Away with the Opies

Our travel adventures......

Myanmar to Laos

Myanmar – Laos

(Via Thailand)


Goodbyes said to Myanmar it was time for the lengthy overland journey to Laos via Northern Thailand. Our cheap night bus was posh on the outside but was once again without beds on the inside and Steve especially found this 28hr leg of our trip an uncomfortable one! Happily for him there was a mid way break where premiership football was playing on a big screen – Chelsea v Man United. Unhappily for him, Chelsea were losing which didn’t much help his mood!

 

To make matters worse we were both fasting due to our recent illnesses and rationing our fluid intake because of the usual lack of toilet facilities on board. All in all our positive mental travelling attitudes were taking a bit of a battering but we hunkered down and did what we could to while away the hours when sleep eluded us. By the time we arrived in Myawaddy on the Thai border we were dehydrated and famished and very glad to get off that bus…

Having rehydrated we changed some currency and headed for the border crossing, it was time to enter Thailand. The formalities at the border were pain free and we were granted entry and issued our visas with very little fuss – everything seemed to be on our side so far this morning.

A short songthaew (the Thai equivalent of a tuk-tuk) ride got us into the border town of Mae Sot where we were staying for the night. We found a local cafe for what we hoped would be our first taste of Thai food. Disappointingly though, being so close to the border, it turned out more Burmese than Thai, but it filled a gap and energised us for the walk to our accommodation – which turned to to be farther from town than we’d anticipated. Laden with our bags and still recovering from our illnesses the trek in the heat of the midday sun seemed more like 30 miles than 3. I for one was relieved to assume a horizontal position on a comfy bed as soon as possible after checking in.

Blissfully we lay there whilst discussing our next plan of action. We had hoped to explore Pai and various other places in the area before moving further East. Frustratingly though, Steve was becoming ill again so a decision was made to settle in one place for a while and make a concerted effort to get him fully recovered once and for all. We’d been moving continuously since leaving Nepal so it was about time to take a breather and relax for a little while. The idea of a short break from ‘what transport to catch when’ and ‘how to get where’ was at this point appealing. We decided on Chiang Mai for our bolthole and with this in mind Steve set about planning our journey there for the following day. With the help of his favourite website ‘The man in seat 61‘ he very soon had our route, mode of transport and timetable mapped out – what to do then for the rest of the day? Of course let’s walk back into Mae Sot! We’re not great at sitting still and like to explore our surroundings whenever possible. Our stroll back without the heat of the midday sun and minus our heavy bags was easy. We wandered around the ordinary town for a while before finding a great little cafe and treating ourselves to juice and pasta. This generic food choice was unusual for us, but with our efforts to become well we’d decided to avoid spicy local food, opting instead for alternatives that would be easier on our stomachs. We found this surprisingly hard, but needs must and hopefully it would only be necessary for a short while.

Juice – no ice…

Both the food and drinks though were delicious. We hadn’t eaten pasta for weeks so it was a much welcomed treat that we both relished, the healthy looking juices hit the spot too. We filled our bellies, played crib, our travelling card game of choice, and soaked up the local atmosphere. It was a lovely evening.


The following day it was time to put Steve’s travel plans into action. We had a free mini van transfer to get to the bus station where we caught another minibus which took us to another bus staton. This station turned out to be the wrong one and so a quick zip across town in a songthaew was needed to get us to the right one. Unbelievably our bus was just about to leave so it was out of the taxi and straight onboard, better still we were given two front seats with loads of leg room – Steve was a very happy man.

As with many of our journeys we were the only westerners on board and so once again were the centre of attention amongst our local travelling companions. Their obvious curiosity at our presence suggested this public bus route wasn’t regularly used by tourists and we could see why. It had proved a faff. For us though this is all part of the attraction of using public services rather than the often easier, but more expensive tourist transport options. A few hours later found us at the train station – once again the wrong one! We ummed and ahhed about where we needed to be and whether or not to walk, eventually opting to take a lift. It was the best decision of our day. As we arrived at the spotless station to buy tickets we were told that the train we needed was just about to leave. We were escorted, by a very smart and very smiley elderly station master, to our train which 5 minutes later departed – we were on our way. The train was cheap, it was air conditioned, the seats were comfortable and we were served hot food and drink. Our day just got even better.

Unexpected food included with our very cheap tickets!

The journey went quickly and we soon found ourselves in Chiang Mai. We’d left booking a hostel here until the last minute, luckily The Lonely Planet came up trumps – Gaps House was chosen. You can’t book or reserve rooms here, it’s a “turn up and hope for the best” hostel, but as it wasn’t high season we were optimistic there would be a free room and happily for us there was. What an amazing place it was too. Set amongst its own little jungle just inside the old city moat boundary and only a couple of minutes stroll from the famous Sunday night Walking Market, it was a cracker.

We explored the night markets, we passed the time in the cool cafes, we enjoyed, or should we say endured, a Thai massage, we visited the city aquarium, we went to see Thai boxing – a fascinating and brutal sport combining traditional music, agility and hefty dose of bravery and we worked at getting our ourselves better.

Steve was again unwell, and although much better I still hadn’t fully recovered from my brief bout of illness in Myanmar – it was time for some more research. We read that antibiotics, of which Steve had now been on three courses, can in themselves cause stomach problems by killing the good bugs in the gut. In order to become properly well, we read, it’s important to get intestinal flora back on track – Yakult, or the Thai equivalent it was then. We found various other suggestions and tips for good gut health which we implemented, replacing the antibiotics for a while to see how it went. It went brilliantly! We were strict with our diets, which meant no street food, however tempting it was, nothing too spicy and no alcohol! (not that we were drinking that much anyway). Steve, with his fondness of spicy local food washed down with a Chang beer, disliked our new strict regime, but he soon learnt to tolerate it, especially when he started feeling properly well for the first time in as long as he could remember. He started to put weight back on and regained colour in his cheeks, finally and thankfully his health seemed to be heading in the right direction.

Chiang Mai is a wonderfully colourful city with a cool vibe. You can party or chill here, socialise with the diverse characters that wander its streets or soak up the culture in solitude, you can take cooking lessons, have a massage, watch Thai boxing, browse the gloriously colourful local day and night street markets or shop at the westernised malls with their branded merchandise. We very much enjoyed our 10 days recuperating in the city and were sad to bid it farewell when the time came.

It was an easyish bus ride to the border, so we thought! Our hostel manager, not the most helpful in the world, assured us that buses ran regularly to our destination of Chang Rai and that even with the New Year festivities looming there would be plenty of seats available. Against our better judgment we took his advice and didn’t book tickets in advance – BIG MISTAKE!

As we stood at the depot with one person after another turning up with their pre-booked tickets we were kicking ourselves for not going with our instincts. The earliest bus with space available was later that night and meant almost certainty of missing our connection. We needed to weigh up our options – sit it out and potentially miss our boat or find an alternative – what to do? We’ve found that giving ourselves space works wonders for finding solutions, so that’s what we did and sure enough within a few minutes we were a group of four with the same problem. The men on the taxi rank took notice and we were soon approached with a “you need taxi?” We were a long way from our destination and we could see our limited budgets being blown out of the water, but sometimes needs must. The first offer of help and its accompanying price tag was immediately rejected. But work seemed slow on the taxi rank and before we knew it we were being offered a good enough deal to be taxied to where we needed to be. The final price was somewhat more expensive than the bus, but one on which we all agreed – we were good to go. During the trip we were shuffled from one mode of transport to another in a kind of relay affair which wonderfully got us to our destination with bags of time to spare.

 

                                                             Nap Time!

It was then a songtheau followed by shuttle bus to cross the border and into our next country – crossing a border is always a buzz, but we were especially excited to be entering Laos. Formalities completed we shared a lift with a couple of young travellers on the back of a truck to the small town that would be home for the night. This trip was to be our first experience of the infamous water festival we’d heard so much about. As we passed small villages, pockets of people either with hoses, water pistols or buckets hurled water at us from all angles with great accuracy – we were drenched!

We hadn’t booked any accommodation, but it wasn’t difficult finding something and we checked into the first place we stumbled across. We picked up our boat tickets, draw out local currency and bought a local Sim* before settling down for the night. Tomorrow we would be catching a slow boat to Luang Prabang – We were excited.

HELLO LAOS!


* We use local SIMs for wifi hotspots. Extensive phone coverage in most countries enabled good, cheap, readily available internet access – especially handy for long journeys on buses and trains.

Kalaw to Inle Lake

Kalaw to Inle lake

The night bus from Hsipaw arrived in Kalaw at the un-Godly hour of 4:30am. It was dark and the streets were deserted but amazingly, tucked amongst all the little shut up shops we found a small cafe peppered with local folk kick starting their day. Sitting on tiny chairs, set out on raised pavements, we drank our coffee with front row seats of the sunrise over town – despite the hour we felt wide awake.

Getting off the bus in an unfamiliar place, in the shadowy cloak of darkness to watch the day unfurl is one of our favourite things – it’s like our adventures are starting afresh every time we do it.

Our guesthouse Thitaw Two was on the other side of town but having been sat on a night bus (unlike neighbouring countries there appear to be no beds on night buses in Myanmar) for the best part of 12 hours it was an easy decision to walk there rather than taking a taxi and besides it was a lovely time of day to wander through the town. With dawn breaking the streets were coming to life, the cafes were opening and the vibrant local market was filling with people – it was shaping up to be a lovely day.

Thitaw Two was a great choice and became yet another favourite. Nestled in its own little grounds and bordered by forested mountains it was very different from anywhere else we’d stayed. We were allowed to make ourselves at home even though we’d arrived many hours before checking-in time and to our joy were treated to a hearty breakfast, including avocados grown in the gardens. Once fed and watered we set about making plans for our trek to Inle Lake, the main reason for our visit to Kalaw. Having talked to fellow guests we made a couple of calls and just like that the next few days were arranged. A 3 day trek through remote villages staying with local families – perfect.

We like sleeper buses for a couple of reasons. They save the expense of a night’s accommodation and arriving early in the morning, hopefully refreshed after some sleep, means there’s much of the day left to explore new surroundings. Luckily we’d both got some shut eye during the night and so with plenty of time on our hands we headed out on foot to a large cave a few miles away. The day was hot, but fortunately our path threaded through forests where shade offered much welcomed relief from the fierce sun. The Myin Ma Hti cave, although not out of this world, was worth the trek and we spent a good hour or so wandering around it.

