboard in top). It was a nice walk around the marina to it, and through an air-conditioned mall that we spent some time browsing (everything was way too expensive, but the AC was nice!). We went up to a bar called Lavos which is on the top floor of tower one in Marina Bay Sands, and found it was BOGOF on a selection of cocktails (between 5pm – 7pm). We had 2 cocktails each (they don’t let you BOGOF and share) which cost about £33 (so pretty reasonable I think considering the view. We made our cocktails last (well, Lisa did, I drank at normal speed) and watched the sunset over the city skyline. At 8pm there is a light show in the marina, so we watched that and then headed back down. On the way back to the hostel we stopped at a hawker centre called Las Pa Sat for some food (a hawker is basically someone who sells street food).

Day 2

After breakfast at the hostel (they have a loaf of bread, toaster and a few different spreads) we walked to Chinatown, where we were joining a walking tour at 9.30am (our tour was with Wei from Indie Singapore, I’d recommend him). The tour lasted about 3 hours, and we saw a lot of the local sights and learnt about the history of Singapore. Wei explained that all ships pass Singapore as the travel between the West and East, and this is why the British wanted it as part of the empire. Once the British gave them back their independence, they merged with Malaysia for a short period of time, before becoming independent again (after being kicked out). They were actually worried about surviving back then, as a very small country with no natural resource, but have obviously done alright for themselves since. There does seem a little bit of worry about the future though, as they are heavily reliant on the financial markets.

After the tour we went to The Pinnacle@Duxton, which is a social housing development. Social housing is very common in Singapore (I think he said about 80% of the population live in ‘projects’ like these), and this one is an incredible apartment block (or should I say a number of blocks linked at the top and middle by a communal space which runs all the way through). The middle one has a running track, and the top one is a garden/relaxing space. If you go to block g, you can pay about £6 to go to the top (which we did) and spend some time walking around getting a 360 view of the city.

In the afternoon we took a stroll around Little India and it’s many interesting shops, and went to the Tekka Food centre (another hawker centre, this time with Indian food). Lisa had a chicken curry with roti, I had a murtarbak which is an indian bread filled with meat and onions. I didn’t actually like it very much, but Lisa did so we swapped.

In the evening we went to the Gardens by the Bay, as also a very iconic place in Singapore and we’d heard they have a good light show. The light show was brilliant, I’d really recommend it. There’s fewer people than the other ones, and everyone lies on the floor looking up at artificial trees in Supertree Grove which light up in time to the music.

Day 3

In the morning we took another walking tour with Wei, this time around the Bugis and Kampong Glam districts. This is where the Arab quarter used to be, and we saw a beautiful mosque near a park which had a few glam trees in it. This area used to be full of glam trees, but most have been cut down to make way for buildings. Beach Road runs along the edge of this area, and did actually use to be a coastal road, but due to reclaimed land is now over 2km from the sea. The reclaimed land is made from dumping lots of sand (and plastic rubbish) into the sea to extend the coast, and then leaving it to settle for 20-30 years before building on it, they’re actually the biggest importer of sand in the world (a lot coming from Vietnam). There is a big plot of reclaimed land on the other side of Marina Bay Sands which will have something built on it soon (we went into the Singapore City Gallery, where you can see all of the city plans and locals can give feedback). Wei explained the population of Singapore is ageing and shared how they are making things easier for the elderly, for example when they swipe their pass at the crossing the lights change quicker for them and stay green for longer. Elderly people also get a 3% discount on their food shopping on a particularly day of the week encouraging them to go out and meet other people their age. Also there is a government-run dating agency which sets up events for younger people, and there’s also a baby bonus to encourage the population growth that Singapore needs.

After the tour we went back to Haji Lane (one of the places we’d visited) for a selfie coffee. It’s pretty gimmicky, but kinda cool to have a picture of yourself printed directly onto your coffee. The coffee was pretty nice too! We then stopped at the National Library as we’d been told the view was good on floor 11. It was ok, maybe we’d have appreciated it more if we hadn’t already been up some high rise buildings. Last stop for the afternoon was Raffles Hotel. The Long Bar in this hotel is where the Singapore Sling was invented in 1915 (originally called a gin sling) so women could have a sneaky cocktail pretending it was a juice (it was illegal for women to drink back then). The cocktails were about £23 each, but we paid it as it’s the most iconic place in the world to have a Singapore Sling. Apart from the original bar was demolished many years ago and this is another bar in a different part of the hotel which has been given the same name. We didn’t know that until were already enjoying our drinks, and I have to say I don’t think I would have gone in there and paid so much for a drink if I’d known, but they obviously don’t shout about that and I only found out as I asked one of the waitresses.

In the evening we went back to the hostel fairly early, so we could chill out in the communal space, catch up on some admin and get ready for our bus to Malaysia in the morning. We’ve both loved Singapore, its such a clean, modern city with lots of interesting buildings and things to see. It feels very western, which I’m guessing is influence from the British colonial days, and also because there’s a lot of money here bringing in western business. It also is so organised and much more calm and less frantic than most other Asian cities I’ve been too, the traffic actually stopped when the green man was on! They must have so many ex-pats living here as a random lady on the street started trying to sell a house painting service to us and then gave up when she realised we were tourists.

Chris and Lisa x

Bukit Lawang, Sumatra

We arrived in Medan airport at 11.30am, we had decided to save some money and take the local transport to Bukit Lawang as a private car would have been 600,000 Indonesian Rupiah but the bus’ were only 170,000 IDR (£9.38). We walked to the bus station at the airport and everyone was so helpful giving us information and guiding us to the right place. We needed to get the bus from the airport to a town called Binjai and then change for another bus to Bukit Lawang. The traffic through the towns was so busy, we realised this must have been due to the end of Ramadan celebrations, Eid Mubarak. After a few hours we finally arrived in Binjai and needed to find the next bus outside the shopping centre. These were little minivans and operated in the same way like the collectivos in Mexico do, where there isn’t actual bus stops you just need to flag one down. We were bit stuck as to which one we needed to get and a policeman ended up helping us. The first few that went past were full with a lot of people traveling because of the celebrations. Eventually one that wasn’t full stopped for us. The door opened and there was a seat with a little stool placed in the passageway next to it. So our bags went on the roof and we squeezed inside. After a little while even more people piled in to what we thought was a full bus! During the journey a lady in front of us started to talk to us and gave us a local fruit (snake fruit, it was sweet, sour and a little bitter), she passed it to me and I asked how I should eat it. It must be really funny for her, it’s like us giving an apple to someone and them not knowing what to do with it. We arrived in Bukit Lawang at 6.30pm – such a long journey in a very full bus. Our guesthouse had said someone would be waiting at the bus station for us, and as soon as we stepped off the bus Jojo was there waiting for us. He told us the guest house was 2km away and that he would take us on his motorbike. Chris jumped on the back of Jojo’s and I jumped on the back of his friend’s and we rode to the guest house through the village. The reason for coming to Bukit Lawang is to trek in the Gunung Leuser National Park, this national park is one of only two places in the world where you can see orangutans in the wild (the other is on the island of Borneo). Jojo told us all about what to expect from the 2 day trek the following day. We then had some dinner (an amazing chicken rendang – a local aromatic spicy peanut curry), then went to bed for an early night. We didn’t quite manage to get the early night as the bar next door was having a Eid Mubarak celebration until about 2am.

Trekking

In the morning we met our group – a French guy called Remi, a German couple called Jessi & Michael and then our guide Jojo and his assistant guide Ijal. The entrance to the national park is just a short walk from the guest house, through the village, over the bridge to cross the big river and then through a rubber tree plantation. Jojo explained how they ‘bleed’ the trees to get the rubber sap from the trees and then take to the market to sell to the factories. The locals call them condom plantations. Jojo explained to us that lot of the rubber plantations have been cut down and replaced with palm trees, as palm oil fetches a higher price, and although palm is good for the economy it’s really bad for the nature. Whilst we were in the rubber plantation we saw a moon snake high up in the trees (second most poisonous snake in Indonesia) and also a thomas leaf monkey, so off to a great start.

