One more hill to go to the Inle lake

The trekking is approaching to an end. 

This is the last break point – get another bottle of water, coke and 'a tiger balm' to finish off the 3 day iron-man/woman adventure (by this point, my sighs and calf had been sore and in a constant pain!). 

This shop is relatively larger than others and the owner is a young guy who finished studying business degrees in Mandalay.  

It just started raining outside.    

In the small plastic boxes lining up behind us, there are variety of little (exotic) nibbles. You don’t see many shops that sells chocolates here - damn. 

Couple of teas are served. 

The young owner is catching up with Robin, a Trekking guide who, I assume, brings various information on what’s going on the broader area of the town.  It seems like that they know how to laugh at harsh and oppressive politics of their country and their situations.

Relaxing time before the finish

Muddy on your face..

 

 

There are so many challenges in the world, but when it comes to the challenges that 

we experienced during the trekking was RED MUDDY CLAYISH trekking road.   

You don’t really have to worry about the soil conditions if you go trekking from Nov to Feb as 

it’s dry season, but if you dare to go in the  raining season, make sure to enjoy that you could 

be a bit taller from now and then, and you can be heavier from now and then :)

Bloody Muddy on your boots!

 

Town of Kalaw

Town of Kalaw from the top of mountain. Winding mountain path that we came through.

This is the parolama view of Kalaw town.  It takes 1.5 hours to get the top of the mountain. You can talk to the monks at the temple behind us (behind the scenery), but there was no monks around when we got there. You also can oversee the small villages scattered across the mountains. If you want to have a practice run (trekking) before 3 day trekking, this route is the best and pretties one that I recommend!

Small village across the mountains

Pao lady that we came across while she was working at the veg garden

We were on the clay-muddy road on the trekking road.  On such road conditions, you tend to walk with your head down all the time, thinking where you put forward your next step to. But this does not apply to the trekking guide, Robin, who walks 3 day trekking routes twice in the week.  Walking way ahead of us most of the time, he found another Pao locals to talk to, who were working on the vegetable patches.

As I said in the previous post, they were very shy first, but once the camera is set to photograph them (with permission), they turn into like a model. 

The girl on the above, she quickly fixed and adjusted the Pao traditional scarf on the head, and gave a artistic pose to a camera! Gosh, she knows what she is doing!  

During/after the photo shoot, her mother asked us all if we were partnered or single. I was only single male person, and quickly she displayed great deal of interests in me!  

 Hope they had a fun moment with us anyway!

Pao ladies working on the veg garden

Kalaw girls + A shy boy

Kalaw girls at Thu Maung Restaurant (on Union Hwy)

On the same day we arrived at Kalaw at 4AM, we went to the Burmese restaurant that Lonely Planet says 'the best Burmese restaurant in town', Thu Maung Restaurant.

We ordered a tomato salad (a dishful of sliced tomato tossed with sesame sauce- and other stuff,, cant remember), and some fried rice, with wiping sleepy red eyes. In the open restaurant next to the busy roads (where you walk up stirs towards mountain side for a good view of Kalaw town), there are 5-6 young girls working with the middle aged mistress and her 1 year old son.  There is only one boy working then at as a waiting staff - mainly sweeping floor and stuff and he was extremely shy (as you can tell from the photo!).

These three girls made us realise that Burmese very much LOVE being taken a photo IN PUBLIC. Girls who were running away from my camera first came to me minutes later as if they looked like 'ready now'. We took a picture and we thought that was such a best shot ever!, then the girl in the middle screamed when looking at it. I asked "what" in gesture, and she was pointing to the black dot on her forehead - a fly!! I took a data to the town's photo shops, and developed this pic and gave it to them because this was the best shot of all without a fly...

Cheroot Tasting at Yangon

Cheroot tasting in Yangon, Burma

My face looks very cautious and careful, that's because I am smoking a cigar for the first time (cigarettes - for the first time in almost 2 years).  I was not sure how much of smoke I could inhale at the first time. It is said that a cheroot is made of mixture of tabaco leave and other plants' leaves (so all natural if that does not sound like excuse).  The boy at the back (who looked 10 years old) told me how to unpack it from individual package and light it. I think it cost about K50 (40 cents).

A View of Yangon from the Accomodation

A view from the accommodation - Chan Myaye Guest House

This is the view from the top floor of the accommodation that we stayed in Yangon - Mahabandoola Garden Street Yangon. You can see the intersection to Anawrahta Rd on the top where traffic gets crazy busy as no traffic lights.

Another view of Bagan, Burma