Week 57 - Mandalay, Bagan, Nyaungshwe (Myanmar (Burma))

We were up before breakfast to head to the ferry port. We got great seats on deck on the front of the boat and settled in for the 10 hour journey. The boat was pretty empty and there were only tourists on board. After breakfast we watched the world pass by, there were pagodas dotted about, little bamboo houses, fisherman and lots of tug boats pushing huge barges with hauls of teak. It was mostly agricultural land lining the banks but in some places there were strips of golden sand, where there were towns there was thick mud covered in rubbish as far as the eye could see. We pulled up at a couple of stops along the way where people came onboard to sell samosas and cloth. It wasn’t the most exciting journey but was very peaceful and far better than taking a bumpy bus (Even if it was also far more expensive).

View from the ferry on the way from Mandalay to Bagan.

Once in Nyaung U, we jumped on a rickshaw to take us to our hotel, New Park. After arranging for the rickshaw riders brother to pick us up in the morning we headed out for dinner. The choice of restaurants in the street near our hotel was amazing, it felt like a real backpacker area with lots of cafes with chairs spilling out on to the dirt street, all lit by lanterns. There weren’t that many backpackers about though. In general the tourism in Myanmar seems to be made up of package tourists on coach trips or older people (mostly French) and, as much of the country isn’t open to tourists yet or requires expensive permits and flights to access, all the tourists congregate in a few areas, Bagan and Inle being two of the main ones. It definitely isn’t anything like Thailand, there were only 1m tourists here last year and 1.8m expected this year compared to about 28m a year in Thailand and 3.8m in Laos (bear in mind Myanmar is the biggest country in Southeast Asia), but we’re seeing more tourists than we expected. It is nice though that locals are still curious and wave and smile at you when they see you in the street. The big influx of tourists since the boycott was dropped, has meant that demand for accommodation and transport completely outstrips supply in high season, we’ve been lucky as we’re just outside peak season and have had no problems.

The next day, we were collected from our hotel by Naing Naing, the rickshaw drivers brother, with his horse and cart. We spent 10 hours trunderling down the roads and sandy tracks visiting the main pagodas, monasteries and stupas. The Bagan plain covers 67 square kilometres and is scattered with more than 2,000 Buddhist structures, mostly built between 1084 and 1300. It’s a truely crazy place, everywhere you turn there is another pagoda, some are huge, the tallest was 61m high, others are tiny little buildings the size of kilns. At each one you leave your shoes by the door and explore. Some have beautiful wall paintings, some still have their original buddha statues (after the 1975 earthquake there has been a lot of restoration in the area and a lot of buddhas have been replaced), at some you can buy gold leaves to apply on Buddha statues, some are in ruins and overgrown and surrounded with brambles, at some the plaster has come off revealing the red bricks beneath and others are still coated in gold. Our favourites were the ones you could climb on with views over the plain and those that looked like fairytale castles with lots of spires. I couldn’t even begin to name the ones we visited. Our driver was brilliant and we covered a lot of ground and visited a lot of places with him giving us little tidbits of information along the way. 

The Bagan Plain.

Applying gold leaf to a Buddha statue, Bagan.

Everyone is so nice we’re rubbish at saying no, by the end of the day i’d bought a bracelet, Rhys had a miniature elephant and we both had our faces painted with thanaka. Everywhere you go in Myanmar you see people (mostly women) with their faces covered in this cream coloured ‘mud’ that comes from bark when mixed with water on a stone slab, sometimes they do nice little patterns but more often they just slap it on any old way and leave it to dry. It supposedly protects from the sun and pollution and keeps your skin soft. The locals all thought it was hilarious and were pointing us out to their friends, they thought it was brilliant. The trip ended at a small pagoda where we watched sun set, we’d heard the main temples get overrun by tour groups and were thankful to be away from the crowds. Sadly it’s not really the season for sunsets (it’s too cloudy) but it was pretty all the same and a great way to end the day. 

Rhys and a friendly monk, overlooking Bagan.

Sunset over Bagan.

Back at the hotel, after washing off all the dust from the day, we headed out to Weather Spoons. I think only Brits will appreciate the name but it was enough to draw us in, Rhys even had a fish finger sandwich. We got talking to the owner and he was telling us how he worked in a Wetherspoons in Bristol in the UK when he was doing his hot air balloon training and bought some of the recipes back to Bagan with him. It was really interesting to talk to him, all the political changes recently have made it ok for people to talk about the government without fear and the locals really are keen to tell you about it. Everyone who has spoken to us has shown so much hope for the 2015 Election. 

We had a lazy start the next day. After breakfast we wandered to the main street near the hotel and found somewhere renting electric bikes (I got a speedy sports one!). By the end of the day we were considering how much they’d cost at home they were so much fun, although a little scary on sand. They go at quite a speed and are pretty heavy (and therefore easy to drop...). We spent a couple of hours in the morning shooting around to see and climb some of the smaller temples we’d missed the previous day before heading back to our hotel for an afternoon siesta. While we were out we got coaxed in to a women’s house to try some doughnut type things they were cooking for the monks for a festival the following day and felt pretty bad when we didn’t want to buy any of her laquerware. After our siesta, we headed out again for a few more temples and to see if sunset was going to be a showstopper. We sat around for a bit before deciding sunset wasn’t worth it and headed back to give our bikes back. We found a little bar on the main road where lots of locals were drinking and settled in for the night, Rhys invited an English girl, Rebecca over to join us and we whiled away the evening.