We reached the entrance to the national park and there was a lot of other groups around this area too. It wasn’t long at all until we spotted our first orangutan – it was so exiting to see him up high. Jojo explained that there was a rehabilitation centre in Bukit Lawang, but over 9 years ago they released them all back into the wild because the protective measures in the national park meant the orangutan numbers were on the up. Although the orangutans are not territorial, he explained that they like to stay in the shallow parts of the jungle. We then continued and came across another, this time a female and her baby. The baby was under 1 years old and didn’t let go of her mother the whole time. Jojo then explained the borneo orangutans are much bigger and usually travel on the ground, which is different to those of Sumatra as they travel high in the trees he explained this was because there was tigers in Sumatra – errr cheers for giving us this information whilst we were already in the jungle Jojo haha! He did say they stay deep in the jungle and he actually had to go on a 35 day trek to support research on the tigers and saw one. He also told us he saw a black panther whilst he was with a guest once, and when they trek for longer than 3 days and go deeper into the jungle he actually carries a gun for protection. Thankfully the crowds started to disappear the deeper we got into the jungle. Next Jojo spotted the big male in the distance and we start to walk towards him. We all spot him too, he was massive, he then started to walk to us so Jojo tells us quickly to go back and keep a safe distance. Jojo actually told us a story how one of his guests didn’t listen to him and got too close and the orangutan didn’t like it, Jojo jumped in between them and pushed his guest out the way and before he could run himself, the orangutan grabbed and bit him, breaking his leg.

We then stopped for some lunch and as we were nearly finished and enjoying some fruit for dessert, a pig tail macaque monkey wanted to join us. Our guides soon spotted him and when he came to close scared him away, Jojo actually launched himself up a tree to keep him away. He did manage, however, to run in and grab some fruit. Jojo was actually born in the jungle; people used to live there but when the government started to protect it over 20 years ago they moved everyone out. We came across a few more orangutans and also a gibbon before we reached our camp just after 3pm.

We had trekked 10km up and down, it was a tough trek the hardest we have done so far. We then met Ahmed who looks after the camp and cooked up the feast for the evening whilst we enjoyed some tea and biscuits and a refreshing dip in the river. I say refreshing because it was bloody freezing! Jojo made us all some bracelets from some young rattan he found in the jungle and myself and Jessi also got rings too. Then Ijal gave us all a stone he had carved an orangutan onto – such nice gifts from the jungle. Then after dark we all had a romantic dinner by candle light in the middle of camp, Jojo shared some stories with us and also did some magic, we had such an amazing evening all together. The five of us were in a big tent the ground was so hard but other then having to get up in the night to wee, we slept very well.

The next day we had been told for breakfast we would be getting a jungle sandwich. It was a right treat – 4 slices of toast with salad, omelette, cheese and sauces between the slices, just what we needed for the tough up hill climb. After about an hour we came across our first orangutan of the day. Her name is Nina, Jojo told us how she is very defensive now with humans because she was attacked with a machete a few years ago, so they have to feed her to ensure she keeps her distance. Jojo explained it’s really bad to feed the orangutans as they need to sustain themselves in the wild. Some of the guides in the area do, but then it causes problems for the ones who don’t want to. We were told not to go into our bags whilst we were around the orangutans as if they see you go into your bag they think there is food and then they will come for it. Ijal protected us and led us away from Nina whilst Jojo stayed to allow us to get a safe distance away. It was really hard to move quickly as we were climbing down the side of the steep hills often having to use the roots and branches to almost abseil down.

We stopped after about 30 minutes and Jojo joined us again. He told us he had to run from Nina, but she made a ball with her body to roll down the hill and caught up with him a few times but he made it away unharmed. We had lunch by a lovely little waterfall and I decided to go for a little swim, that was until I saw a monitor lizard further up stream so I got out pretty sharp. After lunch we took a short little walk to the big river where we would raft on tubes through the rapids back to the village. This was so much fun, we had such a laugh and it was such a great way to end the experience.

Bukit Lawang

We had a few nights in the village following the trekking, we were so pleased we got to spend time there. As it was still end of ramadan celebrations a lot of local people had come to visit Bukit Lawang as we walked through the village we felt like celebrities so many people would shout “Hello Mister”, and give us both high fives and also ask us for selfies. It was quite fun, but also a bit overwhelming at times as so many people wanted photos while loads of people were just staring at us. As the big river has such powerful currents, a popular thing with the locals is to rent a tube and play on the river, it looked far too dangerous for us and the people at the guest house had told us actually a lot of locals die playing in the river. We also heard that in 2003 there was a massive flood that completely flattened Bukit Lawang and a lot of people died, it was because lots of rain had fallen in the mountains and illegal logging created a rush of water over 20 meters high into Bukit Lawang suddenly. It did rain really heavily whilst we were there actually and the river water level rose by about 3 feet and got super fast. All of the staff at the rainforest guest house were so friendly we actually felt sad to leave.

Straight from the jungle to the city, as Singapore is up next.

Lisa & Chris x

Penang

After a 23 minute flight from Langkawi we arrived at our guesthouse in Georgetown at about 10.30am. Amazingly our room was ready, so we checked straight in and headed out to explore. First, we had a couple of things to do – post some bits home as we are getting tight with flight baggage allowances, also I (Chris) wanted a haircut. It was about a 20 minute walk to the post office, and when we got there we found it was closed on Sundays – I was quite annoyed as this now meant we had to carry the stuff we were posting around all day with us. We then walked another 15-20 mins to the hairdressers, which was fully booked. Although the morning was a bit of a failure, we did love walking through the streets of Georgetown. It is so full of character with the beautiful architecture, colours and friendly people. It feels so chilled out, especially for an Asian city which are usually so hectic. Even the traffic is very calm here, with everyone driving around so slowly. You can also really feel the British colonial influence here, with the architecture, UK plug sockets and people driving on the left.

We then walked up to Little India, this was a really vibrant area with lots of bright colours and loud music playing. As the Indian food has been so good in SE Asia, we decided to find a place to grab some lunch. We both had curry and rice, and to be honest it was pretty mediocre. The curry sauce was very thin and not particularly flavourful.

After this we went to a little Chinese coffee shop and Lisa ordered a dragon ball, it was a scoop of coconut ice cream coated in crushed ice and then covered in a rose syrup, however, the ice cream tasted like durian (the popular stinky fruit here in SE Asia). Lisa asked the lady if she had made a mistake and put durian instead of coconut but she said it was 100% coconut and that Lisa must have a phobia of durian. The durian smell is so strong we think it must have tainted the flavour of the other ice creams.

We decided to drop our stuff back in the room, and then walked back into the centre. We spent some time walking around exploring the interactive street art (for which Georgetown is famous for). We also wandered down some of the jetties (Chew Jetty is the main one), where people live on in stilted houses. There are lots of Chinese immigrants in Georgetown, and the jetty really reminded us of Tai O – the stilted fishing village we visited in Hong Kong. We stopped by a hawker centre (street food outlets) in the evening for some food, and then headed back to the guesthouse for an early night.

Day 2

We started with a second attempt at posting some stuff home. We were quite confused when we arrived, and stood by a counter for a while waiting for someone. Then we saw a load of locals press a button for a ticket when they arrived, so we did the same. But of course after waiting for our number to be called, we found out we’d pressed the wrong button, so had to queue up a second time. Once we arrived at the correct counter, the ladies were super helpful (and so was google translate!). We sent back about 4KG of souvenirs and clothes which cost about £50, so not cheap, but cheaper than paying extra baggage allowance on the flights.

We tried a few different foods today which our guesthouse had recommended to us. First stop was a little Chinese tea house, where we had a Chinese cookie and egg tart. The Chinese cookie was quite dry and not really to my taste. The egg tart was lovely though, very similar to the egg tarts we have in the UK, but not as sweet and with a more flakey pastry (and the same as the one we had in Hong Kong).

We also stopped at a bakery for coconut tart, which was delicious, I would definitely have those again. The bakery also let us try some pepper biscuit, which tasted much better than it sounds.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Antarabangsa Enterprise, which apparently has the cheapest beer in Georgetown. It was a really cool place with lots of tables outside, and shortly after arriving a local gentleman (Andrew) asked if he could join us. We had a nice chat with him, he said he works at a hotel 6 days a week and stops there for a beer most evenings after work. I told him all about Watford FC of course. The Premier League is really popular all over Asia, so it’s a pretty easy conversation starter – especially when people see my Watford shirt. There are so many Liverpool fans in Malaysia, and of course they have all been proudly wearing their shirts. The guesthouse owners are all Kopites and every time I walk in they start chanting ‘Watford!’, then hold up their Liverpool shirts and start talking about their Champions League victory.

