Vampires and fishermen Sorry for the lack of photos so far - no CD drives in Internet cafe's here in Myanmar The next morning John and I hired a motor boat to take us around the lake for the day. We split the cost and that is one of the boons of traveling together with someone, it mitigates the desire to go independent, which I certainly had at the time. We managed to avoid the commission system of the hotels and boatmen, mainly because the vampireish woman who ran the Teakwood Hotel was so pushy and in your face about asking you where you were going and sorting out everything for you, whether you liked it or not. Inle Lake was the most touristy place in Myanmar I had been to, but the day was rather ... read more

Don't worry, we didn't get arrested in Pyinmana, but I felt intimidated by the police presence. I say "I" because John G didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary that was going on. I did. First we were made to give our passports over by rather stern looking older men standing around in a very unrelaxed way, in direct contrast to the friendly experiences of Myanmar so far. They looked intently at our passports and visas as we sat nervously on some seats. Then our passports were photocopied multiple times whilst some short arsed sinister bloke arrived and asked us where we had come from, where we were going to, where we were from, what we did as occupations. No one was in uniform so we just didn't know who these people were, and they ... read more

Me again, So where was I? I ended that last entry really rather abruptly didn't I? Government informers pissing me off and all of that... Anyway, we've traveled north, just about. There was no point going south toward the Golden Rock pilgrimage site because of shitty bus times we'd have had to stay a night after getting there and another after we'd visited it as it's a hike up there that mountain plus the next bus left in the early afternoon. We jumped on a bus from Bago on the main road north but only after feeling the pressure of the English speaking bus and motorcycle guys - we felt pressured into making a travel decision. Anyway, the bus north we got at around 4.30pm and b was it decrepit, the sats were ancient rusty and ... read more

Yangon (Rangoon) and breaking promises about hanging with Antipodeans Mingalabah means "hello" you stupid people! But you should see it in Burmese (Barmar) script, it's like Thai but with added squiggles and the number 8 sideways. Marvelously unique to match the equally weird country. Anyway, location-wise I'm currently at Inle Lake in the centre of Myanmar (Burma), in some hot internet room with people babbling in the background; I'd tell them to shut up in Burmese but I might end up saying "thank you very much, it is very hot", weird looks all round. The internet is 1994-levels slow and some sites cannot be reached because of the government. They must have been particularly sensitive around here because my guest house and other internet places have been disconnected by the authorities. Yes, this is a convenient ... read more