Unusually for us we opted not to walk the return trip and so, with the help of an affable cafe owner, we hitched a lift on the back of a flat bed truck. It was a fun, if somewhat unconventional way to see the surrounding countryside. On the way we passed trucks transporting somewhat larger cargo…

Having been dropped off in town Steve popped into a barbers for a quick trim… 3/4 of an hour later he came out with this – Oops, better put some sun cream on those bare bits!


Back at the guesthouse it was a quick freshen up (and straighten up of Steve’s new do) before deciding where to eat. Now this can sometimes present a bit of a dilemma, often the biggest of our day. “Where d’you want to eat?” – “I don’t mind, where d’you want to eat?” – “Don’t ask me!” but tonight the decision was easy and unanimous. During our stroll through the town earlier we’d noticed a Nepali restaurant and so tonight it would be Dahl Bhat for old times sake. It was a great choice and memories of our 5 wonderful months in Nepal flooded back as we ate the deliciously familiar food. We left full and happy.

Whilst in Nepal we were told that there was a sizeable Nepali community in Myanmar. These Burmese Gurkhas number between 350-500,000 and are a legacy of British colonial times, primarily descendants of Gurkha troops and railway navvies. As well as in the major cities there are communities in a number of hill station towns where British housed barracks, including Kalaw, where we now were and Pyin Oo Lwin, where we’d just been.


The next day was trek day and we were itching to get started. We’d opted for a small group trip and so were a party of only 6. We instantly warmed to our companions, Franck and Marion, Marek and Kate and we all chatted the miles away. The countryside was beautiful and diverse and our guide Sona (an ethnic Nepali) kept us amused with interesting facts as we went, one of which was the Myanmar love of betel nut, a Burmese habit that takes some getting used to. Many people here chew the nut which has the creepy side effect of staining teeth and gums red. It can’t be swallowed so the large amounts of red saliva produced are spat out – everywhere! Apparently it gives you a buzz, is very addictive and people of any age can do it. Sona said that in the past he’d smoked, drank and chewed betel and of the three betel was the hardest to give up. Sadly judging by the amount of youngsters we saw chewing it, it’s not a national addiction about to end anytime soon. Sona added that he likes his bus drivers to have red teeth because he believes they’re more likely to stay awake – we made a point of checking our drivers more carefully from then on! Guides are strongly recommended for this trek and although Steve and I generally shy away from guided walking there are times when it is necessary. On these occasions we relish the extra snippets of local knowledge we glean, try to learn some native language and feel good about giving employment to people from local communities, especially out of high season (as it now was) when work is harder to come by.

The first day’s trek was long, but not difficult. The heat of the sun was by far the biggest obstacle to overcome. We walked through rural villages and beautiful countryside. We were invited to drink local tea by people who won all our hearts with their warmth and generosity and were high fived enthusiastically by curious youngsters with beaming smiles on their faces.

The route we were hiking, we’d been told by Sona, was a new one and therefore much less busy than the more established trails in the area. Not wanting to be disappointed we took his words with a pinch of salt as it seemed unlikely we’d be heading anywhere into the unknown here. But what he’d said was true, the happy inquisitive folk we were meeting genuinely hadn’t crossed paths with many tourists before. We felt incredibly privileged and humbled to be spending time with these people in their remote communities, to be a part of their so far untainted lives. For Steve and I though our joy was with mixed emotion – we were relishing this unique experience, whilst knowing that us and travellers like us who seek ‘off the beaten track’ adventures change the very things we want to experience simply by doing them. For us it raised some interesting questions and moral dilemmas. But here we were anyway, enjoying the hospitality of these amazingly friendly people. We drank copious amounts of tea, played with the children and chatted (via our guide) with our hosts. Their favourite question was how old are you? Their favourite game was guessing who was with who in the group – both proved very entertaining and they clearly enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.

Later in the day we passed through a village where a local farmer was setting off on his cart pulled by two beautiful Oxen. Steve asked our guide if he gave rides on his cart, the question was relayed to the farmer who looked somewhat bemused, “no” was the answer to come back. Sona asked if we could have a ride on his cart, another bemused look, followed by a dubious “yes.” All 6 of us piled onto the cart with the obliging smiley farmer and headed off down the dirt track. It was apparent as we became the centre of attention that this really was a first, that a farmers cart loaded with foreigners had never passed through this community before. Villagers were jostling for the best vantage points to see this obviously weird spectacle. It turned out to be a long and bumpy ride for which the farmer wouldn’t take a single penny. He did it simply because we’d asked him if it was possible and to make us happy. As he turned and left to go home we couldn’t help but think it was a light bulb moment for him and the community who had witnessed it – a new and easy way to access the tourist dollar…

That night at our very basic homestay we enjoyed some glorious local food and settled into our little mosquito net tents set up inside a villager’s home. We all slept soundly – it had been a very special day.


We woke to more glorious sunshine and enjoyed a hearty breakfast setting us up perfectly for the day. Our trek passed through more villages and stunning countryside, we watched local people weaving baskets, we marvelled at the beauty and condition of the oxen pulling the carts, the girls spent time with the children and the boys played a keepie uppie game with some lads and their homemade ratan ball. We had a huge lunch and a siesta before walking some more to reach the village that would be home for the night and the place where things took a downhill turn.

This homestay was as we expected basic. It was little more than a garage with an upper floor of two sleeping areas accessed by a bamboo ladder. It had only one crude toilet some distance from the house to be shared by the six of us and our hosts. None of this would usually be a problem, but throw in a bunch of extremely poorly people and it very soon became a big problem – it was not a happy place.

Scene set, the rest of the night goes like this…

I started feeling ill for the first time in 6 months of our travels. Everyone else at this point was fine. I went to bed, everyone else ate dinner including a goat stew for the non vegetarians. I became very ill finding it increasingly difficult to get from room to toilet in time – no more detail needed. As the night went on we heard moaning and groaning from next door – 4 out of the 6 of us were now sick. Some people slept well, as in our host below sleeping on his paint can pillow, but the tricky bamboo stairs and longish walk to get to the one and only toilet (housing a rather large spider) made for a long and unpleasant night for the rest of us!



By morning everyone was less violently ill but, to be on the safe side, a lovely and very young doctor from goodness knows where was called to check on us and medication of goodness knows what was given out. The 4 of us were unable to trek any further and so emergency evacuation via jeep was needed. We were miles from anywhere and so getting to civilisation proved neither quick nor comfortable. Marion and Sonar continued the trek while Steve, ironically now the only well person following his long illness, was our guardian, making sure we all got to where we needed to be. The day felt like it went on forever.

The moment we arrived at our guesthouse I crashed on my lovely comfy bed and didn’t move for hours. It would be a couple of days before I was up and about again.

Feeling better!

Once well enough we booked a boat trip to Inle Lake, one of the must sees in Myanmar. The lake is a huge 13.5 mile long, 7 mile wide expanse of shallow clear water no more than 12 feet deep at its deepest point. It’s fringed by marshes and floating gardens, where stilt-house villages and Buddhist temples rise from the water. The Intha fisherfolk work here propelling their boats using an unusual leg-rowing technique and the famous and fascinating long necked women can be seen weaving at various touristy stop off points. There are markets selling local trinkets and shops selling silverware – it was a brilliant day exploring a unique part of the world.

This was the very last thing on our Myanmar to do list, sadly it was now time to pack our bags and leave this wonderful country and its warm and friendly people.

What an experience it had been – from the buzz of Yangon to the stunning Ngapali beaches, from the beauty of the Bagan temples to the serenity of Inle Lake, from the enjoyable boat and train travel to the trekking in remote areas – we’d loved it all.

Where had the last 4 weeks gone?


So Long Myanmar – it’s been an awesome adventure!

Mandalay, Pyin-Oo-Lwin, Hsipaw

Mandalay, Pyin-Oo-Lwin, Hsipaw

Boat-Train-Bus


It was a 5am pick up from our hotel to our transport for the day – a fast boat along the Irrawaddy river, destination Mandalay. It was very early and still dark but we were buzzing with excitment and looking forward to a new mode of transport and the day ahead.

At the river banks we were met by some young men offering to take our bags to the boat, less than a 2 minute walk away. We politely declined, but they insisted, practically grabbing the packs from our backs. We assumed then that they were part of the crew but just in case not, and remembering our previous experience in Pyay, we very firmly said “no money”. OK they said, trundling off with our stuff. A couple of minutes later and aboard the boat they asked for cash. It was early, we were still half asleep and I was sore from our little accident on the e-bikes the day before. This morning they’d picked on the wrong people – there was absolutely no way I was about to pay them a single penny. They wouldn’t leave us alone so we found a seat and sat down with them trailing on behind. Finally, totally fed up with the situation I reported them to the boat crew, with whom I discovered they had no affiliation. The crew didn’t really care about the shananagins, but it was enough to get them off our backs and they disappeared to try their luck elsewhere. Not the best start to our day!

We soon knew that the boat would be one of our preferred modes of transport as we settled into wicker chairs on deck before wrapping ourselves up against the early morning chill. Shortly after setting off we were served a basic but much appreciated breakfast and soon after that we were treated to a glorious sunrise. As the sun lifted so did the temperature and the spirits of all on board.

The Irrawaddy is a vast, wide river, impressive in it’s scale. The countryside lining either side doesn’t match its grandeur and was generally unspectacular, but even so watching the world and its boats go by was a lovely way to while away a few hours and the trip seemed to pass far more quickly than bus journeys of similar durations.


During Kipling’s time in Burma there was no real “Road to Mandalay” The road he writes about in his poem is actually the Irrawaddy River.

All too soon it was time to disembark and head into the city of Mandalay. A short tuk tuk ride got us to our accommodation, the poshly named Hotel Diamonds. It was a generic Booking.com deal – but the staff more than made up for its lack of personality with their efficiency and warmth and we instantly liked our choice. Better still it was directly opposite the station we were intending to use the following day – that was our plan…

Having been mostly well for our time in Bagan, Steve suddenly became very ill. The stomach bug he’d been wrestling with over the last few weeks had come back with a vengeance so we decided to stay put in Mandalay for a couple of days longer than planned to ride it out and get him back to fighting fitness. With things not improving and his now obvious weight loss concerning me a trip to the hospital was agreed.

The care he received was out of this world. A specialist who spoke English was called in especially to see him and we waited no longer than half an hour in an immaculately clean hospital surrounded by local people eyeing us with interest. The consultant was brilliant. She did a thorough check on Steve, asking lots of questions and prescribing many drugs. This is all going to cost a pretty penny we thought – but it didn’t. The consultation and the drugs combined came to little more than £12. We couldn’t have been more impressed with the care we’d received in this swiftly developing country.