Rhys on his electric bike, Bagan.

We had an early bus to Kalaw the following day and were up waiting for our transfer to the bus station at 7am. Our bus was fully booked with people sitting on plastic chairs in the aisles and the road was pretty bumpy, we were glad we didn’t chose to take a night bus. After a few stops along the way to stretch our legs and buy drinks we made it to Kalaw at 3pm in the pouring rain and checked in to the Pine Breeze Hotel. By far the nicest hotel we stayed at, the room was huge with super comfy beds and a balcony. After dropping off our bags we borrowed umbrellas and wandered into town to find Sam’s Family Trekking, a guide that had come with high recommendations. While waiting for him to finish talking with other backpackers we ordered dinner and had amazing super cheap curry and unlimited tea. By the time he came to chat with us we’d decided that the 3 day hike we’d intended to do was going to be absolutely no fun in the rain and on top of that Rhys was still poorly. Instead we discussed day hikes and decided we’d wait until the morning to see what the weather was doing. Back at the hotel Rhys watched TV and I had a very early night.

It had been raining all night and was showing no signs of stopping. Although the treks sounded amazing we decided that the rain would just make them miserable and we’d just be trekking for the sake of trekking. Instead we spent the day in our lovely hotel room, grateful we’d paid a little more than normal for a nice place. We popped out to find the train station and to have a quick wander through the market in the rain and again later for dinner, when we had a feast with different curries, tea leaf salad, soup, chapati and rice and bottomless tea all for £4, bargain.

We had a lazy start with a huge pancake breakfast on the roof terrace before catching a taxi to the train station only to find out that there had been a landslide and the trains weren’t running. We ended up walking back into town and luckily found a truck straight away to take us to Shwenyaung. Now the locals call these trucks buses but they’re more like pick-ups with the truck bed full of plastic egg boxes that you sit on cross legged, they cost the same price as the trains although they did get us there in half the time. I’m not sure how often the trucks run but one guy said he’d been waiting for hours so I think we were really lucky. The truck dropped us off at Shwenyaung and along with the other two westerners, we jumped in a shared taxi the rest of the way to Nyaungshwe. Again, we’d pre-booked our accommodation so checked straight in and headed out to explore the main street and book a bus ticket to Yangon. After a stop for iced coffee and samosas we headed back to chill at the hotel. That night we met up with Fabian, who we had arrived with and sat outdoors in a little cocktail bar on the main road for dinner and drinks.

By 6am the next morning we were up and on a long narrow boat with Fabian and the other guy from our taxi, for a trip out on to the lake. It was very calm and serene at that time of the morning and I don’t think many other tourists were out of bed so it felt like we had the lake to ourselves. The first part of the trip was through a wide part of the lake, our boat was surrounded by beautiful rolling green hills with clouds sitting in the valleys and the lake was dotted with fisherman who use a special leg rowing technique and throw big circular nets into the water. After that, our boat headed into little channels between the clumps of lotus leaves and reeds, chugging past the traditional stilt villages of the Intha people, the sound of our outboard motor almost deafening. 

Fisherman, early morning on Inle Lake.

We made many stops during our 8 hour trip including three workshops that refreshingly didn’t end with a heavy sell that always makes you feel so awkward. The first workshop was a silver smith, the second, a lotus fibre weaver in In Paw Khone, with about 10 looms all clacking away making various cloths. The third workshop was a cheroot making workshop in The Lay where the smell of honey and banana used in the herbal cigars was pretty enticing. We stopped to talk to some women of the Padaung tribe who wear dozens of heavy brass rings on their necks and at a market where there were the usual tourist souvenir stalls but also plenty of colourful fruit, veg, fish and meat stalls aimed at the locals. We visited Phaung Daw Oo Paya, a pagoda that houses five Buddhas that have had so much gold leaf applied that you can’t even tell what the statues are. 

Market day in a village on the banks of Inle Lake.

The brass neck rings of the Padang tribe, Inle Lake.

The most southerly stop we made was at Indein where a short walk up hill, there was a cluster of tired looking stupas that were nevertheless appealing for their remoteness (we had them to ourselves), their hillside position and the tinkling of their bells in the breeze. Our final stop, after passing through the ‘floating gardens’- rows and rows of tomato plants that are grown in the lake, was at the Leaping Cat Monastery. I’d already read that the cats are no longer trained to leap through hoops but we were a bit disappointed in the small number of cats actually there. We arrived back in town at about 2pm and other than one downpour that left us all a bit damp, we had been really lucky with the weather.

Reed house on stilts, Inle Lake.

The stupas at Indein, Inle Lake.

Back in town we stopped by the French Bakery for chocolate cake and iced coffee and then headed back to the room to chill before dinner when we returned to the French Bakery for sandwiches.

