8,000 Buddhas and Third World Triage

Though we were sad to be leaving Kalaw, we were all looking forward to seeing Inle (also sometimes spelled Inlay) Lake. This extremely unique region is home to a very diverse and ancient culture, where the people still use the techniques in farming, fishing, and living as their ancestors. The Intha people live in stilt villages on the lake (Intha translates as Sons of the Lake) and are descendents of the Mon people from the southeastern part of the country. Shan, Paya, Kan-O, and Danu are all part of the various ethnic groups that comprise this region. 

Before we reached Inle Lake, we would be stopping at Pindaya Cave on the way. Pindaya Cave has more than 8,000 statues of Buddha - that's a lot of Buddha's! The legend about the cave goes something like this (I know that I won't tell this nearly as well as Joseph!): A prince, who was kind of a playboy, traveled away from his region to avoid having to marry. While traveling, he met a beautiful princess and fell in love. There was a contest to see who could shoot the truest arrow - the winner would be allowed to marry the princess. The prince won, and he and the princess married. After a year, the princess gave birth to a baby boy and the prince realized that he didn't want to be married anymore (lame!). He gave his wife the excuse that he needed to visit his family and left. While traveling he came upon a cave, where there were 7 fairy princesses trapped by a giant scary spider monster. Right as the spider was about to eat the princesses, the prince shot it dead with a single arrow. Ta da! Thus was born the legend of Pindaya Cave (hope I didn't miss too many important details!).  We visited the cave - the entrance is complete with a giant spider as well as a statue of the prince with his bow and arrow. So many Buddhas! So much gold leaf! Wow. Beautiful. Also, this region is said to be compared to Tuscany. If I squinted my eyes juuuuuuuuuuuust right I could almost see the resemblance. It is quite beautiful, with rolling green hills and red earth. 

After we finished counting all 8,000 Buddha's, we were off once again. We had lunch at the Green Tea Restaurant, which was located on a beautiful lake. They had some of the traiditional parasols there, and greeted them with us as we stepped out of our van. They were beautiful and made for a great photo op! We stopped at a workshop to learn how paper is made from bamboo, and to see how the paper is used in the construction of traditional parasols and umbrellas as well as lamps and other goods. Very pretty and a great shopping opportunity! This great experience was enhanced by a cute little boy and a sweet puppy. We made a quick stop at a teak monastery, Shwe Yan Pyay Oval shaped monastery, which provided some great photo ops of monks and kittens. Puppies and monks and kittens and babies? Too much cuteness!

We were not staying on Inle Lake itself, but in a town right at the top of it, Nyaung Shwe. We arrived at the Hu Pin Hotel and had a brief rest period before going out on our city orientation walk. While we were in our rooms, we were given our first taste of the monsoon. When they say that "the heavens opened," they really mean it! Seriously, it was like the sky parted and someone started pouring water out of an extremely high pressure faucet. Awesome! It cleared up by the time we left for our walk, and we had a great time wandering around the village. One of the odd things that we all observed right away was the fact that there were other tourists. We have really seen very few Western tourists, so when we started seeing quite a few we were all surprised! For dinner we went to a (get ready.....) Italian restaurant! Too funny. We all ordered pizza and it was really good. We 4 ladies also ordered a bottle of local, made in Inle Lake region, Sauvignon Blanc, which was surprisingly good! I think we all had low expectations (seeing as the other 3 girls are all from parts of the world where delicious wine is produced) but we ended up loving it! Yummy meal all around, and great memories. We sat outside on the veranda, which was lit with paper lanterns, and we happily enjoyed the cooler temperatures. 

