Month Five – Recap

Month five on the road was a month of extreme changes. I started it off in Cambodia, and ended it in Australia. Surprisingly, it wasn’t actually that expensive a month, between visiting the temples of Angkor Wat, and then…Australia…🤷🏻‍♀️. As you will soon see. It also included checking off a whopping THREE bucket list items…how to choose a favourite….

Places Visited

Cambodia

Phnom Penh

I am quite the excitable traveller. I am usually determined to see the great in every city, and as a result, most of the cities I visit, I love.

I didn’t really love Phnom Penh.

I arrived via a boat from Vietnam, (which was super cool and highly recommended – I did Vietfun’s tour here – great on a budget!) and explored a bit of the Mekong Delta.

Phnom Penh was just a bit too much ‘big city’ and everyone was trying to get a bit of the travellers budget. No matter where you were, someone would accost you to try and sell you something.

The Killing Fields were good to see; a solemn reminder of the recent genocide of the Cambodian people of their traditions and culture.

Siem Reap

I travelled to Siem Reap mostly to take in the temples! Most famously, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, but many smaller temples as well.

I also took in a really amazing performance called Phare. The group takes in orphaned and children living on the street – many in their circumstances because of the genocide – and educates them, both in regular academics, but also in a performing art, usually a traditional one from their lost culture.

The students perform several times a week and all income from tickets goes to supporting their efforts. The ‘circus’ started in Battambang, but now has a Siem Reap school as well.

Myanmar

Myanmar was a bit of a question mark. There’s very little information available on how to travel within the country, and even less of it is accurate. Definitely going to put together some information for you if you’re planning to visit this amazing country!

Yangon

I started, and ended, my time in Myanmar in Yangon. When I arrived, I had only an evening and a few hours in town, so I went to my hostel and purchased some groceries for the train journey the next day.

At the end of my time in Myanmar, I spent three days in Yangon. I explored a number of pagodas and temples. I also got to see Frozen 2 on opening day! This was a great way to relax after two weeks of sometimes tricky travel, and it was a third of the cost of a first-run movie in Canada…

Taunggyi

From Yangon, I took the Slow Train To Thazi, as I’d read about so many years ago. This starts with an all-day train ride from Yangon to Thazi, spending the night in Thazi (take a horse-drawn taxi ride to the Moonlight Guesthouse), and then an early departure on the most incredible scenic train ride from Thazi to Schwenyang. From there, I took a group taxi to my hotel in Taunggyi.

I went to Taunggyi, this little tiny town at the top of a mountain, for their most famous festival; Tazundaing (better known as the Fire Balloon Festival). Occurring over the week leading up to the full moon of the 9th month of the Burmese calendar, the festival culminates in a weekend of massive paper balloons being set over the city. During the day time, balloons are shaped and coloured like animals. In the evening, massive amounts of fireworks are strapped to the balloons and, in theory, go off when the balloon is 300 feet above the crowds, or balloons will have hundreds of small tea lights surrounding the balloon or hanging down below.

Sounds like a health-and-safety hazard right? Just a bit.

That’s why this festival is unique to Myanmar. No where else in the world, that I’m familiar with, would allow this to happen over crowds of over 100,000 people. But that’s why it’s special 😁.

Nyuangshwe

Nyuangshwe is a pretty little town just north of Inle Lake. The town is mostly set up as a cheaper, touristy jetting-off-point to explore the lake. The lake is definitely beautiful , and worth seeing. Just know that those famous fishermen photos you see? They actually don’t fish like that, and the poses are exclusively for tourists, and they do expect a small tip for their acrobatics. Consider it your contribution to their livelihood, as the tip money enables them to provide a far better life for their family, for much shorter work days.

Mandalay

I had a very short time in Mandalay, mostly because of my desire to travel from Mandalay to Bagan via boat along the Irrawaddy River (otherwise known as the Road to Mandalay, as written about by Rudyard Kipling).

I did manage to check out a traditional puppet and fine arts performance – Mandalay is often referred to as the birthplace of this form of puppetry, and several of the most impressive pagodas and temples.

Bagan

I spent three days in Bagan – two staying in New Bagan and one evening in Old Bagan. I spent my time in the area by renting a scooter and literally getting lost on the backroads and trails and, at times, pure fields, travelling between the pagodas of Bagan.