Week 56 - Bangkok, Yangon, Mandalay (Thailand, Myanmar (Burma))

As we had to collect our passports from the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok at 3:30pm we hadn’t made any plans for the day. It has also been raining since 11pm the night before with a ferocious thunder storm so we didn’t have much desire to venture out. Instead of sightseeing we spent the day doing chores and we found a travel agency near the hostel that would change our Thai Bahts in to pristine US Dollars to take into Myanmar (Kyats are a closed currency that you can’t get outside of Myanmar and apparently the ATM’s there don’t accept foreign cards). After collecting our passports, shiny new Burmese visa in place, we headed for more Thai food for a late lunch. Other than popping out to get a haircut, we didn’t leave the hostel for the rest of the day and feasted on crisps in bed for dinner.

The next day we were up early for a 6:30am pick up for a trip to the Damnern Saduak floating market. As soon as we got in the van a storm hit and the rain was torrential. Luckily, 3 hours later, when we finally made it through the traffic and puddles to the market, the rain had stopped. The market was extremely touristy but good fun. When we got there we jumped in a paddle boat and were poled around the waterways to peer at the stalls with the proprietors hooking our boat and pulling us over to try to sell us hats and Buddha statues. We had a bit of time to wander around the markets on foot after the boat, before piling in to a motor boat for a bizarre trip down the waterways away from the market. It was a bit like if a tour bus took a route through deepest darkest Tottenham to show people the council estates and piles of rubbish. The boat dropped us off where, after a short wait, we were back in a minibus headed back to Bangkok. The bus dropped us at Khao San Road and after lunch we spent a bit of time wandering around the market before taking a tuktuk back to the hostel.

Damnern Saduak Floating Market.

On our last day in Bangkok we had another lay-in and headed out at noon to find the ferry pier for a boat ride along the Chao Phraya River to the Grand Palace, the former royal residence. Once we got to the the palace we saw the price of a ticket and the strict dress code and decided against going in. Wandering around instead we stumbled upon a Buddhist temple complex (after ducking into a museum when the rain started) with hardly any tourists and really friendly locals. The buildings were beautiful, very different from those in Korea and Taiwan, lots of white walls with gold roof details and statues. Back at the ferry pier we stopped by a little stall for lunch before catching the boat across the river. The boat dropped us at a market and from there we walked to another beautiful, small temple before catching motorbikes to Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn, an 82m high Khmer-style spire covered in tiny porcelain tiles. The buildings around the famous temple were just as spectacular as Wat Arun itself, we even stopped by a temple where a monk flicked some water at us and tied a bracelet around our wrists, it was very, very cool. When we bought our ticket for Wat Arun we climbed up some stupidly steep steps to the top of the tower for spectacular views across the river to the Grand Palace and the temples lining the river. After Wat Arun we caught the boat back to the pier near our hostel. Walking back we passed an Irish Bar and the thought of our first Magners in over a year drew us in. £6 a pint!!! Best £6 we’ve spent.

The Grand Palace (well the bit you can see without paying!), Bangkok.

The temple next to Wat Arun, Bangkok.

Me getting my bracelet from the monk, Bangkok.

We were up and on the tube by 8am the next day. At the end of the line, we found a bus to take us the rest of the way to Don Muang Airport. Our flight was delayed by an hour and a half and we landed in Yangon, Myanmar with only 30 minutes until we were due to meet a travel agent at our hotel. We rushed through immigration and took a taxi from the booth in arrivals. We were a little sceptical when we saw the entrance hall to our hotel, a really dirty, smelly stairwell with kids playing and old people sleeping in the corners, and were pleasantly surprised when we made it to the reception to find a decent guesthouse and really friendly staff. The tour agency rep had waited around for us and handed us our train tickets for the following night. Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital is pretty gritty but has a certain charm. The streets are filthy but every now and then you come across a spectacular temple or religious monument and there are British colonial buildings in states of disrepair scattered around. The people are also incredibly friendly, they all seem to want to say hello and practice their English (there is a lot of English spoken in Myanmar). 

Our first stop when we headed out to explore was the Sule Paya Stupa, a 2,000 year old golden temple around which the British redesigned the city layout, turning it into the primary traffic roundabout. We were very impressed as it was our first Burmese temple and the sheer amount of gold is incredible. After a few minutes a local came up to us to tell us a bit of the history of the site, show us around a little museum and help us find our birth day corners. Depending on what day you are born you go a different fountain and pour sacred water over the buddha standing in your corner and your animal while giving prayer and making wishes, Rhys is a guinea pig, i’m a dragon. He ended up asking for money as he was a student and we felt obliged to give him something. Having just had to make a donation to leave our shoes at the door we were starting to feel like we were going to get played at every corner - sad really because then you start to suspect it of everyone even when people are just being friendly - like the cab driver giving us bottles of water on the way from the airport and a guy teaching us some Burmese and taking us to our train carriage for our journey to Mandalay. 

At around 5pm we jumped in a taxi to the Shwedagon Paya Temple. As there was a festival of light that night it was jam packed with locals which made it all the more appealing. We got swept up with the crowds and after taking off our shoes headed up through one fo the four entrance corridors to the main platform. It was breathtaking, so much gold and glitz in one place and so different to temples we’ve seen elsewhere. The pagoda/stupa stands 105m high and has been added to by various kings and queens since it was first built over 2,500 years ago, to enshrine four relics; the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Koṇāgamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa and eight strands of hair from Gautama, the historical Buddha. The crown of the stupa is topped with a massive 76 carat diamond (although you can’t see that from the ground) and it’s studded with thousands of rubies and smaller diamonds just to top off all the gold plate. The site is quite large with a further 82 buildings surrounding the main stupa and in the twilight it all looked quite magical, especially with all the candles and incense being lit for the festival. After an hour of sitting people watching we headed back down and jumped in a taxi to take us back to our guesthouse, popping out only briefly to buy some samosas from a street stall nearby. 

