We had come up to Heathrow on the National Express coach the day before, and stayed in the Mercure Hotel.

Using the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa to get from the coach station at Heathrow to the hotel, and then again in the morning to get back to Terminal 2

We found the Hoppa to be uncomfortable and noisy, plus it takes quite a while to get between the Mercure and terminal 2.

Once we'd checked in and got through security we had a bite to eat. Full English breakfast at the London Pride, before heading to the gate

This was our first time in an A380, nice aircraft, relatively quiet and comfortable, although we were fortunate in having 3 seats between the 2 of us. Even though the aircraft is not as noisy as others, on long flights like this, 14 hours, having noise cancelling headphones and a decent music player is a real boon.

Flight was on time, food was good, drinks appeared to be limitless ( for some passengers at least ), entertainment system had a good choice of films, generally we found Thai Airways to be quite a pleasant experience.

Arrived in Bangkok on time, our bags were checked all the way through to Yangon, so we didn't need to worry about them. We had to ask the way to find the right gate for our transfer, which involved having to go through security again, but there was plenty of time to make the connection

A Thai Airways A320 to Yangon, we were served a meal on the plane, spicy noodles for breakfast.

Passport control at Yangon was straightforward, all the visas and customs declarations were in order and after multiple rubber stamps we were allowed in.

Baggage reclaim took a while as the belt kept stopping, but we got our bags eventually and headed outside.

Once outside, we were pounced upon by what became a recurrent theme, the taxi touts. These are people who can speak English and will "help" get a taxi and as the taxi drivers don't speak English, they will tell the taxi driver where you want to go, they get a cut from the drivers and it can end up costing 2 or 3 times the going rate for a taxi ride. We ended up paying 15000 Kyat for what should've been a 7000 Kyat ride.

It took about 45 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel, a distance of about 10 miles. Our first taste of Yangon traffic!

Every time the taxi stopped, the driver opened his door and spat on the ground. Everybody chews betel here, it stains their teeth red and there's big red splodges on the ground where it has been spat out.

Checked into Hotel Esta, reasonably clean and comfortable, although we did find that the air–con blows down directly onto the bed which made sleeping a little difficult

Rested for a while, we'd been travelling for a long time and then decided to go out for a walk.

The plan was to walk to Bogyoke Market, but we never made it there. Because of the nature of the roads and the traffic we ended up heading towards the colonial quarter, simply so we could cross the roads using the pedestrian overpasses

Yangon seems to be in a permanent state of gridlock

Many of the roads don't have a pavement as such, and where they do, it's taken over by street vendors, essentially the streets are lined with a long thin market, selling anything you could want

Which means that most of the time it is necessary to walk on the road

The streets are lined with food stalls, selling both cooked and raw ingredients, creating a mixture of smells, some pleasant, others not so pleasant, all of which takes a bit of getting used to.

We eventually ended up in the colonial quarter, this was the administrative heart of the city when the British were here, with many once imposing buildings gently decaying. It was here that one of the locals started talking to us, claiming to be a maths teacher, he wanted to take us to see his school, or could we donate $10 to help the children in his class. I think this was the only such instance of someone directly asking us for money without offering anything in return, it may even have been genuine for all we know.

A few of the old buildings are in good repair, but many buildings now exhibit a crumbling Colonial facade, with ad–hoc repairs and plants starting to get a foothold.

In the centre of the colonial district are the Mahu Bandula Gardens containing the imposing independence monument. The gardens themselves are quiet and relaxing with many families and friends sitting on the grass or having picnics.

There weren't any park benches to sit on. In fact in general there aren't places to sit, most people sit on the floor.

This is in contrast to just outside the park where there was a band playing modern music quite loudly, they seemed to be popular.

Diagonally across from one corner of the gardens is the Sule Pagoda. The pagoda and its surrounding ring of small shops form a traffic roundabout. Although there are crossing points marked by white stripes on the road, these mean little to the drivers, but we eventually managed to cross to the middle

Beautiful Sule Pagoda

Barefoot of course, carried our footware in our bags, because we weren't sure we'd be coming out of the same entrance.

It was here that we realised we needed to carry wipes for our feet, bits of grit and sand stick to your feet and make it quite uncomfortable to walk in shoes or sandals afterwards.

We walked back to the hotel and had some of the hot sweet instant tea and a shower

First night in Myanmar, we chickened out and had dinner at the hotel – no other diners

Asian fixed price menu 9 usd for 3 courses, for 2 plus 6 beers ( Myanmar beer ) 30 usd total

Deb had : Egg, sweetcorn and chicken soup, Thai green curry, water melon and banana

Steve had : Spicy chicken soup, sweet and sour pork, water melon and banana

Interestingly we did see some people coming in carrying take–away bags, so we knew there must be other options for the food.

And so to bed – not bad for the first day in Myanmar.

Breakfast at Hotel Esta, Mohingja, fish stew – bit like noodles in stock, served with sweetcorn friter, hard boiled egg, coriander, chilli, lime and vinegar, also had toast, Lipton's tea, strong coffee and pineapple juice.

Managed to book bus to Lake Inle for Wednesday via the JJ–Express facebook page.

Walked to Shwe Dagon Pagoda, further than we thought, and it was quite hot.

The Pagoda itself is fantastic, many people were fascinated by our appearance! They wanted their pictures taken with us.

A monk came up to us and started talking, his name was "Yeah", he'd lived in Australia for 12 years, his son still lived there. He'd come back because he had a scholarship to advance his studies for a year, we talked with himfor a while, he was very knowledgable about the history of Myanmar and was an interesting person to talk to.

After we left the pagoda we walked up towards People's Park, had a cold drink and a snack at a modern fast food outlet, Potato Break, Pizza flavoured chips and sour cream flavoured chips. Cold drink was welcome, coke zero and sprite, 9000 Kyat in total.

After our chips we found a small supermarket, about the size of a corner shop, called the Victoria Prime Hypermarket, where we bought a tin of biscuits and a packet of what looked like malted milk, but turned out to be chicken flavour.

Breakfast at hotel, Burmese fried rice and fried egg.

Taxi to Yangon Station, 2000 Kyat

For the circle train, leaving at 10:10, a three hour ride back to where you began. At the station, waiting for the same train, we met a young Scot from Dundee who worked at the British embassy in Beijing, he was somewhat surprised that we'd chosen Myanmar as our first Asian country to visit

We journeyed through the Yangon suburbs, stopping at stations on the way. At one stop, the 2 girls on the seats opposite bought corn on the cob, we watched them as they picked the kernels off with their fingers, eating a few but they put most of them on the seat. At the next station the kernels on the seat got thrown out of the window for the pigeons!

