The perfect beach?

I love a beach - always have. There is something about the sound of the ocean which just suits me, chills me out. So taking advantage of my role as holiday organiser I invariably manage to ' squeeze' in a few days at the beach. Burma is no exception - I'm sure for what is the final part of the holiday we could and perhaps should be trekking to Kalaw but instead we happily find ourselves on an internal flight to Ngapali on the west coast of Burma. Our hotel is called Yoma Cherry Lodge and we get picked up from the tiny airport by a smiley host who collects our bags and shows us to our pimped up finding nemo style truck. We were going to enjoy Ngapali. 

Yoma Cherry is a delight - gorgeous huge rooms with teak flooring and elephant wood carvings. The gardens surrounding the villas are beautiful - we even spot a separate massage pagoda. But it's when we walk down to the beach that the disbelief sets in. The Bay of Bengal is enticingly turquoise, the sand superfine and best of all lots of fishing boats with smiley locals milling around. The next four days go quickly - we keep ourselves busy with walks along the bay, deciding on back (£5) of full body massages (£10); Whisky sours (75p) or chilled bottles of Mandalay (£1.25). Dinner decisions rest of staying at the hotel or going for it and popping to our favourite beach shack next door ( Silver Sands). 

One morning on our walk of the bay the local school come down for their sports day. We cheer them on during the sack and three legged race, then for the final competition which appears to be a hopping contest Jodie and I hold the finishing line. The kids are all wonderfully cute. 

The only real blip to our stay is when slightly drunk after several happy hour Gin Fizz's at Yoma Cherry I think i see a rat pop up from beneath the decking. I blink and he's still there - dinner decisions get easier from that point. We go for the beach shack - at least you can see any vermin coming..... Turns out that the rat did us a favour - on our last night at the beach shack 4 fisherman stop in front of our table and shuffle around for a while. Jodie then points out they are naked and wading out to their fishing boat with their longi' held above their heads to keep them dry. I can confirm that Burmese fisherman have very pert arses.......we may or may not have woken up early to see them return to shore the next morning......

We stayed: Yoma Cherry Lodge - not cheap but fabulous location, > $100/ night - massages on site and when we left we got ' goodbye' spelt out in fresh flowers on the bed

We ate : Silver sands the beach hut next to the hotel - the food is all incredible - drinks are £1 - and they were so sad to see us go they gave us each gifts ( shell hair slides)