Silver Beach Hotel Ngapali

... any tourists and those that are here are all staying in the same hotel/resort. There are some Myanmar tourists here though and, although they think we are mad for trying to get a sun tan, (and going into the sea with just shorts on), they are friendly enough and I end up playing beach football with a group of local guys for a couple of days. My time here runs out and I head off back to Yangon for a couple of days before I fly home. This is probably the last sun I will see for a while.

... me on a different path from my friends as we went to the guesthouse. I actually got a little nervous, because I wasn't sure of the name of the guesthouse (Mandalay vs. Myanmar Beauty). I would have managed, but would have been separated from my friends. Probably be pretty easy to find them. There aren't that many white people in town. I made it without much difficulty. We stayed the day, walked into town for some beers ...

... I hadn't taken water festival precautions: I'd left my wallet, iPod and camera in my pockets which were now drenched. Frantically I moved them into my pack before getting doused again. The driver took me further and we continued to get wetter and wetter, enjoying it since it was plenty hot out. Then I realized I still had my money belt on too! Luckily I've kept my passport in a ziplock for nearly a year now so it was fine but the bills were soaked ...

... Fresh seafood. Amazing sunsets. Cool fishing villages and markets. Quiet streets. Very generous, kind people. And still relatively untouched by tourism.  I finally added a few photos and it has been almost a year since my visit. I plan to come back to this place again in 2009...maybe for my birthday again. 

... Danijela had, in the three days she'd been in Ngapali, hooked up with an American couple, Suzanne and John. Now, on my first day in Ngapali, we celebrated Suzanne's birthday at Bamboo (with a wonderful chocolate birthday cake) and during the conversation it turned out, they'd met an English guy, who lived in Malaysia, was an underwater phtographer and was called... Matt. This bloke is everywhere!

... There are tons of local restaurants with excellent seafood for next to nothing. Two giant prawns would set you back $3.50, 15 medium shrimps, a whopping $2.75 with crab for about the same price. Great food, incredible beach... no wonder we keep extending our stay here. 3 nights turned into 7!

... Once there I realize again that I truely love kids very much. They can give me energy and a smile like no-one else can. It confirms my thoughts that my next job will be about working with/for children. Back at the house my eyedrops are a bit hit. S. already used them and now 2 more people want to have some of the 'medicin'. A lovely old grandmother has stare, it will not cure her, but as S. is a monk, she really wants him to help her. So we apply the drops. At ...

... Be warned, after the excellent beer, stick with their whiskey - you can drink it straight. Many days we would start off with a shot, for medicinal purposes - I kid you not! My mix choice was restricted to very expensive Coca Cola (no local cola here) or recycled bottles of murky local fruit preparations. The frequent warnings of Dan and Carolann sprang to mind and I just couldn't risk the downside possibilities. Thank you guys, I ...

3 jours entiers de plage! palmiers, sable blanc et mer turquoise....En + il n'y a pratiquement personne. Il faut cependant lutter pour arriver, le trajet en bus est un vrai cauchemar! 10h pour faire 200km dans la montagne avec un bus vieux comme tout et sur une piste. On etait a l'arriere du bus et on decollait de notre siege parfois!! En plus ...

... were delicious and the lobster we had for dinner one night was amazing. We biked to the fishing village and had a great time looking at the fresh catches each day - who knew there were such big fish out there. After four days we had stuffed ourselves full of the great food - after our tummy troubles eating now became the highlight of our day. And I have to add that watching movies on HBO at night was a big draw as well - especially since we hadn't seen TV for awhile.