Our hotel, ‘Gecko Village’, is further out of town than we had realised. Fortunately they provide free bikes and have scooters and kayaks you can hire so it’s not much of a problem. The advantage of being slightly out of town is that it’s much quieter in the evenings and we have lovely views. Breakfast we enjoyed sitting on decking overlooking the river in their pretty garden. Hiring a scooter to share we decided to head over to Kep today (we found the scooter much easier to drive than the ebikes we had in Bagan). Kep is a small seaside town where the French used to go, before Sihanoukville became popular. It doesn’t really have a centre which is a bit odd but there are lots of old colonial buildings to see when you wonder around ... read more

Christmas in paradise I woke up this morning to the sound of the sea and a gentle breeze. Getting up Stephen was sitting out on the balcony, finishing off my Christmas card. There was a clear, blue sky and a gentle breeze. Already scorching we enjoyed some mini bananas before heading to the bar. One of the first people up we finally managed to get the comfy chairs and enjoyed some muslei with fruit & yoghurt before grabbing a couple of kayaks and going for a paddle. Well sun-creamed up we set off towards the mangrove river. The first part of the paddle is across the bay. Paddling past an empty golden sandy beach with palm trees along the edge, past the local fishermen, on Christmas morning was pretty cool. At the end of the bay ... read more

After a good sleep we woke to another overcast day. The breakfast by the pool was delicious (poached eggs, bacon & fresh fruit). We decided to walk into Otres Village to see if we could find some breads for breakfast for the next few days. Despite being overcast it was very hot. The paths from our hotel to the main village that used to exist have all been walled off by the big construction companies. This meant that it was a longer walk than expected as we had to go along the main road and round the long way. The construction around here seems excessive and poorly thought out. There are high rises going up everywhere. We saw new builds where the balconies from each building more or less touched each other. They’ve left no ... read more

Today we flew to Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Typically it was a beautiful sunny day in Mandalay as we left. After packing and breakfast we checked out and ordered our ‘grab’ taxi. Leaving at 9am the traffic was lighter than usual and our predicted hours journey took just 40mins. Unlike in the other countries we’ve travelled to the drivers here tend to be fairly good, the cars have seatbelts that work and you don’t have a constant fear of death. Mandalay airport is the largest international airport in Myanmar. It’s also incredibly quiet. Driving down the long drive was quite surreal as we were pretty much the only car on it. We had to queue for check in (despite having checked in online first) but we were the only counter that seemed to be open. Going through ... read more

This morning we woke to the sound of torrential rain, slightly surprising given this is the drier season. Assuming it would pass we enjoyed breakfast on our (undercover) rooftop restaurant. It got heavier. The main things to do in Mandalay are seeing the Mandalay Palace, Pagodas nearby and the view from Mandalay Hill. There are a few half day trips to local temples and other sites, but again they’re almost all outdoors. Digging out our waterproofs from the bottom of our bags we braved the weather. At least up to a point - instead of walking to the palace we used ‘grab’ to book a taxi (it’s a bit like Uber and much cheaper than hey would otherwise be). The palace is in the centre of a walled square, surrounded by a moat, with just 4 ... read more