Bagan - Myanmar

There isn't a direct bus from the golden rock to Bagan so we had to get one from there to Bago and then swap buses  and get one to Bagan.  As we approached Bagan at 4am a government official boarded our small mini bus to ensure that we all paid the $20 entrance fee into Bagan.  The town of Bagan has over 4000 temples and so this is the fee to see them all.  As we arrived at 4am we were not able to check in to our accommodation until later in the day.  The man running the guesthouse kindly let us sleep on some reclining chairs until the morning.  We only had one day in Bagan and so we needed to make the most of our day.  After a few hours kip we headed out in search of somewhere for breakfast.  

We weren't able to check in to our room until after midday and so decided to hire an E-bike and try to make our way around as many of the temples as possible.  We decided to only rent one bike and take it in turns to ride it.  Kay went first and I was in hysterics on the back as she was so terrible at steering! I think it was nervous laughter though as I was genuinely thinking we were going to crash. Luckily the first pagoda on the map was close by and so we made it to there in one piece and went for a look around.  It was then my turn on the bike and thankfully, even though I haven't ridden a bike for well over ten years I managed to get the hang of it a bit better than Kay did.  We spent the morning riding round to quite a few pagodas. We were shown secret passageways to the roofs where you could see the 4000 pagodas. Although they are very impressive, I think the fact that there are so many in such a small place is what makes it so amazing! Being shown these secret passageways obviously came at a price, and the price was being given the hard sale on whatever thing it is this person makes for a living. I bought some beautiful sand paintings from one man. They thankfully roll up quite small as there is not a lot of space in my bag now for souvenirs.  

We went for a lovely meal at a vegetarian place for lunch and when they gave us our bill they came with a plate of 'sweets'.  We have absolutely no idea what they were but they were so delicious that we ate the whole bowl! Oops! After lunch we were almost ran off the road by a young local who wanted to show us a pagoda where, if you went to the roof you could not only see all the temples, but also the river that runs through Bagan.  He claimed he wanted no money to show us this, he said he was training to be a tour guide and just wanted to practice his English. Oh, he also sold sand paintings and told us he would show us them if we liked, no obligation to buy one obviously....yeah right! We kindly told him that unfortunately we had already bought some that morning and so would definitely not be buying. Luckily for us, even knowing this he still wanted to show us the pagoda. While riding there we met some other westerners, I think from America, who were just about to enter the pagoda, and so he started the hard sale with them too.  All five of us climbed to the top, and to his credit, the view was spectacular. Afterwards he was trying to sell some sand paintings to the Americans, but he was asking so much for them, and they were almost considering buying one, so we felt we had to tell them that we'd bought two for less than half he was asking for one! If looks could kill! He was not very happy that we just ruined his sale but we didn't want them to get ripped off.  It also turned out they didn't have  as much money left as they thought they had.  

After riding around more pagodas for the afternoon we headed back to the village in search of a post office so we could buy some stamps for the postcards we had bought at one of the pagodas in the morning. We eventually managed to find it but, they had ran out of stamps! That's now in India and Myanmar that we've been to a post office to be told that they are clean out of stamps. We needed to change some of our American dollars into Burmese Kyat so we went to look for a bank, but they had all shut at 4pm.  Mission unaccomplished, we went back to the accommodation to get ready for dinner.  I spoke to some girls there who gave us a good recommendation of an Indian which did a cheap unlimited thali. Missing Indian food, and not loving Burmese food, we decided to give it a shot.  It wasn't up to our high expectations with regards to indian food but the chapattis were delicious and free flowing.  We booked a bus to Mandalay for the following day and had an early night since we'd barely slept the night before.   

Kyaiktiyo - Golden Rock

We arrived at the border at the crack of dawn and had to wait for a couple of hours at the bus station until the border actually opened.  This was our first overland border crossing and thankfully it went without a hitch and we were through and into Myanmar in no time.