What I'm about to describe is going to seem over detailed at first, so please bear with me. It will all make sense at the end. As we were wrapping up dinner, Phil and Tom decided to head back to the hotel a little earlier than the rest of us. After they left, the rain really started again. We all had our rain jackets with us, and Joseph said that he would find us some umbrellas. When he came back from making the call for the umbrellas, he also told us that he had a car that we could drive back to the hotel in (so nice of him!). We all thanked him but told him that we would prefer to walk. Sanjay was still finishing his beer, but the 4 of us ladies decided to head back - we were tired! We offered to stay with him but he encouraged us to go ahead. Joseph decided to walk back with us, as well. By now it was raining quite heavily, so we put our jackets on and headed out! One thing that we had noticed about Nyaung Shwe was the lack of street lights. Combine that with the rain and it was really dark on the streets and hard to see - Nyaung Shwe also has a lot of motorbikes. As we were walking we crossed over a small bridge and noticed some people clustered together. We didn't really think anything of it, but then we heard someone ask if everyone was ok and a girl said "my friend was hit by a motor bike!" Before I even realized what I was saying I said "I'm a nurse, can I help?" Mez, Barbara, and I ran over to the girls. The girl that had been hit was sitting on the ground (in the pouring rain, mind) holding her head. Joseph came up behind us and immediately got to work getting some sort of transport for her. Barbara held an umbrella over the girl and Mez whipped out her phone for me to use as a flashlight, and I did a quick assessment. She was bleeding from the nose and the mouth, and had minor lacerations on her left shin and right foot. Her friend told us that they had been walking when the bike hit them, and she had landed face first. Of course I thought "oh no, head trauma" and did a neuro check. Fortunately everything seemed to be ok neurologically, but we still wanted to get her to the hospital fast. Her nose was not broken and her teeth were not loose, but the poor girl was definitely in shock, and understandably so! How terrifying! I stopped her bleeding as best I could and covered her with my rain jacket and we asked Joseph what the transport situation was. He said that the local hospital wanted to send a motorbike - I said that there was absolutely no way that she should be transported that way, she needed a car or a van. Joseph then told us that they also suggested a rickshaw or a trishaw - I am SO THANKFUL that he was there to translate and help! I just kept talking with the girl, who was from Chile, and reassuring her that she was going to be ok, and did another neuro check. After what felt like an eternity (Mez and Barbara said that it was less than 10 minutes!) a van arrived to take her to the hospital. Joseph (best guide in the history of guides!) told me that he would go to the hospital with her to help her and to translate. I offered to go as well, but they had medics in the van so I went back to the hotel with the girls. 

Once we reached the hotel, I realized how shaken I was by the incident! I was really worried about her and hoping that Joseph would come back soon, because that would be a sign that she was doing ok. Our group sat outside and had some medicinal beers and talked and decompressed together. I am so thankful for them!! After about an hour Joseph came through the gate and said that she was going to be fine, they had admitted her overnight but that everything looked good. I cannot even tell you how relieved we all were! It's so scary, because that could have been any one of us - or any traveler anywhere, really. The reason that I mentioned all of those details about us leaving the restaurant is because there were so many things that could have happened that would have made it so we would not have been there when she needed us. All it would have taken was one different decision or one other variable to be involved and who knows what the outcome would have been. I'm SO THANKFUL that we were there - Barbara, Joseph, and Mez were so instrumental in getting her the care she needed and the rest of the group was so great and supportive to us when we returned. Like I've said, we're a family now! I especially was so impressed with Joseph. His willingness to do whatever it took to get her to safety was above and beyond and so very kind of him. When we came back from our day on Inle Lake the next day, he called the hospital for me to check on her and we were all very happy to hear that she had been discharged. Happy ending to a scary situation!

I think that we all slept like the dead that night - we needed to rest up and prepare for the incredible day that awaited us.    

    

   

The entrance to Pindaya Cave

 

Tom being eaten by the spider!

Buddhas!

   

       

     

    

    

The ladies with the parasols

 

 

The men showing some serious sass wiith the parasols

Yummy pizza!

Barbara suited up for the monsoon! 

Trekking in the Summer Palace

With a 4:15 alarm set, I was actually looking forward to the call to prayer - great way to help me be totally awake on time! We trooped out of our hotel at 5:00 am, and began our journey towards Kalaw, in the eastern mountains of Shan State.

