Bagan is truly breathtaking. There's no doubting what an amazing place it is. However, the problem with an amazing place is the crowds it attracts, and Bagan is no exception. It's not difficult to escape them though, and we managed to do so with remarkable ease. Our journey from Mandalay took three and a half hours thanks to our lovely lady driver. I wish she had given me a card so that I could share her details! The alternatives were a long day on a boat or a long day on a bus, and we just wanted to get there. The big advantages of a private transfer were being able to stop whenever we wanted, being dropped off directly at our hotel, and avoiding the US$25 tourist entry ticket (read tax!) which you'll pay if you ... read more

After travelling in rather more remote parts of Myanmar, it was quite a shock to the system to find ourselves in very heavy traffic. Mandalay at rush hour is complete gridlock and we were not really sure we liked it at first. We were dropped off at our hotel, url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/mm/8.es.html?label=gen173rf-1BCAsolQFCAThIM1gDaEaIAQGYAQrCAQp3aW5kb3dzIDEwyAEM2AEB6AEBkgIBeaICDXIuc3J2dHJjay5jb22oAgM;sid=3b65adcceeb66182b43724a9d65ca3f1;dist=0&sb_price_type=total&type=total&Hotel 8, and we were quite happy with our choice. It was a bit on the noisy side, but in such a big and bustling city we couldn't have expected otherwise. We had been told that after about 8pm the city went to sleep and we were quite surprised to find this was not very far from the truth. The main problem was the mosques. It was impossible to escape the call to prayer! The people working in the alleywa... read more

He Ho was a nice little airport to arrive at and we got some stunning views over Inle Lake as we approached at sunset. We were a bit worried as our bags were last off the plane and there was no information at all about how to get to Nyaungshwe, where we were staying. Luckily there were plenty of taxis around, although the journey from the airport was a little more hair raising than we had expected. The road from the airport has major construction works in progress and that meant driving perilously close to what must be breathtaking views during daylight hours! Once you leave the main road, there is little or no street lighting as you get towards the lake, until you pass a little booth where you have to pay your National Park ... read more

Crossing the border from Thailand into Myanmar (Burma) was always going to feel like something of an adventure. The reality was an easy and generally swift process, with no real problems at all. We got to the Mai Sai bridge in the morning which we highly recommend as in the afternoon the queues can be quite lengthy. Leaving Thailand was just a case of getting our passports stamped. Then we dwelled a little reading the customs notices. Why can't you take more than TWO decks of cards into the country? Anyway, we then worried if our e-visas would be accepted at this entry point to Myanmar as the whole system is still quite new. Getting the e-visas was easy. Just follow the instructions on the government website, pay your money and wait for your application to ... read more

We loved Chiang Rai when we visited last year. In fact, we loved it so much that we were very keen to return to the city. The plan had been to revisit the white temple and get some glorious photos with blue skies. Guess what? It rained again!! Oh, well, we still enjoyed our stay but we did some other things instead. This time we stayed at the central url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/th/baan-bua-guest-house.en-gb.html?aid=357026;label=gog235jc-hotel-XX-th-baanNbuaNguestNhouse-unspec-mm-com-L%3Aen-O%3AwindowsS10-B%3Achrome-N%3AXX-S%3Abo-U%3AXX-H%3As;sid=886757ff69da46cdce52e66b578388f5;dist=0&sb_price_type=total&type=total&Baan Bua Guest Housewhich was cheap and cheerful and we had no complaints. The rain held off for us but the skies were cloudy so we had a wander out to see some gardens a few kilometres away. On the way we were ... read more