Myanmar

Nice people, decent food, great country side and so on...
Too bad they have such a stupid government!!!

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, but I was unable to add pictures in Myanmar so I decided to wait a couple of more days. The trip was great. After an uneventful flight I arrived in a very wet Yangon. During the flight I met Tim, an American student, who had exactly the same time as me to spend in Myanmar, so we decided to travel together. At the airport we took a taxi into town (paid for by Tim in US$) in order to exchange money.
And that right away is the most irritating thing about traveling in Myanmar, the money!!! The official banks only exchange foreign currency for terrible rates (i.e. 1 US$ = 400 Kyats), so you have to deal with people on the street and markets (a rate of approx. 1200-1250 Kyats per US$). Besides being plain sketchy, Burmese people only accept crisp new bills. No stains, folds, little tears or anything... Tourist fees (like the US$ 10 to enter Bagan) have to be paid in these new US$ bills as well and it seems that when you want to pay in Kyats they use a random and ridiculous exchange rate!
Oh well, after getting annoyed by that a couple of times you just accept it as one of the flaws of country dictated by a bunch of assholes in a hidden, "secret" government city.

Then the good things :-) The highlight for me was the three day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake. Tim, I and a French guy called Michael hired a guide for three days to take us via a bunch of villages to the lake. The guide (called Kyi), a chef (called Chef, for our food), all the food and the accomodation for US$ 8 pppd. The hike was great, the people we met were amazing and the weather was optimal (maybe even a little hot). No more talking about it, just take a look at the pictures!




After the hike and trip over the lake, we were supposed to be picked up by a bus. But that bus thought we were somewhere elso so totally skipped us :-( A few "stressful" moments, a couple of phone calls and a 45 minute taxi ride we caught our bus after all. It simply waited for us :-)

That bus took us to Mandalay. A decent, small city that has a lot of history to offer but in itself is not that spectacular. I spent one day walking around the city and together with Michael hired bicycles the next day to go to some towns around Mandalay. We visited Saiging Hill and Amarapura, where they have world's longest teak wood bridge. Sounds great, but is also more a tourist thing than anything else.


Not that Mandalay was bad, but I was really looking forward to go to the temples of Bagan. The slow boat went on the wrong days and the tourist boat was a rip-off, so I took a bus. A very long, bumpy and hot 10 hour bus ride later I arrived in Nyuang U, the town where many backpackers stay when they visit Bagan. Bagan... well, to be honest, it did not fulfill my expectations. It is an amazing sight when you stand on top of a temple and all you can see is a plain with nothing but more temples, but that is it... Not as impressive as Angkor, because the temples are way smaller. And all of the smaller temples look alike. But probably I am also a little spoiled when it comes to temples, so that adds to my not being too enthousiastic about Bagan.


After Bagan it was time to head back to Yangon. After one whole day of sightseeing I was glad I did not have to stay there any longer. Big city, few places of interest, so only worth a short stay.

Myanmar is great and I would not mind going back there, especially to the less traveled parts. The people are amazingly friendly and it is incredibly cheap (US$ 2-7 for a single room with good breakfast). Totally worth another visit and I would recommend it to everyone. On Tuesday I flew back to Shoshannah in Bangkok, but more on that and our China trip will follow soon!!!

Ciao,
Ruudje

Good times in Laos (again)

Drinking Beerlao and "Tiger Whisky - Coke", sunbathing, tubing and doing absolutely nothing.

That about sums up what Shos and I did after we left Kunming and went to Laos. The bus ride there was anything but smooth... During the first hours and most of the night we experienced no problems, but at around 7 in the morning everyone was rudely awoken by an abrupt and totally unexpected move of the bus. I felt and sounded like we hit something and immediately the driver and his helpers left the bus to check. Of course we followed them and then we saw what happened: we hit a big rock on the left side of the road. Whether the driver fell asleep and hitting the rock prevented us from a really bad accident or whether the rock fell on the road just before we got there and the driver was unable to maneuver around it will always remain a mystery... Luckily the bus was damaged only lightly so after some basic fixing we were able to continue or way. At the border they really fixed the bus and we continued with slightly less than 7 hours delay. Below some pictures of the damage and a short demonstration of how Chinese fix a bus...