We stayed put for Steve to recuperate while the drugs kicked in, getting used to the confines of our room and it’s quirky clear glass divide between bedroom and toilet – not ideal for our present situation!


With Steve finally on the road to recovery we boarded our train to Pyin-Oo-Lwin for the next leg of our journey. Travelling by train is an absolute and we enjoyed a comfortable, relaxed and picturesque trip. The seats were comfortable, there was a trolley service of sorts and you could travel with the windows open to get the best views of the surrounding countryside.

We crossed the much talked about Goteik Viaduct, a thrilling highlight of the trip. Very soon after which we came to a halt at a remote station where we all alighted to sit in the sun and snack on corn on the cob freshly cooked by the track side and some of the sweetest watermelon we’ve ever tasted. We soon discovered that many people take the trip from Mandalay just to cross the viaduct, returning back on the next train travelling in the opposite direction.


Pyin-Oo-Lwin station

Having passed through more glorious countryside and beautifully cultivated farmland we finally arrived at our destination of Pyin-Oo-Lyn. A short tuk tuk ride later and we found ourselves at Royal Flower Guest House, one of our favourite little guest houses so far. I couldn’t tell you why we liked it so much, maybe it was the affable manager who spoke a little understandable English and gave us a map of the area as soon as we arrived with suggestions of where to go and what to do, maybe it was our large room streaming with sunlight, maybe we were just in a great mood because it hadn’t taken a white knuckle road trip to get there! For whatever reason it was great to drop our bags and settle in to our new surroundings.

We decided that the one thing on our Pyn-Oo-Lwin to do list would be the botanical gardens we’d heard so much about and we decided our mode of transport for the day would be push bikes (so much safer for us than scooters!). The gardens were stunning and we spent many hours in glorious sunshine exploring them.


 Pyn-Oo-Lwin is full of English colonial buildings, and what was left of our afternoon was spent cycling around the town to glimpse a few of them. It was spooky to be so far from home yet surrounded by such familiar architecture.

Day done we headed to town for dinner after which we found ourselves possibly the coolest lift of our trip so far. Horse and carriage here is the rather regal equivalent of the tuk tuk’s found elsewhere in Asia – it just had to be done. Our driver was super cool as were his horsemanship skills. His little pony obeyed his every vocal command, there was no need for anything more – the relationship between man and horse was impressive.

Immediately after this photo was taken Steve was dismissed to the inside of the carriage!

Little more than 10-minutes later and we were back in our room where we very soon crashed for the night. Tomorrow was destination Hsipaw – one we were both very much looking forward to.


Guess… Information board at Hsipaw Station – times weren’t always available!

It was yet another early start to catch the train to Hsipaw and another stunning railway journey found us at Hsipaw station from where we walked to our guest house. Hsipaw, a town in Shan State is an old colonial “Hill Station” not much larger than our home town of St Agnes in Cornwall and has a kind of untamed feel about it. Nestled in an upland plain, surrounded by hills, it fringes a river and the railway line from Mandalay to the Chinese border runs through it. This railway was constructed by the British to extract the Teak they used to build their Royal Naval ships in the 19th century. Teak was the primary reason Burma was so important to us at that time.

Hsipaw is a small backwater with just a couple of things going for it. The main reasons for visiting here are the trekking, to visit the Shan Prince’s Palace (which sadly doesn’t look much like a palace) and to spend time at a waterfall. The last option wasn’t for us as we were by now very much in the dry season.

Shan Prince’s Palace

We arrived early enough to walk to the palace where we were treated to an informative talk from the Prince’s sister-in-law who spoke eloquently about the troubles past and present. There sadly wasn’t a tour of the palace itself, but it had been an interesting visit nonetheless. We walked back to the guesthouse via a very cool juice cafe called Mr Shake where we both indulged in the best shake of our travels so far.

Mr Shakes!

Back at the Guesthouse we booked our trek for the following day, handed over some long overdue laundry for washing and contemplated our mini adventure ahead. We knew we were now close to the on going tensions in the country and it felt a little unsettling.

Our spacious colonial style bedroom


 A little background info on Hsipaw and it’s surrounding villages:

The Shan are the predominant people in Shan State (which is huge – larger than either Nepal or Greece), they are ethnic Thai and live on the plains in and around Hsipaw.

The Palaung are also quite common in Shan State, they are closer to being ethnic Chinese and live in the hills around Hsipaw.

The Bamar (Burmese) are the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, historically they don’t live in Shan State, although there’s an army camp in the town that’s full of them!

The three groups all have their own languages and armies, and they don’t always see eye to eye!


We arrived at Hsipaw, aware of the situation, but not quite the detail explained above. Not wanting to be a part of any troubles on our travels we had already checked that the area was considered safe on the UK Gov website, it was, the locals seemed happy too – we were good to go.

Steve and Tun Tun

We warmed to Tun Tun our Burmese guide quickly (it’s strongly advised to go on guided treks only here). The advantage with Tun Tun was that being neither Shan nor Palaung made it easier for him to talk about the local situation.

Village café/shop

About an hour into the walk we came across the first village (a Shan village) and our first shock of the trip – it was guarded with men carrying guns! As we entered there was a young man about 20yrs old in jeans and a tee shirt, sitting under an umbrella with a rifle. Tun Tun tells us that he’s with the Shan army!

“Is the gun real?” “Yes” – “is it loaded?” “Yes!”


  We climbed into the hills and enjoyed a delicious lunch of local fare at a homestead in a Palaung village before walking a few miles more to the village that would be our home for the night. Here there were yet more Shan army, about a dozen of them, all with Kalashnikovs and some looking no older than 13 or 14.

(Would love to insert pics, but strictly no photographs were allowed!)

Curious we asked Tun Tun to explain further the presence of all the armed men in the village. He told us that there was nothing to worry about as the area had been quiet for a couple of months! The Government (Burmese) army weren’t fighting the Shan any more and most of the conflict was now between the Palaung and Shan armies. We learnt that the Palaung army was about 10 miles away and that the village we were staying in pay protection money to the Shan army. The Palaung army used to be in the village but they signed a peace treaty with the government a few years ago and laid down their arms, this allowed the Shan army to take over the village. The Palaung army then took up arms again, reclaiming some villages, but not the one we were staying in. The Palaung villagers, whilst not completely happy that the Shan army are in town, had to accept their presence and get on with life as best they can.

We both slept soundly.

View to the village from our room

Our bed for the night

Our return trip was littered with many more army men carrying guns, but was thankfully uneventful. The only brief scare was when a field that had been set ablaze (a traditional method of land management here) started loudly popping. For a brief moment Steve and I imagined a firefight had broken out – Tun Tuns face was a picture at our panic! The unsettling noise soon passed as did our shock at seeing the weapons around us. It’s scary how soon you get used to things – all in all it was quite an eye opener.

Controlled fires lit to manage the scrub

Steve made lots of new friends – the children in the village loved him!

Steve felt especially connected to these lads as they were using plumbing pipes to play with!

It had been a great couple of days – tomorrow we would be setting off to Kalaw for more trekking in the hills, hopefully this time without men carrying weapons…


We were invited to drink tea with this wonderfully eccentric lady and her lovely family

Tar Tar

(Burmese  Goodbye)


Pyay and Bagan

The Temples of Bagan

It was time to bid farewell to Ngapali beach and head the 10hrs to Pyay where we were staying the night to break up our 20hr journey to Bagan. Our transport for the first half of the trip, a small local bus was not uncomfortable and the hours passed surprisingly quickly. 

We reached the bustling depot at Pyay in daylight and despite being laden with our bags we were very happy to stretch our legs and walk the 3 miles to our guesthouse on the other side of town. Budget accommodation options were limited here, but happily the lodgings we finally agreed on, although a little unusual – pets were welcome, children most definitely were not – were far better than we’d expected.

Spacious and colourful!


Night food market

 

By the time we’d unpacked and freshened up it was getting dark so we headed off towards the night food market for dinner. Unfortunately this foray was to include the first real hassle of our travels so far. We stopped to have a look at our map (big mistake) and were immediately pounced on (in an unthreatening way) with an offer of help. Great we thought, just before noticing that the offer came with a distinct whiff of alcohol and eyes incapable of looking in the same direction, (probably not so great after all). On noticing his state we attempted to peel away but he was having none of it. We flagged down a tuk tuk which frustratingly, but not surprisingly he boarded with us. We tried our best to politely ignore him and had repeatedly told him “no money,” but his behaviour was becoming erratic. With his demeanour changing and unable to escape from the confines of the tuk tuk we humoured him for the short trip which meant lengthy handshaking episodes between the three of us. We tried to lose him when we got off at the market, but that didn’t work either. “Money, money, money” was all he kept saying as he followed us around the streets. He was going nowhere, his mood was darkening and we were feeling evermore uneasy, so just to be rid of him we gave him a small amount of what he wanted. He staggered off into the darkness and we both heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Looking back it’s difficult to see how we could have avoided the situation from escalating, it was scary just how quickly a benign situation had turned sour. It’s very easy to become complacent when nearly everyone you meet is so genuinely friendly – we vowed to be more careful in future. Fortunately for us this was the first hint of trouble we’d come across during our time in Asia, not everyone we’ve met has been so lucky.

Dinner in the night market was both delicious and cheap, it more than made up for the hassle of getting there. We enjoyed spending time amongst the townsfolk eating BBQ’d food and drinking local tea before a far more relaxed tuk tuk trip back to the guesthouse, via a pretty illuminated temple, and our beds for the night.

The lovely lady of the house

The following morning, just as we were leaving and completely out of the blue, the lady of the house declared her love for me – twice!

Her tripadvisor rating went from 3 stars to 4 stars instantly!

We retraced our footsteps to the bus station for the second 10hr leg of the journey to our next destination – Bagan. Much to my disappointment the bus was in fact a mini van, the first of our trip so far. Wedged into the overcrowded space and with absolutely no leg room and no escape route if anything went wrong it felt extremely claustrophobic. I decided I would read my book for the duration and try not to think about our confinement, Steve, crammed into his tiny space and unable to look out of any windows instantly felt travel sick and the boy next to us had already started throwing up – neither of us were looking forward to the journey ahead. Thankfully though the driver, unlike many of his Asian counterparts, didn’t have a death wish and drove relatively safely, Steve wasn’t sick and me, well I just kept my head down – it wasn’t so bad after all.


We were dropped, as we had been the previous day, a couple of miles from our hotel – it was a huge relief to unfurl from our seats and to stretch our legs for the short walk. When we arrived we were greeted with the below, a lovely welcome after many hours on the road.

