Review – Top Garden Guesthouse, Chiang Mai

The last of my reviews of the budget places I stayed at in my recent journey to Thailand and Myanmar, I returned to Thailand after 17 days in Myanmar and headed up to Chiang Mai, a place I felt at least had changed even more than Bangkok in some ways since my 1999 visit. Not …

Continue reading Review – Top Garden Guesthouse, Chiang Mai

A Day on a Lake – Part One

Inle Lake, Myanmar, is one of the country’s busiest tourist spots. People can take a room on or around the lake at several hundred dollars a night, but the backpackers and tourists with more limited funds will head for Nyaungshwe and get a room there. There’s a river that connects Inle Lake to Nyaungshwe and …

Continue reading A Day on a Lake – Part One

Accommodation Review – Zawgi Inn, Inle Lake, Myanmar

Yes the accommodation review is in again, following on sequentially on my trip to Myanmar. Nyaungshwe is the town where almost everyone, especially the backpacks, stay when visiting Inle Lake. It’s a dusty old town, but nice enough and you can get the boats that take people around the lake at Nyaungshwe which is pretty …

Continue reading Accommodation Review – Zawgi Inn, Inle Lake, Myanmar

Accommodation Review – Moon Light Guesthouse, Thazi, Myanmar

Thazi is not a place that tourists rush to, it’s one of those places they pass through on their way somewhere else. It sits on main highways and has a biggish train station, and it was my rest between Bagan and Inle Lake. Not that a rest stop is really needed, it was only a …

Continue reading Accommodation Review – Moon Light Guesthouse, Thazi, Myanmar

Accommodation Review – May Kha Lar Guesthouse, Nyaung U, Myanmar (Bagan)

The next accommodation review is in, and it doesn’t quite match up to the first two places I stayed in Myanmar, but to be honest, they were pretty special. I had also pre-booked the May Khar Lar Guesthouse on Asiarooms.com I think, but I kinda knew I was in for a drop in quality. I …

Continue reading Accommodation Review – May Kha Lar Guesthouse, Nyaung U, Myanmar (Bagan)

Sunday Spotlight – Mandalay

Yes, Sunday Spotlight is back this time with a city from my most recently visited country, Myanmar. Mandalay, made famous to the west by Rudyard Kipling and a poem he once wrote, possibly sounds a little romantic. For example: Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay: Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' …

Continue reading Sunday Spotlight – Mandalay

The Shwedagon Pagoda

At the heart of Yangon, bustling ex-capitol of Myanmar, lies the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most significant temple in the city and the city’s biggest tourist attraction by far. When I was travelling in Myanmar I heard a variety of opinions about Yangon, and most weren’t so positive. People were choosing to skip Yangon all together …

Continue reading The Shwedagon Pagoda