The boat left Bagan right on 6am. It's a regular sailing during peak season but only once or twice a week in the low period. Fortunately it was sailing the day we were leaving. It was scheduled to take 10 hours depending on the strength of the tide which was against us. 10 hours doing nothing sounded good to us. The boat can carry about 130 passengers. Today it had 20 so there was lots of space. As the sun rose we could see the size of the Irrawaddy river. It'...

So it's the next day and here we are stood on the tarmac looking at a twin engine turbo prop. So in Myanmar when a girl says yes she probably means no. As it happens I'm rather a fan of turbo props. They are the Ducati of aircraft with an engine sound that is divine. Once on board we settle into leather seats and read in the in flight magazine that the fleet has been completely re-furbished inside and out. We were flying Mandalay Air. They aren't the cheapest ...

So here we are in Myanmar. A potted history - The country has basically never been a democracy. It was ruled for centuries by emperor dynasties. Eventually the British colonised it. In 1948 it was given independence. Pretty much since then there was a civil war between the various ethnic factions which is still running today under the surface. A military coup occurred and in 2010 elections were held and a civilian government appointed. However the military stil...

Here we are back in Bangkok. We've found a nice little hotel about 10 minutes away from the Khaosan Road, the backpacker hub. Last time we were here we stayed at the Hilton. Not quite the same but not quite the same price either. Forgive me not saying too much about Bangkok. I wrote tomes last time we were here. If you are interested then go to our Off Exploring site and you can find lots of pictures and blogs about the place. We had been looking forward to o...

Ok, where was I? We left Kuala Lumpur and flew to Borneo. Home of the wild man and head hunters. Borneo itself is a huge island which is now split into three parts. Most of the north is owned by Malaysia. The south is owned by Indonesia. The other part of the north is Brunei. The oil rich Sultanate ruled by the Sultan and protected by the British. We flew into Kuching which means 'cat'. Our plan had been to visit the national park just outside the city. Unfort...