All night

We flew through the night and arrived in Manila in the early hours. We found the free transfer shuttle bus and transferred to the domestic terminal for our 6am flight to Cebu.

After landing in Cebu we caught a taxi to the south bus terminal. It is not that far but the traffic was bad. Quite usual for the Philippine cities. We couldn't pay the taxi as he had no change. We all tried to find someone who could break the money down and eventually we found someone. The taxi went on his way and we went to eat.

A little cafe was serving set meals, so we ate there and the meals were tasty. We had two different ones but they both had sweet pork meat and rice.

From the southern bus terminal we caught the Ceres bus south to Moalboal. The journey took about 2.5 hours and we arrived in the busy little town. Our first stop was the supermarket to buy a few essentials. We also ate again at a local stall. This time we had 2 veggie dishes. There was also a McDonalds and a ramen restaurant in Moalboal but we resisted!

Lots of tricycle drivers were touting for business, hoping to take people down to Pangasama beach, 3km away. We opted to walk to the beach which took about  45 minutes. The beach area has gone through a lot of expansion. New hotels and restaurants are everywhere. There are now many Chinese day trippers that come and go on tours too.

We dropped our bags at our hostel near the beach front, donned our masks and snorkels and in the sea we went.

Plenty of nice healthy coral here, lots of fish and loads of turtles. We swam amongst a shoal of millions of sardines that reside on the the reef. As we passed through they closed in behind us and we were totally surrounded by so many fish!

After drying off we walked around the beach area looking for food. We settled on a small restaurant serving tacos before completing a loop back to our hostel.

Now we are in the Philippines we are going to be spending most of our time following a daily routine.

Breakfast

Snorkelling

Lunch

Snorkelling

Dinner

Bed

We will report back anything we see underwater that is a little unusual!

Yesterday the locals told us a whale shark was spotted swimming along the reef at Moalboal. Sadly we missed it. There was also a huge pod of dolphins swimming out beyond the reef but we missed them too! Seeing them would have been a great start to our Philippines adventure.

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Leaving Tokyo

In the morning we didn't wake up at our usual time. The room was so quiet and dark we forgot to wake up! We had a late breakfast, chatted a lot and had a tour of the early cherry blossoms nearby. Beautiful! A quick walk back along the river to grab our bags and we headed to the train station. Tickets purchased, instructions to hand and Narita Airport here we come. 

The train involved one change onto the express airport train. Once again the train went pretty fast and leaned as it cornered. We arrived at Narita airport, purchased 'survival snacks' and went to get our passports checked. A short while later we boarded and ...next stop ... the Philippines!!!

Yokahama

We met our friend packing the kids off for school and shortly we would be following. Today we are very privileged to visit a Japanese school. Breakfast was a bowl of traditional Japanese miso soup, rice, lightly poached egg and green tea. Great!

We walked to the school past many cute houses and quiet lanes. We changed our outdoor shoes for slippers. Small lockers were provided for the shoe switch and a small tag turned over to show that the locker was being used.

The school was quite big over many floors. Yokahama is a large city and has many children. We toured the classrooms, said hello to the children and spoke to the sweetest vice principle.

Next stop was a guided tour of the local area. We stopped by the supermarket to buy some fried mashed potato and check out the local foods. The fruit in Japan is super size. Apples were enormous and strawberries are not only huge but everyone looks perfect. This area of the city was very quaint and had a pond filled with koi carp. We picked up some Japanese cakes at the bakery to accompany our fried mashed potato snack.

Back at home we were treated to a fantastic bowl of udon noodles and the accompanying soup was amazing. We topped it off with our earlier purchases (FMP, curry cake, sweet chocolate bun and a sweet red bean bun). We were pretty full!

We chatted for a while, had help planning the complex train journey through Tokyo and ensured we had everything we came with. In fact we had far more than we came with because we had so many beautiful gifts from our friend and her family! Our time here was amazing we are so lucky to know such wonderful people. Otsukare sama desita!

We walked to the nearby train station together and said a sad goodbye to our friend. The train departed and we made our way towards Tokyo. 3 carefully planned train changes took us to the Tokyo sumo museum which was interesting. There are no sumo matches in the nearby stadium in February so we could not watch a live match. Many places were now closed but we walked through a beautiful memorial park and along the river before taking the train once more.

We arrived at our stop, searched for our accommodation and spent the night cooking our own Okanomiyaki on a portable grill. We also learned a lot of new things about Japan and chatted for hours before flaking out on a very comfortable futon.

Shinkansen

We left the hostel early. We had an important meeting with the Shinkansen Nozomi N700A bullet train! We arrived at the station on time and took photographs on the platform. One after another bullet trains came and went. Less than every 10 minutes one left for Tokyo!

Finally our train arrived. Did it arrive on time? Yes, everything in Japan is always on time. It was quite plush and busy so we are glad we paid extra for reserved seats. The train left Kyoto and picked up speed. In fact calling it a train is a little strange. The Shinkansen flies. There is no rickety train movement as it passed joins in the track. It glides and even leans! 

Just over an hour into the journey we were getting really excited. The sky was blue and clear. We had seats on the left hand side of the train and had our eyes peeled. Suddenly Christine spotted what we were waiting for. Mount Fuji in all its glory. A magnificent cone volcano!

Not too long after we arrived at Shin-Yokahama. We were meeting our Japanese friend at the Shinkansen gate. We headed to our meeting point and there she was patently waiting for us. Next, we walked to the car and we were off for an exciting day! First stop was a local Onsen, steam bath. Not a tourist in site, we listened carefully to the instructions.

"Leave everything in the changing room when you enter the spa .... EVERYTHING."

