Kalaw, Taunggyi and Kakku

After our early and wet start in Kalaw we slept for a couple hours and decided to have a day off. The rain was still pouring down and it was very foggy.

The rest of the day we watched movies (as our room had a television) and tried to get on the internet with limited access.

The next day we wanted to do a hike but we were woken up by rain again so we decided not to go out and plan the next week of our trip as we now know that we have to make bookings long time in advance. November is apparently the busiest month of the year for tourist to visit and especially now with the borders open they are flooding in. We managed to get hotels and sorted out our transportation. I had a lazy day wandering around and visiting the local tea room followed by dinner with local food.  I’m still only eating vegetarian food as I’ve seen too many chickens at the markets that were dead for a long time but won’t be eaten for a long time either.

Kalaw is a pretty village in the mountains for hikes and enjoying the locals but unfortunately we didn’t have the pleasure to enjoy that due to the rain and fog. Only the next morning when we left by bus we could see the potential as the fog had cleared.

So it was a 7am bus to Taunggyi which is a bigger place and the base to take us to Kakku the next day (more about that later). This was a local bus so very old and full of locals and their belongings or food which they were planning to sell at a market that day. It was a 2,5 hr journey which was ok for a little Angel who doesn’t need much space with her bag on her lap but it’s a different story when you’re almost 2 meters long.

We checked into our hotel and had a wander around into the centre of Taunggyi, the market was still in full swing so we saw lots of people selling their produce which could be fruit, vegetable, rice, fish, chicken and surprisingly flowers. The flower market in Amsterdam was nothing compared with what was on offer. During our visit it was back to Brangalina again as everyone turns their head to look at you or tries to make contact. I’ve noticed that the children are very shy here and it was difficult to take their picture as a camera isn’t a common thing for them. We had tea in a tea room and again heads turned to see us or hover around us to see who these white people are….

Most tea rooms have a television which shows soaps or loud music and this means that lot of people come over for a tea and watch what’s on the box.

Kakku

Today Dutch Brangelina decided to enjoy  a similar treatment as the real couple is used to.  A visit to Kakku in the Shan State was planned this is a hill site garden with 2478 stupas, funded by the Buddhist missionaries of the Indian emperor Ashoka  in the 3^rd century BC. We had a driver and guide booked for the day as you can’t visit the site without a qualified guide (extra money for the site and less for the tourists). We had a 1,5hr ride through the rural country side which gives you another great view how the people of Burma live. You pass many small villages with bamboo houses and the odd brick one. Most of the time you‘ll only see mothers and children as most of the men are working on the fields. So when you pass these fields this is a wide view of green with many bamboo trees, fields , cows, little bamboo huts and in the far distance people working. This is the idyllic picture you usually see in the Conde Nast magazines but I can tell you these are real. Our guide Nang Hla Mu (La) told us that the main vegetable they grow here are ‘gullets’ , I told her that I’ve never heard of these and if she could show us the vege when we see one. Later on we stopped and went to a very old man who was peeling garlic and she said with a big smile: look these are the gullets! I told her that we call them garlic in which she responded: “yes so do we”. Later on I found out that La just started her job as a guide to learn English and we established that it’s very hard for her to pronounce the R, so at the end of the day she brushed up on her English with garlic, horse, garden and a lot more.

Moving on we arrived as one of the first at the site which was very tranquil and the sun was shining so Brangelina were thrilled to get a lot of great shots to memorise this beautiful site. We walked with ‘La’ through the garden with stupas and she updated us about the history and the 3 different types of stupas: open, closed (the front where the Buddha is placed) and chimney (see pictures when uploaded) and the 3 different iron ‘umbrella’s on top; Mandalay-en, Paoh and Saen, on top of that there are 5 concrete ones who have a special reason but I was lost in translation why. After more than an hour walking, talking and taking pictures the garden got busier with more tourists and their guides. We had a final look around and went to the Hlaing Konn Restaurant for lunch. Our guide was hovering around as out of politeness she wouldn’t’ join us but we asked her if she wanted to for lunch. We talked a bit more and found out that she likes to come to Europe at some point to learn English and travel the world. This is something that I hope she is able to do. More tourists arrived so we made a move and travelled back to Taunggyi with our driver, stopping a couple of times to get some more great pictures and walk through little villages, accept invites to visit a family home and stop at ‘La’ ‘s village to see her family house and meet some of her family.

After picking up our bags the driver dropped us off at the ‘bus stop’ which is a pick-up truck for people, the truck would take us in an hour to our next destination: Nyaung Schwe. The pick-up was already full of locals so I couldn’t image that we -including our backpacks-would fit on this too. But here they load people like cattle so every inch of space is used. I was lucky to get at ‘spot’ at the back – driving backwards- and facing the 4 men who were ‘surfing’ at the back of the truck. Michel was one of these guys and the locals assured him that is was all fine! (Don’t translate the following for my mum!!) So we took off at a vast speed, holding on to the roof and our bags, after 10 minutes heavens opened and we got very wet in 5 minutes time. Then the truck slipped and ended up jack knifed on the road (luckily the right side of it) and one of guys fell off. Then I was pushed out of the car as we had to wait at the side of the road while the driver would check his car. So we waited at the side of the narrow road, in the pouring rain and in front of us we saw a couple of motorbikes slip and fell on the road. We were right on a bend which was very slippery due to the rain, than another truck slipped and turned 45 degrees and almost hit a motorbike. By that point my heart jumped and I looked at Michel who was calm which re-assured me. After 5 minutes we could return to the car only soaking wet and still a bit shaken. We continued our trip and after 10 minutes the sun appeared with some wind which dried most of our clothes and belongings. Everyone started chatting and laughing again as if it never happened. They did tell us that this NEVER happens but I’m not sure if I will take another pick-up again especially when the weather is unsure. Thank you Saint Christopher (you know who I mean) for looking after me ;-)

We checked in at Hotel Joy which is a lovely place on the river, Nyaung Shwe looks a bit like Venice but then Asian style. The hotel has big balcony with tables and chairs facing the river which I’m using for typing up my blogs. Sounds all idyllic but at 5am the fishermen leave the town to go to the lake which means a lot of noise as the engines are very loud.

Later that evening I met two French boys one traveling for 20 months and the other for one, we exchanges some information and stories and had dinner with them later that evening.

Nyaung Shwe has a very chilled, bohemian feeling so I’m pleased I decided to stay here for 4 nights to enjoy it, the lake and surroundings.