Myanmar

This magical country and its wonderful people have truly stolen a piece of my heart. We were so excited to come to Myanmar and it didn't disappoint. It actually feels like a privilege to visit this amazing place because its borders have only really been open to tourists for the last five or so years. And because of this, the place feels very unspoiled and the people untainted by mass tourism. It's such a special and unique country and it has quickly become one of my favourites in Southeast Asia, purely because it just feels as though it's relatively untouched. You get a real feel for a place and its people when it's still quite raw.

Having not really met many people who had been to Myanmar before we had no expectations at all, which was actually really nice as we had no travel advice ringing in our ears and we were just free to make up our own minds about it. Rich knew we'd want as long as possible in the country, but we were still on a tight time frame. We were to have a total of seventeen days, which wouldn't be loads of time but at least we'd be able to pack in the main things we wanted to see with a few extra days to play with. It turned out I was glad Rich had made sure we had those few extra days as Myanmar is a big country and a few of our days were taken up with long bus journeys. It turned out seventeen days was definitely not enough time for us, but we still managed to do a lot and it feels as though we had longer than we actually did. Time is a funny thing when you're travelling.

We started off our adventures in Myanmar in Yangon, which is very surprisingly not the capital city, even though it definitely felt as though it should have been. That pleasure goes to Nay Pyi Taw, which we didn't end up visiting but heard from someone we met along the way that it was a very strange, quiet little town and an odd place to have as the country's capital.

Yangon was an interesting place to visit and certainly different from any typical Asian city that I've been to before. We noticed first of all that on the road from the airport to the city that the roads were very clean, there were no tuk tuks and no horns honking. We had to wonder if we really were in Asia at all! Faith was restored when we got closer to the city and chaos ensued, with taxi drivers everywhere stuck in gridlocked traffic and we felt reassured that we were indeed in a crazy Asian city.

We had a busy and eventful day exploring the outrageously humid city; we walked for twelve hours trying to take in as many of the sights as we could manage. Having checked out the beautiful parks and British colonial buildings of the city, we caught a ferry over to the neighbouring little town, Dalah and wandered around the fisherman's village and got a feel for the quieter side of Yangon life.

Once back in the main city we enjoyed some of the best street food I've ever experienced in Southeast Asia. We immediately fell in love with some fried pancakes that had a yummy filling inside. We had no idea what they were or what was inside but they were incredible. Every corner that you turned there would be another street vendor, cooking up wonderful and mysterious eats. We couldn't get enough and we felt as though we were fulfilling the advice online where it said walking and eating was one of the things to do in Yangon. We pretty much nailed that!

The main thing I wanted to see in Yangon was the Shwedagon Pagoda and I wanted to see it at sunset, where I'd heard it was just magical. After seeing a lot of temples, the Shwedagon Paya was just incredible and so beautiful and it certainly trumped any other temples I'd seen. Seeing it at sunset was beautiful and so many local people were visiting to pray and pay their respects and again it didn't feel overly touristy. Rich and I were receiving confused, baffled looks wherever we went and we even had a couple of monks come and ask us for a selfie with them. A young group of local school children seemed to be fascinated with us and were asking if they could have their picture taken with us. It was a very bizarre, but very sweet experience. This was our first experience of the Myanmar people and everyone just seemed so friendly and welcoming. We were not to realise just how much the locals would come to touch our hearts.

As ever, Rich and I had not planned our itinerary for Myanmar, but we soon came up with a plan to head to Bagan, an ancient city of over 3000 pagodas. We met an English pair in our hostel in Yangon who were also heading for Bagan so we all headed there together, albeit on separate overnight buses. We'd heard that one of the best ways to view all of the temples was from a hot air balloon at sunrise. Unfortunately the cost of the balloon stretched beyond our budget and we could not justify doing it. However, I knew that a view of all the balloons going up over the temples as the sun rose would be as equally beautiful. It was a good idea in practice but what we had not accounted for was how much rain Myanmar endured throughout the tail end of the rainy season. It rained the whole time we were in Bagan and our new friends, Dave and Annabel kept having their balloon ride cancelled owing to the low cloud and awful conditions. They didn't get to go on the balloon and we didn't get to witness them all going up, which was such a shame but we still all had a lovely few days in the ancient town. We decided to rent e-bikes to go and view the temples, which was such an experience.