We dropped Marc in Luang Prabang at 1 at night and hoped to see him a few days later in Vang Vieng to join us. For us the delay meant that we arrived in Vang Vieng at around 6 in the morning, which is a very decent time to get breakfast and find a room. The next 10 days were quite uneventful except for the unexpected sighting of someone I knew from the time I lived in Weert. His name: Maarten Teunissen. I had no idea that he was doing a big trip through Asia together with his girlfriend (Sandra Poodt). Of course we decided that we had to go tubing together and that is exactly what we did the next day. Filling up a couple of bottles with a strong "Tiger Whisky - Coke" mix, grabbing some tubes and of we were! And for everyone that knows what tubing is like in this part of the world it is obvious that we had a great day! Teun en Sandra, bedankt!!!

We only saw Marc on the last day before we left. Had a couple of beers and buckets with him at the Smile Bar on the island, got a little drunk and talked about absolutely nothing important. Isn't vacation great..?!

Last Saturday at 1 in the afternoon Shoshannah and I took a "direct" bus to Bangkok where we would arrive at 6 or 7 in the morning. The ride was boring with a few too many stops, but it got us were we wanted to be without any hassle. The only downside was that we arrived at 4 in the morning instead of 6 or 7 and all hotels were fully booked. After waiting a couple of hours we got a room in My House, took a shower, got some food and went to the Weekend Market. Besides that we really haven't done a lot in Bangkok. On Friday I am leaving for Myanmar where I will stay until the 12th of February. More news will be posted here after I get back. On the 13th we have an afternoon flight to Xiamen (China) and we will be back in our own country ;-). The plan is to visit Xiamen, Shanghai, Nanjing and probably Hangzhou, a city near Shanghai where a "second cousin" of Shos lives.

We spreken jullie laters.
Ruudje & Shos

Thailand

Dogs..? Beware!!!

After our stay in Vang Vieng we traveled on to Vientiene. Stayed there just for half a day since it is nothing but a boring city. Took a bus across the border to Nong Khiaw in Thailand where we visited a great temple with a bunch of extraordinary statues!

We liked the town, but decided to go on to the Kai Yao National Park further down south. Took a train and had a fun trip there. At some point I had to put up my umbrella because it was raining through one of the windows and they couldn't get it closed...

Changed from train to bus in Khorat to go to Pak Chong, where we took a taxi to the Greenleaf Guesthouse. Determined to explore the park on our own we ended up having a strange day. We couldn't find the bus to the park and were lucky enough to catch a ride with some workers going in that direction. From the park entrance to the actual walking trails was another 14km, but once again we hitch-hiked our way in! Did a great 8.3 km trek through the jungle just to end up (totally soaked) at the famous waterfall from the movie: The Beach! Swam a little in the pool there and to get back we once again had to catch two different rides! So we caught 4 different rides with total strangers and it was great! Thai people are (like most Asians) very friendly.

Next day a bus to Kanchanaburi via Bangkok. Here we hired a motorbike and went to the Tiger Temple, a place run by monks where you can actually touch and be close to tigers. Great experience and definitely worth going to! Did some more driving through a beautiful landscape along the Death Railway.

And just when we were on our way back to our guesthouse it happened: two dogs! And for a change one of them decided to jump right in front of our bike and we crashed. I wasn't driving fast because I saw the dogs, but couldn't avoid it anymore. The result: my right side is blue and red... My elbow is worst with two deep cuts, than my toes and last my shoulder. Shos has nothing because I served as her airbag ;-) Bad end of an otherwise good day! Once again we were lucky enough to be in Thailand because people helped us (drove me to a "hospital" where I got free medical care and medicins).

Today we paid a visit to the famous (but boring) Bridge over the River Kwai and we are going to Bangkok. Stay there for one night and then we are off to the Philippines! Really looking forward to that!

De Mazzel,
Ruudje