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Merry goes places

July 2016 - April 2017
A 290-day adventure by Merry Goes Round & Merry Read more
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  • Merry goes places
    81
    Day 98

    Trekking Kalaw to Inle Lake III

    October 20, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Today was the final day of my three day hike as I reached Inle Lake. If it were up to me, I'd have kept going for a few more days! The simple life here has been very inspiring and I loved meeting new friends and learning about customs and nature.

    The tour guide Momo has been fantastic! He grew up in one of the towns we passed through and knows plants, animals and of course the people here better than anyone. With all the things we got to eat off the trees and fields, freshly picked, I collected a little vegetable basket for the others who missed the trekking. Will be awesome to share it with them along with many stories!

    Crazy to say, but I will miss bucket showers, sleeping on the floor, eating simple meals of rice and vegetables, getting up at 6, and hiking in strong heat all day, sweating like a pig ;-)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 99

    The city of a thousand temples

    October 21, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Bagan is a mind blowing place! Founded in the 9th century, the ancient city left behind over 2000 temples, small and big, shiny and simple, there are more temples than you could ever visit.

    To explore, we rented electro scooters and are driving from one temple to the next. People here, as pretty much all people we've meet in Myanmar so far, are extremely friendly. The temples are beautiful, ancient adult playgrounds and I'm having such a good time. When we got on top of a few temples with roofs to give a good view, I just couldn't believe my eyes!!!

    Another highlight of the day was meeting little Charlie (pic 4) and his siblings. I fell in love instantly and now can't help thinking I should take him with me on my travels :)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 100

    Templemania

    October 22, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Our second day in Bagan was another fun day of riding scooters through the ancient temples, racing on the gravel roads and playing with the kids that try to sell postcards by the touristy areas.

    Since we wouldn't buy anything from the kids, as they should be in school, we just hang out, play games, talk or buy them food. They taught Merten a local song and Bibi, a 6 year old boy, gave me a pen tattoo (=drew a joker on my arm) :)

    For dinner, we brought some of the food ourselves and had the restaurant prepare an appetizer with the vegetables I had picked on my hike. They were a bit surprised but loved our story and made delicious fresh vegetables tempura!    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    12
    Day 101

    One last adventure together

    October 23, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    We spent our last day together in Bagan, visiting a view point on top of a small mountain range, a jungle hike and a visit to a local market. It was a really beautiful time, although it got so hot we were all melting away. At the viewpoint, Merten was the main attraction for locals, who were taking pictures with him (pic 2). At the market, we talked to a lot of very kind locals. Once they found out it was going to be my birthday tomorrow (after Merten sang happy birthday for me with half the people at the market :-D ), I was given a handmade bamboo bowl, a Jade bead to make into a bracelet, and Tanaka, the traditional Myanmar sunscreen.

    Then we took a short flight to Yangon with the most oldschool airline - they separated the different flights by color coded stickers on the passengers and the boarding passes were hand written! We had a lovely dinner in the city and then cake at a tea house at midnight. We shared the giant cake with everyone there and enjoyed the company of new friends.

    What a good way to end 3 adventurous weeks together! I will miss the company but am looking excited towards the next weeks on my own.    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 102

    A little scavenger hunt

    October 24, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today, I took it easy to catch up on sleep, work and skype time with my loved ones.

    I did have one little adventure though: the charging cable for my phone broke and it's a type of cable which is not easily found just anywhere. So I went on a scavenger hunt of calling electronics shops, asking around, going to 2 shopping malls. I learned a lot about this city of 7 million people (which a taxi driver called a small city :) ), language barriers and wonderful, kind people. I ended up finding the cable at a little mobile shop on the side of the street and was so happy, the sales guy didn't know what was happening :-)

    The most fascinating thing to me are all the little street grocery places, that set up shop in the morning on the curb side and sell veggies, meat, nuts or fish, like in the one picture I took all day ;-)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 103

    A short visit to Myeik

    October 25, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    This day went unexpected for me, but very good in the end!