Shwedagon Paya, Yangon.

The crowds at Shwedagon Paya, Yangon.

Our train wasn’t until 5pm the following day so we had most of the day to while away exploring Yangon. After stopping by the tourist office to pick up a map we decided to head to the Bogyoke Aung San Market, primarily a tourist market with over 2,000 shops selling all manner of Myanmar handicrafts from wooden puppets to lacquerware, gemstones and longis. We nearly bought a painting but talked ourselves out of it since we’d have to carry it and we’re not sure how easy it is to use ATM’s here once our cash reserves run out. We stopped in the food court for a curry lunch just as the rain started. We ended up wandering around for another hour or so at a bit of a lose end trying to keep under the shelter before deciding we’d just head back to the guesthouse to wait for our train. Luckily the Arsenal game was on TV (they’re always watching premier league repeats here) so the time passed quickly and before we knew it we were in a taxi headed to the train station. We were befriended by a Myanmar man who put us on the train and wished us well and had the police guards come visit to make sure we knew they were around should we need them. We had a four bed cabin and shared with a quiet guy who pretty much just slept. As the train pulled out of the station we poured a celebratory drink which Rhys then practically threw everywhere once we hit the bumps. I’ve never been on a train like it, it was so crazily bumpy I can’t even describe it. Eating dinner was interesting and sleeping was practically impossible. Once the sun had gone down (after the most beautiful sunset over the bright green rice paddies) we weren’t left with much to do but try to sleep, reading was impossible. No joke, lying in bed I think a couple times I flew a good few inches above the mattress and being on the top bunk, that put me uncomfortably close to a big fat spider who I ended up jamming in his hole with a bit of paper. Although very basic, it was well worth it for the experience. Waking up at 6:30am and opening the window to see the fields passing by and a golden stupa or two in the distance, with local kids waving at you and men and women walking to their fields along the tracks, was just brilliant as were the fireflies in the cabin and the smell of wooden cooking fires wafting through the trains from the villages we passed on route.

Sunset from the train to Mandalay.

We arrived in Mandalay about an hour after schedule at 9:30am and headed straight to our hotel. We’d splashed out and got a decent room and they let us check in early. After washing the layers of grime off from the journey we climbed in to bed for a quick nap and to watch a bit of TV. At lunch time we headed out and wandered up through a hectic cloth market to a western cafe for lunch then skirted around the southern wall of the palace (now nothing more than a huge military base) debating whether the ripples in the moat were crocodiles or big slow fish. As Rhys was feeling a bit under the weather we headed back to the hotel to chill out, arranging a day out for the following day with a random man on the street on the way and booking our ferry ticket for the trip to Bagan. Mandalay is definitely cleaner than Yangon with plenty of Chinese investment, but lacks some of the charm. It is a relatively new city, founded in 1857 by King Mindon to show the British who were camped out in Yangon that the Burmese kingdom was still a mighty force. 

Our random man, Salmon picked us up from our hotel at 8am along with his friend and two motorbikes and we headed to our first stop of the day, Mahamuni Paya, the most important Buddhist site in the city. It’s a large temple complex with a 3.8 metre tall Buddha statue at the centre. Men can enter the alcove where the Buddha sits and cover it in gold leaves. There are also some Hindu figures taken from Angkor Wat. Once out of the temple we rode through an area of stone carvers and stopped by a marble workshop to watch people carving and polishing beautiful statues from giant pieces of white marble, although we ended up buying a tiny jade bowl it wasn’t a hard sell. The next stop was at another workshop, this time to show us how they make the huge bronze Buddha statues. One they were working on was about 6m high and would cost about $2,000 - $3,000 to buy, bargain! 

Next we headed to Amarapura, the journey alone being worth the trip with locals waving to us as we went past, with their cook fires and bamboo shacks lining the pothole ridden roads. Amarapura was the capital of Burma between 1783 and 1857 before it was moved to Mandalay. We stopped at U Bein’s Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world at 1.2km long and over 200 years old, and spent 30 minutes watching the boats, the fisherman and the duck herders. Back on the bikes and our next stop was at the Mahaganayon Kyaung monastery where hundreds of monks queued to go in to lunch. It was a bit intrusive and quite touristy but fun to see all the same. 

View from U Bein Bridge, Amarapura.

Fisherman near U Bein Bridge, Amarapura.

Lunchtime for the monks, Mahaganayon Kyaung monastery.

Next, we headed to Sagaing, another old capital city, to climb Sagaing Hill. After a very hot and sticky climb up the covered stairway we reached the first temple, Soon U Ponya Shin Paya with views of the Ayeyarwady River and the surrounding stupa studded hills. Back on the bikes, we headed to the boat dock for the short trip to Inwa. Before crossing the water we ate a Myanmar feast with bowls of curry, soup, beans, fishy stuff and plates of peanuts and green vegetables. The boat only took 5 minutes to Inwa, yet another old capital city and then we jumped straight on a horse carriage for a 2 hour circuit along very muddy and bumpy tracks. It was a shame because 2 of the 5 places we stopped required the Mandalay tourist ticket to enter and we didn’t want to buy one (it was quite expensive at $10 each and all the money goes to the government, something we’re trying to limit, especially since we took the government owned train to Mandalay). We did stop at some beautiful, ruined stupas at Yedanasini Paya strewn across the grassy fields, a watch tower, and a very atmospheric ruined monastery, along the way we managed to buy a bronze mask, glad Karen is visiting us shortly so we don’t have to lug it around for long. The plan was to return to the U Bein Bridge for sunset but it had turned pretty cloudy so we figured it would be a waste of time, especially as Rhys was still feeling unwell. Instead we stopped at one final temple before heading back to the hotel.

