Goodbye Myanmar!!!

From Bagan, we took the rickety train for 8 hours to the city of Mandalay. We actually wanted to travel this route by boat on the river, but unfortunately, they only operate during the high season.

Unfortunately, the city of Mandalay did not impress us at all. It was noisy, uncomfortable, chaotic, ugly, and felt like a thousand degrees. We walked only one kilometer with our backpacks from the train station to the hotel, which my circulatory system did not appreciate. To our surprise, the hotel staff met us on the street, took our backpacks and offered us a welcome drink and pineapple. That was a service we rarely experience=) But even the next day the heat didn't get any better, so we stayed in the hotel all day and only went out to eat. Then it was time to say goodbye and continue for a short stop in Bangkok.

Myanmar is truly an extraordinary country and perfect for those who want to experience Asia far away from tourism. We loved it and it definitely ranks very high on our list of the most beautiful countries we have visited so far=)

In Bangkok, we had to make an unplanned stop because we still had to redeem our flight vouchers and there was no other affordable option to fly. Since we didn't have a good memory of the city and I was a little sad last time that we didn't go to the Lebua Sky Bar, we gave it a second chance. In vain.... We were annoyed again by the pushy Thais and as luck would have it, these two days happened to be a religious holiday where you can't get any alcohol in restaurants or supermarkets. And we didn't want to go to the Sky Bar just for a cola^^

We spent the day on an extensive shopping trip and the next day we continued to Malaysia, to the island of Penang. We had to cut our visit short here just before Christmas and flew back to Germany. So we were even more excited to be able to enjoy the island and the beautiful city of Georgetown again=)