Bangkok, Thailand

The Myanmar Andaman Resort folks dropped us off at the Victoria Cliff Hotel around 10am. Fortunately we were able to check in that early. Even though we were in a smallish town there was a feeling that we were no longer remote.

We took an expensive hotel taxi ($10) back to the jetty and walked around Kawthoung. It's a cute little town. Walked through the market, saw the clock tower, had a Myanmar tea, looked for an ATM (found one but it wasn't working), had some freshly made samosas. The day was getting too hot for us so we got a three-wheeler back to the hotel. This was a bit of an effort as at the jetty they're more used to tourists from Thailand making a border run to renew their Thai visas, and those tourists just want the two hour tour of Kawthoung before heading back across the border. We had to get the taxi driver to keep on driving towards our hotel, we finally got there.

Lazed about until evening and then watched another beautiful sunset from the lounge.

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The next morning we had a mid-afternoon flight back to Yangon, but the hotel advised we should get there early in case the flight left early. They also made 8 (!) photocopies of our passport cause they said we would be asked by for them by immigration (even though it was a domestic flight). We ended up using just 2 copies but I guess it was good to have in case.

Got the tasty shortbread cookies again on the first leg to Dawei. In Yangon took the long taxi ride through traffic back to our same hotel. Went for dinner at Union Bar cause it was late and we weren't motivated to try a new place.

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After breakfast we went to check out the 66m reclining Buddha at Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda. It was impressive even though we were out-pagoda'd.

We would have liked to go to Scott Market for souvenirs but it's closed on Mondays. So walked downtown checking out art galleries and the like. Ended up at a crafts store near the Strand Hotel that had really good stuff at reasonable prices. We stocked up on our souvenirs.

Heather had spotted a cool-looking cafe (Ragoon Tea House) so we went there for lunch. It was excellent, in a hip exposed-brick atmosphere. We liked it so much we made reservations for dinner and returned later that evening.

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A long travel day brought us back to Bangkok. First a 75-minute taxi to the airport in Yangon. No problems through immigration, nor with the multiple carry-on bags of souvenirs. The flight itself was just over an hour. Then a 90-minute taxi to our hotel in Bangkok (Eastin Grand Sathorn).

We have a couple days here before we head off to Bhutan. Looks like there's more than enough in Bangkok to keep us occupied.