Kalaw - cool mountain temperatures, 4,200 feet above sea level, tea plantations, orange groves, lush gorgeous greenery blanketing the hills and peaks of the mountains. Kalaw was so beloved by the British during their colonization that they called it the "Summer Palace" and the wives of the officers would retreat to the cool climate and quite of the mountain environs to give birth. 

We would have an 8 hour drive there, and we began with a stop at the U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world. Now, I was expecting an actual bridge - this was more of a boardwalk across          

a marsh. The landscape was beautiful, and the bridge was a wonderful photo opportunity, as it had many monks and local people out for a sunrise walk. This beautiful place had one major problem - trash. Trash covered the ground, clogged the lake, littered the bridge, piled up in the reeds, it was everywhere. This is one of the biggest tour attractions in the country and it looks like a junkyard. The sunrise was beautiful, and it turned the lake to liquid gold. We walked the length of the bridge and got some really nice photos before heading back to our bus. 

I don't know if any of you have watched the BBC show Top Gear, but they just had a special on Burma, where they buy really junky lorries and have to drive them to the Thai border (it's hilarious, you should watch it!). I have seen that episode and they go through the area that we would be in, so I had a vague idea of what to expect from the mountains. The only thing was, I was wrong.

It was 10 times more beautiful. The roads wound up and up, switch backing ever higher, taking us right into the clouds. The higher we rose, the greener everything became. The sky was so blue, almost like lapis. The contrast between the verdant green and the bright blue was just amazing! As we drove we saw so many small villages, the children wearing their school uniforms of crisp white blouses and dark green longyis, walking to school with their lunch tiffin tins in hand. Farmers working in the fields, plowing their land behind their ox carts, women washing laundry in rivers, smoke swirling into the air from kitchen fires. Children laughing and playing, stopping to stare when they saw our bus pass by and then waving waving waving at us so happily! It was entrancing. The drive went by so quickly, and after a lunch stop we drove for one more hour and then arrived in Kalaw. 

The minute we stepped off the bus, our first words were "We're never leaving here!" After the heat, noise, filth, hustle and bustle of Mandalay, we had arrived in paradise! Right as we arrived, the rain rolled in. It poured for about 2 hours and was wonderful! We checked into our hotel and rested for a little while, then headed off on our walking tour of Kalaw. One of the first things that we saw on the walk was a free vaccination clinic. The women can bring their children when they need their vaccinations and they will be provided free of charge. That was really great to see. We wandered over to the railway station and then past a football pitch, where there were boys playing, as well as several cows in the field! Hmm.... hopefully no one steps in a cow pat when they're shooting for a goal!!

Back into the town, we saw the market and lots of local food stalls where people were buying their dinner. We ambled back towards the restaurant where we would be dining when we were suddenly attacked by vampires! Two very small, very cute, giggling vampires! They jumped out at me from a shop, so of course I had to scream because I was very scared! "AAAHHH!!!" I said!! They started giggling even more and baring their teeth at me. Then they ran back into the shop. I figured that they would come back out, so I hid behind some cloth and awaited their return. A few seconds later, out they came and looked for me! I jumped out and said "BOO!" "AHHHH!!!!!" they screamed and smiled! Then the mama vampire came and took them inside, presumably for dinner. :) Such a special experience! The children here.... I love them all! 

We were dining at Everest, a Nepali restaurant, so we headed that direction. We were all starving! I was feeling really well and therefore brave (dumb?) so I ordered the chicken masala and a garlic chapati. YUM I was so excited. Seriously, we inhaled our food. It was so delicious and we were so hungry! After satisfying our hunger and feeling totally stuffed, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our 16 kilometer trek tomorrow! By this point, the temperature was amazing. Probably in the mid 70's and with a lovely cool breeze.... it felt heavenly!