Men on 3rd floor, Ladies on 2nd. We spent the next hour and a half seperated enjoying 13 different spa pools, some inside, some out. Some hot others cold. After a thorough pampering we were off to our lunch stop.  Free tickets to the Yokohama ramen museum meant we would get to eat Japanese ramen in style. The museum was fun. We learned about the history of ramen, had a free tasting session and explored the old style ramen restaurants. Before we chose our different ramen a world balloon making champion entertained the big kids with a great Mickey Mouse balloon model.

We chose 2 different restaurants to eat at. We only chose the small bowls so we could sample a variety of ramen. We tried soya sauce, salt based and even a spicy variety. All fantastic and we were totally stuffed!

Back at the house the children arrived home from school. They helped us make some  incredible origami models using their English learned at school. We played some excellent games together, a great one arranging coloured cups and another with pictures of matches! Before dinner we had a short trip with the children to the local shop to collect a few items for dinner.

Dinner was served and was delightful. We got to sample so many different things. Our friend was an excellent cook and had gone to enormous lengths to make the perfect meal. Her sister-in-law also came and brought some more dishes for us to try. 

The evening was spent catching up on the past and we had a surprise visit from Mum who was bearing gifts and fruit. What a lovely lady! We now have a bag full of beautiful Japanese gifts from our friend and her mum.

The end of a wonderful day in Yokahama for which we owe many thanks to our friend and family!

Blossoms

Spring is here in Japan! Today was quite warm in Kyoto. We walked south but we made a wrong turn and had to clamber through a building site. Back on track we crossed a train track and then a river, eventually reaching the mountains. The first temple was Tofukuji at the base of the hill. It was reasonably quiet and very picturesque. We walked on to Fushimi Inari Taisha. It was packed with people as it was Sunday. From here a trail leads up to a series of small mountain shrines. We walked part of the way up but decided the volume of people detracted from the experience. We walked back down and decided to catch the train to the north of Kyoto. A friendly lady pointed us in the right direction and in about half an hour we arrived at our stop.

A 2km walk took us through a student area and brought us out at Ginkakuji. Next to Honenen in, both lovely temples. We then followed the Philosopher's path to more temples before taking the road to the Kyoto Palace and gardens. Unfortunately by the time we got there the palace was closed, luckily the gardens were still open!

Food was calling and we headed downtown to Nishiki market, a long foodie street but nothing stood out and said, you must eat me. We briefly stopped at the Disney store before heading to the hostel via the supermarket. Tonight we stayed in the hostel chatting and preparing for our early train ride tomorrow.

Today we saw so many beautiful cherry blossoms, Spring is certainly here! 

Kyoto

Today was a day of temple spotting. We walked through a cemetery to get  to our first temple. It was very clean and all of the graves were an upturned rectangular shape. We took our time walking through the narrow streets soaking up the Japanese ambience. 

The first temple we arrived at was Kiyomizu and there were many others in the vicinity so we explored as many as we could! We took a route through the traditional streets towards Kodai ji. All the temples on the way were very beautiful! Girls dressed in kimonos filled the streets with their partners wearing the male, less colourful looking kimono.

We stopped to admire many Japanese shops with pretty little things; elaborate chocolates, beautiful paper and savory pickles. We sampled a lot of sweet things and both felt a little sick.

We decided to take a break from temple spotting and headed to downtown new Kyoto. We needed to buy our Shinkansen (bullet) train ticket to Yokohama. We tried to get a discounted ticket at a small booth but were not 100% sure how it worked. We decided to go directly to the station. We found the ticket office, handed over the credit card and parted with a lot of money. Trains are expensive here especially the 300 mph ones!

We saw a queue of people waiting outside a small restaurant, so we joined it. We had great gyoza (dumplings) when we finally got inside. Next we walked across the street to a make shift food area. On entering we were given complimentary miso soup to try followed by a glass of sake.

After we got back to the  hostel it was quite late so we decided to eat in. Udon noodles once again came to the rescue. In the evening we explored the Gion area and saw a Geisha walking near the theatre. Well, we think so as the Japanese told us that there are not really Geishas any more. On the way home we collected a bottle of ice coffee from the supermarket. Not to add ice to but to heat up!

On the move

Our time in Osaka was coming to an end. We relaxed for a while and watched sumo wrestling on TV. There was also news on an earthquake in Japan! It was far to the north and magnitude 5.5. Luckily, we were far away from it!

Bags packed and off we went through the quiet streets. It is so quiet in the area, that as we pull our trolley bags along, the noise makes us feel really embarrassed! We walked until we found the recommended sushi restaurant. We stopped here and enjoyed the relaxing style of the sushi restaurant. We picked one item at a time from the conveyor belt, ate it, discussed it and moved on to the next. We had various raw fish dishes that we had never tried before. One was amazing and just melted in your mouth. It was such a nice place and an amazing meal.

Next we caught the tube to Osaka station and looked for another train station, inside the main train station, to buy tickets to Kyoto. We found a ticket machine but all text was Japanese characters, so we were totally confused. A nice friendly man offered to help and in no time we had 2 tickets.

The train arrived and was rather luxurious. In fact we thought it must be the wrong one, but nope this was it. It was an express train and got us to Kyoto in about 40 minutes. Through the windows we saw many things; mountains, houses, more houses and cleanliness!

We arrived on time, jumped off and found our hostel. We dropped our bags in our capsules and headed out into the historic city of Kyoto. It was getting a little dark but we found some great temples, traditional streets and lots of Japanese people dressed up. Japanese tourists to Kyoto really embrace their ancient traditions and wear beautiful traditional clothes. Kimonos everywhere!

We walked towards the Gion area after dark, Geisha spotting. However tonight there was none to be seen We didn't eat out as the restaurants we found were a bit too nice (extremely pricey!). Instead we bought a huge bag of fresh Udon noodles, added sauce and they were delicious!

