Mingalarbar, Myanmar!

Our trip to Myanmar started in Mae Sot, the Thai city on the border. When we got off of the bus we met two German girls, Corinna and Lara, who were also going to the border so we shared a songthaew to the immigration. We crossed the Friendship Bridge by foot and entered Myanmar easily, hoping to catch a bus to Yangon. Unfortunately we were to late for the last bus and the next one would be in two days. The girls had no plans either so we decided to share a taxi to Hpa An where we would get a bus the next morning to Yangon. We had to withdraw some money not knowing exactly the prices of anything so we took 200.000 kyats (aprox. 200 USD). The ATM spat out so many notes that we could not fit them in the wallet! The thing is that the biggest note was the 5.000 kyats note! 

Tachi feeling at home on another Friendship Bridge

The driver wanted 40.000 kyats (about 40 dollars) and we thought it was a good deal, until we felt how he was going to drive on those poor roads full of curves and narrow parts with cliffs to one side and rocks to the other. It was like a roller coaster, but worse! The scenery was beautiful, but we couldn't really enjoy or take good pictures because of the crazy driving! It was really scary when we passed the big trucks on those narrow roads! Now we understood why the bus goes only one way one day and the other way the next. 

Taxi ride up in the mountains

We had to stop some times to show our passports to uniformed men. It seemed like they were writing down our information in a big book to keep track of the tourists, we couldn't understand exactly what that was for. When we finally got down from the mountain we had a stop for food. It's a weird way they eat, they just bring out many little plates with side dishes and a bowl of rice to the table and we had no idea what they were. Asking wasn't an option as no one spoke English, not even the taxi driver. 

It got dark very quickly and we were still racing to Hpa An. Suddenly we heard a loud noise, and went out to see our flat tire! Oh, what a nice start in Myanmar! It was in the middle of nowhere, in the darkness, and we had to use the flashlight of our phones so that the driver could change the tire. After 5 horrible hours on the road, we finally got to Hpa An. We bought our bus tickets for the next day and went straight to a guesthouse to rest our super tense bodies and minds.

Flat tire

The next day we had breakfast and took the bus to Yangon. It was a local bus for only 5.000 kyats, with ok space, air-con and TV where they were showing karaoke music videos and very overacted Burmese movies. It was also funny that it stopped in the middle of nowhere to pick up locals that had to sit on small plastic stools. It was about 6,5 hours drive to Yangon. From the bus station we shared a taxi to the Sule Pagoda area where we checked in at a very ugly and dirty guesthouse. We had some late lunch and walked around exploring the nearby area. The next morning we decided moving to a neighbor guesthouse, a bit cleaner than the other one. We took a local bus to the area near the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. It was very hot so we looked for a place with air-con, bought some things and headed to the Pagoda. It is believed that it was built more than 2.600 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. 

Shwedagon Pagoda

We were supposed to meet Corinna and Lara there, but it was so crowded that we couldn't find them. We spent a lot of time there and got to talk with some Burmese English students that wanted to practice their English. When it got dark we went to the Vista Rooftop Bar where we could get a nice view of the Shwedagon Pagoda by night.

Shwedagon Pagoda by night

The next day we went to the train station to buy tickets to Bagan. A man that we thought worked at the station recommended us to go by bus because the trip was shorter and almost the same price. He took us to a travel agency that offered us "VIP" bus tickets for 25.000 each. Luckily, Tachi had read about the prices before and she thought that was a bit more expensive and suggested that we went back to the hotel to check it. On our way back we stopped by another agency to ask for prices and they offered it for 5.000 less and that was what Tachi had read, so we just bought the tickets there. We had lunch at the 999 Noodle Shop, which was quite good but nothing special like TripAdvisor said. 

A street near the Sule Pagoda

It started to rain so we headed back to the guesthouse to have a siesta and wait for it to stop. Late afternoon we walked to the river where we had heard about a pagoda that was supposed to be nice for sunset. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and foreigners had to pay to enter so we decided to just have a walk along the riverside.
At night we met up with the girls and went for some food in Chinatown, but we didn't find Chinatown to be very exciting. The food did not look very tasty or Chinese, so we ended up just having some beers and David got to try deep fried crickets with some locals sitting next to us.

The next day we checked out from the guesthouse and relaxed in the park until we had to head to the bus station, where we met the German girls. We arrived in Bagan around 4am and had to spend 20 USD each just to enter the city. We found a nice guesthouse to rest a little, have breakfast and rent bikes to tour around some of the more than two thousand pagodas.

