The morning started with the monks waking us by ringing a bell - at 7am, how inconsiderate, don’t they know we are on holiday!! In this town there are more monestries than guest houses and almost as many nunneries (if that is the correct term for monestries for women). Here they still ask for food and we saw them being given rice by three different people. Later we visited “Little Bagan” which is the wrong thing to call it because you cannot compare what w...

Walking in this area is marvelous and today’s stroll was proof of that. Yesterday we were told yes flip flops would be fine as it was only an easy walk. However it rained last night in fact we had a thunder storm and this morning our guide said shoes may be a good idea. Thank goodness he did - easy yes - flip flops never. We visited several local industries in town first, including a body making factory. This was not a plastic surgeon but a car/lorry body maki...

We are now in Hsipaw - which is as far north as tourists are allowed to go in Myanma at the moment. We came by train - which is the slowest form of transport in the country but oh so enjoyable. Yesterday armed with our passports we reported to the train station to buy our first class ticket- to be told they were sold out and we would have to go ordinary class. We paid our 1700 kyatts (80p) and hoped for the best - which was good because that is what we got. The...