The train was quiet, a few tourists and locals for the first part of the journey, then the train stopped at Da Nyin Gon Market. The platform here was full of people waiting to get their produce on the train. Most bags must have been nearly a cubic metre, and heavy.

The train was transformed into a bustling, busy, noisy environment. People started processing their produce, triming the stems with razor blades and tying them into bundles, ready to sell on the streets of Yangon. The ticket inspector had his work cut out, each bag had to be paid for, it was almost impossible to move down the carriage, it was so full. Then people selling food started moving down the carriages too, all sorts of sliced fruit, served with chilli flakes.

Some bags were offloaded at earlier stops, but most were offloaded when the train got back to Yangon central station

After the train ride, we had intended to go round Bogyoke market, but it's closed on a Monday, so went Western and had a cold drink and a KFC!

After that we walked back to the hotel and bought a few beers from a local shop on the way.

That evening we walked round to the Junction Centre, a modern shopping mall with many eateries to choose from, but we didn't fancy any of them. But opposite the Junction centre there were lots of street vendors selling freshly cooked food. As we were in the Chinese district, we chose a stall selling noddles topped with something like egg fu yong with pork and chicken. Ate in the street at small plastic tables, Debs first time with chopsticks, surprisingly accomplished at it! The food was very tasty.

That night we got the hotel to arrange a taxi for the following day to take us on a tour of Bago. Initially a bit of confusion because they thought we were saying Bagan. Apparently Bago should be pronounced Bag–Oh, not Bay–go.

Taxi to Bago, 70 USD for the day, our driver was called Nilly Woohoo, or something like that

The taxi ride was an experience in its own right, right hand drive cars, driving on the right hand side of the road. Much weaving in and out of traffic, it appears to be ok to overtake on either side providing that the horn is being beeped continuously.

We passed monks riding side saddle on the back of mopeds.

Having 3 or 4 people on a moped is common, whole familes, the father driving, the mother breast feeding a baby on the back, with a toddler sitting between them.

There were stalls all along the side of the road, mainly selling water melons, thousands of them.

On the way to Bago we passed through several small towns, some of these were quite congested with traffic. At one point we had to pull over to let an armed police convoy go past.

Out first stop in Bago was the Shewmawdaw Pagoda. We had to pay a camera fee here, only a few dollars each. A very impressive structure, the tallest pagoda in Myanmar at 375 feet high.

The taxi driver dropped us off at the entrance to the pagoda and said he'd wait for us, we weren't sure if we'd be able to recognise him or the car, but it wasn't a problem he spotted us as we came out of the pagoda, I guess we stood out.

Next stop was the Kanbawzathardi Palace, rebuilt from archeological evidence, with the preserved teak supports alongside the modern reconstructions.

Stop number 3, the Myathalyaung Buddha, a modern reclining Buddha of immense proportions, truly impressive and in the open air, so no roof supports to get in the way. We were approached by a lad selling post cards, he was quite charismatic, with a good grasp of English, and an impressive repertoire of western songs, he continued to sing Beatles songs to us even after we'd bought his "hand painted" postcards for 5 USD.

Fourth stop was the Shwethlyaung Buddha, a reclining Buddha dating from 800 AD. On the way in we were offered the same "hand painted" post cards we'd bought at stop 3, for only 3 USD! Again the scale of this Buddha is immense, an aircraft hangar style building protects it from the elements.

Fifth stop, the beautiful Mahazedi Pagoda, white marble and gold. It is possible to climb this pagoda, there are steps going up to a first level, where you can walk all round the perimeter where there are various statues set in little niches, from this level there are 4 sets of steps, one at each of the cardinal points.

Choosing stairs that were in the shade I climbed to the top, the view was spectacular with the Myathalyaung Buddha clearly visible reclining amongst the trees.

Because we hadn't actually specified what we wanted to see in Bago, we had reached the end of the driver's itinerary, but we asked if he would take us to see the 4 seated Buddhas, he knew what we wanted and was happy to take us there to see the Kyaik Pun Paya.

After that it was a two hour drive back to the hotel, a good day out for 70 USD

The driver asked what we were doing tomorrow, it was hard to communicate because his English wasn't too good, but we ended up booking him again through the hotel

That evening we walked into Chinatown again, through the street market, selling chicken heads, chicken feet, fish (all covered in flies), all illuminated by lit candles on the platters, there were no street lights. Ended up back at the same vendor as last night, this time we bought it as a takeaway and took it back to our hotel room

Packed our bags in the morning and checked out of Hotel Esta at around noon. Our taxi driver from yesterday was ready waiting for us. We'd prepared a list of things we wanted to see, in retrospect we had more time than we thought so should've had one or two extra things on the list

First stop was the Chaukhtatgyi Buddha temple, another huge reclining Buddha, the side panels of the plinth were decorated with scenes from the life of the Buddha. There was also a raised platform that could be used to get a better view of the Buddha.

Many of the Buddhas in Myanmar have these LED halos around them, seemed a bit incongruous to us, but they are eye catching.

Second stop of the day was a visit to the White Elephants. We wanted to see them, but it was distressing. They have three white elephants in total, the 2 females were out on view, chained by their ankles in a bare pavilion. Myanmar is changing, hopefully this is one of the things that will change.

The last place on our list was the Kyauk Daw Kyi pagoda. Here there is a huge Buddha, carved out of a single piece of Jade, it is kept inside an environmentally controlled glass enclosure. This is the one time in the whole trip where a DSLR was needed, a polarising filter wold have reduced the reflections on the glass. It is an impressive sight.

There is quite a lot to see at this pagoda, including the world terrapin pool.

We hadn't anything else on our list, so we went to Yangon Bus Station and settled up with the taxi driver, he charged 5000 Kyat per hour.

Each bus company has there own waiting room and check–in desk, there are a lot of different bus companies and not much space for the coaches, the overall impression being one of organised mayhem.

JJ–express waiting room was simply rows of plastic chairs, free drinking water was available, they also brought coffee round half an hour before the coach boarded.

We boarded the coach at 17:30, and set off at 17:50. These are classed as luxury coaches because the seats are arranged in a 2 and 1 arrangement and so are a bit wider than normal. JJ–Express likes to model itself on an airline style of service. Bottled water was supplied, as was a little snack box, delivered to our seats by the "Stewardess". Coffee was brought to our seats in open cups, no mean feat given the state of some of the roads. Blankets were also supplied.

