We left Inlay at 9:30 am on Monday. This was our first start after 8 am since we started the trip . We had a 1 hour bus trip to Heho airport. It was a small domestic airport and it fitted the description of small. Flying domestic in Myanmar is a bit different its like getting on a taxi, you can carry fluids on board and your bags get carried from the bus to the aircraft by the same porters. It all seems very haphazard but we had 6 flights in all and the bags all stuck together and were delivered quickly.
The flight to Tai Chilik took a couple of hours as we went via another airport to pick up some other passengers - like a taxi. We arrived around 3 in the afternoon to a much more stringent area. We were heading into the former Golden Triangle where Opium used to be heavily grown. The area only opened to tourism 3 years ago and we went through 3 or 4 immigration checkpoints on the 4 hour drive to Kyaing Tong. We needed permission to pass through and had to have a return stamp.
We were staying in a basic guesthouse in town - it was not too bad , clean and a great shower. The main purpose of the 2 days was to trek and visit the various hill tribe villages. In this area village life is pretty medieval and hasn't changed much in centuries. The villagers belong to different tribes and retain their own customs. We all felt as a group that the tribes were doomed - satellite tv had already hit and mobile phones too. Smartphones are on their way to Myanmar soon and you can already see the influence on the village youth.
A typical hillside village - the blue building is a Catholic Church as this village was Christian
The hill trekking was lovely. It was great to get out and about but it was a long way to go to see. I think it would have been better to do more trekking in Kalaw .
Thursday (10th) we made the journey to Yangon. This involved the same 4 hour drive to Tai Chilik through the checkpoints and then a 4 hour flight - we had to go via 2 other airports stopping on the plane every time so 11 hour day to get back to Yangon.
Friday we went sightseeing around Yangon. We went to see the Lady's house and to visit her political office. The Lady is Ang San Suu Chi but the Burmese call her the Lady. Our guide explained to us that prior to her release from house arrest the Burmese were banned from saying her name - so she called The Lady. We also visited the Shwedagon pagoda which is the most reverred in Myanmar. More gold - lots of it. The main stupha has 60 tons of gilding on it. And this guy belong to a religious order who believe they should pray by staring directly at the sun and praying- mad as a box of frogs!
On and as you've guessed I can load photos again!
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