We’d heard Assam Laksa is a very famous Malaysian dish, so headed to Penang Road Teochew Chendul to try some. Lisa ordered this, and I ordered a Curry Mee, which Andrew had told us is his favourite Malaysian dish. We both agreed I won this one! The Assam Laksa was tasty, with a big mix of flavours (fish, sour, spicy, sweet), but the Curry Mee was delicious! It was very similar to the Penang Curry we had in Thailand, and was a creamy, delicately spiced curry. It was more of a soup than a curry, but still very nice. For desert we had a Chendul, which is green rice flour jelly, coconut milk, kidney beans and crushed ice. I don’t usually like kidney beans, but they worked really well in this. It was quite a nice desert to be fair, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back for another.

Day 3

In the morning we took a walking tour. Our guide grew up in Georgetown and took us around some of the local art pieces, temples and historic buildings telling us about the history. We learnt that a lot of people on the island were from India or China, the Indians brought over by the British to build the roads and the Chinese promised wealth from working in the tin mines, he said back then most people in China were very poor and they often just started a new life in Malaysia because they couldn’t afford to return or they lost contact with relatives as if they ever sent a letter home to their family, all the villagers would know and ask how much money had been sent and that they wanted some of it too, so no money no letter. He told us of the Chinese maffia and showed us where these gangs operated from during the tour. His family were originally from China, and he told us how a lot of people would die of starvation in China back then, and in that fact his grandmother died of starvation. They couldn’t understand why, as although she couldn’t afford to feed herself, her son gave her food. They then found out she had been putting the local hungry children first and passing all the food to them.

We had been recommended to try the coffee shop China House, it had over 50 different types of cakes and the servings were huge we actually couldn’t manage to eat it all and took the rest home for supper. The China House was massive and ran from one street to the next through a thin long building, a couple of doors down was an art corridor with some more amazing art inside.

We went back to our favourite bar for an evening beer, thinking we might bump into Andrew again when he finished work, however, this evening a local called Dennis sat with us. Dennis was about 36 hours into a drinking session and sat with 3 cans of 6.9% Fosters in front of him. He owns a guesthouse which he was inviting us to stay at and spent most of the time complaining about the guests from last night. He also invited us back to his guesthouse for a party, which we politely declined. He was pleasant enough to be honest, but quite hard work so we finished our drinks and left (not before he was telling us he used to play football for the Malaysian national team – not sure how true that was!). We were both hungry so stopped for some pork and rice not far from the bar which had been recommended to us. It was a busy street food restaurant, and we managed to get one of the last tables. The food was very simply plain rice with the pork roasted on a spit. It was so simple, yet so tasty – we both loved it.

The next morning we took a Grab to the airport to catch our flight to Sumatra, which we were both very excited about!

Chris and Lisa x

Langkawi

We checked out of our hotel in Koh Lipe, after which the manager gave us a ride in her motorbike sidecar to the Thai immigration office which is actually a small office straight on the beach! Chris did a little video to show it but got called back by the immigration officer and was told to delete it -oopsy! Our boat to Langkawi was little bigger then the one that brought us to Koh Lipe, so we had to get a long tail boat from the beach to it. We had heard this happens and usually you have to pay however we never did, so must have been included. Malaysia is our 7th country of the trip and we have been looking forward to the food and the different culture it has to offer.

Day 1

We arrived in Langkawi at the ferry port which was about 20km from where we were staying on the island. Its always hard to know what the prices of things are from country-to-country and when you’re fresh off the boat you’re an easy target for scams. We always walk away from the touts and work out the best way to travel, that’s if we haven’t already worked it out before we’ve arrived. As we were getting cash out a German girl traveling on her own asked us where we were staying and if we knew how to get there. We found a Starbucks hung outside to get onto the free wifi (unfortunately Starbucks does not fit into our daily budget!) and ordered the Grab for the 3 of us. The 30 minute taxi journey was only 23 ringgit which is £4.34 so we let her ride with us for free, Grab has been really handy for us whilst we have been traveling. We checked into our guest house and headed out for some lunch, Chris has found a cheap highly-rated restaurant on the main street. We managed to get a meal and a drink each for only 16 Ringgit which was just over £3 and it was soooooo tasty! Langkawi is a duty free island so there is plenty of opportunity for shopping, we did wonder around a few shops just to browse. We tried to get some cheeky perfume samples but they were all locked away! We then headed on to Cenang beach and it was so busy, it was about 5.30pm by this time so we were shocked to see so many people on the beach. Its not really a beach you could relax at, it’s more of a water sports area, so as we strolled the 1km from one end to the other we were asked by at least 10 stalls if we wanted a jet ski, banana boat or to parasail. We decided to find a restaurant for dinner and found a few cheap options on Trip Advisor, the ones with the one pound sign are usually our kinda place, but all of them were closed. We thought we would just head back to the place we went for lunch (Bellas) but that shut at 4.30pm. We realised that with it being the holy month of ramadan and Malaysia mainly being a muslim country, a lot of the more local restaurants were actually closed/ opened much later on. We ended up going to a Syrian restaurant for dinner and ordering the cheapest thing on the menu a Chicken kebab – it was a pretty good kebab actually, and Syrian cuisine was a first for both of us.

Day 2

One of the things we had been recommended to do here in Langkawi was to go up the cable car. So this was the plan for the day. We headed back to Bellas for breakfast and both had a roti and a coffee and a big bottle of water and the bill was only £2! Roti is a type of bread originating from India and was a firm favourite of ours in Thailand. The roti in Malaysia is little bit different, I think maybe they are thicker but still super tasty. After breakfast we got a Grab to the cable car which is situated in a park called the ‘Oriental Village’. Our ticket also included a few other attractions within the village – a 360 video experience, a 3D museum and a 4D experience. It looked pretty clear at the top so we joined the queue, which took about 30minutes. By the time we got to the top it was cloudy so we couldn’t see anything, just our luck! After about 30minutes or so the clouds cleared a bit just enough for us to see some of the beautiful national park surrounding us and the coast below. There was a couple of other things you could do at the top – a sky bridge, walk and a tram ride but with the clouds moving over again we thought we would give it a miss and headed back down.

As I mentioned our ticket included a few other attractions, so we went to the 360 video experience, It was a rollercoaster set on Mars and actually made me feel quite motion sick. Next we headed to the 3D art museum, this was a really cool place where you could interact with the art for comedy photos. There was a random show half way round which had a few cool effects in bringing the art to life but it was no Disney put it that way! We were fed up of queueing by this point so decided to give the 4D experience a miss.

Nadia at our guest house had also recommended a waterfall near by called 7 wells waterfall. At the top is 7 pools of water surrounded by jungle and a view of the ocean, so basically a natural infinity pool. We found a little path on maps.me and headed there from the village. It turned into a bit of a trek and the 600 odd steps from the bottom of the waterfall to the top were no easy feat. However I did get to see the cutest little black dusky leaf monkey in the trees along the way. When we reached the top I was ready for that refreshing dip in the water. Some of the pools were actually quite steep, and well lets put it this way, I’m glad Chris didn’t have the camera out when I was struggling to get out – although it might have made us bit of money! Some kids were sliding from one pool to the next on the naturally formed slides, but we didn’t see many adults give it a go and neither one of us fancied carrying the other down so thought we should give it a miss.

Armed with some recommendations of cheap local food for dinner, we headed out, to find the restaurant closed! We wondered around bit and came across a little restaurant attached to the nearby rainbow hostel and decided to give it a go. We tried the local dish of roti canai, which is basically the roti bread with a small curry. The dish was only 8 Ringgit so like £1.50 and so tasty, the curry was packed full of flavour without it being too spicy. Bellas was actually closed for Eid celebrations (end of ramadan) so we ended up having breakfast and dinner here the next day too. We always try to try new things but we were stuck for affordable options here in Langkawi.

