I had best intentions to update this blog frequently now the traveling has properly begun. However, do I really want to spend hours in dingy internet cafes with slow connections and miss out on any excitement? No. So, then I toyed with the idea of converting a lot from my hand-written journal to blog from when we returned. However, this was also flawed as who cares 2 years down the line when I can just tell people face-to-face upon our return?

I've decided to blog as and when I feel it's necessary and as Thailand was actually a little underwhelming, I will begin with some choice action from Myanmar. Or Burma as most of us Brits know it. If you want to do any reading into the name change or indeed any other history feel free, it's pretty interesting, but I'm going to tell you some of what we got up to. Myanmar is a beautiful and incredibly friendly country. It's very poor but you wouldn't think so judging by the cheerfulness of most of the locals. Many also have a surprisingly (considering how few tourists visit and most people cannot leave the country) good English which meant we had many great conversations with interested Myanmar peoples (there are many ethnic groups, not just Burmese).

Anyways, besides the quality of the roads which resembled BMX stunt tracks in places, we had an awesome first 2 weeks, exploring the West side of Myanmar, which included literally thousands of temples in the amazing former capital, Bagan. But what we were possibly most excited about about was our 3 day trek from the town of Kalaw to Inle lake, taking in the hilltop scenery and soaking up a bit of tribal living which the region is known for. So, I'm going to blog about this first day of the trek, definitely my favourite day so far.

We arrived in Kalaw in the early hours of the morning after a slow and typically bumpy 8 hour journey from Mandalay. After a good sleep, it was time to find some more like-minded individuals to trek with. Although we were happy just to do the trek by ourselves and a guide, it's much more fun to do it as a group and get to know some new people. So, with a Terminator-like determination we set about the town and tried to rope in some other foreigners to join us. Besides, it would also make it cheaper for us if we could find some more people! It wasn't long until we bumped into another Brit called Mike and we steam-rolled him into to joining our group. We then found out when the next bus of tourists was getting in and staked out the bus stop. About 2pm 3 Poles staggered off the bus after a 12 hour overnight journey. They didn't stand a chance. Within minutes these easy-going individuals were ready to do the trek with us. As well as having some new people to enjoy the trek with we were only paying 9,000 kyat per day (8 pounds!!), this included the services of a personal guide, a cook, food and accommodation. Not bad for a days work.

The next day our intrepid troop of 8 set off at 7am to make an early start. Our group in full consisted of our guide, Thiri, the cook, Mousen (both Shan people - the largest ethnic besides Burmese), the 3 Poles - Artur, Barbara and Kuka, and 3 Brits, Mike, Sarah and myself. It soon became obvious that the trek itself wouldn't be too tough a we had 2 breaks in the first 2 hours! However, the Sun was shining, the scenery was beautiful (actually surprisingly like England in this hilly region) and the conversation was flowing freely. Mike and Artur were easy to talk to and it was clear early on we had fortunately found a good group to share this with. Our guide, although not having the best English, made up for it with her lively personality and her constant chatting and laughing. Everyone was in good spirits. After some easy uphill walking, we arrived in our first village, a Danu tribe, for an early lunch. Mousen whipped up some delicious dahl and chapattis. After a good feed, our host, the local shaman, invited us to sit with him and we quizzed him through Thiri about his work, his life and village life in general. He was a great character, extremely old, with wispy hairs sprouting from his neck, but still sharp with a good sense of humour. He told us about various potions he made, including a love potion which he was particularly proud of.

After the Q and A, it was then a relaxed 3 hour trek through yet more stunning landscape to our final destination of the day, a Pa-O village, where we would reside for the night in the house of an old couple. The village itself was magical, exactly the kind of reason we wanted to travel in the first place, just completely removed from anything in the Western world and more like a scene from the National Geographic. Judging from the reactions of the villagers it seemed that not many other foreign groups came through this way either, villagers nervously looked out of their windows and some children looked actually frightened. A few cheerful "min-ga-la-bar"s (hello in Burmese) soon sorted that out and people came out to greet us. We walked around the small, peaceful village, dishing out greetings left, right and centre and taking pictures of the now compliant children, until we came to a group of young guys playing "chinlon." "Chinlon" is a Burmese version of keepy-uppy or hacky-sack, but played with a light ball made of wicker. Before waiting for an invite us boys and Sarah dived into the circle to be involved and the guys were only happy to oblige. It was only a couple of minutes later after another mis-kick from me (I hoped I would be better at chinlon than I am at football -nope) I turned around and about 30 curious villagers had gathered from nowhere to watch our impromptu game with the locals.

Dinner time was fast approaching so we went back to the hosts house to be greeted with warm smiles and Chinese tea. The old man seemed a bit bewildered at first but his wife was particularly smiley and seemed fascinated by everything we did. This was the first time these villagers had accepted foreigners into their home and you could tell it was a massive deal for them and they were extremely attentive and hospitable. Before eating, we had to 'shower', which involved pouring cold water on ourselves in full view of the village, much to the delight of our neighbours. It was a funny experience and I finally got to wear a longgyi (Burmese traditional dress for men - it's basically a skirt) Dinner was a huge candle-lit feast of curry, rice and delicious veg. After eating the conversation started to flow and through Thiri we got to know the couple a little better. It was amazing to find out about how different their lives were to ours and even though they sounded basic and simplistic in essence, they were two of the most content and happy people I've met. The only thing hanging over their heads was a life-long ambition to visit Shwedagon Paya, the holiest monument to Buddha in the whole country. Even though it's less than a days travel away, it sadly remains only a dream to them, they would be too frightened to visit the former capital even if they could get there. Indeed they had only ever been to 1 city in their entire lives!! Such a different existence to our Western ways. They were certainly not without humour though, especially our female host, who ripped into Mike for sitting like a woman and cracked that he needed to wear a female longgyi, rather than a male one! Everyone was in stitches and it was a great way to bond with our new friends. The humour was also kept up by Thiri, although a lot of it was unintentional through some slightly off translations! The Poles then presented he lady with a gift, a Polish badge, which she promptly pinned on her, jokingly flexed her muscles and declared she had "super-power!" She really was a great character. The old man then proudly showed off his currency collection, a few old Japanese coins, carefully wrapped in a hanky. They were clearly his prize possessions and he almost choked when Mike and Artur presented him with more foreign currency. He almost welled up as he explained that he would pass these down the generations and it was a touching moment. Sarah and I were regretful we did not bring any presents from home too. Oversight. After thanking our hosts for a memorable evening, we went out to view the starriest sky I've ever seen, played a few games of cards and settled down for a chilly night on the floor of their shared room, all 7 of us neatly in a line. It was a special day and definitely my fondest memory of travelling so far.