We left the gorgeous islands of Thailand for the dirty Myanmar border town called Kawthoung and nearly did an about face! The land borders are just starting to open to tourists and we only saw one other tourist in the 10 days that we toured the southern arm of Myanmar. The people were as friendly as the Thais, but there subtle differences were: the mud coating on their faces to protect them from the sun; most of the men wore sarongs (like a long skirt) and the women would carry heavy loads on their head and do most of the physical labour, ie construction. Their Government is a military dictatorship that suppresses the people and restricts all information bought into and out of the country. Therefore, there are restricted international phone calls, all emails out of the country are banned and sms messages are impossible. Many local people earn $6 per month and forced labour camps have closed as recently as 1996. One member of a comedy team, called The Moustache Brothers was sent to jail and forced labour for 7 years for telling derogatory jokes about the Government!! We visited villages made from grass and bamboo in the forrest that would have looked the same 4000 years ago. We both celebrated our birthdays walking through villages and waving to the kids- our second favourite activity after walking along beaches. Life is simple there, with little stress and even fewer possessions and the people seem really happy and content. Began is a budhist town with 2000 pergodas (temples) which makes an impressive skyline. It is hard to imagine its peak of 17,000 temples in the 11th Century destroyed in the 1970's by a huge earthquake. Began Temples as far as the eye can see. They say that Rangoon (The Capital) was the origin of Budhism and the first pergoda "Swedagon" was initially built 2,700 years ago. Tourists are not allowed to bring vehicles into the country, which is just as well as most of the roads are dreadful!! Overall, we are glad we visited Myranmar, but are glad to be in more civilised and prosperous Thailand now. Next, we fly to Germany for a few days and then London to pick up Miss Adventure and start the Mediteranean leg of our journey for the next 6 months.