Day 3

We had been told the beaches in the north are the best and much quieter than the one nearby, so we got a taxi to the other side of the island and had a relaxing afternoon on the Tanjung Rhu beach. We have been spoilt with beaches on the islands whilst we have been traveling and whilst this beach was beautiful it really wasn’t a patch on those on Koh Lipe or Koh Rong Samloem. After a spot of sunbathing and a dip in the sea we went to the beach bar and ordered the cheapest drinks on the menu, a couple of juices at 8 Ringgit each so like £1.60, when they brought our change over we thought they had short changed us. However, we soon realised they had given us more expensive drinks either by their or our mistake which doubled the price, so frustrating! I did find an awesome shell so all in all a good day out! In the evening we planned some more of our last couple of months and have some super exiting things to look forward too.

Tomorrow we’re getting a flight to Penang to explore Georgetown, our next stop in Malaysia. We were going to get the boat but the flight was cheaper at only £8.90 each, and it’s much faster at only 35 minutes so a no brainer!

Lisa & Chris

South Thailand

Ao Nang

As Lisa mentioned, we were really looking forward to this leg of our trip to relax and unwind a bit. We had 5 nights booked at a small resort in Ao Nang – the last time I spent 5 consecutive nights in the same bed was when I was back at home so this is quite a nice novelty for us. The resort was so nice and peaceful, there were probably about 10 people staying there in total, so most of the time we had the swimming pool to ourselves. One day a German man got into the pool, he couldn’t speak any English so I made the mistake of speaking to him in some extremely basic German – from then on he kept speaking to me in fluent German while I sat there nodding!

We didn’t do too much here other than laze around the pool and beaches. The beach in Ao Nang I didn’t think was that great, it felt quite ‘gravelly’ as was mainly broken shells. There was another one about a 15 minute walk over the ‘monkey trail’ which we visited on the first day, this was called Pai Plong Beach, and better, but I still didn’t think particularly amazing. On another day we took a boat trip to Railey, which is a beach just around the coast which can only be accessed by sea. I’d heard amazing things about this place, but I was a little underwhelmed if honest. It is a beautiful beach, I just had such high expectations after everything I’d read about it. The limestone rocks jutting out of the sea did look cool, but I think we have been spoilt by the absolutely perfect beaches on the Cambodian islands!

We noticed there were a lot of tailors in Ao Nang, so decided to check them out and see what the prices were like. I’d read so many excellent reviews about one called Andy’s, so we popped in. After 15 minutes of Andy telling us we shouldn’t worry about price, and that we are making it difficult to do business because we’re unsure of our budget, we decided to find another tailor (especially as they couldn’t even tell me what the fabric was made out of). Whilst in there, I got chatting to another customer who was picking up a shirt and he asked me to pop outside for a minute; outside he told me to be careful on price as they will try and rip us off. We thought maybe it was a bad idea getting anything made in Thailand as I’d heard in Bangkok the tailors try to rip you off and leave you with unfinished or badly fitting items (they know you’re getting on a flight in x days time), but thought we’d try one more place. De’Marco Tailors was rated 1 on TripAdvisor so we headed there – it was such a different experience! David (who is the owner) was extremely friendly, helpful and gave no pressure at all. I had a few pairs of trousers made, and Lisa a new suit for job interviews when she is home. They are all a cashmere/wool blend, with trousers about £40 a pair and Lisa’s suit £125, so a fraction of the price of getting something like this made at home. We popped back the following evening for a first fitting, only some minor amends were needed so we returned the next day for final fitting and collection. What’s great is they store all the final fitting measurements, so we can order online whenever we want more (providing I don’t put on any weight, which let’s face it, I will).

Koh Lanta

We travelled by minibus down to Koh Lanta. We had hoped to get the ferry, but they stop running at the end of April as it is now rainy season and the sea gets a bit rough. We had 5 nights here too, in a lovely resort right on the beach – we can just about see the sea from our bed! Thank you to Kirsty and Rich for our birthday money which we used to upgrade to this accommodation – it’s certainly not a backpacker budget resort and easily the nicest place we have stayed so far. The beach here is lovely, so we have spent a lot of time chilling there and in the swimming pool, although we have had a bit of rain, but it was only on 2 days (one of them being morning only). One upside of it being the first month of rainy season is that it is so quiet, the beach is huge and there is barely anyone on it! The downside is that a lot of restaurants have now shut, so there’s less choice than last month. We found a lovely restaurant a short walk along the beach which we ate at quite a lot and also another one up on the main road. We did try to find somewhere else, which involved walking around a building site in the sea, across a waist-deep stream going into the sea, and then through a derelict hotel – but we had no luck and ended up buying a few bits from a local store.

Trang

As most of the ferries aren’t running at this time of year, we couldn’t get a direct ferry from Koh Lanta to Koh Lipe, so had to travel down the mainland to Trang. Here we would stay one night, and then get a ferry to Koh Lipe. Koh Lanta to Trang was about a 3 hour bus ride, although as the crow flies is only about 40 miles (it does include a one mile ferry crossing).

The bus driver didn’t understand where we wanted to be dropped off, so we ended up about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, not ideal when in a tropical climate with a huge backpack! After checking in to our hotel, we popped out for a little walk and to a local coffee shop – the cakes were really nice in here, usually in Asia we find baked goods to be quite dry. After this we had a little walk around the park, the locals were all super friendly, asking us where we are from and what our names are. Some did invite me to join their football match, but I didn’t want to let England down with my football skills! One lad came up to me later and asked if he could add me on Facebook – I actually really enjoy adding locals on Facebook as it can give an interesting insight into their lives. Trang has been the first place I’ve visited in Thailand that has felt ‘real Thai’, I didn’t even see one other tourist while I was here and some of the locals are quite curious to see westerners. It reminded me of being in Myanmar with locals saying hello to us and making conversation.

We then walked down to the local night market. Here they sell all kinds of food, clothes, trinkets and perfumes. The curries in the south are very different to the rest of the country, so we found a stand with a wide selection and sat down to eat. The lady did warn us the ones in the front row were spicy, but wow, they were so hot! My mouth and nose felt swollen once I’d finished, but it was tasty! They were much drier than the other Thai curries we’d eaten, and mine was very peppery.

As we needed to be at the train station first thing in the morning, we decided to get an early night, but on the way saw a performances taking place on a big stage. We weren’t sure if it was a religious ceremony, or a show of some sort, but walked in and enjoyed watching the traditional performances – some of the costumes were so cool! We asked the gentleman at our hotel, and he advised it was Mahorasop Sompoch, which is a cultural festival taking place all over the country to celebrate the coronation of King Rama X.

Koh Lipe

From Trang we had a 2 hour bus, followed by a 2 hour speedboat to Koh Lipe. There were a couple of extra hidden costs we didn’t expect; firstly you have to pay 20 Baht just to enter the pier to get to your boat (of course the fee is for foreigners only), and then at Koh Lipe you have to pay another 200 Baht to ‘enter the national park’, even though the island is on the edge of the national park (and as far as I can tell the area with the resorts isn’t actually in it). This is ‘farang’ price (what the locals call foreigners), as Thai people only have to pay 40 Baht. All over Asia they have ‘foreigner’ prices, I’ve even heard that some restaurants have two versions of the menu, and westerners get given one with prices 2-3 times higher – you can’t imagine that happening in the UK! Luckily when we arrived on the island (on a little floating jetty on the beach) we couldn’t see where to pay the 200 Baht, so just walked to our hotel! We were lucky it’s low season, as in high season they drop you at a floating jetty where you have to pay a longboat another 50 baht to take you to the beach.

Koh Lipe is an island approx 40 miles off the coast of Thailand, fairly close to the Malaysian border (we can see Langkawi from the beach – our next stop). It was originally settled by a group of sea gypsies (about 100 years ago from what I can gather) who are known as the Chao Leh people. It’s pretty small (about 2 miles by 1 mile) and next to the touristy area you can still walk through a small local village.

The first couple of days we just spent chilling on the beach and relaxing in the sea. We both loved the beaches here, it has the classic white sand and turquoise waters, and as it is now low season the beaches have been so quiet. It is not quite the paradise of Koh Rong Samloem in Cambodia, but there is more infrastructure here meaning a large choice of restaurants and facilities near the beach, plus air conditioning! Because of this we’ve both much preferred Koh Lipe. An immaculately beautiful beach is great, but when you’ve got a 2 hour walk through a jungle in the heat before you get anywhere even selling water, the novelty does wear off! Plus on Koh Lipe there is a big local community, whereas Koh Rong Samleom was mainly populated by backpackers and western owned hotels/restaurants.