As we were leaving, security officals came on board and photographed all the passengers.

The roads were extremely bumpy, we were literally thrown around in our seats.

First stop was at about 22:00 for 30 minutes at a modern style service station, there were a lot of other coaches stopped here too. The facilities were clean and modern, we bought biscuits and peanuts, others went for proper sit down meals, there seemed to be a lot to choose from.

The next stop was a short break of 10 minutes at about 1 AM.

After a long sleepless night, being tossed around in our seats the bus stopped at 5:30 in the morning, we were told this was our stop and so got off, we appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. The stewardess came running out and said it was a mistake, so we got back on again.

We stopped again and the Inle zone tax had to be paid, 25000 kyat for 2 of us. Those who were still asleep didn't have to pay! They also took photographs of everyone on board.

We finally got to Nyaung Shwe at 6:30. Taxi touts were waiting, we were tired and just wanted to dump our bugs somewhere so we went with the first taxi that was presented to us. The taxi was a tut–tut, which was a moped with a carriage on the back. It took us to our hotel, Hotel Remember Inn. The staff were all still asleep, but the taxi driver found someone and shook them awake, they then woke the manageress who checked us in straight away, she said we could have breakfast if we wanted it.

Steve had Shan noodle, banana, tangerine and a glass of juice (papaya I think), Debbie had Omellete, toast and jam, coffee and juice.

We then slept for most of the morning.

Impressed and grateful that the hotel let us check in so early.

Feeling refreshed we went for a walk and visited the Market.

For lunch we had pancakes (avocado pancake and mushrom pancake) at the Inle pancake house.

After pancakes went to Yadana Man Aung Pagoda. There was some restoration work going on here, so parts of the upper gold leafed structure was down on the ground to have a good look at.

Women aren't allowed to approach this particular Buddha, don't know why that should be, we didn't come across that restriction anywhere else.

On the way back to the hotel we walked round the grounds of the Cultural Museum.

Went back to the hotel for more sleep before heading our for dinner.

Close to the hotel was the Lotus Rest, recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide, so we went there and had their set menu. Also tried the local Myanmar red wine, don't need to try that again.

Breakfast at the hotel, different juice today, water melon.

Walked into town, several men attempted to lure us onto their boats. Eventually we gave in to one and went to look at his jetty. Agreed a price of 13000 Kyat for the day. Two wooden chairs were placed in the boat, with life jackets, so we climbed aboard. The boat was hemmed in by other boats that were being used to transport goods around the lake, but with a bit of manoeuvring we were out onto the canal.

The boats are long narrow affairs, powered by a single cylinder diesel engine. When the engine is started or stopping, the boat rocks from side to side most dramatically. The boats have a good turn of speed, quite a nice way to travel.

At the end of the canal, where it opens up into the lake, fishermen pose for the tourists, we were tourists so our boat paused to get closer. Our guide explained that these weren't real fishermen, but were only there for the tourists, we gave them a tip anyway. We saw the real fishermen further out on the lake, but didn't get as close.

After the fake fishermen, we continued up the lake and pulled in to get a closer look at the famous floating gardens. Our guide explained that these are floating mats of vegetation, fertilised by dredging up silt and weed from the lake and dumping it on top. The boat driver demonstrated that they were really floating by getting out and walking on them. The main crop is tomatoes as these get a good price in the markets of Yangon.

Next we navigated through a series of creeks and tied up at a silversmith's workshop, built on stilts above the water. We stayed here quite a while, drank tea and ate sweets whilst the smith demonstrated how he melted and poured silver, using a set of homemade bellows to power the furnace, he then went on to demonstrate cutting out fretwork on a silver ring, the whole family were engaged in one activity or another. Inevitably there was a room of show cases with items for sale. Lucky fish, lucky elephant, etc. mostly brought in from elsewhere. But we bought a ring and a small Christmas set anyway. After which we had more tea.

Next stop was to see the long necked women, neither of us liked this much, doesn't seem right. There was stuff on display that could be bought, but we left as soon as we reasonably could.

Time for a lunch break, we were taken to a restaurant built on stilts above the water, The Shwe Yamin, quite pleasant sitting outside. Each table had its own platform, all linked together by bridges and walkways. Deb had fried noddle cashew nuts (3000 Kyat), I had fried rice mushroom (3000 Kyat) and a beer ( 3000 Kyat), all very tasty.

Next stop, the weavers, quite interesting, they weave lotus, silk and cotton. Escorted round by a young girl, who explained each step in detail and the way that the looms were operated. Much of the machinery was made from re–cycled bits, such as bicycle wheels. Bought a cotton scarf here.

Next stop, Cheroots. Cheroots are hand rolled by young girls and women, free samples are available, we were the only visitors. Bought a box of hand rolled cheroots here.

Next door was a boat builders, but we couldn't get over the water to it.

Last stop on the lake was a monastery, again built on stilts over the water, there were quite a lot of other boats and toursits here.

As we were ready to leave, it started to rain, so the boat driver and guide wanted to wait until it had passed. Then we set off back home. It started raining again, umbrellas were supplied, but when the boat was moving they were almost impossible to hold, and actually, we found the rain quite pleasant and refreshing. The temperature had dropped and the guide and driver had their coats on, but for us it was a pleasant temperature.

Our guide. A full day out on the lake for 13000 Kyat. We gave him 15000 Kyat.

After the boat trip we went back to our hotel for a while. After which we went out to dinner at the "Unique Superb Restaurant", we both had mixed vegetable curry, which was very nice.

Today the juice served with breakfast was avocado, nice.

Our plan for today had been to hire some bikes and cycle around some of the lake edges, but we weren't really feeling up to it and the weather was looking a bit mixed anyway. So plan B was to hire a taxi to take us to Pindaya Caves.

We asked at the hotel reception and the manageress arranged a taxi to come straight away, I think the taxi driver was her husband or some other relation. A price of 50000 Kyat was agreed for the day.

The car was like a small minibus, quite comfortable and spacious for the 2 of us in the back.

We hadn't got very far outside of Inle when we stopped at a monastery, obviously this was going to be more than just a trip to Pindaya Caves, but we weren't complaining.

At the entrance to the monastery was the usual gaggle of vendors trying to sell fans and other trinkets, but we got through these unscathed.

The Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung Monastery was interesting and very old with unique oval windows.

Next stop was a railway bridge. This is where the Thazi to Inle line performs a 360 degree loop to gain height, crossing over itself at this bridge. A lovely feat of engineering, that is a popular stop with visitors, but wasn't something we knew anything about until the taxi driver asked us if we wanted to see it.

Instead of taking the shortest route to Pindaya, our taxi driver drove us through a designated area of protected status, beautiful scenery and very agricultural.

The taxi driver took great delight in naming the different crops in English: avocado, tobacco, tea, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, melons, pumpkins, mangoes, rice, white, maize, beans and yellow flowers, it was flower season he said!

Pindaya caves themselves are incredible, Buddhas everywhere. There's even a Buddha maze. It was hard to know where to look.

After the caves we stopped at a paper and parasol making workshop.

Two girls were demonstrating how they made paper from the bark of a mulberry trees, boiled for 1 hour and then pounded in the water and spread on wire racks to dry. The paper was decorated with petals from various flowers, aster, poinsettia, etc.

A man was demonstrating how to make the various parts of a parasol, using hand tools, and a treddle lathe.

We bought a small paper notebook and a jade elephant, there was no pressure to buy anything here, the whole atmosphere was very relaxed.

Last stop was Pindaya Market, a fantastic assortment of goods on sale, salt fish, loose tea, diesel generators, anything you could want.

We headed back to the hotel after this and had a shower.

For dinner we tried the Golden Kite, disappointing, mainly sold pizza, we had a vegetable noodle soup. The waiting staff were teenagers and didn't seem interested in serving people at all. So we paid up and walked back to the "Unique Superb Restaurant", were we had pork and basil curry and mint and chicken curry.

The previous night we had asked at reception for a taxi to take us to Heho airport, a price of 18000 Kyat was agreed. It was the same taxi driver as yesterday.

He drove us to Heho, but I don't think he'd been there before because he parked in the car park instead of taking us to the drop off point. It didn't matter because it was only a short walk to the terminal building.

It all seemed a bit chaotic, but we went in and asked for Asian Wings, the man grabbed our bags and sped away across the terminal to the Asian Wings desk, dumped our bags on the scales, old style mechanical scales, another man then whisked our bags away. Check–in was extremenly easy and somehow we got a sticker that related to our bags. Hand luggage was x–rayed on the way to the departure lounge, but I don't think anyone was looking at the x–ray screen. There was food and drink to buy in the departure lounge, but we didn't want anything.

Our flight was called and we went outside and walked to the plane, an ATR–72, en–route we were served a cheese roll and a cold drink.

We landed on time at Lashio.

At Lashio we had to show our passports and name the hotel we were staying at.

It wasn't clear where we should go, but a man gave us directions and told us to wait outside the airport gate.

Outside the airport gate, taxis were waiting, and the inevitable english speaking taxi tout who arranged a taxi for us.

When the baggage arrived on the back of a trailer, the taxi driver took our luggage receipts, found our luggage and put it in the taxi.

The trip to Hsipaw cost 50000 Kyat and took one and half hours. Lots of big lorries, a dusty and smoggy trip, we had to have the windows open because we'd forgotten to make sure that the taxi had air–conditioning.

Got to Hsipaw and found the Hotel Lily The Home, even though the taxi driver wasn't exactly sure where it was.

Seems like a very pleasant hotel.

After a wash and brush up, went out for a walk around the town, to escape 2 stray dogs that were following us around, we went into a burmese curry house, all we did was sit down, the waitress came straight over and just said curry, we said yes and where we were served with a traditional Burmese curry, our first such meal, it was very tasty.

Back at the hotel we arranged transportation to the train station for the morning, they told us we needed to be at the station at least an hour before the train went.

A tuk–tuk took us from the hotel to the train station for the price of 1500 Kyat, it dropped us at the level crossing at the end of the platform and the driver pointed to where the ticket office was. We carried our bags the 100 yards or so to the ticket office. We got there just before 08:00, plenty of time to spare, there was one person in the queue ahead of us to buy tickets.

The station master didn't seem to be in any hurry to serve anyone, he was pre–occupied with book keeping. He then announced, he was going for his break, he would be 15 minutes.

We waited.

The station master came back, he hadn't been gone 15 minutes, but there was now a queue building up behind us.

An assistant came in, and the two of them set about issuing tickets, the woman in front of us was buying three tickets. Each ticket was written out by hand, passport numbers entered in a journal, seats allocated, a very slow and meticulous operation, now we understood why the hotel told us to get here an hour early.

Eventually it was our turn and our tickets were duly issued, but we didn't have the exact money, we went and stood in a corner and waited for change, after the next people had bought their tickets we were given our change and moved outside onto the platform.

On the platform there were all manner of vendors, selling fruit, water and snacks for the journey. The waiting passengers consisted of a lot of tourists, but there were also several local people waiting too.

The train arrived on time.

We had bought first class tickets, several carriages were marked first class, but a conductor pointed us towards the one near the front of the train.

We found our allocated seats, and the guard in the carriage lifted our bags onto the overhead rack and we sat down. We speculated about the chances of the bags staying on the rack throughout the journey, but we needn't have worried, a few minutes later the guard came back with some cord and tied both our bags onto the overhead rack, we felt safer.

The train travels slowly and sways a bit from side to side, but wasn't as bad as we had expected. The train passes through the Myanmar countryside, we could see rice and melons growing in the fields, we could see people harvesting crops from the fields.

The shrubs and bushes grow very close to the line, in many places they brush the sides of the carriage, and spring in through the open windows. It looks as if they just let the train clear it's own path through the undergrowth.

The train stopped for 30 minutes at Kalamaw. Here there was a small cafe and also vendors on the platform selling all manner of hot and cold food. We had some kind of curry and rice, tasty.

Eventually we got our first glimpse of the Gokteik viaduct, the very reason we were on the train. Even from a distance it is extremely impressive, as the train zig–zagged down the hill it could be seen first on one side of the train, then on the other.

After several twist and turns we emerged from a tunnel and turned onto the Viaduct

There are no sides to the viaduct, the single track just runs across the top, so the views down into the valley are unobstructed.

Some people were leaning out of the doors to get a better look, and to have pictures taken.

From the other side the train zig–zags back up the hill with final glimpses of the viaduct being had from both sides of the train.

Then we just sat back and relaxed until the train got to Pyin Oo Lwin.

