Blogs from Western Burma, Burma, Asia - page 2

This holiday within a holiday has been good . I have had seafood twice a day since we arrived . By the hotel there are 3 little beach restaurants where we generally eat lunch and have our happy hour . I have had the most amazing barracuda ...the skin lightly seasoned and although I was initially not eating it after the first bite I quickly consumed the rest.The tempura they serve , either seafood or vegetable , is light and tasty as well . We generally have a salad but are getting a bit tired of the dressing that they use . The peanuts in it are good but there is something else there that I am tired of ..it is also in the avocado salad . I would just like an ordinary sliced tomato!! The ... read more

I now have a travel companion - a woman I met in Yangon. This is desirable in Myanmar, as there are almost no hostels or dorm rooms - tourism has not developed to this point yet - so the only option for accommodation is guesthouses. Most guesthouses only offer double rooms, so if you travel alone your accommodation charges are double. It's also not the easiest place to travel - not dangerous, just chaotic - so it's nice to have company. Pyay is pleasantly devoid of tourists at this time of year - we only saw one other Western couple in the time we were here. There is not a lot going on - it is a quiet university town sitting on the river, has a handful of restaurants, a small market and a small temple, ... read more

This place was very basic but very charming . It is a place used by the Burmese as a resort and the small chalets were just about right for a couple , I was off course alone but it was the ideal size . The Burmese however used them to the fully capacity and it is amazing how many people you can fit into them thinkgs , I think 11 was the most I counted piling out of one chalet one morning ! I had a nice 2 days just exploring and enjoying the Bay of Bengal. I wanted to go diving but it was not possible due to some law and the only way to dive here was to go to Thailand and dive up to the Burmese border, sounded like to much like hard ... read more

Sat Jan 12 2013 Last full day at Ngapali Beach. It' s surprising how many adventures we can experience at a beach where "there's really nothing to do"!Today we walked along beach toward south. When we came to the spot where the river meets the sea, we thought we could just wade across, but it was deeper and faster moving than we first thought. Sure enough, a boy came along in a small boat and for a couple hundred KT he poled us across; then we carried on walking along beach. Had pleasant lunch at a basic eatery on the beach, then rode Motorola-taxi back (like a motorcycle with a large cab attached). We crowded in with about 4 other passengers, along with a large basket of fish and shells to stink up cab!Nap. Talked with ... read more

We flew into Thandwe airport, on October 8th. Peering out the window of the plane, we saw only water until just the moment before landing. We considered this good sign, and we were right. Ngapali beach is honey moon we’ve been waiting for. Psyched to be out of the big cities, but remaining in a strong Burmese culture has been fantastic. After settling into our beach chairs, at our $35/night non-resort, we promptly bought a coconut from the ladies on the beach (think ice cream man on the Jersey shore, but with fruit baskets on heads rather than carts). The women waited patiently as we drank our coconut water, and then chopped open our coconut for us so that we could enjoy the fruit inside. Having eaten fresh seafood every night, we decided to check out ... read more