Osaka

We woke up very exited to be in Japan. We made our way down the quiet streets to the subway station. We caught the tube towards the central Osaka station. From here we could walk around the corner and see most of the sites on our must see list.

We spent most of the morning looking for the Sky Tower. The issue we had in finding it was ... there were so many shopping centres we had to walk through. Each time we entered we exited through the wrong exit. So, we went back inside to find another exit to try. We asked a few people the way, they very kindly pointed us in the right direction. This was usually through another shopping centre! Then of course we couldn't exit in the correct place. Let's just say it took a while to find the Sky Tower! We took the lift to the top (37th floor) and the views over the city were amazing. In fact the whole building looked pretty amazing.

We ate Omurice (omlette and rice) for lunch in a fast food hall, where everyone stands up to eat, before continuing our tour to Osaka Castle. We passed many interesting places on the way and first sighted the walls surrounding the castle and the moat. The walls were huge and looked impenetrable to any invasion. As we went into the castle gardens we caught a glimpse of an illumination show in part of the park. It was a bit pricey so we continued on towards the castle. One good thing about castles is they are high up on hills. What that meant is we could overlook the illuminations in the park. The lights looked very pretty and so did the castle behind. It too was lit with jazzy music playing to set the mood.

Next to the castle was a building based on British design. It was filled with fancy restaurants that we couldn't afford, so we went elsewhere to refuel. We walked a while and caught the tube back to near where we were staying. We found a little restaurant when you ordered on a touchscreen and paid, then the waitress took your receipt. We sat down and ate our Oyakodon (rice with egg, chicken and a cheesy tomato sauce). It was good. We walked to our accommodation and collapsed after a lot of walking.

Flight to Japan

Our flight to Japan was during the night so we slept for most of it. Our arrival was in Osaka at the airport located on a man-made island, Kansai. We caught a train from the airport to the city. 

We spent our first day in Japan admiring the cleanliness and quietness of the Japanese culture. We explored bustling narrow streets, old temples, tranquil parks and ... Japanese food! Our first taste of Japanese food was the popular snack of octopus balls, takoyaki. They were amazing!

After checking out the famous clock tower we felt we needed desert. We tried a Japanese desert which was amazing. It was filled with custard that oozed out every bite. Mmmm.

Another item on our must try Japanese food list was Okanomiyaki (savoury pancake) We found the cutest place ever to try it. It was in a quiet back street. Inside was a friendly husband and wife team. In the kitchen the wife prepared the ingredients before passing them to her husband to whisk. He then cooked it on a hot plate in front of us. As it is winter in Japan the hot plate meant it was nice and warm inside the restaurant and so cosy!

We eventually plucked up the courage to go outside into the cold. We took a subway to where we were staying on the outskirts of Osaka.

Last day in Thailand

Our last day in Bangkok was day a of eating our last Thai food for this trip and we certainly made the most of it! We needed to do some shopping for a few items and spend our last Thai Baht. We visited some interesting Chinese temples and were offered a cup of tea whilst we sat and listened to some chanting by a group of ladies.

We took our last trip across the river to visit IconSiam before catching the train to the airport.

Country Swap

We switched dorms yesterday so we are now both in a mixed dorm together. During the night some new arrivals turned up at an unsociable 3am.

We enjoyed our final breakfast on the roof top. The toaster is in need of a little TLC as it is broken and difficult to operate. After breakfast, it was time to leave. We walked the 1km to meet our Canadian friends to share a taxi to the airport. On the way we passed a taxi looking for custom. We grabbed him, negotiated a good price and collected our friends, who jumped in and off we went. We were going to try using the Grab app which is like Uber.

A nice smooth ride and nice and early. On the way we saw a huge entourage of white cars with flags and a picture of the monk we had seen leading the prayers when we arrived in Myanmar.  It appears he is traveling around doing this.  

The airport in Mandalay is pretty small. We completed security checks and bag weighing but our Canadian friends' bags were too heavy. A bit of rearranging and all was ok, no 40 dollar excess charge!

The flight was quick and we all met up again in the terminal. None of our flight seats were together. They seemed to be randomly allocated! However once on the aeroplane, Darryl discovered the seat next to him was free so Christine was able to move.

We landed about 15 minutes late in Bangkok. Once in the airport building one of our Canadian friends discovered he had left his passport on the aeroplane. He tried to run back and get it but they wouldn't let him back out. After a frantic search for someone from Air Asia and the help with of a security person he was informed the plane we had just landed on had already departed and would not be back until later that evening, when they would endeavour to find the passport.  This meant they would miss their connecting flight.  They were then escorted back to the arrivals areas as he could not officially enter Thailand without a passport.  We said a sad farewell as we are going off in different directions but with a vague hope our paths may cross again on this adverture.  We have since heard the passport has been returned and a new flight booked later this evening.  What a relief!

After leaving the airport we made our way to our hostel, freshened up and headed towards Chinatown in search of food.  On the way we saw a small Chinese temple with lots of people gathered round.  We went over to investigate and discovered there were people in fancy costumes with their faces painted.  We waited to see what would happen.  They made their way onto a small stage and started to sing ... it was a mini Chinese opera.  We have experienced this in the past so made a quick retreat!  

We found a noodle stall which was really busy so we shared a dish of noodle soup.  We then wandered further and found a little cafe down a side street with lots of people sitting outside.  We took a seat and were given a menu.  The man at the next table asked where we were from and how had we heard about the restaurant.  Apparently it was made famous on You Tube by a food and travel writer called Mark Weins.  We ordered a pork and egg dish which was very tasty.

Finally we headed back to our hostel through the streets of Bangkok.

Cinema

After breakfast of rice, sweetcorn, boiled egg and toast, we headed out to explore.  Unfortunately Mandalay is s huge city and everything is very spread out.  We headed to take a look at the Mandalay Palace.  We walked along the moat on one side and must have covered a good 3km and were offered a tour of the city by at least 3 taxi drivers and 2 motorbike taxis!  The midday sun was getting hotter and hotter so we headed back to the air conditioned hotel.

