Day 21: Sydney

This morning I woke up thinking I was at home and so for the first time so far felt really quite homesick. I wanted my cats, my bed, my family and friends.

I knew it would happen at some point and knew that when those times came, the best thing to do was a) keep busy and b) have a good cup of coffee.

Australians know how to make a good cuppa, I know that from home, so I immediately got myself a flat white and an embarrassingly huge blueberry muffin and headed to a park to enjoy the morning sunshine with my new book, A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute.

Already feeling quite a bit better, I decided, to keep me in high spirits, the best cure was good old retail therapy. 

Like any big city, there is shopping to be done in Sydney. I headed to George Street and Pitt Street to check out the old Victorian arcades that I'd read about, and shopping or no shopping, they're really  worth a look!

The most famous is probably the Queen Victoria Building, a golden-stoned building with a green copper dome and a statue of Queen V herself outside. Inside it's like walking into some Victorian luxury ship or something. Old fashioned gated lifts, terraces of shining dark brown wood with golden rails on each floor, smart patisseries running up the middle... Really quite something. Afterwards I head to the old Strand arcade, similarly decorated and a whole lot more sophisticated and peaceful than Bluewater or the Westfield. Talking of the Westfield, there's one of those too and it's possible to climb to the top of the Sydney Tower Eye that towers above the mall, giving amazing views of the city I'm told.

There are buskers everywhere, and some considerable talent. One guy had quite the audience - I took some footage just in case he becomes famous... Geek.

In the late afternoon it's baking and we are promised a storm, so I start to head home with my purchases, taking a short detour through Chinatown and Thai Town to sniff out something for dinner. The food looked good but I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Having come from London! let alone Hong Kong and Myanmar, I'm used to bustling streets where you have to elbow your way through to the dumplings, here it was pretty sedate. Maybe I just picked a bad time? Will try again in a week when I'm back!

Day 20: Sydney

I made it! At 7.45 in the morning, after 1.5 hours sleep and instead 2 films richer, I arrived at a very sunny Sydney airport. 25 degrees at that time in the morning sounded good to me.

Before even boarding the plane I started to notice that there are some very distinct looks when it comes to Australians. Naturally it was easier to spot in a sea of Hong Kong's Chinese residents, but even when we land and when i finally leave the airport, I keep spotting them!! I appreciate this sounds a little odd but as I just can't put my finger on it, you'll just have to trust me.

I'm already at the hostel by 10. Have a shower and I'm out again, though, with my first friend in tow. He's a newbie to Sydney too, a fresh faced and disgustingly tanned Californian called Corey, just moved here for a semester at Sydney university. First event of the day for him - getting on his very first train. I don't know why this is so funny, it's almost mean laughing, but watching this boy stare madly out the window SO excited at how fast it moves was very entertaining. 

Barely 3 hours in the country and I'm walking through Sydney's extensive and beautiful botanical gardens. To my right, Fort Macquerie poking out of the water and, to my left, the city's famous Victoria Harbour. I did consider asking Corey to pinch me - it's just insane that I'm here, in Australia, the other side of the world, looking at the Opera House that I've been looking at pictures of since I was a little kid. And with the sun shining, it was a bit of a wow moment.

The OH seemed a little smaller than I expected but walking right up to it, touching it (for some reason I felt the need... An alternative to the pinching...), it feels a lot more the size I imagined. Then we are recruited by some enthusiastic tshirt wearing 'yoofs' keen to break the record for biggest number of tourists jumping in front of the opera house. Pretty sure we can't have broken it but it's comforting to know I can look like a an idiot on both sides of the world :D

For dinner, I take the advice of the lovely Australian woman I met on the plane, and headed for Vietnamese. Only, as so often with me, I ended up with Thai. Delicious Thai coconutty goodness and carbs.

In the late afternoon I head off on my own to see the Hyde Park (yup, a lot of recognisable names over here...) Barracks where the convicts lived in the early years when Australia was a penal colony. A beautiful and very British-looking building is now solely a museum dedicated to the stories of these convicts and the orphan girls who also lived here once the convicts were were sent out to Cockatoo Bay (complaints from the neighbours, not a good look for the otherwise very classy looking street (just over the road is St Mary's Cathedral.. Stunning, no?)