We had read, while doing our research on Myanmar, that the road that takes you anywhere from the Mae sot crossing only operates on alternate days.  The traffic goes west one day and then east the following.  The lady who booked our bus ticket for us assured us that the traffic would be going in the direction we wanted when we arrived, and we took her word for it since she was herself Burmese. But no, the traffic wasn't going west until the following day, and so we were told we would need to stay the night at the border and leave the next day.  This wasn't ideal since we only had a short time in Burma and didn't really want to waste a day at the border.  

While looking for some accommodation we were approached by a taxi driver who asked if we wanted to share a car with another couple who were going to Pha-an and that the cost would be cheaper the more people were in the car.  We asked how he planned to get to Pha-an with the road being closed to traffic going west, but he advised that there was a "new road" that we could use that would get us there in only 4 hours.  We met with the couple and decided that, although we had planned to travel further than Pha-an, we would be arriving by lunch time and would hopefully be able to organise some onward travel from there.

So there is a new road, or should I say there will be a new road.  It is very much still under construction and our driver had to bride all the men at the check points to allow us through.  Despite the fact that the car was falling to pieces and our driver sang the whole way, it was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever done and showed us just how stunning Myanmar is. 

We arrived in Pha-an around lunch time and while there, for what ever reason, we got a new driver. This one had slightly better English, but only marginally really.  We were trying to explain to him that we weren't staying in Pha-an and that we needed to get to the bus station, the next thing he is jumping out of the car and flashing down some bus.  I thought, what is this guy on, I am not getting on some random bus that we have no idea where it is headed.  He got back into the car with no explanation, he then dropped the couple at some guest house that I'm sure he was affiliated with and we drove back to where we had originally swapped drivers. Myself and Kay were starting to get a bit concerned as we really needed to get a bus booked but no one seemed to understand what we were saying, we were almost considering getting Kay's 'point to it' book out! We sat and had some lunch there and then suddenly they seemed to (or we hoped anyway) understand what we needed and they managed to book us onto a bus to Kyaiktiyo (Golden Rock).  We were driven to the bus station after our lunch and, thankfully, put on the right bus.  We arrived in Kyaiktiyo late afternoon and we unceremoniously dumped at the side of the road about 15km from the base camp village of Kyaiktiyo mountain. We got moto taxis (the first, but certainly not our last) to a guesthouse we had read about online, not before the obligatory trip to another guesthouse which pays commission of course.  They somehow managed to fit myself, my huge rucksack, my day bag, my handbag and the iPad I was clutching onto for dear life onto one motorcycle.  Really wishing we had managed to get some photos of this, it must have looked some sight.  

Thankfully the accommodation we wanted had a room available so we headed into the village for dinner and to also book our bus out of there for the next day. We were only planning a week in Burma and so needed to be on the move a lot.  There isn't anything to do there apart from the golden rock anyway and so no point wasting any time.  We spoke to someone at the travel agents who told us that his brother was away and wouldn't be back until morning so we would need to come back then. We tried to buy a long skirt for Kay too, as we read in the book that women must wear a skirt, but the only thing they had in the shops were these lungi type things that everyone there wears.  We figured wrapping a shawl around our waists would do the same job and so just left it.  After dinner we sat outside the accommodation with some people who were staying there also. They had already been up the hill that day and so kindly offered us their passes, which are valid for two days, and saved us $16.  An Australian girl also informed us she wore "pants" and nothing was said.  We woke up early the next morning and after breakfast we headed down to the travel agents to book our bus to Bagan.  The latest option available was 4pm which would give us plenty of time to get to the top of Kyaiktiyo mountain to see the golden rock.  We crossed the road and got ourselves into a huge pickup which held around 70 people in the back, and off we set for the top of the hill.  It was a bit of a white knuckle ride up very steep hills and hair pin corners, but before we knew it we were just a short walk to the golden rock.  This is a small pagoda built on the top of a rock covered in gold leaf.  The rock looks like it could fall off the side of the mountain at any minute and legend has it that it is perched on a strand of Buddha's hair.  After taking a good look around and lots of photos we sat for a while in the shade to eat the packed lunch we brought with us.  This consisted of some lovely tiny tangerines and some weird bread sticks covered in an icing type thing which we bought at the market in the morning.  On the way back to the pickup stand we bought some lovely samosas and ice-cream from some vendors.  Another white knuckle ride and we were back in Kyaiktiyo village with just enough time to grab our bags and head off for our bus to Bagan. They say that a mere glimpse of the gravity defying golden rock is enough of an inspiration for any person to turn Buddhist.  It's very impressive but I must say I'm still firmly in the atheist camp. 

