Ngpali Beach, dogs, cats, and other Myanmar moments

The sun sets over Ngapali Beach

Yesterday we arrived at Ngapali Beach, a lovely spot on the Bay of Bengal, with clear, turquoise water, long, sandy beaches, and pretty coves.  The water is soupy warm--which I love, despite the common adage of my childhood that "bracingly" cold water is better for me.  Since it's really hot and humid, we are reacting appropriately by doing nothing except reading, swimming, napping and generally relaxing.  Not a bad way to end our trip to Burma.

Yesterday evening, we walked along the beach, enjoying the thousands of crabs darting about at extraordinary speeds.  On the dry sand, the sand crabs had made beautiful fan patterns as they dug their holes in which to hide until the next high tide.  We watched the tide come up to the wall of the resort where we're staying, and a group of fisherman struggling to haul in a huge fishing net through the low surf while the tide was still high.  Far out on the horizon was a long line of light from fishing boats shining their floodlights on the water in order to attract fish, which they then haul into the boat in their large nets.

Tomorrow we return to Yangon for one night before flying back to Bangkok, then home on Saturday. So, my blogs will be more occasional as something of travel interest comes up, until we leave for that other extreme of weather, Antarctica, on November 14.

Unfortunate mother dog under 21 puppies

As an animal lover, I've had mixed feelings here as in many developing countries where animals are treated not as pets, but as essentials or nuisances or both.  There are countless back-to-the-basics mutts, usually in pretty ratty condition, roaming everywhere, reproducing, scrounging for food, and barely dodging cars, carts and bicycles as they seem to find the roads the best places for napping.  At one monastery, I watched a man drag a poor little female, still with a lot of milk, to a pile of 21 puppies, obviously not all hers, and keep hitting her to force her to let the puppies swarm over her to nurse.  I finally yelled at him to stop, which I know was culturally inappropriate and did absolutely no good, but it made me so sad to see her struggle to get up only to be hit and once again inundated with wriggling, hungry pups.

Don with Burmese Cat

On the other side, I mentioned that we visited a restaurant whose owner has brought Burmese cats back to Myanmar.  These gorgeous, silky kitties live in a small paradise, with outside spaces, lots of kitty beds and perches, toys, special food 3 times a day, and an inside room to keep them warm at night (not hard to do in this climate).  Most other cats live on the streets and search for food in competition with the dogs.  So, it was a delight to see the beautiful, well-cared-for Burmese cats.

Happy cow after peanut treats

At one small farm, we watched a young cow, attached to a 6 foot long wooden bar, which itself was attached to a post inside a grinding stone, going round and round in a small circle, grinding peanuts to extract the oil for cooking.  Her front hooves were splayed out oddly because she had been doing this since she was a calf.  She didn't seem to mind her fate because she loves the peanut meal that is left over after the oil is extracted and the boy who tends her pets her and feeds her the peanut meal constantly.  I fed her some of the peanut meal, which she took very gently and munched very happily.

One of the joys of a tropical climate is the flowers--bougainvillea, water hyancinths, orchids, lotus, and countless flowering trees.  One of our drivers hung fresh strands of jasmine on his rearview mirror each morning, filling the car with lovely scents.  Flowers are a constant at the markets as they are a favored offering in the many shrines of Myanmar.  For those of us who live in cold, dry Colorado, this is all a luxurious bounty.



Lotus flower

One final note on the economy here.  Myanmar is likely to open up soon to significant foreign investment, as the political climate improves and sanctions continue to be lifted.  Meanwhile, the economy is one of multitudes of small businesses ranging from restaurants to guest houses to tiny handicraft factories to retail stalls in the many markets.  Most people live by farming, mostly very small plots they plow with wooden or wood and metal plows pulled by cattle or, not often, horses.  We saw only 1 tractor in one of the villages we visited.  The fields are too small for a tractor to be efficient and agriculture is too important a provider of jobs for families to move too quickly towards larger and more mechanized farms.  Tourism is clearly becoming an important economic driver and is one the government is working hard to stimulate.

