Burmese Days

Hello everyone. My clothes are filthy, I smell, I'm hungry, I'm tired and I just spent 13 hours on the death bus of doom.
We've been in Myanmar for 5 days now. We arrived on a small plane. We had to bring all our money in with us, because there are no foreign banks here because of US sanctions against the government.

We spent a night in Yangoon and visited the major Nat/Budda Paya. Its monsoon season here which makes the floors very slippy, Jamie is yet to master the wet marble tiles. We went to the local market where we bought longyis, to the amusement of the locals... We drew a crowd as Jamie looks very fetching in his green and orange skirt! The people here are very interested in us and call out to us in the street. We have seen very few other tourists.

The next day we took a 16hr bus to Bagan. Jamie doesn't seem to fit in the seats here so it was a painful trip! I was felling pretty poorly and was quite worried as there are no doctors here. We eventually found internet. Most websites here are filtered by the government, no hotmail, BBC, wikepedia etc. Dr Boles and Dr Boles Jr came to the rescue with an online consultation!! Thank you so much. I refused to take the medicine until I had heard from a proper Dr! (Don't trust Jamie, would you?) Feeling better but will see Dr in Bangkok.

Bagan is spectacular. Jenny would be soooo jealous! There are literally thousands of ancient temples clustered onto the plain. I will upload photos as soon as i can. We were taken around by horsecart as most temples are down little dirt tracks. It is definitely my favourite way to travel! We spent a few days exploring and met a lovely vegetarian family who fed me very well! They get up early every morning to secretly listen to BBC world service while hiding from the police. It is one of the few ways they get any information from the outside world as the TV and newspaper is run by the government.

Today we caught the bus here, to Lake Inle. Thank you for your messages, will write again soon.

Lots of love Els xxxxxxxx