We had arranged to have dinner with our Canadian friends at the same 'sizzler' restaurant as yesterday.  This time we also tried another interesting noodle dish. We have no idea what it is, it looks like noodles in custard but tastes savoury and very good!  

We then headed to the cinema in the Mall for the 9.30pm showing of the movie Alita - in 3D.  It was an excellent movie, all the more enjoyable being in 3D.

The Road to Mandalay

We paid the hotel, had a good deal to eat in the breakfast room and then waited for our bus to Mandalay. We must have been last on the pickup list as the bus arrived at 10 am, not the 9.30 that the hotel said it might.

The bus journey was pleasant. We stopped a few times to drop off and pick up various things. We had a 30 minute lunch stop but didn't really like the look of most food being served. Instead we stuck to bananas and a sealed pandan cake we had in our bag.

The bus delivered us to the hotel door which meant we avoided the usual 2km walk from a bus stop. We checked in and were given cool refreshing water and peanuts. Peanuts seem popular in Myanmar and there are a number of plantations around Bagan.

When we finally ventured out, we walked to the Chinese street food market to enjoy dinner. We ordered a dish that was heated on coals, with loads of different ingredients. It was bubbling away for about 5 minutes after it was served, a Myanmar sizzler!

Next we checked out the local shopping mall to see what we could find. There was lots of hairdressers, a dance studio and a cinema. One movie is in English so we may give it a try tomorrow!

Valentine Treat

No rising for sunrise today. A more leisurely waking up schedule and then off to the local market.

Many of the stall holders were just setting up for the day. There was many lovely souvenirs that were hard to resist buying. There was a lot of fish and fresh meat too. On the way back to the hotel we saw a parade of monks who were returning from their morning alms collection. Shortly behind them were a group of pigs bathing in a puddle in the centre of the road!

We ate a lot at breakfast and they seemed to want us to eat more, so filled a take away box with samosas for us to take away. 

We had a fairly lazy day. We changed money, planned future travel and purchased bus tickets for our onward journey to Mandalay.

As the clock was heading towards 6.00pm, we walked to the Irrawaddy River hoping to catch the sun setting. We walked through a little village of traditional houses, so different to the main town. The path leading towards the river was filled with so much plastic rubbish, it was a real shame. Walking through it, we arrived at a fairly steep bank. Carefully, we made our way down to the riverside. There were a few locals doing their laundry and a few fishermen tending their boats.

A local lady approached and asked if we would like a boat ride. We were unsure at first as we hadn't planned to go on a boat. The lady spoke again and the price had halved. Now it was almost too good to miss! We took our shoes off and walked over to where a fisherman was preparing a boat. We climbed in and were off. The captain paddled and punted us out along the river. It was very shallow and full of sandbanks.

There was no one. Not a tourist in sight. The water was so flat and like a mirror. A couple of locals pulled in their fishing nets and headed to the shore. Our captain explained they were catching fish with a wiggle of his hand, as not a word of English was spoken. The views over the water were breathtaking as the sun set and the colours of the sky stunning! After the sun dipped below the horizon we were paddled back to shore. We were met by a couple of local children swimming and next we moored up at the bank. As we looked behind us the sky was even more beautiful now as the reds deepened in colour. Wow!

We paddled back across the smaller stream to the bank guided by a local lady. The bank looked a little muddy but she showed us where to step. Darryl obviously didn't watch closely enough and sank in the mud. The lady thought it was hilarious. We did too but getting the mud off was tricky.

We headed up the riverbank and listened to the locals shouting, hello ... No. They continued for a while and we thought they were practising their English. But they eventually caught us up and pointed to a different path. This time they shouted, hello ... No ... Snake! It appears that the path we were heading along was where the snakes live. We are very grateful they came after us and helped us take the correct path!

We walked with them to their village, where they pointed us in the right direction and then turned off and went home, waving as they went. We took the road straight to our amazing vegetarian restaurant. We sat down, ordered our meal and then in walked our Canadian friends. We chatted over delicious aubergine salad with peanuts and a fried potato and vegetable dish. Tea is served free with each meal so we drank plenty before leaving the restaurant.

We walked to the location where our friends had to meet their hotel mini bus and found a whole  new area of shops and restaurants. This is where we spent the rest of the evening. There was plenty to see. We looked at old money, some from the military rule and Japanese rule too. We saw beautiful wood carvings and watched a local lady hand weaving on a loom. She was wearing long neck bracelets around her neck and legs. We are nit sure if she was a member of this Myanmar tribe or she wore the rings for the tourists.

Temples of Bagan

The decision to take an ebike was made at 5am. Pedal is fine but at 5am in the dark with limited lights ... we hired an ebike from our hotel as the price was good and it was parked right outside. We had arranged to meet our Canadian friends for sunrise as they had found a spot where no one else seemed to go.

The ebike drove us the 6km to the meeting spot. The roads were fairly quiet at this time but there was still traffic around. We had directions to follow and as Darryl was the driver that left Christine to navigate. We drove for about 15 mins and then turned off the main road onto a tiny dirt/sandy path. Another 50 metres or so and we arrived at the location. Our Canadian friends were going to arrive even earlier to take pictures of the stars, however sleep got the better of them and they turned up right behind us.

We walked amongst the trees and bushes and found the wall that they recommended to climb. Many temples are out of bounds for climbing and for good reason, to protect these magnificent buildings. The view from the top was great and we could see for miles as the sun rose behind us. As the sun peaked above the horizon we looked to our right as the famous hot air balloons were beginning to rise. As they came across in front of us they flew low over the temples and we imagine the view was something special. The price of the balloon rides were also quite special!