The history I learned there was a great introduction to the city and country, helped all the more so by a woman who told me all about her convict heritage that she was tracing. I had been under the impression that the Australians didn't talk about that part of their history, out of some deep routed embarrassment or something, but this woman tells me the opposite - the Aussies are very proud of their ancestors who started and physically built a brand new colony from scratch.

It's 10pm and I have slept 1 and a half hours since yesterday morning. I don't understand how I'm still standing...

Day 19: Hong Kong

With my friends at work today, I've had the chance to explore Kennedy Town myself (so you have to forgive the selfies... When in Rome...). For me, when travelling, I'm generally more interested in what it's like to live in a place rather than seeing sites. I mean I'm not going to ignore Trip Advisors kind sorting of the best things to do in any one city, I just mean predominantly.

So today I've pretended I'm a regular HongKonger... Yawned and stretched and tried to take the view from the apartment for granted while I sipped my coffee. Afterwards I head out, first to a cafe for a breakfast of coffee and pain au chocolat overlooking the water. The water is insanely blue and I can see the bridge from Kowloon to HK island in the distance. Good start I think you'll agree - I just felt so content!

Then I go for a stroll. There's not loads to see in Kennedy Town tourism wise, but that's kind of how I wanted. I wanted to blend in. Naturally it doesn't help that I'm about a foot taller than most people, have a beacon of red hair and am snapping away at any given opportunity.

I find myself in Belcher Bay Park, an inner city patch of green with a cafe, a nice spot to sit in the sunshine, a children's playground... Pretty peachy for the middle HK. It's onky after I start to walk around that I notice everywhere I look there are people doing some very strange things. Balancing on one leg, waving manically, shaking their legs out in front of them, crouching behind bushes... They're everywhere! I hope you appreciate my candid camera shots... It took a few minutes but it suddenly dawned on me that they were doing tai chi, our something of that ilk. I know I'm supposed to be pretending that I'm all local and down with this stuff but it's fricking hilarious, I'm sorry...

Tonight I fly to Sydney, marking the end of the Asia part of my trip - it's all going so fast!

Day 18: Hong Kong - The Peak

My second day in Homg Kong takes me to the ICC - the International Commerce Centre - which is on Kowloon. Much like the IFC, it's ridiculously tall and the bottom few floors are taken up by a mall. What I find very odd about these malls though is that everything is designer. Whos's buying this stuff?? Weird. I did find a bookshop though. One of my favourite things to do abroad is find a bookshop - partly because it's fun to see what they stock, what authors have reached international levels, but also because they're so comforting when you're away from home.

That trip was followed up by a delicious cappuccino brûlée... Cappuccino... brûlée... So so good. 

The afternoon Sam and I go to Victoria Peak, or just The Peak, a mountain on the West side of HK island offering breathtaking views of the city and Victoria Harbour. I truly feel I've now seen HK from every angle, literally - by plane, by car, by bridge, by rooftop bar, by star ferry, by high rise flat, and now by mountain. Apparently I'm very lucky as we had ourselves a rare clear day. The sun was shining and the haze of pollution that HK citizens wafts down from mainland China (one of several grievances between HK and China) appeared to have temporarily lifted just for me. We took a leisurely walk down the path that circles the peak and got some postcard worthy photos. I love that with HK you get the perfect mix, for me at least, of a busy, exciting, ambitious, modern city and then can go 20 minutes, half an hour and be in lush, peaceful greenery. People keep telling me how great the hiking is here and I'm slightly jealous...

Adding a little to our walk was an abandoned house on the mountain. No one I'll live there as it's apparently haunted. By what I dony know but there's definitely an eerie feel and I'm told scores of exorcisms have occurred there, no doubt by eager estate agents keen to sell one of the best real estate locations in HK!

