Burma-Lovely people!

I left my travel buddy again as she wanted to go to places I had already been and flew to Mandalay. I was not expecting the lovely hospitality off the hotel as there wasn't that many tourists about. The son was my driver for my time in Mandalay as it was quite difficult to get around without a car. His sister decided to come along for the ride to show me the sights and to translate which was lovely of her. She wanted to practice her english.

Our first stop was to the Mandalay palace. It was a wooden building with gold all over it:

There was a temple that only men could go in. The sister said she thought it was a stupid rule so she sneaked me in to have a look.

We then went to the cemetery. This wasn't your average cemetery as the whole place was full of hundreds of white tombs. It was pretty spectacular:

We then went to the Kuthodow pagoda which was a gold temple. It was beautiful.

Finally we ended our day in Mandalay hill. It was a Buddhist monetary and had an amazing view and a little market:

The next day we went out early to see the monks march through the city for their breakfast. There were loads of them, some really young. People gave them presents while they were walking:

Then we went to Mandalay U Bein Bridge. There wasn't much water so it wasn't as amazing as it could have been but it was still nice to walk across the bridge:

Then it was finally time to leave for Began! Mandalay was a lovely place and well worth a visit.

Began was amazing! It was so hot though 42 degrees.

I arrived and went to my hotel. It was getting late so wandered to find some dinner. I found the most amazing Italian restaurant (Yes I know its Burma) and had the best Italian food, and I have been to Italy.


The next day I tried to rent a moped as I was told it was easy. It wasn't and almost went into a tree, so I hired a tuk tuk for the day. They guy took me all over Began looking at temples. There's over 2000!

Began was amazing, it was one of the best places I had been too and highly recommend it. Unfortunately there were no hot air balloons flying when I was there but it was still a spectacular sight.

I had two days in Began but after a very tiring first day I relaxed by the pool on my second day as it was so hot!

I then had to leave Began for Yangon.

I arrived in Yangon and and my first stop was to the Shwedagon Pagoda. This was my favourite temple that I had been too as it was covered in gold. I walked there from my hotel and met a guy in the pagodoa who showed me around as he wanted to practice his english:

On my travels in Australia I had met a lovely girl from Burma. She had phoned her friends and asked them to take me out for the day. I couldn't believe how nice they were and that they agreed to it. It was also the start of the water festival (A festival I have come to loathe) It involves basically soaking everyone in water. So luckily her friends took me out in the car for the day so I didn't get wet.


They picked me up in a really nice car and took me for a drive. There were loads of people soaking each other and having massive water parties.

I also so the Kandawgyi lake and went for coffee at a 5 star hotel on the lake. I was also treated to lunch, they were lovely.

Then I was dropped off back at my hotel and decided to spend the afternoon in the Hilton having coffee and reading my book as I did not want to get wet!

Myanmar was a beautiful country with lovely people. it was one of my favourite places in Asia and I recommend anyone go there.

Thailand- I now love Pad Thai

I left my travel pal Stacey (who wanted to go to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and I had already been) and began my Thai journey in Krabi. I had heard that Krabi was much better than Phuket so thought I would try both and see. I arrived and it took ages for a mini van to turn up to take me to my accommodation. I got talking to a couple of girls and made friends with them while I waited. Eventually I arrived at my hotel. I went for a double room as it was quite cheap. I dumped my bag and went to find a tour I could join as I really wanted to visit some of the Islands. It is much cheaper to book a tour in Krabi than in Phuket for the same tours as its much cheaper here than in the really touristy areas. I booked a four island tour and the James Bond tour.

I had a day in Krabi town to explore before my tours so I started in the square outside my hotel which hosts a massive market. It had massive pineapples and coconuts and loads of different food. I bought some breakfast and continued on my way along the river bank.

I then came across a temple:

and did some shopping while pottering around drinking coffee in little coffee shops.
I went to the night market at night and had some delicious pad thai and a coconut.

The next day was my 4 Island tour. I made a friend while waiting for the tour to begin and spent the day with her. We went to Koh Podo, Koh Tub, Chicken Island (where we did some snorkelling) and the bay of Railey (where we had some lunch- which was awful). I went on a wooden boat and the scenery was beautiful.

There are loads of Islands in Thailand.

My next trip was primarily to the James bond Island but we also visited a floating village along the way.














