Punakha, Bhutan

We checked out of the Norbuling Hotel after breakfast. It was one of the larger laundry bills we've had, but we did wash about half the items in our packs.

The drive from Thimpu to the Dochu La pass (3140m) took about an hour. We were lucky that the sky was clear and so we had great views of the Himalayans, with several peaks over 7000m, including Gangkhar Puensum at 7541m, the highest peak completely in Bhutan.

Our travel agency (Bhutan Travel Club) had arranged for us to spend an hour discussing meditation with a lama. At the pass there is a monastery, and so we spent some time with the resident lama, getting an introduction on Buddhist meditation. It was interesting, although our guide (Yeshey) is really knowledgable and we've learnt quite a bit from him.

We then continued with the drive to Punakha, arriving with enough time to visit Punakha Dzong. This Dzong is one of the highlights of Bhutan, and I was looking forward to seeing it almost as much as Tiger's Nest.

Punakha Dzong sits at the confluence of two rivers, with an old pedestrian bridge leading to the entrance. At this time of year it's home to about 500 monks who winter here (it's one of the warmer cities in Bhutan). The monks provide convenient subjects for pics :)

We spent almost two hours exploring the Dzong and getting the history from Yeshey. It was really cool to see.

That was it for our day. We drove back to the hotel, had a nice dinner and then to bed.

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We had an early start to the day, meeting Yeshey and Hasta (our driver) at 8am. Breakfast was a buffet, they did have a local honey which tasted great on toast.

First was a short trek up to ? It's supposed to take about an hour, but I think cause we had acclimatized from our trek, we only took 30 minutes. We had great views of the valley below. The rice harvest had just completed, and we could see different groups threshing the rice, putting aside the rice stems for animal feed. Power lines got in the way of some of the pics.

The temple itself was nice, with three levels plus the rooftop with even nicer views. On the 2nd level there was a monk repeating a mantra, while beating on a drum, and occasionally the cymbals. It was cool to listen to him. The monk repeats the mantra every morning and evening to appease the local deities.

Next we visited Nalanda University, a monastic school. Supposedly it's cool to attend a debate, because the monks are very dramatic although they don't raise their voice. It's all in an ancient Tibetan language so we wouldn't understand, but it's more about watching. Unfortunately the monks have exams coming up and so they were all studying, and weren't debating.

We had a picnic lunch at the university, provided in tiffins by our hotel. It included a dried fish dish (we had seen the dried fish a couple days ago in the market and were curious about them). Locals eat the whole fish, bones and all. We just ate around the bones. It was salty (as you'd expect with dried fish) and yummy.

We then visited a nunnery (Khuruthang Goemba), drove to Pana village for some souvenir shopping (we were looking for a little higher quality so didn't buy anything) and finally Chimi Lhakhang, a temple built for the Divine Madman, the nickname of one of the historical religious figures in Bhutan.

It was a long day, and we had a nice relaxing dinner back at our hotel before calling it a night.

Thimpu, Bhutan

It felt great to wake up in a bed after four nights of camping. It was so much easier to get out of bed when it's not below zero outside the blankets.

There were two large groups taking up the rest of the hotel, and the restaurant didn't have enough room to hold everyone eating at once, and so we had to come back down 30 minutes later for our breakfast. Breakfast was pretty good - à la carte, as opposed to the buffet for the groups.

First on the list of touristing for the day was Buddha Dordenma, a 50m tall Buddha overlooking the city. This was quite impressive, even though we've seen some big Buddhas on this trip. The inside will eventually hold 125,000 statues of Buddha, which was about 50% completed and looked cooler to us than Pindaya in Myanmar.

Next was a stupa that you could walk into (one of two in Bhutan). This was okay; the cool part was all the elderly walking around chanting their mantras.

We then visited a heritage museum where we were dressed up in traditional garments and tried out archery (albeit only about 10m, not the 140m in competition). Heather hit the target; I was happy just to not maim anyone.

We rushed to the post office to get there before noon, under the mistaken impression it was Saturday. Turns out it was Friday, so we didn't need to rush. We got personalized stamps made up on the spot - they even have USB cables to connect to my iPhone to download the pic we wanted. Bought some postcards which we'll have to write at some point.

Had lunch, and then visited a couple factories. First was a paper making place that was way more interesting than the one we saw in Myanmar. This one was an actual factory as opposed to a made-for-tourists place.

The incense factory was really cool. I've never put any thought to how incense I made. Well now I know. Various ingredients are made into a pulp, which is squeezed into long strands about 1/4" thick. The workers then roll and cut to the final length, and it's dried in batches on boards. The finished product is packaged in bamboo containers for selling. It was fascinating, and smelled great.

Because it was Friday and not the weekend, we had to wait until 4:30pm to visit Trashi Chhoe Dzong, the highlight of Thimpu. (The king works there until 4:30pm so you can't enter till he goes home).

To pass the time we visited the Weekend Market, a well-organized market. Our guide was great at pointing out the various fruits and vegetable we had eaten. I was thinking it would be useful to have a guide take me through Loblaws or TnT back home in Toronto to explain what everything is. Half then stuff we saw in the market is sold at home, I just had no idea what it was or what to do with it.

Finally it was 4:30 and we went to Trashi Chhoe Dzong. It's an impressive fortress, and we were lucky to see the tail end of the changing of the guard.

For dinner we went to a place a little outside the centre that served momos (dumplings). I first had momos in Tibet about 20 years ago, and had a hankering after seeing a lot of restaurants advertising them. The momos were great, along with a bunch of other dishes.

Back at our hotel we crashed pretty early, around 9:30pm. I suppose this was late compared to the 8pm on the trek, it's all relative.

Druk Path Trek - Day 5

It snowed on-and-off throughout the night. The wind would pick up and flap the snow / rain every so often, a sound we weren't used to, and so it would wake us up. We were lucky that during our trek it didn't rain / snow and there weren't high winds.

I got out of the tent around 6am, to check out how bad the trail was based on all the precipitation. It wasn't too bad - just a coating of snow on the ground - I think our imaginations from all the sounds got the better of us.

The trekking crew was up early too, and we had breakfast, packed up, and started off by 7:30am.

First we checked out the nearby Phajoding Goemba. The sun was melting the snow on the roof which looked like rain falling from the inside.

The trek down to Thimpu was pretty easy. It was through tall pines, and the fallen needles provided a nice cushion on the ground for walking. The smell reminded us of Christmas. The 700m descent took us about 1.5 hours.

Our driver was waiting for us at the pick-up point. Along the way to our hotel we drove by the Takin Reserve and spotted some takin, the national animal of Bhutan.

It felt great to finally shower after five days of trekking. We gave three bags of laundry to the hotel, containing all of our trekking clothes. We had saved a clean set of clothes to wear when we finished the trek, almost everything else was dirty.

We had lunch at the hotel, a little bit of a let down after the great food we had on the trek.

We had asked our guide, Yeshey, while on the trek, if it was possible to arrange another hot stone bath at the end of the trek. He had suggested going to the home of our trekking guide, Sunam, which we agreed to, as it would be a more authentic experience.

Sunam's place was about 30 minutes outside the city. His house was a five-minute climb up paths from the road. I guess that's not unusual here so no-one mentioned it; but we were in our clean set of clothes. Anyways, it's all part of the adventure :)

We thought we would head straight to the hot stone bath. But first we had to have tea and snacks. We were then fortunate to watch the whole process. River rocks were heated in a fire until red-hot, then quickly dunked in a pail of water to get rid of the ash, then placed in the tub. It took a while to heat the rocks, and so we were offered arra (a home distilled drink from wheat). We then learned customs around drinking - first you dip your ring finger in the drink and flick it in the air three times, say cheers ('le jembay dja'), and then you have to add a little more to your glass after the first sip.

The arra wasn't too strong (I would guess about the same as wine) so the full glass they poured us didn't impact us too much.

Eventually the water was hot enough and so I went first. In the commercial hot stone bath we had in Paro, there was a wooden separator between the bath and the rocks, with holes for the heated water to flow. In a backyard hot stone bath, there's no such niceties, and we were instructed how to lie down without burning ourselves on the stones. It started to cool down and so I asked for another stone; this sizzled under water for almost five minutes. It really heated up the water.

Next was Heather's turn. They replaced all the rocks in between, but Heather is okay with a hotter bath.

By the time we were done it was dark, and we descended the path back to the car using our smartphones. (We had originally thought we'd done by 4:30pm so hadn't planned for flashlights).

Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel, but based on our mediocre lunch experience, and the fact that we were in the capital with the best opportunity for non-Burmese, instead went to a pizza place. Our guide and driver picked us up from the hotel and drove us there. They were going to wait around until we were done and then drive us back, but we were just a 10 minute walk away so we convinced then we'd be okay, and so they were able to have the rest of the night to relax (our guide had started the day trekking just like us).

The pizza was pretty good. We chatted about the trek and had a couple Druk Lagers, then walked back to the hotel to sleep in a bed for the first time in five nights.

Druk Path Trek - Day 4

The sun didn't hit our campsite until 8am so we stayed in our sleeping bags until 7am. It was so cold overnight that the water in our water bottles froze inside the tent! Although we were quite warm in our sleeping bags.

I got up to see the view, and also to see if I could spot some blue sheep with the great curved horns in the sun at the top of the mountain. I saw some animals, but they turned out to be yaks.

Yesterday we had seen some blue sheep in the last stretch before camp. However we were so focused on getting to camp while it was still in the sun that I didn't stop to take out my camera and take pictures. Earlier in the day we also saw pheasants and Oriental turtle doves.

I took some pics in the morning of the yaks at about the same distance we had seen the blue sheep, about 500m above us at the crest of the mountain. At that distance the yaks looked like blurs, barely recognizable as animals. So it's just as well i didn't try to take pics of the blue sheep - we wouldn't have seen the horns at all.

