We are in this part of Asia for five months. All the capital cities look similar – big contrasts, crowds of people, poverty, filth, a couple of monuments and a rich business part. I thought I had already got used to all this confusion and Jakarta wouldn’t impress me. Yet, all the negative aspects of big cities are highly visible ...

The third day we arranged to meet with our boat driver, do see the sunset at the lake. It was really pretty and the weather was perfect. Still, we didn’t feel comfortable when a local fisherman approached us on his boat and started stretching his leg and posing for photos and later stretched his hand for money. I wonder if ...

It wasn’t a the best day. We woke up in a very friendly hostel to see pouring rain, clouds and sleepy people, who had to wake up early for breakfast in spite of a long party last night. After a while we organized a group of people to visit the most important parts of the town. We know that Mandalay is ...

It was supposed to be a perfect day far away from tourists.  I read so much about Inle lake. That it is beautiful, wonderful, interesting, but… very touristy. I wanted so much to see it differently. Somewhere in the internet I found a contact to a local guy who rented boats, who is willing to take people to less popular ...

I was welcomed by serpentine road that made me feel sick and heavy rain that didn’t stop even for a second during our first day there. We spent the day hiding in our room, smelling the fungus on the roof of our room.  We stayed in a OK and cheap hostel, with a very friendly owner, but terrible rooms. We ...

The trip by train from Jakarta was amazing. We left early in the morning, took the cheapest seats by the window. Renato was falling asleep, but I couldn’t stop staring out the window. The incredibly intense green of the grass and rice fields mixed with dark red of dirt and brown color of palm trees. The people were working on ...

It’s time to go down to what some consider to be hell on earth. An active volcano that spits sulfur from its guts and is the source of income of many families living in this East Java region. This is it. We’re going to enter an active volcano, dangerous, and we are paying for it… These people do it every ...

Inle Lake was supposed to be amazing. I had read about this place a lot and I knew it’s one of the most touristy places in Myanmar and I wanted to avoid the commercial side of it. Did I manage? Not really, but still, it was amazing. The beginning was rather unpleasant. First of all, the long all night trip ...

As you might know from our previous article about Chiang Mai, there were many things we didn’t do there… We didn’t really find a good, trustworthy travel agency to do some rafting or trekking and I couldn’t decide which elephant santuary is reliable. Almost every street in the old town of Chiang Mai has some offices selling different tours and ...

We were heading to the north of the country but wanted to stop somewhere between Mawlamyine and Inle Lake. We got to the conclusion that Hpa An would be our best option after talking to some people and reading some stuff about it. It’s only 60 hours distance and we thought it might be interesting. The city itself is small ...