Our horse and cart, Inwa.

Abandoned Buddha, Inwa.

Week 55 - Tainan, Kaohsiung, Bangkok (Taiwan, Thailand)

On our last day in Tainan we headed to Anping, the oldest area of the city a couple of kilometres from the centre along a smelly, dirty, yet fish filled waterway. We were pretty hot and sticky after the 45 minute walk in blistering heat and headed straight to Fort Zeelandia, the first castle to be built in Taiwan by the Dutch in the 17th century. After a refreshing drink in the shade of the walls we wandered around the fort and gardens. Our next stop was at the Anping Treehouse, a crazy old warehouse that has been completely taken over by Banyan trees. After a stroll around the area and a few photo stops at some brightly painted temples Rhys bought a giant bag of prawn crackers and we caught a bus back into the centre to our hostel. 

Banyan trees at Anping Treehouse, Tainan.

The next day we left Tainan and took the bus to the train station from where we caught a local train back to Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second city and is pretty much just a big commercial harbour with limited attractions for the tourist. As we were flying out from Kaohsiung we thought it was worth a stop and spent 3 days in the city. The first night we ventured out to the Liuho Tourist Night Market. It was fantastic. We spent a couple of hours wandering up and down the busy street, lined with vendors selling all sorts of tasty curiosities, buying a variety of snacks as we went - dumplings, beef wraps, pork buns, Rhys even bought a chicken neck (or it might have been a pork penis, we’re not entirely sure, he thought he was buying a rib).

Liuho Tourist Night Market, Kaohsiung.

The next day we walked over to Shoushan. It was further than we thought and again we were pretty tired from the heat by the time we got to the start of the mountain trails. Nevertheless we spent an hour and a half walking around the forested slopes looking out for macaque monkeys. We’d only seen 3 when we decided we’d gone far enough and turned back, a little disappointed in the monkey turnout on the so called ‘Monkey Mountain’. Then we found a group of about 30 monkeys and a little further along the trail another 20 or so. Far happier with our monkey sightings we walked back, crossing Love River, to our hotel by the main station. On route we walked through a great little market selling all kinds of dried food (like Korea, dried food is very much the thing in Taiwan although there is less pickling) and Rhys treated himself to a kilo of beef jerky. Dinner was more dumplings from street stalls around the corner from our hotel.

Rhys's favourite monkey. Shoushan, Kaohsiung.

More monkeys, Shoushan, Kaohsiung.

Rhys buying jerky, Kaohsiung.

Our last day in Kaohsiung and in Taiwan we took the short 5 minute ferry ride over to Cijin Island where we hired bikes thinking it would be a really scenic ride along the beach. It wasn’t. There was a pretty cliff area at one end and a small stretch of grey sand, but after that we were either riding alongside building sites or commercial docks and steel works. After a couple of miles we realised it wasn’t going to get any more scenic and headed back to the ferry port. The main street was full of people it being a Saturday, all crowding around the hundreds of seafood stalls. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Formosa Boulevard station to admire the Dome of Light, the world's largest stained glass installation created by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata. We returned to the Liuho Tourist Night Market again for dinner, this time sausage in a sausage and slithers of pork belly, before turning in for an early night.

The Dome of Light, Formosa Boulevard, Kaohsiung.

We had a flight at 8:30am from Kaohsiung to Macau and jumped in a taxi to the airport. It took 40 minutes to check in due to some problem with our reservation and the flight was only 1.5 hours. We then had to wait 9 hours for our connecting flight to Bangkok which was delayed by an hour. Macau airport is tiny, not somewhere you really want to be stuck but the saving grace was the one restaurant did serve amazing dim sum. We made it to Bangkok, cleared immigration in record time and jumped on the MRT to our hostel. 

Taiwan isn’t somewhere we’ll be rushing back to, it’s not particularly backpacker friendly and although the scenery from the train was spectacular actually getting out to see some of it proved difficult without having our own transport or hiring a driver. The street food was a definite highlight and the people are really friendly but the lack of pavements and the necessity to get permits to hike anywhere kind of balanced it out.

We set the alarm for our first day in Bangkok and started the day queuing at the Myanmar embassy, forms filled out and passports in hand, ready to get our visas. It was a very speedy process, we were back at our hostel just up the road in about an hour and a half. Our next chore of the day was buying train tickets for a couple of weeks time when we go south to the islands. Another tuktuk ride and we were at the famed Khao San Road, backpacker central, stopping by tour agencies to find the best offer for a day trip with Karen and booking a floating market trip for us before Myanmar. After a delicious street side duck and pork lunch we headed back to our hostel across town. There was a Hindu festival focused on the temple next to our hostel that night and lining the streets nearby. It was absolutely hectic and ridiculously hot. We fought our way through the crowds marveling at all the people, candles, incense and gilded statues. There were lots of flower petals, limes and dancing, it was quite a sight. Once we emerged at the other side we carried on and walked to Patpong, a lively area of bars, market stalls and of course, as you would expect in Bangkok, strip clubs and ping pong shows. We stopped at a couple of bars before heading back to bed.

