Beach days

After the turbulent days in Bagan, we spent a good week at the beach.

In Bagan, we boarded the familiar propeller plane, which initially flew to Heho. There, we could conveniently stay seated while some other passengers got off and others got on. The flight continued and we arrived in Thandwe, where our luggage was handed to us almost on the runway, because once again, some other passengers boarded the plane and we continued to Yangon. The whole thing reminded us a bit of a bus trip on Flixbus.

From Thandwe, we drove to Ngapali, where we spent some quiet days. Nevertheless, we immediately got on the mopeds again and tried to explore Thandwe, the nearest town. True bikers, of course, get back on their bikes after setbacks :D in Thandwe, we searched every shop for sunscreen WITHOUT whitening effect for about 2 hours and only found it in the last shop for a whopping 12 euros. Here in Asia, it's super chic to have pale skin, so almost every cream contains a substance to lighten the skin. But we are already pale on our own...

Ngapali consists of about two streets and several beach sections. We quickly found a new "regular spot" on the beach, from where we had a perfect view of the beautiful sunset. There we also met some girls from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, whom we met again in the following evenings.

We even took a boat trip, including snorkeling and fishing, with the Swiss girl, where we caught fish ourselves, which the owners of our little place then prepared for us.

One of the staff members at our hotel told us that there was a school just around the corner that is financed by British donations, where students can learn English for free - a very important prerequisite to somehow get a "well-paid" job in the future. He promptly came up with the idea that we could visit the school and called his former teacher to announce our visit. We visited the school the next evening and met a very friendly teacher who immediately hired us to teach an English lesson the next day. I prepared some communication games and taught the little students the following evening. It was very nice to see with what joy and motivation these children learn and how grateful they are for education and variety. Many of them also wanted to simply speak to us in the schoolyard to use some English and to see people from another country whose appearance they only know from television at best. In general, it seems that we are really an attraction here and we are constantly collecting new Facebook contacts. So we now have hotel staff and tour guides as new "friends" on social media.

In the next few days, Christina went on a trip to wash elephants and we went on another moped tour and spent a lot of time trying to find an ATM to withdraw cash, because card payment is very rare here. This little tour took us back to the airport, as all the other ATMs were out of order. Unfortunately, the airport was already closed, but the security lady opened the airport for us again and we casually drove up with our scooters. But here too, there was no working ATM in sight.

The next morning our stay in Ngapali was already over and we went to the airport to meet Lisa and Nils :-) the two of them spent two weeks in Myanmar and we traveled together for several days to the Arakan Nature Lodge, 3 hours south of Thandwe. After the bumpy bus ride on almost non-existent roads, on which a lot was told naturally, we arrived in a paradise-like landscape. The eco-lodge is run by a Swiss person and is located in the middle of nowhere, away from any tourist spots. You stay in houses made of wood and bamboo, have a deserted white sandy beach right outside your door, and beautiful views of the sunset. The food was delicious and breakfast was a true highlight: there was cheese that tasted like cheese and homemade wholemeal bread - almost forgotten dishes for us.

While Lisa and Nils demonstrated and further developed their surfing skills, I didn't dare go into the water with a dolphin bodyboard and Christina relaxed on the beach or also got on a bodyboard, but one level more dangerous: the board, of course, had a white shark on it. To provide a little thrill here as well, Lisa and I went on a kayak tour to a remote beach. On the way back, we unfortunately got caught in relatively high waves that crashed against rocks at short distances. We could hardly push against the water and I heard Lisa behind me panicking, shouting 'Paddle, Sabrina, paaaaddddlleeeee!!!!'. In calmer waters again, Nils swam towards us and attached himself to the back of our boat. 'No problem,' we thought, 'we'll just let the waves carry us to the beach.' The result of all this was an overturned kayak and all of us, including our clothes, in the water. Well, luckily there is no video of that this time.

Thanks to Nils' camera (and of course his photography knowledge), we got great shots of such a peaceful and beautiful place, which you probably don't find in Europe anymore.

But every paradise has its downsides, and we embarked on the 9-hour bus ride to Yangon with many mosquito bites. The journey was very exhausting and adventurous, and more than once we feared that the bus would slide down one of the narrow mountain roads or get stuck in one of the many potholes.

When we arrived in Yangon, luckily Soi, our trusted taxi driver, picked us up at the bus station and we went to a restaurant where we had something to eat with Nils' cousin and a friend. We said goodbye to Lisa and Nils and arrived very tired at the hotel.

We immediately fell into bed and looked forward to sleeping in, but the night was abruptly interrupted at five o'clock when Christina woke up because she noticed that a fire had broken out. We packed our backpacks in a panic and joined the other hotel guests on the street. The adjacent house of the hotel staff had caught fire due to an overloaded mobile phone and the staff could not control the fire. So we experienced a fire brigade operation and could no longer go back to our room. However, we could store our luggage and unexpectedly met Lisa and Nils again for a lavish breakfast before we went to the airport with Soi and flew to Mandalay in the propeller plane.

Now for the complete contrast: we are working in a Buddhist monastery that takes care of orphaned children, but more about that in the next post...