First of all I felt too nervous to have my own bike, so ignoring the local's advice that the two of us would be too much for the small vehicle, we paid for just one and I nervously wobbled on as a pillion passenger. The electric bike ran out of juice after just five minutes and Annabel and I were enjoying watching Dave try to tow Rich along on his. We decided to take the given advice after all and opt for a bike each. Feeling a little nervous, I climbed onto my own bike and very soon fell in love with it. It was such a great experience and a perfect way to view all the temples. The temples were very pretty and it was an interesting day but my favourite part was definitely riding the e-bike. (Not very cultured of me I know!)

Rich and I decided we needed to move on from Bagan as our time was limited so we said goodbye to our new friends as they stayed and we headed for Mandalay.

Whilst having breakfast at our hostel in Mandalay, we met three other couples who we immediately clicked with. Funnily enough one of the guys we met was from my hometown and we even had some friends in common. It's such a small world! We all got talking and decided that the eight of us should rent motorbikes and head to the U Bein Bridge, about 10km out of the city. It was such a fun day and thankfully all of the girls went on the back of the bikes, while the guys took charge up front. It was so stereotypical but hey it was fun and whilst I may have been confident enough to ride my own e-bike, I certainly wasn't up to riding my own motorcycle. I'm so glad the other girls felt the same. We had a great day and it was lovely to hang out with other couples. U Bein Bridge is the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world and it was an incredible view watching the sunset over it from a nearby little fishing boat. It was the first amazing sunset we'd seen in Myanmar as up until then the weather had been pretty rubbish, so we were very lucky.

We had a few days in Mandalay and then we caught yet another overnight bus to Nyaung Shwe for Inle Lake. We were very lucky that after every overnight bus journey, we were able to check straight into our hotel room. We would always be arriving into our destination very early in the morning and after a night of very broken sleep on a bus, all we wanted to do was check into our room and go to sleep in a proper bed. Thankfully we were able to check in straight away as a lot of places say you can't check in until 2pm, which would have been a long wait. We would always crawl into bed and sleep until around 12pm where we would actually feel rested. Subsequently it would always feel as though we'd already spent a night in that particular place as we'd been in bed so long and we would wake up disorientated.

Nyaung Shwe was a quiet little town that most people stay in so they can take a boat trip to Inle Lake. The town itself was actually very pleasant and we enjoyed discovering it by bicycle. It felt lovely to be back on a bicycle again, I certainly have missed mine.

The boat trip around Inle Lake was very pretty and we had a great time just sitting back and relaxing, taking in the sights whilst our guide took control of the motorised fishing boat. We would have been quite happy to just sit in the boat all day and take in the beauty of the surrounding areas, but we were taken to lots of different touristy spots where we shown how they make silver and how they weave lotus, cotton and silk etc. These were very interesting and fascinating but then of course we were always taken into their little shops, trying to be persuaded to buy loads of stuff. By the end of the seven hour boat ride, we were well and truly fed up of being taken to every little shop on the lake. The floating villages however, were beautiful. It was amazing to see how the local people lived on the lake, propped up on stilts, getting from place to place by boat. The surrounding landscape of hills and crops was idyllic and I couldn't stop snapping my camera to try and capture the beauty of the place. It was a very pretty spot and felt like a nice change from the big cities and endless temples that we'd been experiencing previously.

We also met back up with Dave and Annabel and we all cycled to the local winery. We'd heard Myanmar wine was terrible, so of course we wanted to try it for ourselves. It wasn't all that bad actually and again the location was beautiful. We timed it rather poorly for the cycle back to the town however, and got absolutely drenched when the heavens opened. Wow does this country like to rain!