Having managed to lock ourselves out, we take our time going back to the flat before going out for dinner at Kennedy Town Bar & Grill, a restaurant with a trendy but unpretentious feel, with exposed brick walls and a generally underground, metallic kind of feel. The food is good too - I wasnt disappointed by my Thai beef salad. Apparently the chef had another restaurant in Central but was pushed out by the continually rising rental costs. Lucky for Sam and Rob, it seems Kennedy Town is going to benefit!

Day 17: Hong Kong - Stanley, IFC, Dim Sum and Ned Kelly's!

After being delayed by over an hour and surviving what felt like a 200mph taxi ride, I arrive in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Island at 1.30am. Momentary panic where I thiught the taxi driver was redirecting me to the containment harbour where I'd be knocked out and put in a large barrel and sent to Mexico... (Made a mistake of watching The Counsellor on the plane...)

I got a stunning preview of Kowloon and HK island lit up but, arriving late, didn't realise what an amazing view my friends' apartment has, leaving a lovely surprise for the morning. Almost but not quite beaten by the stack of strawberry pancakes at Jasper's for breakfast. Nom.

Then we take the bus to the south side of HK island to Stanley, a charming beach with picturesque boats, seafront coffee shops, and pier originally installed as the entry point for royal arrivals, (complete with quite a breeze that did nothing for my hair, as the above picture kindly demonstrates...).

Afterwards we headed to the north of the island, to Central to take a walk around the IFC, a huge tower that they call the razor as it looks just like a man's razor blade. In HK most of the buildings are connected by walkways over the streets below so that in the heat of summer no one need go outside. Must be such a drag having a summer where it's actually hot.. Anyway, we used one of the walkways to head to a neighbouring tower and take advantage of this stellar view at the Sevva bar.

Sam and Rob tell me that DIn Tai Fung (the now international Michelin starred Dim Sum restaurant at affordable prices) is a right of passage in HK, so we head there for dinner. Oh so so delicious - steamed pork buns, spicy prawn wontons, garlic spinach, pork dumb kings and deep fried hot and sour chicken with seaweed. Mouth watering right now...

To finish my first day in HK we head to Kowloon by the famous Star Ferry. This time we are in search of Ned Kelly's Last Stand, an Australian jazz and blues bar that my mum remembered fondly when she found herself alone in HK thirty years ago when she was my age. It's such a fun feeling retracing her steps and the place is brilliant! We have ringside seats for the band's first couple of sets and had the best time! 

Day 16: Yangon to Hong Kong

So I'm 2 weeks in and saying bye to Myanmar and hello Hong Kong. I'm writing this post at 34,000 feet, just off the coast of Vietnam. Slightly nervous start watching a lightning storm erupt in the too-near vicinity but the sky is clear now so that I can actually see the lights of Ho Chi Minh City in the depths beneath me.

Up here I'm taking the time to reflect on Myanmar as far as I've got to know it over the past 2 weeks. I've been witness to a bizarre, unauthorised karaoke session, been stripped completely naked, been snapped a hundred times by bemused locals, tourists and there was one monk..., seen Aung San Su Kyi, a whole lot of pagodas... and so much more and couldn't be more ecstatic that my trip has started off this well. 

I apologise in advance for my now more indulgent, whimsical reflections...

Yesterday I was stood looking out from the rooftop bistro and could see to the North right up the Shwedagon road to the pagoda itself, towering over Rangoon in all it's gold-leafed glory. To the south, the Sule Pagoda and behind it the river and the Thai Navy ships docked in the harbour. The thought struck me that we were only 20 storeys up. To see that far and that clearly in Central London you'd need the Heron Tower or gherkin, in KL the Petronas towers or even the sky bar, but here in Rangoon, everything is, almost, as it was. No skyscrapers, no Starbucks, no IPhones...

Having come via KL where they are knocking down all their colonial buildings, arriving in Rangoon with colonialism architecturally much more present, I wondered if what i was looking at was KL pre development, pre independence, aka the KL my grandparents would have known living there in the 40s and 50s. And whether the architectural representation of Britain is the extent of it, or if it's still ingrained culturally as well, despite the political upheaval since.