We took lots of photos as did our friends. They also had a secret weapon that took a range of pictures from different perspectives. Once the excitement had peaked, we went for an explore in the surrounding area. There are so many ancient temples in Bagan, in a relatively small area there are over 2000!

Inside all of the temples there appears to be a Buddha statue and some have painted frescos on the walls. Some are relatively complete and others are falling down. This is due in part to their age but also due to earthquake damage caused a few years back.

Returning to our hotel was fairly simple and we enjoyed a big breakfast in the dining room whilst we let the ebike recharge a little.

After a short rest we headed back into the dusty roads once more, this time towards Old Bagan where some of the larger temples are to be found. There really are temples everywhere you look. We explored a few, then a few more, following dirt roads and some less frequented trails. We spotted hoards of tourists at the large temples in big bus loads. We went to find temples where no one was there. That is fairly easy to do in Bagan. We found some nice carvings on the walls, pretty pink and orange flowers at the temples and lots of sand.

The ebike made covering the distances around the temples easy and as our hotel was close, we found it easy to recharge. Although, we never seemed to drain the battery below halfway.

We had arranged to meet our Canadian friends at a sunset location. It had good views towards the west and of the temples behind. We also tried another spot where you could climb stairs inside the temple to the top. The view from here was great but that meant sharing them with another handful of people. Many photos later and after a spectacular sunset, we headed to a restaurant together in the dark. The food was good, the company was good and we are enjoying Bagan.

Last Day in Yangon

What did we do? Not a lot. We prepared ourselves for our overnight train journey to Bagan by stocking up on snacks. We sat in the air conditioned luxury of our hostel common area enjoying breakfast, drinking ice cold water and enjoying our last rehydration orange juice. We packed our bags and left the hostel, leaving early so we could then stop off for our last visit to our favourite eatery.

It was only a 15 minute walk to the restaurant and after another great lunch, a further 10 minutes to the train station. We showed our tickets and were taken to our upper class sleeping berths. The seats were comfortable and we were convinced we had the carriage to ourselves. However, at the last minute another couple arrived. The waiters from the restaurant car asked us what we would like to order. They said they would deliver the food to us when the train stopped because bizarrely you couldn't get through from the sleeper berths to the restaurant carriage. We had already filled our bags with goodies so had to decline their offer.

We left on time and the train set off at a reasonable pace. It rocked a lot, made a lot of noise but was nowhere near as bad as we expected. In fact many people said they would never do it again but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We passed some beautiful rural villages, loads of pagodas and every time the train went near the more remote villages children waved. They also chased the train and the locals gave them little treats of oranges, biscuits and money.

Sunset and sunrise were both fantastic and as the track ran N to S, we got to see both from either side. Sleeping wasn't that hard with earplugs and both of us wedged into one bed which slowed the rocking motion of the train a little.

A great ride through the countryside and we even saw Mount Popa, a famous cliff top temple from the train. We arrived early at Bagan station and then started our walk to the hotel. A taxi driver kept saying he would take us for 10000 Kyat but this was a lot for a 6km taxi ride. We kept walking but he came back and said he had 2 more passengers and halved the price. We accepted and told him again the area we were staying in. He assured us it was 12 km but we thought it was only 6km on our map. We arrived in New Bagan which was exactly where we had told the taxi to take us but it turns out our hotel is nowhere near New Bagan! Oops, we are now even further away and the taxi driver was right all along. He agreed to drop us at the airport junction as that was on his route back and then we could walk the remaining 3km to our hotel. 

A 3km walk along the main road was 3km less than we would have had to walk along the main road. Eventually we arrived at the hotel, dropped our bags off and went to find food. A small restaurant filled us up with rice and vegetables plus a dish of fried cauliflower and egg! It tasted better than it sounds.

Next we checked out the nearest Pagoda and views of the river before debating tomorrow's transport. Do we take an ebike or pedal bike?

Fire Breathing Dragon

Today was lazier than usual.We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hostel and chatted until around 10am. We thought we had better get out and about so collected our hats, sunglasses and bottles of water and stepped out.

We ambled down to the river to catch a boat across. The flow was really fast today. The little local boats at the jetty were crabbing across the wide expanse. It didn't look like they would ever make it with their small motors. We were not sure that tourists are allowed to take these boats so we went to check out the larger ferry.

The idea was to cross to a small village (Dala), hire bikes and tour some of the countryside. The big ferry was packed with about 20 people. There was also a ferry coming back packed with an equally large number. We decided that as it was Sunday, everyone must have been travelling to Dala and it wouldn't be the experience we were looking for. We decided against it and arranged to meet our Canadian hostel friends for a late lunch. After another great meal at our favourite restaurant they had to leave to catch a bus to the main bus station. It is only about 20km away but the traffic is so busy, it can take 2 hours. As soon as we said goodbye our attention was drawn to a man on the street selling warm winter jackets for 50p. Fairly unusual as it is so hot but just what we needed for our next stop, Japan. The temperatures are rather cooler than here! We each found a light weight down jacket that packs up into a tiny space but should keep us warm. Great! After our successful, unexpected shopping trip we walked to Chinatown to secure seats for the dragon dancing contest.

We watched the dragons parade and dance, chasing the ball. It was harder to see because unlike the lion's yesterday, the dragons were dancing on ground level and not on high posts. It was an interesting experience but not as exciting as the lion's. However one of the dragons did breathe real fire!

A lot more preparation has been made around the central park for the public holiday in a few days which we saw as we walked back to the hostel. Unfortunately we will not be in Yangon to see what happens as we move on tomorrow.

Dancing Lions

Normally we get up fairly early, eat breakfast and go straight out to explore. Today we spent so long chatting at breakfast that when we checked the clock ... it was already after 1pm!