Bangkok - again

We arrived in Bangkok very early in the morning and took a metered taxi to our accommodation.  kay was convinced he was taking us for a joy ride and, after having a looking on the map, it was obvious the taxi journey shouldn't have taken as long as it did or cost as much as it did but hey, a couple of pound here and there doesn't do much harm.  We were too early to check into our accommodation and because breakfast was still going on in the common room we weren't allowed to do the laundry we wanted to get on with.  We went in the direction on Khao San road and had some hot chocolate to pass some time.  We went back to our accommodation but our room still wasn't ready but because breakfast was over we could do some laundry while we waited. We sat and updated our blog/diary since we were very very behind by this point - still are actually! 

We didn't venture out much this day as the weather was a bit rubbish and we wanted to do some research on Myanmar and the visa we would need. We did book a tour to the floating market and the tiger temple for the next day though.

We got up early and made our way down to the travel agents to wait for our bus to the floating market.  Once there, we were put in a gondola type thing and taken around the market.  The sellers would use some bigs hooks to pull the boat into the side so they could try and sell you stuff.  After the boat ride we were allowed some time to walk around the market to take photos or buy things. We bought a couple of things including some fruit which looked like a pear/pepper but tasted like an apple - still not sure exactly what they were but they were really tasty! We were then taken for some lunch on the way to the tiger temple. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it as I had been told that they drug the tigers which is why they are so tame. I am so glad that I did though because I'm now almost certain that they don't drug them.  We spent around 3 hours with the tigers, getting our photos with the adults and then we stumbled across a wee 5 month old tiger cub too which we got to sit with for a short while.  We had paid extra to be part of the exercise show, this was where they would put you in a cage and then let the tigers off their chains so you could really get to see the tigers behaving as they would in the wild, but unfortunately they were running late and we were going to miss our bus so we had to leave without getting to be part of it.  After the tiger temple we made our way back to Bangkok.  This took a bit longer than it normally should, 5 hours, as the traffic was really bad when we were coming back into the city. A couple on our trip had booked a bus to Koh Tao for that night and only just made it back in time to catch it.  

We were dropped off near khao San road and myself and Kay decided that we would go to the travel agent and see if they had any information about visas for Myanmar. She advised that she could do a same day visa for us for £40 which was a bit more than if we did it ourselves but it meant that we wouldn't need to deal with the stress of finding the embassy for 8am and potentially hanging about there for hours.  We also wouldn't have been able to get a same day visa ourselves so she was saving us another day in Bangkok.  We went back to our accommodation and collected our passports to give to her, which we would be able to collect the next night and we also booked our bus to the border for the day following that.

We spent the next day and a half just getting organised for our trip.  We needed to decide where we would go in myanmar and how we would get there.  We also had to get American dollars sorted.  They are really funny about the money that you hand over in Myanmar.  It needs to be new, crisp American dollars.  They will not accept anything that has even the tiniest flaw in it.  We picked up some new books from a great wee book store near khao San road.  I sold them some ones that we had already read and they actually ended up paying me more for my two books than I paid for the books I bought from them. They advised that If we are ever passing back through Bangkok they will buy them back off us for half the price we paid as long as they are still in a good condition. 

We left Bangkok around 4pm on an overnight bus to the Mae Sot border crossing.  I think I've said it already but the buses in Thailand are amazing. This one had complimentary water, lychee flavoured iced tea, some kind of chocolate filled roll and a massaging chair! Haven.  I've grown to really like Bangkok and I'm sure this won't be the last time we're there this trip.  