Thinking of the laws passed under General Neewin (overnight declaring certain bank notes invalid because they weren't divisible by 9, overnight making everyone drive on the right side of the road, the suspected instruction to start firing on thousands of student protestors in '88... the list goes on and on), alongside reading Burma's history in Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, I've been preoccupied with the amazing strides being taken since then towards democracy. I still think it's amazing, and it's clear how much happier everyone is as a result, and rightly so! For starters, they can now elect 49% of their parliament (51% being military), they're cracking down on corruption in business and law, and every day there are new exciting opportunities, for the economy, jobs, politics, tourism etc. 

Talking to those that live in the city, though, behind the excitement there is also concern. A concern perhaps shared more by cynical outsiders who have seen it happen before... People are worried the kindness, safety and community feel that gives Yangon so much of its charm is dying away. In its place comes greed, which has already resulted in a 500% increase in house prices in the city, quadrupled hotel room prices, and the increasing influence of developed countries looking to see how they can make money out of available resources - jade, silver, oil, to name a few. 

Reading an article in a local Myanmar newspaper in English (still censored by the military govt but self-named 'the most reliable newspaper around you'), I'm told this is probably the best time to see Myanmar. The nearest the younger generations like my will get to glimpsing the last after half a century of mammoth technological strides which has left much of the world unrecognisable. I still keep thinking to myself every time I take out my iPad, "I'm living in the future! Next it really will be flying cars". Loser... But as a result I couldn't be more pleased to have gone to Myanmar now, and to have seen it in its different forms. Bustling ex-colonial Yangon, rural and ancient Bagan, modern Mandalay, and the scenic hills and waters of Inle lake where the lifestyle and values take you back years. With the latter, I don't say it patronisingly or negatively, I genuinely think we can learn things about what we need to be happy, or how little we need.

My eyes are going to be on Myanmar over the next few years to see what happens. 2015 will see a new election - the question is will the constitution be changed to allow a free election? Will it be changed so that a woman over 70 with married to a foreigner can be made president (aka removed the excuses currently denying Aung San Su Kyi the role...)

I apologise again for my ramblings. Next time, more photos less chat :p. 

Right, about to land in Hong Kong! Let's just hope my bag's made it through transit too!

Day 15: Yangon

Our final day in Myanmar saw us fly back to Yangon, where we started 2 weeks ago. It's odd being back and seeing the city in the light of all the new information and a fuller knowledge of the country's culture and history as a whole. 

The first thing that struck me was just how run down the whole city was in comparison to Mandalay, which had brand new roads, buildings, hotels everywhere. Having seen the poorest families living in bamboo huts on the water in Inle, you'd expect Yangon to feel more luxurious and prospering but coming back made me realise just how much pride the families in Inle took in their homes. They weren't living in squalor. Far from it. And above all they genuinely seemed really happy. Walking through Chinatown, Little India and retracing our steps through the city's downtown streets, Yangon is much grottier, and impersonal. But perhaps that's a given in any city? Weirdly the one spotless buildings outside the Shwedagon Pagoda, are the out-of-place red brick churches. We went inside St Mary's Catholic Church set up by the Dutch Janzen family in the late 1800s. Inside it feels like a Lego church, perfect brickwork and bright colours everywhere, the stain glass windows having been brought in recently from Italy to replace those broken by the earthquake.

Walking inside that church made me feel so happy. Quite unexpected, not being religious myself, but it felt so familiar. Saying that, I also felt a little uneasy - how is it that people's homes are falling apart but the British churches are still pristine? This discomfort was eased by seeing the old British railway which still runs throughout the whole city and the whole country. It seems amazing that a railway line can still be standing and functioning over a hundred years later.

It makes sense that the British Empire feels most present in Yangon being where they were originally based. Another British remnant is the Scott Market, an indoor market selling everything from jewellery to lace, jade to lacquerware, and a whole lot of souvenirs...