Today's walk was shorter, and as we were adjusting to the altitude, a little easier too. We crossed a number of passes between 4,000m and 4,200m. There were some flat stretches (finally!) that were more our style of trekking.

Lunch was yummy (tuna cooked with onions and garlic, with rice and vegetables). I was impressed that it took until Day 4 to get into tuna - based on our last trekking experience in Ethiopia I was expecting tuna or boiled eggs for every meal. But on this trek we haven't had the same thing twice yet, including breakfasts!

We reached the final pass at 4150m and had a great view of Thimpu in the valley below. Our camp was near Phajoding Goemba, an organized campsite with washroom facilities. It felt strange to have other people around after trekking with just our group the past few days. The last stretch from the pass to the campsite was very steep (more than 45* at places). It took us an hour to descend at our knees were pretty sore, even with using poles.

Our whole trek we had been followed by 4-5 rather healthy-looking dogs. They latch onto a group because they get the leftovers from meals. They follow a group one way, and then catch another group going back the other way. Because we're getting out of busy season there wasn't another group going back, so the dogs just hung out at the Monaatery. Animals are well-loved in Bhutan so they should be okay.

We had our last dinner cooked by our trekking chef, which was excellent again. We chatted with the crew - they had all completed the Snowman Trek, supposedly the hardest trek in the world. Our trekking guide, Sunam, had done it three times!

We went to bed around 7:30pm. Just in time too, as it started snowing (more like small snow pellets) at 9pm and continued through the night.

Druk Path Trek - Day 3

We didn't sleep well, maybe because it was too hot in the double sleeping bags. At 6am I got out of the tent, it was still about 30 minutes before the sun would reach us, but again I couldn't stay in a sleeping bag that long. The view was great - we were above the clouds, and everything was covered with frost. Eventually the sun came up, and melted the frost. We warmed up and had breakfast - porridge, scrambled eggs, toast. Yummy.

We started today's trek heading up to 4,100m, and then spent the next three hours up and down between 4,000m and 4,100m. It was very tiring, although a beautiful path to trek. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I wore my trekking pants, a longsleeved base layer top, a neck gator and sun hat, and was quite comfortable. When we stopped for lunch I put on my fleece to keep warm. The temperature was maybe 10C (?).

In a bowl between two passes we saw a couple prepping and drying a plant that is used as incense. It grows wild above 3,500m. Our guide spoke with them, they sell large sacks of the dried plant for 700 Nu in India (about $12). They were okay with me taking photos so I took a bunch.

We finally reached our lunch spot after three hours, a great viewpoint of the valley and the Himalayans. Lunch was a hot lunch again (!).

We then descended to 3,600m to a lake, and then up the other side of a valley, around a bend, finally to our campsite at 3,800m. It faced west, so caught the late afternoon sun. It was a long walk today - 11km over 6 hours 15 minutes mostly above 4,000m, and we were exhausted.

Dinner was excellent, and then we had another campfire. We were at a lesser-used campsite (it's more common to camp at the lake we passed earlier, but this campsite was better if you can reach it). There were semi-nomadic locals nearby, from whom I think we bought some firewood.

We chatted with our guide, tried to learn some more Bhutanese, and went to bed around 8:30pm.

Druk Path Trek - Day 2

It was freezing cold out (although we were nice and toasty in our sleeping bags) but my back was sore from sleeping for 11 hours so got up around 6:30am, just as the sun was hitting our campsite. It felt good warming up in the sun.

Breakfast was really good - cereal with hot milk, then omelettes with sausages and toast. There was even peanut butter! There was a large thermos filled with boiling water and lots of tea, coffee or hot chocolate to go around. (At almost every occasion the thermos would make an appearance - I've never drank so much tea in my life). Anyways lots of energy to keep us going on the trek.

We walked up past the Jili Dzong to a peak. Before we left for the trek, we had purchased prayer flags in Paro, for Heather, me, and our Moms. The colour of the prayer flags depends on when you were born. It's similar to the Chinese calendar, except there's also an element attached which determines the colour. I was born in the year of the Iron Dog so my flags were white. There's 10 flags, each about 8"x10", with the same prayer written on each. The belief is that the prayer is said when it flaps in the wind.

Heather's flags were green; Heather's Mom was the Iron Horse so also white. There's a different prayer (for compassion) for those who are passed away, and always white, for my Mom.

The guides strung the flags for Heather, me and Heather's Mom, and then attached to wooden poles about 20' tall. The poles were then places in post holes. My Mom's flags went on a separate set of poles.

It was cool to see the flags flying in the wind, overlooking Paro Valley with 7,000m peaks in the distance. My Mom always liked traveling, and liked that Heather and I travel, so we though it was very appropriate.

We continued on the trek, along a ridge overlooking Paro Valley. There were many ups and downs, between 3,800 and 4,050m. The altitude affected us a bit, we got tired easily. But no headaches.

Lunch was a hot lunch again, rice, meat, vegetables, fruit for dessert. The cook sure knew what he was doing. It was tasty and nutritious.

We reached camp around 3pm, on a east facing side of a range, at 3,600m. Once again we were the only group at the site. It got cold quickly once the sun disappeared behind the hill. Because we were the only group, we were able to have a campfire with dead wood gathered by the trekking crew. (It's a safety concern if there's a lot of tents).

Dinner was excellent, and then we huddled around the campfire and looked at the stars in the sky. We even saw a shooting star! I had thoughts about waiting for the moonrise, but then realized that I'd have to wait until 9:30pm, so instead we called it a night around 8pm.

Druk Path Trek - Day 1

Yesterday walk to Tiger's Nest was a good warm-up for our 5-day trek from Paro to Thimpu. Before roads were built in the 70's, the Druk Path trek was the "road" between the two cities.

We had separated our stuff into two packs, one that the driver would take to Thimpu, and the other to be carried by horses as we trekked.

It took about 30 minutes to drive to the starting point, at about 2500m, above the National Museum. There we met our trekking crew: a trekking guide, a cook, and the horse person. Yeshey (our guide for the whole trip) also joined us, so there were four people and five horses just for the two of us.

Today's walk was 1,100m up to Jili Dzong, which overlooks Paro Valley.

The first hour was along an unpaved road, although only one vehicle passed us so it wasn't dusty. We started around 10:30am, and looked to be the only group starting this trek today (it's shoulder season).

After the hour we broke off onto the old paths, now used primarily by tourists and their entourages. It was a very scenic walk through pine. It was a great temperature for trekking - about 14C or so.

Lunch was a hot lunch, rice with chicken and a couple vegetable dishes. The trekking guide carried the food in tiffins in an insulated container.

We reached camp around 1:30pm, early enough that we had time to visit Jili Dzong. It had been impacted by the 2011 earthquake, but a benefactor was paying to have it restored. The temple inside was completed, and so we heard the history.

We walked down to camp (at 3500m, about 75m below Jiii Dzong). We were very impressed with our tour operator (Bhutan Tour Club). There were three tents set up, one for Heather and I to sleep in, another for eating (which doubled as the tent for the guide and cook; the other trekking crew slept near the horses away from camp), and a kitchen. The equipment was all pretty new and designed for the temperatures we would face (about -5C at night). We had two sleeping bags each, Marmots rated for -20C, so we were plenty warm at night.

We only got cold between sunset and getting into the tents. Dinner was at 6pm, multiple courses with plenty of nutritional value, and tasty. They even gave us a hot water bottle to warm up after dinner! We stayed up for a few more minutes, then took them to warm up the sleeping bags. We were asleep before
7pm.

Paro, Bhutan

The flight to Paro departed at 6:50am from Bangkok so we had a wake up call at 3:30am (ugh). The traffic was pretty good at 4am though.

We flew on Druk Air, one of the few airlines with pilots licensed to land at Paro. It's a difficult approach through Paro Valley to the airport.

The flight stopped down first in Kolkata, where half the passengers turned over. I was surprised that that many people boarded, but then remembered that India was one of the regional countries that didn't pay the high visa fees.

For the rest of the world, Bhutan charges about $250 USD per person per day. (I say 'about' cause there's discounts for offseason and premiums for smaller groups). However that includes everything - hotel, guides, food, trekking, everything. You don't need to bring money - but it's useful for souvenirs, tipping, and beer. (It's like an all-inclusive cruise, except reasonable prices for drinks). Each group also gets a guide assigned for the whole trip - something I wasn't too keen on prior, but it's mandatory. The visa fees include a mid-range hotel, but it's possible to upgrade if you want (we did for a couple nights).

Anyways I had booked through Bhutan Travel Club (BTC) way back in June, based on reviews in tripadvisor. It's a little disconcerting sending bank drafts based on email correspondence, but the internet said BTC was good and if you can't trust the internet who can you trust.

Anyways so we had a nice view of the Himalayas on the flight to Paro, seated on the left side per advice from BTC. Maybe we saw Everest, I took some pics that we tried to match up in Google, but the peaks look different depending on your point of reference.

It was really quick through immigration (they didn't even look at the print out of our visas - we must have been on a list), picked up our luggage (our packs were now very large because of the addition of winter clothes), and met our tour guide, Yeshey, who was waiting with a 'Heather / Eric Paul' sign.

Our driver (we have a driver for the full trip too) whisked us off to the Gangtley Palace in Paro, about a 10 minute drive. The hotel was originally a palace that's now converted to a hotel. Our room had a lot of character, and a great view of the Paro Dzong across the valley.

We had lunch in a local restaurant, served family style. The rice here is a red rice, probably much healthier than white rice. Chilies are very much part of the diet on Bhutan, but for tourists they make dishes non-spicy. I tried the one chili dish, and it was very hot.

