good morning we are leaving Myanmar going to Bangkok
flying to Bangkok then spending four hours in Bangkok Airport, Don Mueang
airport, then catching our flight to Cambodia, to Seam Reap to see some of the
most amazing temples in Asia or maybe the world now come on let's go
It is farewell to Myanmar
It's been a bit of a hectic, and way too brief trip
but I have managed to capture
the main highlights
so Bagan temples
Inle Lake and then a brief visit to Mandalay so much
more there is to see but that'll just have wait for another trip
now recapping my
favorites this is always a tricky one
but I'm gonna try and do a recap of each
country to say what I thought was my favorite part the trip and why
for me although they're all fantastic places Inle Lake
has to be my favourite I just
love being out on the water, the early morning light the mist the fishermen the
opportunity to see a lot of Myanmar Burmese life as it still goes on
I'm not really that much of a city person so Yangon although was very fascinating and
had lots to see and that the Schwedagon temple was amazing sight
it's still
a big city and a bit busy for me Mandalay the same Mandalay again the
temple on the hill overlooking Mandalay city and the wooden bridge the largest
teak bridge in the world also quite beautiful
but again a city Bagan does
rival it
I mean in Bagan huge open spaces you could
spend days just ambling round and getting some amazing photos and
experiences amongst the temples and just finding temples that nobody goes to
but the lake wins it for me
food
food of Myanmar
bit of a mix Myanmar is quite strange
it's got its its geographical
location of Myanmar puts it between
on one side you've got Bangladesh and India
China a little bit of Laos and Thailand are
it's common borders and it takes a
bit of food from all of these places
which is great because all those food
places are good
it doesn't seem to have it's own really strong
Myanmar food identity
so a lot of the food I ate was either Indian or Chinese
that or Thai
I don't know if Ihad any Bangladeshi food
but it's all been okay I wouldn't say stunning
like you know Thai food is
really difficult to go into Thailand and get bad for the same as India
India food i's just packed with flavour
I did enjoy my Myanmar meals my
best one by far was at the Love Boat in the
mall in Yangon where I just happened
to wander across its near the reclining Buddha and this little place tucked in
called The Love Boat and I had this, I can't remeber if it was pork or chicken
but it was absolutely delicious really nice so
that had to be my favourite meal
safety-wise it is a very safe country to visit
so don't be put off by what you hear on the news
do your own research
weather, yes December through to April is
the best time of the year to visit and
the busiest time, I say busy, it's not busy like a lot of other Southeast
Asian destinations
but you get the good weather it's not too hot during the day
it can get quite cool at night it was dropping, and I say quite cool
it was dropping I think the lowest was 15 degrees at night so it's not cold but
if you're going on a boat it can be quite nippy so you need to bring a few
extra layers but it's dry this time of year then April May June July it's the
rainy and hot season combined so not such a good time of year but it's an
interesting time of year because the early part of you went dry everything is
very dry like Bagan is dusty and brown
you then come later in the year when it rains
everything blossoms and you've got the green and the clouds you
know so and and prices do drop a little bit as well
Transport. Transport around Myanmar
there is a train between some of the major places but they're horribly
slow very uncomfortable and really loud bumpier than the roads by all reports so
really not worth taking unless you just want to go for the train experience
don't expect any sleep or any air con or much in the way of hearing them some
people I spoke places they put their headphones on with the music and they
couldn't hear the music because the train was so loud
so the main way of getting
between places
and certainly economically is
by buses there's big there's lots of bus
companies of different value there's some luxury VIP bus companies that are very
good both day buses and night buses for getting around now to give you an idea a
ten hour journey which is if you're looking like I did several journeys I
did the bus from Yangon to Bagan, that was ten hours
my taxi driver has just leaped out the Taxi and run off and left me
ok, he's left the engine running I
think he just went oh he's gone to do a pickup
okay, well I don't mind.
Where was I?
Oh yes the bus journeys I did yes so to give you an idea of the costs of bus
journeys and the times I took the bus from Yangon to Bagan which is a 10-hour
night bus and I took the VIP luxury bus now it means only three seats a row
fully reclining and I'm sure on my videos you've seen my views of the
inside of the bus of very nice buses take ten hours and that took and that
cost fifteen US dollars so
not too bad
I then took the also the night bus from
Bagan to Inle Lake that also took ten hours
and that was twelve US dollars again in
the same luxury night bus
then I took the, again, another night bus from Inle
Lake to Mandalay that was only seven hours included a meal as well at a
little road stop restaurant and that cost me eleven dollars so that gives you an
idea of the costs and the times traveling
I'm now actually flying out of
Mandalay to Bangkok so I don't have to, sorry just move you over here a bit,
do anymore bus journeys in Myanmar
so yes and the night buses are good I mean
they are good quality it's a nice way of traveling around, oh the other way of
traveling and of course is flying between those places you can fly to to
the airports near Bagan and Inle Lake and of course Mandalay and Yangon
but the flights are reliable but quite expensive by comparison I think for the
same journey I was looking about 120 to 160 US dollars for a one-way flight
between Yangon and Mandalay
obviously you can pick up some offers if you book
far enough ahead but then you're less flexible with your journey so
questions and comments and anything else you want to ask just drop me a comment below I'll
get back to you as soon as I've got internet access
let's get the airport, do a check-in,
start our trek via Thailand to Cambodia