Rich and I decided that we wanted to head to the west coast so we could visit Ngapali Beach that we'd seen on one of the online itineraries we'd looked at. We headed back to Yangon on a twelve hour bus as we couldn't get straight to the beach from Nyaung Shwe. It wasn't until we were on the next bus to Ngapali Beach that we decided to look in the guide book at what was suggested for accommodation and things to do in the area, that we realised it would take eighteen hours to get there and that to stay on the beach would be ludicrously expensive! We cursed ourselves for not looking in the guide book prior to getting on the bus and figuring it all out beforehand. After a twelve hour bus, we were not up for another eighteen hour one to a place where we didn't know if we'd even be able to afford any accommodation! But the bus had started moving and by that point it was too late to back out, so there we began our long and interesting journey to the beach.

After being on the windy and bumpy bus journey for just fourteen hours, which was blaring out Burmese versions of Abba songs the whole way, we arrived at our destination earlier than expected; a massive bonus! We also got very lucky with our accommodation. On the bus were two German girls who also had no plan and nowhere to stay at the beach and they were also very concerned about the cost. They got chatting to a local guy who advised them that his friend had a basic guesthouse for a very reasonable price, which we could all stay in that night. He called his friend up and arranged it all and the bus even dropped us right outside. The guesthouse was indeed very, very basic and a little grim, but it was by far the cheapest place to stay and after a mammoth journey across half the country and arriving late at night we needed somewhere to sleep. We ended up staying there for four nights, because although it was basic, it was perfect and such a good price in comparison to other expensive resort hotels right on the beach.

We were a little further away from the beach but we hired bicycles and cycled there, which was perfect. Ngapali Beach quickly became my favourite place I've visited. It felt so unspoiled and though it is becoming more touristy, it didn't feel overly so. There were only a few hotels and restaurants right on the beach and it didn't feel as though you were being hassled like you are on beaches in some other Southeast Asian countries. We were so glad we didn't read the guide book after all, as perhaps if we had have read it beforehand and realised it would be an epic journey,we might not have bothered making the effort. Sometimes it pays to be disorganised as you can stumble upon your favourite place by accident.

We had such a wonderful few days there and I don't even know why it became one of my favourite destinations. The beach itself was beautiful but I guess it's mainly because of the feel and vibe of the place. We were lucky enough to witness one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen when we were there. The colours were just magical and I remember thinking at the time how lucky I felt to be in such a beautiful location. It truly was awe-inspiring and we couldn't stop taking photos.

Myanmar was a spectacular country and I just can't explain why I loved it so much. I can't exactly pinpoint it. I mostly believe it was down to the wonderful people who welcomed and greeted us with such sincerity and a pure, genuine attitude. It seemed they were untainted by tourism and weren't out to scam or trick you in any way. They were fascinated by us and couldn't wait to talk to us, practice their English and generally just get to know us. Everywhere we went, we'd have locals waving at us and calling hello from across the street. They just warmed and melted my heart with how sweet they all were and I have never experienced a people quite like it. Everyone in any Asian country I've visited before has been so friendly, but something was different about the people of Myanmar. I had said to Rich that it had become my favourite country and he asked me why I thought that. I replied that I just didn't know. The country was pretty and we had a brilliant time but something in my heart just can't explain my love for it. I feel I am a changed person for having visited there and it humbles me to have had the opportunity to visit a place when it is still a relatively new thing to be able to go. It was such an experience and I have learned a lot about the country's fascinating history and its lovely people. It saddens me to think that one day if I were to go back, it will have changed so much and I fear that it will not be the same after mass tourism takes hold. But at least I can say I've been and I will remember it for the beautiful, unspoiled treasure that it is now. Maybe that's how you know a place is your favourite; when you want to return one day and for it to still be the same place you once loved and remembered.