Sunday 8/1: Karen & I took the early flight from Bangkok to Yangon. Our taxi was there at 5am, we were at the airport at 5.30am and we still had to run through the airport to catch our flight at 8am. We arrived in Yangon thinking that our driver (Karen had arranged one) would pick us up at the airport but no one came. We took a taxi to the city but without any reservation we had to walk for 1 hour from guest house to guest house to find ourselves a room. We booked our room in the garden guest house (never found the garden), it was in the centre of the city on the 5th floor and it was a dirty old room with AC tough. We walked around in the city, stopped for a coffee break in a tea house (or better: some chairs on the side of the street). After only 3 minutes we were surrounded by smiling men with red teeth (from the betel nut). We got introduced to the strange local cuisine while we went for lunch in a small restaurant where no one spoke English. We pointed out at what our neighbor's were eating to order. Back to the guesthouse our driver was waiting for us so we discussed our itinerary or the next 24 days ... Unfortunately it was not 50 USD/day as we were told but 100 USD/day ... so after some discussion we decided not to take the driver and jump with both feet into our Burmese adventure by local transportation.

Day 95: We woke up in our dirty little room, had breakfast and went to the bank to change some US dollars into Kyat ... we took the bad bills to the bank and they refused those, you have to use recent bills, no folds, no stamps, no stains, no writing marks, no tears ... no whatever or they don't take it. I only had a 100 dollars bill refused but for Karen it was 260 dollars ... so we tried the black market ... which is absolutely illegal ... that's why I'm writing this from our prison cell ... daddy, can you please call a lawyer ... I'm kidding ;-) ... but we did change our money on the black market and heard later on that an Australian tourist was imprisoned for 1 year after changing his money there ... oops. The exchange rate was less interesting but it was the only way to change the money. We sat on the side of the street drinking coffee (so you're doing something illegal and you still have to pay for the coffee to look like you're doing nothing wrong), they came with the bills and while they were counting them they asked where we came from, bla bla this, bla bla that, just so we would not focus anymore on the bills ... well, you know me, that didn't work ... I counted the bills myself. Karen was handling the dollars and at one point a 100 USD bill disappeared ... you know her as well .... it didn't work either ... we were not moving until the bill reappeared by magic. Anyway in the end, we changed the money, left and I had a purse full of Kyat. Later that day we went to our new guesthouse, which is absolutely lovely and visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in the afternoon ... gorgeous!

Tuesday 10/1: We had a chill out day at our guesthouse ... hiding the money everywhere in the bags, arranging our daily budget ... Which is kind of necessary as there're no ATM's in this country and we can only rely on the dollars we brought. Also because Karen is coming from Australia & New Zealand, she thinks everything is soooo cheap ... when I'm thinking that it's a little bit expensive ... Don't worry, we finally agreed on a budget! Then we had to make Karen's bag to shrink because ... it's HUGE and as we don't have our car and driver, she needs a smaller bag. Later that day we took a bus from Yangon to Bagan, an 11 hour ride in (what we would call) a karaoke bus. It was kind of amusing in a way.

Wednesday 11/1: We arrived at 3 am in the morning and we were picked up at the bus station by someone from our guest house ... we slept until 11 am. After some lunch we rented 2 bikes to wonder around Bagan (the 2nd biggest archeological site in Asia) ... it's wonderful!

Thursday 12/1: After some Burmese breakfast (Fish Noodle Soup) our Horse cart was waiting for us for a day trip around the temples. We just went from one to the other temple and we were amazed every minute of the day. At lunch time we went back to the market of old Bagan to eat with the locals, to have our sweets and our pineapple. After lunch, back on the horse cart for the afternoon and we finished with the sunset. But there were soooo many people at the same spot + there were some clouds ... we just ran away, back to the horse cart to drive us back to our guesthouse.

Friday 13 Happy Birthday Marraine - Happy Birthday Laurence!!! Day 99 !! Wake up at 5.45am for our morning in the Hot Air Balloon!!! It was absolutely GORGEOUS and really exciting as we both never went into a hot air balloon. First they picked us up, we had some decent coffee, the safety briefing and hopla ... in the air!!!! After 45 minutes we landed and got some Champagne (which was very welcome of course), croissants and banana bread. Back to the guest house I took a nap and we had a chill out afternoon.

What an exciting day !!!!! Saturday 14/1 it's day 100 of my trip and I'm spending it on a 12 hour boat trip from Bagan to Mandalay!!!

