Temples

As Lonely Planet states: "This city isn’t going to inspire many postcards home, but it is the logical place to explore the Buddhist caves, sacred mountains and surrounding countryside." Not much more to add to that statement, but read for yourself about our 2-days exploration of Hpa-An and around.

We spent one day in the biggest city in Myanmar and visited the main attraction in town: the impressive Shwedagon Pagoda. Then we headed to one of the biggest Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar: the Golden Rock. If you have not yet seen enough splendid temples and golden monuments, go ahead and read some interesting facts and check out the pictures.

Bagan is probably THE most touristic site in Myanmar, but we can already tell you: it is touristic for a reason. We spent three full days cycling around a vast area covered with many temples of different sizes and styles. The most magical moments were of course sunrise and sunset with stunning views. Want to know more and see pictures? Check out the article and the photo gallery.

Instead of accessing Inle Lake in Central eastern Myanmar by road, we decided to get off in Kalaw and go on the popular 3 days/ 2 nights trek to reach the lakeside. Sweating during the day, freezing at night we experinenced a great walk with a hillarious group and afterwards enjoyed the beauty and serenity of Inle Lake.

Our flight from Bangkok brought us to Mandalay, a city in central Myanmar.
Before heading to the countryside we took one day to explore the numerous temples, pagodas and monasteries around Mandalay hill. A good first impression of the "land of golden pagodas".

On the way down, we stopped in Pakse, the main city in southern Laos which is the gateway to the Bolaven Plateau. We rented a motorbike again to explore the waterfalls and coffee plantations on the plateau as well as a temple in Champasak.

After the adventurous and very authentic trek in Phongsaly, we went on a chilled boat ride down the Nam Ou river to arrive at the small, yet beautiful town of Luang Prabang to do sightseeing, relax and celebrate Alex' birthday.