Unfortunately, I woke multiple times during the night to visit the bathroom, and was really hoping that my GI issues would stop by the morning, because there was NO WAY I was missing the trekking - it's one of the things I was most looking forward to on the whole trip! I took some meds and drank a lot of water and hoped for the best. When I woke in the morning I felt a little bit better, but was still having issues. Fortunately Mez was fine (probably because she was smart and didn't eat meat!), but when we went to breakfast we found that everyone else who had eaten the chicken was having GI upset also, including Joseph. So that was 5 out of the 8 of us feeling a little rotten. Poor Tom had it really bad, it sounded like he had what Mez and I had in Bagan. So Tom and Phil stayed at the hotel for the day, and the rest of us took off for the hike. I packed extra water and extra meds (and extra toilet paper) and took some more meds and headed out the door.

We met our trekking guide, Htun, right away - he was a fantastic guide and such a nice man! So here we all were, in our very Western hiking apparel - hiking shoes, quick dry ultra light pants, backpacks, etc. Htun was wearing a wonderful hat, traditional shirt, longyi, and flip flops. Joseph was wearing Converse shoes and his regular clothes. They were awesome, hiking over these extremely slippery surfaces in those shoes and not even batting an eye! First we climbed a set of stairs right across from our hotel, the stairs lead to a monastery and we turned off them onto a trail. We were now mostly above the town of Kalaw, so of course we had to stop to take photos. I immediately stepped in dog poop (typical me....), and Joseph and Tun said that was a sign of luck! If stepping in dog poop means you're lucky, I must be really lucky because I always seem to be steppin in it! So they said that was a good sign for our trek. :) We wandered along the side of the hill before entering a huge bamboo forest. So beautiful! I'll be saying "so beautiful" a lot in this blog post! 

After we left the bamboo forest we emerged in a tiny village, then walked up a lane into what is best described as a pine forest. The biodiversity of the area is incredible! The pines looked similar to the long leaf pine that we have in the US (it's indiginous to Florida especially). We reached a point where the path became really narrow and very slippery. The rain from the day before had turned the path into a slick chute, almost. It was also very shady, so some moss had grown on it, adding to the slippery factor! We even had to cross a "cliff" at one point! It was just a mini cliff, but still exciting! At one point while on the slip and slide path we looked ahead and saw a huge orange plantation, the orange trees planted all over the hillsides. We saw the farmer and his family, and his sweet little girl called out to Htun the best way for us to hike! 

I asked Joseph what kind of wildlife lived in the mountains, and he told me about deer, wildcats, squirrels, and..... TIGERS! The tigers are only in the northern mountains, which is where he is from. So I asked him " Joseph, have you ever seen a tiger?!" "YES!" he replied - I was amazed! After a few minutes of grinning at me, he said "IN THE ZOO!" hahahaha!!! He and I both laughed for a long time about that one. :) 

After the orange plantation we started to see tea plantations. We also saw fig trees, mango trees, pomegranate trees, banana trees, and so many more kind of fruit growing. We began to climb in elevation at this point and it was beginning to get quite hot. As we climbed higher our view just kept getting better and better. We saw a chameleon cooling off on a rock in the shade and lots of butterflies. At this point I started feeling really really tired and over heated. I knew we were almost to the village where we would be having lunch, so I drank some water and kept my head down. While on the path we could occasionally hear the farmers singing in the hills as they picked their tea leaves. Idyllic is the word that comes to my mind when I recall this time. 

We reached the village, called Jackdaw Fruit Tree Village (they grow lots of Jackdaw fruit there). We arrived at the house where we would be having lunch and happily sat down on a bench in the shade! I was feeling pretty poorly at this point, so I accepted some green tea but decided not to eat any food to avoid making myself worse. I ended up laying down on one of the benches at an empty table and just trying to cool myself down and calm my stomach down. Sanjay started feeling pretty poorly as well, so he and I both decided to take the support truck for the second half of the trek. The girls said that the food was delicious - I was so sad to miss out on it! Barbara and Eleonore both tried on some of the local Shan clothing. Barbara wore both the hat that the single women wear as well as the one that the married women do, and put on a jacket and skirt. Eleonore wore the jacket and skirt with the single woman hat - they looked fabulous! The cooks were coming out to take their pictures, it was so cute!

