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 ...

It is almost impossible to visit Mawlamyine without hearing about Ogre Island. It is located about one hour trip with a ferry that is packed with people and all kinds of merchandise and motorbikes that people carry to the island. The trip costs 9800 Kyats for two people for a return ticket. We ended up going with a local guide ...

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 ...

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 ...

About 20 km of Mawlamyine is Win Sein Taw Ya, the biggest reclining Buddha in the world. It’s a gigantic 30 meters high and 180 meters long statue that can be spotted many from miles away. The entry road to the complex has 500 real sized statues of monks which gives it a surreal aspect. They have their back faced to ...

This was our first stop in a big city in Myanmar. We had spent the previous night in Myawaddy after a long trip from Chiang Mai in Thailand to cross the border and couldn’t visit it properly. We could however instantly realize we were in a very different country from those we’ve visited previously in our trip. The women have ...

The first thought: it feels like India! A huge chaos on the road, cows wandering around, lots of stray dogs, it’s dirty, the rubbish is absolutely everywhere, darker faces, bigger religious diversity, guys are wearing traditional “dresses”. After three months in south-east Asia we are happy this country feels a bit different. The road from the border to Mawlamyine  wasn’t ...