My flight was at 08:30am with a stop in BKK. I couldn’t sleep during the flight so listened to music and read a good amount of my book. I’m definitely loving Alan Watts!

At BKK I waited nearly three hours and then took my flight to Vientiane.

At the airport, I got my Visa and spoke to the girl next to me about sharing a taxi to town. She was from Cyprus and was spending a few weeks here, and then heading to Myanmar. Unfortunately we were going to separate directions, so I took one alone towards the bus station.

The station was pretty empty! I thought I’d seen more westerns and locals in general, but anyways, I took a minivan, and after 3hours of very dangerous driving I got safely and alive in Vang Vieng.

Unfortunately, there were no bungalows left so the lady gave me a really nice room with a double bed and single bed! Win!

I took a shower and went out to grasp the vibes this town had to offer.

It was definitely quieter than Pai in Thailand from what I’d seen and I definitely felt really old here. Loads of youngsters in their early 20’s. Definitely felt like a grandpa.

Had a burger in an Irish pub (shame on me), oh how I missed it and then went to the hotel. I was really tired to party tonight and want to wake up relatively early to buy my ticket for tubing on the river! I heard it was really cool and popular there.

There were many travel agencies offering day trips and activities! The one which has brought my interest were tubing, rock climbing and seeing the lagoons nearby.

14/11/2017 Hello Vang Vieng was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I decided walking to Yangon’s central station and get the circular train. It runs around Yangon’s outskirts and takes about 3 hours to make a full circle.

There were other westerns also doing the same as me, but many locals just trying to get to their next destination. Kids going to school, people carrying vegetables from one station to another or just going to their jobs.

I sat next to a window and was looking outside all the time. Poverty in the suburbs of Yangon was big. Many slums, trash everywhere and polluted rivers. The smell sometimes was really intense. Still, the kids were all waving at me and smiling. Broke my heart.

Arriving at one of the stations I saw a very peculiar thing. Hundreds of people, selling goods in one side of the platform. It was so crowded that people had positioned their basks with fish, veggies, meat on the train tracks. But it a way that the train would go over it but not damage it! Skills.

The train made a full circle and back at Yangon’s Central Station. There were goats in the station just roaming around, so funny.

I walked back to the hotel, but first made a stop for lunch. At the hostel I asked where I could take Visa photos and the nearest post office so off I went… It took the rest of my afternoon! It was a reaaally long walk in super humid Yangon. Fun times.

13/11/2017 Great To See You Yangoon was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Around lunchtime I went to the post office and sent a few postcards to my friends and family and then went for lunch. After lunch I went for a walk at the local market and bought a Myanmar football shirt.

I then went to a travel agency and booked my bus ticket for tomorrow. I should be arriving at the same time as Anastasia.

The weather wasn’t looking good, I could see there was a big storm coming so I decided to head back to the hotel and chill. It rained cats and dogs later!

09/11/2017

I took the bus early in the morning to Yangon. It was the best way of seeing Myanmar’s countryside. We passed by a very a beautiful untouched mountain on the way, pristine forest and views.

The second part of the trip, on lower ground I could feel it was way hotter and the vegetation looked like an African savanna.
After 14 hours on that bus I met Anastasia in Yangon. She also arrived today coming from Mrauk-U. She had an amazing time there and met cool people. Happy for her!

10/11/2017

Today we had plans to visit the golden rock. At the hotel we were told we we could go near the airport and take a bus from there. At the airport no one knew what we were talking about, until a group of men told us we should go to the main bus station. Off we went.
At the bus station we were sold tickets and hopped on the bus. The weather was incredibly hot and there was no AC inside, we were both melting.
Also we had no idea the whole trip would take about 4hours. We left Yangon at 1:30pm and got there and it was already dark. Massive fail… We could take a tuk tuk and go to the rock’s basecamp, but after 6pm no one comes down and you have to sleep there.
We were really sad and disappointed. There wasn’t anything else we could do apart from coming back to Yangon. The next bus was about one hour and we had to wait outside the bus stand breathing all the scooter fumes and dust. Wasn’t very pleasant to be there.
The bus arrived and took us back to Yangon — another 4 hours.
What a day!

11/11/2017

Today is Anastasia’s last day in Myanmar so we decided to take it easy. No major sightseeing.
For dinner I had noodle soup in a street market which has completely ruined me. Got food poisoning from it and had an awful night!

12/11/2017

My day was spent in the hotel’s bed trying to be hydrated. The hotel staff were really helpful and showed me where I could buy some pills and also gave me a few bottles of water.
It was a really painful day — I hope tomorrow I feel better.

08/11/2017 to 11/11/2017 was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

He started by showing me the first village (where he lives). Every house looked very cool. He pointed where his dad house was and next to it, his house. Most of them were made of bamboo or wood and seemed pretty sturdy.

On the way I could see the locals doing their normal lives — kids going to school on boats or walking and waving at me, men and women fishing or just cleaning their homes.

The lake is huge! He was going full speed on the boat, it was a great feeling! We could see a few scattered fishermen — he slowed the boat for me to take a few snaps!

Our first stop was at a silver shop where this girl showed the process of making silver jewellery from the stone to the final step. It was super interesting!

After the shop I went for a walk in the village and checked the local market. I found the most interesting handcrafts here. Everything looked so beautiful! I wish I had a bigger bag or going home after this trip because I wanted to buy everything.

I got in a monastery where there were a few monk kids praying. Once they saw me they started smiling and waving at me, so I went talking to one of them. He handed me his pen and asked to write something on his book. I wrote my name and then we wrote my name again below it. He looked really happy!