Phuket - Patong Beach

We checked out of our accommodation in the morning and were picked up by a minibus to take us to Phuket. When the bus arrived it was already really full with people and everyone's bags.  We were told to just climb over the back seats, squishing a poor guy in the process, and the driver rammed our bags in around us.  Thankfully this was just the bus to the bus station where we would catch another minibus to Phuket. Although I did quite enjoy my wee cocoon on the first bus I think it would have been a bit uncomfortable for 4 hours.  After a wee wait at the bus station we were shown to the minibus that would be taking us the rest of the way.  The driver asked myself and Kay to sit in the front two seats as we are small and wouldn't take up much room.  The journey wasn't great as we after both convinced the driver was on drugs.  He wouldn't stop touching his face the whole 4hours and was driving very erratically! We arrived in Phuket unscathed around 5pm.  We had booked the capsule hotel which is right on the main drinking street at Patong beach. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe but even though I collect the glasses we decided they were just too expensive to justify, they were roughly the same price that you would pay at home.  We went for some dinner at a nice Thai place and while we were there the heavens opened and so we ended up staying for dessert too.  On the way back to our accommodation we picked up a small bottle of Sang Som which is very drinkable Thai rum so that we could have a few drinks before we headed out. 

While we were getting ready we met a lovely Australian girl called Liz who was also travelling with her equally lovely sister, Anne.  The four of us ended up going out along with an American guy called chase that they'd met earlier that day.  Our night consisted of cocktails, dancing, drinking games, more drinking and lots more dancing. Phuket is a great night out but i think it would be the end of you and your liver if you stayed too long!

The next morning we spent a little time on the beach and went in search of the post office but never actually found it.  We had both decided that although we had a lot of fun, we didn't really much like Phuket. It was really loud, brash and very very westernised. There were Starbucks and KFCs on every corner.  We decided to book a bus back up to Bangkok for the next day and from there we were going to sort visas and head to Myanmar (Burma)  for a wee visit since we were starting to get a bit sick of the crowds in Thailand and wanted to get back into backpacker mode.

The next day we met Anne and Liz for some lunch, they had checked out of our accommodation the previous day as it was just too loud for them.  We were all headed to Bangkok that day, myself and Kay by bus and Anne and Liz were flying and then catching another flight to Vietnam for the last leg of their trip. We were picked up at 4pm and taken to the bus station where we got on a coach for our first overnight trip since arriving in Thailand.  The buses here are amazing, we were given water, a snack (a whole packet of biscuits each) and a blanket. Although the buses are a million time more comfortable that the citylink ones at home, we still didn't manage to get a very good night sleep.  The seats did recline but it was still difficult to get into a comfortable position to sleep. They also pulled over at a service station around midnight so we could have dinner.  Myself and Kay opted to just stay on the bus and try to get some sleep.  Back to my beloved beloved Bangkok. 

Krabi - Ao Nang

After arriving in chompton at 5am we were taken in a taxi to where we were getting mini bus to Krabi.  We ended up in 3 different taxis and 2 minibuses but we eventually arrived at Ao Nang area of Krabi. We hadn't managed to book anywhere before hand as the Internet on Koh Tao is terrible so I sat with the bags in the sweltering heat while Kay and Andy went in search of accommodation. They managed to find us a nice wee bungalow about 10-15minute walk from the beach. After showering we headed for the beach to sit and watch the sun set. It was one of the prettiest sun sets I've seen since leaving Scotland. It was just so pretty and no picture will ever do it justice.

We went for dinner and then to book some trips as Andy only had a few days left with us.  We decided on a day of kayaking followed by an elephant trek and a day of snorkelling around Hong Island. 

