Yet another looOOoooooOOOOooong distance bus

This time we are heading North to Chiang Rai. We are going to spend the last couple of weeks in Thailand relaxing.

Sickness - update!!

So as you know, I got a horrible bout of 'gastro', just before leaving Mandalay.
Worst. Day. Ever. (At least on the trip so far).

Remember this guy?

Want to know how I'm getting on? You do? Read on!
[WARNING: Biological processes and materials discussed in this post - don't eat and read]

Thailand Pre-paid mobile

One of the things we needed to do on returning to Thailand from Myanmar, was to recharge our prepaid mobile phones.

Exploring Myanmar

We are back in Bangkok now. After spending some time in Myanmar, Bangkok feels a lot more organized and cleaner than I remembered. In total, we were in Myanmar for 2 weeks.

Inle Lake photos

Apart from getting food poisoning, Inle Lake was quite pretty....

Sick as a dog..

It had to happen eventually...

Yesterday, I came down with a horrible case (though probably described as "mild", should a doctor diagnose it) of food poisoning.

Perfect timing, as we were about to check out and get on a long-distance bus...

TL;DR - Unpleasantness.
Warning: biological functions discussed in this article - skip if you're eating..

Photos from Amarapura, Inwa and Sagain...... (towns surrounding Mandalay)

Boogying down in Mandalay

So we arrived in Mandalay, the second biggest city in Myanmar on a bus, found a taxi (they find you, really) that eventually got us to our hotel, the Rising Venus Hotel.

Nice new hotel, so new, in fact, that they were having their official opening during our stay!

Mandalay Photos

Shan Noodle 

Photos from Mandalay downtown & Mandalay Hills.

Bagan photos......

More photos from Bagan... Lovely place with lovely people. We loved it!

Temples and Phayas in Bagan

We visited Nyaung Oo, Old Bagan & New Bagan.... After seeing about 5 temples and phayas, it became hard to tell one from another....but beautiful all the same.

Gaining karma..?

We were visiting the Shwezigon Paya (a big golden pagoda), when I spotted a fellow Earthling in distress.

Some 'tard had tied a long (2m or so) ribbon to the foot of a pigeon.

While I'm not a huge pigeon fan, generally, I don't think it's nice to mistreat them.

So, I approached the pigeon slowly, and managed to step on the ribbon and gently catch the bird. 

I untied one leg, but was having trouble with the other, as I only had one hand free.
Luckily, one of the locals came by (to see what I was doing, probably) so I asked him to help.
He untied the (obviously deliberately tied) knot, and I gently put the pigeon back on the ground.

It waddled off, hopefully feeling relieved that its freedom of movement was restored.

We didn't take photos of this - too busy worrying that it'll be ok, as it looked really lethargic..

Going, going, Yangon

As you know, we left Koh Samui on an overnight bus, arrived in Bangkok in the wee hours, ate breakfast at the greasy spoon at the bus terminal (rice and 'omelette'), then found a cab to take us to the old airport, Don Corleone Mueang, which is still in use, but shows its age.
We waited for what seemed like forever, then got onto the plane to Yangon..

[Warning: lots of boring thrilling text, see the photos in another post]

Yangon Photos

We stayed in Yangon for two days. Interesting city. Very friendly people.

On the move again....

Now we are heading to Myanmar! We are both excited because neither of us have been to Myanmar yet, first time, woohoo!

So to get to Myanmar, we first had to get back to Bangkok. We had a few options for going back to Bangkok from Koh Samui. Option One: The easiest & the fastest - to fly. Option Two: To take the train either from Surat Thani or Chumphon. Option Three: Long distance bus.

Beautiful wedding on the beach

Congratulations to my good friend Sherry and her new husband Edward!
We are so happy that we could join them to celebrate their special day.... !!

Koh Tao Photos

Beautiful beaches in Koh Tao

12 days of Island life. We managed to visit most of the beaches on Koh Tao. Lovely beaches.

Mmmmm.....Shakes!

The shakes at Aminjirah Resort were so good! We loved every single one of them! (yes, we tried every single one of them). Our favourites - Mango Shake & Watermelon Shake! Yum..

Scuba Refresher and "Fun Dive"

CMAS certification card (not mine, just off the net)

So, staying at Koh Tao, where there are 52 scuba schools (one for every week of the year!), and having brought my CMAS certification card, I thought it was time to go for a dive.

Island Life.....

Trying to read the screen in the sun...very hard

New Boganville?

So we're all familiar with the notion of the bogan and all the stereotypical personal traits that entails.

Bogan HQ?

Now we get to experience the bogan look (at least) even when thousands of kilometres from Rooty Hill.



Time for a rant in which I throw stones while inside my snug glass house..
Note: I almost decided not to post this, as it's a bit on the negative side, and I prefer things to be positive, but I hope I added enough hints of humour for it to be bearable..
Feel free to skip it, though, especially if you love tattoos...

TL;DR - bogans everywhere! Grr!