On every traveller to Myanmar’s to do list, Bagan is a popular tourist destination and so accommodation here is quite expensive. In fact the cost of accommodation in Myanmar had taken us by surprise. Every hotel, hostel or guest house offering rooms to tourists here must have a government licence.  This process we were lead to believe has been open to corruption by local officials withholding licences from those not willing or able to grease their palm.  Luckily though general living costs are cheap so tight budgets can be kept to.

Wanting to get everything done before relaxing we booked ourselves e-bikes for the following day, the recommended way of exploring the area, and arranged our boat trip to Manadaly for the day after that. Everything organised we plunged into the pool for a cool down. Yes I did say pool! A cracking deal made Bagan Emerald Hotel one of the best options available in the area and we jumped at the chance of a little luxury. Despite all its pros though, including an amazing breakfast included in the price, we actually didn’t fall in love with this hotel. It felt impersonal, generic and a little bland. It’s likely a perfect choice for the package tour masses visiting the area, but it wasn’t really our cup of tea – that didn’t stop us having a bit of pool time fun though!


Top speed 10 miles an hour – it’s a beast!

 

Following a great breakfast it was time to pick up our e-bikes – yikes! Our requests for helmets were poo pooed, this is Asia after all, and stupidly we didn’t push the point – but with a top speed of around 10 miles-an-hour what could possibly go wrong?! Following some simple do this, don’t do that instructions we set off. My thought worm for the day started almost immediately, it went like this – “If something happens to us how, exactly, are we going to explain why we’re not wearing helmets?” and “if our kids ever do anything like this I’ll kill them!” With this in mind we slowly bimbled around being overtaken by just about everything else on the road.


Bagan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Myanmar and is one of the world’s greatest archeological wonders. The backdrop for the temples is a verdant palm and tamarind covered 26 square-mile plain, it’s a visual feast that’s said to rival Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. 

Rising from the canopy of green are hundreds of temples that were built by the kings of Bagan between 1057 and 1287, when their kingdom was swept away by earthquakes and Kublai Khan and his invading Mongols. Some 2,230 of an original 4,450 temples survive, a legacy of the Buddhist belief that to build a temple was to earn merit.

Climbing for a bird’s eye view

Bagan is captivating and our day was easily filled exploring it. We climbed as many temples as we could to get the best possible views and were always rewarded with stunning panoramas of the otherworldly lanscape all around us. This is a unique destination that has to be experienced first hand to be truly appreciated and if ever there was a place for a hot air balloon ride this is it! 

 


Steve had done lots of research on where to go and what best to see, it was a great guideline to have, but we soon found ourselves peeling away from suggested temples to explore less visited ones instead. We found lots of quiet hidden gems by heading off the beaten track a bit.

One of the little temples we stumbled across housed an artist who lured us in with his wit and repartee. We were not in the market for buying anything, he knew that but having asked what days of the week we were born on, he cleaverly painted our respective animal symbols, mine a dragon snake, Steve’s a rat. It was fascinating to watch him work and he gave us the little finished pieces to keep. He didn’t ask for any money, but of course we gave him some and were very happy to do so. We now have personalised keepsakes and great memories of the charismatic Burmese man who painted them for us.

Steve’s Thursday rat

My Saturday Dragon Snake


The area is too large to fully explore on push bikes in one day and so our e-bikes turned out to be the perfect solution. We were getting the hang of them, everything was going well until…

Lunch

A little after lunch my handlebar grip fell off making acceleration nigh on impossible. Now I didn’t want to go fast, but we did want to go somewhere. A call to the hotel for help was made and a while later a replacement bike was bought out to us. Great we can at last get on with our day – oh wait, no we can’t because less than an hour later that bike too broke down! Another phone call, another wait, no replacement bike. So two people, one bike it was. Me upfront – Steve behind map reading, or so I thought…

With Steve on the back, my newly learnt scooter skills started to suffer and we wobbled more than was desirable. Despite being a perfect pillion passenger – his patience deserved a medal – his weight made a huge difference to the balance of the bike and I didn’t much like it. We briefly considered the only other option of Steve upfront and me as pillion, but for Steve the idea of me barking orders from the back was too much to contemplate so we stuck it out as we were.

A must do here is to watch the sunset over the temples and there are various suggested places to do it. The faffing with our bikes however meant we were too far away from any of these points and left us looking for an alternative. The spot we found was amazing. From the dirt track we were ambling along we could see people with a perfect view in the not too far distance. Bingo we thought and headed in their direction. We ascended the temple – a tricky little climb – found ourselves somewhere to sit amongst locals and travellers and watched a beautiful sunset over the surreal landscape of Bagan. It was a magical moment for everyone sat watching and a beautiful end to an eventful day.

 

Sunset over Bagan


Not wanting to drive in the pitch dark we picked our way down to the safety of terra firma and our bike..

The track to get back to the road was sandy, very sandy. We had seen people struggling to ride along it from our temple viewpoint, but had thought little of it at the time. Steve was remarkably relaxed as the terrain got more tricky to negotiate, I though was not and soon the inevitable happened. We hit a bank of soft deep sand, the bike did its thing and we fell both off. At about 1 mile-an-hour and with no other traffic on the track it was mostly my pride that was hurt. Being in no doubt then that sand and scooters don’t mix we chose where to ride and where to push very carefully for the remainder of the way. We were very pleased when we reached a tarmacked road, but by the time we got there it was in chaotic rush hour spate and to make matters worse it was now completely dark. Slowly, slowly we made our way back and thankfully our little mishap was to be the one and of the day. Since then we’ve heard stories and seen the scars of many tourist scooter accidents which seem to happen most often with two up on one bike. If there is to be a next time for us it will most definitely be one bike each!

We also now strictly stick to “If you wouldn’t do it at home don’t do it abroad? “

 

      and shy away from “when in Rome…!”

There will be no more helmetless adventures on our trip!


Very glad to be back safely we jumped in the pool and pondered the events of the day. I was hoping that no one would ever find out about our helmetless antics, little did I know that the photographic evidence was already out there. Thanks Steve!


We packed our bags ready for an extremely early start to catch our Irrawaddy river boat to Mandalay the next day. We were both excited, we both slept well. I was a little bruised, but thankfully everything was intact – I couldn’t help but feel we’d had a lucky escape!


Ngapali beach

Ngapali Beach

Sun-Sand-Sea


The night bus, a journey of around 13-hours, wasn’t nearly as bad as we’d been led to believe. Accompanied mainly by local people it was pretty clear that most tourists do indeed fly, but determined to explore SE Asia overland it was absolutely the right choice for us. Adopting the travelling mindset of enjoying the journey as much as the destination has helped us overcome some of the following on our numerous lengthy trips:

The downsides of bus travel in Asia:

  • No toilet facilities – dehydration tactics are necessary to avoid long periods of leg crossing
  • Very little room to cross legs
  • Aircon so cold you freeze
  • No aircon so you roast
  • Smelly blankets on night buses
  • Completely numb appendages for hours at a time
  • Sore coccyges
  • Travel sickness
  • Erratic driving on dangerous roads
  • Sharing space with chickens, goats and other agricultural produce
  • Children unceremoniously dumped on your lap and left there
  • Luggage transported on the roof exposed to dust, rain and thieves
  • UNBEARABLE MUSIC BEING PLAYED IN A NEVER-ENDING LOOP FOR HOURS ON END – We actually liked the bus music of Nepal, but earplugs at the ready for Myanmar!

The upsides of bus travel in Asia:

  • It’s cheap
  • It’s more environmentally friendly than air travel 
  • You meet like minded travellers and friendly local folk (who all think you’re completely mad)
  • You travel through beautiful countryside, pretty villages and charming towns
  • You see amazing sun rises and sunsets from the (relative) comfort of your seat
  • You form a greater overall picture of the country you’re travelling through
  • You have stories to tell

Cheer up Steve – only 13 hrs to go!

One of our many buses, all different, most uncomfortable


We were dropped at a desolate crossroads a little after 4am. It was dark and we had little idea of where we were in relation to our guest house but there was a glimmer of daylight dawning, the tiny street stalls were already creeping into life and the sound of the ocean was ringing in our ears, it was comfortably warm and despite the hour and our lack of sleep we were buzzing. We picked a cafe that was up and running to rehydrate and wait for the sun to rise while we found our bearings on our new best ‘navigational’ friend – maps.me.

Steve indulged, rather bravely I thought at this hour, in the Myanmar breakfast fare of fish soup, noodles and egg – I wasn’t about to join him!

No thanks…

I did however join him a little while later in a cup of 3 in 1 coffee, another Myanmar treat that takes some getting used to.


Our Accommodation

With the aid of TripAdviser and Booking.com our guesthouse choice turned out to be a gem. Ngapali Beach is a relatively expensive destination by SE Asian standards making good, budget accommodation hard to find, but after months of basic living conditions and freezing weather in Nepal we were happy to treat ourselves and compromise a bit on price. With this in mind we raised our budget a little and settled for The Villager Lodge. Set amongst ramshackle local dwellings and a mere 2-minute walk from a stunning beach it ticked all the right boxes and couldn’t have been more perfect. Breakfast (included in the price) was plentiful and delicious, there was free bicycle hire available on site, unlimited wifi access and best of all there was an amazing shower with a continuous supply of hot water – needless to say we upped the once a week wash we’d become accustomed to in the village and shamelessly used copious amounts of (solar) hot water for the first few days!

Ngapali Beach, part of Rakhine State, is a series of glorious beaches stretching along the central eastern edge of Myanmar.


Rakhine State

Our initial plan whilst travelling Myanmar was to go to Mrauk U, (pronounced mrau-oo), to visit its temples, and other archaeological and cultural delights. This would have involved two boat trips, one by sea the other by river, taking us from the southern to the northern part of Rakhine State.

Rakhine State is separated geographically from the rest of Myanmar by the Arakan  Mountains and for much of its history has also been separated by politics and culture. This has led to conflict over the years, which is still ongoing. Knowing of its troubles and not wanting to put ourselves in the firing line of any of the worlds wars whilst travelling we sought advice from the locals we’d befriended. Having heard what they had to say we decided not to make the trip opting to extend our stay at Ngapali Beach instead.