After the fashion show it was time to get back on the trail. The girls, Joseph, and Htun set off along the road and Sanjay and I clambered into the support truck (ambulance, haha!). It was a slow, bumpy drive and I was feeling pretty miserable at this point. I estimated that my temperature was about 100 degrees. We drove 2 hours to get to the end of the trekking trail, picked up the girls and the guides and drove 15 minutes back into Kalaw. When we got to the hotel I walked straight to the room, drank a bunch of water, and got into bed. I am fairly sure that my fever had reached around 102 at this point. I slept the entire rest of the day, woke from about 7-9:30, then slept all night until 6:00. I would say that I had heat stroke and dehydration - I know that I overdid it, especially since I was still having GI distress. However, I have no regrets. I am SO glad that I went on the trek. It was so beautiful and is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. 

When I woke in the morning I felt completely fine, thank goodness! I did begin taking anitbiotics, however, as I absolutely refused to be sick again on this trip! After an early breakfast our bus arrived to take us to Inle Lake, about 4 hours away. 

Just when I thought that the trip couldn't possibly get any better, it did. In fact, Inle Lake was so incredible that it's going to get its own blog post. 

Sunrise at U Bein Bridge

Children of Kalaw

One of the vampires!

Htun!

Htun and the girls on the trail

Caterpillar friend!

Joseph crossing the "cliff"

Jackdaw Fruit Tree Village

"If You Want to be With Me, Please Be With Me!"

The title of this blog is what Joseph says every time he takes us to a pagoda, temple, or other interesting historical place -  he wants to give us the option to wander around on our own, but also wants us to learn all of the interesting things that he has to share with us about history and culture. I LOVE this phrase and I've come to look forward to hearing him say it to our group. :)

Thursday morning started SO EARLY!!! We woke at 4 am and left the hotel at 4:30. Yikes! Of course, 3 days ago I would have been awake at this time anyway due to the time change, but I seemed to become accustomed to the current time zone on Tuesday. Waking up at 4 felt like waking up at 4!

We took a bus to the Rangoon airport and headed north towards Bagan. Our plane made a brief stop in Mandalay where we did a passenger exchange, then we continued on. The total flight time was about 1 /2 hours, so it was quite fast. It was so funny, because when we got to Bagan it was only about 8:30 am but we all felt like it was nearly lunch time! Our first stop was a trip through the local market in Nyaung Oo, the town that is on the outskirts of Old Bagan. We had a fabulous time wandering through the local market - this market had not only food but also handicrafts, and it was really neat to see all of the things that people were selling. I'm not much of a fan of shopping, but it's hard to restrain oneself in these markets! I had the same problem in Morocco.... and Peru.... ok everywhere that has local markets! :)

We saw so many children running around in the market. Joseph told us that even though more children go to school than, say, 10 years ago, there are still many people who cannot afford to send their children to school. Not only because of the school fees, but because they need the children to help sell things to supplement their income. Beginning this year, primary school will be free to all children, and they expect that to help increase the number of children enrolled in school and decrease the number of child laborers. 

Walking through these markets almost feels like a time machine. Other than the few stalls that have radios playing or electric lights (and of course the ubiquitous smart phones!), you could really be anywhere in time anywhere in the world. It's so special to interact in that environment, where you know that you are seeing people practicing the same traditions as their ancestors. 

