The journey from Mawlamyine to Hpa-An is luckily a short one - about 2 hours on a local bus that has no specific timetable and leaves once it is full. (Our patience has grown in spades.) It's a very scenic ride through a landscape that resembles northern Vietnam a little bit in terms of the limestone formations, and although it is getting very cloudy/murky now down in this part of the country, you can tell how absolutely stunning everything would look on a very clear day. We were so enchanted that we pretended not to be concerned when some passengers got off right before we crossed a bridge, were brought over in a pick-up truck, and re-boarded our bus back on the other side, we think due to the fact that it was going to be too heavy for all of us to cross together?!

In Hpa-An we shared a tuk tuk with another guy from our hostel for an 11 hour tour of the area, which cost $6 CAD a person, and just might be the cheapest price we have ever paid for a full day private tour. The caves are the must-see sites here, and one in particular is the equivalent size to a football field. We caused quite a stir with the locals and Burmese tourists who were eager to take photos with us, as well as the children who were incredibly excited to say hi to us, show us their puppies, and give us high fives. It's possible that the friendliest, warmest encounters we have ever had travelling have been in this country. People seem so genuinely pleased to meet us, it is both bewildering, and comforting.

Hpa-An is completely the type of place that you can imagine exploding in the future in terms of the backpacker scene. Sleepy, compact town set alongside the river in a completely gorgeous setting. You feel energised when imagining how increased tourism could help the local people, and then simultaneously mourn this idea out of fear that this would suck out all of the charm. This is obviously not a new story in southeast Asia.

We thought about staying a bit longer but the weather was a bit drab and we were getting paranoid about our food options, post-sickness. Better to quit while you are ahead! Back to the big city.