The scenery was amazing again and I went on a longtail boat but when I got to Koh Tapu Island it was so busy and full of people. It was still nice though but it was quite small. I made friends with and American mum and her adult daughter (who turned out to be pro gun Trump supporters, but how was I supposed to know. They were still nice though and it was their first ever trip out of the USA. They commented they felt safer in Thailand than the USA which either says something about how they live or USA but having never been I couldn't comment.


After we went to the floating village which felt quite commercialised and built for tourist trips, there was a floating school though which was nice to see.

Then I went on a Kayak boat round some caves and rock incredible rock formations, where the guy couldn't believe I was travelling alone!













After, we went to a massive monkey cave that had loads of monkeys roaming around and reminded me of Kuala Lumpur and looked at some waterfalls, but because it was dry season there wasn't much water. The trip was still enjoyable if a little odd at times.

The next day I set sail for Koh Phi Phi early so I could see the Island and also go on a tour of Maya bay. The island itself is lovely and set up entirely for tourists it seems. It is also quite busy. I found my accommodation which was really close to the sea and the boat terminal and went to look for a tour to take me to the island of the beach. I found one leaving that day for a tour of the surrounding islands. I made friends with 3 other travellers and we spent the day on the island where "The Beach" was filmed.

After coming back to the island in the evening it poured in rain so I went back to my hotel to watch some Netflix.

The next morning I had a wonder about the island before I found my boat to take me to Phuket where I was going to meet up with my travel pal...Stacey again!

Phuket

I found my accommodation and my travel pal and we went for some dinner. I ordered fish and asked for no chilly. They put chillies on it. I then had an argument about it so they came back with more fish, where there was still chillies on it. Then they tried to charge us for drinks we didn't have so we both had an argument with the waiter and then we left. We had made an enemy, who shouted abuse at us every time they passed their restaurant. Which was every day as we stayed next door to it.  

We found the beach in Phuket which was full of rubbish and Russians. The entire place was full of Russians so this must be the place they come on holiday. But the beach was not the lovely sandy beach you see in postcards. There was rubbish everywhere. 

After an afternoon on the beach we had a wonder through Phuket town, it was full of bars and wasn't really my cup of tea but we did find a bar to have a couple of drinks in. We both agreed Phuket wasn't what we thought it would be and if you are going to Thailand Krabi is a much better place to stay.

Bangkok

Bangkok was our next stop though so after a plane ride we finally arrived. We took an official airport taxi. The guy tried to not put the meter on and then demanded more money from us. Thankfully I knew how much it was supposed to be so after arguing with him we came to an agreement but this was not the best way to enter Bangkok so be careful of taxi drivers, even official ones.

It was late so we checked in to our hotel which was really nice and went out for some Pad Thai. We found the most famous Pad Thai restaurant and it was amazing, even if I struggled to eat it with chop sticks. We then went back to our hotel.

In the morning after breakfast, we went out for the day into the craziness of the city.

We saw some weird things including a Moomin café:

We then went to the grand Palace. We were told it was closed which was a city scam to stop people from going. When we got there it was beautiful but so crowed with tour groups. It was expensive to get in and we didn't stay very long because of the crowds but it was amazing to see:

We then went to Wat Pho next to the palace which hosted the massive gold Buddha statue. There was a lot of rude people trying to see the Buddha and would argue if you tried to have a look. One man in particular took ages taking a selfie so everyone got annoyed and i tried to squeeze in past him for a quick photo as I was next in the queue as he had been there 10mins taking selfies and there was a massive queue. Of course he started swearing and shouting. The Buddha was massive though!

We went to a market and had a drink on Khao San road, where we also found a Boots:

Bangkok is also lovely at night and after going to the cinema in the evening and getting lost in a massive shopping mall we wondered back to our hotel in the dark:

I decided to go to Ayutthaya the original capital of Thailand for the day while Stacey went on a tour of a floating market.

The day trip was great and again I made a friend. He was a musical star who was on holiday from New York.

We saw some temples:

A massive Buddha:

And a Buddhas head in a tree, which is an iconic Thailand picture:

and finally the palace and gardens of the king:

It was a great day out.

Our final day, we went to the national museum and gallery and wondered round looking at markets and more temples.

Thailand was an interesting place. I like Krabi but there was so much rubbish on the islands that it wasn't the paradise I was looking forward too. Phuket is very touristy and Bangkok is very, very busy and noisy. I am not sure I would come back, but I have heard the north is supposed to be amazing and I am sure there are less touristy islands as Thailand is full of islands. If you are planning to go, I would try and find less touristy places or go to the north.