The following day we hoped to take a snorkelling tour through the national park, however, being woken up by thunder and rain put a stop to that! It didn’t rain for long, so we decided to take a little walk around the island and have a play with the drone on the beach. On our way back in the afternoon we stopped for a foot massage on the beach – we have loved our massages on this trip. When it’s about £6 for an hour massage it’s hard to resist! In the evening we shared a whole barbecued fish with rice and massaman curry, yum!

Tomorrow morning we are catching a ferry to Langkawi and looking forward to seeing what Malaysia has to offer.

Chris and Lisa x

PS some highlights of south Thailand below…

Mandalay

It was around 6.30pm when we arrived in Mandalay, it was a long travel day as we had left our hotel in Hsipaw at 8am. We decided to stretch the budget bit and get a pool as Mandalay is super hot this time of year. We walked into our posh hotel and was greeted with cold towels and juices, which is just what we needed after our long travel day. Also for some reason the door staff have always grabbed Chris’ bag and just left me to it, they probably feel sorry for him because they can see he’s carrying more than me. I gloat at the lightness of my bag and how I’m proud I have packed so light, but the reality is Chris is carrying all our toiletries, camera, lap top etc.

We headed straight out for dinner, we have loved the Indian food here so found one with great reviews and headed there. It was a little on the pricy side but the closest Indian we have ever had to India, and didn’t disappoint. We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, as there’s very little street lighting in Mandalay and half the time you have to walk into the road. Some of the roads are so dark it actually looks pitch black in distance as you look down them (even in the middle of the city).

We had two full days in Mandalay and decided to spend one day wondering around the city soaking up the atmosphere and the other exploring the popular temples in Mingun, obviously with plenty of pool time added in too.

On the first morning we headed out of the hotel and only got 5 minute up the road when it started hammering it down, we took shelter outside a computer shop and after a couple of minutes they brought out some chairs for us to sit on. The kindness of people all around Myanmar has been amazing, children waving at you in the street saying ‘bye bye’ (I’m not sure why they picked up bye bye rather then hello, but it’s super cute), everyone smiling and willing to help. After 30 minutes or so the rain calmed and we headed back out on our way. We walked into a shopping centre, it was polar opposites to Yangon and its grand shopping centres with recognisable brands, coffee shops and cinemas. It’s like Yangon has a different economy to the rest of Myanmar. As we were walking through the shopping centre the power kept cutting out, it was pitch black inside and super hot so we soon got fed up and headed out. Next we headed to the gold pounding district (where they produce gold leaf), as soon as you walk into this area you can hear the thudding from the mallets. I’d found a shop that had an open workshop which you could visit. A man explained the gold leaf making process to us. It starts off as a thin strip of gold and then is pounded for 6 hours by hand (I think a lot of places are using machines now but in this area they stick with the traditional techniques). The sheets of gold are placed between bamboo paper, which he also explained how is made. The mallets were really heavy and they work for an hour at a time and then rest, pounding for 4 hours a day. We then exited through the gift shop where you could buy the gold leaf, or little guilted trinkets or even a gold leaf drink or makeup, unfortunately our budget doesn’t stretch quite so far that we can drink gold, even in Myanmar. The prices are heavily inflated and we saw the same items for sale in the airport for a quarter of the price. Gold leaf is very important as it’s added to the buddhas in homes and pagodas. This practice is an act of kindness and transfer of good merits so is very popular with the locals. In the afternoon glad that the rain had stopped and the sun had come back out, we relaxed in the hotels roof top pool.

I’d seen on Instagram the beautiful sunset pictures of U Bein bridge, which is in the south of the city, we negotiated with a tuk tuk driver a return journey, however, I hadn’t quite realised it would take us 30 minutes to get there. The tuk tuk driver was mental taking turnings on the wrong side of the road and then joining the right side. The driving is south east Asia is crazy and this tuk tuk journey was pretty hair-raising, it must be the teeth staining betel they constantly chew out here. We arrived at the bridge with the sunset almost over and this is clearly a popular spot for day trippers as it was so busy. We soon realised that the beautiful pictures I had seen of the bridge were more than likely from summer and not from what is now dry season, as the lake was fairly dry. The bridge itself is pretty but I did feel a little disappointed with the sunset. On our way back across the bridge we were stopped several times by students and monks wanting to practice their English. It’s such a great way to interact with locals, we are always happy to stop and talk to them, and it made what could have been a disappointing evening into a memorable one. One of the older monks we spoke to told us about his participation in the 2007 protest which actually led to him being imprisoned for 5 years. Democracy is so important to this nation and although things are getting better, the military still have 25% power in the parliament, with a 75.1% vote needed to make any changes. Although things are changing economically (slowly) there is still unrest and civil war and even genocide going on. One of the things traveling has given me is an interest into these countries history and politics. The struggles a lot of these countries have faced and are facing currently is eye opening, and even with what’s going on in their own country people are still asking us our thoughts on Brexit!

On our second day we headed to the ancient city of Mingun to the Instagram-famous white pagoda. There is only one boat a day which leaves at 9am, we’d seen online you needed to get there no later then 8.30am to ensure you get a ticket. We grabbed a tuk tuk from outside the hotel and told him where we wanted to go and even showed him on the map the location. He then headed on this way, Chris was following the route on maps.me and noticed he was going an odd way. He then he pulled over and made a phone call, then the next thing the phone was passed to Chris with someone on the end of the phone saying ‘hello, how can I help you?’. Clearly the driver had no idea where he was going, but didn’t want to lose out to another driver. We eventually got there with a mix of us giving him directions and him stopping to ask along the way. We climbed down the muddy bank and over the narrow planks of 3 other boats to get to ours and even at 9am the sun was super hot. The boat ride up the Irrawaddy was just under an hour and we arrived to a river bank full of touts. From tuk tuk drivers to cow pulled carts, people selling drinks and souvenirs. We started walking towards the white pagoda and a lady followed us walking along side us telling us which way to go, it was very odd, we were polite and just exchanged small conversation. It turned out she worked at an English school which gets donations from foreigners (bingo thats why she was following us!) along the way she pointed out where she lived and that the school was just around the corner if we wanted to visit, we just said no thank you and she soon left us. We arrived at the white pagoda and a little girl no older then 10 told us she was a photographer and would take a very good photo for us, there were a few other children around the site offering the same, great little entrepreneurs. In Myanmar you have to remove your shoes before entering the pagoda site, but luckily as this was painted white and it was still early the floor wasn’t too hot to walk on. The walkway around the edge wasn’t, it was like a fire walk – I’m glad we didn’t visit any later in the day. The Hsinbyume Pagoda (built in 1816) is very different to other pagodas with wave like terraces surrounding the outside. These terraces represent the seven mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, which is considered the centre of the universe in the Buddhist cosmology. This pagoda was built by the Bagydaw prince, the heir of King Bodawpaya as a way to show his love for his first wife (Queen Hsinbyume) who unfortunately lost her life during childbirth. We have seen A LOT of temples and pagodas and this is one of my favourites.

In the area of Mingun is a second impressive structure – the unfinished ‘Mingun pagoda’. It was set to be the biggest pagoda in history, but was only built to a third of its height in 1790 before construction was stopped. It was said that if the pagoda was finished the king would die, so it was just left. Then in 1839 it was hit by an earthquake leaving massive cracks in the structure and bricks pouring out, and giving it a world record for the biggest pile of bricks. It is an impressive structure, to think of the size it would have been had it been completed! When we were walking around, the lady from earlier came back and started talking to us again, telling us when to take pictures and where to go. We think she forgot she had already spoke to us. She pointed out the school and then told us she lived in the house next to it, this was a different house to what she had told us before. After we had walked around, she asked for a donation for the school. This is something that really annoys us, I mean even the children offering to take photos clearly have a better business model! If she had learnt some facts about the pagoda and said for a donation for the school would you like me to give you little tour and tell you about the pagoda we would have given her a few quid, rather then following us around and pointing at cracks in the wall.

