To reach Bagan it required Chris and I to first go back to Mandalay. Unfortunately the bus times never seem to be in our favour and we found ourselves waiting on the corner of the main dusty road passing through Hsipaw at 5.20am. Thankfully the bus was pretty much on time and we embarked on a six hour bumpy windy journey to Mandalay. Unlike last time, we actually arrived in Mandalay in the day light and therefore making it easier for us to haggle hard for a taxi ...

There were definitely faster ways for Amelia and I to get to Hsipaw, but the train journey from Pyin Oo Lwin to Hsipaw is considered one of the best in the world. The highlight being an engineering masterpiece - the highest bridge in Myanmar! Which when it was constructed by British colonialists back in 1901, was the largest railway viaduct in the world! Purchasing the tickets in advance from the station didn't work out, so to give ourselves the best chance o...

It turned out that the 'bus' was in fact a small pick up truck. This did not bother Chris or I too much, but the fact that they don't leave until they are full is not always ideal. You can wait from 5 minutes to a couple of hours. It really is just a waiting game. But luckily our wait turned out to be just 20 minutes, before we clambered into the back of the rickety old truck. It was a pretty uncomfortable three hours sat on a wooden bench in the bac...

With trying to save money and make the most of our time, Amelia and I decided on another night bus to reach our next destination - Mandalay. Again, we arrived way before the ETA and were dropped in the middle of the city. This time we did actually have a hotel booked, but we were pretty sure at 3am it was quite possibly before an acceptable check in time. However, we had a back up! With the memory of our early arrival in Kalaw lingering heavily in our minds, we c...

During the past year travelling around SEA we have been fortunate enough to not experience any bad episodes of dreaded bed bugs. However our luck was out and during the night Chris and I were both eaten alive by bed bugs at 'Aquarius Inn'. Throughout the night we were both awake scratching like crazy, we were literally sleeping in a bed bug's nest - it was horrendous! Bed bugs bite in a row and we both had a line of bites from one shoulder to the othe...