The existing troubles in Rakhine State is primarily between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. The Buddhists get the backing of the state and majority of the Myanmar population, also mainly Buddhist. The Rohingya have often been described as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. According to the United Nations, the human rights violations against Rohingyas could be termed as “crimes against humanity”. The Rohingyas say they are indigenous to Rakhine State, while others claim that the group represents a mixture of precolonial and colonial immigrations from Bangladesh (Bengal). The official stance of the Myanmar Government however, has been that the Rohingyas are mainly illegal immigrants and refuse to call them Rohingya, calling them Bengali instead. The Nobel peace prize winner and de-facto prime minister of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi is facing international criticism for her government’s handling of the crisis, where soldiers have blocked access for aid workers and are accused of harming civilians.

Myanmar is in many ways a blossoming country, opening up to the rest of the world and in the process is trying to heal old and deep wounds with its many minority ethnic groups. Its ability to reconcile the Rohingya conflict will be the acid test of the country’s ability to do this. It won’t be an easy road, we encountered overt anti Muslim sentiment from some of the intelligent, friendly and educated Burmese people we spent time with.

In the words of one western lady we met who’d been working for an NGO in the country for many years, “In some respects the country needs to grow up a bit!”


The Beaches

The resort of Ngapali consists of at least 4 beaches, all of them called Ngapali Beach and all with beautiful golden/white sand. The southern beach is the most developed with a plentiful supply of resorts, stalls and restaurants to choose from. A small, quiet, palm lined cove, which we called Kipling’s Bay after a pretty lodge on the road leading to it, lies just south of the golf course. Here you have a choice of a single tiny beach bar (when the bartender isn’t in the sea) at one end and a couple of smart lodges including Yoma Cherry Lodge at the other. The next beach, north of the golf course and south of the airport, was where we were staying and the most northerly beach was the largest, the least developed and possibly the most beautiful.  Housing only a 5-star resort – Amara Ocean Resort – and one beach cafe that we could see it was nothing short of a deserted paradise!


The pristine expanse of white sand, just a stone’s throw from our guesthouse was enjoyed by both locals and tourists alike. Happily it was quiet whilst we were there in March and it wasn’t unusual to explore large areas with only a few, if any, others in sight. Best described as a beach of two halves, the southern stretch, lined with local cafe shacks and vibrant stalls, was brimming with energy and colour. This was were the locals hung out and was the part of the beach we gravitated to. The northern stretch was equally as pretty, but being fringed by small resorts it had a more touristy feel and so lacked some of the charm of its next door neighbour. Beach-wise there was something for everyone here, all of it clean and all of it beautiful – a lovely flavour of Myanmar by the sea.


Geography in Action (GIA)

Crab in Action (CIA)!

How many shells?

Sand penguin


But this idyll we think is all about to change. The country was opened to tourism in the 1990’s and has seen a huge growth since various political reforms, introduced from 2010, led to the lifting of sanctions against the former military junta. Building works are evident everywhere and we fear that the coming influx of tourist dollar will dull this vibrant community and taint its warm, genuine people. It’s in danger of becoming yet another generic tourist bolthole, but for now at least it’s a raw, naive and beautiful country full of infectiously happy people and largely respectful travellers who want to explore Myanmar for what it is and long may that last.

Fresh coconut juice

Beach food shacks

Children with traditional Myanmar makeup which protects against the fierce sunshine

We thought it impossible to match the kindness and warmth of the Nepali people, but the Burmese have not fallen short. During a stroll along the beach a group of young lads came up to us with a very large and very pretty shell wanting to give it to me. I politely refused thinking they were surely after money. I explained that I didn’t want to pay for it. “No, no they said, we don’t want money, we just want you to have it”. With a lump in my throat I gratefully accepted the shell.

Such is life in Myanmar at the moment and just like Nepal it’s refreshing and beautiful.


We soaked up the sun, lounged on the beach and frolicked in the sea, we exposed our lily white bodies to the elements and we did that very British thing of complaining about the how hot it was – briefly. The warm, clean sea offered a perfect escape from the heat of the day. It was bliss!

We took up the offer of the guesthouse bicycles and spent days on them exploring the area and its many beaches – all were beautiful, all were different.

With the countryside relatively flat our gearless bikes were great for getting around.


Our first 2 trips took us south. First off we visited the stunning main Ngapali beach. Here the large curving area of white sand is fringed with local cafes serving excellent food, craft stalls, massage beds and unassuming locals selling boat trips and the like. The (lifeguarded) swimming was calm and safe and looking inland from the sea was a beautiful backdrop of palm trees. The beach had a relaxed vibe that we loved and we visited it more than once to soak up the atmosphere.


We visited Kipling’s Bay which is sandwiched between our beach and the main beach. Kipling’s Bay is a secluded paradise, a picture perfect spot away from it all. At one end is the upmarket Yoma Cherry Lodge and at the other is a small beach shack offering drinks and snacks where you can relax in bamboo reclining chairs and look to the horizon over turquoise waters.


We cycled to the southern most point of the area where we visited a large standing Buddha situated on a hill overlooking Fishermans Village. This was an area where locals were getting on with their daily lives, it was interesting to see the community busying themselves with traditional work.


To the North we found our favourite spot and enjoyed a great day of exploring the area. We cycled past the little airport next to the coast road where planes come in to land and take off directly overhead – we stopped a while to gongoozle before heading on.  A little further we took a left down a dirt road before picking our way along a vague track headed to the beach. Hard to ride on the soft sand we dismounted and pushed our bikes along the most perfect, deserted spot imaginable. The beach stretched for miles ahead so we took the opportunity of refreshments at a posh resort for an overpriced but much appreciated drink before a quick dip and some body surfing in the lively sea. We dried in an instant whilst pushing our bikes onwards where our tenacity to continue was rewarded with the most unbelievably picturesque and secluded beach cafe we’ve ever come across. We were accompanied by one other couple who also enthused about the beauty and tranquility of the spot – we all promised to keep its whereabouts under our hats! We ate, we swam, I sketched, Steve read, we played cards. This utopian spot was nothing short of paradise. We could have stayed for so much longer, but with a longish ride to our guesthouse ahead of us and the day slipping away we headed back. It had been a stunning day in Myanmar.

Our perfect beach Shack


Our intended 2 or 3 days in Ngapali beach had grown into 7 days of pure joy, it had been everything we’d hoped for and so much more besides.

Our only disappointment was the food served at the many beach cafes close to where we were staying. We were excited about the seafood expecting it to be super fresh –  it wasn’t. Being a little out of high season and very quiet we suspect the produce was hanging around longer than ideal in the heat and despite our best efforts at being careful with what we ate and drank we both suffered upset stomachs here – myself for the first time of our entire 5 month trip. For Steve this was to be the beginning of a long drawn out on/off illness which would later include a visit to a Mandalay Hospital. Begrudgingly we opted for restaurnts aimed more at the tourist market where the local dishes served were both tasty and, more importantly, safe. Sadly it all came with a higher price tag, our budget was starting to suffer.

And so our beach time fun had come to an end. With Steve well enough to travel we were ready to head inland for some culture.


Goodbye Ngapali Beach

we’ve had fun!


Yangon

Our adventure continues…


On the 27th February 2017 we sadly left the Himalayan mountain village of Melamchi-Ghyang, Nepal, our home for the last 5 months, to set off on the next leg of our adventures.

Destination Myanmar

On the 5th March 2017 we boarded our Air Asia plane bound for Yangon  via Kuala Lumpur.

Feeling a little concerned that I’d agreed to a low cost asian airline I was relieved to find that not only did it have 2 engines, both apparently working, but it was also rather plush inside. None of the Qatar airline trappings we’d become accustomed to such as inflight entertainment or free food, but at a fraction of the price it was perfect for us and our budget backpacking pockets!


The reasonable price tag came with an overnight stopover of 9 hours in Kuala Lumpa airport, which as it turns out is also rather plush. Just as well because flashpacking days behind us meant a suitable area of floor was to be our bed for the night. Having chosen our spot, after much umming and ahhing from me, we secured our bags and settled down for the duration – only one of us slept!

Morning dawned, I was feeling tired, Steve was feeling stiff! But our next Air Asia plane didn’t disappoint and was equally as smart as the previous one. With a shortish flight of a little under 3 hours ahead of us we were starting to get excited – we were very nearly there.


The first flying hiccup of our travels happened on this leg the of the trip. All was going well, the weather had been perfect, the landing gear had been lowered and we were almost at rubber touching tarmac point when the engines suddenly roared into life and the plane ascended steeply back into the sky!  Everyone was anxious – everyone that was apart from the hostess who, being sound asleep in her seat at the rear of the plane, was blissfully unaware that anything untoward had happened… Soon after our rapid ascent and with terrifying thoughts of faulty landing gear and the like in our heads the captain announced an apology over the tannoy, explaining a thick band of fog had obscured his sight of the runway at the very last minute. With thoughts of what happens if the fog doesn’t lift now going through our minds we circled for a further 20 minutes before attempt number 2 which, to the relief of all on board, was textbook.


And so, with feet firmly on the ground, it was time to work our way through the obligatory visa and passport controls, before arranging local SIM cards for our phones, drawing out local currency and sorting a taxi to our hostel. Thankfully everything was far less painful than either of us had expected and all was managed with relative ease. There was efficiency at the airport, the ATM worked first time – which rarely happened in Nepal – and we were fortunate to meet a great taxi driver who didn’t take us for a ride in anything other than the transportation sense. Even through our sleep deprived haze first impressions of Myanmar were good.


It was HOT!

Yangon was, until reletively recently, the capitol city of Myanmar. A far cry from the bedlam of Kathmandu that we’d become accustomed to, it wasn’t what either of us was expecting. The roads, although busy were tarmacked and felt like proper roads. Motor bikes are banned from the main streets, meaning less traffic chaos, the taxis are smart, as are the drivers who mostly wear uniforms consisting of the local longyi (a sarong type skirt) and a white shirt, the streets are clean and there is little dust. We liked what we saw.

                   
                                          


Our taxi driver Aung Aung  (hold your nose and say “On On”) deftly talked us into a tour with him the following day. Generally we shy away from guided tours, preferring to find our own way round, but making the most of our 1 full day in Yangon was important and so it made perfect sense on this occasion to take him up on his offer. Besides we liked Aung Aung and were happy to spend more time with him – daily budget blown!

Steve and Aung Aung


He was surprised at our hostel choice, pointing out the more glamorous hotels his guests usually stay in, but Shannkalay turned out to be a great decision. With no windows in the bedrooms and shared bathroom facilities it shouldn’t have been nearly so cool as it was, but with murals painted all over the walls, funky, loud, flowery, (clean) bedding, hot showers and much welcomed air conditioning it was a quirky little bolthole and one of our favourite places of the trip so far. 