The next morning we awoke early as we were being picked up for our snorkelling trip at 8.15am. We shouldn't have bothered getting up so early though as our pickup didn't arrive until 9.30am!  We were taken to a beach nearby and then onto a longboat. We stopped at Red Island first to do some snorkelling. The fish here were amazing, so unfazed by the fact that there were people in the water around them. You could get really close and they wouldn't swim away. Got some really cool photos here of us all surrounded by fish.  Then we went to emerald lagoon, this was really beautiful. We weren't allowed to swim here but we stayed for a while so we could get some nice photos. We went to Paradise beach for some lunch.  We did a wee bit of snorkelling here too but there wasnt much to see.  Finally, it was off to Hong Island which again was just beautiful. I did some sunbathing here while Kay and Andy went for a wee walk around the island. This island had been affected by the tsunami in 2004 and they had just left the washed up boats in the jungle.  After we got back to Ao Nang we showered and went for some dinner.  I caught up with a few people over FaceTime and then we had a early night in preparation for our trip the next day. 

We were picked up the next morning and taken to another part of Krabi to do our half day kayaking.  The three of us had to go in one kayak which was a bit rubbish as it meant the person in the middle couldn't do any paddling. Myself and Kay decided we would take turns. This meant having to swap over in the middle of the lake! It must have been quite a sight, me crawling through Kay's legs while we tried to keep the kayak stable.  We spent a few hours kayaking around an island, there were points when we needed to lean back to get under the branches of some mangroves.   We visited some small caves too and saw some big lizards in the water. The guide kept telling people they were baby crocodiles to try and scare them. The guide was the usual chilled out Thai type, he didn't seem even remotely fazed that we lost half of our group while going around....I hope they're ok!

After our kayaking we were off to do an elephant trek.  We got to do an hour long trek which included some splashing around in the river with them.  Although we really enjoyed our time with the elephants I wasn't too sure how well they were being looked after.  The elephants that we had spent time with in India weren't tied up at all while we were with them and were really good natured things. The ones in Thailand, by comparison, were tied up and put in a barbed wire fence when they weren't being ridden. They also used seats on the backs of the elephants which is supposed to be less comfortable for them whereas the ones in India were ridden bare back. We've been told that there are some great places up in Chaing mai for elephants so we might go again when we are there.  

Once back at our accommodation I sat and tried to whittle my belongings down to a manageable amount.  Andy had very kindly offered to swap bags with me and take mine home with him. My bag was a 120l monstrosity on wheels. It hadn't coped very well with the terrain in India and by then had a small hole in the bottom as it had stopped wheeling due to the bottom collapsing!  My bag weighted about 30kg so I needed to get it down to at least 20kg so that I could carry the stuff on my back. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  There was so much clothes that I brought that I hadn't worn in the almost two months I'd been away, so that all got chucked. I'd also taken quite a few pairs of trousers for India as you really need to cover up there but the countries we are going to from now on aren't so bad. I only really need a couple of pairs for when we are visiting temples. I also ditched about 6 bikinis because who needs 10 bikinis! There were a few other bits and bobs that I managed to get rid of and somehow got my bag down to 17kg (before insulin which is about 4-5kg). We then went for dinner at a wee place across the road which did lovely Thai food and while there we noticed that they did rooms for 500 baht, ours was 1200! We went to have a look at them and they were really nice, more like a wee flat with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom - they even had a fridge! It's a shame we didn't see this earlier as it would have been ideal for the 3 of us. Myself and Kay booked in for the following night as we were yet to make any plans for onward travel. It was Andy's last night with us in Thailand so I decided to give them some space and stayed in sorting my belongs and ensuring they would all fit into Andy's 70l bag while they went out for a few drinks. 

The next morning we checked out of our hut and checked into our wee 'flat' across the road. We went for a walk to find a market that we'd seen on the way to one of our trips but, either it was further away that we thought or we went in the wrong direction. Either way, we didn't manage to find it.  We had some nice smoothies on the way back and then walked along the beach for a while. We headed back up to our accommodation as it was getting near the time that Andy would be leaving for the airport. It was sad to see Andy go, it was really nice having him around for a couple of weeks.