We will probably plan a small group trip to Myanmar either late next year or in 2014.  This is truly one of the great travel destinations and now we have checked out hotels, best cultural and historical places to visit, and some great business visits as well.  We'll let you know when we have an itinerary ready for you to consider.

Lake Inle villages

Rice paddies of the hill trives

Having seen several dozen temples, today we opted for a hike through the mountains and valleys above Lake Inle.  It was a great decision.  We started the day with a visit to a local 5th day market, full of stalls selling local produce, flopping fish just caught in the lake, and lots of tobacco rolled into betel leaves with a smearing of lime and chewed like chewing tobacco.  Betel leaves, tobacco and betel nuts are staples here, which leads to the unfortunate habit of spitting the remnants onto the ground.  This market had lots of Shan tribespeople dressed in their traditional costumes (costumes to us, not to them).

Pa O teens at monastery

Our hike, with a guide from a village at the north end of the lake, called Jetty Town by the inhabitants because it has the jetties where boatloads of goods and tourists launch into the lake, started up a rutted road in the heat and humidity.  We continued up past several mountains and across a ridge into a lovely valley filled with Pa O villages and their beautiful rice paddies.  The paddies are watered by streams coming out of the mountains that is channeled into a series of ditches so that the paddies are irrigated by gravity-fed systems.  Happily for us, huge thunderheads rolled in above our heads to give us a little shade as we walked.

Flower vendor at the market

The villages and fields seemed quite empty except for some children, dogs and chickens.  Our guide told us that today is the day before a "no moon" night, so is a day when most of the adults go to the local monastery to meditate.  They also do this on the day of a full moon.  We tramped along up and down hills, enjoying the beauty of the deep green rice fields leading up to the dark mountains, eventually reaching the monastery set in one of the villages.  Pa O women in their bright headdresses (which are actually vividly colored terry cloth towels) were moving about the monastery grounds.  We stopped to chat and photograph some young girls and their attendant boys, all of whom giggled with joy at their photos and jeered at the ones whose photos looked less than superb.

Early stage chicken feed

Our guide carried lunch in his backpack and took us to the home of some of his friends in one of the villages.  We climbed to the second floor, where he opened the window covers made of woven bamboo strips (no glass in the windows, which is certainly not necessary in this warm climate) to create a nice cross breeze.  The room had some oil cloth on half the floor and nothing else but a small shrine to Buddha, set on a table with the day's offerings of food and spices.  We sat on the floor or gazed out the windows across the valley below while our guide fixed lunch of Shan noodles, vegetables, and chicken.  Delicious.

Pa O baby

After lunch, to thank our hosts, who did not share lunch with us, we bought a couple of notebooks at the store next door to give to the 2 children of the house.  Another little girl stood nearby watching all this take place.  One of the little boys who had just received 2 notebooks went over to her and gave her one of his.  It was so immediate and so sweet and so natural.  We took pictures of the baby of the family who had been sleeping so happily in his cradle-swing until his grandmother woke him up to be photographed.

On the way down, the road became quite muddy and we could see where bullock carts had been stuck.  The villagers had laid sugar cane fronds across the worst mud holes to fill them in.  This area grows lots of sugar cane.  Corn is another important crop.  It is dried to use as chicken feed.  There were mountains of deep orange corn drying on every floor and cobs that had not yet been fully dried spread out on large platforms.

Bullock cart on village road

Our transport over the last 3 days has all been by boat (or on foot).  The boats are about 48 feet long and very narrow, shaped like a canoe, but with higher sides.  They are very stable, hold 5 or 6 comfortable armchairs with cushions for tourists to sit in, and maneuver easily through the many channels that come into the lake.  Yesterday, we went up one of the 100 rivers that flow rapidly into the lake, carrying reddish brown silt from the mountains, to the village below the wonderful, mostly ruined temple I wrote about yesterday.  Other channels go through the reeds and marshes at the edges of the lake to houses or villages.  The boats used for transport are all powered by a diesel motor, but the fishing boats are all rowed by foot or traditionally by hand.   I'm sure it's a very big thing to get a motor.  I saw four of the canoe-style boats being pulled by a motor-powered boat today, and the owners were happily snoozing in the bottoms of their boats, pleased, I'm sure, not to be doing the work themselves.

