Myanmar, we are going to Myanmar

After our road trip through the north in Thailand we finally made it to the border to Myanmar. Still we hoped to get a chance to travel through the restricted areas, flying was not an option for us. Bernd was so excited getting across the boarder by foot. Most of the times we got across on an airport or by ship, so this is the first time that we were not using any vehicle.

Across the border it felt a lot more different, in Mae Sai was not so much going on and in Tachilek were so many people around that we got the feeling to leave the boarder town as soon as possible. We only had to walk a few metres when a guy showed up and asked us where we want to go and what we want to do. Well we both had the idea to talk with him and give it a try, still cautious. You never know if they want to rip you off.
But he was friendly and seemed not to be one of this persons, like most of them, but it felt really different. He let us to an official exchange office and when we checked later we got there exactly the course shown on the Internet. Then he lead us the way to some travel agencies to check for a flight to Mandalay, he also told us that there is no way through the country. As expected also here the flight tickets are much to expensive, so we did not buy one.
He told us that we can go to Keng Tung if we do not only stay here in Tachilek. We took an offered motorbike taxi for a fair price and the guy leading us said goodbye and left, so no ripping. He did not even ask for a tip or anything else, maybe he was working for the government.
We took the bus to get to Keng Tung, it was a rather long ride to get there, going up and down through a beautiful landscape and several stops. They did not only stop to let the passengers take care of some business and eating, they also stopped to pour some water at the tires and the engine to cool it down.
At the stop we took a closer look at the village and how the people live here, before we got to go back to the bus.

The bus trip was longer then expected, the roads were not in a so good condition and it the bus was always going very slow when it was going down a mountain. What else we recognised during the trip was, that there are soldiers with machine guns staying around on the street, several kilometres away from the next one. But it did not feel dangerous at all. Also what first was making us mad, the behaviour of the people on the bus, at the stops some of them stayed in the bus, bought things and dropped their litter outside to the floor. For sure we knew that the people are not that educated about taking care of the nature, but that is too much, but at the end it turned out, that the people working at the stops sweep the trash away and put it in bins. So not only dropping their litter everywhere.
It was already getting dark before we arrived, too bad that we were not at a good spot to take a good picture of the sunset.

In Keng Tung we hoped to find a cheap and nice place to stay it, we did not check for any guesthouses in advance or read anything about this town, especially we did not even understand the name of the town before we left Tachilek. But there we found close to the bus stop a nice guesthouse with rather luxury rooms. Did not expect to find something like this here.

After settling up we got outside to find a good local restaurant on the street, it was not far away and we asked some motorbike taxi drivers if they know a place, what was not so easy to tell them because they barely spoke English, but very kind and willing to help us. Not far away we found a small restaurant and got a very good dinner for less money. When we decided to leave the restaurant the family running it invited us to drink a cup of tea with them and sit next to the fire pot. A very good idea, here in the north it was much colder.

First thing we did the next day was checking for possibilities yo travel through the country, asking for a bus or train connection, but there was non. So it really is a dead end when you do not have your own vehicle and then it may be possible that they won't let you pass through the checkpoints at the street.
We were not to sad about it, we got the chance to explore the north and it may have been better then the other places in Myanmar. From other travelers we heared before coming to Myanmar that the places more down in the south are already more touristic and they got in the temple annoying ugly decorations, ruining the pleasure of sightseeing.
We went to the market place, the place where we got to see the first other European looking person around. Here were no tourists at all. No one offering you a Tuk-Tuk ride or a massage.

From the market we went to Keng Khom the first Buddhist temple we visited here. As expected it was a nice place and no blinking lights or stupid looking stuff around ruining the view.

Close by to the temple was kind of a fishing pond, a chain of lights was hanging on small poles above the water, looks like the people do make some celebrations at the lake.

From the pond we walked up a small street and got a better view above the city and got to Yet Twah Mhu a big Buddha statue.

not far away we saw a very big surprise, a Christian Church. We did not even think about the chance that there will be some other religious buildings around, only Buddhist.

The next place we wanted to go to was Nong Tung, the big lake in Keng Tung, to get there we wanted to take a shortcut through a small alley, but it appeared to be a private way, the people living there were so friendly and let us walk through their garden and on the way leading around the lake.

The lake was very beautiful, was not inviting for a swim, well it was much to cold to think about going swimming and laying in the sun. Also on our next way we got some assistance to find a shortcut, the people around here were all so friendly to us and no one was interested in getting our money, felt so relaxing. The path lead through some back gardens and at the end along a small alley, we already were thinking that the guy telling us to go this way was wrong, when we suddenly reached the end. Everything fine as expected. And also a nice experience.

Up at the hill was the Wat Jong Kham, the last temple we wanted to see here. It was still closed so we only could see the golden pagoda.

We did not stay very long in Myanmar, because Bernd was freezing all the time and wanted to get back more to the south.
So at the end we can say about Myanmar, that it is absolutely worth going to the north and missing the things we wanted to see in the south, well we can get to Myanmar again and get to the more touristic places.