After dinner myself and Kay had decided that we would go to Phuket since it was close by and we'd heard a lot about it. We locked our room and the front door of the flat and went off to book a bus.  After coming back from booking the bus we couldn't get into our room.  Turns out the two keys we had were both for the front door and not one for the bedroom door like we thought.  We went to find the lady who ran the place to tell her our problem and she sent her Swiss boyfriend back with us to sort it out.  They didn't have a spare key for this lock and so the Swiss guy, who was quite tall I may add, had to get some ladders and break into our room using the wee windows at the top which were thankfully only covered with mosquito nets. Me and Kay were trying so hard not to laugh out loud when he went head first through the hole and crashed down on the other side! Kay ended up having to go outside as she couldn't hold it in any longer! Luckily for us though he did manage to get us back into our room.

Koh Phangan and Koh Tao

We had a lazy morning as we knew we wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. We decided to keep our accommodation on Koh Tao and just get the first ferry back from Koh Phangan which would leave at 8.30am.  We put our faces on (not Andy obviously) and went down to Lotus Hotel at 2pm to catch our taxi to the pier.  The boat was full of people all heading over for the full moon party, some of them already half cut I think. Once on Koh Phangan we took a truck taxi to the beach and the driver was driving so erratically I think he'd been on the sauce too.   Up and down steep hills at crazy speeds and at one point slammed his brakes on so hard that we, about 16 of us, went from filling the whole back of the truck to being rammed into about half of it! Good fun though and we arrived safe and sound at our destination. We went for a wee walk along the streets just up from the beach as we didn't want to start drinking too early. I'm sure our friends will struggle to believe this but myself and Kay were planning to be semi-sensible as we didn't want to lose each other in the 30,000 large crowd.  We had some pizza for dinner, lining the stomach, and headed off to buy ourselves some buckets. The drinks were ridiculously cheap here. Only B200 (£4) for a bucket which had 200mls of whichever spirit you liked along with whichever mixer. So, the equivalent of around six 35ml drinks at home for £4. Happy days. We bought some UV paints and sat for a wee while painting pictures on each other and drinking our buckets. We walked along the beach in search of the best music and saw some amazing fire throwers. Some of the boys looked to be only about 7 or 8 at a push but they were just fantastic. Much better than the older guy. Just shows how fearless you are at that age. We saw a big skipping rope which was on fire too.  There were loads of drunk people getting hit in the face while trying to enter, some did manage it though.  We met some nice Americans and spent the bells with them but unfortunately not long after that I got separated from Kay and Andy in the crowd, despite being pretty sober.  We had made plans to meet at the bar where we had dinner if we got separated but it transpired that although I headed there with the Americans and waited for about an hour, it had taken Kay and Andy over an hour to get from where they were to the bar and so we missed each other.  Later that night Kay and Andy lost each other too in the crowd. We all somehow managed to make it back to the pier in the morning to catch the ferry back to Koh Tao and even though we all lost each other we all had a brilliant new years. 

Once back on Koh Tao we decided to take a traditional 1st of january swim in the sea - not that I've ever done this in Scotland. We all climbed on top of a big (fake) turtle and had some random take our picture on the beach. We met a couple from Liverpool in the taxi back to Sairee beach who were a little worse for wear. She was furious with him, the conversation went a little something like this:

Him - "I don't know why you are so mad, I got you home safe and sound didn't I?"

Her - "the FACT that I am home has NOTHING to do with you! I found you asleep on the ferry!" (throwing her cigarette packet at him!) 

They had lost each other too and she was vowing never to go back to "bloody Koh Phangan".   We headed to brothers after showering for a big breakfast.  Kay and Andy both had a full fry up and I had French toast AND porridge.  We decided it was a day for lazing on the beach but it was so roasting that after a while I decided to go back to brothers, have a cold beer, and use their wifi. We had dinner that night at the restaurant attached to our accommodation which was a lovely wee place right on the beach front. 