There were hoards of taxis waiting, wanting to take people to Mandalay. We were staying locally in Pyin Oo Lwin, so had a bit of trouble getting a taxi, and for once there were no English speakers around, but finally managed to communicate which hotel we wanted to go to. Unfortunately the taxi initially took us to the wrong hotel, and then upped the price to 17000 Kyat to get is to the right one, but we got to the Royal Green Hotel in the end

That night walked out to the Golden Gate restaurant, not bad, big portions, but rather spicy.

Royal green hotel

Debbie was feeling ill in the night, and didn't feel able to go out and in fact stayed in bed for most of the day.

But we had almost used up our initial 250000 Kyat that we had in cash, so I felt the need to get to a cash point, and wanted to see some of the town anyway, so walked from the hotel.

There were a lot of horse drawn buggies around, they're used like a standard taxi here.

Found a bank with cash point machines, the machines were all inside a covered area. This area was protected by a guard with a truncheon, first time I'd seen that in Mynamar, made me feel a little uneasy, anyway got cash and had a look around the town.

The Purcell Tower stands in the centre of the town, but there wasn't that much else to see in the town itself. On the way back to the hotel, popped into a shop to by biscuits and beer.

I don't know if ring pull cans are a new thing here, but this wasn't the first time that the seller had spent some time demonstrating how to open a can!

As Deb still didn't feel like going out, we investigated the in hotel dining options. Their kitchens were closed, but they did have take away menus behind the reception desk, and for a small fee they would go and fetch a takeway, put it onto plates and into bowls and then bring it to your room, what a clever idea! The takeaway was in fact the Golden Gate that we had eaten at the night before, the takeaway was good too.

We'd arranged a taxi, through the hotel, to take us to Mandalay, for a cost of 25000 Kyat. It had started raining, and as we progressed the rain got heavier and heavier, with thunder and lightning too. The road was mainly downhill, first a long straight slope, and then steep zig–zags down the side of the hill. By now the rain was very heavy, rivers were running across the road, bit of road had been washed away. Where the road had been cut into the hillside waterfalls were cascading down the hill, we passed oxen pulling carts and big lorries gping down that hill. Passing through the villages we could see the locals walking bare foot thorugh deep muddy puddles. It took about an hour and a half to reach Mandalay and get to the hotel. Down on the plain, the rain eased up and by the time we reached Hotel A1 it had stopped.

The hotel room was quite small, but clean with everything we needed.

About mid–day we ventured out onto the streets, with the intention of walking to the Royal Palace. Mandalay is a modern looking city, built on a grid system, so it was quite easy to find our way towards the palace, passing many interesting shops and street vendors on the way, not to mention some of the local wildlife.

This cafe is across the road from the moat that surrounds the Royal Palace, even though Kipling never went to Mandalay they still like to keep the association.

Looking at the map, it looks as if there are four entrances into the Royal Palace, but there aren't, we chose the east entrance, which was wrong, the guards directed us round to the correct entrance, a 6 km walk! It's a big palace. So we walked round the moat until we found the correct entrance, on the west side of the palace.

Once we'd found the correct entrance and paid the entrance fee, it was a 2 km walk to the centre of the palace. Once we got there it was a little disappointing, it was reconstructed after it was destroyed in the second world war, but it hasn't been done very well, and there isn't such a lot to see in there. Also by this time we had been walking in 30 plus degree heat for a couple of hours and were quite tired.

After we left the palace we headed back towards the hotel on foot, unfortunaaltely, what we hadn't realised was that the grid system is bisected by the railway and I'm afraid we did get a bit stuck in the centre of Mandalay. It was dark by now and we had been down some fairly dark alleys trying to find a way through. So we said to each other "maybe we should get a taxi", where upon a man sitting by the side of the road leapt up and sent a boy running over to the nearest taxi rank to bring a taxi back for us, he didn't want anything for his trouble, nice people in Myanmar. The taxi soon got us back to the hotel. That night we ate in the hotel, the restaurant is on the top floor with big picture windows overlooking the city, but actually there isn't much to see in the direction we were facing, although there was a small lizard clinging to the outside of the glass. An uninspiring meal, one steamed rice and veg and one fried rice with chicken.

A board in the lobby of the hotel was offering various trips, one of which was a "four kingdoms" tour for 55000 Kyat. The four kingdoms being Mingun, Sagaing, Inwa and Amarapura, this was something we'd looked at before coming so decided to give it a go. The hotel arranged a taxi to take us on the tour.

The first stop was Mingun, on the other side of the river, it took about an hour to get there, but here was a lot to see on the way. We passed a procession with oxen and horses decorated in flowers and local children dressed up, the taxi driver told us it was to do with the local monastery, but he wasn't entrirely sure.

In Mingun, the first stop was the Pa Hto Day Gyi Pagoda, an unfinished pagoda that has been severely damaged by several earthquakes, had it been completed it would have been as big as the great pyramid at Giza.

There's a small shrine with a Buddha inside, but mostly it's a spectacle to be seen from outside, with some steps going up one side, all of which has to be done barefoot. We were followed round by a local vendor, not entirely sure what she was selling, but we didn't give her anything.

Second stop in Mingun was the Mingun Bell. This bell is immense, weighing in at 90 tons it was the largest ringing bell in the world until quite recently, when the Chinese cast a bigger one. Some people stood inside the bell while it was being rung. It is rung by being struck on the outside by a wooden post.

Final stop in Mingun was the Myatheindan Pagoda, a beautiful white pagoda, very different in style to any other pagodas we'd seen. There are stairs that allowed us to climb quite high on the pagoda, giving us good views of the river and the Pa Hto Day Gyi pagoda.

We left Mingun and headed back the way we came towards Sagaing Hill, here we visited the Oo Hmin Thone Sel Pagoda. There's a long covered walkway that leads up the hill to the pagoda itself, the walkway is lined with the usual vendors of "hand made" trinkets.

The pagoda is famous for the arcade of seated Buddhas, but the building containing these Buddhas is equally as impressive. This is quite a large complex with a lot of different parts to explore, and also being quite high there were magnificent view over the river and surrounding plains.

Next stop in Sagaing was the Oo Ponya Shin Pagoda, this was under repair and the dome of the pagoda was covered over with matting and bamboo scaffolding. Not quite as high up as the previous pagoda, but still with amazing views. Also thousands of dragonflies, never seen so many!

We crossed back over the river, the taxi driver thought we might like a picture of the bridge, so he stopped on the main carriage way, and I got out very carefully to take a picture.

