Stephan and Klaudia

To say it straightforward: we absolutely loved the area of Bagan and stayed there for nine days! Whatever other sites in Myanmar you visit, Bagan is undoubtedly the cultural climax that no visitor should miss, no matter how little time they have at their disposal. The numerous religious monuments (over 2,000 still standing) near the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River (better known as Irrawaddy River), in a plain crossed by few major roads but many paths, in the middle of fields and trees constitute one of the most fabulous archaeological sites in the world. King Anawratha (1044-1077) was the true unifier of the Burmese kingdom by stopping the Khmer invasion; he brought forth numerous Buddha relics from the military campaigns for which a suitable setting had to be built, considering their holy status. This is ... read more

We had managed to come to Lake Inle for the Phaung Daw U festival going on for 18 days until its 2005 grand finale on October 21st. Its beauty, harmony and originality make this aquatic spectacle superior to all other traditional festivals in Myanmar, and some even call it one of the best of its kind in South East Asia. Well, we would be present to witness, and agree to or contradict this opinion. Its tradition goes back to the 12th century, when a very pious king was zealous to spread Buddhism in his country. Wherever he travelled on the lake, he always used a royal barge, on the top of which five little Buddha statues were set. By and large the statues were more and more venerated and the Phaung Daw U festival was born. ... read more

The end of our stay in Mandalay was coming closer and we tried to organise our trip to Lake Inlay although we would really have wanted to visit another place around Mandalay, Monywa. But the taxi was very expensive for only two people and somehow we had not managed to find others who wanted to see the place. We were sitting in the hotel lobby when a French couple (Huguette and Jean-Marc) entered, they had just come back from another trip. As a conversation quickly evolved, they agreed to join us on the trip, which all of a sudden made it feasible. This trip would be very long and tedious but the staff at the guesthouse assured us that we could make it in one day, contrary to what was written in all the guidebooks. We ... read more

From the geographical point of view, we were already quite close to southern Myanmar on Kho Phi Phi, but we could not find out whether it was possible to cross the border there, since information on Myanmar is very difficult to come by. For this reason, Myanmar has been a stumbling block of our travel itinerary since the very beginning. We originally planned to start there and cross over to India, but most of Myanmar’s land borders are closed, and furthermore this changes very quickly. So we ended up in Bangkok, considering Thailand’s capital the only gateway to Myanmar. But even in the city where everything can normally be organised for you, they knew painfully little and told us that the only way to enter Myanmar was from Bangkok by plane and that you were obliged ... read more

The trip from the Perhentian Islands to Georgetown meant crossing Malaysia from east to west. Although it is not as far as the country’s expansion from north to south, it is said to be long and rather tedious, because there is no direct road. There is a direct bus, though, from Kota Bharu to Butterworth, the mainland city closest to Georgetown on Penang Island, at 9:30 a.m. As the morning boat was supposed top leave the island at 8 a.m., we should easily catch this buys; but the boat was late (rather unusual for Malaysia) and the shared taxi did not manage to take us to the bus terminal on time. There was either a night bus or a bus next morning to Butterworth but we were determined to reach Georgetown the same day and were ... read more