    I got up at 4am to make it to the airport in Yangon and arrived at Myeik in the south at 9am in the morning. By 11:30, I had checked into my hostel, walked through town a bit and was sitting in the local travel agency to book snorkelinging and sea kayaking trips, but due to a storm, everything had been cancelled. Gathering alternatives, I quickly decided to go to Kawthoung, a 30 minute flight south of here. I got to the airport just in time for the daily flight, and around 2pm, I was in the tropical, charming town at the very southern tip of Myanmar.

    Awesome: here you take motorbike taxis - even with a huge backpack on, the town is surrounded by lush jungle and palm trees, there are hundreds of small islands off the shore - three of which I will explore tomorrow!

    Today's pictures are of the harbor city Myeik and it's tiny airport :)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    1
    Day 104

    Myanmar's beautiful waterworld

    October 26, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    What a day! I joined a snorkeling trip to three islands off the Myanmar cost, where I spent most time under the surface in awe of the beauty of the fantastic fish and the coral reefs. Corals (some of which is damaged unfortunately), small and big fish in all colors of the rainbow, sea snakes, and crabs live here, ready to be observed by snorkelers like me :)

    Actually, part of the beauty is the fact that the islands are mostly unexplored. Only 3 of the 800 islands are inhabited and very few tourists make their way to this yet un-commercialized pearl in the Andaman Sea (/Indian Ocean).

    The funnest was an area where a new friend from France and I dove 5-6 meters deep beside a cliff full of corals and fantastic fish, exploring the wildlife from above and below. After so much swimming and diving, I'm off to bed early. Work is awaiting me all day tomorrow :)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    1
    Day 105

    Work work work :)

    October 27, 2016 in Myanmar ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I usually bring in some adventure even on the days I'm working, but today was almost all work. I enjoy what I do and the people I work with, and it allows me to make some money while I'm traveling, so I have no complaints.

    One little lovely adventure: I went for dinner in town and ended up at a small birthday celebration by the water in this little, cozy fishing town of Kawthaung. Beers, young new friends playing the guitar and kids playing soccer in the park. Sorry, forgot to take pictures :)    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 106

    Let's go to Thailand?!

    October 28, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    After working most day today, I got the bad news of yet another snorkeling trip cancelled on me. This was the 4th time in one week and it's unfortunately because they don't have enough people signing up. This place is so beautiful, but still mostly unexplored by tourists...

    So in the late afternoon, I decided to go to Thailand, which is only a 20 minute boat ride from here, and make my way south to the Surin islands for 2 days of snorkeling. So off I went. And on the boat I had a few silent minutes to process and celebrate all i got to experience in Myanmar! Such a unique place, I will be back for sure!

    Just a few hours in Thailand so far, but it's quite different - highly developed infrastructure, modern shops and stellar cellphone reception. And of course the amazing food here will surely make for a few nice days.    Read more

  • Merry goes places
    Day 107

    Schnockelling :)

    October 29, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Booking a snorkeling trip over the phone, a heavy Thai accent on the other end, can be quite entertaining. Yaaaa, wui can organize Schnockelling for juh! So from now, I will call it Schnockelling :) The service was outstanding though and I joined a fun small group of 6 others for the first day.

    Just 90 minutes off the shore are the remote Surin Islands, a Thai national park since 1981, with several great spots where I got to see a turtle, langoustes, clown fish, large trigger fish, a ray, a 2 meter moraine and many other fish in all the colors of the rainbow. Mostly free diving up to 10 meters, we got to see some big, beautiful fish and swim right amongst the swarms as well.

    The main island has 2 campgrounds and we slept in tents right on the beach. The highlight of the day was swimming at night in florescent plankton, glowing in the dark all around me. What a day!!! Can't wait to spend more time in the water tomorrow.    Read more

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