It's not often you get to charter your own boat, it wasn't exactly luxury but there was plenty of legroom and on board drinks, well a bottle of water in case we got thirsty.

The best thing was though that it was our boat, this meant we could choose when it left and go at our own pace. To reduce the cost a little we travelled with Cushla our new kiwi friend. It worked out to be $20 each, expensive by Burmese standards but cheap overall.

As we pulled away from Hpan-an a warm breeze blew against our faces. We made the most of the situation and draped our wet laundry on the boat, travelling in the rainy season meant things took forever to dry but thanks to the rain holding off our clothes were dry in minutes.

Pagodas lined the lush green landscape and friendly fishermen waved at us as we meandered past. Out of the 11 countries we'd previously visited the people of Burma had to be the friendliest. Everyone smiled and said hello, we were even stopped in the street to have our photos taken. Maybe this was because of previous hardships, or the fact there were so little tourists around but it always put a smile on our faces.

Our friendly boat driver pulled up on the side of the river, it took us a couple of minutes to figure out what was going on. He took out a big machete and started hacking at one of the palm trees. Before we knew it he had fashioned a climbing harness and was shimmying up the tree. A couple of chops later and coconuts were falling from the sky. It wasn't long before we were sipping the fresh coconut water and tasting the soft flesh. This felt like real adventuring and it was something that would continue during our time in Myanmar.