For dinner we found a small street cafe packed with local people, usually a pretty reliable indicator of a safe bet, we immersed ourselves in the buzzing atmoshere. The food was both delicious and cheap, the local brew was every bit as good as the Nepali beer and the locals were very happy to have us crash their party. It was a fun evening.

Cheers!

 

Following a great nights sleep in a very comfy bed, we enjoyed our simple breakfast of eggs and coffee before downing our (Malarone) malaria pills which, after much consideration, we’d decided to take. Heading to a high risk Malarial area next we thought better safe than sorry – if we suffered adverse reactions from the medication we’d resort to plan B, which was not to take them! We met Aung Aung our friendly taxi driver at the agreed time for a whistle stop tour of Yangon.


First to Sule Pagoda, an amazing Burmese stupa bizarrely on a roundabout surrounded by main roads. Tardis like, it was far more impressive on the inside than it looked from the outside. Aung Aung told us a neat little fact about the temples here having birthday corners dedicated to different days of the week. The idea is to find your corner and carry out a little ritual. It’s snippets of information like this which make having a guide worthwhile and we now find our corners everywhere we go. 

 
 
 
 
 
Each day of the week has an animal associated with it.
I’m a Saturday which is a dragon snake, Steve is a Thursday making him a rat!

Next stop was Shwedagon Pagoda which was huge and simply stunning. It was the landmark we most wanted to see and it didn’t disappoint. At around 2,500 years old Shwedagon Pagoda today stands close to 100 meters high, it’s covered with hundreds of gold plates and the top of the stupa is encrusted with 4,531 diamonds; the largest of which is around 70 carats! Shwedagon Pagoda consists of hundreds of colorful temples, stupas, and statues painted in vivid colours and with beautiful glass and mirror mosaics everywhere the reflecting light from the bright sunshine was blinding. It’s clearly one of the wonders of the religious world, but whatever your beliefs you can’t help but be impressed with it’s magnificence – we savoured our visit there. 

 

 


Following a lovely lunch at a bustling local cafe we visited Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda which houses a vast reclining Buddha. At 66 meters long it’s an enormous visual delight and my favourite destination of the day. There’s so much more to this statue than it’s staggering size. It’s beautifully carved from stone and the face, especially the eyes, emanate lifelike emotion which sent shivers down my spine. With birds flying in and out of it’s nostrils the shear scale of it was incredible.

 


Our next stop was Nga Htat Gyi Buddha Temple. A splendid seated statue of Budha which paled a little into insignificance having just seen the vast reclining one. But it was beautiful in its own right and its birthday corners kept us amused – little things…


Bogyoke market, otherwise known as Scott market, was next on our hit list. Catering for the tourist trade it was interesting enough, but not wanting to carry nik naks around with us for the foreseeable future and with Steve’s hands tightly on the purse strings a quick scoot around was all we needed.


Via beautiful Kandawgyi Lake our last stop was the National Museum. Closing at 4:30 we only had an hour and a half to wander round it, but we could easily have spent much longer exploring its 5 floors. Beautifully laid out with great displays it was somewhere we could happily have spent more time.

The Lion Throne of the Burmese kings.


Our day was done and with only farewells left Aung Aung tried to convince us one last time that flying by (expensive) plane to our next destination of Ngapali Beach rather than by our chosen (and already booked) method of roading it by (cheap) bus would make for a much more comfortable trip – he hadn’t been on our last flight! We politely stood our ground and with him for the second time in 2 days bemused by our travel choices said our goodbyes. We were happy, today had been money well spent, we’d done everything on our Yangon to do list.


We did follow one piece of Aung Aung’s advice and visited China Town on 19th and 20th street for dinner. He told us that the food would be delicious, plentiful and safe and he was right on all counts. With the streets bustling with far more locals than tourists and stalls everywhere selling a huge variety of goodies to eat and drink we enjoyed a memorable evening soaking up the atmosphere and filling our bellies. We ignored Aung Aung’s final piece of advice which was to take a taxi (not because he thought it unsafe to walk, but because he thought it a long way) opting to walk there and back instead. We were very glad for our decision, not only did we experience Yangon at night, but it also gave us a chance to digest our food babies…


Off to our funky room for bedtime – we both slept soundly.


Breakfast eaten we explored the local area and stocked up on bus biscuits in preparation for the 13 hr long coach ride ahead of us later that day.

 


Ngapali Beach, you’d better be worth it…


 

Melamchi-Ghyang and Nepal – The last few days

 

Goodbye Village life…


Our last day


Our village home

School trip over it was time to return to the village one last time. Steve would be tying up plumbing loose ends and I would be teaching English – we were both looking forward to returning.

The 10 hour bus trip back to he village was every bit as bumpy and hairy as we’d remembered it, but we arrived safely and in glorious sunshine – it was good to be back.

 

Eek!


Nothing much had changed since our time away except for the arrival of Kat and Ed a young doctor couple also volunteering with Community Action Nepal and unbelievably from our home village of St Agnes in Cornwall – it’s such a small world. We all got on like a house on fire and spending time together was a lovely connection to home. Unfortunately they were leaving the following day, but we planned to meet in Kathmandu before going our separate ways, us to Myammar, them to continue their work with CAN. Kat and Ed have a blog called Doctors without Motors – well worth a read, especially as they travelled across India by bicycle before arriving in Nepal! 

Kat, me, Steve and Ed

Home sweet home

Our last couple of weeks in the village were spent in a tent. A reminder of family camping holidays, it brought back fond memories and was a mini adventure we enjoyed for a while. In the confined space we agreed that tidiness was the key to happy cohabitation, but sadly our plan was short lived. With inevitable mess and dirty washing building up around us it wasn’t long before our new accommodation lost it’s appeal!

During our short time together Steve, Kat, Ed and I set about building a bonfire to burn some rubbish. We surrounded it with a little stone circle and foraged for anything combustible we could find to keep it going as long as we could. Villagers chipped in by adding unconventional fire fodder such as old wellies, broken plastic chairs and batteries. The former burnt with a nasty looking blue flame, the later fizzed off in various directions – we all stood well back! Following the bright clear days the evenings soon became chilly, our fire was a welcome respite from the cold.


Steve worked on showers and solar panels for some of the villagers and provided water supplies to the school’s long drop toilets.

 

School toilet with new water supply


One of his most notable achievements during our last couple of weeks in the village was the production of some of rather tasty Raksi – the locals home distilled hooch of choice. Drunk hot it’s a warming treat in the cold evenings – it was a job Steve took very seriously…

Raksi production!


The Nursery school teacher was back from her Maternity leave and so now not needed to help with the youngest children I taught English to classes 1 – 5. The children were a joy to teach and my days passed quickly. Working in Melamchi-Ghyang School has been an absolute privilege and an experience I shall never forget. 


I spent a wonderful afternoon sat in the sunshine with classes 1 to 5 using art materials generously donated by Huish Primary School in Yeovil. The youngsters especially loved using the paints – some of them had never painted before! It was great seeing them so creative and so proud of what they’d produced.

Jack and Rangen with craft goodies from Huish Primary School


Steve and I introduced rounders to the school. A little improvisation was needed with equipment – cricket stumps as substitutes for rounders bats worked a treat. It was a nice change from the usual game of football and both the boys and the girls loved it.


We were invited to various homes for farewell feasts, one of which was at a Tea House where a couple of film makers, Tony and Clive, were staying for the night. They asked if they could interview/film us the following day which, having had a couple of Raksi’s, we agreed to. We have no idea if any of the footage will be used, but it was fun to have been a part of it and it was lovely meeting and spending time with them.

Tashi, Neema, Tara, Paldan, neighbour and me


We’d also been asked to write a piece for the award winning Nepali newspaper The Tourism Times about our Everest Base Camp Trek – this is it.


We were invited to a wedding (our 4th since being in Nepal) at the neighbouring village of Nakote. We walked the easy downhill trek there, but opted for a lift back with the locals – by truck. In Nepal that means on the back of the truck, hanging on for dear life… With the menfolk singing and dancing all the way to the village it was an experience we shall never forget and not one we plan to repeat anytime soon!

Our final day at the school ended with the obligatory appearance on the assembly stage. We thought our luck was in as there was a power cut and so no microphone, but sadly it didn’t let us off the hook. Following a genuinely heartfelt speach from Purna the headmaster about us leaving the village it was our turn to say something. Luckily I managed more than tears on this occasion and Steve was as composed as ever as one after the other we said our emotional goodbyes. We allowed ourselves a little proud moment as we received a large round of applause from the whole school before being presented with khata after khata from Purna and all the teachers. It was an incredible gesture of warmth from people who had so openly welcomed us weeks before and who were now our friends – we will miss them all.

Standing on the assembly stage on last time


We lived in unheated, ramshackle accommodation and endured freezing temperatures. We experienced 2 earthquakes and regular power cuts. We ‘enjoyed’ once weekly bucket showers and a shared compost toilet. We had mountain mice (more akin to rats) as bedroom companions AND WE LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. For us though it was easy – we knew we could pack our bags and walk away if ever it got too much. We could return to our warm cosy home, or we could travel to anywhere in the world that took our fancy! We would thaw through and we could take a shower. For the people of Melamchi-Ghyang life isn’t that sinple.This is their everyday and always reality, this is their post earthquake existence. Occassionally they reminisce, but mostly they look to the future, not to the past. We could not fail to be humbled by the community around us and their response to what life had dealt them. We left the village with work already in progress – the new road is under construction and the rebuilding of the school’s hostels and classrooms is due to start soon. Our hope is that in the not too distant future this beautiful village and it’s outstanding school will be returned to it’s former, pre-earthquake glory so that the local people can once again enjoy their lives in peace and relative comfort.

Our accommodation

Our first room

We cannot thank Purna and Janghmu, the teachers, the pupils and the community of Melamchi-Ghyang enough for making our stay in this wonderful village so very special. Our words cannot ever do justice to our time there. 

On Saturday 25th February we said our final, tearful goodbyes to the people we’d spent so much time with. We walked out of the village looking back only once. Our volunteer work had come to an end and it was nearly time to leave Nepal – where had the last 5 months gone?

Time to go


Here are just a few of the very special people (in no particular order) who became our friends:

Phurpa my Nursery and Kindergarton class teaching friend – Jhangmu who fed, watered and looked after us – Rangen who helped me with English classes -.Kami who looked after us in Kathmandu and guided us in and out of the village – Purna the headmaster, who took us under his wing and showed us the ropes – Tashi who looked after Steve in the forest – Kami Lama who did the same – Karma and Karsang for giving up their room for us – All the staff and pupils of Melamchi-Ghyang school who welcomed us with open arms – Community Action Nepal and Murari who made all this possible and last but not least Corin an English techno whizz who runs his own charity Yolmo Connect providing computers and training to people in rural areas of Nepal and who loves the village as much as we do.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to the pupils, parents and staff of Huish Primary School in Yeovil for all their fundraising and support. Also for the wonderful home made cards and hand picked craft goodies they sent over for Christmas. We’ve been touched by their generosity.

