Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
Lighting incense.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
The elephant statue represents a specific day of birth—there are eight total animals in a pagoda, with Wednesday being split into morning births and night births. Visitors find their animal and wash the statue from the fountain above. The number of times they wash the statue corresponds with their ages.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Canon A630
Than is an amazing cook. We were lucky enough to have three meals at Naing Naing's house, starting with breakfast the first day of the trek, a late lunch the day we returned to pick up the motorbikes, and a final lunch the day we parted.

Than's relationship with Naing Naing was an odd one—it was hard to tell how much of their bickering was real. Technically divorced in order to provide him an easy escape from the government, Naing Naing had mainly married her because her mother had saved his life. I assumed they'd learned to love each other, as they had reached middle-age with three beautiful daughters, but Naing Naing's obsession with Britney Spears and his greater ability to connect with tourists while she was stuck in the traditional wife role seemed to wear on Than's nerves.

Well, the Britney thing was stated explicitly.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
On the way back to Kyaukme, we made several stops to see locally-produced items. One was bamboo paper, another was rice noodles, and of course, this was rice. The farmers were familiar with Naing Naing, who'd helped one of them quasi-legally get a motorbike driver's license.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Canon A630
We did a somewhat puzzling visit to Man On, apparently the smallest village we'd visited, yet a village containing noodle stalls and shops according to Naing Naing. We didn't take a look as we weren't hungry. After 2 days of no running water we had come here to bathe in the hot springs.

I was not in the best mood because I couldn't understand why we had come here when I would have preferred to trek another day, plus I'd been knocked off the motorbike I was riding from Kyaukme by Naing Naing's inexperienced 16-year-old nephew. We were staying in the home of a Shan man that Naing Naing knew from way back, which held a few too many people for my tastes and didn't allow for a good night's sleep.

But the next day the kids next door were thrilled to pose for photos, practically laughing themselves sick looking at themselves, which certainly improved my spirits.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
Briefly back in Kyaukme after a steep hike from Who Quit to the road and hitchhiking on a speedy cargo truck back to town. On the outskirts we saw a large group of girls in Palaung dress and screamed for the truck to stop but the driver couldn't hear us over the noise. Suddenly we hit a tractor. No one was injured, although the tractor had seen better days, and we took the opportunity to disembark.

The girls were going around to Palaung homes in Kyaukme—complete with a map detailing all the Palaung families—singing and dancing for donations. With the donations they would throw a spectacular New Year's party in their village on January 4th.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Plus-X
This village, which may have been bigger than it looked but certainly looked small, actually had TWO monasteries. It's hard to imagine how such a small place could support so many monks.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Plus-X
Yes, that's the name of the village! We stayed here on the 2nd night of the trek. Rather than dropping in on quasi-strangers as we'd been doing, in Who Quit we stayed with Naing Naing's friend. His friend happened to have two houses next to each other so we had a whole beautiful empty house to ourselves, just popping over to the main houses for meals. Luxury.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Plus-X
Most schools—especially government schools—were on holiday my first week in Myanmar. But as the number of government schools does not adequately cover the needs of the country, private schools are common. This small one-room school was one of them, taught by an 18-year-old boy from Kyaukme. The kids were relatively well-behaved, getting very excited when we arrived but staying near the school walls and keeping their voices down without a single harsh word from the young teacher.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Plus-X
A large part of day 2 involved a very steep downhill hike over still dew-covered grass. At least it wasn't rocks! But it was very steep indeed. The monastery pictured was near the end of the downhill section.

Posted on January 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)