For us, the 'road' to Mandalay took many forms, carrying us through the Burmese landscape in a variety of vehicles, from local buses and pick up taxis to horse carts and finally, a boat that took us up the mighty Irrawaddy River to Mandalay. We joined the good ship "Shwe Kiennery II" at the Nyaung Ou jetty at the ungodly hour of 4.45am one Monday morning. No clapped out old fishing boat this one, the "Shwe Kiennery" was a modern, purpose built passenger vessel equipped with two V8 engines, an air conditioning system and a bar. She was capable of a top speed of 13 knots and could carry up to 130 passengers. But on this particular day in February, there were just 18 of us. It was so luxurious that we felt like characters from ... read more

The following are a series of extracts from our journals, verbal sketches if you like, that attempt to capture our first impressions of Myanmar. To those unfamiliar with this little known country, I should perhaps try and draw a brief introductory picture. Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar is an inward looking country ruled by a military Government that has a well earned reputation for human rights abuses. For years it has cut itself off from the outside world and its people know very little of what is happening beyond the restrictive confines of their own country. Much is changing but the Government still maintains its iron-fisted rule, with Government ministers seemingly more concerned about amassing personal wealth and power rather than improving conditions for ordinary people or the country as a whole. Myanmar was once part ... read more

The bus dropped us at a Chinese restaurant overlooking the border. Outside it was hot and the restaurant stood on its own in what looked like a field of dust. Not for the first time, I wondered if dust was a major crop in Cambodia. We were certainly going to be exporting a fair amount of it in our clothes when we crossed the border into Vietnam but first, we were going to have to get to the border. The bus driver didn't speak any English but it was clear from his brief mime that he wasn't going any further and that we were expected to walk the remaining 2kms to the other side. Fortified by a drink in the restaurant, we collected our packs and trudged back to the road. In total contrast to the ... read more

The music started at 5am after which, sleep was almost impossible. It came from a loudspeaker mounted on a dilapidated building facing the square. Sunrise was still an hour away but - by the time it was light - the market square was already busy with people going about their daily business. Market traders who had spent the night asleep at their stalls were re-arranging produce or chatting with their neighbours. Barrow boys with wooden carts laden with fruit, sacks of rice or tins of paint, ferried purchases or stock to and from the market. Cows walked nonchalantly through the streets, and in amongst the crowds of people and piles of rank smelling rubbish weaved the ever present motorcycle taxis, known locally as "moto-dop" or more simply as a "moto". The music that had started at ... read more

Vientiane was hot: almost unbearably so. Even sitting at a street cafe sipping a cold drink, I could feel the sweat running down my chest and soaking uncomfortably into the waistband of my trousers. A stop in the nation's capital - home to a surprisingly small population of around 200,000 people - was almost inevitable on the long trip south but for us, it was a necessary evil as we wanted to organise onward visas for Cambodia. The Laos / Cambodian crossing at Voen Kham was not an officially recognised border entry or exit point by the Governments of either country. Increasingly however, adventurous travellers were managing to get through and - since Thailand had introduced new immigration laws from early November that would affect us - we had decided to extend our stay in Indochina ... read more