The last thing we wanted to see was the two lions, these again were destroyed by the earthquake but you can imagine the size of them when they stood proud guarding the kingdom. There were a few monks taking pictures along with another family, I noticed a little girl beside me and her mother taking a picture I presumed she was talking a picture in front of the lions so I moved to the side and she moved closer, she wanted a picture with me! I was flattered. We had heard and seen in a lot of blogs and instagram posts about locals wanting pictures with westerners, but we hadn’t experienced it other than with our guides or when we had stoped and spoken English with the students or monks. A lot of peoples blogs and Instagrams are totally glamorised, which is laughable on occasions, and I presumed this was the case with this. However, a couple we had met on the train from Hsipaw told us of their experience, but they were both blonde haired and paled skinned which is more of a novelty to the locals. Clearly we’re not beautiful enough and maybe a bit t0o old lol, but at least this little girl didn’t think so. On the way back we walked through a local market and then headed back to the pool. One thing we won’t forget is the sound of Myanmar, the constant backing-track of prayer being broadcast from various religious buildings. This will go alongside the usual smell of the streets of Asia in our memory banks. In the evening we had some cocktails on the roof top bar to watch the sunset and celebrate our 100 days of traveling! It’s going so quickly!!

The following day we headed to the airport for Thailand. We changed flights at Bangkok for Krabi, Chris needed to go through border control to get the drone back (we had stored it here whilst in Myanmar as it’s illegal to import an unauthorised drone into the country). Although we felt as we arrived in Yangon we could have brought it through in our hand luggage, there would have been no way we would have got it through in Mandalay as before we had even checked in, all of our luggage was put through a scanner by customs, and then after check in we went through the usual border control. Even though we were worried about making the connecting flight, Chris got through immigration/security quicker than I did using the fly through service. We fancied a burger and got a couple of meals from Burger King and got stung for £17! It was a bloody good burger though!

We both loved Myanmar, there were some ethical considerations before visiting Myanmar because of the income from tourism is potentially funding the military (a google search for ‘Rohingya’ will give you some insight into what they are up to). However by not visiting a country you can do more harm to the people, and it was the people that made this country for us. Everyone we passed, smiled or said hello, which made us feel so welcome. The traditions of wearing the longyi (sarong) for both men and woman and also the thanaka on their faces. The people with nearly nothing offering food to you and always willing to help. The vast difference in nature and landscape, from the beauty of Inle Lake to the colonial architecture (in many towns) and the tribal traditions. The historic pagodas, of which there are thousands in Bagan (even though we were gutted about missing out on the balloon ride). Getting to spend time with Thinzar, who worked in the UK with Chris over 13 years ago, and making true friends with her and her husband Sai. We loved Myanmar, and all the things above made it a highlight of the trip for us.

We’ve now arrived for our ‘holiday’ in Thailand. We decided to take it slow visiting couple of beach destinations for a couple of weeks before the final leg of our trip.

Lisa & Chris xx

Inle Lake, Pyin Oo Lwin and Hsipaw

Inle Lake

As we mentioned at the end of the last blog, we had 2 nights at an intha family homestay on the lake. Intha literally means ‘sons of the lake’ and is the name of the ethnic minority who live here. Our homestay was a stilted house over the lake which is traditional intha style. The plan here was mainly to relax and enjoy the scenery! On the first morning I got up at about 5.30am to watch the sunrise (I was woken up by chants coming from the local pagoda, so thought might as well!), I could see it straight from our bedroom window – it was such a beautiful, peaceful view! I then walked around to the communal area while Lisa slept and enjoyed a coffee with the morning views all to myself, until some of the other guests got up around half an hour later.

During the day we mainly chilled out and caught up on admin, planning and booking our time in Thailand (and we decided to add Sydney to our plan so booked some flights from there to Melbourne!). In the evening we went on a sunset boat trip of the lake with our new friend Valeria (from Chile). We had a lovely tour through the intha village, floating gardens and also to some local fisherman, and finally stopped to enjoy the sunset. I’ve seen some amazing sunsets in my time in Asia, and this was one of the best!

The next day we took a boat back to Nyaung Shwe, had another massage at our favourite place, then back to Eminem’s for another awesome curry. After this we took a taxi to a local hotel as Sai (Thinzar’s husband who we met in Yangon) was there on a course, so enjoyed a drink catching up with him.

Pyin Oo Lwin

From Nyaung Shwe we took a bus to Mandalay, stayed a night, and then took a shared taxi to Pyin Oo Lwin. The shared taxi made it very cheap, about £2.75 each for the 66km journey. It did mean we had to share with some strangers and take the odd detour on the way as the driver delivered parcels, but we are on a budget! We did have a bit of a scary moment on the way when a motorbike pulled out in front of us – we were off the road into the gravel separating the carriageways at about 50mph! Luckily our driver did control it very well, got out of the car and went mental at the motorbike rider!

Pyin Oo Lwin was an old hill station and the summer capital when under British rule (known as Maymyo back then) as Mandalay was too hot at that time of year. I was quite surprised how big it was actually, I was expecting a small hill town similar to Kalaw, but approximately quarter of a million people live here. We spent a little bit of time walking around and exploring the town and having some amazing coffee – they grow coffee in Shan State and take their brewing very seriously here, one cafe we went to grew their own coffee beans on-site!

We also visited the National Kandawgyi Botanical gardens, which were created in 1915 and modelled on Kew Gardens. We had a lovely time walking around these, and it was quite funny the amount of people that would stop and point/stare when they saw us. I think a lot of local tourists come here, and the locals outside of tourist hotspots are not used to seeing westerners. After this we had some dinner, and as it was dark decided to try and get a tuk tuk back to the hotel (we really don’t like walking in the dark with all the stray dogs). All we could find was a horse drawn cart that moved about the same speed I walk, but at least we were protected from the dogs!

Hsipaw

The main reason we wanted to visit this area is because the train between Pyin Oo Lwin and Hsipaw has amazing views, and goes across the very impressive Goteik Viaduct (over 100m tall and built in 1900 to extend the reach of the British empire). It’s about a 6.5 hour journey (over 10 if you go straight from Mandalay), but worth it. The train moves very slowly and is very rickety, we could see the carriage in front of us swinging from side-to-side! We had some very friendly monks next to us on the journey (an adult and a child, probably about 8 years old) who kept offering us food. First it was a banana, then some fried goods, then a corn-on-the-cob, then another banana, then an ice cream. Some of the food they were buying extra from the vendors and giving to us, and some was actually donations from other passengers (in the buddhist religion they get goodwill for donating food to monks). It was interesting to see that the child handled all the money, we found out this is because monks are not allowed to touch money, however, children (novice monks) do not live by the full set of rules. We were starting to wonder whether this was going to lead into them guilting us into making a donation to their monastery, but they were just being super-kind and at the end of the journey went their separate way and said they hope to see us again. We have found the Burmese to be the most kind, friendly and smiley people we have ever met! We bought them some water and biscuits in return to show our gratitude.

Hsipaw is in Shan State and is totally surrounded by conflict areas. The British government advise against all but essential travel to the area outside of Hsipaw town (the train line is the only safe route in) so we were confined to the town whilst here. We learned there was over 2,000 villagers in refugee camps in this area, with many of the children not able to go to school. Some of the villagers would go back to tend their crops, even though it was unsafe to do so. Whilst we were on the train going through these areas, it was sad to see the local children and villagers waving to us, and thinking what some of them are going through.

A lot of this information we learned from a gentleman known as Mr Book (there’s also a Mr Pizza, Mr Bike, Mr Juice and Mr Food – I’m sure you can guess their professions!). Mr Book owns a bookshop in the town (in case you didn’t guess), from which all of the profits he uses to buy stationary for children in the village schools. We popped in to buy a couple of books and he started telling us all about the local history, and gave us some old Burmese bank notes – he said to come back the next day and he would tell us more. The next morning we popped back and he told us all about the notes, that all of them add up to 9 as that was the lucky number, and they have a picture of a lion on them as that was the symbol of the military (because the leader was born on a Tuesday, and that’s the animal of that day). He also told us how the military wanted to get rid of anything western after the British rule. When they printed this currency, they immediately made all of the old currency no longer legal tender, with no compensation, totally wiping out peoples savings! He then took us to his storage area out the back where he had loads of books, crayons etc which he will take to the schools. He goes about 7 times a year, although occasionally has trouble getting there in rainy season or when the army turn him away because a conflict is taking place. We did pop back later in the afternoon with supplies from our room – toothbrushes, toothpaste, coffee, sweets and soap. The teachers and kids love this, although he said he has to warn the kids when he gives them soap, otherwise they unwrap and try to eat it! He also told us there is a big problem with de-forestation due to the Chinese – they are coming up fairly regularly when we talk to locals across all countries in SE Asia.

