Myanmar 2013: Ngapali Beach Part 1

For Christmas this year, we flew out to Myanmar (Burma) with our good friends Pat and Gillian. For getting around the country, almost all flights connect through the capital, Yangon. We took a late night flight direct from Hong Kong to Yangon. We crashed at hotel and woke up to get on another flight to fly over to the beach area called Ngapali. Before getting on the plane, I noticed these rules. They were hilarious. I took a few snaps of them close up. 

Gotta love that the airline promises safety. I feel so much better now.

 
These were the size of the planes we were taking.

So we were supposed to have a direct flight to Ngapali, but we had no idea that we made a pit stop to this random airport. Apparently this happens a lot. We got off thinking we were where we were supposed to be. There were only construction workers in the terminal, no taxis and no advertising for any of the beach hotels. Some nice lady saw that we were lost and instructed us to get back on the plane. I noticed some of the other fellow tourist on board heading for Thandwe Airport got off by mistake too. After a few minutes, we were back in the air and on our way.

Wrong Airport:

Correct Airport:

After arriving at Thandwe, our hotel bus waiting to deliver us.  Sweet ride.

A view of town as we drove through.

Our friend Patrick's name was somehow translated to Patricle. Gotta love it.

Pretty nice place to spend Christmas.

Lunch at Angel's Restaurant

I love how a kid is jumping through my picture.

A Yule Log for our Christmas dinner.

The staff of the hotel gathered around and sang local Christmas carols.

All the squid boats out on the water.

This was the performer for the night. A video would be much better but she basically stood on various poles on stakes and bounced a ball on her foot, went through hoops, jump roped. It was crazy. I think if I practiced for a year, I wouldn't be able to do even 5% of what she did.

The grand finale.

 After dinner we headed to the beach.

The next morning, Matt and I took a nice walk on the beach. This place Angel's became a quick favorite. Most of the places that are right on the beach are super cheap and delicious. We are talking $1 appetizers and $3 entrees. Crazy!

All the signs on the beach were advertising Sunset Happy Hour Specials, which was every night 5-7pm with usually half price the already cheap drinks, but some places started HH as early as 1:00.

There were stray dogs everywhere. If you are gonna be a stray dog, this is the place to do it. 

Someone's attempt at a Ngapali Snowman.

There were tons of small crabs on the beach. This is some of their handy work in making their holes.

 Dead crab

Matt and I took a bike ride through town and came across this little winery. We just had one glass before heading back for sunset. Yes, even Myanmar makes its own wine.

After a dinner at Angel's, we joined the staff at their bonfire. The little girl in the picture is Angel and her Uncle runs the place. Her cousin Ma Wei Wei (also pictured) was our new best friend.

Ok so maybe just Gillian and I joined the fun while the boys watched and drank their beers.

Pretty sure Gillian wanted to take Angel back to Hong Kong. She was so sweet and gave us all Christmas cards.

The next morning we got up for some snorkling. They take you to a few spots. The first spot which is by Pearl Island was good, but you go a little further out and it is awesome. Only downside was that it was a bit chilly. It cost $25 for all 4 of us to go it was total for 4.5 hours.

Hard to tell, but this is me.

 

 Next stop, lunch at Lobster Bar. To be honest, the food was not that great here and it was one of our more expensive meals, but the little island it was on was awesome.

Our boat captains.

Our snorkeling trip was organized by our friends at Angel's restaurant. Almost all the hotels and local restaurants offer this service as well as bike and motorbike rentals. We booked upon arrival (don't think there is a need to book in advance). They can also do some of your laundry for a small fee (about 1/4 of the cost of the hotel's laundry service). Very useful if you are packing smaller bags so you can hop on and off of airplanes during your trip. 

Angels is located directly north of the Thande Beach Hotel, where we stayed. Highly recommend the Tomato Salad, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Vegetable Fried Rice. See the next post for more on our hotel and other restaurant recommendations.