Having heard so much about the institution of the Indo-Burmese tea shop (usually small road side affairs with mini chairs and tables all equipped with teapots and snacks), we stopped in at one that we were told would be less likely to upset our stomachs... The place is an open aired shop front with tables of men taking a break from work with a cup of extremely sweet tea (the choices may be 'less sweet', 'sweet' or 'more sweet' but they're all, I assure you, very sweet. In the older days this would be where people would gather to talk politics, one eye on the tea and one on the potential govt spies... Quite accidentally, we ended up doing exactly that, although without the spies... I think... The hilarious part was the attempt at being uptodate western wise by providing bizarre cheese sandwiches...

To celebrate a great 2 weeks, we tucked in to Thai chicken, fish cakes and the spiciest fecking papaya salad I've ever tasted. Turns out the red tomatoes were chillies. Turns out the green beans were chillies too. Mouth. On. Fire. 

Days 12-14: Inle Lake

The most beautiful sight on the lake is the 'floating garden', a network of floating farms growing all kinds of flowers and vegetables in long rows, kept in place by thousands of bamboo sticks securing them to the bottom of the lake.

We were reassured early on that, despite there being a whole lot of water and no easy way to access the mainland, there are still plenty of pagodas... Some just little stupas floating in the middle of the lake. We decided to go on a minor trek through Myanmar's mini Angkor Wat, negotiating the forest landscape and bamboo bridges to find a series of crumbling shrines and temples, centuries old, with whole trees growing out of them. Quite a sight.

In the evenings we are back at our hotel, stranded (alas), and forced to watch the sunset from the balcony of our little room on stilts. Hard life. (Hilariously the whole time we have assume the Myanmar people are obsessed with sunsets as everyone keeps insisting we watch it wherever we are, but it turns out it's us who they think are obsessed and so they think we are very strange people who like looking at the sun the whole time!)

Now for 2 days rest. Bliss.

Day 11: Inle Lake

Our final stop before returning to Yangon is Inle or Innlay Lake, Inn meaning lake in Myanmar, Lay meaning small (aka smaller than the country's biggest lake further North), and Le meaning 4 (after the original 4 villages on the water). 

Inle is a network of floating villages and farms up in the hills of the central Shan State, each village marooned on stilts with the only transport being long canoes. Our hotel is no exception. 

Whizzing between the various villages, we are lucky to meet a lot of locals: fisherman, paper-makers, lotus flower weavers (whose skill in particular blew my MIND), monks, Shan communities from the surrounding hill tribe villages, farmers, silversmiths. It's honestly so insane how they make everything by hand, their skill is crazy and it made me take stock of how used we are to machine made items that we buy for bottom dollar prices when even paper here in Myanmar is an 8 hour job.

We also meet some extraordinary long neck women, who each carry a staggering weight of brass rings around their necks in the name of beauty. The younger ones (both so so beautiful I might add) have fewer rings but the older women, they tell us, are unable to remove their many rings, even for sleep, as too much time has passed and the number of rings too great that their necks would be sure to break. The whole idea makes me shiver...

Solution? Take a break with some green tea and some papaya salad in a floating restaurant. Boom.

Day 10: Mandalay - the Irrawaddy Literary Festival and the Lady!

I think today could be described as the most ridiculous and most exciting coincidence of the trip, if not my entire year. At our hotel, we become aware of a debut literary festival in our back garden with a big line up of names, Burmese but also Western with Louis De Berniers, Joan Bakewell, Martha Kearney and others - a lucky coincidence in itself! Made even more so by the fact the festival should have passed us by because the government at the last minute had forbidden use of the original hosting location, hence the move to our hotel. Then I catch sight of a literary agent I've met in London - weird, The final, most exciting coincidence, though - the Lady, Daw Su herself, Aung San Su Kyi was going to be there.

The tiniest room for Burma's Nelson Mandela seems ridiculous - there is no way we are going to get in... That is until they say 'all international authors first, please'. Suddenly we find ourselves in a group of convenient writers... Aka westerners who want to catch a glimpse but don't have a pass... So we rode the wave... And in we got. Not just in either, three rows back from AUNG SAN SU KYI with hundreds of surging fans all around us with iPads and camera phones going mental. I'm still buzzing. Oh. My. God.

