Walking the beach to Ngwe saung town and back again

Today we actually made it out off bed early enough to have breakfast and then walk the beach towards Ngwe saung town before the sun got too high in the sky. The benefit of staying close to the ocean is that it doesn't get that hot during the day as is some of the other locations we've been to in Myanmar. But the sun is still scorching hot from 9 AM and until late in the afternoon.

So we walked down to the beach and spent the next 1½ hours walking past resorts, meeting a few people on the beach which mainly was deserted - empty - ours alone. Except for a couple of places serving drinks on the beach it is an untouched beach packed with resorts. Nice resorts it looks like. We stopped at the only place on the beach with a PADI flag and asked for trips and prices. Seems like USD 80-100 is the level here depending on how many dives you want to do on your day trip but since we knew were weren't going we didn't try to negotiate. They only offered two dive sites but we've have done so much diving in Thailand last month.

We made it to Ngwe saung town which is surprisingly big, lots of shops and only a single ATM and this morning no power. We stocked up on Coca cola, Myanmar Rum, a few mixers and some snacks and had a guy on a scooter driving us back to the resort. Then we went to the beach, relaxed, read our books, took a couple of swims in the ocean and headed back to our patio for sunset drinks. This is just what we needed and looked for.

Breakfast on the patio

Small rock temple on the beach

Seems to be an OK place to eat

Untouched beach - almost

Local market in Ngwe saung town

Ready for sunset drinks

Can never have too much of this

U Bein bridge trip in Mandalay

We woke up after a great nights sleep. Nothing like arriving at a good hotel, a good bed and a somewhat quiet room after having done overnight bus travel the night before. Breakfast at the hostel starts at 6 AM and closes at 9:30 AM so we hurried down at 9 to have a look at the options in Myanmar.

Lots of hot food for breakfast, including rice, lots of mystery cakes (have to try them) and then some recognisable food like pancakes and syrup. Save them for later.

After breakfast we headed to the train station which is just down the road. A small station but nevertheless a train arrived just as we got there. We were looking for tickets to go North-east in a couple of days to Hsipaw. All signs being in "Burmese" - a little confusing but a local scooter driver helped us finding the right counter and then informed us what we kind of already knew - tickets can only be bought the day before departure. Not a big deal though, we now knew where to go.

Heading out of the station we started to enquire about transport to U Bein bridge - a very long wooden bridge just outside of Mandalay. Prices for scooters started at 10000 Kyat per person which was a little steep compared to our transport from the airport yesterday. So we walked away and new and lower quotes were being shouted at us.

In the end we found a local taxi driver with a real car who offered to take us there for 18000 Kyat and wait for us there. The drive was about 40 minutes including a bit of busy traffic in Mandalay. Once at the bridge Malene bought a small bag of papaya salad, spicy Mandalay style only to realise after the first bite that the powder that had been added in reasonable amounts was in fact dried, crushed fish powder giving the whole thing a taste of - well, dried fish.

We spent the next 1½ hours heading over the bridge and back again. Impressive construction knowing it dates back to around 1850 - and it looks like it has only been maintained sparsely since then. Once on the other side of the lake we walked around a small monastery before heading back to our driver. We were dropped off at the hotel just around 1 PM and went straight for some lunch and then back to power nap.

In the evening we went to a local mall down the road - just to check out what is available in Myanmar. Turned out the selection of clothes and electronics were actually quite good but pricey - presumably due to import taxes.

We found a nice place for food and cold beer for dinner tonight we wanted a "real restaurant" and not just a street food kitchen. Then we headed back to the hotel planning to get up early and have a look at the Royal palace tomorrow.

Crossing the U Bein bridge

U Bein bridge

Second bird dropping today

Cold and crisp Myanmar draught beer

And good food

Tuvkhon Monastery - hill top temple visit

The truck left at 8 am for the short drive up to the foot of a hill. We walked with Kate the 2 kms to the parking lot and was basically there at the same time as the triuck. And then it was an uphill walk for about one hour through a pine forest. Dead quiet except for the wind in the trees. No other visitors but us. 

The temple at the top was so different to all the other places we have been so far. It was small. A few wooden buildings and lots of prayer flags. We walked along the path of the mountain until we made it to the top. Mikkel climbed all the way up the steep mountain side and Malene took the lower climb instead. Compared to the other places we've been this was just tranquil and scenic. Much like you would expect a temple to be.

We walked back to the truck through the forest and had lunch. The rest of the day was spent driving. Bumpy driving. Originally the temple visit was supposed to be in the afternoon yesterday where we spent time at the festival instead. To our luck our driver found a place to cross the river much closer to the route than yesterday so we saved around 1½ hours on that short cut. Unfortunately that might also have been the reason for the flat tire we discovered when we had a short break to do shopping in Kharkhorin town. Add 45 minutes of waiting to get tire changed.

We arrived at our next camp just before 10 pm in the evening after many kilometres of bumpy driving including some 25 kilometres of off road tracks to take us to the camp. Dinner was served and then it was off to have a shower, a nice relaxing dip in the hot springs after walking and many hours on the truck with so much dust. Good night.

Morning walk

Hill top temple

Tough walking up

Malene and Dodjo, our Mongolian guide

Small temple or big Mongolian guide

Climbing down

Alice

Walking back from the temple

Checking water level to see if we can pass

Alice enjoying travelling in the truck

Always several gravel roads you can take