One major difference that we all noticed right away about Bagan was the presence of motorbikes. Motorbikes are banned in Rangoon, which is actually great. One less thing to worry about when trying to cross a busy street! Of course we immediately saw a large amount of motor bikes upon our arrival in Bagan. Now, I know that the Burmese are absolutely WILD about English Premier Leauge football. We've seen lots of people sporting caps and shirts with many different team names. It was so funny though, in the market here I saw several bikes that had team emblems on their seats! True dedication to a team! I guess it's kind of like having a Broncos license plate holder on your car. :)

We decided to walk towards a cafe to have a quick tea break before going on to see a bamboo fan weaving house and a soy paste plant. As we walked to the cafe some ladies came up to us with Thanakha. Thanakha is a paste made from the sandalwood tree, and the ladies of Burma rub the stump on a piece of marble with water to make a thick paste, that they then apply to their cheeks, foreheads, and sometimes noses. This acts as a sun screen as well as a cosmetic. Generally only women and children wear it, although we have seen the occasional man wearing it. These ladies approached us and asked if they could apply some to us! We all said "of course!" and they proceeded to beautify us. It doesn't look nearly as glamorous on our pale skin as it does on their lovely darker skin. It actually felt great, really cooling and refreshing, and had a nice, clean aroma. Of course we had to take photos to document our indoctrination into being locals! The women were so sweet to share their thanakha with us. Once again, this is such a generous and loving country.

After our much needed tea break (it was very hot in Bagan, though fortunately much less humiid) we walked towards the bamboo fan house. We were really seeing our first snapshot of rural life here. Once we walked away from the market, we were in a village - passing houses mostly made of woven bamboo walls, as well as a few concrete buildings. To further this point, we passed a sty of squealing piglets on the way! They were just right by the side of the road. On the way back we saw a little boy laying in the pigpen! We also saw a little girl getting her morning bath from her mother at the village well - she was so cute, after her bath she ran quickly past us with her mother chasing after her with a towel. 

The bamboo weaving house was very interesting - it was one family that lived there and they all practice the trade. The men prepare the bamboo and then the women weave it. The children help and start learning their craft at an early age. Once the fans have been woven, people from the village will bring printed out invitations that are then pasted onto the fans. While we were there we saw fans that were invitations to family parties, anniversaries, weddings, novitiations, funerals, and birthdays. What a great multipurpose idea! The ladies kindly gave each of the girls in our group a fan. We have been really grateful for the fans the last few days!

After this we walked to the soy paste plant. This was hot, smelly, hard work for the people. They boil the soy beans for a really long time and then scoop out the paste to be sold. It is used in many dishes, especially traditional Burmese curries and soups. 

Now that we had finished in this part of the village, Joseph informed us that we would be taking local transport to a lacquerware factory. So, you are all now familiar with the concept of the Chicken Truck that I took to Golden Rock. This truck we were taking with the locals was essentially the same, but much smaller.  Tom and Barbara hopped up in the front seat with the driver while the other 5 of us hopped into the back, much to the amusement of the locals. Unlike the chicken truck, this truck had an awning for a roof and no seats inside, just benches lining each side and some tiny wooden stools in the middle. Eleonore, Mez, and Sanjay squeezed onto one of the benches, and Phil and I sat (which basically means fell) on the little wooden stools. It was the 5 of us and about 10 local women and children packed in there like sardines! Once we were loaded we expected we would leave - nope! We waited while they loaded giant bags of textbooks for the school children onto the metal rails of the roof. Then about 5 more people hopped onto the roof and 5 more (including Joseph) jumped onto the tailgate. Once you included the driver, Tom, and Barbara in the calculation, there were 28 people on/in that tiny truck! What a laugh. It was hot, uncomfortable, and hilarious. We were trying to cool ourselves with our new fans, and as I was using mine an older Burmese lady next to me gave a sigh of impatience and grabbed it out of my hand, only to start fanning all of us - herself and the other Burmese ladies next to her included! Clearly I don't know how to use a fan! She was smiling and laughing at/with us. 