There is also a big river that runs through Hsipaw, we enjoyed evening walks down here watching all of the locals swimming and having a great time in the river. They literally drive their cars/motorbikes straight into the river and get out from there – I’m not really sure why? We also took a stroll up to ‘Little Bagan’ which was an area with lots of old small pagodas, it was quite a cool area as nobody else there other than the locals in their houses surrounding it.

On our last day we took the train back to Pyin Oo Lwin, we were in ordinary class this time, so not quite as comfy as the first time around. The views were still amazing though and going over the Goteik Viaduct just as incredible as the first time around. The train stops just before you get there, and then creaks across the viaduct very slowly so there is plenty of time to take in the view. As soon as we arrived in Pyin Oo Lwin we jumped straight into a shared taxi to Mandalay (no near crashes this time thank god!), where we had booked a fancy hotel with a rooftop pool for our final few nights in Myanmar.

Chris and Lisa x

Kalaw and Inle Lake

Before traveling if you had told me I would have to spend 6 hours on a bus to get somewhere, I would have been like ‘no thanks’, but the buses (well most of them) have been amazing. We always try to book the best we can afford for the longer journeys (flashpacker alert). The bus had massive comfy seats that reclined with so much space and were only $10. During the bus journey we stopped at some ‘services’ and headed straight to the toilet to find a special one labelled ‘foreigners and usual people’. We understand the other toilets were squat, but this sign did make us laugh. Can you image such a sign in England?

We were here for 30 minutes and decided to have an iced coffee. When we went to pay Chris asked how much and the man said 3,000 (£1.50) but the girl next to him gave him a funny look and a little shove, so Chris thought he must have been trying it on. So asked again to confirm the price, this time it went up to 4,000, at which point he asked if that was the real price or he was just trying it on, and asked the man that seemed to be in charge. The actual price was 2,000. It’s so frustrating when people try to rip you off and we had heard Myanmar didn’t have the scams that other parts of South East Asia have, however we have found it to be the same really. Although you can browse in shops or markets for the most part without being asked constantly to buy something, so there is that.

Kalaw

We arrived in Kalaw, stepped off the bus and was so relieved at the cooler climate. Kalaw is 4,297 feet above sea level and used to be an old British hill stop. We grabbed our bags and headed to Uncle Sam’s to arrange the trek from Kalaw to Inle. We were greeted with green tea and roasted soya beans (which were lovely) and they explained our trekking options. We chose the 2 night / 3 day trek. The hospitality of the people all over Asia has been faultless. After that we headed to our hotel which we hadn’t quite realised was on the mountain edge, so a bit of a challenge with our bags. A little warm up for our trek maybe. 

We stayed in Kalaw for a couple of nights. We enjoyed some lovely Nepalese food; we read that during the years Britain ruled Burma they brought many people from India, Bangladesh and Nepal over to work on the roads and railway, and also into the army to fight the Japanese. So, a lot of the cuisine came with them. We wandered around the market, found some old British buildings and also an overgrown pitch-and-put golf course in the park (clearly the Burmese people aren’t fans as it’s not in use anymore). Kalaw is a quaint little town and it was nice to escape the heat in the cooler climate, it’s still in the mid 20’s but better then mid 40’s of Bagan and Yangon.

Trekking day 1

As we were the only ones on the trek the price was 70,000 each (£35) for 3 days! This included our guide for the 3 days, all our food, our accommodation, a boat ride and our big bags being transported to Inle. So cheap and if there had been more people the price would have dropped to 40,000 (£20). We were picked up from our hotel at 7.45am and brought to their office in the town. Uncle Sam saw us off and introduced us to our guide, Sam asked us to promise him we would ask lots of questions and to email him with our experiences each day and thanked us for choosing him. Such a nice touch! 

We headed off to start the trek straight out of town and into the pine forest in the mountains. We had 20KM to walk on the first day to get to our homestay. We hugged the mountain edge and had beautiful views all day of the valley below and the hills in the distance. Our guide was called Pan, a 25 year-old girl from a farming family living in a village in the hills belonging to the Danu tribe. Like with Vietnam, each of the tribes had their own language and also traditional clothing, but all of them are farmers. We asked her loads of questions as we walked through the villages about the people’s lives and how they live. Pretty much all of the villages we walked though were the Pa’O people who traditionally wear black clothes with a colourful turban head dress. The main crops they grow are rice, corn and chilli, but also potatoes, peanuts, avocados, garlic, tomatoes, oranges, sesame, ginger and many vegetables, however, all of the crops had already been harvested (not the best timing on our part, Pan told us the most beautiful season is October). Some of the villages we walked through had electricity, but most used solar power for a single light or to keep their phones charged. None of the villages had running water and either used water from a well and/or collected rain water. Motorbikes have made this easier but only 6 years ago they would have either walking or using animals to fetch the water (which some still do). 

After 10KM we arrived at our lunch stop which was a house in a small village, owned by an old couple in their 80’s. We headed upstairs to relax and waited for our lunch. A local man who was 81 came and spoke to us, his English was broken but we had a small conversation with him. Pan told us every day he waits at his friend’s house for the tourists to arrive so he can have a conversation to maintain his English. He told us he lived in Yangon in the 50’s and had learnt English then. It was so lovely speaking to him. Our feast arrived for lunch of vegetable and noodles with soup and loads of fruits. Pan told us she had been to the market to select all of the foods and sent them by motorbike to each of the locations we would be stopping for lunch, dinner and breakfast each day. After lunch we had a nap and headed back on our way to our homestay. 

We arrived at the homestay in the village of Kyauk Su where everyone was busy outside of their houses preparing garlic to dry following a recent harvest. We had noticed the houses were pretty big but soon realised the bottom floor was purely for storage and the top floor for living. Pan showed us the toilet and shower area and headed straight to the kitchen to prepare our dinner. The toilet was a little hut with a squat hole and the shower was an outside space with a very cold bucket of water. The shower was in a massive open space so I made Chris stand guard holding up a towel whilst I showered to ensure I didn’t give any of the locals a bit of a show. The accommodation was very basic with a thin cushion as the base and thick blankets to cover (which were not washed between uses and far too thick to use). After another feast we relaxed on the balcony, we have noticed after the sun sets it gets very dark very quickly. There is no light pollution in the hills even though it was a little cloudy the stars were so bright, and they filled the sky. We went to bed pretty early at around 9pm and were woken up with a very heavy downpour, with the roof being corrugated iron it made the rain even louder. Luckily when I woke again in the night the rain had stopped and I headed out to the toilet with my torch, I was pretty scared actually as there are a few stray dogs in the village and I thought I would face one on my way to the toilet. 

Day Two

After breakfast (again a feast of French toast and fruits) we set off on another 20KM trek. Because of the storm the clouds had cleared and it was so hot, the trek was mainly flat through open fields so we both got pretty burnt along the way. Pan would stop and explain different plants and how they were used. We learnt that the pine trees people would just chop away at them to create kindling for the fires and the sap would be used as wax for candles, she explained that when she was younger this would be how she would need to study in the evenings by candle light. Also inhaling the smell of the sap is used to treat headaches. We then came across an agave plant and she showed us how cotton was taken from the plant and explained it would be dried and then this was what people used to make clothes. They also make a sugar from the plant. We tried to share a bit of England with her too, explaining what crops we would grow, how we buy food and what food we would typically eat. People are always so shocked to hear how little rice appears in our diet as this is used for Breakfast, lunch and Dinner all over Asia. After the long day we arrived at our homestay in the Part Tu village and were greeted by the owners. Pan explained that all of the older people are called grandmother and grandfather by everyone. This grandmother and father had 4 cows which looked so different to what we know. They have massive humps, these are working cows and used to pull carts to help transport water or vegetables or people. I saw online you can get too different types of cows humped or humpless and the humped ones originate from India and cope better in the heat. Pan explained that at night they are brought into the house to sleep and as we would be above them she joked we would have ‘natural heat’. They were so noisy, who knew cows snored when they slept, I’m so pleased I brought my ear plugs.

