Blogs from Burma, Asia - page 2

Dienstag, den 8. Januar, kamen Iver, Thereza und ich mit dem Nachtbus von Hpa-An in Nyaung Shwe (Inle lake) an. Es war eine sehr lange Busfahrt gewesen (Abfahrt 19h, Ankunft 9h30), aber ich habe ganz gut geschlafen und war daher relativ gut ausgeruht - ganz im Gegensatz zu Iver und Thereza die sehr schlecht geschlafen hatten da die Straße sehr schlecht war und sie beide im Bus immer krank werden. Nach den erlebnisreichen letzten Tagen/Wochen und der langen Busfahrt wollten wir alle an diesem ersten Tag nur chillen und nichts tun und das Wetter kam uns da ganz entgegen : es regnete den ganzen Tag in Strömen. Also blieben wir im Hostel, haben Wäsche gewaschen, am PC gearbeitet, Bilder sortiert und neue Leute kennengelernt, wie Bianca aus São Paulo. In Hpa-An war ich zufällig an einem ... read more

Myanmar Flew to Yangon in Myanmar then on to Heho and the first thing that struck us was that the time difference was 30mins! Thought everywhere was whole hours from GMT! First morning in Nyaung Shwe and off on a couple of rickety old bikes to check out the various monasteries, temples and vineyard in the locale. Our first stop was the Ywa Thit monastery ( couldn’t find it on google maps but was on maps.me) which had the regular gold laden temple in slight disrepair. But behind it was a teak built building which turned out to be the monastery itself. As we were looking around a monk came out and invited us in. He took us upstairs, offered us 3 oranges & started chatting with us. His name is U Kon Da La and ... read more

This morning we woke to the sound of torrential rain, slightly surprising given this is the drier season. Assuming it would pass we enjoyed breakfast on our (undercover) rooftop restaurant. It got heavier. The main things to do in Mandalay are seeing the Mandalay Palace, Pagodas nearby and the view from Mandalay Hill. There are a few half day trips to local temples and other sites, but again they’re almost all outdoors. Digging out our waterproofs from the bottom of our bags we braved the weather. At least up to a point - instead of walking to the palace we used ‘grab’ to book a taxi (it’s a bit like Uber and much cheaper than hey would otherwise be). The palace is in the centre of a walled square, surrounded by a moat, with just 4 ... read more

We are both exhausted after a fantastic day. We woke up at 440am in order to be ready for a 515 pick up by ‘Golden Eagles’, a ballooning company. Our hostel does free flow tea & coffee so we could at least enjoy a hot drink whilst waiting for our minibus. Once picked up we were taken, in the pitch dark, to some fields where there were multiple balloons being prepared for flight. All 3 companies in the area take off from here, the other 2 being ‘balloons over bagan’ and ‘oriental ballooning’. This meant we were met with fields of burners being checked - suddenly seeing huge flames lighting up the sky from different parts of the fields. Our group was ushered towards a table where we sat down and were given tea and pastries ... read more

It had been five years since I had done an overseas cycling tour. I had actually planned one to Myanmar in 2012 and 2013, but they fell apart mainly for logistical reasons. The one I planned in 2013 was a go all the way up to booking flights. Therefore, I already had a big head-start in planning this year’s tour. The biggest difference this time was that the tourist infrastructure had caught up and surpassed demand. The other notable difference was that Chinese airlines had now become global players. I was able to get a return flight from Edmonton to Myanmar with China Eastern Airlines for $500 USD, which seems just insanely cheap. It wasn’t even a sale price! The only drawback was that I had an overnight in Kunming, China both ways, but I didn’t ... read more