Other than that casual morning... We made time for the city's top 3 sites - the old royal palace (a 2 square mile walled mini city at the centre of Mandalay, now a military base), then 'the worlds largest book' (a pagoda compound containing over 700 white temples, each with a tablet inside with ancient Buddhist teachings inscribed - quite a sight, as you can see!) and finishing with climbing Mandalay Hill to see the city from above. Another occasion for yet more strangers to grab my arm for photos with me... Peace sign everyone!

We also took a lovely trip up river to the almost abandoned ton of Mingun, home to an unfinished 19th century temple - built with a view to being the world's largest. It's big... Very big. But unfinished and post-earthquake, it looks like something out of The Mummy or Indiana Jones... Further in,and we are later witness to what, in my view, is the most beautiful pagoda we have seen yet. But my final thought? Why SO many pagodas in Myanmar?? In literally cannot imagine a place with more. It's nuts.

Day 9: Mandalay - monks, workshops and sunset at the teak bridge

Arriving in Mandalay and I'm already trying to get rid of any romantic ideas I have about the city from the likes of Rudyard Kiplingand Daphne Du Maurier... It's hard though as the landscape from the airport is picture postcard, with lush green farmland lying flat between two looming mountain ranges and interspersed with reflecting lakes of water.

We first learn that, other than valentines day, it is also full moon day, which means the city is celebrating twice and our first stop, a large monastery in the town of Amorapora, is going to be particularly busy. We get to the monastery in time to watch the donation ceremony where rows and rows of crimson-dressed monks come to collect offerings of rice from the villagers from the mountains, all dressed in beautiful bright traditional Shan State attire.

We then took a wonder through the streets of Amorapora and further into the city of Mandalay, which gives us the chance to see the different districts and their corresponding craftsmanship - stone carving, gold leaf making, silk weaving and mind blowing intricate wood carving. All the people are so welcoming, it's been a while since I've been anywhere with people so universally kind! They even gave me my own free gold leaf bindi... Looked like a prat obvs, but I grew quite attached to it so it lasted much longer than the tanaka paste (Google it) that I was attacked with in Bagan...

In the afternoon we take in the Mahamuni Pagoda and by sunset we find ourselves at the insanely long teak bridge, built 200 years ago from wood left over from buildings in the city's huge royal palace. Orange skies, fisherman wading in the water, painted wooden canoes - I'm not sure I've ever seen a sunset scene that amazing... Ever.

Days 6 - 8: Bagan - Sunsets, bike rides and a whole lot of temples

Waking up at 4am meant we landed in Bagan to see the sun rising over its iconic ancient temples.

With check-in not until 2 o'clock, we had 6 hours of full on site seeing before taking a rest... First we explored the district of Nyaung, a busy working area offering a direct contrast between Myanmar's local communities, their horse carts, huge food markets, unmarked dirt track roads and buses with people and small animals hanging off the roof, with the country's gradual modernisation with up and coming businesses, tour guides and postcards appearing on the road side.

Our guide, Tsa Tsa, was keen to learn better English and she had some way to go, so we spent much of our three days teaching her how to pronounce temple instead of tampur and billage instead of billy. All the locals were keen to practice their English with 'the native speaker'. A young girl wearing an Aung San Su Kyi tshirt was very over excited to see us and asked if she could practice English with me.

On our first night we took an a horse cart ride with a lovely boy from one of the local villages. He was so kind, so thoughtful and extremely conscientious. He was horrified when we 'broke down' in the middle of the dusty fields, but it just made the whole experience more fun. He took us to a huge temple which we climbed to get a view of the extraordinary landscape at sunset.

Day 2 brought is more stunning temples, learning about the differing Buddha styles, peeking in at  a lacquerware workshop (for which Bagan is famous), a spot of shopping and lunch, obvs.. In the evening we took a private boat down the Irrawaddy from our hotel to take in the sunset with tea and these amazing tamarind sweets which I've become addicted to...

Day 3 we bravely hired bikes to explore the town and countryside a little further, riding along sandy tracks, through fields of temples surrounded by lush green huge green plants and bouganvillia. The afternoon? A much needed rest by the pool - feeling a little 'templed out'...

Also managed to finish Burmese Days, you can read my review here.