Hindu festival, Bangkok.

The next day we allocated to shopping. We jumped on the Skytrain and headed over to the MBK Centre, a huge shopping mall with one floor full of market stalls selling fake everythings. We’d given ourselves a budget and spent the next couple of hours renewing our wardrobes and treating ourselves to Paul Smith wallets and Mulberry purses. Clothes are so cheap here it’s ridiculous, we’re talking £2 for a really nice t-shirt and £4 for floaty hippy trousers. Back at our hostel with our piles of bags we chilled before heading out for dinner, Thai curry from a street stall.

Week 54 - Taipei, Hualien, Tainan (Taiwan)

Our last day in Taipei we decided to head 25km south to Wulai, a mountainous area that we’d heard plenty of good things about. We planned to hike to the Dolls Valley and set off through the village, jumping on the tiny, rattly tourist log train to save a mile of the walk. The train dropped us off at the Wulai waterfalls. After a short photo stop we headed on to find the trail head. Sadly, like most places we’re finding in Taiwan, the trailhead isn’t easily accessible for people without their own transport and meant walking down a main road until we found the pedestrian bridge to cross to a wide paved trail running along the river dotted with small waterfalls (one of which Rhys had me scrambling up ropes and rickety ladders to get to a pool near the top). We walked as far as the next village before turning back and our timing was perfect, along the path on our return we came across two snakes, a Greater Green Snake and I think, a Big-Eyed Rat Snake, neither are venomous but of course we didn’t know that at the time and were pretty impressed with our sightings. Back in the village we headed to the public hot springs by the river intending on taking a dip but decided against it, it was a bit like bath time for the locals and we didn’t want to intrude. We grabbed some BBQ pork belly from one of the street stalls for a late lunch and went to wait for the bus back to Taipei. 

Wulai waterfall.

Back in the city we had one more stop for the day, Taipei 101, the third tallest building in the world at 508m. We joined the queue and packed into the lift, the world’s fastest at 37.7mph. We wandered around the observatory and up to the open air platform, marveling at just how small everything seemed down below, before heading back to the hostel for a quiet night in the common room, popping out to browse the night market that was on our street and to buy delicious dumplings for dinner.

Taipei 101.

The next morning we checked out and headed to Taipei Main Station for a train to Hualien 2 hours south. That night we ate at the night market, joining the longest queue there thinking that it meant the food from that particular stall was amazing. It was definitely different, a sweet pork and beef stirfry wrap covered in crushed peanuts (we think).

On Friday we were up and at the bus station to catch the first bus out to the Taroko Gorge at 7:50am. We bought day tickets so we could hop on and off the bus all day stopping off at all the main points in the gorge. We started at Lushui where there was a short 2km trail cut into the cliff passing through forest and giving views of the river. Next we caught a bus down to Swallow Grotto for another 2km walk along a road cut right in to the rock face with overhangs and sheer walls of marble rising up out of the water below. The bus timetable was a bit odd with a huge gap in the middle of the day so we had a couple of hours to waste and ended up walking the 1km to the Buluowan trail to climb hundreds of steps up 120m to a little cafe where Rhys stopped for lunch while I checked out the bamboo groves. The bus finally came to take us back to Swallow Grotto where we then had another wait for a bus down to the Eternal Spring Shrine, a waterfall and small temple. After a lot more time spent on buses and waiting than actually walking we decided we’d stay in Hualien another night to go back the following day and attempt some longer trails.

View from Swallow Grotto trail, Hualien.

Swallow Grotto trail, Hualien.

The first bus for the weekend timetable was at 6:30am so we were up early to get to the bus station in time and had decided to start with a very popular hike near the entrance before the crowds descended. The first 1.5km of the Shakadang trail was beautiful, our early start meant we had the trail to ourselves apart from tribes people on their motorbikes going about their daily business. The path followed a smaller side gorge than the previous day and the river was crystal clear in contrast to the opaque grey water from recent landslides in the areas we’d seen already. Sadly though we’d read the trail was 4.5km long and at 1.5km it was blocked off due to landslides. We walked back to the start and caught a bus back up to the far end of the main gorge to Tianxiang. We had hoped to get a permit to allow us on to a longer trail but finding any information about trails and how to get a permit proved to be such a carry on and we were getting a bit past caring. We ended up heading to the Baiyang Waterfall trail a 6km round trip including the walk from the bus station (supposedly 1:20 hours plus 1.8km to and from the trail head). Once we got to the start we realised the next bus was in 45 minutes with a wait of 2:30 hours if we missed it. We practically ran it (actually we did run about a kilometre of it) and made it to the waterfall at the end. It was a shame as it was probably the nicest trail we found in the park, bright blue water, a sheer marble gorge, overhangs and tunnels dug into the mountain (for which we didn’t have flashlights) and a suspension bridge over the waterfall at the end and we even saw a monkey. We made the bus and arrived back in town at noon. Although not the most successful of hiking trips the gorge was very impressive and one of the grandest natural sites we’ve been to on our trip, we wish we’d had more advice from people before going and we would have looked at booking a scooter so we could do exactly what we wanted without relying on the buses. We spent the afternoon chilling in the hostel by the indoor fishpond and stopped by the night market for steak dinner.