The third of the four kingdoms, is Inwa, to get there we had to cross a tributary of the Arawaddy. This is done via a small ferry, with a man constantly working the bilge pump. The taxi driver told us to be back by four thirty if we wanted to be back in time for sunset, which only gave is an hour at Inwa, our own fault because we had spent rather a long time going round each of the other places.

The ferry deposited us on the other side, where there were pony and traps waiting. There was very little choice but to take a pony and trap as the road was a sea of mud and slurry, plus we were collared by a girl selling trinkets who also arranged the trap for us. 15000 Kyat for the pony and trap. She followed us on her bicycle until we bought some "lucky" bells.

We only had time to visit one thing at Inwa, and this was an Ancient monastery, which was quite interesting, but it was busy there with tourists, the road leading up to the monastery was choc–a–bloc with horses and carts.

On the way to the monastery we were involved in a minor road accident, when a car tried to squeeze through a narrow bridge when we were crossing, the hub of the cart wheel caught the bumper of the car and bent it back. Everyone agreed it was the cars fault.

After the monastery the trap driver took us past an ancient watch tower, we didn't have time to stop and we skipped a second monastery entirely, we made it back to the ferry by 16:30. The taxi driver was waiting for us when we got back.

There would seem to be a lot to see in Inwa, certainly our trip didn't do it justice, much more time would be needed. Also the pony and trap was extremely uncomfortable and we were concerned that the ponies were struggling in the muddy slippery conditions.

Final stop on our tour was the the U–bein bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world. Very busy on the bridge, with lots of people on the bridge. No handrails or sides to the bridge, but no one fell in.

The road leading to the bridge is full of street vendors and is also very busy.

There were a lot of people in boats on the river hoping to get a picture of the sunset through the wooden supports of the bridge, but I think it was the wrong time of year for that to have worked. The sunset from the bridge was spectacular, and once the sun had gone down the crowds on the bridge thinned out a little.

There is more that we could have seen here, stuppas and pagodas, but it was dark now, so we went back to the hotel.

A good day out, crammed full of interesting sights and good value for money.

We arranged the next day with the taxi driver too, to take us around some of the other sights in Mandalay.

The taxi driver met us in the morning, and introduced us to his brother, who would be driving us. His brother must have been learning the trade because he had another man with him who seemed to be showing him the ropes.

We had agreed a price of 30000 Kyat for the day.

Our first stop was the Maha Muni Pagoda, this has the oldest Buddha in Myanmar, people were buying gold leaf and queuing to apply it to the Buddha. There were a lot of people worshipping at this Buddha. The applying of gold leaf to the Buddha was shown on CCTV for those who couldn't get close.

We were acosted by a guard because we hadn't bought a photo permit, I think we came in one of the alternative entrances, so hadn't passed the booth selling the permits. We bought a permit and all was well.

There was a lot to see here, there was an art gallery showing pictures of important sites relaing to Buddha's journey from india, photographs and paintings. There were also bronze statues from Angkor Wat, that if rubbed would cure whatever ailed one in the area rubbed, they were very popular.

Next stop was a gold leaf workshop, where we saw workers beating gold into leaf, it looked like hard work. From here we bought a mini Buddha for 8 USD and a piece of gold leaf for 1000 Kyat.

Stop number three was the Maha Lawkamarazein Pagoda, knwon as the World's biggest book, each separate "kiosk" contains a stone leaf from the book, 730 of them arranged around a central pagoda. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Debbie had her face painted here! They use Thanaka, a creamy coloured paste made from ground bark. We'd seen people selling bits of wood and wondered what they were for, now we knew.

Stop number four was for two monasteries within walking distance of each other, the first of these is a modern monastery. It consists of two flours, the top floor is one huge room with a Buddha shrine at one end, downstairs was less formal and was empty. This is the Shwe Kyaung Monastery.

The second monastery, the Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung, is very old and made entirely from intricately carved teak, an amazing sight.

It is undergoing restoration, with western specialists helping local artisans and craftsmen preserve the unique structure of this building.

Last stop of the day was Mandalay Hill, the road winds up the side of the hill, to a car park. From the car park there's a lift, which was closed, and a set of stairs going to the top, we climbed the stairs, barefoot of course, through the normal selection of traders and vendors.

A nice little pagoda on the top of the hill, with fantastic views over the plain below and over Mandalay, even though it was a bit Hazy. Some lovely mirrored mosaics and again, thousands of dragonflies.

Then we went back to the hotel. We didn't want to eat in the hotel, so we went round the corner to a place called D and G food, definitely a local haunt. We pointed at things on the menu and ate for 4000 Kyat for the both of us. On the way back bought beer from the SoSo shop.

Back at the hotel booked alarm call for 5 A.M. a taxi for 6 A.M. and 2 pre–packed breakfast boxes.

A 5 A.M. start, the lift wasn't working in the hotel, so carried bags downstairs, where the staff were turning the electricity on and off in an effort to reset the lift.

The taxi to the jetty was 6000 Kyat, it was still dark when we got to the boat. Boys carried our bags aboard and stowed them in a corridor in the boat. We boarded across the 2 scaffold planks propped between the boat and the river bank. We weren't quite the first people on board, there was another couple already there.

The boat was hemmed in by three other boats, that all had to be moved before we could cast off.

We opened our hotel breakfast boxes, which consisted of a hard boiled egg, slices of bread and butter and a can of coke.

The seats on the board were made of wicker and were semi–reclined, so that when sitting back ones feet didn't touch the ground.

A second breakfast box was supplied as part of the fare, this consisted of a warm hard boiled egg, croissant and danish pastry, which was all quite nice. Tea and coffee was also served and free bottles of water were available.

The morning started off quite pleasant and we had good views of Sagaing hill as we went past.

It started to rain a little bit as we approached the bridges so we had the aft deck to ourselves as everyone else sought shelter.

Later on it started to rain quite heavily and a lot of people had to move their chairs to stay out of the rain. Fortunately, even though we weren't under cover, the rain blew over the top of us, so we didn't need to move.

There were some interesting villages along the river bank, but generally the bank ws too far away to see very much, occassionaly we were close enough to see the locals using the river.

One of the crew explained that the smoke we could see on the banks was their way of making fertiliser by burning fish byproducts and weed.

Lunch was served, which was fried rice and chicken, served on a proper plate with proper cutlery.

