gross [inter]national happiness

The very photogenic U Bein's bridge. According to legend, Mandalay was visited by Buddha himself . Hence a host of important temples and stupas were high up on the regular tourist to-see list. But we were, frankly, quite stupa'd out after Bagan so decided to spend more of our time watching the workings, and soaking up the atmosphere, of this bubbly vibrant (if a little dusty) city. We started by visiting the uber-photogenic U Bein's Bridge - the world's longest teak footbridge which crosses Taungtha Lake on the outskirts of town. The sunset was spectacular and we probably took about a million photos betwixt us. We shall only bore you with a couple more of them here. On our second day we got back in the saddle and cycled our way around the intricate lanes and backstreets, waving at local kids and seeing Mandalay life from a different perspective. We didn't avoid religious buildings completely mind you , visiting several later that day on the ...

The boat departed Bagan at 6am and the sunrise was beautiful . With a minimum 11 hour journey (dependent on sandbanks) ahead of us, we both got our heads down and started to read 'The Easy Way to Stop Smoking' by Allen Carr. A few hours later and having smoked our final fags, we stopped. After 13 hours, several sandbanks and a very beautiful sunset , we arrived at our destination - Mandalay. I'm very pleased to say that, as i write, that was just over one month ago and we are still happy non-smokers and have absolutely no inclination to smoke, ever again. Posted with Blogsy

Quite early on in our relationship, Jo introduced me to an amazing non-narrative documentary film about the world called Baraka . So when, through my work, we got the chance to go to an advance screening of its sequel Samsara , we jumped at it. And of the very many utterly incredible images that the film showed, one that really jumped out at us was the footage taken from a hot air balloon over the ancient temples of Bagan. We left the cinema suitably inspired and wanting to go experience some of it for ourselves. Cue forward about 9 months and we're on the overnight bus from Yangon to Nyaung U in Bagan with a couple of freshly purchased ballooning tickets in our pockets and smug smiles on our chops! Cue forward another 9 hours and the smiles have temporarily gone as we arrive in Nyaung U at 4.15am, having barely slept, to the realisation that we aren't going to be able to check into our room for another 7 hours or so, and with uncomfortable wooden chairs and buzzing ...