21st November 2009 Chiang Mai Seems that there are many variations of how to spell English versions of Thai names here! Saturday we took a tour to see the elephants up country. The tour guide said her name was ... something I could'nt understand.... but she said "Call me Miss Bo (pronounced boo) and call the driver...... Mr driver.....OK!!!! We chose this tour because it did NOT go to visit a hill tribe. We absolutely refused to visit a "Long Neck" village where the women follow the ancient custom of stretching their necks by added more and more brass rings. [View Full Entry]

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Chiang Mai 19th to 23rd November 2009 Took a flight from Bali to Bangkok then straight on to Chiang Mai arriving at 8.30pm. AirAsia is a great airline and the prices are amazing but the food is ...... something else. Sadly we had pre-booked (and even more sadly paid for) a cooked meal on both legs of the journey!! We would say no more except that we have another to look forward to on the way home!!! Neither of us was really sure what to expect of Chiang Mai except that we could take a trip to see some elephants [View Full Entry]

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Bali 6th November 2009 Having 'done' Myanmar David decided to look at where AirAsia fly to from Bangkok. Bali came up as ridiculously cheap so we just had to go. Added to which Ann wanted to be somewhere exotic for her 60th so Bali seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Overnighted at the very comfortable, if strangely named, Great Residency airport hotel at Bangkok we arrived in Bali to yet another hot and steamy country. As we had no Indonesian cash, we made for a set of ATM's in the arrivals lounge. To our horror the one we chose took [View Full Entry]

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Yangon 2nd Time Around. 3rd Nov 2009 Flew back to Yangon (we now know you pronounce it Yan-go) from Bagan. Plane landed at Mandalay, Heho and then Yangon. Average flight times 25mins each!!! Bit like a bus really. At Heho everyone got off except us and a monk, then it filled up again. Yangon International airport is very new and plush but the domestic terminal is something else!!!!! Like a rugby scrum in a shed!! They obviously don't need to impress anyone there then! In downtown Yangon we stayed at Okinawa Guest House. We've spoiled ourselves a bit by staying in [View Full Entry]

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Bagan....30th October 2009 We had a bit of an adventure leaving Mandalay. The taxi we paid $13 for turned out to be a shared taxi which should have been half that price! That wasn't too much of a problem but the taxi driver left us alone in the taxi for 20 mins while he went somewhere (turned out he was collecting the 3rd person we were sharing with). Now the problem was that we had 35 mins to make a 60min journey to the airport! He drove like an absolute maniac but to be fair, we got there with minutes [View Full Entry]

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Nyaungshwe ..…..Inle Lake ….Myanmar 21/10/2009 Wednesday we flew from Yangon to HeHo by Yangon Air. First time we have been in an 80 seater but everything went smoothly.... we even had cakes and coffee on board! Took a taxi for the 45min journey to Nyaungshwe, which is the main town on Inle Lake. If you don't stay here, you can stay at a hotel resort on the lake (and be stranded there for your stay) but we wanted to be amongst the action and see a bit of life in this part of the country. There do seem to be a [View Full Entry]

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Mandalay ….28th October Arrived in Mandalay on Sunday. Peacock Lodge very nice thought the room is a bit basic and old fashioned. The owners Chitsu and Tun are very nice and all the staff friendly and helpful. Unfortunately (for us anyway) the place is quite away away from any sites so we have to take a blue taxi to go anywhere. They do have a resident driver here called Sein. I don't know if it is me but his taxi seems taller than others so I struggle to hall myself up into it ….. alittle plastic step required I think. [View Full Entry]

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Yangon, Myanmar 19th Oct 2009 Hotel Classique Inn is true to it's name a classical house in a very nice area called Golden Valley Rd. Somewhat out of the town but in amongst some beautiful houses, hotels and art galleries. The area probably reflects Yangon in that it is a mix of old dilapidation and stunning wealth. Having left our hotel in Bangkok at 4am yesterday had a few hours sleep when we arrived then walked to the fabulous Shwedagon Pagoda. This amazing Buddhist temple is far grander and more beautiful than you would ever believe. [View Full Entry]

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BANGKOK. Hot and steamy! Bangkok is much as we left, busy, hot full of traffic and people; only this time it is very humid too. This time we are staying in Banglamphoo which is the old town area near the river, We have a really nice hotel called the Navalai River Resort and really spookily, it is right next to the river boat pier where we got off last year when we went looking for the Khoasan Rd., so we knew exactly where we were. We found the Khoasan Rd proper only to be stranded for an hour or so [View Full Entry]

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10/10/2009 Birmingham We left our home in Spain last Thursday to begin our next epic adventure ie our trip to Thailand, Burma (or Myanmar as it is properly named)and Bali. Once again we are flashpacking around SE Asia as part of our "Gap Year for Oldies". We didn't have the opportunity to do it when we were young so now we are retired we plan on seeing as much of the world while we still can. However, we can't bear to leave our mad dog Ollie for more than a couple of months at a time so this is the [View Full Entry]

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