After 10 long hot minutes of waiting, we were finally off! After a pretty exciting 10 minute drive we reached our destination, and realized that we were nervous about getting out of the truck! We all squeezed out the back by going down the "aisle" in the middlee (which is Phil and I were sitting). We basically army crawled out of there and then jumped off. It felt SO GOOD to stand up! Of course we then had to tease Tom and Barbara about sitting in "first class!" I'm loving all of these local transport experiences! Before we went to the lacquerware factory we walked to a restaurant on the Ayeyarwady River for lunch. This place was BEAUTIFUL! Flowering trees were everywhere, and it looked so inviting. The dining areas were under a thatched roof and we had lovely cool breezes blowing onto us off of the river. Relaxing there with a Mandalay beer and fresh lime juice felt pretty heavenly. I had an amazing Thai green curry for my meal, and the others had a variety - many of us had some form of chicken in our delicious dishes. Seriously one of the best meals of my life! Once lunch was finished it was time for the lacquerware.

The lacqueware factory was really interesting. We learned about how they make it - most interesting to me was that the lacquer is made from tree sap, and that there are only 4 colors used in traditional Burmese lacquerware. Green, red, yellow, and black. We were able to watch the artisans working, both on making the plates, bowls, etc. that they apply the lacquer to as well as the application and decor process. For one small pot that is very detailed, the artist will spend 1 whole day on 1. The amount of skill and concentration that it takes is just amazing! Then we walked into the store where they sell all of their product - DANGER ZONE! So many beautiful things.... we all browsed around and then decided to go back the next day when we had more time.

We then checked into our guest house, New Wave, where we would be for 3 nights. After a 2 hour much needed rest period we all met up to walk down to a pagoda that was about 15 minutes walk from the hotel. On the way we stopped to see the restaruant where we would be having dinner - we would be viewing a traditional Burmese puppet show there! We ordered our food in advance and then walked on to the pagoda. Unfortunately, at this point Mez started feeling unwell and decided to go back to our room - we had all been lucky so far to not have any GI illness in our group, so we were all worried for her and hoped that rest and water would cure whatever was going on. 

The rest of us enjoyed sunset at the pagoda, and it was really beautiful. Unlike the pagodas in Rangoon, this pagoda was not all "glammed" up. It had gold leaf on it, but not much and it was really easy to picture it how it looked 200, 500, etc. years ago. It was really peaceful. 

After this we were all excited for our dinner at the puppet show - after our super early and busy day we were ready for some rest and relaxation! The food was delicious and the show was really really great. We were able to see the performers a few times while they manipulated the puppets, and the things that they do are pretty amazing. I have a video that I will try to load on here but I'm not sure if it will work because of the low internet bandwidth. Phil and Tom said that they enjoyed it much more than the water puppet shows of Vietnam. 

We were there for several hours, and had a great time relaxing. After it was over we ambled back down  towards our guest house. I stopped to buy some water for Mez and myself and then we all turned in. She was feeling a little better when I got to the room, but had been feeling really poorly. We both fell asleep and I thought that was the conclusion of the day. Unfortunately for both of us, it was not. 

I woke up at midnight and then was sick every few hours until 8 am. Then my body had mercy on me and gave me a bit of break. Finally by 8 pm that night Mez and I were both feeling so much better. She was well enough to go to dinner, I decided to give it a miss. Our group was kind to us, we meant to have spent the day biking around the ancient temples of Bagan and then have a free day the day after. They and Joseph swapped the days so that we wouldn't have to miss the temples, which we were both really looking foward to. Mez and I slept like the dead and woke up feeling like our normal (although very weak and dehydrated) selves for the activities of Saturday. Fortunately no one else in our group had what we did - we were afraid that it was from the chicken at the lunch restaurant on the river. Barbara was a bit under the weather as well, but she never had the GI upset, thank goodness!

We've all heard of Bali belly and Montezuma's Revenge - now we know that the term in Burma is the Rangoon Runs! (Sorry if that's too much information!)

Afer breakfast we were all excited to head off on our temple tour of Bagan.

But that, my friends, is a story for another day. 

Here are some market scenes:

Sanjay sporting some thanakha

Eleonore and Mez with thanakha

Eleonore and me with thanakha

oh hey piglets!

Part of the family at the bamboo weaving house

Here is the lady who taught me how to properly use a fan! :)

Our beautiful lunch location

Pagoda time!

The picture above and below were at the puppet show theater and restaurant