In the afternoon the sun came out and it got extremely hot. Fortunately part of the upper deck was enclosed, with air conditioning, so at least one of us retreated into there.

An afternoon snack of eggy bread was served, I washed this down with a cold beer bought from the bar

As we approached Bagan stupas and pagodas began to appear on the river bank.

We got to Bagan at 15:30, a bit earlier than anticipated, our bags were carried off, they chared us a 1000 Kyat for this. They're a lot more used to tourists here, the taxi charged us 15000 Kyat to take us 4 km to the hotel. There were a lot of book sellers at the quay side, mainly selling George Orwell.

The taxi stopped so that we could pay the Bagan Zone fee of 25000 Kyat each, and then took us to the Hotel Umbra where we checked in.

According to google maps is was only a 25 minute walk from our hotel to the Balloons over Bagan office, we tried but it would have taken a lot longer than that, we did pass several restaurants though and there did seem to be a good range to choose from.

Ultimately we decided to eat in the hotel, because they did advertise themselves as having a high class restaurant. The hotel restaurant was entirely outdoors and candle lit, which sounds nice, but insects, particularly some kind of beetle, were a problem. We had a beef curry and a pork curry, wasn't especially good. We did have live entertainment though, ona stage at one end of the restaurant with a singer with guitar performing country and western style music, Tammy Wynette with a bit of Procol Harem thrown in.

Breakfast at the hotel, couldn't find breakfast area initially, but eventually found it on a terrace next to the car park. Not a bad selection for breakfast and eggs could be cooked to order.

Asked at reception about e–bikes, the hotel is meant to have them, but the receptionist told us to go across the road, so we did.

The e–bikes are like battery powered mopeds, they cost 8 USD per day to hire, got off to a bit of a bad start because a few miles up the road in Old Bagan, my battery went flat. Deb had to ride back to the hire place and try and communicate my plight. This was done successfully and I was relieved to see the vendor turn up on a fresh bike for me, he apologised profusely.

Spent the day playing around on the e–bikes, marvelous fun, stopping off at various pagodas and stupas on the way.

On the flat the bikes could reach 45 KPH, which is quite fast enough with no helmet or other protective gear on. We didn't just stick to the roads either, at times we were riding on mud paths through farmer's fields.

What we hadn't realised was that it was full moon festival, which meant that all of the roads were quite busy with all manner of means of transport, horse and carts, ox drawn carts, tractors and lots of mopeds. The pagodas were also crowded with local people going to worship.

At some of the pagodas there were a few salesmen, mostly laying asleep, but some were awake enough to sell us a sand picture.

About mid–day we rode back to the hotel to have a rest and cool off, before venturing out again in the afternoon, remembering to take a first aid kit with us this time, even though we didn't need it.

We'd booked a balloon flight many months in advance, at breakfast yesterday morning we overheard people talking, their balloon flight had been cancelled due to cumulus clouds and the possibility of lightning. So we weren't sure what was going to happen.

But we got up early and waited in recption, we were picked up at 5:20, in a bus dating from world war 2, lovely machine.

We were driven to a field next to the golf course where tea, coffee and biscuits were being served. Our pilot, Paulo Oligoco gave us our safety briefing and issued us with free hats. We then waited for the weather to settle.

The balloons were inflated and we climbed aboard, eight passengers to a basket, two in each corner and the pilot in the middle.

There are three balloon companies, and they all take off from the same area. The number of balloons is limited by the government to no more than twenty one, ours was XY–AKA, Kilo–Alpha to its friends.

We weren't the first balloon away, but we lifted off pretty much as the sun came up over the horizon. It was a beautiful sight.

All twenty one balloons in the air was a lovely sight. The pilots were in constant radio communication with each other and with the ground, co–ordinating what height they could fly at, on some occassions we passed over the top of other balloons, so they needed to know we were there.

This was our first balloon flight, and I can't image a better place to do it, the views over the plains of Bagan were breathtaking and the views of the temples was astonishing. It was particularly good that we'd ridden around the previous day to get our bearings. The pilot was very good at pointing out particular pagodas and other sights.

All the balloons were heading for the same landing area, they called it the Hotel area, as opposed to the alpha or charlie area presumably, as there were no hotels there.

As we approached the landing area, we crouched down in the basket, in the way we'd been shown and skimmed in brushing the top of the shrubs as we got lower. The ground crew were there waiting and caught the basket and kept it steady whilst the pilot just kept the balloon buoyant enough to be "taxied" by hand to make space for another balloon coming in behind us.

We had group photos taken of the basket and then clambered out, assisted by the ground crew for a breakfast of champagne and croissants, with banana bread and fresh fruit.

We were each presented with a signed certificate by the pilot.

The total time in the air was one hour and ten minutes, a wonderful experiemce.

The bus took us back to the hotel, we were back by 08:50, in time for a second breakfast.

A go–pro mounted in the riging was used to take official in flight photographs.

The same go–pro was hand held on the ground for the group shots.

The rest of the day was spent just lazing round the hotel, we did walk out for dinner, but that was only just round the corner.

We were feeling a little bit jaded, so any thoughts of expeditions to Mount Popa were shelved, instead we opted for a quiet day in and around the hotel. The hotel grounds themselves were quite interesting, as well as having two swimming pools, the hotel also had a stupa in the grounds, nicely maintained and interesting to look round.

Looking at the map on the GPS, it looked as if it would be possible to walk down to the river, so we walked out of the hotel and followed some trails marked on the GPS, we came across several stupas in various states of repair. This was the one and only time we saw a snake in Myanmar, a thin black snake sunbathing in the entrance to the stupa, it disappeared as soon as it sensed us.

We found our way down to the river, where the river level was receeding, people had started planting beans and maize on the river bank, we were very careful not to disturb any of the planting.

We also found another way down to the river, but people were washing themselves in the water, so we didn't disturb them or take any photographs and just made our way back, there were other interesting stupas on this path too, some with superb Buddha images inside.

That night we went out to "The Queen" for dinner, had pork curry served in a lacquerware bowl, surounded by all manner of extra spices and condiments, Spring rolls (20 of them!) and steamed rice and veg. All of the resaturants we went to in Bagan served us little wafer thin sweets flavoured with tamarind after we'd finished, they were delicious.

For our last full day in Bagan we hired e–bikes again, from the same place across the road from the hotel.

First stop was the Shwezigon pagoda. We were guided into park by a woman, who pinned colourful carboard butterflies on our shirts. She was keen to sell us her wares, more of that later.

