The incredible temples of Bagan are just one of the many highlights of Myanmar in South East Asia. We had planned on spending a couple of days here, but we were having such a good time that we ended up staying for a week. The Bagan temples are a not-to-be-missed destination in Myanmar and, Read More
Bagan is an 1100 year old temple complex that used to contain over 10,000 temples but now only has 2200. Most of the temples were destroyed by earthquakes, but some were by rebuilt by the military government in 1990 as a rush job to create a new tourist centre. The largest temple was built, Read More
The Kalaw to Inle Lake trek is a must-do experiences for travellers and backpackers in Myanmar. Instead of travelling straight from Bagan to Inle Lake by bus or plane, why not get off the bus at the sleepy town of Kalaw and spend three days trekking through the beautiful Myanmar countryside, visiting remote hill, Read More
Mandalay was very much a place we only visited as it sits between two places that we really wanted see. It’s a big place, which felt completely different from all of the other towns we’d seen in Myanmar. Way busier than even Yangon, massively bigger than Mawlamyine, and severely lacking in touristy stuff. Floss, Read More
The Lonely Planet book describes Mandalay as ‘hot, busy and not immediately beautiful’ and then goes on to mention the pagodas, churches, Indian temples and mosques, and the monasteries and craftwork shops “amid the central grid of lacklustre concrete-block ordinariness”. Personally, I think guide books sometimes miss the point.
A hot air balloon tour of the incredible temples of Bagan is not to be missed… if you can afford it. It’s eye-wateringly expensive (we’ll deal with the credit card bill when we get back and get a job) but utterly amazing. Seeing the temples from the air gives you a whole new perspective, Read More
This is probably our longest smug Monday adventure ever, as we started it well before the sun came up at 05:30 in the morning, and it didn’t finish until long after the sun had disappeared behind the mountains in a blazing storm of reds, pinks and oranges.
Holy Crap! We’ve Only Bloody Gone And Arrived In Myanmar! This is our third day in Myanmar, and as we’ve got a couple of hours rocking and rolling through the plains on a train, I thought I should jot down some first impressions of the place. We’re heading down the country to Myawlamine, 300km, Read More