Tapp's Travels

Today is (well, it was!) Wednesday 6th February.  We are programmed for yet another long bus ride, a couple of pagodas, a ferry ride across the Irrawaddy and a pony cart ride.  Our decision was final. We were going to…

5th February – 11 days ago now! First, we had a visit to a silver workshop, then a ride up the narrow, steep and meandering road to a hill top monastery, the Swenandaw Monastery, and the associated temple. This is…

Monday 4th February. Well, well.  I guess we might have come as far as we can by boat.  This morning we got completely stuck again.  We had taken a short cut to pass a couple of barges. The captain used…

There may not be many bridges over the river, but those that do exist are generally mighty long.  This one had 30 spans, plus kilometre long approaches on both sides raised on stilts. Good cruising weather! First stop – Yandabo,…

Balloon flights at dawn for some and didn’t they make a noise leaving at 5 am?  We chose the day trip to Mount Popa and the adjacent temple built on top of a volcanic plug.  This is reached by steps. …

Day 9 of the cruise.  Soon after dawn, before sunrise, we passed the first signs of the mineral wealth of the country.  That is, of course, leaving aside the masses of gold adorning the temples!  Oil wells on the Eastern…

I’ve lost count of the days!  But today appears to be Thursday 31 January.  Tomorrow we are going to win on the Premium Bonds.  I say that every month, but I’ve never written it down before!  A new approach! So,…

60% of the population of Myanmar has no mains electricity.  In the country we still see satellite dishes everywhere – they depend on solar panels for their TV’s and phone chargers.  And they all have phones!  A few years ago…

Yesterday, after leaving Nangatgyi village, we cruised through a section of the Irrawaddy that was being extensively dredged. After much discussion aboard ship, we decided that they weren’t actually dredging to make the channel deeper.  They weren’t capturing the sand…

This morning we woke to find that the small tree to which we had moored last night was still in place!  And we were still firmly tied to it!  The story going round says that there had originally been a…