I’d never ridden, much less driven, a scooter before. But it was the only foreseeable way to travel through the backtrails of Bagan the way I had been dreaming about for the last five years.

It was easier than I thought, and while I was probably one of the slowest and most cautious of the scooter-ers, I also manage to stay accident free, despite a few close-calls while trying to get through soft sand trails.

Here is where, for only the second time in my travel-life, google maps failed me. If you plan to scoot through the backroads and don’t want to be *completely* without a map, download maps.me to work offline. It shows infinitely more of the tiny dirt paths you will inevitably find yourself on.

Australia

Approximately six years after telling my friend ‘I think I’ll be coming to Australia soon!’, and promising a relative to come and visit her, I finally made it to the Land Down Under.

Perth

I flew into Perth so I could do two things. 1) I had to go visit Rottnest Island, the only place in the world where you can see the Quokka’s – meant to be the friendliest animal in the world. Secondly, I’d wanted to take the Indian Pacific train across Australia; and had decided to take it from Perth to Adelaide. It was definitely an expensive ride, but it was absolutely incredible to see the vastness of the outback!

Adelaide

I divided my time in Adelaide between Glenelg and Adelaide itself. I was in Adelaide to see a friend I’d met several years ago while traveling in Sweden. I’m pretty sure we both thought I’d be in Australia shorter than six years from that point, but we wasted no time in exploring the beautiful surrounding areas of Adelaide, and as many wineries and vineyards as we could. What a fantastic week!

Budgeting

This month started off wonderfully, with inexpensive Cambodia and Myanmar. And then I went to Australia and turned that around a bit (😝). Despite being in Australia for a third of the month, it was still under budget, coming in at $1255.47 (note that this does not include the full cost of train trip from Perth to Adelaide. Because I booked this particular train nearly a year ago, this cost went into the pre-trip budget allotment and costs. For those interested, the most inexpensive cabins on the Indian Pacific start at 1100 AUD. Sadly in 2016, the company that runs the trains opted to permanently get rid of the red class, effectively making this extremely difficult for backpackers and casual train enthusiasts to afford, and turning it into a luxury train experience. While it was amazing and I would highly recommend it, I really hope a more budget-friendly seat choice comes back, because I’d really love to take their other train journeys as well!)

Accomodation: 461.02- mostly hostels

Long Distance Travel: 83.93$ – train travel in Myanmar is amazingly inexpensive.

Food (restaurant): 216.41$ – a little higher than usual…darn you Australia… 😬

Food (grocery store): 64.28$. The lack of guest kitchens is definitely a bit of an issue for this in the counties I visited.

Local Transport: (bus, metro, Uber) 88.80$. Half of this is due to an expensive taxi ride between Taunggyi and Nyuangshwe. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the public bus to work for me and my hotel in Taunggyi was out of town. It was an expensive transfer!

Entertainment: 151.20$. Considering that 75$ of this was the Angkor Wat pass, my entertainment budget was low this month.

Miscellaneous: (laundry, cell service, walking tour tips, visas etc): 99.26$. This included a Myanmar SIM card as well.

Favourites

Favourite Meal: I’ve got to go with my first time trying kangaroo in Australia. It was the perfect setting, with a beautiful vineyard, perfectly crisp sparkling wine, and delicious food…check it out at the Red Poles Vineyard in McLaren Vale if you’re in the area…

Favourite Tourist Experience:

It seems like there were so many this month… but I think my favourite experience was renting my scooter and exploring Bagan. Getting totally lost amongst 1000+ year old temples, turning a corner and finding yourself alone with all of that history, watching the sun set amongst a field of temples as far as the eye could see…and doing all this without any barriers or typical tourist regulations…it was such an incredible experience!

What I Read:

Magic Bus: on the hippie trail from Istanbul to India by Rory Maclean was an unexpected but really enjoyable read. He returns to the ‘Hippie Trail’ that ran overland through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, obtaining interviews with westerns still living where they found their enlightenment in the ’60s, and with locals who saw it happen. The book is full of short stories from every angle, and is both funny, and wistful in its memories of the time period.

And that concludes month five on the road!