It felt like dinner cause we were up so early, but we still had an afternoon of sightseeing. Went to the National Museum and then to Paro Dzong. Our guide was excellent. Not enough to switch me over to having a guide everywhere, but if it's mandatory to have a guide, he's the kind of guide I would want.

The Dzong (fortress) was really cool. You have to see Dzongs in person - pics don't really capture the feel. Apparently the Paro Dzong was where 'The Little Buddha' was filmed, for those Keanu Reeve fans out there.

We could have done some more touristing before dinner but we were beat, so rested up for a couple hours in our room. Dinner was good, the restaurant had nice panoramic views of the valley. Watched the moon rise over the far hills. It rose so fast that I didn't have time to get my camera.

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We were up early for breakfast, excited cause today we were going to see Tiger's Nest Monastery (Taktshang Goemba). Heather's wanted to see Tiger's Nest for a long time, even before it starting showing up on lists when you google cool places to see.

Our driver and guide picked us up at 8am and we drove to the start point of the trek up, about 30 minutes west from Paro. Unlike other sites that you trek to, you can actually see the final destination from the start point.

It took us just under two hours (including a stop for tea and cookies at the restaurant at the halfway point, with nice views of Tiger's Nest). There's a few viewpoints along the way to take pics. The last part now has proper steps and a railing, so it's not a dangerous walk at all.

Tiger's Nest was really cool to see, and got better the closer we got.

At the entrance you have to check your bags and cameras, and there's a security pat-down. It's a very holy site for Bhuddists. As with Myanmar you have to remove your shoes, but in Bhutan you can keep your socks on. Good thing too, cause it was pretty cold inside.

The inside is a series of connected structures, a mix between inside and outside (so the temperature throughout is the outside temperature). There are eight temples inside, of which we visited four. Our guide gave us the history of each as we visited. I was starting to shiver near the end cause my feet were cold (if you remember we had just climbed from 2500 to 3100m).

We had lunch at the restaurant half way down, so had lots more time to look at the view.

We then drove to a couple more sites: the oldest Dzong in Paro and a fortress ruin which looked like a castle.

We had a traditional hot stone bath before dinner which felt great (we had been fairly inactive over the past few days so we were a bit sore from today's little trek).

Had a couple beers (Red Panda, a weiss beer) with dinner to celebrate seeing Tiger's Nest. It was cloudy so we didn't see the moon rise - I had brought my camera this time just in case.

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok was more of a rest stop between trips, so we didn't plan much touristing. It was also pretty hot (35C) so we didn't want to spend all day outside.

Our hotel is in the business district, with direct access to a BTS stop. It was easy to catch a skytrain (60¢) to the river, and then by ferry ($1.60) to the historical area where most of the tourist sites are located.

We went first to see the 50m gold reclining Buddha in Wat Pho. The buildings were pretty ornate and very bright and colourful. There was a big difference in tourism numbers between Myanmar and Thailand - in Yangon we had a similar site to ourselves, here I queued to get the right position for a picture. And forget about tourist-free pictures - here the main objective was not getting my eye poked out from a selfie stick.

Unfortunately the feet of Buddha were undergoing restoration, as the inscriptions on the soles are the coolest part. Still, a 50m long gold Buddha is pretty impressive. The interior of the building housing Buddha was also cool, with murals and carvings filling the walls and ceiling.

We then wandered through random streets to the flower market, about 2km away. Our wandering wasn't completely random thanks to the offline maps and GPS (I'm using tripadvisor for offline maps).

Along the way we stopped in a local restaurant that served bbq'd pork. The chef was chopping the pork in the front and they had the biggest rice cooker I've ever seen (about 3' diameter). Anyways it looked like their specialty was rice with bbq'd pork, so we had an order each. It was delicious. Although, and I've said this before, we're spoiled for food choices in Toronto because it's easy to get similar quality back home.

Continued walking and sampled some more streetfood, pork satays right from the grill, and a fried dough bite-sized treat filled with condensed milk, corn and green onion. We really enjoyed our little walk, as it was largely tourist-free.

The flower market was huge. There's a festival tonight where people float elaborate flower offerings on the river, so it was busier than usual; but it's busy every day. The flower vendors filled up the sidewalks and spilled out into the streets.

We caught the river ferry back home, with some difficulty in finding the port.

We cleaned up and went for happy hour in the hotel lounge on the 32nd floor. Being city folk, there was something comforting about seeing major streets filled with car lights.

Later we checked out the night market a couple skytrain stops down from us. The sidewalks were just filling up with vendors (we had lucky timing as it poured rain before and after we went out). They had pretty decent quality stuff (per Heather).

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The next day was similar, just different sites.
We went only to see the Grand Palace today, which is the top tourist site in Bangkok. It houses the Emerald Buddha (actually made from jade), but today was the ceremony to switch from summer to winter clothes so that particular temple was closed.

We were almost crushed by the busloads of tourists, with almost all of them waving selfie sticks about. We must have hit a wave of them when we first arrived because there was no room to move, but after a while it got a bit better.

Despite the overwhelming number of tourists it was still cool to see, even more colourful and grander and elaborate than Wat Pho.

On the way back to the ferry we passed through the Amulet Market. They sell little amulets (duh) to collectors that search through the tables filled with little Buddha heads and other designs, peering through magnifying glasses for a rare find. It was interesting to see.

We had an early morning flight to Paro the next day (wake up call at 3:30am) so took it easy after dinner and just went to bed.

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.

Macleod Island, Myanmar

Breakfast was standard at the Victoria Cliff Hotel. They did have bacon, and didn't mind when we asked to have it "extra crunchy".

We were picked up at 11am by the Myanmar Andaman Resort folks for the 6km drive to the jetty in Kawthoung. There was another couple in the car who had just been picked up at the airport. (The next day we found out that Victoria and Chad were from Vancouver :) )

At the jetty we transferred to the very nice speedboat owned by the resort. There were 14 of us headed over: Victoria and Chad, a couple from Germany, two British guys, and a group of 6 Russians traveling with a guide.

The water was glasslike for the two hour ride pretty much due west from Kawthoung. I had an offline map of the islands so could trace our path as we went. Macleod Island is at the western-most edge of the islands in the Myeik Archipelago, almost in the open sea.

The approach to the resort is really cool. The island is shaped like an upside U, and the resort is inside the cove formed by the U. The water was even more still inside, protected from the larger waves. The resort is tucked in behind the long beach at the end, with 8 beach front cabins and 14 cabins behind.

The whole resort crew came out to greet the boat (they work on the island for the full 8 month season). A welcome drink and short intro from our host, Mr Win, and then we were showed to our cabins.

We had a yummy lunch (the chef was amazing), and then walked down the beach to the dive center to get snorkeling gear. We just snorkeled out from shore, although there wasn't much to see so close. But still, we were in the water :)

The cabins were large and clean but pretty basic. The did have a/c and a mosquito net over the bed so it was comfortable at night.

This is one of the more remote places I've been to, and they had wifi with decent speed. So I'm not going to ever say again that we're headed to a place without wifi, cause I'm always wrong.

We had a drink at the bar before dinner, and then enjoyed a 4-course dinner with salmon for the main. The dessert was labeled as "calamari pudding" which confused us at the bar, but it turned out to be caramel pudding lost in translation.

The next morning we were up at 6am so we walked along the beach, watching the hermit crabs disappear into their shells when we approached, but scurrying about in the distance.

We went for breakfast early. The usual breakfast, plus croissants that weren't too bad, especially considering that they have to bake everything themselves.

I went diving later in the morning. The first dive was just for the divemaster to evaluate us, and was inside the cove and not terribly exciting.

Typically on a dive excursion you spend about 45 minutes getting to the dive site, so you'll do two dives while you're out there. However cause we're already so remote, the dive sites are only 5-10 minutes away and so we just returned back after each dive. It was also quite nice not to have 10 other dive groups at every site, like safari jeeps around a lion. Just me, one of the British guys, and the divemaster.

The 2nd dive wasn't until 2pm so Heather and I took a kayak out to one of the other beaches in the cove. The resort wasn't visible so it really felt like we had a secluded beach all to ourselves. (Which, we did).

After lunch I went for another dive, this one at a tiny island just outside the cove. The currents were strong here, and I spent a bit of effort just trying to maintain my buoyancy and not drift into the wall. Anyways there was lots more to see here, nothing checklistable but still cool to see.

The dive itself was 45 minutes; shore to shore was just over an hour.

I was really hungry at dinner, which was excellent again, tonight we had seafood curry for the main with lots of squid.

On Friday we were supposed to go on a boat ride around the island (the resort does this every week). However I woke up feeling like I was getting a cold, and as we have a lot more travel to go, decided just to take it easy and stay at the resort. It was a relaxing day, reading in our hammocks, jumping in the sea when it got too hot.

Lunch was excellent (fish grilled perfectly plus a chef salad). In the afternoon we watched one of the local fishing boats (the waters are populated by sea people who I don't think have a nationality - they go between Thailand and Myanmar waters) come into shore to trade some fish and fill up their fresh water barrels. The episode took over an hour, by then it was time to shower and head to the bar. Dinner was again excellent, including squid tempura.

The next morning we were up early (5am) to catch the speedboat back to the mainland. Some of the other guests had a 10am flight to catch, we were staying in Kawthoung for the night so didn't have to rush, except there's only one boat :)

I'm glad we took the side trip to Macleod Island as it was cool to have an island (almost an archipelago) to ourselves (+ about 10 others). The only place I've been to that was similar was when JP and I found a little beach place in Zanzibar after climbing Kilimanjaro.

Kawthoung, Myanmar

The flight from Yangon to Kawthoung stopped down in Dawei. I was surprised that the jet was filled, although we were the only westerners on the 2nd leg. We got served very tasty shortbread cookies for a snack!

