We are woken at 530am by the sound of the macaques leaping from tin roof to tin roof and screeching. No need for an alarm clock. By morning, Sara finds that as well as the damage to her shin, she has also bruised the inside of one knee, pulled the muscles in the other foot, and bruised her left hand, necessitating the painful removal of her rings in case the fingers swell any more. It will be painful for the rest of the holiday, but we are both hugely relieved she didn’t suffer a broken leg or knock herself out. There's not much in the way of medical attention around here. We’re up early so we can be on the boat in time to – hopefully – see some more apes from the boat. After a ... read more

Off to the beach for a few days of doing nothing. The relaxation starts early with the first late start of the holiday. Our guide takes us to the airport, where she suddenly says goodbye and vanishes leaving a colleague to help us check in. We forget to tip her in the confusion, and David dashes back after her with her tip, for which she seems genuinely grateful. Her colleague is wearing a thick pink woollen cost, clearly necessary on a day when it’s only 28C. She checks us in and presents our passport to the immigration desk. It seems that foreigners have to be checked in and out of each airport that is located in one of the States, such as Shan State where we are now. We go through the most cursory security check ... read more

Our guide meets us with her boatman and his long tail boat at 8am for our first foray onto Inle Lake. We negotiate the narrow waterway between the first floating gardens we encounter before we get onto the lake proper, at which points the boatman opens the throttle and we start moving at speed, the bow lifting out of the water. Not sure how fast we are going but it is quite fun, a rather satisfying bow wave and a plume of water from the outboard. We slow for the first of the “one legged” fisherman we encounter. He doesn’t really have one leg, or he would fall over, but he has one foot on the narrow punt-like end of his boat, the other leg controlling the long vertical paddle/steering rudder that he places behind his ... read more

Win Bo takes us to his village. It is a privilege to meet his neighbours and get an insight into what life is really like. He explains how expensive it now is for the villagers to buy land, and how it’s only recently that they got a piped water supply. Before that, water had to be brought up from the river by truck. Now it is pumped, either to a central water tank or, for those who can afford it, to individual homes. It still comes straight from the river, however. The older houses have thatched roofs and walls made of a lattice of bamboo, but the thatch is gradually being replaced by corrugated iron which lasts far longer than the 3-4 years that thatch lasts. It keeps out the rain better but offers poor insulation ... read more

Our first destination is Mandalay Palace. This once magnificent palace, built for King Mindon when he moved the royal capital here from Ava, is a mile square and surrounded by a moat and a red painted wall pierced by watch towers. Unfortunately the Allied bombing as they drove back the Japanese in 1944 destroyed what was left of the remaining buildings. Nowadays most of the area is an army base, but in the middle is a reconstruction of the original palace, with associated buildings around it. It is pretty uninspiring inside, but at least gives you an impression of what the original sort of looked like. Anyway after that it is off to Ava, the ancient capital of Burma up until 1858. We elect to go the long way round by car, having been warned by ... read more