Yangon, and on, and on

After a fortnight in Bali, we flew on to Yangon, in Myanmar, via a long transfer at KL, which we spent in the Premier Lounge, sampling the complimentary food and beverages!

We spent over a week in Yangon, initially to work out the lay of the land and how far out of town we felt happy to take Livvy, but then we stayed longer as we liked the place! Don’t normally say that for the major hubs you fly into!

One of my best moments in Myanmar was the very first evening watching the bright red sunset by the Downtown pier, with all the locals streaming onto noisy motorised longboats to get home. No photos, dammit!

Sule Pagoda was fun, not so sure about the cages crammed full of birds that you can pay to release.

Shwedagon Pagoda was very impressive, if a little busy! Yes what I am wearing is called a Longi, not a skirt, I’m local don’t you know, ok?!

Tuesday shrine: good luck as Olive and I were both born on Tuesday.

We saw a lot more pagodas and Buddhas, including a striking reclining buddha:

We also enjoyed the national museum, too much to see, including an impressive Golden Throne and Royal Relics:

People’s park was fun too:

The best bit of Yangon though, was the puppet show, which ended up being a private showing!!

Bali, full of Aussies!

We really liked Java, very local feeling. After a lot of debating, we agreed to do Bali, even though Mount Agung was threatening to erupt. We planned to stick to the South and save places near the volcano for next time.

I really liked the capital, Denpasar. The monument to independence was impressive with the classic diorama that I love!

Daddy's girl!

Then on to Seminyak where the international food was amazing! We ate A LOT of tasty food! Including 50cm pizza, mexican, brunch, ice creams and coffee. There was no public transport, so we tried to hire a scooter like every other tourist, but it was a lot harder than it looked and neither of us felt confident taking Olive on the back, so back to taxis it was!

Watching the sunset

We stayed in 2 nice places in Seminyak, one with a private little pool. One evening we watched the surfers at echo beach which was lovely. But the area round Seminyak was a lot more touristy than we expected, so we headed up to more chilled Ubud, staying in a Homestay with a temple:

Our final stop in Bali was Jimbaran, near the airport, where the seafood sat by candle light on the beach was awesome. We enjoyed watching the sunset at Rock Bar as well:

If we ever comeback to Bali, we’ll want to try the North East near Mount Agung and Sideman, to try and escape the crowds down South.

on the move!

Love this photo!

And this one from the ballet!

Asia 2+1

Ok, US was good, so let’s go to Asia, why not?!

We’ve booked three months, first month in Indonesia, then one month in Myanmar. The final month covers China, Malaysia and a quick stopover in South Korea, not North.

First stop, one month in Indonesia. We had a great time with our chum, Usuf in Java for two weeks. We started in the capital Jakarta, we stayed in a nice new hotel, Olive slept in a drawer, we enjoyed the French bakery nearby and struggled to get beers! But, who doesn’t like a big golden monument?

Then on to Jogja which was awesome, Malioboro Road was a great stretch with cool shops and nice bars. Pete ate pigeon literally sat on the street in a popular restaurant. We enjoyed Bintang and mud coffee. The Borabadur Buddhist Temple was amazing, especially at sunrise:

The most atmospheric breastfeed ever!

Eating her biscuits from the delayed plane, for breakfast

Walking around the levels of the temple

We stayed at a homestay in Yogjakarta, where Olive got played with and smiiiiled!

Prambanan Temple at sunset was stunning:

All our luggage, on the way to Solo!

A couple of trains later plus a dodgy minivan, we got to see a live volcano in Bromo, wow, it sounded like a Jumbo Jet. We took a bumpy 4x4 tour, Selina and Olive went on a horse and Olive fell asleep as they rode!

Another early start to catch sunrise, it was bitterly cold and unfortunately....cloudy!

Next stop Bali, thanks Usuf for a great start to our Asian adventure.....

Lands End/John O'Groats Part 1

We've had a long outstanding present to Selina's Dad, Darsh, to travel from Lands End to John O'Groats. We thought we would tackle the first part to begin with. So we invested in a second hand 21 year old Mazda Bongo campervan, woohoo! Once packed up, we headed out of town, staying about an hour out of Bristol, which gave us a chance to test run the Bongo. 

Then we carried on down into the heart of Cornwall, staying in a lovely campsite in Gwithian. It had great facilities, lovely pitch, tasty morning pastries and evening fish and chips. Although it was a bit of a trek down to the beach with baby in toe!

We spent all week going to different bays and places around us, Penzance:

St Ives:

St Agnes: 

And, of course, Lands End:

We had great fun and, critically, got back in one piece, ready to start planning the second leg.....

First dip in the sea

On returning from the US, we did a little bit of DIY, then headed to Brighton to stay in an AirBnB with Kathryn and Richard following their 9 hour mammoth cycle ride from London. Great effort!

Our stay coincided with the hottest day of the year, perfect time to be by the sea in Brighton! Olive took her first dip in the sea. Her face says it all:

Brighton was lovely, we had a great Indian, the starters were very authentic, my favourite was the Bel Puri. Walking along the pier was fun too, except when a seagull stole Selina's ice cream! Oh dear.

We stopped off in London for a few nights on the way home to enjoy some of the sights and sounds, including Tate Britain: