Ngwe Saung Beach

It's Thursday, the 15.11., and Max and I are booking a ticket towards the beach. We're leaving at 10 PM, which means we're saving on accommodation. Chacka! Five wild hours and 250km later, we're in Ngwe Saung Village. Our bus driver has consumed six or seven betel nuts in the first 10 minutes of the journey, and he drives like it too. By the way, the journey is supposed to take six hours. It's impossible to sleep because we - no joke - keep toppling over from our seats as it's so bumpy :-D But it's not a problem, because we can sleep on the beach. Since we arrive at 3 AM, there are only two motorbike taxis available. So we dash through dusty paths in the middle of the night without helmets (sorry mom, they don't have any) to our accommodation. The bungalow is a complete mess, but the beach is a dream and gets 10 out of 10 points! 

Bungalow-Complex No.1

We sit on the beach at night, marvel at the starry sky and count shooting stars, accompanied by the sound of the waves. I know, it sounds incredibly romantic. If we hadn't been so dead from the journey :D That's why we spend the day primarily lying on the beach in the shade, exploring the beach, and playing with hermit crabs. Those creatures are really entertaining :-D 

And we're alone! Not a soul on this incredibly perfect and clean beach! That's the advantage of our accommodation being so far away. But since the room really is nothing, we leave after one night (we booked for 5) and move into a nice bamboo bungalow in the village.
The beach doesn't have such pretty rocks, but after a few minutes of walking, it's just as deserted. Since I've gotten something, I can't really leave the hut today. Luckily, I'm feeling better the next day and we go on a bike tour to Lover Island. The bike tour starts with Max losing his pedal after a few kilometers, and even with the help of friendly helpers who have tools, it can't be fixed. This results in me almost toppling over from my bike for the rest of the ride, because it looks so funny how Max pedals with one leg and the other leg mimics the movements in the air, without a pedal. While I'm writing this, I'm already laughing about it again :-D Too bad I didn't film it! 

Lover Island is accessible on foot at low tide, and here we see tourists on the beach for the first time. However, only Asians. 

We go around the rocky island, and a few meters away, we're completely alone again. Only a few fishermen stand on the rocks and cast their lines. We can hardly believe that there are so few people here, because there are really beautiful resorts at this spot, but either they have no guests or the guests are preserving their paleness.

In the evening, we have grilled red snapper for dinner. The restaurant, which belongs to the hotel, is truly a dream and the prices are almost cute. We spend the evening with another German tourist, but when we want to have another drink later, it becomes really difficult. By 10 PM, almost everything is already closed or empty. Since it gets dark so early, the Myanmar people start their day at 5 AM.

The next day, after breakfast (I always eat the national dish Mohinga there), we are picked up by two scooter riders and taken to the 'dock' (they don't have helmets for us again, sorry mom). We have booked a snorkeling trip with a visit to an island - called Bird Island. We're the only tourists on the boat and we're surprised that we weren't grouped with other people. But I'm fine with that. The waves are quite strong and we get seasick. So jumping into the water is a relief, although snorkeling isn't ideal with the waves. And unfortunately, there are mostly dead corals to see. Then we're taken to an island that also doesn't offer much. Rocky beach, food stalls, a hill. From the hill, however, there's an insanely awesome view of a little bay with a nearly vertical cliff. And the water is sooo turquoise <3 So the trip was worth it after all. After the island visit, we dare to snorkel again in front of the island. The sea is calmer now, and here we see many colorful fish. So our snorkeling experience has turned out good after all.