The next day we decided to try and head to Krabi for a few days before Andy had to fly back to the UK.  We went across the road from our accommodation to a travel agent but as we were trying to book for the same day we ended up having to get an over night ferry which would mean going back up to Chumphon rather than down Surat Thani which is the closer port to Krabi.  Kay and Andy decided to get some Thai massages done, I opted to go have one (or two) last cold beers at brothers.   Thai massage does not appeal to me, I don't think being pulled in every which way would be relaxing in the least.  We had to leave for the pier at 8pm as even though our ferry wasn't until 11pm we were told that "sometimes ferry leave early, ten, ten thirty maybe".  We were still going to be mega early even if it left at 10 and so we decided to have dinner down at the pier. The ferry was more like a cargo ferry and our "room" was like somewhere the crew should have been sleeping.  It was very hot and very noisy so I think we were above the boiler room.  We all somehow managed to get some sleep before arriving in Chumphon at 5am.  Koh Tao was definitely our favourite place in Thailand and we were all a bit sad to be leaving the beautiful island. 

One for the diabetics

I originally set up this blog so that I could give advice to any diabetics thinking about going travelling. When doing my own research online I found there was a real lack of information out there. I now know why.  Certainly for me, there have been no real issues surrounding my diabetes in the 8 weeks I have been away and the 3 countries I have visited so far.  There are a few things to note though.

Before leaving: 

The NHS are stingy *beeeps and will only give you a prescription for 3 months worth of your supplies. My original thoughts had been tho take about two years worth for the year that I was planning to be away, and to split them between my own rucksack, my day bag and also put some in my sisters bag. This way if any bags got lost or stolen I would still have a supply.  With the NHS only offering 3 months, and not even my specialist being able to help with this, this was obviously not going to be an option. I had read somewhere that you would have more difficulty finding tampons in Asia than you would getting insulin but without knowing the cost or realistically how easy this would be I still wanted to bring as much with me as possible. I know this is a bit unethical but what I did was stock pile over the year or more before I left. I just handed in my repeat prescription more often that I normally would and managed to save up about 8 months worth. My repeat is for at least a 2 month supply and because my GP is lazy he just gave me two copies rather than make out a new one for 3 months worth. So I managed to get myself 12 months worth of insulin for my trip. 

I didn't manage to stock pile quite so many needles, I took about 6months supply with me and I'll need to just use the needles twice. I know that isn't ideal but personally I think that's easier than trying to find needles in Asia and south America.  

Obviously, make sure your blood testing machine has plenty battery. Maybe get a new one to have as a spare.  This is what I did. 

Make sure your GP or specialist gives you a letter which says that you need to carry your insulin with you on the flight (insulin can't be stored underneath) and that you need to carry carbohydrates with you also. They should give you a few copies of this. I haven't been asked in my life to produce this letter but it's safer to have it than not I think.  

While away:

Keeping your insulin cold can be done by using Frio (or similar) bags. These just need to be ran under cold water every two days to reactivate the gel. Note that 12 months supply of Lanus and Novorapid along with 4 large frio bags weighs about 5kg or more. So take this into account when packing your bag.  Also, everything takes up a lot of room so you might not be able to take as much clothes with you as you'd like :( or you could take a stupidly big bag like me and then realise its completely impractical 7 weeks in, throw out half your clothes and get a ruck sack. 

As mentioned in my previous blog, you need a certificate to say that you are safe to dive, if you want to dive that is.  The place I did it with said I could have taken one from home. Your GP or specialist should be able to supply this. But if not, I was able to get one very quickly in Thailand on the day I did the dive and it only cost about £4.

We have been drinking mostly water while away but any time I've been out for drinks, Diet mixers have cost more.  It's the same in shops in India and Thailand. Diet drinks are marginally more expensive. I haven't seen any diet drinks on offer in Myanmar but I'm sure you can get them in the larger cities if need be.

I am thinking about going to pharmacies in different countries just to see how easy it would be to buy insulin and needles and the costs etc. so, I will update with that as and when.