Not all those who wander are lost ♥: asia

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Monday, April 06, 2015

JJ Bus Express - Yangon to Bagan

Hello!

I'm just back from my 1st trip of the year to another South East Asia Country - Myanmar!

So, here's my experience from JJ Bus Express, if anyone of you happen to take this route too!

I've book our bus seats with JJ Bus Express from their Facebook which they reply promptly! Do check them out.

Here's the bus schedule as at 31 March 2015:

We got the first class, that's the only class they have for this route. Cost about 18,500 Kyatt each person.

I must say, air-conditioned bus with comfortable seats (not cramp space!), blanket provided (you can request for extra!), they stop at a huge rest station which have everything you need (wifi, toilets, food!) and they do serve complimentary butter cake with coffee/tea.

Inside the Bus

The journey takes about 10 hours. Depart at 8pm from Aung Minglar Bus Station. Do be there at least 2 hours early than scheduled time because the traffic can be very jam!

We reached Bagan at 5.30am, which is half an hour earlier than scheduled time. In time to catch the Sunrise!

p/s: They have complimentary pick up service from your stay at Bagan to Bus station (No drop off service).

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Everest View Trekking - Lukla to Phakding | Day 1

I skipped my Kathmandu City part for now.
Because I'm so eager to share my excitement / highlights of the whole Nepal trip.

Getting to Lukla, from Kathmandu:

Early morning, we got pick up by our local tour Company, Destination Unlimited. Ashok (Owner) came by our B&B and sent us together with our Tour Guide, Rajan off to the airport.

Tribhuvan Domestic Airport

Dimly lighted & unorganised domestic airport which we joke that it looks abit like refugees in chaos.
Upon checking in, the officer weigh even our weight and hand carry bags.

And handed over a boarding pass.

The check-in counter. Sorry for the blurness because of poor lightings!

The boarding pass to Lukla

We are ready to go!

After security checks, we waited for internal airport shuttle to get us to our plane sites.
Excited and anticipated to land at the World Most Dangerous Airport, Lukla.

Domestic Planes

View from my seat.

Only 2 rows. About 15 pax, i guess.

View of Kathmandu City from plane

View from Plane

Safetly landed on the World Most Dangerous Airport, Lukla.

Its a cliff after the runway.

Porters get our bags from the baggage claim, from there, Rajan, our trek guide showed us way to nearest teahouse where we will be served hot drinks! Its 10 deg chilly morning of October! Clear skies :) I do miss this kind of weather, reminds me of New Zealand. Malaysia is too hot & humid!

Hot Chocolate to warm up~

Cozy Teahouse, Paradise Lodge

After getting ourselves warm enough & munch on our morning takeaway breakfast from B&B early in the morning, we are ready to go!

Our first "we-fie" at the Tourist Police Station

We were told that its going to be an easy day of trek.

Why? Because we currently at 2840m Lukla, and going to trek down to 2610m Phakding. About 3 to 4 hours of trek depends on the speed.

Another wefie before we start our trek!

Lukla Town

Lukla

Dogs here have thick fur & cover with leaves or dirt from mountains

Lukla

Another clean looking furry dog!

This is the Gate to treks!

No, this is not a yak.

Pathway

When the sun is up, and getting warm!

Empty potter basket

Porter with some heavy loads.

Tourist potter only allowed to carry about 30kgs of weigh on them. But for locals, they usual exceed those weigh limit. We even saw one carrying 2 chest freezers. Show you in next pic!

Imaging all building materials and furniture carry all the way up to mountain like this!

Prayer wheel

Some lodging along the way.

Locals walk pass on their left everytime.

Milk River, Dudh Kosi

Sherpa Kitchen

Some pathway is rough and steep

Donkeys carrying Gas Cylinders down from the Mountains

After 2 hours of trek, our stop for Lunch at Everest Summiter Lodge & Restaurant. They have Dal Bhat (Nepali cuisine), Chinese, Western and even Italian food. Don't expect much though, just simple ingredients and no preservatives!

Rajan, our trek guide advised us better don't take meat/poultry in Mountain, because the Locals are not allow to kill animals in Mountains. So all the meat/poultry they have is carry all the up way from Kathmandu to the Mountains. Perhaps its not so fresh anymore.

The menu

Teahouse lodge with wide windows view of mountains.

Our lunch took us about 2 hours. Slow service, forgive them. I overheard they have only one gas cooker available so it will take sometimes to prepare different dishes.

After a full lunch, we continue our trek for about 2 more hours to reach Phakding. Rajan have to bear with us for endless stops of photos.

As we continued on our trek...

Homegrown vegetables!

