Chanayethazan

I'm not sure if our immune system is just trashed from India or what but I ended up spending Thursday in bed in agony with my stomach. It was a day of eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat and sleep. In the late afternoon we went to Man Myo Taw and i attempted to eat a Pork Bao and Will ate a Bao and Kyae Oh (pork noodle soup). Then I had to go straight back to the room and had another nap. For dinner we found a hip new roadside pop up restaurant and I ate a bit of bolognese while Will had smoked pork ribs. They were yummy but I couldn't eat much.

The next day I was a little better and I was sick of being in the room so we went on an explore. To be honest I probably did a bit too much but hey it was a great day at the time. We hired the bike and headed straight to Mandalay Hill. I must admit we didn't do the 45 mins walk to the top and instead rode the bike up as I don't think I could have handled the heat. Then we went to see Sandamuni Temple, Shwenandaw Temple and Kuthodaw Pagoda and although quite templed out each one was very interesting and different and very photographic!

On the way to Inwa, an ancient city, we stopped at a local restaurant that enticed us in by their freshly cooked dough bread sticks. I had tea leaf rice salad and Will had Shan noodles. The bread sticks were sooo tasty we bought 3!

It was then quite a long ride to Inwa but it was really cute. It was like a mini Bagan and although completely out of the way definitely worth the trip.

Our final stop for the day was the beautiful and famous U Bein Bridge. We had bought ourselves a present in Bagan of a sand painting of the U Bein Bridge and so my hopes were quite high of seeing it in person! And I wasn't disappointed. We got there quite early so was able to walk from one end to the other and half way we chatted to a very friendly Monk. Then we sat and waited for the spectacular picturesque sunset. Sure there were a lot of tourists but it was really lovely.

It was then a long journey back to the bike rental and as the train station was only next to it we planned to walk to the station after to pick up our tickets for tomorrow to Hsipaw. When we arrived at the rental place he offered to take us to our hotel! Gutted... That would have saved us the 30 min walk back... Ah well we needed to go to the station anyway so off we went. Upsettingly it was a lot further than we thought and the ticket desk was closed. The train to Hsipaw only goes once a day and is at 4am. The ticket office opens at 3am and we have heard it can be very busy. Defeated and very upset that we now have to get up at 2am we wandered back. Will went to get some noodles for himself for dinner while I went in search of some snacks for the looong journey ahead of us. All set and packed we jumped into bed dreading the journey ahead. You're probably thinking, well if you dread it that much why are you bothering. The train ride is supposed to be incredibly scenic, we want ton experience some longer Burmese train journeys and goes over what was the largest viaduct in the world at the time of its construction in 1901. Well that was the plan...

I'm not going beat around the bush here so please turn if away if you're squeamish. At about 11pm Will had a crazy fear and couldn't get comfortable. We were both up from 12 and decided the train would be a terrible idea and so I booked another night in the hotel. At about 2pm he projectile vomited everywhere (well into the toilet but it was violent!). At about 7pm I was then being sick everywhere. It was not a good sight. We didn't bother going for breakfast and just spent till about 2pm in bed napping and feeling sorry for ourselves. By this point we were feeling slightly more human and decided it was time to move from Mandalay and so we booked a bus for the next day to Hsipaw instead of the train as it leaves at 2pm instead of 4am and only takes 6 hours instead of a minimum 12!

We decided to go for lunch at the grilled fish place but it was closed so we ended up at Ned Kelly's and had a veggie burger and veggie panni. As it was a nice change from our hotel room we decided to stay and even felt well enough for a quick came of pool. Haha one day I might actually learn how to play this game 😂 I'm shockingly terrible, but it was good fun and raised our spirits again. At about 7pm we headed back with supplies of crisp and croissants for dinner. Gosh we live a fun life!! Fingers crossed we are better tomorrow for the journey.Read more