Sadly blogger won't load photos in Myanmar - the Internet is painfully slow
Were now with our group of 16. We have 2 from NZ. 1 from the US and 13 English. A nice bunch of people but pretty homogenous. On these trips you tend to get sucked onto a roller coaster of tourism . Everyday breakfast at 7am, out at 8am onto a bus and away. It's a full day - back in at 6pm out again at 7:30 for a meal which takes ages as we are a) a big group and b) the Burmese are new to restaurants so food gets delayed, misserved and then the bills need sorting. So no real chance to rest or post blogs.
Anyway back to Christmas Day. We travelled south to Mawlamyine an old capital of Burma ( how many old capitals do countries have? I suppose London, Winchester, then other cities were capitals of various strains of England )
Christmas Day up early then onto a boat across and down the. River onto Bilyugin island - 32kms across so not really small then. We then got into the back of pickup trucks on benches and bumpily drove through the island to visit some homes and villages making a variety of things. Pipes - made using a wooden lathes and a variety of hand turning tools, walking sticks using the same lathes, bamboo hats made using bamboo leaves . That was interesting enough before rubber bands. The picture above is of rubber bands in the middle of the manufacturing process. The various coloured sheaves above are wrapped around a wooden pole - a bit like a coloured condom I suppose. They are then put out to dry, slipped of the pole and sliced into rubber bands. Amazing. There are thousands if the things bagged for export - a real cottage industry. And different farms / families make different thicknesses, colours or whatever. I suppose you think of them being made in some horrible sweatshop. And although its not fun or richly rewarding work it's not to bad outside in the sun, at home on the farm with your family isn't the worst thing in life.
Anyway 3 hours later then back on the truck 1 hour, then the boat 1 hour and up to the Khyaikthanian pagoda , built in 875AD, which overlooks the town and is a good place to watch the sunset. Our first site of Burmese pagodas and not that keen on them. They are big brash and loud. Burmese love gold paint and gilding and big statues which takes some getting used to. Apparently Kipling wrote his ' road to Mandalay' poem here.
So not a bad day with no real Christmassy things on the agenda.
Another thing which strikes you when you come to Asia is the dependence on the big rivers which flow through. They are hugely impressive and huge- 1 mile or so wide in places - and bringing water, food, transport and goods all in 1 go. I'm sure cars and lorries will take over one day for greater prosperity but not necessarily to improve the sense of community the rivers bring. It's a brilliant people watching experience to watch the world drift by on the river.
Anyway I'm going to try to post this blog with 1 photo to see if it will upload , as its really slow Internet, then i will try to post some other photos later.
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