Baiyang Waterfall trail, Hualien.

The next day we were up early yet again for our train to Kaohsiung, 5 hours away. The train trip was incredibly scenic, taking us through the East Rift valley, across the southern tip of Taiwan and up along the west coast. The whole way we were sandwiched between beautiful lush mountains and the sea, again we wished we had our own transport so we could take our time and enjoy it. Once in Kaohsiung we went straight to the ticket office for another ticket on a local train to Tainan. An hour later we were there. We jumped in a cab with the grumpiest cab driver ever and arrived at our hotel late afternoon. After all the early starts we were pretty shattered and relaxed in the room planning our route for Thailand and the Philippines. When we headed out for dinner, for the first time we were a bit lost. I can speak enough Spanish to read menus in Latin America without an issue and in Korea we would either point or things were in English, here we just have no idea. We walked around for a bit and finally came across a bar with a couple of pictures in the menu. We sat on hanging park benches and were served cold ribs and chips.

For the first time in a while we had a private room and weren’t woken by an alarm or other people in our dorm. We slept until 9:30am then headed down for breakfast (which we then didn’t eat - tofu and pickled vegetables...). We spent a couple of hours in the room until checkout before packing our bags and walking around the corner where after a few wrong turns we found our hostel and bed for the next 3 nights. We decided another chill afternoon was called for as we were feeling a little tired and headed to Macdonalds for a comforting western lunch. Rhys headed back to the room and I spent an hour or so wandering around the shops on the way back. Every street has many more lanes running off of it, it’s a real warren. At one point I followed some locals into an accessories market area and then got completely lost and thought I was never going to see the light of day again. That night we had more fun trying to find a stall where we could understand the menu and ended up at a deep fry buffet place where you point at what you want from a selection of vegetables and unidentifiable meats and the guy fries it on the spot. A bit of it was definitely chicken but what part of the chicken we have no idea.

The hostel we were staying at (Lucky House) had the most comfy bed we’ve had in ages and a lay in was on the cards. Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest city and is full of temples and history so around lunch time I headed out to visit the Confucius Temple and a couple of other spots leaving Rhys to chill in the room. I was expecting something a bit grander but it was quite peaceful and the gardens and huge banyan trees were pretty. After walking along the cafe and tree lined Fujhong Street, I stopped briefly at the Yonghua Temple before wandering over to the Koxinga Shrine (the guy responsible for throwing out the Dutch). It was nice enough with a few historical tidbits translated into English and I had the place to myself. Across the road I popped in to the Koxinga Museum which had a great exhibition on the Niaosong culture. On the way back to the hostel I stopped by the Taiwanese Literature Museum and the City God Temple, where all your good and bad deeds are weighed (favourite engraving of the day translates as “when all you do is crafty and evil, burning joss sticks is useless”). After an hour or so respite from the heat in the air con room Rhys joined me to visit the ChihKan Tower. We ended up helping some students with their English homework before going in. The fort was small but had some intricate roof details, I think the highlight though was feeding the hungry goldfish in the ponds in the grounds.

One of the hundreds of temples in Tainan.

ChihKan Tower, Tainan.

Feeding the fish, ChihKan Tower, Tainan.

Week 53 - Samcheok, Sokcho, Seoul, Taipei (South Korea, Taiwan)

We woke in Samcheok and the weather had turned, we’d had 10 days of glorious sunshine so far in South Korea and now we had drizzle. We had our alarm set to get up and head out to a Penis Park (the highlights of the area were a Penis Park and a huge limestone cave formation and we chose the Penis Park). We got to the front door of our motel and decided the rain really wouldn’t help to promote a speedy recovery from the cold we’d managed to pick up and headed back to bed. When we left the motel we went straight to the bus station so we really didn’t see anything of the town.

We ended up getting a bus to Gangneung and after a short wait we caught another bus onto Sokcho where we booked in to a hostel that looked like it had stepped right out of a Cath Kidston advert, a lovely place with a big fluffy, skittish dog. We ventured out to find Rhys some more of the spicy, saucy, deep fried chicken he had fallen in love with and to try squid sundae and ate it on the sea front surrounded by giant yellow spiders. 

The next morning we headed out to the Seoraksan National Park. The weather was holding and we made great time completing the 4.30 hour hike to Ulsanbawi in 3 hours. The trail passed a temple and wound it’s way up from the river basin through the forest to a beautiful rocky peak above the tree line at 863m, climbing 800 steps along the way. The view from the top was spectacular if a little busy - Korean’s do love their hiking! Saying that though it was nice that it was busy with locals rather than tourists and people kept offering us different food and drink to try. Back at the trail head we decided to jump on the gondola to the other side of the valley for an equally spectacular view. 

That night we headed to a little local restaurant the hostel had recommended for all you can eat BBQ. We sat at a table and they brought the coals and grill to us and we spent a couple of hours cooking all different kinds of meats that we grabbed from the buffet fridge.