Some of the pagodas and stupas

Enjoying the sight from atop a pagoda

The next morning we woke up early to try to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was cloudy, but it was still a beautiful view. We got some sandwiches from the guesthouse that we had as breakfast on the pagoda before we continued biking to some villages. In the afternoon we tried to watch the sunset, but the weather was not so helpful again. 

Sunset in Bagan


On the next day we took a bus to Kalaw from where we would start a new adventure.

Chiang Mai

The day after the BSB concert we took a night bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. It was about 10 hours ride and when we arrived in the city we had to look for a place to stay. We found a very nice room just outside the old city. After some rest we went out to explore the numerous temples inside the old city, which is surrounded by ruins and a moat. When we stopped to eat, we met a very kind woman who invited us to follow her to her home. She took us on the back of her scooter, and showed us her pets and gave us some tips about the city before we continued our walk.

Ruins of the wall around the Old City

The next day we had our first cooking class. We got picked up at our hotel and went to a local market to learn about some of the typical ingredients in Thai food. Also we got to try bamboo worms, crunchy and salty, yummy! After that we went to the home where we would have our class. There we had to choose 7 different dishes we would learn to cook. We chose different from each other, of course, so that we got to taste more different foods. It was a very fun experience and it was amazing when we tried the food we made. We actually couldn't believe that we were able to cook such good food! And it was a looooot of food. At some point we were so full that we had to ask to take the food back home. Our dinner and dessert that night would be our own take away! 

Masterchefs

The next day we went to the Elephant Nature Park office to book our visit, and in the afternoon we took a songthaew to the Wat Doi Suthep. Doi means mountain, so this was a temple up in the mountain from where we could have a great view of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy :( Coming back from the mountain we wanted to make a short visit to the night market in the old city. We arrived just when it was about to start, and everybody froze on the street while the national anthem was played over the loudspeakers. The market was huuuuge, and we ended up spending more than 3 hours there, including an amazing massage!

The whole city froze for the national anthem

On Monday morning we got picked up at our hotel for a day trip to some places outside of Chiang Mai. The first stop was at a hot spring, where Tachi boiled quail eggs in the hot spring for our breakfast. We also had a stop at Wat Rong Khun, also known as The White Temple, in Chiang Rai. This was a weird, but beautiful temple. We couldn't go inside because there were people working on it due to a earthquake last year, but it was interesting seeing it from outside. It had so many white and mirrored details. 

One of the weird things you can find at the White Temple

The next stop was the Golden Triangle, which is where the Ruak and Mekong River meet at the triple border between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
At this place we had an option to take a boat across the river over to Laos, but we preferred to go to the Opium Museum. We learned a lot about the area which is one of Asia's main opium producer, second largest after Afghanistan.
After lunch we headed to Mae Sai, the northernmost point in Thailand, at the border to Myanmar.

Handstand at the northernmost point of Thailand

Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent at the Elephant Nature Park, the main reason we planned visiting the city. This was a suggestion from Caroline, a very close friend of David's family. The Elephant Nature Park is a rescue and rehabilitation center, very different from the other places nearby where they offer riding the elephants that are actually forced and hurt to do that. We got to see how they took care of injured and handicapped elephants who had been taken out of their captivity. After visiting this place we decided to sign up for one week volunteering here :) 

Feeding the elephants

Since David was running out of time on his visa exempt, we had made our plans to visit Myanmar for a couple of weeks and then return to do our volunteering. So early the next morning we jumped on the bus heading for Mae Sot, where we would cross the border to Myanmar by foot.

Oh my God, we're back again!

We headed back to Bangkok because we had bought tickets for a concert in a couple of days. Yes, you guessed it; Backstreet Boys! 

This time back in Bangkok we decided we would try staying near the famous backpacker street, Khao San Road. We knew that it would be a quite dirty area, but we were still surprised when we arrived our hostel at about 4 am, and rats and cockroaches would be crossing the floor of the reception area. The receptionist not even caring or noticing our discomfort. As we didn't have any other option at this time, and we were tired, we took our chance and checked in. Luckily the hallway with rooms, and our room was much cleaner so we could get a good rest! When we got up some hours later it had totally changed, and the place was filled with life! By night Khao San Road is a street filled with tourists, street food, people selling everything from fake ID's to fried scorpions, people offering "ping pong shows" and probably anything else you can imagine! Tachi even got her hair cut, but most likely David could have cut just as well, or even better.