Tomorrow we fly back to Yangon and on to Ngpali Beach.  Tonight we've been enjoying big thunderstorms with heavy rain.  Helps to keep the mosquitos at bay.

Inle Lake in the Shan Highlands of Myanmar

Fisherman on Inle Lake

Inle Lake is a shallow lake, greatest depth of 9 feet, in the bottom of a valley that is 3000 feet high between 2 low and beautiful mountain ranges.  Islands of water hyacinths, in full bloom, and marsh grasses float on the surface of the lake, while the shores are marshy and a haven for birds and wildlife.  This is home to dozens of villages, some on stilts over the shallow water and some on the land on the verges of the lake.  Fishing, tourism, and markets form the basis of the economy, with virtually all commercial and social activity occurring via long, narrow, but very stable, boats.

Inle Lake village home

This is a half hour flight from Mandalay, whose large new international airport is about an hour out of town and quite empty, with only a couple of international flights and lots of domestic flights on Myanmar's overabundance of airlines.  Our plane was a sturdy, twin engine prop, a bit dated, but with  very pleasant service from the 3 flight attendants.  We landed with 3 bounces and teetered on to the terminal, set amidst rich green rice fields and purply mountains.

On our way to Inle Lake, we stopped by a paper factory where Shan tribesmen make paper by hand, most sheets decorated with deep purple or hot pink bougainvillea blossoms.  Among many products, they make umbrellas with this paper, sealed with oil that doesn't diminish the beauty of the paper.  We watched a craftsman make the bamboo umbrella sticks, including the latches that lift the umbrella.  He used very sharp knives, moving extremely quickly, so we noticed with alarm that he was missing a finger, which bothered us and not him.

Farming on the Lake

Fishing here is rather unusual.  First, the fishermen row with one foot wrapped around an oar, holding the other end in one hand.  They stand on the tip end of the boat, with incredible balance, and swing their leg wide with a circular motion of the hip.  Doing this enables them to keep one hand free and to have a better view of the surface of the lake, where they look for bubbles that signal fish.  When they find a fish, they drop a conical bamboo frame with a net inside.  Once the frame hits the shallow bottom, hopefully over the fish, they take a bamboo fork and scare the fish into the folds of the net, at which point they pull sharply up on the net and trap the fish.  Sometimes they take the oar and beat on the water to get the fish to go where they want.  The fisherman are remarkably agile, walking along the sides of these perfectly-balanced, canoe-shaped boats, quietly, slowly and carefully.

Agriculture is also a water business.  Boatsmen and women go out in the same boats as the fisherman, but with traditional oars, to pull up the seaweed (this is a fresh water lake) from the bottom of the lake, pile on their boats, and later mix with dirt to make floating islands on which they plant various truck crops.  The wet seaweed is, obviously, very heavy, but they lift it with poles to the inside of the boat until they have a very full load.

Shan women of Pao tribe

The seaweed and dirt are mounded into very long rows about 3 to 4 feet wide.  Right now, these floating fields are planted with thousands of tomato plants.  The farmers know exactly how many plants they can put on a row before it will sink.  The tomatoes put their roots into the water beneath the 2 or 3 foot high row of seaweed/soil and produce huge quantities of tomatoes.  The rows float, so are anchored with long bamboo poles.  Our guide told us that rich families pay from $200 to $500 US to buy sections of these floating rows.  When that happens, the bamboo poles are pulled up, the row is cut, and the newly purchased section is towed by boat wherever the purchases wants it.  During the fallow season, grass grows on the long mounds, so must be cleared when it's time to plant the next crop.  All farming--planting, weeding, fertilizing and picking--is done from boats that can move in the water separating the farmed mounds.