 

                        

 

 

            

 


Our final days in Nepal were spent relaxing, sending home our winter gear and planning our trip ahead. We submitted our article for the newspaper and said our goodbyes to Kami and Tashi who’d looked after us during our stays in Kathmandu. We celebrated my birthday with Kat and Ed in Thamel. A lovely evening made even more special by a surprise cake – with candles! It was the perfect end our Nepali adventure. 


Bags packed

 

 We will be back


Kate and Steve – Melamchi-Ghyang, Nepal

Nov 3rd 2016 – Feb 25th 2017

 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Kate-Opie
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Steve-Opie

 

Plumbing in Nepal

 

My work in Melamchi-Ghyang


On 3rd November 2016, a day before my 51st birthday, Kate and I arrived in Melamchi-Ghyang, a village that was entirely devastated by the 2015 earthquake, to start our volunteer work.


My job was mostly to help with school and community plumbing work, but also to lend a hand with general maintenance and other tasks if needed. It soon became clear that conditions in the village would be very different from my usual super-efficient working life at home!

My office!


A few of the hurdles to overcome:

 There is no PlumBase just down the road. With the nearest hardware store a day’s travel by precarious bus ride away it was vital to assess what was needed as carefully and accurately as possible before making the trip to purchase the required parts.

2  Everything is decided by committee, meaning lots and lots of talking, mostly in Nepali and Yolmo (the local Tibetan dialect), before agreements are reached and anything can be started.

3  Work in the village is done to Nepali time, which is the impressive big brother of our Cornish “Dreckly”!

4  Bodging and recycling are necessary evils – there’s lots of make do and mend.

5  Pipes and fittings are different from what I’m used to working with in the U.K.

6  Lunch isn’t a meal deal from the local shop, it’s freshly cooked on open fires by the workers.

My special thanks goes to PlumBase, Truro for generously donating tools for me to use whilst in the village and for the community to use now we’ve left.

Fancy a cuppa!

Trusted with the cooking!


And so to work.

My first plumbing task was to assess the extent of problems with the community water supply and offer my advice. Shortly after we arrived the government announced that by mid 2017 communities affected by the earthquake would have a drinking water supply pipe installed by the government. The devil was in the detail and it later became apparent that in Melamchi-Ghyang this meant just one stand-pipe for 10 houses. This was not what the villagers wanted and so for my time in the village at least the project was on hold.

 

 


There had been intermittent problems with the school water supply. Originally installed by American volunteers it was damaged during the earthquake, but had since been repaired. The recent Monsoon season had taken its toll and so remedial work was needed to ensure a constant supply. Consequently I spent a number of days working with a few villagers deep in the jungle (on an old Tibetan salt trading route) fixing the existing water tanks, building a new one near the source and mending the pipe in various places. 

   

Cheers!


The locals also delighted in catching frogs which are considered a delicacy in the village. I didn’t fancy fried frog for dinner so left them to it!

 

Tashi proud of his frogs!


The School showers consist of 5 cubicles, each had a hot tap, a cold tap and a bucket. Known aptly as a bucket shower the practice was to fill the bucket with water and then wash yourself. With the help of my glamorous assistant and any number of willing, but less able onlookers I installed 5 new showers which were much appreciated by pupils and staff alike.

 

   

                                      

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Able assistant!

 

 

Less able assistants!


There were a number of leaks in the water supply to and from the solar hot water collectors, these were fixed and the pipes insulated which was quite a task. The only insulation available were giant rolls of 5mm thick foam which had to be cut, rolled around the pipes, tied in place, covered with clear polythene (also cut from a roll) and finally tied again with string to secure it. What would have taken a couple of hours at home took me a week to do here.


I enjoyed a fun afternoon with the Year 8 students taking them on an environmental science field trip into the forest to show them the water system.

 

 


Dawa, a teacher at the school, helped me fix a problem with insufficient hot water being supplied to the girls showers. When the boys put their showers on, the girls water went cold – something I imagine the lads found rather funny, I know I would have done at their age! A new pipe was run from the main water tank to the solar hot water collectors, problem solved – boys fun ruined!

 

 

School shower block


Once accepted as being vaguely competent by the community I was approached to help with some of their plumbing problems including installions of solar hot water systems, fitting showers and fixing leaks.

 


Two of the school toilets were without water supply, which I sorted with salvaged pipe and fittings. The only new parts used were the two taps.


Caritas, a worldwide Catholic charity, had committed to supplying a new, more robust water supply to the school, from a different source to the existing one. I assisted them in surveying the route through the jungle and into the village with a view to piggy backing the new community water supply with the school’s pipeline. Caritas’ charity didn’t stretch to allowing the community to use the same pipe as the school and so an additional pipe was needed.


There were somethings I couldn’t fix… 

Toilets at the Cave Temple completely destroyed by the earthquake

There were somethings I wouldn’t fix…

Man on a hot tin roof!

 There were somethings that didn’t need fixing…

 

Such as the compost toilet and bucket shower where we were living!


Until recently the road ended just after entering the village. The 2 charities funding the rebuilding of the school, CAN the boarding hostels and Caritas the classrooms, insisted that the road was extended to the other side of the village where the school is situated to make delivery of materials easier and cheaper. About a dozen people owned land that was needed for this new stretch of road which was to run along an existing footpath. The Village Development Committee set their powers of persuasion into motion to cajole these people into donating the required land free of charge (we couldn’t see that happening back home!!!). Eventually, after much discussion the road was sanctioned and work started on building it during our last few days there – weeks later than originally planned. Just before we left I helped adjust some of the water supply pipes to the community that the new road affected.


The new Health Post funded and run by CAN is the only building in the village currently built to recent earthquake resistant regulations. The toilet and bidet hose needed a little work and both were fixed with salvaged materials and a bit of ingenuity.


My other duties in the village.

I mended the school microscopes damaged in the earthquake, installed electrical light sockets in classrooms, taught practical science lessons, put up shelves, took sports lessons, prepared radishes for drying, but most importantly of all…

I made Raksi!


 

Melamchi-Ghyang Annual School Excursion

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Year 9 Melamchi-Ghyang School Excursion 

Feb 2017


On the 2nd February 2017 we were privilaged to join the year 9 pupils of Melamchi-Ghyang School on their annual excursion.

This is our diary.



Day 1 – Kathmandu to Chitwan.

After a 5:45am wake up call we excitedly set off to catch one of two buses bound for the first destination of our trip – Chitwan National Park.

 

The day didn’t begin well – our coach wouldn’t start! Things weren’t looking good but 40 minutes of tinkering and head scratching later and thankfully our comatosed bus spluttered into throaty life – we were ready for the off. Steve was thrilled, the youngsters were vocal and I was wondering why I hadn’t gone to the loo when I’d had the chance.

Setting off along the main Kathmandu to Pokhara route – a road that Steve and I now knew well – we initially made good time, stopping only for the customary dahl bhat lunch and a couple of toilet breaks, a huge relief for everyone!

The atmosphere on the bus was buzzing until we hit road works. Stuck and going nowhere for over an hour the pupils seized the opportunity to stock up on roadside snacks, Steve – not able to read when travelling because it makes him ill – immersed himself in his kindle and I watched the chaotic world go by.

By the time the road was passable we were well behind schedule and with the day slipping away we kept everything crossed for no further delays. We arrived at Chitwan National Park a little before 6pm, almost three hours later than intended. The fading light made it impossible to trek through the Park as planned and so with options now limited everyone was hastily escorted to the museum before that too closed. Housing fascinating, strange and weirdly macabre exhibits of preserved mammals, reptiles and amphibians of all shapes and sizes it was somewhere we could easily have spent more time. But time today was not on our side and so with pretty much no light left we were whisked off to see some of the park’s elephants. Chained to their posts for the night Steve and I felt uneasy to see such majestic animals in their confinement. Many of the students though were seeing these impressive beasts for the first time – they were excited.

By now dark, we boarded the buses where the high spirited youngsters broke into Nepali song until we reached our hotel. We settled down to a late dinner, the girls eating first followed by the boys and finally ourselves and the teachers. Having had our fill we all headed our separate ways for the night.

We hoped that the next day would bring less time sitting on the bus and more time sightseeing…


Day 2 –  Chitwan to Lumbini

The second day started around 6am with some of the pupils reading their school trip diaries aloud. Nepal has an education system where classes are structured around ability rather than age, so pupils on the trip were of varying ages. All teachers were responsible for a small group of students and every day at least one person from each group was chosen to present work from diaries they were expected to write during the evening. Presentations rushed through, breakfasts eaten and bags packed we boarded the buses ready for the day ahead.

Numpty!

We were pretty much on time and things seemed to be going well until our bus driver decided to plough onto a single lane bridge which was already occupied by a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. This move created absolute gridlock and around 45 minutes of bedlam insued as we were ordered by a police officer to reverse (and reverse and reverse) past a huge queue of traffic that had formed behind us. Finally we found somewhere suitable to pull off the road to let the less than happy, and equally long, queue of traffic that had built up on the other side of the bridge pass. It was shaping up to be a day similar to yesterday…

Birth place of Lord Buddha

 

 

Lumbini, in the Terai – Southern Nepal, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the birth place of Buddha. It’s a very special place for Buddhists worldwide.

 

For us it was a lovely couple of hours spent exploring the temples and grounds, for the pupils of Melamchi-Ghyang School it meant so much more.

 

 

There’s always one! 

  

 


Exploring done, dahl bhat lunch eaten and souvenirs bought, we headed back to our buses. A short ride later found us at the Lumbini World Peace Pagoda. One of eighty such pagodas around the world – including the one in Pokhara we’d recently visited – these Buddhist stupas have been built to promote world peace. It’s a beautiful structure, so white that our eyes hurt in the bright sunshine reflecting from its walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Our next stop was the Indian border. Residents of Nepal don’t need a visa to travel to India and so the teachers and students payed a brief visit to their neighbouring country. At a cost of $100 each for a visa Steve and I decided to watch on from the (relative) comfort of our bus.

 

An hour or so later we were back on the road bound for hotel number 3. Tired from a long day we all dispersed to our rooms to freshen up and gather our thoughts before heading back down for dinner – boys first, then girls then teachers and us.