This is a large complex with a lot of different things to see, prayers were being broadcast over a public address system.

A man directed us towards a "sacred Buddha", where a woman tried to sell us gold leaf to stick on it, we declined.

The main pagoda is under repair, but one still got an impression of overall magnificence.

On the way out we had to pass through the avenue of vendors lining the main entrance, here the woman who helped us park was waiting for us. We ended up buying quite a lot from here, bamboo lacquerware and jade elephants. Debbie also got her face painted again!

After leaving the Shwezigon we rode around on our e–bikes for a while, stopping off at odd places of interest that we spotted along the way. One of the big places we stopped at was the Alodawpyi Pagoda, this is a large complex of paved walkways leading to a number of lesser pagodas and stupas.

Many of the stupas had ornate Buddhas within.

One particular attraction was this stupa with the inside walls totally covered with painted images of Buddha. The sign said no photography, but we asked the resident guide if we could photograph and he said we could.

Another stupa at the Alodawpyi complex, we were told we could climb this one if we wanted too, but it didn't look that safe, and those steps looked particularly hard o n the feet, so we declined.

Some of the smaller structures at Alodawpyi are reached by brick paths, we weren't sure if we needed to be bare foot on these, but not wishing to offend anybody we remained shoeless as we wandered around.

On of the main tourist attractions in Bagan is the Ananda Temple, this temple houses four standing Buddhas, accessed through a series of corridors around the perimeter of the temple.

It was busy here, but we were grateful that there were vendors selling cold drinks.

After this temple we headed back to the hotel for a rest and to cool down a little.

In the afternoon we headed out again, stopping at the Thatbyinnyu temple. Nice cool corridoors ground round the perimeter with Buddhas facing the cardinal points.

This temple was under repair, and we watched as buckets were hoisted up to the roof by three young women working a pully system, it looked like hard work.

We then visited the Shwegugyi temple, this temple has steps inside that lead to the roof. This is one of the few temples in Bagan that it is permitted to climb. We climbed onto the roof via a single file flight of stone stairs. The roof was covered in sharp stones embdedded in concrete, some attempt had been made to lay bits of carpet of some of it, but it was hard on the feet. Very nice views from the top though, well worth the pain!

Final pagoda of the day, and indeed of the holiday was the Kayminga temple complex. which we just wandered around for while.

I think by now we were both feeling quite tired and we'd probably overdosed on pagodas and stupas.

For dinner we rode into Nyaung U to the local "Weather Spoons", where we had a pickled tea leaf salad for starters, followed by burger and chips! To drink I played it safe with a Sprite, Debbie went for a non–alcoholic cocktail made of root ginger and lime, it was very intense.

It was getting dark so we rode back, unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on on the e–bikes and it was very dark by the time we got back to the hire place

When we checked out of the hotel, they sent someone round to check the contents of the room, apparently we'd taken some literature that we weren't meant to, so they charged us an extra 5 dollars for that, it wasn't marked that it had to be left or anything, we just assumed it was part of the room, never mind.

We had booked the a couple of days earlier, the receptionist really wante dus to go on the overnight, luxury bus, the JJ–Express. But having had previous experience of night coaches we really wanted to travel during the day, so they eventually agreed to book us on a day–time bus.

When we booked the coach through the hotel reception, we were told that we would be picked up at 07:00, we were finally picked up at 07:30.

We were the first to be picked up, in a van with bench seats, which went round and made further stops until it was very full.

The bus station at Nyaung U is clean and modern, with lots of space for the coaches to come and go, we found our coach easily and got on.

Toothpaste, brush and water was supplied.

Travelling through the Myanmar countryside was very pleasant, with good views of Mount Popa on the way, and passing through many villages and towns. Later on when we got onto the new highways, it was little bit dull, but still better than travelling on the night bus.

We stopped for lunch at 11:30 for half an hour, and another shorter toilet stop a bit later. It was a 10 hour journey.

It was dark by the time we got to Yangon bus station, and yet again we paid over the odds for a taxi, 10 USD where it should have been 5 USD.

Also the taxi driver took a long detour to deliver his daughter's friend home, but we eventually made it through very heavy traffic to the Yangon airport hotel, where we stayed overnight.

In the morning a taxi took us to the airport for 2 USD.

Check–in for the plane was painless, the woman behind the counter moved our seats so that we were further forward so that we could get off quicker, she was concerned that we only had one and a half hours between flights in Bangkok.

I think we would have been ok anyway, but it was nice to get through the security checks in bangkok before the big queues started to form.

The flight back was on a 777, quite a noisy plane, whistled a lot, which is where noise cancelling headphones really come in handy.

Flight got in on time and we went to a hotel near Heathrow for the evening.

In the morning coach back to Southampton, taxi to ferry terminal and then home.

So what did we think of Myanmar?

For us it was a unique experience, neither of us had been anywhere like it. The architecture is on a grand scale and quite awe inspiring.

The people were universally friendly and welcoming, the hotels were all clean and comfortable.

Highlights of the trip must include the balloon flight and the Gokteik viaduct, but also the Shwe Dagon pagoda in Yangon.

The sights, sounds and smells are like nothing else we'd ever experienced.

We packed a lot into most days, taking in as much as we could. Three weeks isn't long enough to see a country, but by the end I think we'd reached the limit of what we could take in. Three weeks was long enough for us.

What was pleasing though, was that all the plans we'd made actually worked out, other than a couple of days when one of the other of us was feeling a bit rough, we saw everything we had intended to see. All of the travel arrangements and hotel bookings worked flawlessly, and things that we hadn't booked in advance were easily arranged through the hotels.

So how much did it all cost in the end?

Upfront we had paid:

So our upfront spend was £2539.39.

In addition to that we had taken dollars with us, of which we spent 600 USD, including converting 200 USD into Kyat at the airport, so that's £480 worth of dollars.

Also we got Kyat out of cashpoint machines three times during the trip, which came to a total of £470.

So the grand total spent is £3489.39. I think that's pretty good for 3 weeks for 2 people, as that includes all the taxis, boats, e–bikes and souvenirs.

What it doesn't include of course is the things we needed to buy before we went, clothes, hats, sandals, etc. Nor does it include anti–malarial tablets and mosquito nets, but all these things were bought gradually leading up to the trip, so that hardly noticed.

The big expense pre–trip was the vacinations that we couldn't get on the NHS, Hep–B and Rabies, these cost nearly £500.

Printed names and addresses of hotels in local scripts.