Blogs from Burma, Asia - page 3

Firstly, yes, a day bus from inle lake to bagan exists, and it’s a coach not a mini bus. Googling it I couldn’t find any evidence of it’s existence so I was pleased to find it. It does make for a slightly dull day to report though... We woke up early to more rain so we could grab breakfast and pack before catching the bus to Bagan. I hope it stops raining soon! Most of the buses on offer seem to be night buses but arrive at about 4am which is rather miserable when hotel check in isn’t until 2pm. Unlike the bus between Yangon and Mandalay there isn’t a new highway across the country between inle lake and bagan which means it’s very bumpy and windy and I suspect not conducive to sleep. The other ... read more

This morning I woke up to the sunshine coming through into our room. We opened the curtains to see the view and went back to bed with tea to enjoy it. Despite the good weather forecast it wasn’t long before the mists descended over the hills and the clouds got worse. We went to enjoy a very good breakfast instead. Having splashed out on quite an expensive hotel it had a swimming pool I had been planning on using. Despite the clouds it wasn’t that cold so I went for a swim anyway - it was rather bracing and definitely not sunbathing weather but I enjoyed it anyway. I then used the outside shower in our room which was quite a fun experience. Packed up we checked out and got in the boat back to Nyaung ... read more

Stephen fortunately woke up feeling a little better today. We enjoyed our standard breakfast for this lodge - tea, toast, fried eggs and fruit (watermelon today). The women serving are so kind but make us chuckle - the number of slices of toast you get is random, the order of service is random and I’m sure we’re supposed to get juice as well but today we didn’t (everyone else did!). Check out is late so after packing our bags we went for a walk. First of all we went to the central Secretariat building and walked around the outside. It’s currently being renovated and the outside looks fantastic. It’s only on closer inspection you notice that parts of the roof are missing and there are trees growing inside some of the rooms! From here we walked ... read more

We travelled to Yangon from Kolkata yesterday. It was an easy flight and customs was really quick (much faster than expected after what I’d read). We managed to exchange our Indian rupees, use he atm and then find a pre-paid taxi (just outside the airport exit and much cheaper than what we had been offered by people inside the terminal). The traffic is bad and we arrived at our hotel quite late in the afternoon. Yangon is much hotter than we had anticipated and we were relieved to have air con. We had a brief wander around the area our hotel is in and then went to a restaurant/bar recommended by our taxi driver for dinner after which we got an early night. Today we decided to follow the Lonely Planets ‘walking tour’ of Yangon. Trying ... read more

Schon während meines ersten längeren Asien-Aufenthaltes 2008 wollte ich unbedingt nach Bagan in Myanmar, um mir das Pagodenfeld anzuschauen. Hab es aber damals aus zeitlichen Gründen leider nicht geschafft, weshalb dieses Mal Myanmar ganz oben auf meiner Reiseliste stand. Und so bin ich von Bangkok nach Yangoon (Rangun) geflogen, der größten Stadt im Süden des Landes. Günstige Flugverbindungen, wie wir es mit Eurowings etc. kennen, gibt es hier in Asien sehr viele, was das Reisen sehr einfach macht. Myanmar (auch Burma oder Birma genannt) ist für mich eine exakte Kombination aus Thailand und Indien. Und trotzdem sind mir Dinge aufgefallen, die es nur in Myanmar gibt. Denn bereits am Flughafen bemerkt man die Andersartigkeit der Menschen. Fast alle Frauen, aber auch die meisten Männer tragen den traditionellen Longi – einen Wickelrock, der mit Businesshemden oder Tshirt ... read more