Via boat, we floated through several villages with homes on stilts.  There is a mix of shabby and substantial.  All the houses have many windows which the occupants open during a big storm so that the winds won't blow down the houses.

Stupas in temple above Inle Lake

The Shan Highlands are the home to 7 Shan tribes, which have often been at war with the Burmese government.  Many of the women still wear traditional dress, which is usually a black shirt and longyi and a brightly colored scarf wrapped around the top of their heads.  They carry large loads of produce and wood on their backs and smaller loads on top of their heads.

Temple carving

Today, we visited a 400 year old temple with 1000 stupas in varying states of ruin.  It is on top of a low hill and spills down the sides of the hill.  We took a roundabout trail to the top in order to avoid the more than 200 tourist shops that line the traditional route to the temple.  There are intricately carved friezes and statues on many of the stupa doorways.  The government has begun restoring the stupas, with the help of donors who adopt one of them, but the site is still mostly covered with trees, vines and shrubs, with the old stupas peering out of the jungle.  It is quite a lovely place, made somewhat haunting by the broken pieces of statues littering the ground and the creeping vegetation which is only slightly held in check.

Don's favorite visit of the day was to a tea house whose owner decided to bring back the Burmese cat.  She bought several in Hong Kong and now breeds them selectively.  She has 32 right now and has sterilized all but 3 so that she can keep the population under control (which is more than you can say for the dogs and cats that roam the streets and villages).  They live in great cat luxury.

On the road to Mandalay

Market, on the road to Mandalay

When my sister, brother and I were little, my father read to us every night, often from Rudyard Kipling's poems and novels.  One of our favorites was "Mandalay"--and today I read it online before we set off from Mt. Popa on the road to Mandalay (allpoetry.com/poem/8445273-Mandalay-by-Rudyard_Kipling) and remembered why I loved it so much.

This was another day on rough roads (until we hit the Yangon-Mandalay highway) passing through lots of villages.  We came upon a huge "5th day" market in one of the villages--this is a market that comes to the primary village in the area every 5 days, with people from many surrounding villages walking often long distances to sell their wares or buy what their families need.  My photos today will be market photos, faces of this beautiful country.

Gail with peanut vendor

Unlike the enormous market in Yangon we visited, along with dozens of other Western tourists, we were probably the first Westerners ever to show our faces in this market.  We were definitely the oddities, I with my gray hair and Don with his shiny pate.  People were delighted to talk to us and to have their pictures taken.  Part of the market is covered, but most vendors, generally women, sit on the muddy ground to sell their vegetables, chicken parts, fish, fruit, fabrics and countless other household goods.  In one area, women had set up sewing machines that they operated with a foot pedal and used to make clothes on the spot for their customers.  We bought peanuts from one happy woman and shared them with one of the seamstresses and her husband as we talked about her work.

Flower stall with customers

Waiting for the seamstress

Woman with local sunscreen

There were several large trucks loaded far beyond capacity with boxes, people, and animals.  Baskets of overcrowded and very irate piglets rested on the ground and one truck had piles of live goats on top, with their four legs tied together to keep them from jumping down, all screeching their distress and rage (understandably).  Men with oxcarts pulled by one or two cattle rolled through the crowds and women with heavy loads on their heads bought and sold their goods before heading off towards home with their baskets atop.

Sorting tomatoes

Clearly market day is an economic opportunity and a social occasion.  Women help one another organize their goods while chatting enthusiastically and men work together to load and unload trucks, carts, and bicycles.  One woman told us she had come 20 miles with her sewing machine to be part of market day.  She does this every 5 days.

Mandalay is a city of about 1 million people, with swarms of motor bikes filling the streets.  It was home to Burma's last king, sent packing by the British when they conquered the country.  His father built a gorgeous temple of beautifully and intricately carved teak, covered with gold leaf.  It was for his personal prayers and is all that is left of the original Royal Palace buildings that the Japanese destroyed with their bombs in World War II.  But, the old palace walls and moat still stand in the middle of Mandalay and offer a pretty area for walking.  We'll explore more of the city tomorrow and visit a monastery and a nunnery.

