An 830am start and we are off to the Botataung Pagoda. This is down by the river front and is interesting as you can actually go inside the stupa. The passages within are lined with gold leaf in bas relief. There are some “valuable relics” in cabinets, left to the Pagoda by the wealthy seeing donation as a good deed to hasten their passage to Nirvana. Unfortunately they are all behind both rusty metal grilles and filthy glass which is all steamed up on the inside. The monks really should attend Curatorship 101 at college. The usual regilding of the rather blackened stupa is taking place outside, with a number of security men up on the bamboo scaffolding watching the workers, presumably to stop them nicking the gold rather than putting it on the stupa. In ... read more

Today we’re heading to the site where the northern end of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway ended, in Thanbyuzayat. Myo tells us that on the way, he wants to take us to see the largest cave near Hpa-An. He confidently assures us it will take half an hour to get there, and there are not too many steps. It takes 20 minutes to reach a dirt track, and another 30 minutes to make our way excruciatingly slowly down the track until finally, we have to get out and walk because the throng of vehicles is too great. Myo tells us we need to walk in flip-flops as we’ll need to remove our shoes once at the cave, as it is also a temple. That is much too far for David to manage without his boots, so Sara ... read more

An early start today, on our way to Hpa-An in Karen state, to the south east of Yangon near the border with Thailand. We crawled interminably through the Yangon rush hour, with ample time to take a rough census showing that well over 80% of all vehicles are Toyotas. We stopped to see - we thought – the iconic gate at which Aung San Suu Kyi had talked to the public during her many years of house arrest. Alas, the bamboo fence has long since been replaced by a concrete wall topped with barbed wire, and all that remains is a new gateway with flags and a picture of her father Aung San and a police sentry box. After well over an hour slowly working our way through the suburbs, we reached the immaculately maintained Taukkyan ... read more

We drive across the rolling Moravian countryside (it looks much like Bohemia) to Trebon. This place allegedly has a plethora of artificial ponds for fish farming, but they were not in evidence to us. It also has a castle which did not seem worth the wait for a guided tour in Czech. Another Renaissance square with some pretty houses, then it was back in the car to drive to Jindrichuv Hradec. This has an allegedly fairytale Gothic castle. Unfortunately, we had arrived on the first day of one month’s closure for renovation. Typical! The only other thing on offer was an exhibit of Gobelin tapestries so we gave that a miss. On to Brno, the rain now hammering down. A pattern is developing on this holiday – driving days never work out well. Nice hotel where ... read more

7am we head down to the Charles Bridge to take some photos in the early morning light and without the tourist hordes (we are not tourists, we are travellers, it is different). It is already hot but the area is still quiet. A few more people appear on the bridge, including the bizarre sight of a Mainland Chinese couple with a photographer taking photos of them, both in their wedding clothes. It is common Mainland practice to have your wedding photo taken on a different day and in a different place to your wedding, but it’s impressive to find a couple travelling this far. After breakfast, we get an Uber to Josefov, the old Jewish quarter in Prague. The ‘museum’ covers several synagogues, most now converted to museums, and the old Jewish cemetery. The most moving ... read more