Back to the market I went visiting the local pagoda, again so beautiful!
My next stop was at the long neck women shop. They were weaving the local Shan and Inle designs — all of them were stunning! Great vibrant colours and unique patterns.

The next stop was at a Lotus weaving shop. I was told how they can make scarves and clothes out of Lotus. It was such a long process. It takes many days to make a small scarf and it can cost about $60 to $80. The material can stay cool in summer and warm in winter. The lady showed me other materials like cotton and silk, and a few products where they mix them all. Everyone was very creative and talented over here!

My next stop was at a knives shop! I could see men melting metal and then shaping it in order to make swords and small knives. It’s quite a tough job, they had to hammer it very quickly when the metal is still hot.

The next stop was at a cigarette shop. They use cheroot leaves on their cigarettes which makes them sweet, or with banana flavour or simply the taste of tobacco.

Enough with seeing people making stuff — the rest of the afternoon I visited the local pagodas and markets.

Around sunset time we headed to a very long bridge where I had a walk and talked to some of the locals.

When the sun was coming down we went to the middle of the lake and couldn’t spot any fishermen. The sky was cloudy and I was a bit sad I wouldn’t be able to take a good photo of the fishermen with the sunset light hitting on them.
I was hopeless — then I spotted one with a big net! I asked Yen Yen if we could go near him.
Off we went! The guy made a few poses and the sun just came out at the right time!
I couldn’t express how happy I was. I had this shot on my head for such a long time and miraculously I snapped it!

07/11/2017 Inle Lake was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today Anastasia was going to a place called MRau-k, which is in the coast and I was going to Inle Lake. We took the same flight to Heho (Inle) but then she continued her journey. Our plans matched to be in Yangon at the same time, which was great. She had been such great company — so much better organised than me. She had a list with all the places she wanted to visit, divided by days and with a bit of history for each pagoda! Yes, wow!

At Inle I went to my hotel, left my stuff and went looking for lunch and a place to book a boat trip on the lake tomorrow!

After all these admin tasks I grabbed one of the hotel bicycles and went exploring! I think I cycled about 30Km today.

Beautiful countryside and pagodas! I put the drone up and the locals came near me all curious and wanting to see the pictures. It was a cool moment. Specially because they didn’t speak any English and all I can say in Burmese is hello, thank you and goodbye.

Back at the hotel I managed to write my previous days, reply to emails and do all the admin tasks I had pending. Feeling good!

06/11/2017 Up In The Air was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We gave our current location and after half an hour, two guys from the hotel came on a truck with a new bike for us. Pfew! We thought the day was over.
Back on the road we started our daily pagoda tour! Bagan has the most concentration of pagodas in the world. You are literally driving around and can see one all the time. Some are in bad shape because of the earthquake, but others are very well preserved!

One thing I really wanted to do was taking a photo of the pagodas during sunset but unfortunately it got dark pretty quickly and we couldn’t get to a high place to photograph it. It was really a shame!

05/11/2017 Around Bagan was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the afternoon we’ve decided to explore the town and its market.
It was full of flavours, smells, only a few westerns and loads of Burmese people curious looking at us. Probably thinking why would we be there. Why not? I loved street markets — I think you could tell a lot about its people. So many smiles, new food and objects I’ve never seen before.

04/11/2017 Welcome to Bagan was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

03/11/2017 Love Myanmar was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

People normally looked at me, I smiled and waved. Most of the times I got a smile and a wave back. It was so good.
The next place we wanted to go is called Monywa! To get there you needed a boat. So we took a tuk-tuk to where the boats depart and then we chatted with a guy in the streets about the boat ride. Apparently there was a boat that departs at 9am and it’s really cheap, but during the day you could rent a boat and go privately. That’s what we did!

The ride was pretty sick! We could see small huts and people living by the river, animals feeding near the water and Monywa in the background.
In Monywa we were approached by a teen and a man who said that they were tourist guides and also students in Mandalay’s tourism uni. They showed us everything around and were really nice to us. Monywa is so beautiful!

We both really loved it. Back in Mandalay we continued our walk to find the most beautiful pagodas!

I was truly in love with Burmese people. Kids and adults said hello to us, smiled and were always trying to help us.

02/11/2017 Monks was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Anastasia needed an ATM so we had the longest walk in town to find one that worked with her cards! It was a great way of seeing the city.
In the morning we saw many monks wondering around in groups going to the stores asking for money or food. They were all super nice, happy and said hi!

We then started our quest of finding a Pagoda near where we were but Google Maps were not helping. We found another one, which looked even cooler!

Inwa was our next destination! We started the most difficult quest of finding a taxi! There was literally no taxis around, only moto-taxis and we had to walk a lot to finally find a guy who’ve taken us in the back of his truck!

The journey to Inwa was long but cool. We left the city and managed to see a bit of the countryside, which looked beautiful!
People lived in really bad conditions here but I’ve seen them all with a big smile on their faces and always tried to help you in case you needed.
In Inwa our first sight was the wooden pagoda! Incredibly detailed and very different from the other ones I’ve seen. Definitely worth a visit!

The next pagoda was made of bricks and in ruins because of an earthquake! Still amazing!
The next pagoda was made of bricks but its intention was to look like wood.

We then decide to visit the U Bein bridge. It was absolutely packed with tourists! But still, we arrived at the right time, during sunset and we managed to get some really nice shots!

There was still one more pagoda to visit before sunset, the white pagoda (Pahtodawgyi) and it was amazing! The whole thing was white! And with the moonlight hitting it, it looked even nicer.

01/11/2017 Pagodas Everywhere was originally published in the rest is noise on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.