Golden Buddhas, Nats, and Rain

It's been raining, often torrentially, off and on again today--we think the tail end of a large typhoon that rolled across Vietnam several days ago.  This is not the rainy season, though the farmers certainly welcome the moisture.  It's quite beautiful watching the clouds surging across the sky, sometimes letting the sun through, sometimes dumping rain.

Golden Buddha

Today, we visited a large and quite magnificent temple before we left Bagan for Mt. Popa, center of nats, the animist spirits who inhabit virtually everything and still maintain the fear and loyalty of much of the Burmese population.  The temple hosts 4 huge, 30 foot high, Buddhas, wrapped in gold leaf.  Two are original to the 12th century and 2 are replacements for Buddhas that burned centuries ago.  Beneath the gold is beautifully carved teak, showing the flowing folds of the Buddha's garments and, in one case, different expressions on the Buddha's face as you move closer to or farther away from the figure.  The temple has some of the best paintings we've seen, but sadly, the government covered over many of the elaborate frescoes with lime, ostensibly to protect them, but actually damaging many beyond repair.  They did this after sanctions started in the late 1970's and UNESCO, which had been responsible for preserving these international treasures, pulled out of Myanmar.

A small and very old temple next door has magnificent and beautifully preserved 12th century frescoes, ranging from scenes of daily life in villages and the royal palace to elaborately decorated ceilings.  No photos allowed here, which is a good thing since flash photography can damage the paint.

Burma is a land of temples, many with gold domes and golden Buddhas inside.  Some, like the ones we saw today, are beautifully painted inside.  Many have fallen into ruin, but thousands and thousands are visited daily by Burmese Buddhists.  Besides Buddhist temples, there are also shrines to the nats.  Many Burmese people, particularly in the villages, believe that everything is inhabited by spirits.  We watched one young man pray to the nat occupying the palm tree he was about to climb before he climbed the tree, asking for a safe ascent and a prolific harvest of palm juice.

Mt. Popa

Mt. Popa is an extinct volcano, 5000 feet high, that is a center of nat worship.  We climbed nearly 800 steps to the top of a volcanic mountain to see a number of shrines to nats in a series of temples, covered with gold, and perched atop the cliffs.  As usual, you remove your shoes and socks before entering the temples, in this case, near the bottom of the 771 steps.  On our return, fortunately, there were lots of wipes to clean the mud and dirt off our feet.  A problem if you're overly fastidious, but worth it if you want to see these remarkable structures and statues.

Palm Liquor Still

On our way, we stopped at a palm factory.  The palm trees here produce a sap that is turned into a very sweet and quite delicious candy.  Some of the sap, or juice, is fermented and distilled into a powerful palm liquor that tastes like white lightning, only a little tastier.  The villagers use all parts of the tree--trunks of dead trees for posts to hold up their roofs, leaves for thatch roofs and many kinds of ornaments, and sap for food and drink.  The trees produce after 10 years and survive another 30, so are a very important asset to families.  When a palm tree is 10 years old, a family will plant another palm in order to make sure they always have a tree.  There are ladders running up the trees, in 2 sections.  The bottom section is taken down at night to keep neer-do-wells' from stealing the tree's treasures.

Nats at Mt. Popa

The road from Bagan to Mt. Popa is in bad shape, as are most of the roads here.  River crossings are often flooded.  We made one crossing in the heavy rain today as local villagers shoveled sand out of the way.  But, there was little water in the crossing.  The government does not have the funds to care for all the roads, so they contract out maintenance to private companies that charge tolls along the way in order to pay for the repairs and make a profit.  The road we traveled on today is very narrow, one lane mostly, paved, but full of holes.