Walking down Khao San Road

Before the concert we were hoping to meet up with a friend of Tatiana. She had been staying on Bali for some time, but just visited Koh Phanang with a friend of hers, where we originally wanted to meet her. Since we never made it to Koh Phanang we made the effort to meet her in Bangkok before she headed back to Bali. Darcie had visited Tachi and her family last year, as a Servas visitor, and by coincidence we would be in Bangkok at the same time. We met up with Darcie and her friend for lunch, and just spent some time talking about life and our travels! It was great to meet up with her :)

Meeting up with Darcie

Finally the day was here! The day that Tachi had been waiting for for almost a month. The day she would finally get to see the Backstreet Boys live. In Bangkok!

Who would have thought this would happen? Definitely none of us.

That morning we didn't do much, just eating and relaxing, until we started to find our way to Impact Arena. We decided we wanted to start out early just in case any problems would show up along the way. It would have been devastating if Tachi had missed the concert! There were no problems, and we arrived 2 hours before the concert. That gave us the chance to take a picture with the Backstreet Boys!!! We got some free cookies to enjoy until they opened the doors, and then we easily found our seats.

Waiting excited for the Backstreet Boys

It was a bit weird seeing the old guys on stage, and singing songs we sang back in the end of the 90s! Tachi had a dream come true, but she had to manage with the company of David instead of all her girlfriends...

Photo with the Backstreet Boys

Beachtime on Koh Tao!

The trip to Koh Tao started by taking an almost 2 hours delayed night train from Phechaburi to Chumpon. It was about 5 hours of shaking and noise, and as expected Tatiana could not sleep. We arrived at Chumpon just on time to get the ferry tickets to Koh Tao, which took about 3 hours. When we arrived to the island we had a quick snack before we walked towards Sairee Beach, in search for a diving school. We found one with Spanish speaking instructors, and Tachi decided to start the course that same afternoon. We ended up staying next door in a dirty bungalow so we wouldn’t have to get up so early to walk to the diving school.

While Tachi was doing her Open Water course David had to find other things he could do on his own. On Tachi’s first day in the water David decided to explore the island by foot. On the way up to Two View viewpoint he met and joined two other travellers who were heading for Aow Leuk, a beach on the other side of the island.

View over Sairee Beach from Two View viewpoint

The next day, David joined the boat for a couple of dives while Tachi kept doing her exercises. Unfortunately she did not feel comfortable, and had problems with some of the exercises, so she decided not to finish the course. A three day course was a bit to quick for her to get comfortable with the sensation of breathing under water, so we got a cut in the price for not continuing the last day. Hopefully with some more practice she will be able to join David for some scuba diving in the future.

As we didn’t need to stay next to the diving school anymore, we headed out to find a better place to stay. We found a very clean place in front of Sairee Beach, with swimming pool, restaurant, bar, and for the same price as we were paying at the dirty place. Now we had a few days to enjoy the island and its beaches!

Boats in the sunset at Sairee Beach

The day we moved to the new bungalow we just stayed around Sairee Beach and enjoyed a relaxed day in the sun. We didn't really have much luck with a cloudless sunset, but it was still a beautiful view! The next morning we got up early, grabbed a not so tasty breakfast, and started our hike to the other side of the island. David had managed to convince Tachi that the steep and sweaty walk was well worth the amazing views over the island. Our plan was to do the same route over to the other side, but then go to Tanote Bay instead of Aow Leuk. Because of the burning sun, and a very steep road down to Tanote Bay, we ended up going to Aow Leuk. It was so good to get into the water, but unfortunately we didn't have enough money to pay the deposit for renting snorkeling gear :( Just because we had left almost all the rest of our money as a deposit for our bungalow... Why all these deposits??
Nevertheless we enjoyed the beach, and could watch some colorful fishes in the crystal clear water. As the sand was to hot we spent almost all the time in the water, just getting out for lunch. Before it got dark we returned to our hotel, and enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool after a long day of burning sun and a lot of sweating. We were hoping to have a nice fish dinner as our last on the island, but we were rather disappointed. 

Enjoying Aow Leuk Beach

The next day was our ferry back to Chumpon, and our overnight bus back to Bangkok. We will be missing Koh Tao!!