When we finally made it out we walked to the Sule Pagoda and then on towards China town. We grabbed a local shan noodle dish in a restaurant which was very tasty. We also bought a SIM card and 2gb of data for 25p! The friendly men helped set it up in the phone for us, as the messages coming through were in local language! Next stop was the ladies hair salon where Christine was pampered once again. A full head and shoulder massage, shampoo and cut. All this cost a staggering 6000 Kyat (£3). Darryl sat, watched and drank a free bottle of isotonic energy drink which the hairdresser gave him. It tasted like rehydration powder.

Once Christine was groomed, we checked out what was happening outside the hairdresser. There were hundreds of seats being set up and some tall poles on a central stage. People were starting to sit so we joined them. We were in for a treat!

The Chinese New Year celebrations we had sat ourselves down for was the most incredible Chinese lion dancing competition. We were spotted as westerners and asked to move to other seats, with a better view and given free drinks, the same as at the hairdresser's.

The performance was unbelievable! 2 men dressed as a Chinese lion jumping on top of poles far off the ground, doing tricks and things that seemed impossible. Even walking on a parallel tight rope! They were supported by their team bands who played music to time the lion's movements. They carried out tricks with balls, ate flowers and completed perfectly synchronised dismount summersaults from the pole, all as though they were a real lion! The competition went on until 11pm when trophies were awarded to the top 3 teams.  The winner was obviously everyone's favourite as from the moment they started their dance everyone was chanting their name and cheering them on.  They really were extremely good! 

We left and grabbed some local snacks from a stall in China town. One was like a savory pancake cut into pieces and the other more like a very thin savory crepe. Both with chick peas, coriander and curry flavour and very tasty. As we walked back to our hostel we passed the central park which had been prepared for the national holiday with lots of coloured lights and chairs around the monument. A very pretty sight.

Pagoda

First job of the day was to get train tickets for a sleeper train from Yangon to Bagan. We had been told yesterday that there were no available sleeper berths as they had all been booked out by a tour group. After a few other conversations and a little research we were not sure if the ticket officer understood or other mysterious things were happening! We found out that you could only book tickets 3 days in advance, so at 8am Darryl headed back to the train station. He went to the advanced ticket booking office and spoke to a really helpful man. The man wrote out 2 sleeper tickets, filled in his carriage plan and we are now booked on the same train that was full?!

After an amazing breakfast included in our dorm price, we went out to explore. The train station seems to draw us to it, because that is where we ended up. We took the Yangon circular train around the city. Well, kind of. Today it wasn't doing a complete loop but out and back to a place called Insein. We purchased tickets and the train left soon after. The scenery wasn't so interesting; rubbish, railway embankment poor homes, grafitti. But the ride was great fun and the best part was watching the people inside the train.

Darryl spent the outward journey flying a tissue like a kite out of the open window. The tissue was given to him by a fellow 6 year old passenger sat next to him, who was also flying her tissue out of the window. Not wanting to miss out, her 8 year old brother also flew his tissue out of the window too! All 3 of them seemed to be enjoying the game.

We arrived at the final stop and went for a short walk before getting back on the train to return to Yangon. We waited for ages before we actually left. The carriage filled up and lots of people were transporting vegetables and cute green birds in cages. Poor birds, we are certain they really didn't want to be locked up!

We thought we would try a local lunch of Barking Deer Rice Salad, which was tasty. Next we started walking from the centre to the outer edge of Yangon. We passed and explored amazing pagodas. The outside stupa is painted gold and really stands out. Inside is totally different and we have lots of pictures of mini buddhas lining the walls, beautiful carvings gifted from the royal family in Nepal and beautiful umbrellas.

We continued on to the Shwedagon Pagoda which was enormous. There was so much inside; so many buildings, Buddha statues and monks. What a spectacular place! The sunset whilst we were there and the light made the gold stupas glisten beautifully.

As it was dark now, we made our way to the People's Park opposite. Apparently on a Friday there is a dancing fountain and light show. We tried to explain to the ladies on the ticket counter that this is what we wanted to see and they looked confused but said 7 o'clock. We walked around the park amongst many teenage courting couples and explored the fairground area. There seemed to be a large gathering of people celebrating Chinese New Year. A band was playing and they were dining together.

We were not exactly sure where the fountain show was on but we saw a few people running and asking directions at 6.59pm. We just followed them assuming they were looking for the same thing. Great, we had found the fountain area! A married couple were having their photos taken there with the huge Shwedagon Pagoda in the background. At 7pm, we waited and waited but no fountain show! However the park was really nice.

Our walk back to the centre was along the main road and we needed to cross several junctions. The traffic here is quite busy and drivers drive quite fast. They don't give way, slow down or let you cross at all. In fact we are certain they would run you down should you edge out. A very different style to Thailand, where the drivers are quite courteous and India, where they just swerve around you.

We ate at our favourite restaurant where the food is really good and great value. Another plus side is one of the waitresses speaks perfect English. 

Bedtime was fast approaching so we walked back to the hostel before they locked up for the night.

Yangon

The bus finally stopped at the bus station on the outskirts of Yangon at 4am. We sat in a small restaurant and waited until a more sociable hour. The restaurant was busy and we are certain it operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The whole place reminded us of India. Not so much of India now but more in the past when most of India was really quite grubby!

We drank coffee and tea whilst the restaurant TV played an English football match. We asked directions to the local bus to take us downtown. Bus 36. We walked to the main road, flagged down bus 36 and climbed on. We spoke to the driver and he spoke to us but neither had a clue what each other said. In a few minutes the bus pulled into a bus station. The driver then pointed at another number 36 and said something in a very polite manner that we think meant ...

"You need that bus over there, you have been going the wrong way. Did you not notice my bus was empty and not in service? Try again ... English tourists!"

