After an extensive decision making process the previous night as to what time we should head onto a boat for a trip around Inle Lake itself, we don't make it onto a vessel till midday despite promises of mid morning. So, because we are all cacthing buses that arvie - the three aussies - the two of us and Melbournite Matt - climb aboard our long boat and settle in for the luxurious comfort of a plasitc chair with life jackets as cushions and giant golf umbrellas to protect ourselves from the sun. We first have to travel down a canal [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 of the trek and the crew seems to wake up with more complaints this time, not only about the freezing conditions and hard floors overnight (softies!) but also in the stomach region and the frequency of trips to the toilet during the course of the night was a source of amusement for a little while, but soon led to some hypochondria setting in with reports of malaria, bird flu and cholera circulating as the possible courses. Limon and Andrew seem to be the only ones who have avoided it and attribute it to their chilli diet and medicinal shot [View Full Entry]

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We met up with our trekking crew ie. Alex (French) and Jasmine (Myanmar) at the agreed hour of 8am, to find that two Israeli girls had joined our party at the 24th hour. So given that they have all done their time in the army and were uninclined to whinge and moan (Yeah right!) we made the assumption that these 2 must also be tough as nails, fit for a 3 day trek and given that they were subsidising our trip by another couple of bucks we welcomed them aboard. The first section saw us pad away from Kalaw and into [View Full Entry]

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We leave Yangon on the 12 noon bus, heading off for 16 hours of joy to Kalaw. A steaming hot afternoon where the airconditioner was clearly warming up to finally blast us with freezing cold air as soon as the sun went down ensured a sleepless night, given that our wardrobe had carefully included shorts and Tshirts and not much else (hey we are still in the tropics right?). The temperature at night however can get as cold as about 2 degrees which meant that the occasional tea and coffee breaks were all we had to keep us warm and only [View Full Entry]

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As our trip comes to a close, we try and squeeze in one final country - the wonderful, the mysterious Myanmar. Now Myanmar, or Burma to many Westerners, has been in the clutches of a military regime since the late 80s when the first democratically elected leader came to power for only a brief split-second before the army came crashing in and has held her under house arrest for the last 18 years odd. Not a great first impression on the place, especially as you then continue to read about the ongoing elimination of many minority groups throughout the country and [View Full Entry]

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Well it was back to that favourite pose for the rest of the afternoon - stretched out in the hammock, book in one hand, beer Chang in the other. We finally decided that we should at least venture down the beach to get some dinner where we ran into Steve, Miss Laura (Finn) and some fellow Aussies from the Blue Mtns. Making some plans to watch the Chelsea vs Man U match that night which surprisingly was showing at the very next bar on Tonsai. No power, no cars but they had satellite TV! Ha! The first game Newcastle vs Portsmouth [View Full Entry]

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DAY ONE - 19TH NOV - Ao Nang We have been propelled across a continent to meet up with Vicki, Cyril and Will and finally enjoy some warm weather and quality relaxation time. We arrive in Ao Nang at around midday and do some brief reconnaissance work on our bike that we hired as soon as we arrived. We meet the others at the lovely "Golden Sands Resort" for dinner and more catching up on things in general and any relevant political developments that we've missed while being away. It was a good re-introduction to reality for us I think as [View Full Entry]

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So touching down in the luxurious and ENORMOUS new Bangkok airport we finally found the taxi stand after ensuring that we were going to be able to make the 30min drive to Khao San Rd without having to make the guy pull over. After travelling throughout the rest of SE Asia and parts of China, we forgot how fast the drivers are around here and found ourselves glancing nervously at each other as we propelled along the freeway at 140kms an hour. We arrived safely though at this infamous backpacker area which we had avoided the previous two times we had [View Full Entry]

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Well it was our last full day in Beijing so we decided to pack it in with a trip out to the Summer Palace - the retreat for emperors in the hotter months when the forbidden city just got UNBEARABLE - poor dears! However it was pretty damn spectacular if not massive and pretty damn natural despite the hoardes of tourists that swarm the place from sunset to sundown. We wandered around the lake for a bit marvelling at those that had attempted to cross the expanse of water on pedalos and others who were taking part in a corporate event [View Full Entry]

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Well kids - what had saved us heaps of money to date ie. doing our own thing instead of taking the tours with the masses this time proved to be fruitless. The increasingly frustratingly wrong planet guide which we placed clearly too much faith in - told us we could get to where we wanted to go for 15 kwai one way, the hostel tour wanted 110 kwai return, ha we'll show them we thought! Setting off at some ungodly hour of the morning (albeit Tony was up before us!) we made our way to Donshimen on the subway as the [View Full Entry]

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