Kawthoung is about south as you can get in Myanmar. A little further south on the peninsula and you're in the very busy Thai resorts at Phuket and Krabi. For now the Myeik Archipelago in Myanmar is empty of tourists, but that will quickly change. There's also only two hotels / resorts in the whole place.

Our destination is the Myanmar Andaman Resort on Macleod Island, a 90-minute ride by speedboat, where we'll have 3 nights. We have an overnight on each end in Kawthoung.

Our hosts at the Thahara had warned us to be careful with the food in Kawthoung, so we didn't have high expectations on the tourist infrastructure. Based on the advertising in the airport, the Victoria Cliffside Hotel seemed the place to stay (and where we had booked on Agoda). At least we didn't have any issues explaining where we were staying to the immigration folks (who photocopied our passports) or to get a taxi.

Our taxi was in the back of a truck, so I couldn't see much. It's a common made of transport here. As we turned into the hotel, I could see the grounds, and they looked pretty nice. We transferred to a golf cart (always a good sign) to take us up a small hill to the lobby. The hotel had amazing views of the Andaman Sea! This was way better than what we were expecting!

Turns out they've just soft launched after doing major renovations, my guess is in anticipation of the coming tourist boom. For now though, there were just a handful of other guests (enough so it wasn't creepy empty like the time we stayed at the salt hotel in Bolivia). The surrounding islands are completely untouched!

We had lunch (pad thai - there's more Thai influence here than Burmese). We had plans to read but instead ended up just watching the scenery. The sunset was amazing.

Had a nice dinner under the stars and called it a night. Not a bad place at all to kill a night in transit!

Tomorrow we go even more remote, to Macleod Island, for diving and snorkeling.

Yangon, Myanmar

The flight from Heho (near Pindaya) to Yangon stopped down in Bagan and so we had another view of the temples from the plane. We knew where to look now so they were easy to spot.

In Yangon they're constructing an overpass from the airport to town, so traffic is a mess now. It takes over an hour to get to and from the airport, which I think would normally be a 15 minute drive. We get to do this a few more times, yay.

We had a view of Shwedagon Pagoda from our room again, but now that we've seen similar pagodas everywhere in Myanmar it didn't seem as impressive.

It was an admin day as we caught up on emails etc in the afternoon, and then went for a dinner nearby.

...

I had left a week unplanned at the of trip in Myanmar. I had roughly planned seeing more temples in towns near Yangon, but we're out-templed and instead looked for some beach time. The southeast area on the Andaman Sea has been off-limits to tourists for a long time, and has just started to open up. There's just two hotels/resorts in all of the Myeik Archipelago - and one of them, the Myanmar Andaman Resort, just recently reopened after renovations. So we booked into the place for three nights.

The resort is on Macleod Island, a 90 minute speedboat ride west from Kawthoung. It's pretty remote!

Kawthoung is only accessible by air for foreigners. There's only four hotels listed in tripadvisor so we booked the top one, which just seemed to be the least bad of the lot (and that was based on only two reviews).

We had to find the Myanmar Andaman Resort office in Yangon to pay cash (they didn't take credit card). We had the street address and also that it was beside KBZ Bank. Unfortunately there's a KBZ Bank every ten feet (or so it seems). After entering a bunch of wrong buildings we finally found the office. The person we needed to talk with wasn't in yet, but they called her and said she'd be there in 30 minutes. They offered us tea and coffee while we waited. The person arrived and we paid, no problems.

We wandered around looking at the big old colonial buildings in downtown Yangon, and then had lunch at the trendy Union Bar. It was so good we made reservations for dinner.

We wanted to visit the Bogyoke Market (aka Scott Market), supposed to be the best place for souvenirs, but it's closed Mondays. Unfortunately when we return it will be on a Monday again, so we we'll miss the market.

Had dinner at Union Bar, just a $3 taxi ride from our hotel. I'm still staying to western food for now, had the braised beef. It's odd to have people smoking in restaurants but they're still a bit old fashioned that way here still.

Pindaya, Myanmar

I was still pretty sick from lunch the day before, but managed to get myself together for the flight to Pindaya. The airport in Mandalay is way out of town - over an hour drive. We checked in with just our web receipt on my iPhone - didn't even need to show ID. There's no assigned seats, just board the plane and seat yourself. We had lots of carry-on bags thanks to all the souvenirs we had bought but there were no issues, and lots of overhead space for them.

The flight itself was really quick, 35 minutes. They did take time to serve a drink :)

We had booked with Thahara for our stay in Pindaya. They were fairly new when I booked (only 8 reviews in tripadvisor at the time) but had an established sister hotel that got great reviews so figured we'd be okay.

Thahara Pindaya has five guest rooms in a farmhouse-type building outside Pindaya, surrounded by farmer's fields. It's really upscale inside, with the best beds and duvets we've had on this trip. Pindaya is at 1500m or so with very pleasant weather - highs of 22C and lows of 12C at night at this time of year.

Thahara offers an all-inclusive 3-day package including full board, excursions and airport pickup, which we had signed up for, and so there was someone with a nice little sign with "Eric D'Souza and Heather Murray" waiting to pick us up.

I was sick and so missed the scenic hour-long drive to the hotel. We even passed by a cattle market that I didn't get any pics of.

We reached the hotel around noon, just in time for lunch. It's a family-run place, with the best cooking we've had. I picked a really good place to get better! They made me congee for lunch and a chicken noodle soup for dinner; Heather had the normal meals which were ginormous and way too much food.
By the next morning I was feeling much better and ready for sightseeing. We had some leisure time in the morning and spent it catching up on our books, in the sunlight-filled common area overlooking rolling fields.

We actually cooked our own lunch! One of the activities we signed up for was a cooking class. Our host (Aye Aye) had done all the prep work - I did have to cut up some garlic and shallots, but the rest was adding to pots and stirring. (Maybe not 'cooking our own lunch' per se, but still) Made a chicken-based broth (her secret is to use skinless chicken neck for flavour), a chicken curry, all added on top of Shan noodles. While everything was simmering we munched on freshly-made fried pork rinds with a lime soda to wash it down.

After lunch we drove out to see Shwe Oo Min Cave, which has been filled with thousands of statues of Bhuddha over the years. It's supposed to be one of the highlights of Myanmar according to the Rough Guide. We thought it was okay. I had pictured a natural limestone cave floor; however the path is tiled and all the remaining floorspace is taken up by statues, with wiring all about for lighting and cctv. Didn't have much aura to it at all.

The small villages that we drove through were really picturesque, we liked that part better than the cave. Stopped in a couple workshops where crafts were made by hand. The paper making one was touristy, although it was cool to see how fast the guy could turn a piece of bamboo into an umbrella handle. Less touristy was the textile place where we placed an order for 12 napkins for pickup tomorrow ($6). Also watched cigars being rolled using cocoa leaves, and were offered a couple samples for free (!).

We had a couple of cocktails just after the sunset. Aye Aye's husband said they were "light" but I think now that he was referring to the flavour and not the alcohol content.

Dinner was excellent, now that I could actually eat. Over the three days we stayed here, Aye Aye served us something different every meal, all traditional Shan dishes. Very yummy.

...

We were up early the next morning (actually, at 6am, our normal waking time this trip) so that we could participate in the daily alms offering. Every morning, the students at the monastery walk through the villages with bowls in hand. A younger student walks a couple minutes ahead banging on a metal pot. Villagers come out and offer food to the students (they're not allowed to ask for food, so this is the system).
So we parked on the corner, and Aye Aye gave us large bowls of rice, with instructions for one scoop to each student. Both of us found this oddly stressful. The students file by fairly quickly, and it's not that easy to spoon rice equally without having any spill out the side. Anyways we made it through without any faux pas.

Aye Aye had to go to the morning market so we wandered through while she picked up a few groceries for dinner. Then it was back to the farmhouse for breakfast, more leisure time, lunch, and then the afternoon excursion to a Heritage House.

We weren't sure what to expect with the Heritage House. It was a big old house built over 100 years ago. What made it interesting was the owner, Rosie. She's about 80 and was a former history professor at various universities in Myanmar. She was full of stories as she took us through the house. Her father was knighted (or something, it wasn't clear from the picture) by the British / Indian something way back when, so now Rosie's treated as royalty.

Next we visited another very old house, this one over 200 years. The owners (not sure how old they were, maybe 80 as well) had moved into a more modern house on the property. The old house was still standing to visit; the doors were much shorter than today (about 5' high). It was made of teak and most of the wood was still original.

Back home, we freshened up and then had a pre-dinner drink at sundown. Dinner was excellent again, grilled chicken breast and grilled vegetables, mostly from Aye Aye's garden. We had our cigars after to finish off the meal which were pretty mild and fresh, looking at all the stars, our last night in Pindaya. Tomorrow we head back to Yangon by plane.

Mandalay, Myanmar

Our last day in Mandalay was mostly rainy so we didn't do much. Based on the forecast it was supposed to stop raining for a few hours after lunch so we booked a driver to visit Inwa.

Lazed around most of the morning in our hotel room, then went out in the rain for lunch. We had tired of most of the places near us, so tried out Shan Ma Ma, a restaurant serving Shan food (as you could probably guess from the name). Shan food in restaurants is typically served buffet style, so we've been avoiding it, but we figured for lunch it would be fresh. It's also an open air restaurant which makes it more street-food level hygiene. Anyways we weren't really impressed, and I think it was why I got sick later on that evening.

After lunch the rain cleared up just in time for our excursion (yay weather forecast). It's about a 45 minute drive south to the jetty, and then a 5 minute (if that) boat ride across the Ayeyarwady to Inwa.

On the Inwa side, a million horse-drawn carriages were waiting to take us on the 90 minute tour of Inwa (it's the thing to do here). The track was really muddy from the rain and horses. The ride started off a bit bumpy but then we got to gravel / paved roads and it was smoother.
Saw a bunch of temples and pagodas. We needed to show the multi-day pass we had bought a few days ago to visit some sites. There was nothing special, (I took my camera out as a courtesy), but it was an okay way to spend the afternoon.

Took the ferry back across to where out driver was waiting, drove back to the hotel and so ended our touristing of Mandalay and area.
Towards dinner I started feeling not so well !(see lunch). Heather was okay so I joined her for dinner but didn't eat.

Mandalay, Myanmar

We had planned a day trip to Mingun, a short boat ride up the Ayeyarwady, but after reading more about it (and having spent a full day on the river) decided instead to check out the jade market in town.

We walked down to the market on the busy roads (there's no sidewalks here). The streets are numbered in Mandalay which makes it easy to get around, except the Rough Guide had marked it incorrectly on their map. Fortunately the hotel map had it right, a couple blocks away.

We saw most of the finishing process for jade. Cut pieces are shaped and polished on foot-powered grindstones, holding the jade with one hand and constantly splashing water with the other.

It was more of a jade production center and wholesale market than a tourist market. We saw some bulk buyers (I'm guessing store owners) carefully examining the pieces with penlights over white tableclothes. There were a couple small stalls selling to tourists and we stopped into one to try to understand what made a better quality piece of jade. A high quality piece was priced about 10 times a similar low quality. Aside from generally being more consistent in colour, I couldn't really tell. Plus I thought the low quality ones looked better.

Anyways it was pretty interesting to see.

We had a late lunch at the top-rated restaurant from tripadvisor, Bistro 82, just up the street from our hotel. It served mostly western food, and we just wanted a break from the heavily-oiled local food. At first we thought it was just us, but anyone we've met who's commented on the local food had found it very heavy in cooking oil too. The food at Bistro 82 was great, although it charges western prices so we won't be eating there very often.

...

The next day we took a day trip to Pyin Oo Lwin, a hill station about 90 minutes from Mandalay. It's at about 1000m and somewhat cooler, and less polluted. (Mandlay's pretty polluted, I would think thanks to the high volume of motorbikes and old trucks on the roads). Pyin Oo Lwin was recommended by my friend Elaine who had visited back in the day. When she visited there were no cars in Pyin Oo Lwin and just ox-pulled carts and horse-drawn carriages. Now there's way more vehicles of the horseless type.

There's a really cool market that we spent about an hour wandering about. We saw all kinds of fruits and vegetables, including baskets of avocados, long green beans, watermelons, tomatoes, corn, apples, chestnuts, various kinds of garlic and onions. Had a Myanmar tea at a stall, and watched someone preparing buns filled with coconut and sugar. He told us they'd be ready in 10 minutes so we wandered around some more, and then fortunately found our way back. The buns were deep fried (as opposed to steamed like we had guessed/hoped), and tasted excellent.

Next we visited the Kandawgyi Gardens, which was beautiful and well-manicured. My favourite was the 30ft tall bamboo.

Had lunch at Feel, overlooking the lake and gardens. They have three menus (plural), for local food, Japanese, and western. The food was pretty good, the noodles were a bit disappointing as the noodles have been quite excellent here.

Saw some more temples (we're starting to get out-templed) and a couple waterfalls on our way back to town.

We walked over to Simplicity Organic Foods for dinner, about 25 minutes. At first our hotel wanted to arrange a taxi, but we convinced them that we could walk. At night you can really see the pollution in the headlights.

The owner at Simplicity (who was Shan) said he found Burmese food pretty oil-heavy too. We had the river fish two different ways, one steamed with lime, the other crispy sweet and sour. Both were excellent, served whole. The mixed vegetable side was also very tasty. If our hotel was closer we would return but we didn't like the walk in the pollution.

Mandalay, Myanmar

Everything was closed on Election Day so we just walked about town and had a relaxed down day. Stopped in at a little streetside tea place for some Myanmar tea. It's tea served with condensed milk and some spices (cloves?). Sat on the tiny kids-sized stools and sipped our teas. Other locals came by for tea with their friends and showed off their dyed finger which meant that they had voted.

We wandered around some more. Saw a very busy restaurant so went there for lunch (Top Choice). We were the only tourists (although they did have any English version of their menu). Had the noodles which were really tasty. It was served with a wonton-like soup. We weren't sure if we were supposed to pour it on the noodles or just have separately so did both. I also tried some freshly-made chapatis which although probably not very healthy cause of the oil tasted great. Finished with another Myanmar tea (Heather said it was the best one she's had here so far) and I tried a coffee with sugar and lime (!), a local drink, which was interesting. I liked it enough to finish but not order a 2nd.

We escaped the afternoon heat reading on the shaded hotel patio. The hotel staff had also suggested that we be back at the hotel before the polls closed at 4pm just in case, but there were no issues.

For dinner there were very few places serving alcohol, so we ate at the same restaurant we had dinner the previous nights, and then walked home to watch the election coverage on tv.

Mandalay, Myanmar

We're still getting up early and so had breakfast at 6:30am, well before anyone should be awake while on vacation.

Because of the early hour, we were able to book a car and driver for the day ($45) starting at 8:30am to see the highlights of Mandalay and finish off with the sunset at the U Bein bridge. The highlights are spread out enough that walking wasn't an option; the hotel provides bicycles free of charge, but the roads are a little crazy for us.

With a car we were able to see twice the amount that I had planned. First we drove almost all the way up Mandalay Hill. It's otherwise a 45 minute walk, shoes / footwear not allowed. I probably couldn't make the climb anyways as I wouldn't be able to wear my ankle brace.

The terrace at the top is fairly large and nice to walk around for the views of Mandalay. It's supposed to be packed at sunset, but was nice at 9am. The temple itself is very colourful. We got asked to be in some more pics by locals.

In quick succession we visited Kyauktawgyi Paya (with a giant 12m tall Buddha from a single piece of marble), Sandumani Pagoda (surrounded by 1774 slabs engraved with commentaries on the Tripitaka scripture) (one of my favourites today), Atumashi Kyaung, and Mandalay Palace. There's a $10 admission ticket that covers all the major sites in Mandalay - they stamp the site at each one you visit.

We stopped for lunch at a tour-group focused place (Unique Myanmar) that had good toilets but mediocre food. Oh well.

After lunch we stopped in at a number of crafts places. The gold leaf place was most interesting. A small piece of gold is pounded for over 9 hours until it's super-thin. Small squares are bought by locals to apply to the Buddha in Mahamuni Paya. (They also sell samples to tourists).

A few more pagodas and temples later and we were at U Bein bridge around 2:45pm, with plenty of time to walk across and back, arrange for a boat for sunset ($12 for one hour) and sip a coconut from a viewpoint bar. Around 4:20 we headed out by boat, first to get pics with the nice lighting, and then to the other side for silhouette pics. About a dozen other boats were also out there, all arranged neatly in a line by the rowers so that everyone had a view. It was great, Heather and I found it more peaceful out on the water than in the hot air balloon. I'd definitely recommend taking a boat.

Back at the hotel, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner. Some restaurants had a no-alcohol policy because it was the night before the election (not sure if this was to prevent drunken violence or drunken voting). So we ended up at the same Thai restaurant as last night as they were serving beer.

Ayeyarwady River, Myanmar

We took the MGRG Express on the Ayeyarwady River from Bagan to Mandalay. The 12 hour boat ride ($42 each) was pretty comfortable, except for leaving very early morning at 5am. There were about 20 other backpackers on the boat and we spent most of the morning chatting away as the sun rose. We could see the balloons over Bagan in the distance as we left. By about 10am it got pretty hot and we sat in the covered shady area, which was still pretty warm.

We passed by fishermen in their small wooden boats, lots of small villages each with their own golden temples. I took a lot of very similar pictures.

Lunch was pretty good, a choice of rice or noodle stir fry. We also were served a breakfast, and tea/coffee and bottled water throughout the trip. It was better than what I was expecting.

Approaching Mandalay we passed by Sagaing and Inwa, filled with temples and giant Buddhas on both sides of the river. It was a grand entrance to the city.

Our hotel in Mandalay (The Home Hotel) arranged for pickup from the jetty, and sure enough there was a driver with a nice "Eric D'Souza" sign waiting.

We cleaned up and headed out to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Mandalay's pretty cosmopolitan with a large selection of regional restaurants. It should be good eating here :)

Bagan, Myanmar - restaurants

The restaurants in Bagan were hit-and-miss. We found the local food, especially the soups and curries, to be a bit sodium-heavy, and not much meat. The fish dishes are a bit better, so we've had a lot of seafood. We were biking all day on sandy paths so we worked up a bit of an appetite.

We ate at San Carlo a couple times. The first night in we had their pizza and a bottle of local Cabernet Sauvignon, which was pretty good. The next day we went there for lunch and had some local dishes, which we didn't much care for (see above).

Based on a food blogger we tried Starbeam for lunch, in Old Bagan. It was excellent. Bagan's on the Irrawaddy River and so we figured the fish should be fresh. Heather had the sea bass with a celery sauce. I had a whitefish in a lemon butter sauce which so far is the best meal we've had. We actually returned a couple days later and both ordered it again. We also had a fried banana dessert which was perfectly carmelized.

The coffees next door at Moon were pretty good. I tried their fried banana there too, served with a local honey. The honey was yummy, the banana okay.

We had lunch at the highly-recommended Sarabna, but found it disappointing. It looks like they cater more to the tour guide groups.

Our favourite restaurant was Kyaw Kitchen, near our hotel. We had dinner there twice. Heather had the grilled river prawns the first day, served with a carrot-cauliflower mash and other vegetables. It was so good we both had it the next time.