Prayer wheels along the trek.

Ascending the stairs

More stone houses

Yeti Mountain Home, upon seeing this, we know we are almost there!

Our stay of 1st night in the Mountain, Trekker's Lodge & Restaurant

The onlookers. haha

Happy to get keys to our room! Our feet can rest now!

6 pax of us, so its a private twin room with attached bathroom for all of us.

After a good rest and unpacking of stuff, we proceed to the common area / restaurant for dinner! Mind you, they have almost similar menus all over the teahouse we been to along the trek up to Everest View Point.

Summary:

Trek route: Lukla 2840m to Phakding 2610m (Easy)
Hours of trek: 3-4 hours
Lodge: Trekkers Lodge & Restaurant, Phakding
Agent: Destination Unlimited Trek & Expedition Pvt. Ltd (http://www.destinationunlimited.com.np/contact-us.html)

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Backpacking at Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Part 1

Note: Dear all, im using blogger apps on Android Note 8 and I cant insert photos after paragrapgh. It only appear after my blog post! Terrible apps but I still have to use it because I dont have laptop with me! DO scroll down after post for photos!!! Thank you!!!!

Our 2013 backpacking mission!

With two guys, Jj and Bobby tag along this trip, the more the merrier!

Booked air tickets 1 year earlier with Airasia promo, a return trip (KUL-> HCM -> KUL) only cost us RM180 (about USD60).

Landed at Ho Chi Minh International Airport in the morning, with the arranged airport transfer by hostel (USD20 per way, van) send us direct to Townhouse 50 Saigon.

You know you are in Saigon when the streets packed with motorcycles!!

And no one really follow the rules of traffic lights!! (We found a tee in market which reads out: Green light I can go, Yellow light I can go, Red light I STILL CAN GO! <- I regret I didnt get this!)

Half an hour stuck in the busy streets and we are greeted with cold drinks at Townhouse 50 Saigon by Britney. She is a friendly staff who will take care of everything! Our mixed dorm rooms is 12 beds eith shared male/female bathroom/toilet. 6 of us, so we took the room space by half! Clean hostel and good location for about USD10 per pax/bed.

After we are shown our dorms and locked stuff in locker, we went for a quite Vietnamese bites across the street which recommended by Britney.

I must say that, most menus and road signs in Saigon didn't have English translation, abit hard for us to communicate with locals. Lucky this shop have proper translation!

We ordered sticky rice with Vietnamese steamed pork & braised pork, Vietnamese sticky rice with onion, and of course the must-have Vietnamese Spring rolls! (By the way, they always served cold tea at every cafes/restaurants when they hand out menus!)

Headed back to Townhouse where our shuttle waiting for us to Cu Chi Tunnel! For your information, they have bus tour service to there but we couldnt make it on time as the bus leave around 8am and we only landed after that mentioned time. So thats why we get van shuttle!

Cu Chi Tunnel is about 40km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, takes about an hour ride. Admission to the tunnel, a guided trip cost us USD5 each.

The guide showed us the tunnels are used to provide refuge & defense the American soldiers. He even showed us the weapons used and bring us to walk in one of the shortest tunnel which is reconstructed to fit a normal size human goinf through! Because those Vietnamese in older days, they are much small sized!

How they survived under the tunnels? We are shown those "breathing holes" on soils and usually either under or next to the trees which is not easy spotted by the Soldiers.

Such a tough time for Vietnamese to live beneath the soils during the war for about 25 years. They cook, eat, sleep, study, recreating weapons from those used bomb by American and even surgery room down there!

Towards the end of the visit, we went to shooting range! We chose AK47 (which is 35.000VND per bullet, but must buy 10 bullets at least). Oh gawd, the person in charge during our shooting is a short tempered man who always instructed us to "shoot" in his loud voice and strict looking face! Every shoots was rushed and not really having a fun time!

We leaded to hand washing area, spring water from bamboo. And we are served tapiaco (asian potatoes) with combination of peanuts, sugar and salt as dip for the potatoes and pot of pandan tea!

Group photos taken with the tour guide before we headed the exit!

I recommend this place is a must visit, if your want to know more about Vietnamese history. I always love history!

And we had our dinner the Vietnamese way!! We found this little noodles shop flooded with locals. And Bobby said, this must be good! Low tables and chairs, and by the roadside! We shared bowls of beef noodles! And they served herbs vegetables too, add to your liking to the soups or just munch it!

And our next Vietnamese food galore is economic fast food!

How fun to end a day! :)

P/s while im blogging this, im having a cup of Vietnamese coffee! I never like black coffee but I fall in love with them! ♡