Wed 2nd - Tues 8th (Week 28-29)

Wed 2nd - Got a taxi back to Bangkok airport at 8am and were amazed at how beautiful the interior was - lovely display of orchids, wall carvings, and even a TV screen of a Japanese snow-capped mountain which you could stand in front of and your image would be projected inside the picture ! One of the best airports we've ever been to ! Good flight to Mandalay (Flight no.33) and landed at 12pm local time, managed to get some local currency from an ATM, and caught the free Air Asia shuttle bus into town. Met 2 girls staying at the same hotel, and we planned an itinerary to spent the next week or so together to share taxi costs. Its not as hideously hot as I was expecting, but we did walk past a digital display saying it was 45C ! So far everything has run smoothly and our hotel is lovely, but the streets are quite dirty and chaotic. Headed out for dinner at 8pm and only ordered 2 small dishes, but they also gave us soup, unlimited rice, and 4 side dishes which they kept filling up ! We ate like kings !

Thurs 3rd - Got our shared taxi with our new friends Vivi and Steph at 8:30 and headed off to Mahamuni Paya and were lucky enough to see the giving away ceremony of various family's sons to Buddha. They dress them up exquisitely, parade them around the Paya and then they become novice monks for a week to several months. Really beautiful costumes and we enjoyed watching them - as much as they seemed to enjoy watching us ! Then onto Mahayandargon Monastery where we were just in time to see several hundred monks lining up to receive food, then all file into the dining hall to eat their meal. Next we drove across Sagaing bridge to the hill where the landscape is filled with 500 stupas - all white and gold. Went to the top of the hill for great views all around as we hopped between the shady patches to avoid burning our bare feet on the scorching tiles. Then caught a small boat across the river to Inwa and got a horse and cart for 2 hours to see various pagodas, a 90ft high leaning tower, and a beautiful teak monastery (Bagaya Kyaung) which was built in 1834 and is supported by 267 teak posts. The final stop of the day was to watch sunset behind U Bein bridge - the worlds longest teak footbridge at 1300yd and 200 years old. A really good day, but all shattered by the end !
So far we have been very impressed and shocked at how much easier Myanmar has been compared to everything we have heard and read. The visa was very easy to get (same day service), we have seen loads of ATMs and have had no problems with them. We've had no power cuts, everyone speaks English, there is good wifi, and there are more Western products in the supermarket than in most places we've been to - so we didn't need to stock up on everything before we came ! But then this is a big city, so we'll see what its like once we head out.

Fri 4th - The 4 of us were all set to have a cheaper day today and walk most places, but were accosted by a taxi driver when we left the hotel, and he proposed a full day which included all we wanted and more, so we decided to take the easy option ! Drove to Mingun and wandered around the outside of the gigantic Mingun Paya - 240ft wide on all sides, and was originally intended to be 3x the size, but the king died before it was finished. A lot of it is cracked and falling down from the earthquake in 1838 but is still very impressive. Also looked at the pair of chinthe (half lion, half dragon) which were also mostly destroyed by the earthquake but would have been Sphinx like in size had they still been intact ! Saw the Mingun Bell - the largest hung, uncracked bell in the world, weighing 90 tonnes ! And finally we walked around the beautiful Hsinbyume Paya - 7 terraces, all in white with great views over the area. Headed back into Mandalay and went to the Royal Palace. The entire fort is massive - the fort walls are 2 miles long, and surrounded by a 230ft wide moat that is still full of water. Luckily there is only a very small area you can actually visit, otherwise we'd be there for days ! There were some beautifully decorated and carved crimson and gold buildings, but most were empty wooden shells - stunning on the outside, but poorly maintained and very dusty and dirty when you're walking everywhere in bare feet ! Next we went to Shwenandaw Kyaung (Golden Palace) monastery which was another intricately carved teak building, then to Atumashi Kyaung which had beautifully carved golden doors all around, but little inside. Onto Kuthodaw Paya - famous for having "the worlds biggest book" - made up of 729 insribed marble slabs, and each one is housed in its own white stupa. Sandamuni Paya was similar, but maybe more impressive as it had 1774 marble slabs, also in white stupas which all caught the evening sun and were beautiful. Final stop was Kyauktawgyi Paya which had a 26ft, 900 tonne marble buddha inside ! Drove up to the top of Mandalay Hill and watched the sun setting over the whole of Mandalay. It was quite hazy, but you could still see how vast the palace complex was. Another packed day and got home at 8:20 pretty shattered.

