After 60+ days in Thailand we headed to Myanmar for a new adventure. We woke up early and headed to the green bus depot to take us to Mae Sot on the border. We stayed one night at a nice little place called Phanu Guesthouse.

Hpa-An

First stop Myawaddy, right across the border from Mae Sot. We were helped by “Mike” and were soon sharing a taxi with Karen, nurse from USA who was volunteering in Thailand at the Burmese border during her retirement. Apparently lots of Burmese cross here to use the hospital at Mae Sot. After a harrowing drive through the countryside (1 dead body from moped accident) we arrived in Hpa-An and checked into the Galaxy Motel with it’s amazing rooftop views.

On Facebook, you may have been exposed to our constant updates and many temple and/or Pagoda photos. For those not on Facebook or who have blocked us after being fed up with the aforementioned pagodas… here is the Cole’s notes version of our first couple of months:

Koh Lipe – March 2017

This time we stayed at The Reef instead of our usual Andaman Resort, which was taken over by new owners. We really enjoyed our accommodation and met some great people. We highly recommend The Reef, the staff was super nice, beds comfortable and breakfast was good. The orange tabby cat that I spent a lot of time with has no bearing on my opinion.

After some very crazy, hectic, emotional weeks we are on our way. We left on the first leg of our adventure on February 28, 2017! Before I get into too much, we need to send a big thank you to Paul’s Mom and Dad. We wouldn’t have made it through the last weekend without their help. Between letting us store things, taking care of our mail and our car (VW TDI to be returned), helping us pack up and clean the apartment and taking us to the airport… well needless to say we got it all done and I was even able to spend several hours with my Mom the day before we left with no stress. Ok, this is me so there was some stress but it was under control. 😏