Next stop, Mandalay, the opening setting for my next read - The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh.

Day 5: Yangon - Downtown, Karaweik Hall and a very big Buddha...

Strawberry pancakes for breakfast - nom. 

Then we're off downtown. We walk down streets lined with old colonial buildings, the most impressive being a huge red brick building, an old British government building. It was also where General Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi) was assassinated and is now abandoned, taken over on a huge scale by overgrown banana trees and betel nut palms, an eerie remnant of a past no one dares talk about and, it felt to me, a striking embodiment of colonialism.

A faded photo of General Aung San looks down from the entrance of his family home, above a bright NLD banner, the only sign that his daughter, once imprisoned under house arrest inside these very walls, still lives there and is still fighting his democratic cause. I love learning the politics of a country, and so today was a bit of a geek fest for me...

Delicious chicken feet, fish heads, pools of blood and betal nut spit stains which filled each street helped me work up an appetite. Needless to say I went veggie for lunch - delicious okra cooked Myanmar style, as well as some tempura and vegetable samosas all under a greatly appreciated electric fan. A nice respite from my 30 degree bottled water.

We also were later dwarfed by this ridiculously huge reclining Buddha at Chauk Htat Kyi. His feet nearly as big as mine. Had a few more photos taken of us too. I wondered if I should pose? Then gate crashed a couple of grand old colonial hotels for lime juice and iced tea before taking in the beautiful lake view of the royal floating barge, Karaweik Hall, with Shwedagon Pagoda glistening in the distance. 

Tomorrow, it's up at 4am to fly to Bagan for a lotta lotta pagodas.

Day 4: Yangon - Shwedagon Pagoda

Today we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Yangon, or Rangoon, in Myanmar. Our first guide, Aung, met us and we headed straight for our hotel in the south of the city, while Aung filled in some of the gaps in our Myanmar knowledge, which, it turns out, are pretty gaping... Up until my arrival in the city this afternoon, I thought that Yangon was Myanmar's capital city... Turns out not. Aung tells us that as of 2005, the military appropriated a more peaceful, beautiful town in the centre of the country. Half the museums' artefacts and half of the city zoo have been shipped up North, but the businesses and the embassies are staying put. Why? They never finished the new capital city's airport leaving Yangon with Myanmar's sole international airport (about the size of Jersey airport...).

Aung is full of facts and passion about Myanmar and can't wait to tell us all about 'his country'. I can't bear to let him down by giving away that I only understand about 30% of what he is saying... What I do know is, though, that this is a country that has been completely cut off for half a century and is now facing a complete cultural overhaul. We can only hope they don't lose their old heritage like KL in its search for new things. Either way, it's is hard to fathom how cut off such a huge area of land can be shut away from the rest of the world and be run by such completely different rules, completely alien to us. For example, up until 2010 no one could buy an imported car but only a few years earlier the General decided he didn't like driving on the British left side of the road, so ordered all the driving rules to be reversed. The result? Cars with right-sided drivers on right sided roads because no new cars were being brought in. Even now, when they are free to import what they like, hey are buying right hand drives from Japan.

This evening we saw our first pagoda of the two weeks in Myanmar, Yangon's towering Shwedagon Pagoda. With the absence of nightlife, Aung tells us, whole families spend their weekend evenings visiting the beautiful gold leaf temple at the heart of the city. 2 hours later and I feel I've learned more about Buddhism than a year of RS at school... From the importance of the day you were born on, to the different Buddhas, from the value of odd numbers and clockwise motions to the founding of the pagoda itself and it's physical evolution over the centuries. Oh and found out that the Brits may have stolen a bell as a trophy for winning a war or two and managed to drop it in the river and couldn't manage to salvage it so ultimately had to give it back to the Burmese who safely retrieved it... Oops. Can't wait to see how Aung translates British colonialism for us...

Anyway, while I was standing astounded by this beautiful building, however, I started to sense some eyes on me, only to look down and find I am being filmed by a young Chinese couple... This continued throughout the evening, even at dinner I received a number of excited grins. Turns out they don't have ginger people in Burma. Who'd have thought?