Beach vacations are pretty much the same no matter where you are: Myanmar or Maui. Wake up, read some news online, eat breakfast, take a long walk on the beach, sit and read, eat lunch, sit and read, eat dinner, sleep. Repeat. This is the routine we’ve settled into at Ngapali Bay. The weather has been perfect. Josh mentioned seeing a cloud this morning, but I never did look up to verify; I myself haven’t seen one yet.

When it comes to mealtime, tourists here have three dining options: hotel, beach, or road. All of them offer something appealing. Since breakfast is included with our room rate, we’ve opted to eat at our resort every morning. And with a view like this, why wouldn’t we?

The buffet includes a wide array of breads, pastries, cold cereals, fruit, cheese, yogurt – as well as a mohinga station. Mohinga is what the locals eat for breakfasts and it consists of a healthy serving of skinny rice noodles, a broth made from chicken or fish and spices (sometimes including coconut milk) and your choice of about 20 condiments: peanut powder, hardboiled eggs, dried chili, cilantro, fried onions… There’s also an a la carte menu featuring Western breakfast items just in case you need a break from noodles and coconut milk. And to my great relief: the coffee is good!

We’ve eaten lunch on both the beach and the road; the road restaurants during the day are pretty hot so we opted for that just once so far. Today we made a second trip to our favorite beach lunch spot, called Pleasant View Islet, and it’s not only for the view – the food is tasty, too. Sweet and sour fish features whatever was pulled from the ocean in the morning in a tangy red sauce with pineapple, tomato, and red and green peppers. We also had “crispy fish in chili sauce with some coconut milk” on both days.

We see other tourists drinking wine, but being snobby Californians we think it best to stick with the local brews. Josh likes to say that at home this would be pretty disgusting beer, but here on a hot beachy day it’s perfect.

Most of the beach restaurants are right on the sand and orient all the tables towards the ocean view.

We had another really tasty lunch at a place like this a few days ago; besides the location and fresh catch of the day, these places also feature next-door, open air, 1 hour massages for $8.

We have a couple more days here before we head back to Yangon and join our 10-day tour. We’re really glad we came here but also understand it’s a very limited slice of what Myanmar is all about. We’re looking forward to seeing different geographies, tasting new regional foods, and learning more about the culture, history, and people here in the next phase of our journey.