In Mandalay we're sleeping at the Peacock Lodge, a family run guesthouse where everyone is soooo nice. Today we did some sightseeing: the monks having lunch, U Bein's Bridge, Mandalay Hill, Kuthodaw Paya and Shwenandaw Kyaung. Let's start with the monks: It's at some monastery where you have hundreds of monks lining up to have lunch. People come to see the lineup, then the monks take some rice & bananas and after that they sit down to eat ... wow ... people do come to see this ritual ... we think it's a bit stupid but what we liked is that one monk came to talk to us. We asked him if they don't mind that people come every day to see them eat... well no, they don't care because they're used to it for the past 13 years. After that we went to the U Bein Bridge, it's the world's longest teak footbridge, one of Myanmar's most photographed sites and it's absolutely gorgeous ... and funny because Karen is afraid of heights :-) !
Mandalay Hill is a 40 minutes climb to the top to see the city. And when you finally get there, you're not allowed to take pictures unless you pay a camera fee, which we didn't. On our way down, some local women laughed at us, being shy and talking to each other ...and then finally asking if we want to go on the picture with them ... Of course we do!
Our taxi driver was supposed to take us back home but he stopped at 2 more sites, another Stupa and another monastery (ok, a teak one) but we're being a little spoiled so both sites took us 5 minutes to visit.
In the evening we went for dinner somewhere in the streets, the restaurant we chose was an almost only guy restaurant, but we chose that one because there were at least 3 women present. We ordered some rice with whatever, we have no idea what we were eating but it was not good. The Myanmar food is actually disappointing (especially if you compare to neighbor Thailand) ... but it's cheap.

Next day was a travel day from Mandalay to Hsipau (try to pronounce that name). We woke up at 5 am (we're getting up earlier than when we have to go to work) - the taxi driver was there at 5.20 and took us to the bus station where our bus was leaving at 6am. This time we were travelling with a local 'Cargo' bus. Let me tell you what that is: It's a comfortable bus ... NOT ... with only 5 rows of seats, behind the seat there're bags, boxes, food, bikes ... whatever ... under the seats there're boxes with (we think) tomatoes and in the path between the seats too ... It's a smelly, smelly bus .... And we loved it!!! It was a 6 hour drive with no possibility to take a nap because of the bumpy road .... but spending time while listening to music and being lost in your own thoughts, it's priceless ... even in an uncomfy bus. It makes me realize how happy I am and that I really miss my family and friends ... yeah, I'm being a woos again.
We arrived in Hspiau and stopped for some lunch. Checked-in in our new Guest house (Mr Charles guesthouse - way too expensive for what we've got) and talked with the local tour guide for our next day trekking. In the evening we went back in the streets for some dinner and we just found the loveliest place: it's run by young boys who don't speak English at all. The food was delicious. One guy pronounced the word 'chicken' and we just said 'Ok 2 please'. It's kind of a local steamed hamburger ... Nice. Then we saw what our neighbor's were eating: pointed it out and said we want the same, a delicious deep fried pancake with beans ... then we wanted one with sugar as a dessert and later we saw this cake-ish thing on our other neighbor's table and ordered that one too: it was similar to a ‘franchipan' but so much better ... the cost of that evening was 1100 Kyat, the full 1,1€ for the both of us!

Trekking day with our tour guide SAI (easy name to remember): We had a 5 hour walk, with 1 tea break and 4,5 hours were only uphill ... which was a bit boring. We did arrive in a lovely hill town where we were spending the night. First we had some lunch, then we rested for 1 hour and then we went for a walk around town. The kids there were amazing: they wave to say hello while saying ‘bye bye'. We took a lot of pictures of them. Unfortunately we had a stress moment when we saw the army. I looked at one and thought he had a nice camera hanging from his shoulders until I realized it was the barrel of his gun. They were following us a bit and we didn't dare to take anymore pictures. Later on they left. This small hill town was the highlight of the trekking. They have no electricity, no running water (except for the pump at the beginning of the village), the kids were playing with whatever they found, they are dirty as hell but oh so cute!!! We had dinner in the same house and before we went to bed, we had a look at the sky and we've never seen so many stars ever .... It was amazingly gorgeous!!

Wednesday 18/01 We walked back to town when our guide wanted us to go through a steep road around the lime stone rocks, ok, no problem ... we walked in the fields, on a sand road, back in the fields and Karen misplaced her foot and fell on the floor ... nothing badly, just a small fall ... and then our guide overreacted by being overprotective ... he was really being soooooooooo careful. The only thing he was saying was: Don't be afraid, be careful, don't be afraid, come on, don't be afraid, yes easy, don't be afraid, don't be afraid ... he was getting on Karen's nerves and I was laughing every time he said: don't be afraid!
We chilled in the afternoon and went back to our little street restaurant in the evening where we had great food for 0,8€ ... LOVE IT!

A special message to Pierrick: I know I talk to much about food ... but it's such a big part of the trip and such an adventure ... and you know me, I just love it :-)