Tomorrow we head to Mandalay.  We have been having wonderful conversations with Burmese, who are very kind and generous.  Everyone smiles as you walk by, and it's really genuine, because they smile at one another all the time also.  Life is not easy, particularly for farmers who do not have the mechanized equipment we are used to, but there is much to enjoy and share in their lives, as they have been showing us.

Myanmar--first impressions

Flying into Yangon is a blaze of emerald green.  Rice paddies, tree-lined streets, fields of vegetables and grain.  Once on the street, the blaze of color turns to the rainbow of longyis (sarongs) worn by both women and men.  These long skirts are tubes of fabric about twice the size of the owner, pulled tight in the front and tied in a knot at the waist.  Women wear shirts or T-shirts and very colorful longyi while men wear more sober colors.  This is a country of modest dress and deeply held Buddhist beliefs where tank tops and short shorts, though worn by some tourists, are not generally accepted.

Shwedagon Pagoda

We visited the enormous Shwedagon Pagoda in the heart of Yangon, where Aung San Su Kyi first spoke of democracy and human rights to thousands of Burmese, before being confined to house arrest for 15 years by the military junta that then ruled this lovely country.  Today, Su Kyi is free and an elected member of Parliament and referred to by Burmese as "Our Lady".  People speak more freely than they could just a year ago.

The very top of the Pagoda has 3000 gold bells and 76,000 diamonds, with one huge diamond sparkling at the very top.  Last night, there were thousands of people strolling around the terraces of the Pagoda, families showing their children this national treasure, and one baby crawling among the thousands of feet oblivious to all but his own joy.  Myanmar is about 90% Buddhist and every Buddhist in the country must try to make a pilgrimage to the Shwedagon at least once in his or her lifetime.

When visiting a temple, you leave your shoes and socks outside and walk barefoot.  This can lead to burned feet if your're not careful, as it's really hot.  Our driver had ice cold wipes in the cooler so we could clean our feet before putting our shoes back on.

Our guide is from Bagan, where we are today.  He is quite open about his assessment of the country and its government.  The schools, he told us, are terrible.  Most people who even go to school leave after reaching minimal literacy.  The universities are very bad and rather unusual in that there is a different university for each academic area.  Our guide completed the required 11 years of school before enrolling at the university for English literature, where he had 70 fellow students and 5 professors.  Most people who want a really good education go abroad, to Singapore, Hong Kong, or Europe.  Very few people are educated, which poses a huge problem as Myanmar opens up politically and economically.  There are not enough educated people to fill the demands of a growing economy.

Bagan is a small area of about 20,000 people, mostly farmers, and 2000 pagodas.  It's really quite spectacular when you look out across the landscape and see thousands of pagodas, many with spires of gold and some completely covered (like the Shwedagon Pagoda) in gold leaf.  Several of the pagodas have beautiful frescoes inside surrounding the Buddhas.  In 1990, all the people living and farming in the temple area, Old Bagan, were forcibly moved from their homes, with virtually no notice, to New Bagan where they displaced the farmers who had lived there for generations.  Ostensibly, this was to protect the archaeological heritage of Old Bagan, but now the area is mostly overgrown with trees and shrubs because families aren't around to care for the temples.

A Day in Bagan, Myanmar

Note:  The wifi signal in Myanmar has been too weak to attach photos thus far, but I will add many when I either get a stronger signal or get back to Denver.  This is a fantastically photogenic country, so check back.

OK.  On to some charming stories of this lovely region.  I woke this morning to long, rolling rumbles of thunder and great sheets of lightning.  Heavy rain, which is really needed right now--all repeated this afternoon.

We started with a visit to  a very large market, packed tightly with tiny stalls selling everything from chicken feet to fresh vegetables to plastic baskets.  There is no refrigeration, which our guide said was not needed because everything would be sold today.  Nonetheless, in the heat and the flies and plenty of dirt, I would vote for ice at the very least.  It was in the 90's by 9 a.m., so I hope those fish sold quickly!  Young boys carried huge, heavy baskets of flowers, bananas, clothes and all other goods sold in the market.  Women in colorful longyi slipped through the crowds with loads on their heads.  Everyone was busy preparing food, talking to their neighbors, bargaining, or enjoying a breakfast of rice or noodles with vegetables, fish or chicken, and lots of hot chilis.