The family running the hotel said that Steve and I were ‘very white’ and guessed my age at 36! This was most definitely my favourite hotel of our trip so far!


Day 3 – Lumbini to Pokhara

The day started well because we were on the quieter bus away from “DJ Whistling Boy”! I’ll explain: all buses here have an assistant on board – mostly young lads – who help their drivers avoid collisions on the chaotic city streets or dropping off  cliffs on the hazardous mountain roads. On the public buses they also handle the money for fares. They use whistles as a form of communication hence we refer to them as the “whistling boys.” This particular lad – who today, thankfully, was on the other bus – spent far more of his time shaking his tail feathers at the students than he did assisting the driver and, in his efforts to impress, turned the music up so loud that our brains hurt! We duly dubbed him “DJ Whistling Boy”, the name stuck!

‘DJ Whistling Boy’!


On route to Pokhara we stopped at the UNESCO world heritage site of Tansen, where we visited temples including Bhagwati, built in 1815 by Col Ujir Singh Thapa to commentate the victory over British troops in the battle of Butwal during the Gurkha War (1814-1816).

Just before our final destination of the day we stopped off at Devis Falls and Gupteswar Cave . Steve and I had recently seen both of these and so we opted to sit them out and found a cafe for our first coffee of the trip.


The mountainous road we’d driven along that day to reach Pokhara had been both scenic and hairy, but thankfully we and our previously poorly bus made the journey in one piece – almost! A few metres from our destination there was a distinct clunk before we ground to a halt. The driver looked concerned, our whistling boy looked confused and the gathering crowds looked amused. Unable to contain our curiosity we got off the bus to see what was happening. Bad news, the drive shaft had broken – we were going nowhere . Luckily for us our next destination of Phewa Lake – the second largest lake in Nepal – was only a few minutes walk away. Shanks’s pony it was then.

A little more effort please Steve…

Before boarding our boat at the lake we were given life jackets, one of the first signs of health and safety we’d come across during our time in Nepal. We were deftly rowed to the small island in the middle which is home to Tal Barahi Temple. A quick walk round and many photos later we all boarded our boats to be rowed back to mainland shore.

 

With only one healthy bus Steve and I decided to avoid the crush and walk to the hotel a short distance away. Once there we all settled into our rooms, enjoyed a little chill time and wrote our diaries. Steve and I went for a wander to a small local cafe where we’d spent lots of time with our daughter Meg during the New Year celebrations – happily they recognised us, we felt very at home.

Following our usual dinner more students were chosen to read extracts from their diaries after which Steve was asked to offer advice. Taken by surprise at the request he had to think on his feet and rose to the task effortlessly. I was very impressed and made sure to be prepared in case the same was required of me at a later date – it never was!

The following day we needed to be awake at a very unsociable 4:30am for an extremely early start to see the sunrise and so with Steve’s wise words fresh in our minds we all settled down for an early night.


 Day 4 – Pokhara to Gorkha

Good news, our old faithful bus was fixed – bad news, today we would be on the other one with “DJ Whistling Boy!”

 

Our alarm went off at 4:30 for a 5am start to see the sunrise at Sarangkot. Steve and I were weary, the pupils however were not as their year group have a tough regime at school where early starts and late nights are the norm. Reluctantly and still half asleep Steve and I boarded “DJ Whistling Boy’s” bus and headed off in the dark for the starting point of our morning’s climb. It was lovely to be walking again and as the day dawned we were treated to yet another beautiful Nepali sunrise. Pupils and staff savoured the moment too – whilst taking more selfies than you can point a (selfie) stick at!!!

 


Elephant stone in Mahendra Cave

From here we walked back to our buses to be ferried to the Mahendra and Bat Caves. We enjoyed Bat Cave especially where thousands of bats hang from its ceiling. Seemly undisturbed by all the activity around them, they were a sight to behold and one of the highlights of our trip. Bat excitement long behind us we had an incredibly tricky exit to negotiate and with no technical gear or health and safety in sight it was not something I was looking forward to.

Purna leading by example

Firstly there’s a short, vertical climb to scramble up, followed immediately by a tight and claustrophobic squeeze around a 90 degree bend. Both were awkward and everyone other than Purna, the teachers – all male – and Steve needed a leg up from below and a haul up from above to manage them. Because it takes time to navigate both obstacles a queue had formed in the cave and some of us found ourselves waiting in the confined space for the best part of an hour. I for one was relieved when I finally wriggled out – Steve of course loved it. I was so impressed with how calm the youngsters remained and even more so with the school matron who managed it in her beautiful local dress – hats of to them all.

 

Yikes!


Out in the fresh air we headed back to the hotel for lunch, of you know what, before boarding the buses and heading the short distance to the International Mountain Museum. Steve and I had previously spent a day here so we picked our way through the exhibits we wanted to revisit before sitting in the sun. It wasn’t long before we were joined by the students and teachers and following their obligatory selfies everyone returned to the buses for the journey to Gorkha. Guess which bus we were on!

“DJ Whistling Boy” didn’t disappoint and the driver, today caught up in the antics, was driving at break neck speed along the winding mountain roads. At one point Steve actually said “Can I have the biscuits please, I don’t want to die hungry!” I passed him the biscuits and returned to reading my book, the alternative of looking out the window was much too scary…

Music turned up loud and travelling too fast resulted in the nearest miss of our Nepali adventure so far. Steve was unable to bite his tongue any longer, the driver had frightened himself and “DJ Whistling Boy” went quiet (briefly). It all got a lot more sensible after that.

Hotel number 4 was a good one. A lovely balcony gave us incredible views of a stunning sunset over the Manaslu Himal and after an adrenaline fueled day we could now relax. This hotel had the perfect solution for feeding people in numbers – a dahl bhat buffet. Steve, able to pile his plate as high as he wanted and go back for more if needed, was a very happy man. 

 


Day 5 – Gorkha to Kathmandu

After a lie in – our alarm went off at 5:30 – we walked directly from our hotel to the Gorkha Hill Top Palace. Set high on the rocks overlooking the town and surrounding countryside the view was stunning in the early morning light. One of our favourite landmarks of the trip, it was well worth the early start. Sadly Gorkha was badly affected by the earthquake of 2015 and parts of the old palace buildings show signs of damage, happily though much of it was unaffected and remains intact.

Why exactly are we doing this?


A short stroll back down the hill to more super speedy diary readings and a buffet breakfast including the magic food of bread. Not a regular part of the village diet sliced white bread was a winner here – students and teachers couldn’t get enough of it – Steve and I got stuck in too! 


Oh, that’s why!

Boys liking boy things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the old faithful bus we headed to the Gorkha museum which was unfortunately shut and so following a quick scoot around the grounds we headed for the last treat of the trip – a ride in a Austrian built cable car to Manakamana Temple.

 

Cheap for goats and chickens, but expensive for foreigners Steve and I decided to sit this one out enjoying a reasonably priced coffee at the cafe instead. With great excitement the youngsters joined the queue – among said goats and chickens – and boarded the gondolas for their cable car ride to the top. A while later they arrived back down, buzzing with joy at their adventure.

Sadly the chickens and goats do not make the return journey!


With spirits high we all boarded the buses for one last time, headed for Kathmandu and the end of the excursion. It had been a wonderful few days of fun and laughter, wonder and learning. With minds full of memories and phones full of photos it was time to return to Melamchi-Ghyang, our village in the sky.


 For us it was a wonderful experience spent in the company of genuinely lovely people who we now considered friends. We were honoured to be included in such an important aspect of school life and felt privileged to have been a part of it. 

Our very special thanks go to Purna and the teachers for taking us under their wings and to the pupils who were a joy and a credit to Melamchi-Ghyang school.


 

The End!

 

 

 

 

 

Everest Base Camp-The return journey

Days 10 to 13 – Gorak Shep (5,140m) to Kathmandu

Via Lukla!


Last stop – Lukla!

Accompanied by Dirk and Fleur we took three days to get back to Lukla. It was a return trek of early starts and far more uphill walking than we’d anticipated!


Unfortunately the first of these days was littered with news of people we knew who’d been rescued from the mountain.

Charles, Dirk and Fleur

Fleur, Steve, me, Charles and Dirk

At breakfast we heard that Singapore Charles had made his way up to Gorak Shep, but that following a bad night we were told he had to take a pony ride down to Lobuche (4,910m) from where he was flown to Kathmandu. During lunch at Pheriche (4,240m) we received news that having reached Base Camp and on her way back down Colombian Stephanie had become ill so she and Paulo had also been evacuated. Finally, that evening, on arrival back at Pangboche (3,930m and from where American Elle had been flown out on our way up) we heard that one of the two Australian girls had become ill during their descent and so they too had been airlifted to safety.

Dirk, Fleur, me, Australian girls 1 and 2 and Steve

 

Along with Fleur and Dirk we pretty much felt like the last men (and women) standing!



A couple of less eventful days later found us still in sunshine and back at Lukla where celebratory beverages were enjoyed. Our first alcohol since acclimatising in Namche Bazaar on our way up – other than the tot of rum at Base Camp – it hit the spot nicely!

Rabin’s successful negotiations with the ”Lukla Mafia” secured us a flight back to Kathmandu a day earlier than originally planned – our first shower in a fortnight was getting ever nearer! We arrived at Lukla airport before 7 am where we obtained our boarding passes and booked in our luggage. Having said our goodbyes to Padam we tentively boarded our Goma Air plane.

Here we go again…

 

Hope you don’t mind us using your fab photo Charles?!

 

The plane readied for takeoff and we braced ourselves for what was to come as we gathered pace down the short, steeply sloping runway heading straight for the 2000ft drop! Our fears of plummeting off the end were soon forgotten as we smoothly ascended into the air.

 

Flight souvenir!

An hour or so later, having spent anxious time circling over perfect conditions to the north and fog to the south we landed at Tribhuvan International airport. We were safely back to the delightful, polluted madness of Kathmandu with our feet firmly on the ground and I was very happy!

 


Bicky and Steve

Padam


We would like to thank Bicky from Super Holiday Trip for all his help in arranging such a fantastic trek – it couldn’t have been more perfect. We would also like to thank Rabin, our guide, for getting us there & back safely, and for all the laughs along the way; Padam, our porter for carrying our pack and last, but by no means least, the skilful pilots of Goma Air!

It had been the most incredible adventure and a challenge we shall remember for the rest of our lives.

Kate and Steve – EVEREST BASE CAMP – Jan 2017


 

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