To the beach!

Our original plan was to see the Irrawaddy Delta for some dolphins and crocodiles. Unfortunately, due to the lack of established tourism that would mean hiring our own boat and paying all expenses like guides, gas and food. It's not unreasonable, but it was WAY out of our price range. So we decided to head straight to the beach to even out some tan lines. After a large amount of logistical research and discussion, it was confirmed that we would have to stop for a night in Yangon before heading out west to the beach.

We both liked Yangon, so that wasn't the issue, it was more that logistics to try to get to all of our destinations were turning into a bit of a headache, and they were going to take a lot of time. And we had a lot of things to see in our 28 days, so that night felt like it mattered. That and the taxi ride to/from the bus station cost approx $10 one way.

Anyway, after a quick pit stop in Yangon for hot showers we headed to the beach. I was pretty adamant that we go to one of the quieter beaches. As much as I loved Thai beaches, I really liked the idea of being able to wander the beaches without people trying to sell me sarongs, coconuts or massages. So we went to Ngue Sang Beach. Its a 15km stretch of white sand that was quite pretty. And also quite windy. But the waves were just high enough that they were a blast to play in but not powerful enough to take you down.

On our first day there we were SO excited about the sun that we laid out out and managed to get ourselves thoroughly burnt. I burnt on all the parts of my back that are covered by tank tops and tshirts. And then it peeled. Grossssssss. While we were suntanning, we had several groups of people come up and ask to take pictures with us. And its not like they all stand and take a group photo, they all individually have to take a photo. So it becomes an awkward photoshoot with a disheveled and sunburnt white girl. But hey! I'm in their country taking photos of all the things, so I guess I can pause my reading in the sun to take some pics with them.

Go home snail, you're drunk

After applying serious amounts of coconut oil (I had no aloe) and properly covering myself, I headed out on a snorkeling tour the next day. Mr. Win's snorkeling tour. Mr. Win picked us up at our hostel and walked with us out to the beach where we met the two other girls that were snorkeling with us. Mr. Win informed us that because there were less than five of us, we wouldn't be getting the snacks that were advertised with the tour. Cheyenne, speaking for all of us, said "That doesn't make sense. We're going to be hungry. There should be snacks."

They really really wanted us to take their photo.

After waiting for some snacks, we all got in a tiny wooden boat to row out to the bigger wooden snorkel boat. We thought Mr. Win was joking when he said "Bye bye! Have fun on your trip!" Nope. He wasn't. He sent us though with two Myanmar guys who didn't speak much English but were very nice. And one would jump in and snorkel around just like us.

She found a molar of some kind. And was stoked.

So we get out to the bigger wooden boat. The driver fires up the motor and we head out. Straight out. Into what looks like the open ocean. And did I mention the swells were big enough that the boat was crashing down them? Every few waves we would drop so sharply that I got that weird feeling in my stomach. After about an hour of this, we finally saw a little island. We pulled up along side at and they tossed an anchor in the water and handed us all snorkels.

So I jumped in the water. And quite quickly realized there was a decent current pulling me away from the boat. I start swimming towards the boat, and after five minutes of swimming I'm still in the exact same place. Luckily, they had thrown out a rope and they pulled me in quite easily. I think they could tell we weren't stoked about the current and took us to a different island that had much less current and we had great fun splashing around in the water.

Taking shellfish off the rocks for noms.

Unfortunately, those massive swells we were heading straight into were still just as big. And we had to drive parallel to the coast, so the swells were rocking the boat side to side. This was even more nerve-wracking. I know that I get nervous about things quite quickly, but when I look back and I see the man who's not driving clinging to a pole with a terrified look on his face it's not reassuring.

We made it back to land safely, and asked the cook at our hostel if he had crab masala. We had heard it was a specialty and wanted to eat it since we were leaving the next day. He looked at us and said "yes, come back around 7pm." He immediately pulled out his phone (to buy crab I think). We watched the sunset on the beach and returned around 7pm to eat an amazing crab masala and fish and chips. He even had tarter sauce. He was spoiling us! What a great sendoff before our return to Yangon for a third time.

Never thought I'd have SpongeBob on my blog....