Day three

Our last day of trekking before we reached our destination of Inle Lake was a total of 14KM. The first hour of the walk was all uphill and then the rest was downhill. Like Bagan you have to pay a fee to enter the area which was 15,000 each (£7.50). Only foreigners need to pay this entry fee, again, can you imagine if we did that in England. We saw the lake in the distance and although it looked so far away (well, it was over 10KM) it was amazing to finally see our destination. As we reached the edge of the lake we stopped for Lunch and then headed to catch a boat across the lake to Nyaug Shwe, the city we were staying for the night. The boat journey was an hour (the lake is massive), along the way we passed the floating gardens which the people living on the lake use to grow their crops. Unlike the fields we passed, there is a lot of green on the lake with the climate and water allowing them to grow all year round. The people living on the lake belong to the Intha tribe, who create an oasis on the lake with their floating gardens and stilted houses directly on the water. The farmers use boats to tend their crops. They also still fish in the traditional way on the lake using special nets and skilled one-legged rowing. We arrived at our final destination (Nyaung Shwe, a city on the north edge of Inle Lake) and said goodbye to our new friend Pan. One of the best things about the hike was spending so much time talking to Pan and sharing experiences with her. 

Nyaung Shwe

Straight after arriving at our hotel and collecting our bags that had been delivered for us we asked where the best spa was, our bodies ached from the hike and we felt we deserved a massage! Also, we were excited to have air-conditioning and a normal toilet again! 

We went to Lavender Spa and had an hour massage each 15,000 (£7.50, such a bargain). I don’t know if it’s because our bodies ached from the hike, but it was the best massage I have ever had (so much so we will be going back again)! For dinner we fancied some Indian food so I quickly checked on Trip Advisor and the number one restaurant was Indian, so we headed there. The food was amazing and it came with entertainment; the owner was a Eminem super-fan and basically had adopted his persona – he was hilarious. He came out and sprayed us with mosquito spray and told us how much he loved tourists and wants to look after them. Such a strange and funny evening. If you ever visit the area be sure to visit him. 

The next day we checked out of our city hotel as we were heading to a homestay on the lake. We arrange with them for a boat and the driver met us at the hotel. We thought we would walk with him to the boat and then head onto the lake, ‘oh no’ he said to Chris, ‘you wait here 5 minutes, I will be back for you’ and pointed for me to get on the back of his motorbike, so I jumped on. He asked me if I was ok, and I just said ‘yep, but please don’t go too fast’. It wasn’t that far and to be honest we would have preferred to have walked, but we arrived safe and sound and it’s another experience to chalk up. 

We climbed across a few boats to get to his and then headed on our way to the lake. We got a bit stuck on the sand on the bottom of the lake, so he jumped off the boat gave it a shove and we were soon on our way again. He told us on the way we would see fisherman and floating gardens. He was great actually, slowing down if he saw we were wanting to take pictures. We saw children playing in the lake, people washing, buffalos cooling down, the traditional fisherman and the floating gardens. There is so much wildlife on the lake too, so at least the entry fee is going towards protecting that. We drove through a village and started to dock, we were a bit surprised as knew we hadn’t arrived at the homestay village yet, we looked at the sign and saw it was a silver workshop. I’d seen online that the lake tours take you from shop-to-shop, we haven’t got the luggage space or the money to be buying things, so we were like oh no thanks we don’t want to stop here. It turned out he needed to return a torch he had borrowed the day before, so it was really a stop for him rather than us (but I’m sure they get commission on purchases). I wasn’t really looking forward to staying at the homestay as to get anywhere you need a boat and also there isn’t any aircon, but I have to say Chris did well its beautiful here and I’m glad we are staying for the two nights (if anything we could have stayed a bit longer)! I’m sat writing this now with the most beautiful view of lotus flowers on the lake, floating gardens, stilted houses and then rolling mountains in the distance. With the sound of birds, the song from the nearby temple and the occasional boat passing. The owners have just brought over a little snack of rice crackers (kind of like prawn crackers) with a tealeaf salad salsa and some fresh coffee, didn’t even have to ask for it! Tomorrow we are heading back across the lake to the city and we are meeting Sai (Our friend from Yangon) who is here on business.

We had read that Inle was very touristy but either were very lucky because we have come out of season or people exaggerate as we have found it to be a beautiful area. You do get asked if you need a boat every 5 minutes in the street but a polite ‘we have already’ and they leave you alone, no different to the tuk tuk questions in other parts of Asia. We don’t get put off when people tell us places are touristy, as to be honest that usually means it’s beautiful and something amazing can be seen. We only really avoid places if we hear it’s a great place to party!

Now we have a couple of days on a stilted house (over Inle Lake, only accessible by boat) to relax and catch up on admin.

Lisa and Chris x

Bagan

We arrived in Bagan at around 5.30am on an overnight bus. The bus had left Yangon at about 8.30 the previous evening, and strangely stops at a service station at about 2am where everyone is forced off the bus. A lot of the locals had a meal at the restaurant, but we pretty much spent half an hour walking around like zombies! I actually slept really well after this, but was so tired when we arrived as just not enough sleep. We took a taxi to the hotel (we were definitely overcharged as paid 8,000 kyat, and noticed signs later saying it should have been 6,500), and as you’d imagine no chance our room would be ready. We just slept and lazed around the pool until about 11am when we could check into our room.

We didn’t get up to much on the first day, mainly spending our time exploring the local area. There wasn’t too much to see within a walking distance of the hotel, but there was a few bars and restaurants we popped in for drinks and lunch. It is really hot here (up to 43 degrees during the day), so we are really missing air conditioned coffee shops to chill out in! We did visit the Shwezigon Pagoda, which was a beautiful gold pagoda in the town we were staying (Nyaung U).

Old Bagan

The next two days we spent exploring the pagodas around Old Bagan. Bagan is an ancient city and was capital of the Pagan empire which ruled most of present-day Burma. They built over 10,000 pagodas during the 11th-13th century, with over 2,000 still standing to this day. We were really hoping to do a sunrise hot air balloon flight over the pagodas, as this is meant to be one of the best balloon flights in the world and would have been an incredible experience. Unfortunately the balloon season finishes on 10th April in Myanmar, so we were about two weeks too late – gutted!

The second best way to view the pagodas is to hire an e-bike – this is an electric bike (although looks more like a scooter) and costs about £2.50 per day. It was so much fun riding around on the e-bike exploring all the pagodas. There are a couple of main roads which are extremely quiet (just a few motorbikes, e-bikes and the occasional car or horse and cart), but most of the time is spend riding around sandy backroads – I felt like I was in the map for Red Dead Redemption at times (PS4 game if you don’t know it)! It’s disrespectful to enter the pagodas with your shoulders or legs on display, so I also bought a longyi to wear – it was a bit cooler than the jogging bottoms I have with me (my only pair of trousers).

We wanted to find an elevated spot to watch the sunset (sunrise would probably have been better as much quieter, but the sun rises at 5.30am and we didn’t fancy that), so whilst riding around were keeping an eye out for somewhere to go back to. In the past people have climbed up the outside of the pagodas, but this has been illegal since early last year as having thousands of tourists climbing over these old buildings damages them (and is not safe). We found a couple of options; there are a couple of mounds that are good and also a big tower which has been built (and I think is $5 to go up). The tower probably gives an amazing view, but is very controversial here as it is a huge blot on the landscape and I heard someone mention that a lot of bribe money must have been paid to get permission to build it. So we opted with one of the mounds, and I think this was a good choice as it gave us a great elevated view across the landscape with all of the pagodas. It did get quite busy though, so you need to get there early to get a spot at the front. We were a bit unlucky though, as there was a layer of clouds just above the horizon which the sun disappeared into before it set.

The obvious comparison to make with this would be Angkor Wat. I would say the pagodas/temples themselves at Angkor Wat are more impressive (they are just so much bigger), however, you need a tuk tuk to take you around and it is horrendously busy. Bagan was so quiet and much more charming. Although sunset was busy, and you’d see other people at the larger pagodas, most of the time it was just us on our own riding around the dusty backroads and exploring random ruins.

Next we are taking a bus to Kalaw, where we will spend a couple of nights before a 3 day hike to Inle Lake.

Chris and Lisa x