After having spent a night in Pathein I made my way to the Ngwe Saung, a small village that is said to have one of the most beautiful beaches in all of Myanmar. That's easy to believe since it certainly is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Unfortunately getting there wasn't all that easy.

Pathein is actually quite a nice small city. There isn't much to do or see there (except, of course, for the Pagoda) but it still has a rather nice feel to it. The river, the jetty, the nightmarket, they are just nice. And the guest house I stayed in, the "Thaan Thaan Ta", as also quite decent. It was also the first place where I realized that I do have to have my torch with me all the time. In most towns in Myanmar electricity is only available between 6.00pm and 6.00 am and even during those times the grid breaks down quite frequently. Of course that was no problem in the "Traders", the five-star hotel I stayed at in Yangon, but apparently it is a problem everywhere else in the country. After having been so thoroughly cheated on my way from Yangon to Pathein I decided that it as time to get into bargaining mode and visited the night market where I bought a some things like oranges, a plastic-cup and a tiny for bag for my Jewish Harps. Bargaining on that market was actually quite fun since the people obviously enjoyed it as well. At one point there was even a small crowd gathering around us since people were obviously curious how I would be doing in the negotiations. Pathein was also the first city where I noticed that the people here are obviously not used to seeing a lot of Europeans. Apparently the think I'm rather funny looking cause they all stare and smile. And that does not only go for the children! In fact, it's happening quite frequently that mothers point me out to their children. But it's fun.

After having slept in Pathein I had to take the 11.00 bus to Ngwe Saung. To get to the bus station I had to take a small ferry over the river (100 kyat). What worried me awe bit was that the guy steering the ferry was very, very, very busy hauling water out of the ferry as soon as it had landed on the riverbank I was standing on and that he continued doing so all the time while the ferry was towed to the jetty. Actually he did the same as soon as we arrived on the other side of the river so I assume it ha been like this for quite some time. Anyhow: When I arrived at the bus station I was told that the trip to Ngwe Saung (approx. 1.5 hours) would cost 2,000 kyat. I knew that this was an outrageous price and told them so. How could they demand 2,000 kyat for the short trip to Ngwe Saung when the trip from Yangon to Pathein only cost 3,000 kyat (back then I didn't know that the real price for the Yangon-trip was only 1,500). They then calmly explained to me that I was basically right and that it was only 300 for the locals. But since I was a foreigner I would have to pay 2,000. Unfortunately they also pointed out that this was the only bus to Ngwe Saung so I could take or leave it (this was, as I later found out a lie). So grudgingly I paid. But to add insult to injury I didn't even get a seat! Instead I was seated in the middle of the bus on a bag of carrots or roots (nothing as comfortable as rice) with more bags and people right in front of me and in my bag. It was so cramped that I had to sit there with me knees and feet drawn close to my chest – after 15 minutes I didn't feel my feet any longer. After a while I started "communicating" with the people on the bus. It all began with that they couldn't believe that I didn't have a seat. And then they were shocked to read on my ticket how much money I had paid for the trip. They even offered to change places with me, which I refused because after all it wasn't them who had sold me an overpriced ticket and gotten me in this position. I took some photos of this bus-trip (I'll upload them when I have the chance) but unfortunately they didn't turn out very well. The people on the bus rally liked my digital camera though. So I showed them the pics I had taken so far and also showed them the photos I brought from back home. My friend Nino was 100% right when he urged me to bring photos of my life back home with me on the trip. The people here really do find them immensely interesting.

So after a lot of pointing, laughing and showing pictures we finally arrived in Ngwe Saung. At that point I didn't feel like I would be able to claim that my ass was a virgin. At least not after having sat on those roots/carrot while hurtling over a seemingly never ending series of potholes. So I was very, very happy to finally get out of the bus. Ngwe Saung basically consists of a tiny village, and about ten or so "beach resorts" along its nine miles of pristine beach.

The great thing is: You have the beach almost to yourself. This is probably mainly due to the fact that Ngwe Saung is not in the Lonely Planet or other popular guidebooks yet. The downside of this is though that the two guesthouses inside the village don't have a license to host foreigners. And that means you have to stay at a hotel. Unfortunately most of the hotels here are really luxurious and start at around 50 or 75 USD a night. Bummer. In the end I did find one hotel though, the Olympic, which has cheaper rooms: 10 USD for an unacceptable, hot, dark cell or 25 USD for a slightly shabby sixth of a bungalow. I managed to get the price down to 15 USD and I think that was quite a good deal. What I did find a bit worrying though was the number of animals that seemed to live in my room. When I unpacked in I saw what looked like an amphibian tail stick out between the mattresses on one of the beds. And really, when I touched it (with a pen, since I couldn't tell whether it was a snakes or a lizards tail), it vanished between the mattresses. Since it had vanished rather quickly I decided that it probably was a lizard and peered under this and all other mattresses. In the end my search turned up three lizards. I then decided that I would let them stay under the condition that they wouldn't try to get into my bed. After all, they might eat the mosquitoes. I explained to them that they would die a rather quick and horrible death if they tried to benefit from my bodies warmth at nigh and it seems like they understood. While I somehow could accept the presence of these lizards I have to admit that seeing a beetle that looked like a giant cockroach climb up the walls in the middle of the night was more then I wanted to see. Since it didn't run for safety when I switched on the lights I decided that it just looked like one but really wasn't a cockroach. I mean, they can't really grow to the size of a fist, can they?

So after getting acquainted with my room and some of its inhabitants I went down to the beach. And as I mentioned in the beginning: It is absolutely breathtaking! It is exactly what you imagine a tropical beach should look like: White sands as far as you can see in both directions, some fisher boats in the sea and you have it almost to yourself. And the water is quite nice as well. I even went swimming – which is something very, very rare for me to do.