We spent the next morning chilling at the hostel before catching a bus to Seoul. We popped out to Insa-Dong again to grab a bite to eat and have a look around the touristy shops before bed.

Saturday was an early start as we had to tube across town to the Lotte Hotel where we were meeting our DMZ tour group. The DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) is a 240km long, 4km wide buffer that runs along the border between North and South Korea to keep the two warring nations separated. The strip is strewn with landmines and is demarcated by a barbed wire fence and watch towers every couple of hundred metres. The morning had four stops, the first was at the Dorasan train station, the last station in South Korea where it is hoped one day the railroad will continue into North Korea to Pyongyang.  The second stop was at the Dora observatory where you can peer through binoculars into North Korea (although it was very misty so we couldn’t see much) and you can only take photos behind a line a way back. The third stop was at Freedom Bridge and the fourth was at the Third Infiltration Tunnel. So far South Korea have discovered 4 tunnels dug by the north to move troupes under the DMZ in the direction of Seoul in their thousands. Although North Korea deny digging the tunnels there’s a lot of evidence to suggest they did and they even went to the effort of smudging coal dust on the walls to pretend they were mining if ever discovered. We took a train down into the tunnel and walked around a little before heading back out. After a stop for lunch we headed into the JSA (Joint Security Area) for our afternoon tour. It was a lot stricter than the morning tour with both behavioural and dress codes for visitors. After having our passports and dress checked in Camp Bonifas we were driven in a special bus then lead in single file by an American UN soldier into the JSA to Panmunjom, the truce village where both sides have buildings and where talks can be held. We only saw one North Korean soldier on guard looking at us through binoculars. The South Koreans were pretty scary looking, they stand on guard to protect tourists facing North Korea in a modified taekwondo stance. The only place we could cross the border in to North Korea was within one of the portacabins so we all squeezed in just to be able to say we’d done it. Back in Seoul we headed back to our hostel with take-out to watch the Spurs game in the communal kitchen before bed.

Another early start and we were on a bus to the airport for our flight to Taiwan. The flight was only 2:30 hours and was pretty painless. On arrival we checked through customs and jumped on an Airbus into the centre of Taipei. We were pretty tired by then so we turned in for an early night.

When we woke it was drizzling outside so we were a bit limited in what we could do (that and it was a Monday and everywhere closes on Mondays). We decided to head to the Longshan temple and were amazed at just how intricate it was compared to the temples in South Korea - lots of red and gold and swirling dragons and incense. After wandering around for a bit we headed off to find the botanical garden - a bit of a let down, a decent park but not really a tourist attraction as such. We took a long walk back to the tube and passed the National Theatre and CKS Memorial Hall (a huge building built to commemorate the passing of President Chiang Kai-Sek) which were both huge impressive buildings. Luckily we timed our walk with the changing of the guard within the CKS Hall which was pretty impressive, lots of gun twiddling. After stopping by a handicraft promotional centre we headed back to the hostel. 

We got talking to an Australian girl (Victoria) and an Israeli girl (Noa) in the common room and ended up heading out to find a bar. After food in the night market by our hostel we found what was quite possibly the smallest bar in Taipei. It had room for 12 people seated, two guys at the bar shifted up to make room for us and we spent the rest of the night talking to all the locals, chewing betel nuts (supposedly a mild stimulant a bit like coca leaves in Bolivia) under strict orders to spit out the juice, drinking Saki the locals bought for us and admiring one of the guys Harley Davidson’s in the garage next door. All up it was a great night.

The weather was a abit better the next day so we decided to head south to catch the gondola up into Maokong. We queued especially to get a ‘crystal cabin’ which meant the gondola had a glass floor so you could see down into the valley on the 4km trip to the top station. Maokong is a tea growing area with lush green rolling hills on the outskirts of the city. We headed to the Tea Promotion Centre thinking we’d be able to get an idea of the tea production process and instead ended up drinking free tea and paying to feed the koi carp in the pond. We walked a couple of short trails and ended up down at the Zhinan Temple where a lady took us into the back room to show us our guardian angels (determined by birth year). After telling our angels who we were and our wishes we headed back to the gondola station back to Maokong to find a tea shop with views over the valley. It was amazing, we chose a tea and were given a little tin of it and paid a water charge. They brought over a little gas stove and a kettle, a miniature teapot, two different mini cups and a strainer and pouring jug and showed us how to prepare the tea, quite a palaver really for a cuppa but fun to do for the experience. 

Back at the hostel we met up with Victoria and Noa and an Australian guy called Matt to head out to the Shilin night market. It was huge, so many people and neon lights and clothes stalls and food stalls at every turn. We split up for 30 mins to browse the shops before meeting up for a few beers at a little table outside the corner shop. We grabbed street food on the way back to the tube and got back to the hostel just after midnight, when we left stalls were still being rolled out and set up - I have no idea how the Taiwanese can go to night markets and still get up for work the next day!

Rhys at the top of Ulsanbawi, Seoraksan National Park, Sokcho.

View from the top of the cable car, Seoraksan National Park, Sokcho.

Barbed wire and South Korean flags by the Freedom Bridge, DMZ.

Looking into North Korea (about halfway down the blue buildings), Panmunjom, JSA.

Longshan temple, Taipei.

Longshan temple, Taipei.

Zhinan Temple, Maokong, Taipei.

Drinking tea in Maokong, Taipei.