Next we visited a village, relatively prosperous because many tourists go there, but still not spoiled.  The houses are made of bamboo, wood and thatch, like most of them in this region, with large open rooms on the ground floor (dirt or concrete floor) where most of daily life takes place and more private, but still airy, second floors where the family sleeps.  Cattle share the village with the people, quitely sitting in what shade they could find as they chewed their cuds.

A pretty, bright young woman showed us around, including her own home where she demonstrated her weaving skills (piles of shawls she'd made available for purchase) and demonstrated how dried grass is cut up for the cattle (with a sharp blade pumped up and down with a foot pedal while she fed the grass under the blade).  She introduced us to her grandmother who is 86 and has only 2 teeth, but a faceful of wisdom and wrinkles.  The grandmother was cooking lunch of curry and vegetables.  She showed us how she makes cigars by mixing crushed tobacco leaves and other organic components (maybe bark) and rolling the mixture in corn husks.  She sat smoking one of her creations quite happily and offered me the chance to try it as well.  A year old baby was nearby swinging wildly in a cradle, but sleeping quietly.

Next stop was a very fine lacquerware factory--a craft staple in Bagan.  This lacquerware has 21 steps, from the bamboo or teak core to 18 layers of lacquer.  The lacquerware is etched several times, each time adding a color, then lacquerring again over the color before etching the next part of the design for the next color.  The etching is very finely done and the final product is beautifully polished and durable enough to go in a dishwasher.  The factory is shaded, but very hot.  All the work is done by hand by workers sitting on the dirt floor, including wiping the powdery colors into the etched designs and applying the lacquer.  We loved a beautiful chest of drawers headed to a buyer in Switzerland.

After another huge and delicious Burmese lunch, plus a siesta, we headed for the archaeological zone again in a horse-drawn carriage.  The horse, a young mare named Sashi, was peppy and fast, but not inclined to go where she didn't want to venture.  Three times our cart driver tried to get her to go to a particular temple complex and three times she refused to respond to threats, cajoling, and tugging.  So, being wise, the driver let her go in her direction, at which point she took off at a rapid trot.  We did see plenty of temples, but only the ones Sashi wanted us to see.

Last night, we climbed one of the temples, along with hundreds of other people, to watch the sunset over the huge array of temples from the fifth level of one of the larger pagodas.  Gorgeous as the late light shone softly on the temples.  Tonight, we took a boat out on the Irrawaddy River, 3 miles wide at Bagan, and watched the sun set over the gleaming, golden river.  All along the banks, women were washing in the muddy water, men were bathing, and children were swimming.  Fishing is a major activity, from small canoe-shaped boats, equipped with outboard motors and nets.

It's Thursday night, October 4, 2012, and Don and I are frantically getting ready for our trip to Burma tomorrow.  That means not just getting packed, but calming the sad faces of all our dogs and cats, packing last minute items, making sure our passports and visas are ready, and leaving instructions for our wonderful house/pet sitter who makes our travels possible.

Our route is to San Francisco, Tokyo, Bangkok (overnight) and on to Rangoon, where we will arrive the morning of October 7.  Because sanctions against Burma have only recently, and partially, been lifted, we are loaded with cash (no ATM's, no credit cards, no travelers' checks--just brand new U.S. dollars), but traveling lightly with just carry-on luggage (which we highly recommend).

We'll spend 2 weeks touring Burma to plan for a small group trip there in 2013 or 2014, checking out the best places to visit, stay, and eat.  We will report back as we move along, assuming we can get internet service.  It will be fascinating to see this ancient country as it emerges from 2 decades of isolation into a world where tourists, Buddhists, and businesspeople throng.