Breakfasts at our hotel were standard (toast, fresh fruit, fresh juice, eggs to order, tea/coffee). It was served on the rooftop terrace, overlooking some minor temples. It was a great setting for breakfast.

Bagan, Myanmar

We spent four full days exploring the temples, monasteries and stupas in Bagan, which was amazing. It's in the top three things I've ever seen in the world.

We wanted to explore the temples on our own (rather than with a guide) so rented bicycles for the whole time ($2.50 per day). This is by far the best way to see them (in our opinion :) ).

The 3000+ temples are strewn across everywhere you look, across an area about 70 sq km, built between 1050 and 1280. I had originally planned out the major ones we wanted to see, carefully circling them on the map and plotting the optimal route. We threw that planning out the window about an hour in. The real fun is just cycling along and stopping at the ones we found interesting. Locals pointed out hidden staircases where it was possible to climb the temples for amazing views. The top-listed temples were invariably packed with tourists, which kills the mystique. Our favourites were the not-so-famous ones, which allowed great views of the top ones, and usually had no tourists at all (North Guni was my favourite).

The first time I climbed a temple and saw the view I couldn't believe it. It really is amazing.

The first day we biked on the road between New Bagan (where we were staying) and Old Bagan, about 5km one way. The following days we explored the plains, biking on sandy paths, which was far better. Aside from no traffic, there were also very few tourists. We biked past ruins and sights that anywhere else would be a destination - here it was just background that we just glanced at because there were even cooler views. It was so much fun exploring!

It had just finished three days of rain when we arrived. Our first day was really overcast (and cooler temperature), the next days were sunny and hot (29C).

We booked the balloon ride based on the weather forecast, which turned out accurate and the best morning to go. We were picked up from our hotel at 5:20am and drove to the lift off site. A short safety review, they inflated the balloons, we got in the basket, and we were off, just as the sun rose.

The balloon experience itself was cool, but I preferred the views from climbing the temples. There's great pics from the balloon, and I took my favourite pic from there, but you don't get the same magical feeling as being on a temple looking out.

Likewise we watched the sunset from a semi-popular viewing site. It was cool and had great pics, but you lose something when there's a couple hundred other people there with you.

Overall we had an amazing time here. It's still possible to see Bagan tourist-free if you stay away from the main temples. Even if those were tourist-free, I'd still recommend the secondary ones because they have the best views of the main temples. After three days we were out-templed, and spent our last day souvenir shopping and relaxing.

FYI I've posted some pics, to both Facebook and Google Photo. You can see them by clicking on the link in the right nav bar (under This Trip). I'll be adding pics as we go.

Yangon, Myanmar

We figured Shwedagon Pagoda was good for a couple visits so went to see it yesterday without reading much of the history. It's best visited in the evening (and also most crowded) because it's cooler in the shade and the lighting is amazing as the sun sets. There was a lot of traffic gong to the south stairway so our driver took us to the almost deserted west stairway. As a bonus (to me anyways) there's also escalators the whole way up so we didn't have to walk the 166 stairs. The bottom of the stairways is considered the entrance (and so where your shoes and socks come off). I've never taken an escalator in bare feet before and was a bit careful getting on and off. At the top we paid our $8 entrance fees and got a sticker (stickers as proof of payment seems to be the in thing here).

It's almost an overload of sights at the top. The main stupa is almost 100m tall, plated with 22,000 gold bars, topped with a 76-karat diamond. There's also thousands of other precious stones. The main stupa is on a terrace with dozens of shrines and pavilions, each one of them gold plated and something I'd go out of my way to see except here it's just background.

We walked on the terrace clockwise around the main stupa a couple times. It's popular for locals to come up in the evening and really busy and atmospheric. However there really is too much to take in in one visit.

Walked down the south stairway, put on our socks and shoes, and found a nearby restaurant for dinner, which was so-so. Took a taxi home and crashed early (9pm), still a bit jet-lagged.

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This morning we caught an AirKBZ flight to Bagan. I had bought the tickets online a few months ago, which was much cheaper. The flight only had 10 passengers, and actually departed 30 minutes early because we were all there already! They also served a drink, then lunch, followed by tea or coffee and mint, much more than what we expected on the 75 minute flight.

We didn't have much to do today except plan our four days here. It's been raining the past three days but thanks to wifi we looked up the forecast. It's supposed to drizzle tomorrow and then clear up, so we booked our balloon ride for three days out. Also booked our boat ride to Mandalay, and bikes for touring around Bagan.

After our initial experience with ATMs at the airport in Yangon, we've had no problems getting cash from ATMs. Even here in Bagan we were able to withdraw cash. Although they all dispense only 5,000 kyat notes ($5), so you end up with big wads of cash.

We've been asked to be in local's pictures a couple times, and we've seen it with other tourists as well. I guess tourists are still a bit of a novelty.

Bagan is still a pretty small town. Our hotel in New Bagan is on a dirt road. Except for the main road, everything else is paved just a single car width. I haven't seen a building over theee stories. I'm sure this too will change very quickly.

Internet speeds were pretty good in Yangon. I was able to upload all my pics (including outtakes, about 300 pics) overnight to Google Photos. Here in Bagan it's a little slower, but there is wifi in most hotels and restaurants.

Yangon, Myanmar

We left Toronto on Wednesday evening and an Uber-LRT-plane-plane-taxi-plane-taxi and 28 hours later we arrived at our hotel in Yangon, Myanmar at mid-afternoon on Friday. We had applied for our visa to Myanmar online and had no issues entering. We got a stamp but no sticker in our passports.

We lined up with the other tourists to try our luck at the four ATMs in the airport. Heather was able to withdraw 300,000 kyat (about $300 CAD). I managed to get both my cards suspended :( even though I had called CIBC to let them know I was traveling.

We're staying at the Hotel Grand United which has great views of Shwedagon Pagoda. After a longer than planned nap, we went out for dinner at a hotel-recommended restaurant. It was pretty touristy but hit the spot.

This morning I was up at 5:30am so took some pics of Shwedagon Pagoda at dawn. It was cloudy so didn't get all the colours of sunrise but it was still great lighting.

After breakfast we took a taxi to Sule Pagoda, in the heart of downtown. Took off our shoes and socks to enter, bought some flowers as an offering to Buddha, and then walked around the inside clockwise, just like the Rough Guide said. It was pretty bright with the sun and all the gold.

The streets of Yangon are really cool to walk around, with all the old colonial architecture. Downtown is really bustling, and there's great street food everywhere. We had a couple errands to run (confirming our flight tomorrow, and finding a place to make international calls so I could unlock my credit cards) which took us through some non-touristy but very lively streets.

We walked towards Chinatown (one of the things to do in the guidebooks). This was even more packed with bustle. One of the food stalls was making fresh pancakes with coconut and almonds that we just had to try. It was mmm good. The hardest decision was picking a place for lunch. Decided on a street vendor that was so busy they had stools three rows deep. Picked our food by pointing at what other people were eating. Heather had some noodles and broth, I had a different noodle with some stuff. Both were excellent. They mix up all the ingredients to order, so it's possible to have spicy or not. Had some green tea which was also great.

It was getting hot (about 34C) and close to noon so headed back to the hotel to relax. The hotels have business cards with directions in Burmese script so it's easy for taxi drivers to figure out where you're going. English is not as widely spoken here as other countries we've visited, but it's so far been no problem to get around.

Toronto, Canada

We'll soon be off for our next trip to Myanmar, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, with Bangkok as a base. At nine weeks this will be our longest trip together for Heather and me. By coincidence all three countries are primarily Buddhist, although I didn't know that about Sri Lanka until we started researching.

We're flying Emirates through Dubai (12 hours to Dubai, 4 hour layover, 6 hours to Bangkok). I messed up scheduling our next flight from Bangkok to Yangon -- I wanted to have a day rest in Bangkok before flying to Yangon; but missed that we arrive in Bangkok +2 days, not +1 day. We arrive at Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 7:35am and depart from Don Mueang International Airport (the other airport in Bangkok) at 11:35am. So we have three hours to get through customs, get our baggage, take a taxi across town (Google Maps says it's between 40-80 minutes at that time of day) and check-in an hour ahead of departure. Might be close. There are 15 flights a day between Bangkok and Yangon so if we miss our flight there's others we can take.

We're taking the fancy new Union-Pearson Express to the airport as it's rush hour. Next time I blog hopefully we'll be in Yangon!

Toronto, Canada

We've been back in Toronto for a week and have finally got over our jet lag.

Overall the trip was excellent. Uganda was very relaxing (in part because of the nicer places we were staying at). There's a lot of wildlife and variety of wildlife in Uganda, and there's pretty good tourist infrastructure but without all the crowds. Apoka Safari Lodge was amazing -- if you have the opportunity, I would recommend staying there. It will get harder to get the remoteness of Apoka on a safari, especially as tourism continues to grow around the world.

Ethiopia was also amazing, but their tourist infrastructure is still developing (ie, it's really basic right now). There's really cool sights, my favourites were the lava lake of Erta Ale, and the rock-hewn churches of Tigray. Getting to these places isn't easy, and the excursions lack creature comforts if that's important to you. But it's well worth the effort to see. St. George's in Lalibela was what originally made us think about going to Ethiopia, and as it turned out there's even more cooler stuff to see than the rock-hewn churches. For whatever reason, Ethiopia seems to be off the radar for most people. Oddly, most tourists we met in Ethiopia were doing treks in the Simien Mountains -- this is only thing we did that I'd skip if we had to plan it again. Maybe it's because we're from Canada and have great national parks, but we didn't think the Simien Mountains were that great.

Djibouit made a nice side trip, relaxing because we stayed at the Kempinski, and interesting because of the whale sharks. It's also possible to see whale sharks in other parts of the world, but Djibouti is one of the more reliable places.