We got the correct 36 bus to the centre.  We jumped out at the last stop, Sule Pagoda. A few minutes walk from the Sule Pagoda was our backpackers. Separate dorms for the night, male and female, as hotel rooms are quite pricey!

We dropped our bags, took on free coffee, orange squash and water and hit the town for some exploring. Yangon feels a bit like India in the centre too, with a number of mosques and brightly coloured Hindu temples. We have also seen a number of large gold stupas rising into the sky and many old colonial buildings. Tomorrow we are waiting to investigate further. 

For lunch today we found a Myanmar pickled tea rice salad which we thoroughly enjoyed. Continuing our walk, we found various markets, a Chinatown and an area a bit like a little India. As the day came to a close we watched the sunset over the Yangon River. Very nice indeed!

We searched for street food but came across a cosy little restaurant where we ate a delicious dish of rice and vegetables in some kind of gravy. Across the street we heard announcements being made, so we went to take a look.

Well, we are not exactly sure what was happening but we believe it was a religious event. There was a red carpet, various cameras and screens and lots of people sitting on mats. We were called in to the area and given food and something to drink. We didn't really know what to do as no one could really explain. We sat and copied everyone else. Everyone turned towards the red carpet and showed respect by holding their hands in prayer. A monk was escorted down the isle with a procession of flags, bells and conch shell bugles. A special seat was delivered to the monk and he sat and began praying with everyone copying his words.

We stayed and listened to his calming voice and laughter before we had to leave. We need to find out more from someone ... 

Border Crossing

We were up early to walk the 3km to the bus terminal, stopping en route for breakfast.

The bus to Mae Sot left at 08.30 with a number of stops en route. The final part of the journey was steep roads at a slow speed! The scenery changed to hills and tall limestone pinnacles.

We quickly transferred to a Thai shared taxi with the other European travellers from our bus. The taxi took a short time to reach the Thai / Myanmar friendship bridge. We grabbed our bags from the roof and made our way across the bridge. We were stamped out of Thailand at one window and into Myanmar by 2 laid back immigration officers.

We were then greeted by a man asking us where we were going. We said we needed a bus to Yangon leaving that night. He took us to a travel agent, who booked us a bus leaving in an hour. Darryl went to use the ATM but found 4 didn't accept any cards. Finally one did and we were able to pay for the bus.

Next we were taken to the big bus in a car and waited,  finding out that Myanmar is half an hour behind Thailand, so we had longer than we thought! Then we were off to Yangon! The road was bad and the bus slow in the beginning because of potholes. There was 'relaxing' local music from the speaker above our heads. We think we had one of the only working speakers as it was quite loud.

We had various stops through the night. One was at a restaurant where we met a little baby and her mother. Her mum showed us that her baby had 6 fingers, as she couldn't explain in English. We shared a table with them and we all ate hard crispy noodles which were like crisps.

Back on the bus the music was replaced by a local movie with a distinct lack of Oscar winning performances. Overall the bus journey was comfortable and we slept well, especially when the road improved to a brand new 2 lane highway! 

Chinese Celebrations

First thing this morning we went to the Chinese market to find out what time the events on stage would start. Whilst we were there we saw a number of Chinese dragons dancing in the streets. They were being escorted by groups of drummers.

Today most ladies were wearing red dresses with embroidered gold patterns. Many men wore t-shirts with pigs on representing the year of the pig. We wanted to stand out from the crowd so we wore at blue t-shirts! We were told the events would start at 6 o'clock by a lady setting up the stage. 

We decided it was time to have something to eat. We chose a cheap noodle stand and they were quite delicious. After eating we crossed the bridge to the other side of the river and went in search of Wats and other temples. We tried to find a Hindu temple that was marked on the map. However, we couldn't find it. It had disappeared! After checking with Google it appears to be marked in the wrong location on our map.

We stopped at a cafe and had some drinks before eating lunch just down the road from our hotel. 

We returned to the Chinese market at 6 o'clock but nothing had started yet. We explored the market searching for food and we found lots of interesting things to try. Eventually the show commenced. The first part of the show involved finding the New Year China doll which was basically a children's pageant. The costumes they were wearing were amazing. When we had enough of watching the show we decided to walk across to the other side of Chiang Mai. We paid a visit to our hot sweet soya milk lady and stocked up on sweets and other goodies for tomorrow's bus journey. On our way back to the hotel we were tempted by noodle soup. We decided to eat again just in case the bus doesn't stop at a good roadside restaurant tomorrow. We wanted to be really full up.

Year of the Pig

Today is the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations! We worked our way across town to the Chinatown area, Warowot Market. On the way we stopped for breakfast at our favourite ice tea and coffee restaurant. Whilst we were waiting to be served drumming started on the street outside. We went to investigate and were greeted with a dancing Chinese dragon!

We looked around the market and asked when events on the stage would start. A stallholder told us they would start tomorrow. The sun was getting hotter so we decided to go back to our hotel room. We did a little bit of research and found out that the Maya Shopping Center would have a Chinese New Year Festival event today. This was great news and we started walking to the shopping center. It was quite far away and it took us a little while to get there (through pretty disgusting air pollution). However, we did stop a lot to look at various temples.

We were greeted with a shopping center decorated with Chinese lanterns. There was also some models of Chinese dragons outside and a stage too.

We listened to a man playing the guitar and then went to look around the shopping center. We went up to the roof which had incredible views over the mountains and Chiang Mai.

We also went around to the back of the shopping center where there's a food court and had our dinner - 'Lanna'. When we went back outside there was a new act on the stage. It was a young girl singing and she had an amazing voice. Apparently, she had been on TV. Once she had finished, on came the next act. This act was four young girls who did a traditional Thai dance. This was followed by a Thai Boxing dance and another amazing singer from The Voice Thailand. The entertainment was great and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We left once the acts had finished and started walking back to the hotel. We stopped at a restaurant and had a dessert with pandan custard. After leaving the restaurant we took a wrong turn and had to walk all the way around the moat. We eventually arrived back at the hotel, having walked a long way today.