Sat 5th - Got our shared taxi at 10am to Pyin U Lwin and drove up a long, steep hill for most of the journey to the old British Colonial hill station, arriving at 12pm. Hired bikes for the afternoon and headed off to do a tour of the local sites. Rode through town and saw Purcell Tower - a present from Queen Victoria, various colonial buildings, and cycled up to the old Governors house - a beautiful mock-tudor style mansion that looks like it could be in Surrey, with vineyards, classic cars outside and an indoor pool ! Went around the lake, walked around a Chinese temple, then stopped off for our first Myanmar beer. Its a beautiful town, all flat and easy to get around, and the perfect temperature - not sweaty and a gentle breeze, although apparently its about 33C ! Bit scared of what we've got used to and we're never going to cope back in the UK !

Sun 6th - I was woken up by thunder and heavy rain at 5am which carried on until 9am. Luckily it cleared up but was still pretty chilly until lunchtime. We got a car & driver for the day and went back to the Governors House to look around inside. Beautiful old manor house, and apparently you can rent the entire place for $2500 a night (for 14 people). Amazing rooms, bar and the indoor pool ! Then we went to the Botanical Gardens and spent a few hours wandering around the immaculately kept grounds, admiring the flowers, lakes, aviary, butterfly collection etc. Had a lovely lunch of "Strawberry cream" - a local favourite drink of basically milkshake with fresh strawberries ! Then off to Anisakan Falls with a hideously steep 30min walk up and down a dirt track. But the falls were amazing and Brandon and I braved the cold water for a refreshing swim.

Mon 7th - Caught the 8:30am train from Pyin U Lwin and were pleasantly surprised it was on time ! Really old, rickety train with all the windows open for a breeze which was fine as it was a nice temperature but you had to watch you didn't get branches or leaves in the face ! Also, as its now approaching the Water Festival, lots of lovely children were standing by the tracks with buckets of water to throw into the open windows, and we got soaked a couple of times! About 2 hours in the train came to a screeching halt and rumours started coming down we were going to be there 5 hours ! We got off to have a look and 4 of the wheels had come off the track ! Apparently this is quite a common occurrence and they quickly got all the heavy lifting equipment out and spent the next hour lifting it up and back on to the tracks. Started off again, and then had another 45min stop for no apparent reason, then continued on our slow way again. Lovely countryside, lots of farm land, palm leaf weaved houses, buffalo etc and everyone stopping to wave at the train. Went over the Gokteik Viaduct at 2:30pm - constructed in 1901, 318ft high and 2257ft across, its the oldest and longest railway bridge in Myanmar. Finally arrived into Hsipaw at 6pm and were all tired and fed up of sitting on the train by that point ! Booked buses for Wed back to Mandalay and then on to Bagan the same day. Tried to use the internet but couldn't get anything to load, so gave up and went to bed !

Tues 8th - Had a terrible night, up every 15mins to be sick and other un-pleasantries, and had to spent the entire day in bed. Brandon woke up feeling rough, and Vivi was also ill, so barely left the guest house all day. Brandon tried to see if we could stay another night and catch the buses on Thurs, but now we're so close to the Water Festival, all buses are full, or not running at all ! Still no internet in the entire town, so we haven't been able to book any accommodation for Bagan. Of all the places to get ill - a dusty, middle of nowhere place, with nothing to do, no internet, and now might have to spent 13hrs on buses tomorrow feeling rough.