I had a leisurely day (or half-day) on the bike today. I read about the hot spring about 40 minutes away by bike. It seemed like a good way to while the day away. The road there was a mix of sealed and unsealed. I had a nicer bike than the one in Bagan and […]

Above:  Sightseeing boats on the river at Nyaung Shwe. I woke at 0530. As I left the hotel the monks were on their rounds collecting their food. The ride to Bagan Airport took about 15 minutes and the place was very quiet when I first arrived. It didn’t take long before busloads of older western […]

I set the alarm for 0500. It was an unusually warm morning; even in the lowlands including Yangon, it is normally quite cool. Despite that, it wasn’t warm enough to cycle in just a thin T-shirt. I felt apprehensive wearing my black raincoat cycling on the poorly-lit road from Nyaung U to get to Shwe […]

Seven of us had agreed to go to Mt Popa today. We had organised a small pickup truck to take us there and back at about USD1 more than the public transport rate of USD7 per head (see, I told you Myanmar wasn’t cheap … that’s a lot of money for a 1h + 1h […]

I had an amazing night sleep in the cold enclosed rooftop dorm until the prayers kicked in around 0600. I had been warned about lots of chanting from 0400 but it either didn’t happen or I had slept through it. After a simple but big breakfast, I rented a bicycle for less than USD2 for […]

With a 0700 departure on the ferry, I got the hotel to order me a taxi for 0615. It turned up slightly late and there was a mild panic. To make matters worse, he took me to another deserted jetty which is used on some days of the week. Fortunately we made it to the […]

Working half days I woke at 0700 after 11 hours sleep, to make up for the previous night’s interrupted sleep … when my body woke me up for the AirAsia sale which I had forgotten about. Also, sleep without pseudoephedrine is so much better! As Myanmar’s sights are largely temples and stupas, I had found […]

Booking for next year Having retired too early last night, I woke around 1am. I realised that this was also the first day of AirAsia’s latest zero-fare sale (shortest fights are zero-fare but longer flights are at tiny prices). I managed to buy HKG-KUL-KCH-KUL-HKG for next Christmas for about NZD200 (11 hours flying) uninterrupted by […]