Final Day of Flowers

A later start this morning as most of the flower show events were in the evening. We heard a band playing from our hotel as we left and on the river near our hotel, we saw small boats decorated with flowers and the band playing.

After watching the boats go by we walked to the other side of town looking for something to eat. We found a small restaurant and ordered some food. Next we headed on a tour of temples. We think by now we must have seen  most of the temples in Chiang Mai! We also visited the 3 kings monument which was outside a museum.

The sun was getting hot so we retired to our hotel room which our fancy electronic fan keeps cool.

When the evening came we were ready to hit the streets again. We walked towards the Sunday Walking Street market. On the way we saw some animal rights protesters holding flat screen TVs displaying some movies on animal cruelty. 

It was so busy on Walking Street we decided to give it a miss and go and find some food.

We walked towards Chinatown and came across a temple that was lit up. We needed to cross the bridge to see it and the bridge was lit up too with pink and blue lights. Eventually we arrived at the Chinatown market and found a street seller selling red and green Thai curry, so we ordered some and they were delicious.  She told us in good English she would be closed for the next few days for Chinese New Year. We also found another store for dessert before we headed back to the main Square.

It was a little quieter down the Walking Street this time so that is where we went next. There were a lot of things for sale similar to last night's Market. We found something new to try which was a mix of garlic and chives. There was also a Wat at the market which we looked around. 

Afterwards we went back to the main Square to listen to the Thai music and dancing. It was a  performing arts school on the stage with girls dancing and singing as part of the flower festival.  We stayed until the end and then left to return to our hotel.

Decorated Delight

We were close to missing the start but jumped out of bed, got dressed and made it just in time. Today is the Chiang Mai Flower Festival parade!

We walked to the river then followed it to a bridge and this was the start line. There wasn't much, if any, free places to stand and view the parade. There was a ticket area and VIP seats but of course we didn't qualify for either!

There was dancing and presentations before the procession began. We overheard a top tip so we moved to a better vantage point just before the procession began. Not that it helped much because lots of people just came and stood in front of us, so they could get the best photos. They were oblivious to the fact that they were interrupting the viewing of hundreds of other people!

The floats were amazing, covered in every type and colour of flower you can imagine. People must have spent such a long time creating these masterpieces. There were different organisations taking part from schools to huge corporates like Air Asia. There were bands, flag troops, beauty queens and so much more. The whole procession lasted around 2 hours, though that was a long time to be standing in the sun!

After the last float drove past we needed feeding so headed towards Chinatown. We grabbed a couple of puff pastry snacks before finding a small Chinese restaurant serving delicious ice tea and coffee. We ate there before retiring to our hotel room to delete all of the photos with people's heads and mobile phones in!

Late in the afternoon we weaved our way towards the park where the flower show is taking place. We happened to walk by some interesting temples and a hot soya milk seller which we couldn't resist. Traditional music was playing in the park and all of the floats were parked in the road outside. 

We continued to the Saturday Walking Street market where we stumbled upon the silver temple, which was all lit up and very different to others we had seen in Thailand. It was completely silver! The walking street was packed with market stalls selling tourist souvenirs and local  handicrafts along with and various food court areas too. It was really busy. 

Once we had had enough of the crowds we settled down at a little stall across the road and indulged in spicy chicken curry (khao soi kai). It was glorious! We next made our way back towards the hotel taking a different route and passing more of the main Chiang Mai temples. The streets in Chiang Mai stay busy until late at night. We heard some music by the river so went to investigate. 

It was the central stage for the flower show. There was a Thai country / folk band playing 60's style music. We pulled up a couple of chairs and stayed a while. Towards the end we were all asked to stand and support the band with a little dancing. We obliged and copied the ladies on stage with their delicate hand movements.

The band played their last number, we left and arrived back at the hotel with more hot soya milk in our possession but this time it was too hot to drink for the next 30 minutes!

Chiang Mai

Slept in a nice comfy bed that is huge. Bananas for brekkie today. We booked a bus ticket to Mae Sot online but the system was quite unusual. Even though we had booked online, we ended up walking to the bus station to collect the ticket anyway! It took us about an hour to walk there as it was quite far. There was a queue to collect the tickets but it disappeared pretty quick.

On the way back we stopped to eat at a small restaurant where they served duck. It was really good and was served with rice and soy sauce. About 100m on we couldn't resist the food on offer there, so we had another chicken dish between us!

Back at our hotel we collected our essential items for an afternoon in the sun. We were going to watch the opening ceremony of the Chiang Mai flower festival. Once again it was a fair walk to the park where it was being held. We navigated through the streets of Chiang Mai using our phones. We passed some fantastic houses and a few temples on our journey to the park.

The flowers in the park were beautiful and the scent of the flowers filled the air. There was lilys, orchids, tulips, wall flowers, chrysanthemum and loads we don't know the names of but all equally stunning. Some of the arrangements were in the shape of animals, like elephants, reindeer and pandas!!

There was a traditional Thai  group playing music on stage and an orchestra in the gardens. A tiny little girl was singing some fantastic songs with the orchestra. She must have been about 6 years old! As the VIPs arrived a dance troupe and drummers started to play. They were very good and the drummers worked so hard they must have been exhausted. These were no ordinary drums, they were huge!

Trophies were awarded for the best flower displays and the Governor of Chiang Mai gave a speech. Next was the Miss Chiang Mai in bloom contest followed by an international contingent. We didn't see who won because we left but there was a lot of beautiful girls to choose from.

As it was quite a walk back we thought we had better leave the excitement of the flower show. We took some quiet roads with no one around and others with many bars playing loud music.