Five places on this trip made my top 100 list -- the lava lake at Erta Ale (8), Abuna Yemata Guh (one of the Tigray churches) (13), Bet Giyorgis (St George's church) in Lalibela (25), salt mining on Lac Assale (48), and snorkeling with the whale sharks in Djibouti (54). A few more trips and maybe I'll actually have 100 items on the list :)

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Our flight back to Addis was at 11am so we had a relaxing breakfast at the Kempinski in Djibouti, and then took a taxi to the airport. Instead of the $35 per person shuttle, we just took the golf cart to the main entrance where they hailed us a taxi.

The taxi driver had some cool tunes cranked and he was singing along as we drove. It was local artists from Djibouti and Sudan, and was sort of a reggae / hip hop mix.

We had to go through immigration in Addis. We had multiple-entry visas so all our paperwork was in order, but it's not the standard 30-day single-entry visa that most tourists get, so there was more scrutiny at the border but no problems. Also I don't think the border agent knew how to handle multiple-entry visas and had to ask for help from another agent.

The Addis Regency was very organized and the airport shuttle guy was waiting as we exited the terminal. It was the same driver as when we arrived from Mekele, and so he recognized us which made it even easier.

We thought about trying to get to a site that afternoon, but it would have been rushed so just had lunch at the hotel and planned out the remaining couple days we had in Addis, most importantly which restaurants we wanted to try out.

Top on our list for dinner was Ristorante Castelli, a italian restaurant that's an institution in Addis. It was Saturday night and we couldn't get a reservation, but decided to just show up and see if we could get a table.

The road from our hotel to the piazza near the restaurant was torn up for construction. However, here there's no safety boundary for construction sites and so people just walk in between trucks loading and backhoes digging up rocks. We gave them a wide a berth as we could and came through okay, except for Heather's black shoes which were now dusty.

We found the place with a little help from locals, it was still 10 minutes before it opened for dinner so we wandered around the shops and stalls around the square.

At 7pm there was already a few people arriving and waiting in line, so we joined them. We didn't need to worry, as we were able to get a table for two with no problems. As is common in the higher-end restaurants in Addis, there was a security check before entering.

The food and service was really good at Ristorante Castelli. We started with thinly-sliced chacuterie, split a home-made pasta with truffle sauce, and then a secondi each, and finished with dessert. They actually served the courses at the appropriate times, and had decent wines from Italy. It was a nice change after all the excursion food of the past few weeks.

We walked home without much hassle, which was nice. There were lots of people on the street and it felt very safe.

…

Over the next day and a half. there were two museums and a church on our list of things to see in Addis, plus shopping for souvenirs, and the restaurants / coffee shops we wanted to try. Most places close for lunch between noon and 2pm so we planned our touristing before lunch.

First we visited St George Cathedral & Museum, the 2nd most important church in Ethiopia after St Mary of Zion in Axum. We had heard the orthodox prayers overnight from Saturday dusk through to Sunday morning, broadcast from loudspeakers. Our hotel was conveniently located within walking distance of the sites, which also meant it was within hearing distance. The prayers were just finishing as we arrived. We saw the on-site museum (interesting, but a bit over-priced), and walked around the exterior of the church.

We then walked over to see Lucy at the National Museum. Lucy is the name given to the skeleton 3.2 million years old and an early ancestor of humans. It was a pretty cool museum, with other less-famous but scientifically important fossils of early human ancestors. There were a lot of tour groups filing in-and-out to see Lucy. The museum entrance was a bargain at only 20 Birr (about $1).

We had lunch next door at the Lucy Restaurant, which caters to the tour groups, but is not bad of a restaurant.

It was then a 20 minute walk to the St George Interior Decoration & Art Gallery, one of the better galleries for souvenirs, beside the Sheraton hotel. There were a few wedding parties having their pictures taken outside the Sheraton -- it's a popular place for wedding pics (just on the outside -- staying at the Sheraton is out of the price range for most weddings). Unfortunately the Art Gallery is closed on Sundays. Along the way we saw a cathedral and dropped in for a visit -- it cost 100 Birr each plus a tip to the priest, but it was a nice cathedral -- nicer than the church we saw yesterday.

We walked over to Tomoca, a famous coffee shop in Addis. Along the way we encountered the sorriest excuse for pickpocketers I've seen. They were so obvious they might as well have introduced themselves as pickpocketers. We keep anything of value well hidden away so there wasn't a concern, but it was funny to see how bad they were.

Tomoca was great. It is a popular stop for tourists and while we were sipping our macchiatos several groups came and went. We bought some packages of coffeee beans to take home as well.

We walked home all hopped up on caffeine, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner we made reservations at La Mandoline, a French restaurant rated highly on tripadvisor. It was across town (near the airport) and so we arranged for a taxi to take us there, wait a couple hours, and then drive us home (for about $25 total). Dinner was okay, not quite as good as Castelli's. We did try a local wine, from Rift Valley, which was really good.

…

On our last day in Addis we walked over to the Ethnological Museum, which was very highly rated by the guide books. It was difficult to find. It's inside the university grounds but there's no signage to indicate where it is. Even after buying our tickets we still weren't sure that we were at the right museum. It was only when we saw the stuffed lion at the top of the stairs (which matched the description in the LP) that we figured we were at right place.

The Ethnological Museum is okay, but not as good as we expected based on the guide books. We wouldn't have missed much if we weren't able to visit.

There were a couple souvenir shops we wanted to get to before noon, so we took taxis. We bought a ceramic guinea fowl at the Art Gallery, which is a motif seen throughout Ethiopia. We had no bargaining power at Gallery 21 as we got out of our taxi with the large Art Gallery bag in hand, I'm sure as recognizable as a baby blue Tiffany's jewellery bag on Bloor West. They had some larger wood pieces, but we already had some large stuff to try to bring home so just bought a coffee pot (which we'd seen used in the coffee ceremonies throughout Ethiopia).

We had lunch back at Ristorante Castelli, which was really good. Finished with our last coffee in Ethiopia, and then headed home to pack up and shower and get ready for our 10:40pm flight home. We had booked the hotel room for the half day which was worth it. Packed all of our fragile souvenirs in the carry-on suitcase we had brought from home just for this purpose; we also had a large mask as carry-on.

Took the hotel shuttle to the airport. The security at the airport entrance gave us a hassle about the salt pearls we had picked up in Djibouti, but after some discussion let us go. We checked in and got our boarding passes. Had a pizza in the departure lounge which was loaded with cheese and very heavy. Should've just got a couple Snickers bars instead.

Got through the gate security with all of our carry-on. The final hurdle was whether the airline agents would allow us through with our bulky mask and carry-on -- we were near the front of the plane and boarding last, and concerned that the other passengers would fill up the overhead bins. However we got through, and actually had a bin to ourselves, so our souvenirs were safe. It was a direct flight to Toronto (stopping off in Rome for refueling while we stayed on-board). We were on the plane for over 17 hours, which is the longest we've been on a single flight.

We arrived in Toronto around 7:30am on Tuesday. There was a loud gasp throughout the airplane when the co-pilot announced the ground temperature at -21C.

Pearson remains one of the worst airports for getting through -- it's terrible. First it took the ground crew about 10 minutes to line up the passenger ramp with the door of the airplane. We could see them driving back and forth trying to get the right alignment. Immigration was somewhat improved, but I think it's because it was just our flight that was going through at the time. It then took over an hour for the bags to get to the carousel. In total it took over 90 minutes from landing to get through everything.

It was 9am and we were hungry and figured it was better to grab breakfast and get past rush hour before heading home. So we did the Canadian thing and found Tim Hortons (although we both had tea instead of a double-double).

There was an accident on the Gardiner which closed all lanes so it took a bit longer than normal to get home, but eventually we did. Finally we were home after five weeks, a great vacation with amazing sites.

Djibouti City, Djibouti

Our flight to Djibouti wasn't until 4pm so we had most of the day to relax.

The Addis Regency is close to a couple of the museums we want to see in Addis, but by the time we got ourselves together it was time for lunch and then we were off to the airport. Once again we left behind our souvenirs at the hotel storage so we didn't have to lug them across borders and airports (that was the main reason we stopped for the night in Addis rather than getting a connecting Mekele - Addis - Djibouti flight).

The Ethiopian Airlines flight left on time as usual, stopped in Dire Dawa, and then we were in Djibouti!

We were getting a visa on arrival and based on our research had envelopes full of documentation - hotel reservation, return flight, photocopies of passports and yellow fever immunization, and two passport sized pics. We only needed to show our hotel reservation which they scanned in, but it was good to have the rest just in case. There were about 20 of us getting VOA and those that were free got a stamp and were good to go. Those from countries that had a fee had to line up again to enter an office where we got a very nice looking visa sticker for $60 USD each, change provided in USD. The official didn't quite get that we were just tourists - almost everyone is either military or friends and family visiting military. The whole process took about 30 minutes, not too bad.

We had looked into taking the airport shuttle from the Kempinski but they charged $35 / person so we took a taxi for $15 total.

Our taxi was held together by duct tape, and in some places even the duct tape was missing. It was a slow ride, any bump was likely to break the car in two. But the driver was friendly and we did make it. The Kempinski doesn't allow taxis to enter the premises - you get dropped off at the front gate and a golf cart picks you up.

The last time I had been in a golf cart we had side-swiped a hippo, but this time it was uneventful.

We had booked the Kempinski back in August for a big discount, and it was nice place to relax after the past couple weeks of excursions.

We are in the Italian restaurant on-site, which was okay. We had an early start the next morning to see the whale sharks so we called it a night.

...

We had breakfast at 6:30am and were ready for Dolphin Excursions to pick us up at 7:15am. The breakfast was okay, but the coffee and tea were not so good.

We had a bit of a mix-up trying to meet Sarah (our guide from Dolphin Excursions) but we finally met up and drove over to Pert de Peche, where we transferred to a small boat. It was just the two of us, Sarah, and the captain.

The water was pretty calm for the hour or so boat ride to where the whale sharks feed. The lack of wind didn't bode well - the wind pushes the plankton into shore, and the whale sharks follow, so no wind meant less chances to see the whale sharks.

Sarah also said it had been a weird season - last year she said it was guaranteed to see them; but this year wasn't day-to-day.

We reached the popular feeding area and slowed down, scouting for the whale sharks. We saw some dolphins jumping out of the water which was cool. Per Sarah's instructions we had our snorkel, fins and underwater camera ready so we could jump in quickly.

After about 30 minutes, Sarah spotted a whale shark! The captain pulled up near and we jumped in the water. The whale sharks move slowly while feeding, about as fast as we swim, so it was easy to keep pace, but difficult to catch up if you fell behind.

We swam with it for about a couple minutes and then it pulled away. It was really cool, about 4-5 metres long. I took some pics, it was the first time using our new underwater camera and I got my thumb in some.

We got back in the boat, excited about spotting our next one. However it took a while before we did, and we were resigned to just the one whale shark, when the captain spotted another one! We were back in the water and followed it for about 5-10 minutes. I was able to swim in front and got some great pics. There's a whole ecosystem that surrounds whale sharks - little fish that hitch a ride, others following for protection, or for food.

Anyways it was really cool, definitely worth the effort to see them (and I got another country to boot).

We stopped for lunch (a crunchy baguette with chicken, salad and tomatoes, pretty tasty) near the edge of the coral reef.

After lunch we spent an hour snorkeling over the coral - there's hard coral only, but it's in amazing shape. It's the best coral I've dived or snorkeled over. It's probably because there are so few tourists here that there's no damage at all from tourism. Sarah said it's also because the fishermen don't use dynamite like in other areas.

The boat ride back the shore was extremely bumpy. The wind had picked up and the waves were 2-3 feet high.

We were back at the Kempinski around 4pm, physically tired and hungry. After showering we went down to the Italian restaurant for their beer and pizza special and split a really tasty pepperoni pizza. They have a real stone oven for pizzas, and real pepperoni. (Pork is usually hard to come by in countries with significant Muslim populations.)

We watched the sunset over the loading docks in the distance. Djibouti is a port city - all of Ethiopia's sea cargo goes through Djibouti.

We went to another restaurant for some snacks and drinks, but we were beat from snorkeling and didn't stay up very long.

...

The next day we had an excursion to Lac Assal, at 156m below sea level, the lowest point in Africa. (Which means I've been to the high and low points of Africa, and the low points of two of the seven continents. I'm going to write a book called the 7 Low Points).

The excursion was booked through Dolphin Excursions, the same folks we did the whale shark tour with yesterday.

The driver was waiting for us in the lobby, and the vehicle was a newer model Toyota, so that boded well. We picked up another tourist from the Sheraton (as far as I can tell, the only other tourist in Djibouti). Felix was a younger kid, in university and on his way to DRC for some NGO work. He was very well travelled, and was fun to travel with for the day.

It took a couple hours to reach Lac Assal, over smooth paved roads. Lac Assal is partially underwater, and it's possible to wade out far enough so that you can sit and float in the salty water, a là the Dead Sea. There was nowhere to wash off so we declined, but Felix went in.

There's also these cool salt pearls that form at the water's edge that are collected and sold to tourists. The salt beads up into sphere-like formations, about 1cm in diameter. The wind breaks off the sphere and as it rolls along it smooths out until it looks like a pearl. We hadn't seen this at other salt lakes and bought a few bags as souvenirs.

On the way back we stopped for lunch on the shores of the Gulf of Aden. It was a beatiful setting - the waters were emerald green, there was a cone-shaped black volcano in the background, and a slight breeze making it very comfortable in the shade. I never would have guessed I was in Djibouti.

Lunch was actually three courses - salad, rice with grilled chicken, and pineapple for dessert, with a spiced tea to finish. It was great.

After we drove back and were back at the hotel by 4pm. A nice day trip, although a little pricey (the vehicle and driver cost $400 and is split by the number of passengers, up to 6).

We had drinks out at the Jetty Lounge, surrounded by the sea and with a dj spinning lounge music. We went back to the main building for dinner and then returned for a beer to celebrate our successful trip to Djibouti.

Danakil tour - Lac Assale and Dallol, Ethiopia

The one-night break in town was great, we were able to shower, sleep in a comfortable bed, use a real toilet, and have food other than pasta.

Plus it was a reasonable start, we only had to be at the ETT office (just around the corner from Johannes Hotel) at 9:30am, so we even got to sleep in.

We did some shopping for bread, so we could make our own peanut butter or tuna sandwiches, as we were getting tired of pasta.

For the next two days we were joined by another vehicle, carrying two British and two French. Our guide joined our vehicle so we were now three in the back seat, which is more normal, but after being spoiled on the first two days it felt a bit cramped.

The third day of our Danakil trip was just getting to Lac Assale for sunset, passing camel caravans along the way.

Lunch was actually not too bad, rice with a vegetable stew, with a banana for dessert, so we didn't have to make our own sandwiches.

We got to Lac Assale around 4pm, after picking up the various permits and scouts and armed police. It was impressive, different than Salar de Uyuni, not as smooth surfaced, and more brownish (I think from the different minerals). Parts were under a few inches of water, and the other tourists waded in. Heather and I didn't like the idea of having salty skin for the next day and a half (there's no where to rinse off, except by using our bottled water), so we stayed on the dry part.

The camel caravans passed about a km away, so we walked closer for better pics. There was a grouping of rocks in distance which made for a good background.

There were clouds on the horizon so we didn't see the full sunset, but it was still pretty, although missing the camels passing in front as a subject for my pics.

Back in camp just outside the lake, we had dinner of vegetable soup followed by, you guessed it, pasta. However it was the best pasta we had had on the trip, very good spaghetti. I added our tuna for protein, and when the cook saw that he brought out tuna for everyone. Maybe all we had to do was ask for tuna? They also served decent buns with dinner, with orange slices for dessert.

Our guide gave us an informative talk about the region, and then we went to bed.

In this camp we slept outdoors again under the stars, but on wooden beds with a woven base, on which the foam mattress was placed. The wind was kicking up a bit of sand so we slept leeward behind the vehicle. It was much warmer than at Erta Ale - there it dropped down to about 20C, so we were comfortable in our MEC sleeping bags; at Lac Assale it only got down to 26C. They don't call it the hottest place on earth for nothing.

The wind kept the sand flies away, and we managed to get a decent sleep.

We were up at 5:30am to catch the sunrise from camp and the camel caravans heading to the salt mines. Breakfast was excellent, although just scrambled eggs, bread and peanut butter (!).

The lighting and tiking was perfect for pictures - I got my sunrise pics with the camel silhouettes that I had been wishing for at sunset. It was really cool.

As we drove to the lake we passed by the other tour groups who were just waking up, and missed some of the best pics of the day. Another reason to choose ETT if you're doing the Danakil tour.

Over the next couple hours we visited various interesting rock formations. It was sort of like the Salar de Uyuni excursion, on a smaller scale. The highlight was Dallol - the sulphur lakes with bright yellows, oranges and reds. There's not much to give scale and we weren't sure how big it was from pics we had googled. It was a bit smaller than I expected, but still interesting to see.

The last sight of the morning was another highlight, the salt mining. Salt is mined using the same techniques and tools used for hundreds of years. Large blocks about 4 inches thick are raised from the lake surface by 3-4 men using long sticks for leverage. These are then cut into rough rectangles about 8.5"X11" by large axes. Finally, they are finished with smaller chisels to about 4-5kg per slab.

The slabs are tied and test-mounted on camels, donkeys or mules, and then removed until midday when the animals are loaded for the two day trip to the market town.

It's hard work under the hot sun, although the men are well paid by local standards - each man earns about 800 Birr a day, about $40 USD.

I wanted to buy a chisel as a souvenir, but they're handmade and forged, and there's not a chisel store where you can buy them. I'm sure as tourism picks up, they'll start to make cheaper replicas for tourists, but for now it's just pics.

That wrapped up the tour. We drove back to Mekele, stopping in Hamed Ela for lunch, pasta (served with tuna!) and a banana for dessert. From the village we bought 15 Birr Cokes and 10 Birr coffees. A cold Coke is always nice when you've been out in the wilderness for a while. The coffees were pretty good too.

Heather and I had a flight to Addis that evening so our ETT driver dropped us at the airport. We stopped in at the ETT office in town along the way, and we used the opportunity to get our shoes cleaned. Heather's shoes were quite beaten up from the past four days; my shoes held up much better and looked almost new after being cleaned.

My shirt also held up very well - it's a UPF 50 shirt that dries fast and is very difficult to get dirty. It also doesn't catch the dust unlike the merino wool or cotton tops we have. I bought it at Patagonia and it's a great travel shirt.

We had about three hours to kill at the airport, which worked out well because we could wash up our hands and face, use the free wifi, and have an early lunch.

The flight left on time (every single domestic flight we've taken with Ethiopian Airlines has departed and arrived on time), and we were back in Addis.

We had upgraded our room at the Addis Regency from the standard room we stayed in after Uganda to a Super Deluxe for an extra $20. It made a huge difference - the mattress was newer and firm, there was more space, and even had a little terrace. We upgraded for our final stay after Djibouti in a few days. The shower was also excellent.

Our flight only landed at 9pm and by the time we showered it was after midnight. We briefly thought about going down to the hotel bar for a drink (it was Christmas Eve on the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar) but as we had started our day at 5:30am at Lac Assale we were beat and just went to bed.